Ethan's birth story: 12 pushes and he was out!

Ethan tuned one week old on Wednesday, and I still just stare at him and think of how lucky Ryan and I are to have him. He?s a very easy baby, although his latching and staying awake during feedings could use some work, lol. I?ll explain that in our birth story?

Tuesday (March 16th): I started having contractions around 2pm. I spent the afternoon at my house and then went over to SIL?s to hang out for a bit. A friend who was in town for Spring Break suggested that we go to dinner and we ended up at Olive Garden with her 9 month old son. We had a great dinner, and contractions continued throughout. She suggested that we drop off her son with her mom and go do some walking. I was 38 weeks exactly and anxious to meet our little man. We walked for about an hour until I finally had to stop and stand still to breathe through the contractions. At that point they were coming very quickly (every 3-4 minutes) and were quite strong. Rachel finally talked me into calling Ryan and asking him to come home from work so we could go to the L&D unit to get checked out. I had been sent home on Saturday night and was paranoid about getting sent home again, but we went to my house to repack our bags anyway. Ryan met us at my SIL?s house about 9pm to head on in to the hospital after getting the go ahead from my doctor.

We got to the hospital and checked in very quickly. I was hooked up to the monitors to check for contractions and LO?s heartbeat. He was playing games with the nurses and kept moving off the monitors; he is still a wiggle worm! My contractions by my timing were about 5 minutes apart at this time and quite strong, but they didn?t register on the machines. I was devastated and convinced we would be once again sent home. My nurse was amazing and told me that she was just going to ask me how I was feeling and not even look at the contraction monitor; this made me much less anxious. After being monitored for 2 hours with no progress my nurse and doctor decided to keep me for just a bit longer. Thank goodness, because I finally progressed from the 3 I went in at to a 4! When they told me I was being admitted I cried a bit from being so relieved.

Wednesday (March 17th): As soon as I was admitted, around 11:3opm, they offered me the epidural. I took it then because to me the epidural meant they definitely couldn?t send me home. About 20 minutes later the anesthesiologist came in and started my epi. It didn?t feel like I thought it would; my legs just felt really warm and fuzzy and I felt no pain from the increasing contractions. My SIL came up to the hospital to keep us company and help out. I ended up getting stuck at 5cm for 2 hours and pictocin was started after a quick sonogram to make sure LO had stayed head down. I jumped from 5 to an 8 very comfortably while watching the early morning news. Around 6am I was told I was at 8cm, so I called my mom to call the rest of the family so they could head up for a quick hello before I started pushing. Within a half hour I was at 9cm and frantically calling to make sure they were on their way, and by 7am I was almost a 10, so my doctor was called in.

While waiting for her to arrive my family was able to come into the room and see us for a little bit. I was so glad to have them there! During that time though I kept telling Ryan that I felt like I was (TMI warning) leaking diarrhea. I knew I might poop while pushing, but feeling like I was going already was driving me crazy! Ryan assured me he was sure I had not gone on the table and that everything was just fine. Around 7:45am my doctor arrived and 3 or 4 more nurses came into the room to get everything prepped for delivery. Once the stirrups were set up they helped me to get my legs into position and I heard ?wow that?s a lot of hair!?. Apparently Ethan was ready to make his appearance. After a quick review of how to do my breathing I started pushing. I pushed for a total of 4 contractions, three pushes during each contraction, and Ethan?s head came out. The doctor told me to stop pushing and after waiting what seemed like forever for my next contraction, his body was delivered.12 pushes, I couldn't believe it!!

They immediately put him on my chest and the nurse had to ask me to move my hands because I wanted to cover him up, but the nurse needed to rub him down with the towels. I was in shock; I couldn?t believe our son was actually here! I told Ryan to go and take lots of pictures of Ethan, and he stayed with him until I was done being stitched up. I was lucky to get only a first, almost 2nd degree tear with as quickly as he came out. My doctor did message and stretch my perineum while I was pushing and she said the tear was half of what an episiotomy would have been. Ryan actually watched most of the delivery and cut the cord. I was really proud of him!

 Our stay in the hospital was very good. I thought I was never going to stop bleeding! But, I?m down to bleeding about the same as a light period. The stitches haven?t been a bother at all. In fact the most painful part of recovery was the contractions when my uterus was going back down. But, 800mg Motrin and Tylenol 3 helped that :0) I?m down about 30 of the 47 pounds I gained during the pregnancy and breastfeeding is getting easier every day. We?re still working on breast feeding. We had a really tough time with Ethan latching on and being lazy while sucking. I was basically attached to the pump every 2 hours pumping and then putting any expressed colostrum/milk into a syringe that was then hooked up to a tiny tube and inserted into a nipple shield so we could get Ethan to eat without having to supplement.

As of his appointment on Monday he had only gained 1 ounce and is still pretty jaundiced. We?re going back this coming Monday to do a weight check and have them take a look at the jaundice. We?ll continue seeing the doctor for weight checks until he has gained back his birth weight plus some. As of today we only had to use the shield on my right side as he somehow seems to prefer the left. We?re doing one side at each feeding about 3 hours apart.

Well, if you have made it this far? good for you! Best of luck to all of the ladies waiting for the arrival of their LO?s, and labor dust to any who need it!