Gavin Avery Furniss

This is the birth story of Gavin Avery Furniss

On February 16th, 2015 at about 4:00 a.m. I woke up because I had to go to the bathroom and was having some contractions. Not really surprising at first because I had been having braxton hick contractions for week, but they always went away. I quickly realized that they were not going away and seemed to be regular. After timing them I found they were 8 minutes apart. They were still 8 minutes about when Jeremy got up for work at 7 a.m. so I told him I thought it may be the day we would have the baby, but I was not sure. He chose to stay home from work. We finished packing our hospital bag and finally put the car seat in the van. Jeremy also called his mom to give her the heads up that we may need her to come watch the kids.

At about 10:00 a.m. Jeremy's mom decided that she would come up just in case we needed to leave in a hurry. I was worried that she would come all this way and have to really wait a long time at our house. I was still only having contractions every 8 minutes and my labors are always long. I decided to do an pregnancy exerciser video to try to speed up the process. This did increase my contractions to every six minutes. Then I did a pregnancy yoga video. I laid down on my bed to time my contractions. It seemed they were still at six minutes apart.

While I was laying down Jeremy got the kids lunch and Shelley got to our house at about noon. At 12:45 p.m. my contractions jumped to every three minutes and I started to shake. I got my bag and told Jeremy it was time to go to the hospital. Said good by to the kids and off we went. I called the hospital on the way to let them know we were coming.

40 weeks pregnant and on the way to the hospital.

We got the the hospital about 1:40 p.m. I don't know if they believed I was really in labor because it was my due date. They got me in a room to check me and hooked me up to the monitors to see how often I was having contractions and how strong they were. They gave me an out patient band and quickly changed it to an in pation band when the RN watching the monitors and putting in my information told the CN that had just put the out patient band that I was actually having contraction every three minutes and that they were quite strong. (I think I told them that.) They checked me and I was at a five. At that point things got crazy. They had they most experienced nurse on duty turn her patients over to someone else and come in to be my nurse. (because I am a high risk delivery after having a c-section.) I had three RNs, a CN, The Anesthesiologist and a office worker. Plus a few others were all working to get me checked in and ready to get my epaderal. My contractions continued to get stronger. Everything was ready to go quite quickly, but we still had to wait for my lab work to come back. at 2:30 p.m. the lab work got there and they were ready to give me my epaderal. All I can say is an epaderal is heavenly. They were quite certain I was moving quickly and that I would not need a pump for my epaderal. I was instructed that as soon as I felt anything I needed to tell him because he would need to give me another dose with in ten minutes or I would be back in pain. By the time they were done giving me my epaderal I was at a seven. I only had to tell him I was feeling something and get another dose once. They kept asking me if I always moved this fast. I just laughed because I have never moved this fast. I actually have never made it past a four with out being put on pit.  

Heather (the midwife in training under my midwife Susan) came to check on me around 3:00 p.m. She told me that unless things changed Susan would be over after she finished at the office at 4:30 p.m. Heather was back around 4:00 p.m. to  check on me again and said she was going to tell Susan she needed to hurry because it was about time.

After getting my second dose of my epaderal I was still having pain in my left leg. I tried turning to that side to get the medicine to go that way, but before it did Susan was there and I was ready to start pushing. They still needed to break my water. At this time I felt my amniotic sac come out. (I know it sounds gross and it really is.) It was kind of unnerving to have them all stand around looking at it and saying how cool it was. They still had a hard time breaking my water, but they finally got it done. While breaking my water they could tell that the baby had pooped in the amniotic fluid. Because of this we had to have the respiratory specialist come in and be ready to take the baby as soon as he was out. They let us know that they were going to try to keep him from crying.

I started pushing at about 4:50 p.m. The pain in my left leg also meant I could feel quite a bit when I started to push. (This happened with James as well, but with James it actually felt good to push. This time it cause more pain to push.) Susan told me it was the closest I have ever been to having a natural delivery because the epaderal had really worn off because I was not on a pump.

Gavin Avery Furniss was born at 5:04 p.m.and taken right over to the respiratory specialist to work on him. They did not even let Jeremy cut the cord. Jeremy went over to take pictures of Gavin. He was 8 lbs 5 oz and 21 inch long. My biggest baby so far.


While they were still working on me I heard them tell Jeremy to sit down and got him some water and juice. I guess he started looking like he was going to pass out. They thought it was because he was watching them work on Gavin and getting to much information about what was happening.

Finally after they had worked on Gavin for some time and finished with me they decided to have him do skin to skin to see if it helped him and it did. His breathing improved and he was ready to eat. And so was I. All I had eaten that whole day was a bowl of Cheerios that morning.

We gave our families a few quick calls to let them know Gavin had made it safe and sound on his due date. Then it was time to get cleaned up. Gavin and I both got baths. I finished mine just in time to watch them finish up with Gavin. I was so glad to get into our room and just hold my baby.

First bath in the hospital. 

Jeremy went home that night so he could get a good nights sleep, but came back the next day to hang out with us at the hospital. Shelley and the kids came that evening to see Gavin. It is so fun to see how excited they were about their new brother.

First family photo!

Jeremy had to work part of the day on Wednesday the 18th, but them came to get us from the hospital after lunch. I was so ready to go home. Even though I knew it was going to be an adjustment having four kids.

Going Home

We are so grateful to Shelley for taking time off work and coming up to watch our kids. Also, to everyone who has come to see Gavin, brought gifts and food. (Mitzi Johnsen, Kyle and Shantelle Avery, Jordan Cook, Shyrl Bitsoi, Leslie Bennion, Linda Sharp, Larry Lovell,) I wish I would have taken more pictures of Gavin with the people who came to see him.

Gavin is perfect and looks like he belongs to our family even though we don't thing he looks exactly like any of our kids. He has already brought a lot of joy and happiness to our family.

*The weekend after Gavin was born we took him to Pocatello to see some of his Furniss family. Once again I did not get many pictures. This time it was because I thought Jeremy was, but no he did not take any. All we have is what I took.

*March 15th my dad came up to see Gavin for the first time. I was in Ogden the day before to throw Tami a baby shower and her and Jayson got to see Gavin for the first time, but once again no picture.