Arrival

Thursday, October 18th at 2:46 pm is the day mine and Ryan's life forever changed. We welcomed a sweet, super deduper cute baby boy into the world. We waited several hours before naming him. Our little boy is Gavin Douglas Jahns.

I really wanted to name him after my dad who died in October 1981 (Douglas Dewayne Haas). My little brother is going to do the same. He gave me the idea as he wanted to do it when he has a son; I asked permission before using it, though. I think it's no big deal if cousins share a middle name.

So here is the birth story of Gavin Douglas Jahns:


My water broke. in the wee hours on Wednesday. Sort of. It was hard to determine. My midwife ran some tests that came back ambivalent to negative. That afternoon I called her with updates and just as I was going to call again with another update she called. She re-ran a test that she did that morning because it becomes more accurate as the sample has time to dry on the slide. It was positive.

I asked kind of nervously, "So, what does that mean?" even though I knew exactly what it meant because the same thing happened to my sister-in-law Jenny. They would have to give me antibiotics and induce me.

"Well, my dear. It means you are going to have a baby. Friday morning at the latest you should have him."

That just seemed so real that I almost started crying. Not tears of joy. Tears of fear and apprehension.

She had me go to the hospital for my first round of antibiotics and first dose of medicine to 'ripen' my cervix. That was at 2:30. She called me just as I was on my way out the door to Baby's R Us to buy some more essentials.

While this was happening we had a crew working in our back yard attempting to remove an old oil tank that leaked and contaminated the soil. It involved a huge flat bed truck and a tractor moving down our street lined with cars thereby reducing it to a one lane road.

The young guy on the crew came to the front door to ask if they could disconnect our phone line for some work they were doing. I had just hung up the phone and was in a state of shock and was frantically trying to pack my bag for the hospital using the check list that was in a book we received at one of our classes.

Poor guy looked like he was 18. He just wanted to know if he could disconnect our phone and a frantic pregnant woman answers the door with eyes as big as saucers. I told him I would have to call my husband and ask because we might need the phone because I had to go the hospital to have my baby.

It was his turn to have his eyes bug out of his head. Ryan said they could disconnect the phone so I opened the kitchen window to tell the guy in the tractor (yes, a tractor was in my back yard) that they could do what ever they needed with the phone. Before I opened the window I read the lips of all of the crew (who all had eyes popping and jaws falling): "Baby?"

The guys were so sweet. They offered to drive me to the hospital. I said I could drive but thanks. I packed and took my bag outside and went around to tell the guys one last thing before I left. The owner of the tank removal company put my bag in the car and offered again to drive me to the hospital. He was very concerned. I thanked him again and told him I wasn't in labor but they were going to induce me because my water broke. Maybe it was too much information but he was so concerned I didn't want him to worry.

At the hospital I received my first ever IV. Ouch. It hurt. It was nothing like giving blood or receiving a shot. It hurt and continued to hurt. I figured that pain was going to pale in comparison to what was coming.

Antibiotics were administered and an oral medicine to speed up the process of labor was given. Heather, my midwife and great friend, switched her office and on-call day with another midwife in her office so she could be there to deliver my baby. I was so happy! She came in to check on me and told me I could leave after they finished with the monitoring. I was to come back at 9 for my second dose of induction medicine and antibiotics that I would receive at 11 pm.

I heard come back at 11. Oops.

Ryan was at work during the first trip to the hospital. I told him to stay there; nothing was going to happen and if it did I would call him. I picked him up from work on my way home. He helped Gordy, his step dad, prepare the basement for carpet to be installed (carpet that I ordered the day before). I rushed around upstairs packing up as much crap as I could from the baby's room. I managed to pack several boxes, eat a little dinner and take a very brief nap.

Heather called sometime after 9 to see if I was coming in. Uh, yeah at 11 like I was told. : ) I looked at the discharge papers and found that I was told and it was written down as come back at 9. No big deal though. It just meant that I would have to stay at the hospital until 1 am instead of 11pm. That actually worked better for us anyway as it gave us 2 extra hours to work.

Nothing exciting happened in our second trip. We were given the option to stay and be admitted or we could come back at 7:30 for my last round of antibiotics and receive the 'real' stuff if I wasn't in labor at that point. I opted to go home because it would give me a few more hours of sleep in my own bed and I was hungry. If I stayed they wouldn't give me any food.

