Brooks Casey Gasaway

Brooks Casey Gasaway

Born May 8, 2010

6 lbs 13 oz

19 in

We are so happy to announce the birth of our little guy, I am especially relieved he finally decided to show us his sweet face and that his daddy was here to witness it. I was very worried that he may decide to come while Brad was in China, but luckily he made it back in time. Although absolutely nothing about his labor and delivery went as I had planned, we are glad he is here and well. Had things gone as I planned them, my water would have broken, (as it did with the first 2) we would have gone to the hospital, and Brooks would have shown up about 2 hours later. Sounds like a good plan huh? I was convinced after my first 2 experiences that this is exactly how it would go. What really happened was I went to the hospital not even being in labor, but to check out bleeding that had just begun. After being monintored for a few hours, going back and forth as to whether or not they would send us home, I started contracting more, dialating a bit more, so Brad and I walked the hospital "track" for an hour to get more contractions coming. It worked, just not as quickly as I would have liked. My doctor ended up breaking my water to get the process going faster. After a painful hour and half or so I got the epidural (I debated whether or not to go natural this time, but now I'm glad I didn't). Once I was dialated to an 8 baby's heart rate started dropping with each contraction and soon it wasn't coming back up at all. The nurse checked me again, thinking it would be time to push, but no I was still at an 8. Another nurse came in, they called my doctor up, gave me oxygen, I tried switching sides to see if baby would like that, it didn't help. My doctor came in and "helped" me get to a 10 so I could push (thankful I had my epidural at that point). My doctor told me the baby needed to come out now, so I needed to push him out fast, or he would have to do a C-Section. Boy was I motivated to push! As soon as I started pushing, baby's heart rate went up thankfully. Unlike most babies, he liked the pushing, so I was able to push him out pretty fast to find there was a knot in his cord that must have been tightening with each contraction. He was finally here and healthy and I was so glad to have that part behind me! He has been such a sweet baby so far, we love him so much and are so thankful to have him with us now!

So tiny! Coming home from the hospital!

Rachel came and stayed with me for a few days since my mom wasn't able to come at all. It was so nice having someone else there to help out with the kids and dishes and cleaning, and just to have some companionship. Her little Austin doesn't look so little anymore compared to Brooks.

I still think it's a little crazy to see my 3 kids together!