The birth story.

No, I won't go into all the awesome details.

I was reminded the other day I hand't updated the blog in, well, as long as Gavin is old which would make it almost 4 months! He is growing and changing daily, so I am committed to updating this more often so ya'all can keep up. It's not like I'm busy or anything being a wife....mommy....working full time....! Oh yeah, and not sleeping. ;-)

Back to the purpose of this blog. The birth.

It was awesome. I know that sounds weird, but honestly, I would rather give birth twice rather than go through the first trimester again. Three months of constantly feeling sea sick was way worse than labor!

I ended up needing to be induced because the doctor wasn't sure the baby was still baking safely. So, on December 13 at 7 am I arrived at St. Francis to meet my little man. There's nothing weirder than going to the hospital without a child and leaving with one. But that's besides the point. After signing our lives away, they induced me at around 10 am. And until about 2 pm, I really couldn't feel much. My awesome doula, Amy, brought these combs for me to grasp tightly when a contraction came and it would concentrate all the pain in my hands so the rest of my body would relax so little man would drop (I decided to birth sans epidural). And it worked. Around 3 pm we decided we should get the show on the road (still barely feeling anything) so the doctor broke my water. And then the pain began. It was almost instant. For about 3 hours, I was doing good. It was tough, but I was doing ok. Then around 6 pm I knew I was about to go through the "transition" part of labor (the part that is super hard) and I wasn't sure I could make it without some help because I was so ridiculously tired and I was really tense because of that. So, they gave me some pain meds which really didn't take the pain away at all, but it allowed me to rest in between contractions and that's all my body needed, because Gavin was born about an hour later...three pushes is all it took!

I think I've shared this, but in utero, Gavin would often kick me so hard it would knock the breath out of me. Turns out, little guy is super strong. He seriously came out of the womb, they put him on my chest and he was super alert, looking around and lifting his head up. It was crazy! I attribute this to my eating the pale diet. I've heard similar stories of other paleo babies. Shout out to David and Wynter Weaver at Inner Icon for keeping me healthy and focused during pregnancy! Anyway, the nurses and my doula were amazing, and all in all it was a wonderful experience. And best of all, Gavin was born safe and sound. Here are some photos of those first few days.