He's Here!!

Gavin at about 24 hours old

At 7 days past due, prompting potential nicknames of Pokey, Well Done and Burnt, our "little" bundle of joy has arrived! Weighing in at 10lb 5oz and measuring 21 inches, Gavin Thomas had Spencer nervous of being dethroned as Mommy's biggest baby, but came up a few ounces short.

This is sort of an optical illusion. Yes, he is big, but the nurse was pretty short, too.


Now, for those of you who really care about us enough to read past the weight and length numbers :) (actually, it is a long post, so we'll understand, but the best picture is at the end), the delivery went something like this:

1/2/2009
1:00am
Tim and Heather get to bed after wrangling the kids into bed following a fun New Years Day party night of dinner and games at Grandpa and Grandma Conway's house.

1:30am
Heather: Tim, I think I might be having contractions.
Tim: *rolls over*

2:30am
Heather: Tim, I really think I'm having contractions.
Tim: Do they hurt?
Heather: Some of them.
Tim: How far apart?
Heather: About 4 minutes, or maybe 10. I want to call the hospital.
Tim: Ok, you call the hospital, I'm going back to bed.

3:30am
Heather: The hospital said we can come in and I called the neighbor to stay with the kids.

4:00am
We check in at the birth center triage. The contractions are pretty consistent at 4 to 6 minutes, but not very hard.

4:20 - 5:20am
We walk every hall of the hospital that isn't locked. Twice.

5:30am
The doc says, well the contractions are closer (3 to 4 minutes) and a little stronger, so let's get you in a room and have a baby! We like our doc.

6:30am to 3:15pm
Pitocin, breaking of Heather's water and even the extreme helpfulness of Tim cannot get labor to progress to the point where delivery can occur. Heather is stuck at about 7cm dilation, although about fully effaced, and Gavin isn't engaging into the birth canal properly. Toward the end, his heart rate is dropping during the contractions. Heather, after battling through contractions like a trooper, finally decides the risks to the baby are becoming too great and takes the doctor up on her urging to deliver the baby by C-section..












3:30pm
We are in the C-section operating room. Our buddy John Paul, the anesthesiologist, with his medical school applicant shadow watching on, gets Heather prepped. Tim checks out the other side of the curtain occasionally and remembers what he likes so much about civil engineering. He is ok with the sight of blood, but is much more ok with the sight of soil, wood, concrete and steel.

3:48pm
Gavin is pulled, kicking and screaming, into the cold, cruel world and the comments of, "Wow, that's a big baby" begin. His dad now has the Winnie the Pooh song stuck in his head when Pooh is pulled out of the hole to Rabbit's house.

He'll be pulled and he'll be tugged,
and eventually unplugged,
we'll have a tug of war,
to open Rabbit's door...

We are especially thankful for the help and support of Mom Conway all day as Heather experienced a C-section for the first time.

9:00pm
We are noticing a disturbing trend. Gavin seems to be getting cuter by the second. Granted, most babies do that, but we fear he may have the ability to focus so much cuteness into such a small space that a quantum cuteness singularity will form and suck us in. Oops, too late. Sorry, been watching too much Heroes, I guess. Here he is, post-bath.