Gage’s birth story

So the journey to meet our son began bright and early Saturday morning, around 5:24 a.m. when I decided to start timing the extremely uncomfortable contractions that had kept me awake all night. They began at 10 minutes apart and were 5 minutes apart within an hour of timing them. I decided to call the doctor’s office around 6:45 a.m. to see if they’d want me to come in.. thankfully the midwife said to come in and get checked. I don’t think I would have been able to last much longer at home. I didn’t need a shower since I had already taken two over the course of the night. (I only slept for about an hour.) I woke Steven and began throwing the last minute items into my hospital bag. My mother-in-law Lil quickly arrived to watch the kiddos while I went to get checked out. Steven decided he needed to shave before we could leave, but thankfully he works quickly!

We arrived at Women & Babies Hospital around 7:30 a.m. and were through registration quickly. Kim was the lady that checked me in and she was extremely nice and chipper for it being so early in the morning. Our triage room was #103 and our first nurse was Ursula.  I immediately thought of The Little Mermaid! She hooked me up to the heart rate monitor and the contraction monitor and my first monitored contraction came at 7:56 a.m. Steven was with me and of course trying to make me laugh and smile in between the increasingly painful contractions. I was so nervous they were going to tell me I wasn’t in labor.. with Gavin and Gabby my water had began to break so that was my sure sign to head to the hospital.. sadly, I was ‘new’ at deciphering these real vs. false contractions. My contractions ranged from 5 to 7 minutes apart and were almost taking my breath away. After being monitored for about an hour the midwife Jana (who I love!!) came in to check me. She first tested for amniotic fluid.. negative.. then she check my cervix and told us I was 4 centimeters dilated.. WAHOOOOO.. TODAY IS THE DAY!!!

Not too long after that we were greeted by our labor and delivery nurse, Harriet. Imagine my horror when I realized it was the same nurse who treated me during THIS visit to triage. I took a deep deep breath, asked the Lord for an open heart, and proceeded to cover up my bare bum to take the walk from triage to my labor and delivery room. We were in room #65, right next door to where Gabby was born! The jacuzzi tub was just about ready for me but first I had to go over all the basic info with Harriet and sign a couple of papers. I got into the tub around 9:30 a.m. – the same tub I was in during my labor with Gabby – pretty cool! I didn’t last long in the jacuzzi.. at this point the contractions were every 3 minutes and just a little too much for me to handle. After the jacuzzi I was given an IV and had some blood drawn. Thankfully the IV was painless.. Shawna did a great job! My mother-in-law Lil arrived and let us know that Gavin and Gabby were now at their Aunt Patty’s house and having loads of fun! Dr. Steiber, the anesthesiologist, came in around 10:25 a.m. and began the epidural process. He was wonderful! He was such a nice, genuine person who really made me feel at ease with everything. {I am definitely going to write a letter to the doctor’s office about him.. he really was spectacular!} After my epidural was in and began working my mom and niece Shayna arrived and Lil was let back into the room. Mom and Shayna brought some very very sweet gifts for me and the baby, including a baby blue crocheted infant hat that my grammie had made.. oh my did this make me cry! About 20 minutes after my epidural Jana came in and checked me again.. I was 6 to 7 centimeters dilated!

Around 11:40 a.m. I began feeling pressure with each of my contractions. I wasn’t in much pain from the contraction but could certainly feel the pressure. (I should mention that through all of this my nurse Harriet was great.. very funny, sweet, laid back, attentive and understanding.. nothing like what I thought she would be considering my previous experience with her.) Jana came back around 12:05 p.m. to check me because of all the pressure I was having.. I was 8 centimeters. At that point she decided to break my water.. boy o boy I had a lot of fluid! I had my bladder drained at 12:20 p.m. and began the ‘wait’ for Gum Drop to make his way down so we could begin pushing. The pressure began to increase and I was feeling it constantly, not just with contractions. Jana checked me at 1:15 p.m., I was fully dilated and the baby was at +1. I began pushing at 1:16 p.m. – Steven was to my left, my niece Shayna was to my right at my head, my mom was holding my right leg and Lil was next to my mom taking pictures. I pushed through 2 contractions.. only 2 minutes.. and Gage David was here, 1:18 p.m.!! My sweet surprise, my absolutely beautiful, healthy son was finally here!! The entire birth was amazing.. everyone that was there with me was amazing. Gage laid on my chest for a while, I was crying and praising God, everyone in the room was crying.. it was magical! The nurse took him to weigh him, clean him up, all that good stuff. We announced his name to everyone, which was a lot of fun! He weighed 8 lbs 2 oz and was 19 ¾ inches long. {right before I started pushing everyone guessed how much he would weigh and both Steven and I guessed he would weigh 8 lbs 2 oz.. we were right!} His APGAR scores were 9 at one minute and 9 at five minutes!! After Gage was nice and clean and wrapped up he came back to his momma and the song ‘Today Is The Day’ by Lincoln Brewster came on my iPod radio. This short chorus of the song has been my ring tone for the past 7 months or so, so when I heard it I didn’t pay much attention to it at first, then I listened to the words a little more closely and realized how powerful they were at that moment.

Today is the day You have made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.  Today is the day you have made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.  And I won’t worry about tomorrow, I’m trusting in what You say, Today is the day!

Today is the day, the day of my third child’s birth. The child I had no idea I longed for so badly, the child I was so scared to bring into the world, the child that was an absolute complete surprise but such an amazing blessing. I won’t worry about tomorrow, I am going to trust in my God and know that with Him nothing is impossible and our life as a family of 5 will be wonderful!

I promise to share more about our hospital time.. and to of course share more photos of my lovely kiddos =)  Things are quite crazy around here but we sure do feel blessed!