Gabe's Birth Story

Game time!

Kiara's birth story took me three posts.

Gabe's story, much like his birth, was much shorter and easier.

After a night of contractions that kept me up that night and started coming stronger and closer, we dropped off Kiara at daycare and made our way to the hospital for our scheduled c-section.

We arrived a little before eight in the morning on the Monday after Superbowl Sunday so everyone was talking about the game, about Seattle's questionable goal-line play-call, and Missy Elliot stealing the halftime show. As the first patient of the week, the staff was ready to go. The nurses completed my intake survey and the anesthesiologists talked with me about the flaws in pain management from my last c-section.

Hello there, Baby Gabe!

By 9:00, I was walking casually toward the operating room, so different from the emergency c-section last time. I sat on the table, and tried to relax for the spinal anesthetic. As the doctors and nurses busily prepared, the anesthesiologist talked with me about breathing and her favorite HGTV shows. As voices floated around me I realized all my nurses and doctors were women, and although nearly everything felt different this time around, my all-female team put me the most at ease. The spinal went in flawlessly and I relaxed onto the table and into the hands of my providers.

Once I was prepped a nurse brought David into the room. I think we joked about the game like the morning sports-radio hosts had on our drive to the hospital: about it being "The best Superbowl game ever!" and that we'd be "Talking about this game for the rest of our lives."

They started the procedure and the biggest difference between this and my first c-section was this time there was no pain. There was a little discomfort, and a little stress on my part, but at 9:38 the
doctor lifted my baby up over the curtain. He was here. He cried and I smiled. The anesthesiologist ordered David to take pictures, which he did, and a few short moments later, they brought little Gabe over to meet me. I gazed at his perfect little face, so thankful that this c-section had gone so well, and increasingly disturbed by how terrible the first had been.

They finished up and then David, baby and I made our way into recovery where we snuggled, and nursed, and introduced Baby-Gabe to my sister and dad. David sent out word to the world, at 9:38 on February 2, the same birthday as my cousin Traci's, we welcomed Gabe Ichiro Nakada-Gantt into the world, all seven pounds, ten ounces of bouncing baby boy!