My last meal was a Jack in the Box hamburger. My plan for breakfast was eggs - protein would fill me up and have to last until the tyke was born.

At 5:30 am the contractions were such that I could no longer sleep through them. That and my water broke a little more. I woke Ryan up and told him we had to go to the hospital. Now.

My water really broke in the car.

Gross.

Contractions took a turn from mild to vicious at that point.

Normally you have a contraction that lasts about a minute then there is a rest phase of about 5 minutes (in the early stages of labor like I was in).

Not so much with mine. I would get three contractions with no break in between and the break only lasted a minute or two.

Ouch.

I held out for 2 hours before receiving the godsend known as an epidural at 7:30.

Sweet, sweet relief. I hadn't felt that good since I became pregnant. Nothing hurt. Nothing. Hips, feet, knees, back, shoulders, ankles were all pain free. I was also kind of loopy from the drugs at first and I was able to drift in and out of sleep.

So beautiful. Before the epidural I could only focus on the pain; I wasn't able to see beyond it to the birth of my son. No.

After the epidural I was able to get some greatly needed rest and focus with joy on the arrival of my son which was anticipated to be late afternoon or early evening which later changed to late evening, like after dinnertime.

My contractions did slow down so they gave me pitocin to speed it back up. If I concentrated I could feel mild pressure to indicate I was having a contraction. That was helpful to the nurses because I changed positions frequently and as a result was moving the contraction monitor (I was hooked up to monitors for the whole labor because of the induction).

I was checked around noon or so and was found to be at 5 cm. I told Ryan he should get out and get some lunch and stretch his legs while he could. He suggested he run home and help Gordy unload the carpet. I thought was a fabulous idea.

About 1pm I started to get nauseous (which is a sign of low blood pressure and also a sign of the impending birth). I had extremely low blood pressure. At one point it was 80 something over 32 or 36. But that was a little deceptive because it was taken on my top arm while I was side lying. My blood pressure did hover around 80/40-48. I obviously received a boat load of IV fluids to keep my from bottoming out.

Needless to say I called Ryan to tell him I wanted him to come back because I was feeling sick. (I think I knew it was going to happen sooner than we anticipated). He was on his way back.
Half an hour later I called him again. He was en route.

My last call was just as he was walking through the door to my room. That was at 2:00.

Just before my last call to him I requested a bolus of the epidural medicine as I was starting to feel contractions and they were getting more painful.

The pain medicine kicked in just around the time Ryan returned. And it wasn't a moment too soon. Twenty minutes later I started to push (I was able to feel when to push)!

Twenty-six minutes later Gavin was born.

A nurse said it was the most beautiful birth she has seen in a long, long time. Heather said it was a picture perfect labor (my water breaking in the manner it did was the only blemish). I had an 8 hour labor which included 26 minutes of pushing.

Ryan and I cried when we saw Gavin. The nurses put him on my chest as they cleaned him off.
We had a few minutes together before the took him (he still stayed in the room) and weighed him and did their nursey stuff.

I ordered lunch and hoped in the shower as soon as the nurse would let me. I ate like a starving woman and fed my baby for the first time.

We went home on Saturday. Thank God for Nanas! Nana Jo was here on Saturday and Nana Jo arrived on Sunday. Yes. Two Nana Jos. Ryan's mom in Mary Jo and my mom is Jo (Betty Jo but calling her Betty Jo is a surefire way to put yourself on her bad list). Mary Jo doesn't want to be called Nana Mary Jo because it doesn't exactly flow off the tongue. I thought they should be Nana M and Nana K for their last names. Oh, well. They can duke it out if they want to. It hasn't been an issue so far; you know in the first week. : )

Ryan and I can't stop staring at him. He is SO CUTE! Everyone who sees him gushes and gushes about how incredibly cute he is. The first cute baby comment is obligatory. After that it's true. We are not biased. Everyone has reinforced his cuteness. He is even cuter in person.

Gotta go. I think the cutest baby ever has a dirty diaper.

p.s. The picture of his is all bundled up on our bed amongst pillows and comforters. It was just a convenient place to bundle him up. We don't let him sleep with us.