Gavin's Birth Story!

Somehow... this past year has flown by and I'm about to have a 1 YEAR OLD!!!!
How did that happen??!!!
So in honor of that craziness, I decided to share Gavin's birth story!

So here's how it all went down...

My due date was August 16th.
I had been having braxton hicks contractions since I was about 7 months pregnant. The last month of my pregnancy I had them ALL THE TIME.
At 37 weeks in my pregnancy, my doctor checked me for the first time, and I was already dilated to 2! Gavin was already very low (no wonder my low back was so sore), and in the correct position for birth! My doctor said we could expect him really any day from that point on! So of course, I expected to have my baby within the next week! .....for sure BEFORE my due date....
Nope. Not even close.

...At 38 weeks I was dilated to 3...

...At 39 weeks we didn't even check, because both my doctor and I agreed, "what's the point...this baby will come when he's ready, and he seems to be taking his time". 
Before you know it, I went past my due date, and we were in talks about inducing me.

40 weeks pregnant, laying poolside in my bikini
...in the privacy of my parents back yard! ;)

I absolutely did NOT want to be induced.

My original "plan" was to have an all natural, drug-free birth. I wanted to labor at home (out at my parent's house in their soaker tub) for as long as possible, and not go to the hospital until later in my labor.
I had read about all of the possible interventions that result from being induced, I also heard all of the women's horror stories about Pitocin. But, we knew we had a bigger baby on our hands, and my doctor wasn't comfortable going past 41 weeks (which to be honest, neither was I, because I literally was not comfortable anymore...I couldn't sleep, my back was so sore, I could feel Gavin was super low, and I was just over being pregnant...).

So even though I still really did NOT want to be induced, I caved, and during my last doctors appointment on August 18th, we scheduled an induction for 8:00am, Thursday August 21st (5 days past my due date).

When we left that doctors appointment, my doctor said as we were walking out, "Hey, you're water will probably break the night before"....I responded with "I hope so... fingers crossed!"

So, it's Wednesday, August 20th, the night before my scheduled induction. We were all packed (for the most part) and ready to leave for the hospital bright and early the next morning. It was about 10:30pm and I was crawling into bed, feeling so let down that I didn't go into labor naturally. It was a lot of mixed emotions, but mostly just a huge disappointment that I didn't go naturally. 

My head was of course spinning with all kinds of excitement and thoughts about the next day...I somehow finally managed to just doze off when, it all began....

10:50pm, I woke up to......MY WATER BREAKING!!!!!

I was so excited!!! Our doctor totally called it! ;)

The relief and happiness I felt about going into labor naturally is hard to even put into words! I was thanking God, A LOT!

I quick said to Aaron (who was sleeping), "Babe- I think my water just broke!" 

It was in this moment that I have never seen Aaron move faster- he FLEW out of bed, got fully dressed, and literally ran over to my side of the bed and just stood there before he even said one word.
I busted out laughing...which only caused me to lose more "water"- which was the strangest feeling, because it literally just feels like you're uncontrollably peeing yourself, so that in itself made me laugh even more...and now you can see how that became a viscous cycle...
I ended up having to make Aaron leave the bedroom, because he just kept making me laugh, and I just kept (what felt like) peeing myself.
I finally managed to get myself out of the bed and to the bathroom. We called my doctor (the world's greatest doctor, by the way), we updated him, and told him I would labor at home for as long as possible. 

I hadn't experienced any contractions yet. 

11:10pm: after my water broke, I'm still sitting on the toilet at this point because my water is still uncontrollably leaking. To kill the time while just sitting there, I called my mom to fill her in on the exciting news! I remember I could hardly talk because I was SO excited! I was shaking and my head was just spinning! After I hung up with her, at about 11:15pm,
I finally had my FIRST REAL CONTRACTION!
I remember thinking, "ok, so THAT'S what a real contraction feels like, braxton hicks are a joke compared to that". 
From that point on, my contractions were consistently every 3 minutes apart, noticeably getting stronger, with each one lasting at least 30 seconds. My water at this point is STILL leaking (a lot), but I wanted to go out to my parents (about 15 minutes from our house) and labor in the super awesome soaker tub my mom has. 

