Introducing Gavin Amadeus Toth

Dearest friends and family--
We are overflowing with joy and awe over our new son. God has richly blessed us with this wonderful creation. Gavin Amadeus Toth arrived Wednesday, August 13th at 6:46 am. A not-so-"Tiny Toth," Gavin weighed in at 9lbs. 5oz. and 20 in. long. Yes, his father is very strong in stature, but I don't think we ever imagined our first child would be so big.
Needless to say, we had a lot of work to do to help Gavin make his big debut (50 hours of labor to be exact). We are glad to have that over with. In fact, if you had told us everything that we would go through to meet Gavin, we might have been a little bit traumatized. But, by the grace of God, we were able to take each thing one step at a time and were abundantly blessed by the great care we received from our midwife, OB and nursing staff at the hospital. Our faith during the adventure was definitely a huge part of our survival.
Gavin had a little extra fluid in his lungs after birth (they tell us it's a somewhat normal newborn condition) and needed some help with breathing for the first 30 hours. The good news is that once he was taken off oxygen on Thursday afternoon, he showed no other signs of stress. And he received a glowing report from the pediatrician on Monday. We are so thankful for his great health after a startling beginning.
Here is a selection of photos from the beginning of Gavin's life. We have many more to download and will work on posting those soon. Many thanks to all of you for your prayers, support, enthusiasm and encouragement. We are so blessed by our community of family and friends and thrilled to share this joy with you.







After our third visit to the clinic (and 36 hours labor at home) we were finally ready to be admitted. Proof that Gavin really was over 9 lbs. The happy (and beyond exhausted) family.




Gavin's proud papa and holding Papa's finger for the first time.



Tony's parents-- Mimi and Bapa-- who thankfully arrived the day we went into labor.



Lots of friends that came to visit-- Miranda, Caitlin with Laila, Joel with Jeremiah, Erik with Lauren, Kelsey and Mickey.

Gavin finally joined us in our room and we welcomed more visitors-- Jennifer and Sarah, Tony's brother David, Kei, Elitza, Ivan and Cyrus (not pictured), visiting from California and Mike and Alison Thomas.



And finally, our first ride home. They took such good care of us at the hospital it was hard to go home. But it's nice to be home. As a family for the first time.