Gabriel's Big Day

Gabriel was born February 5, 2011. He is now 5 1/2 weeks old. Why so long before blogging about it? Babies take work and time!! I'm just now getting around to things in the house. So, without further ado, here's Gabriel's story...

On Saturday, February 5, I told Richard we should finish installing our new oven in the kitchen. By "we" I suppose that really meant just Richard. To do this, he would need to borrow a saw from a friend, cut the cabinets to the right size, lift the heavy oven into the cabinets (with help of course), and finish the electrical work. Around the time I asked him to start working on it, I also started having a few contractions. This was 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I assumed my contractions were temporary, and they would go away shortly.

So Richard drove to a friends house to pick up the saw. When he got back, I was still having contractions. At this point, I was tracking them and they were about 9 or 10 minutes apart. Richard asked if he needed to do something. I said, "It's my first baby, so contractions will still go for while before we need to go into the hospital. Go ahead and work on cutting the cabinets." Soon, Richard was hard at work and bits of wood were flying everywhere. Our entire kitchen was coated in a layer of sawdust. I went to the bedroom to relax and keep tracking my contractions. They very quickly progressed to 5 minutes apart. At this point I started packing my hospital bag. Still assuming I had a while, but at least I would be ready to go. The doctor had told me I needed to be having contractions 5 minutes apart for 2 hours before going to the hospital.

At 5:45, our friends, Ty and Danielle, came to pickup a house key so they could take care of things while we were in the hospital. My contractions were 3 or 4 minutes apart at this point. I was in our bedroom, while Richard answered the door. I could hear Danielle yelling up the stairs how excited she was that little Gabriel was coming. While they were still chatting downstairs, my contractions were getting very strong, and some of them were only 2 or 3 minutes apart. I looked at the clock, and only 1 hour had passed since my contractions hit 5 minutes apart. Man, was I really supposed to wait 2 hours!?!?

I remember thinking I wanted Richard with me, but I didn't want to interrupt their conversation downstairs. I kept telling myself to be polite. Then, after one more strong contraction, I wearily yelled out "Riiichaarrrrrrd!". He was by my side the next second and I told him we needed to go to the hospital. The next thing I know, he's picking up his toothbrush. "What are you doing?" I asked.
"Well, if I'm going to help you breathe through contractions, I better have good breath."
"Do you REALLY need to brush your teeth right now?"
Then, as another contraction came, "DO YOU REALLY NEED TO DO THAT RIGHT NOW?!"
He got the message. No brushing the teeth. Leave the mess in the kitchen. Who cares if there's sawdust everywhere and an oven sitting in the middle of our dining room. We're leaving!

As we drove to the hospital, I could feel every single crack or bump in the road. I didn't realize it at the time, but at this point I was in the transition stage which is the most painful. When we checked in at 6:30, I remember thinking the nurses were far too casual. Didn't they believe me when I told them my contractions were 1 or 2 minutes apart? Finally, they checked my cervix, and told me it was gone.
"What does that mean?" I asked the nurse. "Where did it go?" I thought something was wrong.
"It means you're 10 cm, and you're about to have a baby. Unfortunately there's no time for an epidural, you need to start pushing."
Whoa! Guess we made it just in time!
After three hours of pushing , Gabriel came out. The doctor told me he was sunny side up. If he wasn't sunny side up, he would have come out much faster.

So there he was. 7 lb 5 oz. 19 inches long. A beautiful blessing from God! Thank you Jesus!