One Month

Our little Gavin is an entire month old already! And I have accomplished absolutely nothing this past month except for keep Jenna and Liam alive, and hold this cute boy! Seriously.

He demands to be held for most of the day. He doesn't even like the swing. So by the end of the day my back is killing me, there's nothing for dinner, the house is a mess... and I don't mind any of it! Gavin holds my finger and smiles, and my day is absolutely perfect!

He is eating every 2-3 hours during the day, and every 3-4 hours at night. He likes to bounce, sleep on our chests, and hold our hands. He dislikes the pacifier and having his feet swaddled. Just like my other kids.

Paul says all the time that he can't believe how often Gavin gets the hiccups, and how small he is (even though he was my biggest baby). But he does seem tiny right after wrestling those other two big kids!

In his first couple weeks, I think we called him Liam more often than Gavin :)
But we're slowly getting better, and love having this good baby in our family!

21 months

Our Liam is quite a little goofball! He keeps us on our toes, and makes our lives so much more fun! At 21 months:

He loves being outside, taking baths, anything with wheels, and Curious George.
He hates vegetables. That's it.

He's the toughest little guy, and completely fearless. Every inch of his legs are constantly covered in bruises, and he gets more injuries in a day than Jenna has had her entire life. But he hardly ever cries; just shakes it off and keeps on going!
He loves to wrestle with his daddy, and literally jumps for joy when he gets home from work!

Liam is becoming very independent and will get upset if we try to do things for him. He shows his frustration by either giving a quick, loud scream or by throwing himself or anything nearby onto the floor. But he gets over things quickly.
He'll look right at us while he's doing something he knows he shouldn't with a face that says "Ya, what're you gonna do about it?" especially when I'm feeding Gavin. Such a little punk.

He's not much of a talker, and most of the things he says can only be understood by Paul and me. The few obvious words he says are mom, dada, bye, shoes, hot, up, drink, cheese, fishy, hat, eye, and no. And, he must be Russian because he says "da" for yes.
I love the way he counts: da! do! dee!

He hasn't had a binky since he was 18 months old, so now at naptime and bedtime we get him in his room by giving him a piggy-back ride (you'd think he'd catch on by now...). And we have to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle, and You Are My Sunshine before we leave.

 
Love this handful of a kid!!

siblings

People always ask how older children are liking the new baby. Well, so far they love him, and are reacting pretty much exactly how I expected they would.

Jenna asks to hold Gavin just about every 5 seconds. She insists on doing it by herself, and is anxious for us to let her walk around with him. She is very protective of him, and is a great entertainer and second pair of eyes for me.

Liam excitedly calls him "Deedee" and runs to Gavin whenever he cries. He likes to poke him and yank out his binky a few times a day, gives him kisses at bedtime, but otherwise pretty much ignores him.
He lets me put the baby on his lap for a few seconds, then smiles and pushes him away. Gavin's gotten a couple bonks on the head from Liam trying to share a toy, but we're working on being gentle.

 

Gavin's a lucky boy to have such great older siblings!

Gavin's story

38 weeks pregnant

We moved to VA, and I met my new doctor. We found out that they won't induce labor for non-medical reasons. I was okay with this news, but it sent Paul into super-stressed mode. He operates best when there is a plan, and with Jenna and Liam all we had to do was walk up to the hospital and order a baby. He hasn't had to do the contraction-timing, when-do-we-go-to-the-hospital worried dad thing yet. And, honestly, I was kind of excited for him to get to experience that!

Sunday, June 15 - FATHER'S DAY - 1 day after due date

1 am:  I woke up feeling contractions that seemed close together, so I decided to start timing them. They were only 3 minutes apart! I was sure that this was real labor, but they really didn't hurt too bad and I didn't want to wake people up (which I now realize sounds silly). So I just walked around for a while.

2:30 am:  The contractions finally hurt bad enough that I had to stop walking and breath through them, so I woke up Paul. We packed our stuff and timed a few more contractions, and he convinced me that we need to go to the hospital. So I woke up my mom (she had arrived Saturday morning) and told her I think it's time to go. She must have thought I seemed too calm, because she told me to drink some water and put my feet up for a few minutes to make sure. I did, and the contractions actually stopped for 11 minutes. Right then I thought I must have just been dehydrated and was kicking myself for waking people up. But then the contractions came back strong, 2-3 minutes apart. We headed to the hospital.

3:30 am:  I kind of felt like a rock star walking into the hospital because they weren't busy so a lot of the nurses and staff were out in the hallway, greeting me on the way in. When we walked by the nursery, I stopped to see the babies and said "Aw, I want one!" which everyone thought was pretty funny because I was in supposedly in active labor.
Because of how I was acting, my mom expected me to maybe be dilated to 5 at that point. So I was surprised and excited to find out I was already a 7!

5 am:  The anesthesiologist arrived. Throughout my contractions, the nurses all said I was very stoic. I worked through the pain by just taking slow, deep breathes. I know I could have delivered naturally, but epidurals work so well for me and I loved being able to relax right before and after he was born.

5:30 am:  My water broke, and I was dilated to 9.5.

6 am:  My doctor suggested a "practice push". 3 minutes and 2 contractions later, Gavin arrived! Happy Father's Day, Paul!
He was 8 lbs. 6 oz. 20 inches and had the umbilical cord wrapped twice around his neck.
My first observations of him were: He is so little, and really purple! He's so cute, he's perfect, I love him! Wow, he has huge hands, and tiny little ears.

 We immediately fell in love, and spent the next two days just marveling at our perfect little boy!
The biggest difference with Gavin's delivery is how tired I was! Before Jenna and Liam were born I had a full night's sleep, and then a quick delivery. This time I came in sleep deprived, and felt like I didn't catch up for several weeks.
But I'm really glad I got to experience going into labor on my own, and that we had an uncomplicated delivery and a healthy baby boy! We're so blessed!

We couldn't be happier with our new family of 5!