Gavin Michael Smith

 Finally our family of four!

 Terrible picture of me, but here was how it felt to hold him finally.  Pure joy and relief.

Rockstar is an understatement.  He fought so hard to be with us! 

Our beautiful little blessing is finally here!  Gavin Michael Smith was born on July 25, 2012 at 3:35pm weighing 7lbs. 2oz. and 18 inches long.  Here's the delivery story...I went to my checkup on Tuesday morning, July 24.  I was just feeling kind of "off" that day.  I was so excited to know that I was dilated to a 4 and a half or so.  I thought I may not be progressing at all because I really wasn't having many contractions.  The doctor said if I didn't have him in the next few days we would most likely deliver him the following Monday.  I came home and began having some contractions the rest of the day.  I wan't uncomfortable and the contractions were just hit or miss, no pattern.  The doctor told me to make sure I didn't wait too long to come in because my cervix was very soft and he thought it would happen quick when labor started.  I absolutely hated trying to decide if I should go in or just go to bed.  We sat around and debated going in until about 9:00 pm.  I was cleaning, packing, and organizing things while I tried to decide what to do.  Finally, we decided we may as well go in and get checked.  We took Josey to Laura's house and I was contracting about every 10 minutes.  When we got to the hospital they put me on the monitor and my contractions promptly slowed down to maybe two an hour or so.  I figured they would just send us home, but of course with my history and being dilated to a four already it was a tricky call.  They decided to keep us and just wait until my doctor came on at 7:00am to see what he wanted to do.  They checked me at one point and said I was for sure dilated to 5.  My doctor got in touch around 6am and of course said to admit me.  He came in around 8:15am and I was dilated to a 7.  Still in no pain and only contracting every once in a while.  My family came to be with us and we just hung out all day until the doctor got done with all his surgeries at about 1:45.  It was his surgery day and he didn't want to miss the delivery, so he didn't want to break my water until he could be there.  Love our doctor, so we were totally fine with this!  I was dilated to an 8 and the nurses and doctor kinda laughed about the fact that I was an 8 and in no pain at all and really just kind of bored waiting all day to get things going.  One nurse commented that it was funny that I was contracting every 42 minutes and still dilating on my own.  Just my weird pain tolerance thing and my strange cervix I guess.  So at 1:50pm the doctor broke my water and started me on pitocin to strengthen the contractions.  I went from total boredom and no pain to full on labor in about 15 minutes!!  Wow, it was crazy!  I was contracting about every 3-4 minutes and in serious pain.  The nurse came in to check me and said I was dilated to a 9 but the scar on my cervix was stopping me from being complete.  Something we knew might happen with all the damage and the cerclage procedure.  She said something like ok, maybe 20 or 30 more minutes.  I looked at her like she was crazy, I knew he was ready to come out!  She walked out of the room and the next contraction I needed to push.  They called her back in and thank goodness the doctor came in right behind her eventhough the nurse hadn't paged him yet.  She said he is a mind-reader.  I pushed with the first contraction then it seemed like a full minute I didn't have another contraction.  The doctor didn't even sit down and we were all just kind of looking at eachother.  Another contraction came and on the second push our miracle baby came right out!  I couldn't believe it, less than 5 minutes from ok let's push to he's here!  So after only 1 hour and 45 minutes of actual discomfort I delivered a healthy baby boy!  I am so thankful for such an easy delivery.  Although the contractions were seriously painful, I didn't suffer long at all.  I wanted to have him naturally just like Josey, so I was overjoyed I did it without pain medicine.  The nurse said "oh wow, you did that after having pitocin and no epidural?!"  Pretty sure she thought I was crazy.  I just remember thinking "thank you God for this baby" when he came out.  He screamed for about 10 minutes non-stop.  My mom said he was literally crying before he was all the way out.  The nurse kept calling him "Rowdy" so Daddy has decided that's his permanent knickname!  I spent the next few minutes nursing him and just in disbelief that he was finally here with us.  Our family got to come in and see him before he went to the nursery for a little bit.  He passed all his tests with flying colors.  Words simply cannot describe what it is like to have him with us finally.  A few times during labor I thought of the triplets and how I know they are watching over their little brother.  Laura said Gavin's birthday is special because Johnny was born on July 20th and Jaxsen and Asher on August 5th.  So put them together and July 25th is symbolic.  I like that!  We were busy of course the next few hours and kept debating his name.  Finally at 9:20 we decided that Gavin Michael was perfect.  I was insistent on Michael because who better to be named after than the most amazing man on Earth, his Daddy :)  I don't even know what else to say about our little man.  He is a gift.  He is perfect.  He is ours.  Love him more than words.  Thank you Lord.