Gavin Alexander's arrival

 The doctors gave us a due date of January 20th for our fourth child.  For those of you who don't know the history with our other three children, I have gone early and fast with each.  Starting 4 weeks early with our first child, 2 weeks early with #2 and only 1 week early with our third - each one getting progressively closer to the due date.  I did my best to set my expectations at going full term, as that seemed to be the trend.  However, that didn't stop me from trying all the old wives tales for trying to get labor going.


Most evenings, those last few weeks, you could find me on the treadmill watching an episode from a BBC series, and also eating all kinds of foods that were rumored to help bring on contractions.  However, as with most women, it didn't change much!

One of the last photos with only three kids!

However, on Friday, January 18th, we woke up to about 1 inch of snow and changes for me that let me know the baby was starting to make his way.  All of my previous labors have been in the middle of the night, so I was thrilled at the prospect of having the baby during the day and not losing a nights sleep during labor.  I hopped out of bed, showered and planned to spend the time I had trying to get things ready around the house.  First, however, Jason and I took the kids outside for a little sledding in the snow/mud!

I was thoroughly disappointed as dinner time rolled around and active labor had still not started.  We decided to go to Pei Wei for dinner (an Asian restaurant).  The kids were studying China in their history lessons and they thought that would be a great way to finish the week's lessons.  We rented two movies from Red Box and enjoyed a movie night and ice cream with the kids.  Unfortunately, Jason and I stayed up until almost midnight watching the action movie we rented for ourselves.  I think I just had a lot of nervous energy so instead of going to bed at 9:00 with the kids, we stayed up until midnight!  Not one of my better decisions.  Just after getting in bed, I started having contractions ~ 12:45 that were 10 minutes apart.

All of my labors have been about 4 hours start to finish, so my biggest fears were having to deliver the baby at home...in a car...or arriving at the hospital too late for an epidural!  So we called the doctor, who I had seen that afternoon and she told us to come to the hospital.  By the time our friend came over to stay with the the older kids and we made it to the hospital it was ~ 3:15 a.m.

Not so glamorous shot of me waiting to go back to the delivery room.
Contractions were pretty strong and only 5 minutes apart, so I was
doing my best to smile!

Thankfully, the nurses were very proactive and started the process for getting my epidural quickly.  I was surprised at how far along I was once we were settled in the room.  As with my other children, labor progressed quickly and our 3rd little boy made his entrance into the world at 4:54 a.m. - only an hour and a half after we arrived at the hospital!

One of the first photos of Gavin.  Immediately, I noticed how much he looks like his big brother, Drew!

And here is the proud Dad holding baby #4!  We're getting to be pros at this!

One last photo from the delivery room.  This is me with the nurse (in blue) and my doctor (in green).  The doctor is the same one who delivered Drew and the nurse is the same labor nurse who helped deliver Jenna almost 10 years ago!

Finally, around 7:00 a.m. we made it to our room just as the sun was coming up.  Thus began another day after delivery starting with no sleep!  Gavin was SO sleepy that first day and slept solid from 7:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. despite my best efforts to try to wake him a few times to nurse.  

After lunch, my friend who was keeping the older kids for us, brought Jenna, Ethan and Drew to meet their new brother.  They were all instantly in love with him, and have been so gentle, kind and nurturing since we've been home.  

Our first photo as a family of six!  I really can't believe how grown up the Jenna and Ethan look in this picture and it is hard to believe that this is our family now!  

I'll finish the post with a few cute pics of Gavin during his days at the hospital and all dressed up for going home.  Many people are ready to leave the hospital quickly, but Jason and I relished every minute of room service, night nurses who offered to watch the baby so we could sleep, and a little bit of quiet time before we  came home to our "new normal".  

He's already giving us some sweet smiles!

His eyes were open a few times during those first few days.

Getting dressed to go home makes me sleepy! 

All snuggled up in his car seat for the ride home.

Jason and I are so thankful that God has blessed us with another healthy baby to nurture and love in our family.  We are eternally grateful to all of our friends and family who have helped make this transition to a family of 6 as smooth as possible.