He is here!!

This post has taken me more than a week to type... I love how my life has changed.

Ethan John was born on January 24, 2009. He was 6 pounds, 12 ounces, and the hospital nurses measured him as 21 1/2 inches long. He is absolutely amazing.

Here is his birth story...

I was having random contractions on Friday, January 23rd. Matt arrived home from work and suggested we take a walk since it was the first day above 40 degrees in weeks. We had dinner and commented on how tired we both were. We made plans to sleep in on Saturday, make a big breakfast, and thought maybe our son would arrive sometime over the weekend.

As I climbed into bed I felt a pop...then started leaking. My water broke!! I told Matt to get some rest (he wasn't feeling well) while I timed contractions (they were pretty mild at that point). I decided to wash and dry my hair, finish packing our hospital bag, and painted my toe nails between contractions. I never did get to schedule a pedicure but it wasn't impossible to paint my own toenails over my big belly :)

I called the doctor around midnight. It seemed he didn't believe me based on the color of what I assumed was my water! He even asked if I planned to go back to bed! I told him that I planned to go to the hospital b/c my contractions were 5 minutes apart.

We arrived at the hospital around 1:30am on Sat, Jan 24th. After being checked, the nurse confirmed that my water had broken but I was only about 1-2 centimeters dilated. I was hooked up to the monitors and the nurse noted that the baby's heart rate dropped. It stabilized shortly after. Matt and I decided to try to get some sleep. I barely slept as the contractions were becoming much more intense. The nurse offered pain meds through my IV. That medication helped for a very brief time. It did help me sleep between contractions. I woke up in pain every 5 minutes and the contractions were becoming unbearable. I was squeezing the bed rails and nearly crying through each contraction. The nurse asked if I was ready for an epidural. I asked if it was too early. She checked and I was 4 centimeters dilated. She made the call to the anesthesiologist but he had just left the hospital to go home. It took more than 2 hours for him to arrive back. I decided tensing up was not helping. I started relaxing as much as I could and focused on my breathing through each contraction, while Matt rubbed my back.

The epidural was heavenly. I planned to try to get some sleep but the baby's heart rate kept dropping so I had to lie on my side. I couldn't sleep because I was afraid of moving the wrong way and causing his heart rate to drop again. The nurse was AMAZING. She stayed with me, watched his heart rate on the monitor, and made sure I was laying in the best position for his heart rate.

I progressed quickly and was fully dilated before 9am. The doctor was concerned that pushing too soon would cause the baby stress and the heart rate to drop again so they let him come down on his own. I could feel the pressure of his head/him coming down.

Shortly after 11am it was time to push. After 4 and a half contractions and 15 minutes of pushing my baby boy arrived!!!! I couldn't believe it when I saw him. It was UNREAL! His umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck twice, which is what was causing his heart rate to drop.

He was beautiful. As soon as I saw him I felt like I had known him forever.

We waited a day to officially name him and I'm glad that we waited. When he was first born we thought he looked like a Preston. Our final three choices were Ethan, Grayson, and Preston. After a day we realized that Ethan was more fitting. Ethan was our favorite throughout my pregnancy and is perfect for him!

Our hospital stay was GREAT. I miss some of those super attentive nurses. Ethan only lost about 4 ounces by the time we were discharged.

Our first week home was great too. He was super sleepy and ate/slept/woke about every 2 hours. He'd have short periods of awake and alert time, which we took full advantage of, just gazing at each other.

His first appointment with the pediatrician was also really positive. He gained back his birth weight in just those 3 days. He measured 19 1/2 inches. The doctor explained that the hospital measurement is often incorrect b/c they are measuring so quickly. It could have been off due to his cone head too, which is already MUCH better!

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