Thursday, August 21st 
(5 days past due date, the day I was scheduled to be induced)

12:15am: We finally had made it out to my parents house. Mind you, the entire way out there with every, SINGLE, freaking contraction, I felt like I was losing about a gallon's worth of amniotic fluid. My sweat pants were drenched, and I'm not even kidding, my flip flops were wet (ya eww, I know). 
At my parents house I immediately went right for the tub- and my mom, being the angel that she is, tossed my sweats in the dryer!
I had envisioned soaking in the comfy tub for hours....relaxing, and feeling 'great'...oh my lord was I wrong. The water was too hot, the water was too cold, I couldn't sit, I couldn't kneel, I spent about a total of maybe 8 minutes in the tub before I stood up and said to Aaron, "We're going to the hospital NOW, and I'm getting the epidural".
Yup, my idea of a natural, drug-free labor & delivery went out the door pretty quick.

At this point labor was getting "real". I couldn't walk or talk through contractions. Things that I would have found sweet and comforting were the exact opposite... for example, leaving my parents house for the hospital, my dad walked down the hall with us and put his hands on my shoulders, nicely massaging them, and in the pain of the moment I just said "nope, don't touch me". They all laughed and I think I faked a smile. I didn't mean it to be rude, but honestly at that point I just didn't want to be touched I guess. Don't worry, my dad knows I love him. ;)
On our way to the hospital Aaron proceeded to take, what I swear, is the bumpiest road in the state (poor planning on our part). I was quiet, and not talking a whole lot, but in my mind I was most definitely cursing at every single bump we hit. I pretty much kept my face buried in a towel on the entire drive, focusing on my breathing, and repeatedly telling myself "you're almost there, you're almost there, you're almost there".

1:30(ish)am: We arrive at the hospital, and I make Aaron run in and grab a wheel chair (yes, I even told him to run). Contractions were about every 1 1/2 - 2 minutes, with each one getting noticeably stronger, and lasting about 30-45 seconds. My once dry sweats, were again now drenched, and my flip flops were successfully soaked as well. Yup, that's right, with every contraction, ALL THE WAY TO THE HOSPITAL (20ish minutes), my water leaked. A lot.
I remember almost being pissed, thinking "in all the baby books I read, they say if you're water breaks it's just a light leak!! WTF, they LIE!!!!" 
(labor is so not glamorous)

While we were getting registered at the front desk in the Emergency Room, I remember all of a sudden feeling nauseous. I remember thinking, "great...so not only do I look (and feel) like a total mess right now, but I'm about to start throwing up.....fantastic...". They gave me a pretty little green puke bag, that luckily I didn't need. Well...that is, until we got up to my laboring room. Then it was put to use.
I was in the bathroom trying to change into my attractive hospital gown- amidst my almost constant contractions, and on top of that, repeatedly puking. (doesn't labor sound fun!) Meanwhile, Aaron (who is supposed to be helping me change) is hunched over in the corner of the bathroom with his eyes squeezed shut and his hands over his ears because he "doesn't do puking". So not only is he unable to help me change, but he's about to start puking himself! I finally was able to catch a break between the contractions and the puking, and told him to leave before he started puking since he was of no help to me in there! 

1:45am: I managed to make my way out of the bathroom. The nurse checked me and I was dilated to 5! Anesthesia was on it's way with the epidural, and I remember just telling myself, relax and breathe. I was super quiet during my labor, I didn't yell, I didn't swear, I somehow managed to stay extremely calm. I just focused on my breathing during the contractions, and kept telling myself the epidural was on it's way!
 (ps- the breathing technique that I read in one of my books is what saved me during labor. It's the only thing that got me through the contractions... breathe in for 4 seconds, exhale for 8 seconds and count them out in your head. This was my life saver).
The epidural didn't go quite as planned the first time around, it ended up in a blood vessel, which meant the doctor had to start COMPLETELY over. As in get all new supplies, re-scrub the area, re-tape the area, re-inject the needle, and re-do all of the little tests they do to make sure it's working and placed correctly. It was NOT fun having to sit hunched over the side of my hospital bed for that long, having to "be still" during contractions (but it WAS worth it...).

2:45am: The epidural is finally working like a dream, the nurse checked me again and I was already dilated to 8! (in one hour I went from 5 to 8...you can imagine my excitement!) My nausea was gone now, and I had zero pain. All I could feel was my stomach getting tight with each contraction.
I noticed I had the shakes, and that my entire body was still super tense. As soon as I relaxed my body, the shakes went away. It was kind of weird, because even though I felt zero pain, I still had to focus on staying relaxed and not tensing up! I had remembered reading in all of my baby books that when you keep your body tight and tense, it only slows labor. I worked on keeping every part of my body relaxed.
(it was during this time Aaron took a nap...I tried, but who are we kidding- who can sleep when you're in labor for the FIRST time and only hours away from finally having your baby!!??...ya, not this girl!)

