Ethan's Birth Story
I have been meaning to publish this for...ohhh, over 3 months...well the story that is. I never thought I'd publish the video, but what the heck. There isn't anything graphic, but you can see Dr. Shipp "down there"...hope nobody minds.
My water broke at 1:30 pm on Tuesday November 10th, 2009 (1 week before my due date). I was working all morning at home and realized that I hadn’t had lunch yet. We had ordered our camcorder the week prior and had done expedited shipping …it was due to arrive that day so I was NOT going to miss it. I walked upstairs to make lunch and felt a small gush of water. Immediately after the doorbell rang. I walked downstairs in case I needed a signature even though I thought my water had just broken. The camera was on my doorstep (no signature needed)!!! I walked back up and checked. My underwear and my pants were wet, but I always thought there would be a pool of fluid and it would be an immediate…”oh my God, I’m in labor”…not so much. I called Eric and he answered the phone whispering after stepping out of his meeting. I told him that I thought it had broken (“well, did it or didn’t it was his response”). I didn’t know because I wasn’t in any pain. No contractions or pain, but what else could it be? I went upstairs, put on a pad and laid down for 30 minutes to see if anything had ‘pooled’. I had heard that if you stand, the baby’s head acts as a cork, so you’ll never know if there is leakage. I got up afterwards and checked…it wasn’t a gush, but it definitely wasn’t normal. I called the ob to see if they wanted me to come in for the strip test to see if it was amniotic fluid or go to the hospital. Dr. Rambur called back and said that if the contractions weren’t picking up to a regular pace by 2am (12 hours after the initial break), that I’d be going to L & D!!! OMG!!! I showered, washed my hair, did my makeup (gotta look decent right?), charged the camcorder, got the bags together and waited for Eric to come home.
He came home around 4:15/4:30. The contractions were about every 8-13 minutes by this point, but not painful. We decided to take Chloe to camp for a few days. We packed up her stuff, and drove to Petsmart in Escondido. On our way back, we drove through In N Out for me and Burger King for Eric. We hung out on the couch watching TV and relaxing. It was surreal knowing that we WERE going to labor and delivery in a few hours. I was getting antsy and excited, but we wanted to stay at home as long as possible. Around midnight, we made our way to Scripps Encinitas and checked in. Lauren had booked a flight from San Francisco to Orange County and was arriving around 9pm. She and Sherry came down and made it to the hospital shortly after we checked in. They spent the night at our house and we called them the next morning.
Eric was updating the blog and the entries were SO sweet...I will always cherish those entries. On Thursday November 5, 2009(38w 2d) at my last ob appointment, I was 1.5-2cm dilated, 50% effaced and -2 station. At 12:30, I was checked and I was still about 1.5 cm…ugg! From 1-3, I went from 1.5cm to 3cm. That was the worst pain I had ever had to endure IN MY LIFE. I was not expecting to ONLY be at a 3!!! I remember feeling the contractions, then seeing them on the monitor and thinking “noooooo, not another one”. I couldn’t stop shaking. I mean shaking uncontrollably. Our nurse, Lydia said when I was at a 3, I could have an epidural. I was finally at 3, and I requested one. He finally came into the room. Eric was getting a bit nauseous from everything that had been happening and knowing that a large needle was about to be inserted into my spine. He was going to stand in front of me, but started feeling woozy. They had him pull a chair in front of me, so he couldn’t see. He really helped to get me through it. The pricks of the local hurt pretty badly, but I didn’t care! He then put the needle in, but luckily the local helped with that. He got me all hooked up. It was not very fast acting and I was surprised that I was still getting painful contractions. He said I could push the button at any time that I needed more to get a bolus, but that I couldn’t get it more often than every 25 minutes. I hit the button once, and it finally kicked in. Sweet relief!
I don’t remember when the checks were done, but I remember being told I was 5-6, then 7-8 and finally at 6am, I was at a 10! Eric was updating the blog, so LUCKILY, Sherry and Lauren were checking and were up and on their way. I later learned that Michelle in Minnesota was checking and when Eric posted that I was a 7-8, she called Lauren to tell her to get her butt to the hospital. I didn’t know if they would make it, because she said I was at a 10 and would push soon!! I slept through all of that! Epidural love!
We were told that he could be here in any where from 25 minutes to 2 hours for 1st time mom push time. Well, I was SO numb from the epidural that I couldn’t tell what I was doing. I felt like I was doing horribly and felt so defeated. He turned the epidural pump down from an 8 to a 4. Dad/Sherry/Mom were out in the lobby waiting for the news! Well, it ended up taking over 3 hours!!! I didn’t believe the dr/nurse when they said they could see his head and that I was doing good. That was so hard! My contractions started getting longer, so they put me on a Pitocin drip. Finally our wonderful nurse Caroline said it was time for him to come and that Dr. Shipp would be in shortly. One or two pushes later, Ethan James was here!!! At 10:48am on Wednesday November 11th, 2009 weighing 8lb even and 18 ½ inches long. I didn’t know what I would do when he came out, but I was shocked he was here, and breathing, and looked good. Eric and I were crying and it was just such a beautiful moment that I’ll never ever forget. Eric was such an amazing coach…I love him more now after that life changing morning.
**Pardon my legs, but this is the best shot of his head. You can't tell, but that cone was to the side...ouch!**
The best nurse! Caroline....
Dr. Shipp....does he not look 12?
Dr. Shipp delivered the placenta after pushing hard on my stomach…ouch…hurt pretty bad (as you’ll see in the video). I didn’t even realize that I had probably torn after such a long pushing session. He was down there for over 30 minutes putting me back together. I asked how many stitches and he said 3. Surely that was wrong. I sound like such an idiot on the video..."I don't get it". ha! He described it as sewing a pants leg….so I’m guessing a LOT of stitches!….ugg! That recovery was extremely painful. For a GOOD week, it was painful to sit or move. Walking was painful. I learned later (TMI) that one of the stitches broke, and got infected. It took a LOOONG time to heal.
We had Lauren leave and give us some time, so Eric and I could have some alone time with our new little life we had created. We decided on the name Ethan James and enjoyed our time as a new family of THREE! It was pure bliss. Ethan was turned to the side which is why it took so long for him to come out. The right side of his head was totally lopsided and coned. Luckily, that leveled out a few hours after delivery. My cankles went down thank God a few hours after birth!!!
Everyone came in and enjoyed our sweet little guy. I especially loved unveiling Ethan’s middle name James to my dad, Timothy James.
Having him has been absolutely wonderful and he fits so perfectly into our family.
**videos removed**
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