Welcome Baby Ethan!

The big day finally came! We want to welcome baby Ethan to our little family. His stats:

Birthday: August 17, 2009

Time: 1:05 PM

Weight: 8 lbs 5 oz

Length: 23 inches

Aaron with Ethan in the operating room right after his birth.
(I can't believe I am posting this picture) Aaron, Ethan and I in the recovery room after my C-section.

Ethan under the Bili lights

So I was meaning to get something posted about the big day earlier, but I have had a hard time finding the motivation and energy to. Hopefully this will make some sense as I haven't gotten a whole lot of sleep since last Saturday night.

On Sunday night I went to sleep and woke up about half an hour later because I thought I might have wet the bed. After a minute, I realized that luckily I don't need pull-up training pants because my water had just broken. I wasn't really having regular contractions at all. Since my water broke, we headed to the hospital at about 11:30, were checked out (to make sure I didn't just pee my pants) and were admitted to labor and delivery. After being admitted, I started to have regular contractions that were really quite painful. After trying to tolerate the pain as best as I could, I got an epidural and continued to labor. I just want to say that I don't really know how people stand having natural child birth, it really hurt and I wasn't even to the pushing part. By about 10 in the morning I was fully dilated, to a +2 station and completely effaced and ready to push. Aaron and I were both actually pretty surprised that I was ready, we figured we would be waiting a few more hours.

I started to push and try and get that baby out, but after the first hour, and the baby not budging one bit, it wasn't looking real hopeful. Luckily his heart rate and everything else was still looking just fine. At that point, the doctor told us that it was up to us, we could continue to try and push but it was likely we were going to have to have a cesarean since the baby wasn't moving. We were still hopeful that he may come out so continued to push for another hour. After that hour he still hadn't budged. Apparently my pelvis is on the small side and our baby's head was on the large side so in the end, we had to get a cesarean. Luckily everything went well and we are both healthy and happy.

The past week I have just spent recovering in the hospital from the c-section. Ethan lost a little more weight than they were comfortable with and also developed jaundice while we were at the hospital. We had to put him under the bili lights yesterday and it was about the hardest thing I think I have ever had to do. I never really thought about it being such a traumatic thing, but it really was. After getting about 7 hours of sleep since the previous Saturday, it was so awful to see my new little baby boy put under the lights and not be able to do a whole lot to comfort him. They have to take all their clothes off except for the baby's diaper so they don't really like it and they can't be wrapped in a blanket. He just cried and cried at first, I don't think I have ever felt so helpless in my whole life. For the next 24 hours the only time he could come out was to be fed. Because of the weight loss, he was on a strictly regimented feeding plan to try and make sure he would be ok. I know it probably doesn't sound like it would be that big of a deal, but I am sure anyone who has had to stick their new baby under the lights would understand. Luckily this morning, after a long night of worry, his blood was tested and he was fine to be out from under the lights and we could finally go home. It is just so nice to be out of the hospital. Well, I am about ready to fall asleep as I type so I am going to try to get a little sleep while I can. We will try to post some more pictures this next week.