Gavin's Official Birth Story

Because a lot has gone on in the last few months, I am only now getting to tell the story of how Gavin Cole Duke came into this world. Starting at 26 weeks things started going "not normal". But actually it was even before that...
I had my usual blood work done by 18-20 weeks and expected everything would come back normal. When my OB herself called me a few days later, I knew something was wrong. She told me I had elevated numbers that indicated Gavin may have Spina Bifida. Very scary! I immediately went online and researched. I didn't want my baby to have that. She recommended I get amniocentesis done but I ended up requesting a high resolution ultrasound to look for it. We found out at the same time that baby #2 was a boy and he did NOT have Spina Bifida. They did watch for it over the course of the pregnancy but all was fine.
At 26 weeks I went in for a routine check up and as the nurse was looking for a heartbeat, could only find one in the 80's. We thought maybe it was picking up mine so the doc came in and very quickly determined that Gavin's heart rate was way too low. So off I went to get another high res. ultrasound. This time they found that he had wrapped his little neck in the cord and was actually squeezing it with one of his hands and was the cause for the temporary low heart rate. They were fine with him holding the cord, it was that it wrapped around his neck that wasn't ok. So I started going in weekly, switching between regular and high risk appointments. I only made it in to my 2nd appointment to see the high risk specialist when she saw that Gavin had somehow wrapped the cord around his neck twice and was now in the frank breech position(ruling out a natural birth) and my fluid was very low. I was in my 29th week. This time I was sent to the hospital to be on continuous monitoring. Let me tell you, it was NOT fun to be restricted to a hospital bed for almost 3 weeks.

While I stayed there, I was seen daily, had ultrasounds every other day, ate the awful hospital food. BORING. The whole goal of me staying in the hospital was to keep Gavin in until 34 weeks. So my OB and I scheduled my c-section for Friday December 18th. We did this in hopes that he would grow big enough to not have to spend very long in the NICU. The next morning I had my ultrasound. It was my last one. Gavin wasn't doing too well anymore. My placenta had died and was no longer providing nutrients for him. He was also measuring small, her guess was 3lbs. 2 oz. That afternoon of December 8th at 2:38 p.m. I heard my sweet baby boy's tiny little cry for the first time. I couldn't hold him because he needed support pretty immediately but I got to see him and kiss him before he was rushed off to the NICU. He weighed 3 lbs 3 oz. and was 17" long. He had dark hair and by the time he left the room, his cry was a loud one. I didn't get to see him until the next morning due to recovering from the c-section but I will never forget the feelings that flooded me. I couldn't believe how tiny, how frail he looked. I was so grateful for the care he could receive. I knew God had a plan for this baby, He has been so good to us. During the time Gavin stayed in the NICU, he only grew stronger each day. No infections. No health set backs. He came home to meet his big brother for the first time on Thursday, January 7th, 2010. Three full weeks before his due date. We have a little fighter! (he fights his sleep very well nowadays)

Gavin still in the tummy, only a few hours before his birth