Ethan's Arrival

It has been a whirlwind 24 hours. We got very little sleep last night due to last minute preparations. So after only a couple hours of sleep we woke around 4am to be at the hospital by 430am. We were shortly in our room and began getting all the IV drips going. Pitocin was started at 5:30am and they told me I was 3cm which is what I was last monday for my final check.

At 7:00am Dr. Riley came in to break my water. I was still 3cm but had begun feeling pressure during contractions before my water was broken. I knew after my water was broken that it would intensify and I was having terrible back/tailbone pain from being out of alignment. So I went ahead and asked for the epidural and it was heavenly! It took 5 times for the poor anesthesiologist to get it directly centered on my spine but he did a wonderful job communicating with me and we got it works out. So by 8am I had my epidural and I thought I was going to finally get to rest. I fell asleep for maybe 15-20 minutes when mom showed up. Shortly after mom got there my nurse came in to check me and at 9:30am I was 6-7cm and 90% effaced. We were pleasantly shocked. We started assuming then that we might just have this baby by noon.

Dr. Riley had a scheduling conflict come up because he's recently started doing some deliveries at MTMC and had a patient come in this morning in labor. So fortunately around 9:30 he was headed to MTMC to deliver this patient and was bound to be back before I was 10cm. By 11am I was 9cm and 100% effaced. From this point everything moved very quickly. I began having contractions every minute to every 30 seconds on occasion. We knew Ethan's head was moving into the birth canal because every contraction was dropping his heart rate. We began doing full out pushing around noon but as much as I hoped the good omen of a pleasant morning meant a super easy delivery, boy was I wrong. I pushed and pushed only making little progress. I was quickly becoming tired and dreading a 2 hour pushing session. We finally got him down far enough to start debating whether we might need to vacuum him out. My Dr. really didn't want to have to do it if I could get him out of my own. He was confident he wasn't far but was really fading. After a few more pushes the pressure was so intense and painful that I couldn't do much more and Dr Riley started to get Ethan vacuumed out.

The pressure was intense and so much worse as far as pain compared to Alli (and this was WITH an epidural that HAD NOT run out!) Dr. Riley ended up having to give me an epesiotomy in addition to helping Ethan out. I never understood why women could be so emotional and act like they were in so much intense pain when they were on an epidural. After this birth I completely understand. I was hurting so bad I couldn't think straight and all I wanted was for one of the 7 people standing around me to rip that baby out of my and bring me some relief. Dr. Riley, bless his heart, really wanted me to help deliver my own baby and reach down to bring him out. I was hurting too bad to want to touch or be touched by anybody. I kept saying no no no, no matter how much he insisted and finally after two of his nurses reminded him I didn't want to, he quit asking me and delivered Ethan bringing me some relief. They quickly placed him on my chest to clean him off and he was beautiful. Once I knew I was getting relief, I could focus on my beautiful baby boy. My body was in shock from pushing for so long and I had the body shakes for a good hour without relief (even during labor I had this) but I was able to ask how big he was and focus in on the extreme shock on everyone's faces in the room when they realized how BIG this boy was and why his big ole head had so much trouble coming out!! He weighed 9lbs even, 22 inches long and was born at 1:05pm. If I remember correctly his head measured 14.5 inches. Wow..!!.. Another thing we found out after he was born was that the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck THREE times!! Due to the position of his shoulders, the cord didn't effect.Thank heavens! He has a cone head, but he is beautiful and quiet. He loves to be held. He loves all the visits he received tonight from family.


Our sweet little angel Alli was the last to visit Ethan. Grammy held Ethan the whole time and Alli slowly warmed up to Ethan and told us his body parts. Then she started petting his head and getting all excited to be around him. Finally Grammy got her to want to hold him and it was so precious. I just love them both and really hope her good demeanor continues.