Gavin Benedict Smith - Born Friday, 2/22/08

We arrived at the hospital at 8AM Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008 to be induced; only to find out that I was already in labor and dilated to 2 cm (I had not been feeling the contractions, so I did know I was in labor); the contractions were coming every 4 to 5 minutes; so who knows how long that had been going on. At 7:30PM I was still only dilated to 2 cm, and still not really feeling contractions that were now coming every 2 to 3 minutes. There was another girl that came in to be induced at 8AM too - different doctor, and at 9PM her doctor took her of medication to induce her contractions and told her they would try again tomorrow. At 9PM my Doctor said we're having a baby tonight gave me medication to increase my contractions and broke my water - OUCH, feeling the contractions now! You all know I wanted an epidural and started asking for one at 10:30PM but the anesthesiologist didn't get to me for 2 hours and then it took another hour for it to kick in. LESSON: get the epidural much earlier, next time. Well, after that I felt much, much better, I even took a 45 minutes nap. At 3AM the nurse told me I was dilated to 10cm and it was just about time to start pushing. The nurse told me she wanted to turn off my epidural so I could feel to push, I told her NO WAY! I that I would prove to her I could push without feeling what I was doing. She told me it would take about 2 hours to get the baby from the cervix down the birth canal before he could be delivered and my doctor would arrive at 4:15AM, so I needed to spend some time getting the baby ready for delivery, before my doctor got there. Well, at 4:10AM I needed stop pushing because I was ready to deliver the baby and my doctor was just about to arrive - HA! I didn't need 2 hours! Dr. Ivery arrived at exactly 4:15AM and I only had to push 3 times to deliver Gavin, yeah! 8 pounds, 7 ounces, 20.5 inches long, head 13.75 inches around and I'm going to need some stitches! OUCH, again!







Here's a video of his 0 Birthday Party!