The next time the nurse checked me was at 5:00am and I was fully dilated. She said I was ready to push, if I felt the pressure to push. . . But I felt zero pressure. So we decided to wait, and what they call "labor low" (continue with contractions, and relax until I felt the pressure to push...the more contractions, usually the less pushing...so of course, I was game for that).

6:00am: My doctor arrived, checked me, and said Gavin was "right there" and it was time to start pushing! I still had zero pressure to push, which they couldn't believe, because it was apparently most definitely "time"! Both my doctor and my nurse said my epidural was the best they had ever seen! I had zero pain, felt zero pressure, and yet I had TOTAL control over moving my legs and lower body. It was awesome.

We started off the pushing slow, more or less just practicing. It was actually super hard, because with the epidural I had no sense of "pushing". I honestly couldn't tell what the heck I was doing- if I was even "pushing" or not. I had no feeling! ha! So thank God my doctor and nurse were great coaches! :)

It was probably about 6:15am, still early in the pushing and just my nurse was beside me helping, when Aaron decides to ask our doctor "is there any coffee around here?"  Our doctor is seriously the most awesome, laid back guy in the world, and he responds with "oh yeah, come on let's go get some". So the two of them leave, and go enjoy some coffee together in the lounge. The nurse and I just laughed, and I'm sure I wouldn't have such fond memories of that situation if it wasn't for my epidural.  ;)
It wasn't a long coffee break, that's for sure- they managed to make it back pretty quick, but I just thought it was funny that Aaron thought that was an appropriate time for a coffee break. (....only my husband...)
Pushing got pretty exhausting, more than I expected. But...

6:59am: The moment I had been dreaming and praying about for 9 months, Gavin Daniel was born and laid on my chest!!!
That's a feeling that's just out of this world.
There's no other way to describe it...
Our doctor actually let Aaron "deliver" Gavin and lay him on my chest (have I mentioned how awesome our doctor is??)!

Gavin was a whopping 9 lbs 11 oz and 21 1/2 inches long!
Big, healthy boy!!!

Aaron's a Chiropractor, so Gavin got his first
adjustment at about 2 hours old.  :)

So there you have it... a pretty detailed, but still very condensed, story about the day that totally changed my life!
It was such an amazing experience.
It was totally different than I had "planned", but even if I could, I wouldn't change ONE thing!

I can't believe my tiny little baby is already almost 1!
It's bittersweet...

Gavin's 8 Months!

"Mom, I'm over this picture stuff!!!!"

Age: 8 Months

Stats: 24 pounds & 30 inches

Teeth: 2 bottom teeth 

Clothes Size: 12-18 month

Favorite Foods: Everything he's tried except cottage cheese. 

Other Favorites: Being outside, going for walks, Harley the dog, making new sounds-his current favorites are mama & dada (I like the 'mama' one best), going for 4 wheeler/intimidator rides out at Grandma & Grandpa's. 

Looking Forward To: Well I'm looking forward to my first official Mother's Day (I'm sure Gavin is as well....). Excited for more nice weather and lots of sunshine!!

Chunky baby problems. This is how Gavin
sits in his exersaucer my parent's have for
him out at their house...

Harley got in on the photoshoot action.

Gavin's 7 Months!

Age: 7 Months

Stats: 23 pounds & 30 inches

Teeth: HE GOT HIS FIRST TOOTH!!! 1 bottom tooth :) 

Clothes Size: 12 month

Favorite Foods: Avocado, sweet potato, banana, pear, carrot, ....hang on, what DOESN'T this kid like?? He eats everything, and a lot of it.

Other Favorites: Harley- he laughs at Harley the dog all the time, even when Harley is laying there doing absolutely nothing (it's pretty darn adorable).

Buckles- as in high chair buckles, car seat buckles- anything that's like a buckle. He loves to play with them and chew on them. I'm not sure why he loves them so much, but he sure does.
Tags & Strings. Any tag he can find on anything- his playmat, on the boppy pillow, on blankets...he loves tags. Strings- he loves hoodie strings (random, I know, but he loves them).

He loves to ride on your shoulders- way cooler view than from on the floor all the time.

Bath time.

Being outside (finally, it's Spring!!!!). 

Looking Forward To: Gavin's first Easter!

Boy oh boy, do I love this little guy! It's been such a blessing and so much fun watching him grow!
Time flies...

Gavin's 6 Months!!

Our sweet boy is already 6 months old!! Wow does the time absolutely fly!

He LOVES avocado & sweet potato.

He desperately wants to crawl, just not quite there yet.

He sits on his own, but still likes to topple over to the side (it's hard work to hold up all that weight).

