Garrison's Birth Story

Garrison’s ‘Birth Story’

Garrison Luke Peters was born on October 6, 2011 at 8:22pm weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces and 21 inches long.  I’ve officially been a mom now for a little over a week and it didn’t take long to realize that ‘my plans’ aren’t always best nor will it always work out the way I plan.  From the very beginning of my pregnancy I set three things in my mind; 1) I will not have a C-Section 2) Garrison won’t sleep in the bed with me 3) My living room won’t be cluttered with baby items. After one week I have broke all three.

            After Garrison was almost a week past his due date, Garrett and I set an induction date of October 6^th and arrived at the hospital at 5:30am that morning planning on being home by Saturday afternoon.  As my labor progressed we ran into a problem, Garrison's left hand was directly on top of his head and it was stuck, which apparently is VERY uncommon.  My doctor tried to have him move it down but it wasn’t budging. Obviously there is not enough room for his head and arm to be delivered together, so after tears, 14 hours of labor and my doctor highly suggesting it we gave the go ahead for the c-section. Garrett and I made this decision around 7:30pm and Garrison was born within the hour. After the c-section my doctor came to me and said that the end result of my delivery would have been in an emergency c-section anyways because his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and his foot.  We had been praying for months that he and I would be healthy after delivery and for the right medical staff to be on duty during the process. I have to say that God has a great way of taking care of the details; I just didn’t think it would be such a small detail of hand placement that protected us both.

            Because of the c-section I was in a good deal of pain and was very limited in how mobile I could be around the room and with Garrison.  The 3^rd night in the hospital Garrison got very fussy around 1am-4am and the nursery nurse was new and struggling with him. So I did what I said I wouldn’t do, I had Garrett swaddle him and put him on my chest to sleep with me. We both passed out quickly and cuddled the rest of the night! I have to say it was WONDERFUL to have that time with him, but I understand why people say don’t start that habit; it is a hard one to break for mom!

            As we are about to leave the hospital we are getting debriefed my limits after the c-section. 1) Don’t climb stairs more than 3xs a day 2) Don’t lift anything heavier than Garrison 3) Limit yourself and rest 4) I learned on my own that I shouldn’t ride in a car unless it’s a MUST because it is painful; for how much I love to go and do this has really made me slow down to a completely different pace of life. I have been learning how to ask for help and allow people to serve me instead of being up and going. Because I can’t climb stairs often I’ve had to set up shop downstairs so Garrison’s stuff and my stuff were all over the living room!  So much for no clutter in the house!!

Needless to say things turned out very different than I had planned, but the end result was priceless!! I have a beautiful healthy little boy because things didn’t go my way! Praise God for His provision and detail!

-PS: we have internet now so let see how good I can be at updating our blog now! 

Look at those feet...

Daddy lovin' on his lil boy!

His eye was swollen from his hand being in his face in the womb