The Story

So, here's the story about Gavin's birth and how the c-section went. I know a lot of you prayed for me as I faced a potentially unusual surgery for Gavin's delivery that involved a large fibroid (in fact, the chief resident at the hospital came in to "observe" my surgery since it was so unusual...I'll spare you the gory details on the blog, but am happy to share the story in person if you want to know it). Long story short, God really answered those prayers (yay!) and my entire c-section went more smoothly than even the doctors envisioned, resulting in a healthy me and healthy Gavin. It turns out that the fibroid was in an entirely different location than the ultrasound indicated, so I basically had a "regular" section, with no complications. And the other good news is that my worst fear was unfounded. My spinal block didn't wear off during the surgery! I know this is a weird fear, but wouldn't it be freaky if it did wear off? I guess it's been known to happen, but my doctor tells me it would slowly wear off and wouldn't involve some big flash of pain.

My medical team was incredible, and after about an hour of prepping me for the surgery with IV placements (my first) and heart rate monitoring for the baby, I was ready to go into the OR at about 8:15 a.m. After walking into the OR with Nurse Tina (Joe had to stay in the labor/delivery room while I was being prepped), I met my anesthesiologist and my OB and they were great about piling warm blankets on me while I shivered away in the icey cold room (I guess my shivering was partly from the cold and partly from nerves since I hadn't had any medication at that point). I was given the spinal, and I have to say that it just felt like a bee sting--not bad at all. After that, things seemed to happen very fast, and I lost feeling in my legs and torso. Joe was escorted into the OR at this point, and talked to me. I thought I would need him to distract me from the surgery, but there was so much going on in the room that I wasn't really thinking about what was happening behind the sterile sheet in front of me. I felt slightly nauseous at one point, but was given some medication and it quickly went away. Gotta love those anesthesiologist! After about 15 minutes, Joe was invited to look over the sheet to watch our baby boy being delivered. The look on his face was priceless as his eyes grew wider with each passing second. In less than a minute, Gavin Peter was pulled out and gave a wail before even reaching the table for clean up! At this point, Joe was able to cut the umbilical cord and hear Gavin let out an even bigger wail as he quickly turned from blue to pink. What a miracle!

"Praise God!" my doctor said when the surgery was done. It turns out she had her bible study praying for me as well.

We all spent the better part of the next half hour or so watching the baby procedures before I was ready for the recovery room. The recovery room was a special time for our new little family as the three of us had time to spend "just us," getting to know each other. At this point I was able to feed Gavin for the first time while he was in his quiet, alert state. A few hours later I was taken to my room on the maternity floor and given some nice, happy medication.

I loved the time I spent in the hospital. The medical staff was so nice and the nurses constantly helped me with nursing and took the baby to the nursery whenever I needed some rest. It was also great having visitors and lots of phone calls throughout our four-day stay, although I feel bad about not remembering some of the phone calls due to my Norco-induced sleepiness! Oh, and as a follow-up to my thread of stories about Cozy Thai...the owner, B, bought us dinner twice! Once at the hospital and once last week when we were home. Not only that, but B and two of the other restaurant staff came to visit us at the hospital!! A photo is attached.

Our time at the hospital was very sweet, but most of all because we came home with a sweet baby!