He's starting to enjoy waking up earlier, around 6am (Mom & Dad don't enjoy that one as much).

He still loves bath time- I swear it's his favorite time of the day.

He loves playing with the dog, Harley.

Still no teeth! 

Wears all 12 month clothes.

Took his first trip to a water park.

Enjoyed his first Valentine's Day :)

He makes us laugh and smile more than anything else in this world!

Gavin's 1st Trip to a Water Park!

Our trip with Gavin to the water park was quite the experience! Aaron surprised me with the trip for Valentine's Day. He booked it for two nights, and we ended up not even staying a full 24 hours (HA!). Gavin was great- super well behaved and loved the park, but none of us slept good! (I take that back- Aaron slept good, Gavin and I did NOT)! 

Gavin slept in the pack-n-play, but woke up more than he ever has, even as a newborn! Luckily, he would just fuss for a couple minutes and go right back to sleep. He decided to wake up for good at about 5am (way too early for this mom & dad) but was happy and content to just lay in bed and play with Aaron's hair, as you can see in the last picture.   :) 

We also got to listen to our neighbor's child scream (and it was legit SCREAMING) from 9pm-11:45pm because he didn't want to go to sleep (well, Gavin & Aaron slept through it, I was not so lucky).

Anyway- all of that aside, Gavin loved the water, he's a total water baby, but he was still too young to be able to really enjoy it. There wasn't a whole lot for babies, so all he could really do was look around and watch everything going on around him. 

He loved the lazy river, and looked so darn adorable in his little swim shorts & robe!! :)

We will never again try taking a baby to stay overnight at a water park. That fun can wait until they're a couple years old! ;)  

LESSON LEARNED!

I think we were ALL very happy to come home and sleep in our OWN beds that second night. ;)

That being said though, it was definitely worth it and was a lot of fun!

:)  

Winter Photos with Gavin Man :)

It's Always Fun Taking Pictures With This Little Cutie

My mom and I always have fun taking pictures of little Gavin Man.  

Photo credit goes out to my wonderful Mom :)

Gavin's Monthly Chalkboards (months 3-5)

Gavin's Monthly Chalkboards

Months 3-5

First and foremost I updated my chalk board! (YAYY!) My old one I had just bought from Michaels, and it was nothing fancy- but it got the job done.  For Gavin's monthly pictures I wanted a much cuter chalk board, and I found the perfect one that was made from an old cupboard door! (How cool right?!) 

I didn't start doing his chalkboards until he was 3 months old.. I guess the first 2 months I just didn't want to use a board? I used the cute little month stickers and that was good enough.  But once he was getting a little older and developing more of a personality, I liked being able to include those things on the boards (especially to be able to track his crazy, insanely fast growth! He was born at 9lbs 11oz and 21 1/2"...  just so you have an idea of how fast he grew on me!!).

So anyway... here are my sweet baby's monthly boards thus far! :)

ENJOY!

(yes, my baby boy is a chunk!!)

Pregnancy Chalkboards

Pregnancy Chalkboards

Pregnant with my little Gavin Man

So as soon as I found out I was pregnant with Gavin, I really wanted to keep track of my weekly belly bump growth! So I started out doing a weekly chalkboard.. which lasted until week17. I actually don't even think I took a picture with any of my chalkboards... but I did manage to at least take a picture of them when I finished them.  Obviously, with my future pregnancies, I plan to be much better about taking pictures WITH my boards...(I do have a belly picture for almost every week of my pregnancy, just minus the board).

I love doing chalkboards- and I've been much better about doing monthly chalkboards with Gavin since he's been born :) Those will be in their own post!  (When Gavin was born I also upgraded my chalkboard... instead of the cheap one I got from Michaels... the one you'll see in these pictures... I bought one that was made out of an old kitchen cupboard door! LOVE IT!)

But here are the boards I managed to do while pregnant with my little man!

ENJOY! :)

Gavin's Room - REMODEL!

Gavin's Room

I'm excited to share this one with you all because it was so much fun! 

So anyone that knows me, knows that I LOVE remodeling rooms. (I usually have about a million ideas on how to change a room..paint that wall this color, that wall that color, put that there, rip up the carpet and put this floor down, put that shelf here...and it goes on like that forever!) So when I found out I was pregnant, I was already planning the nursery! 

Our house was built in the 70's (I think..?Ha!) and it has different trim in pretty much every room, in all the bedrooms had they had pretty nasty (in my opinion) carpets... so room by room I am slowly trying to update our house and make it, project by project, more of a home :) 

So here are the Before pictures of Gavin's room

We found out on March 24th that we were having a little boy! :) That night, this is what his bedroom looked like...

