Ethan's arrival (aka birth story) 2011

It has been a while since we posted any thing on this blog.  It is coming up on Ethan's 2nd birthday and I wanted to share how he arrived into this world.  There isn't any graphic details just birth/labor language.  We are thankful to the Lord for the miracle of life.

Ethan’s Birth Story (written when Ethan was almost 17 months)

I wanted to write a little about Ethan’s birth story.  As much as I can remember because it is almost 17 months ago.
I will start at the beginning.
We found out we were pregnant with Ethan one day before we were supposed to go to an informational meeting for domestic infant adoption.  We were so excited. And you can read more about that here.  I had a very fun and healthy pregnancy.  It was a hot summer and I was at the end of my pregnancy through all of it.  I was trying to be very patient but I was excited to see his little face and be able to hold him in my arms. (Instead of holding him in my belly).  

40 weeks

41 weeks, 5 days

Forty weeks (August 15th), his due date, came and went and we scheduled the induction for August 25th.  We had been going through a Bradley method class to inform us on different options in birth and using more natural methods.  My blood platelets had been dropping through out the pregnancy but never had symptoms of bleeding too much.
We went in to the hospital at 6pm on August 25th for the induction.  The hospital was pretty busy with deliveries.  And we weren’t induced until 11pm that night.  They said I was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced.  So they started me first on a cervical softener.  We had a difficult time sleeping because the nurses had to come in about every 2 hours and get my vital signs. Also,  Ethan was being monitored through the night and machines were noisy.  We woke up around 7am and they checked me in the morning and I had dilated to a 2 and 70% effaced.  They started me on pitocin.  I was doing fairly well and was in and out of the tub.  I am a little fuzzy on times now and will do my best with details at this point.  At one point, they checked me and said I was at 3cm and they wanted to break my water.  After much thought we decided to have my water broken.  They broke my water and I had two very painful contractions back to back.  It was an eye opener!
At that point, I decided to get into the tub and try and relax.  When I was in the tub, the next contraction came and I felt my body/belly drop and try to bear down/push.  I told Kyle I think I had the urge to push.  The nurse was called in and I got out of the tub and she checked me at which I was only at a 4.  A little too early for pushing.  Every contraction after that I was fighting the urge to push and involuntarily pushing.
I am not sure how long that lasted but everyone was getting concerned that my cervix would swell and tear if I continued.  Actually, my cervix had started to swell at some point.  I decided I needed an epidural to try to continue with a normal delivery and to avoid a c-section.
God is faithful and I know he was there helping.  When I decided to get the epidural they needed to check my platelets again before I got it because they were pretty low when they took them when I first got there the day before.  My platelets went up and I was able to have an epidural.  The anesthesiologist was able to place the epidural in between contractions.  Praise the Lord! After the epidural, they checked me and I was at a 7.  Maybe an hour later I was at 9cm.  And then it was almost time to push. My mom got a call from my sister that she had made it to the hospital (She lives out of town).  Before I started pushing my sister and my dad came in to say hello.  Kyle and my mom stayed in the room when I started pushing.  I pushed for an hour and Ethan was born at 12:09 am on August 27th!  Just barely adding to many birthdays in our family that land on the 27th day of the month.  We were so thankful that Ethan was here and healthy.  God is so gracious; we feel very blessed to have children.