Ethan's birth story

Apparently March is the month for birthing stories in the blogging world. Here is my story of Ethan's birth.

My due date was January 23rd. I was working at Dell Financial at the time and hobbling around for a month 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 cm dilated. Every night Eric and I would go for a walk, eat spicy foods and pray the baby would come soon. I was scheduled to be induced one week after my due date. Three days before, we decided to go enjoy our last meal out at The Melting Pot. Little did I know I would go into labor that night. I wouldn't really recommend eating loads of cheese right before giving birth.

We had a wonderful evening out and went to bed around 10. As I was getting into bed, the cat started meowing and following me around. This is not normal behavior since we have a mutal dislike for each other. She put her paws on the bed where I was laying to look at me. At that moment, I knew tonight was the night. Sure enough, I started having contractions around 4 am. We timed them and called our friend (my labor and delivery nurse) around 8 and told her I was in labor.

We went up to the hospital around 12 pm and Kristen had our room ready for us. She is the most thoughtful person and she took such good care of me! I was 4 cm. I got my epidural shortly after I was 5 centimeters. Sitting on the bench in my room waiting with me was my mom, sister, mother-in-law and old friend Becky. By 8:15 pm, I was fully dilated and ready to push. I pushed for 2 hours. 2 hours! I didn't do wimpy pushes. I was determined to push him out, so I gave it my all the entire time. We had several issues that were causing concern; Ethan's heart beat sped up with the contractions. he wasn't moving down very fast and I had a fever. The doctor gave me two options and left the room: C-section or suction. Just the word suction was enough to make my mom and mother-in-law encourage the C-section. Eric and I had everyone leave the room so we could make a decision together and pray about it. We decided to try the suction for one pull and if he didn't move, we would do a C-section. After we kicked everyone out, I had a contraction. My sweet hubby held my legs through it and I pushed. I didn't want to waste a contraction!

By now my epidural had begun to wear off. I didn't feel the contractions, but I did feel him come out and everything else that comes along with it. The doctor did the suction once and Ethan's head crowned. His hand was up by his face, which had been making it almost impossible to come out. She moved his hand and pulled him out with the next contraction. My baby boy was born at 10:14 pm. He weighed 9 lbs 4 oz and was 21 inches long.

The most amazing moment was when I held him for the first time. He looked back and forth between me and Eric as we talked to him. He stole my heart the first moment I saw him and at that moment, I knew we had his heart too.