Oh yes.  We came home that night and ripped up that old carpet and tore off all the trim..but saved the trim because I was going to paint it all white!! (I don't waste any time with my projects)

It was really handy having to take all of the trim off to get rid of the carpet and lay down the new floor..I took all the trim, gave it a good sanding, primed it, and painted it all white just using a brush! I did 2-3 coats of white, because the trim was pretty dark! I also painted his side of the door white...same technique as the trim. A real good sanding, a coat or two of primer, and 2-3 coats of the white paint.

I painted the walls what I like to describe as a steel gray/blue.  Originally I wanted it to be slightly more gray, it's a little more blue than I thought, but I love it :) FYI- it's sooooo much nicer to be able to paint BEFORE you put down any new flooring! I didn't have to worry about any wayward drips, or moving around some big, heavy tarp, it was so nice! 

As much as paint will change the look of a room...man does a new floor just totally change the entire feel of a room! We decided to go with a lighter laminate wood floor, that works really well with many different paint colors! We laid the floor on our own, and once you get the hang of it, wow is it easy!

In the picture above is our dog Harley.  He was just as involved in this project as we were.  We like to call him "Furry Human"... because we truly think he believes he is just as human as we are. You will probably see Harley somewhere in the majority of the pictures I post. :)

In the pictures below you get a better feel for the paint color.

 It only took us maybe a day to get the flooring all done....start to finish!

Then it was the fun part- putting all of the pretty white trim back on the walls!!! PS- number your trim (and I even put the corresponding number on the wall where the trim goes, and obviously in a place where the trim would hide the number, once back on the wall). You'd be surprised at how hard it would be to try and remember where each piece of trim went... essentially it would end up like being one big trim puzzle...and you'd end up wasting a lot of your time. 

As you can see above, I framed out a rectangle on the wall where I wanted to put his name.  It was actually surprisingly easy. We bought the wood from our local Menards store, and the 4 rosettes from there as well.  I panted them all white to match the trim, and that was that. We did need 3 people (it was Aaron, myself, and my dad) just to be able to get everything level, hold it in place, and use the nail gun. We used an adhesive on the backs of all the wood pieces, then got it in it's place and used the nail gun to nail it all in place.   The letters were the easiest- I got them from Michaels for a couple dollars each (if I remember right) and they were already painted! The finishing touches were just using some white spackle to fill in the nail holes, and there you have it! 

I desperately wanted a wooden rocking chair for Gavin's room.  My mom had a rocking chair that always made the same creaky noises when you rocked in it..and for whatever reason I just wanted a rocking chair that was just like that! (although now that I have one, and it makes the same creaky noise, it kind of drives me crazy..so I may need to fix the creaking, which is pretty simple...) So my husband and I desperately hunted around town for a good old, wooden rocking chair. WOW, we had no idea how hard that was! A- in all of the furniture stores we went to we never saw ONE white, wooden rocking chair..not one!  B- ummmm hello EXPENSIVE!! We did not want to spend $300+ dollars on a rocking chair that we would still have to paint... not to mention spend more on a chair than we spent on our crib! (You will come to notice I love being thrifty) So anyway, we kind of gave up on our rocking chair hunt for awhile.. and I happened to be scrolling through my Facebook news feed... and OH MY GOSH A WHITE WOODEN ROCKING CHAIR at a local thrift store we had in town! I immediately called them and asked if they still had it- and hallelujah- they did! Oh, and the best part.... $25!!!!!! It had a lot of wear and tear, lots of scratches..it needed some TLC.  I was ready to give this thing some new life! I took it outside, sanded it down like crazy, and gave it a few good coats of white spray paint! I did this all in one day! Let it dry for a day or two outside on my parents screened-in porch, and there you have it! A gorgeous, wooden, white rocking chair all for UNDER about $35 dollars! We have spent lots of time rocking our sweet baby boy in this chair.  Best $35 dollars I've ever spent! Take a peek at the transformation of it below.. Top pictures are before.. and bottom pictures are after :)

So as you can see below, there you have it...Gavin's room all said and done. No "theme", I like to just say it's "anything boy". I have some vintage looking decor (a truck, a motorcycle and some other random "boy" things on his shelf..all of which I got from Hobby Lobby).  I chose to leave the closet doors off of his closet... we did keep them just in case in the future we want to put them back up.  For now we really like having them off because it just makes his room feel bigger, and it helps us keep his closet looking neat and organized! ;)