Birth Story

For those that didn't get the play by play but want it- here it goes....

Baby's Name: Ethan Nicholas

Due Date: 09-18-09

Birth Date: 09-04-09 (38 weeks)

Length: 20 in

Weight: 6lbs 7ozB

Birth Story: Early AM on Sept 2nd I started getting a really bad bachache that would come and go. We walked around and sometimes it would intensify, sometimes it wouldnt so I didn't think much of it. By that night I started thinking it was backlabor cause the pain was getting pretty bad. I didn't want to call the on-call OB cause I wasn't sure so I basically grinned and bared it all night. After taking 5 showers to help ease the pain at 6:30am I called and they said to head to L&D. I woke Chris and said I needed to take another shower to help get me through the pain and they we needed to go. Of course there was rush hour traffic and after an hour we arrived at the hospital.

We get in, they checked me and there was NO progress at all. I started bawling my eyes out cause I couldn't believe after all that nothing was happening. They hooked me up and saw I was having minor contractions but though that it was just early labor. My backache started getting worse and my OB wanted me to walk the halls in hopes of getting things going. I got up and made it just out the door before I started screaming for something to vomit in. The pain for some reason got so intense that I was vomitting and almost passed out. Needless to say walking was out of the question. They sent me to do an ultrasound to check his weight and were thinking they were going to have to send me home cause nothing was happening. They did a weight check and said Ethan was weighing appox 6lbs. 15 oz. ! They were just about to release me at 12pm when she checked me again and I was now 3cm, and almost 90% effaced! She looked at me and said it looks like we are delivering a baby today! Within 30 minutes of her saying that my contractions went from sporatic to every 2 min and VERY painful. At 1pm they had me admitted and sent me to my room and were getting my epi ready cause I was crying hysterically the backlabor hurt so bad.

They came in to do my epi and I was terrified! Chris stayed and watched- which i did not like at all. I couldn't stop sweating and shaking while they were getting it ready. Long story short- it took them 5 frickin tries to get it in! He even said I was the hardest epi he's done in almost his whole career. Apparently I have a very deep groove or something?? Once everything was in I felt good! Around 4:45 my OB came in to break my water. I was only at 4cm at that point and still 90%. At 6:45 I was at 6cm, then all of a suddent at around 8pm I was at 9cm and almost 100%. I started feeling a lot of pain in my pelvic region as well as having the urge to push. At 9:45pm I was complete but they had me hold off on pushing for a while. My pain got MUCH worse- to the point where they had to give me another round of the epi directly into the injection site. The nurse had tried to give me two dosages via the push button and it had NO EFFECT at all. At 10:30pm I was begging to push cause the pain was so bad. I did 45min of pushing with no relief. Ethan started going into distress and they called my OB and she said I needed to stop pushing and they put an internal monitor on his head since his heart rate started to drop greatly. They had an OR prepped for a c/s for me cause it really looked as if we were heading that way. By this time my epi was not working at all and I was in so much pain I couldn't stand it. They flipped me side to side for 45 min while they waited for my OB to come. By 11:30pm I was hysterical saying I couldn't do it any longer and begging for a c/s! When she got there she checked me real quick and said baby had flipped right side down finally and was much very close. She really thought I could get him out pretty quickly and wanted me to keep trying. Despite not having slept for about 36 hrs at this point I got a second wind and agreed. After an additional 45 min of pushing Ethan Nicholas FINALLY came out!

Cord was wrapped around his neck and he swallowed fluid so they had to take him to the NICU for 2 days. That was probably the hardest thing about the whole labor. Seeing my little man with a CPAP and wires everywhere made me so sad. When I first saw him I was in hysterics cause I felt so bad for him- I couldn't even stay very long cause I couldnt calm down. He was just so tiny and helpless. They finally let us go home on Sunday the 6th. I am just amazed at how much I love him and couldn't imagine my life without him!

Ethan's first trip to Build-a-bear

Chris had some leftover build-a-bear bucks after making me a wedding bear- cute I know- so we took E today to "make" his own.

It seems like all this child has is puppy dogs or turtles so we decided to change it up a bit and get him a polar bear! Seems appropriate since we moved him to freezing cold, right?


I can't say it enough, but I've got one cute kid huh? AND he's already learned how to pose for the camera. Who ever said that boys can't be trained just didn't start early enough :D

I have the cutest lion...EVER!

Our little man is going to be a Lion for his 1st Halloween- of course he will be wearing his special onsie Auntie Keri gave him underneath though :)

Is he not the cutest thing you've ever seen?!?! I'm not biased at all though ;P

We're here!

The move to WA is complete!

It was a hard and long move but we are finally here and mostly settled. I don't think I have ever been so stressed in my life and am so glad that things are finally over. I do however miss AZ, and everyone there, like crazy. I am hoping that we can come home for Thanksgiving though!

Chris and Ethan both are sick- Chris with bronchitis, Ethan with a minor cold (nothing the doc is worried about thankfully!) so I have had my hands full beyond belief. My only ray of light through this ordeal is that I have been forced to stay at the house for the most part which has been nice since we were so on the go before we left AZ.

I've taken LOTS of cute pics of E so I will get to posting them soon :)

Ethan Smiling (it's a VIDEO)

Our little man has learned how to smile! Too cute!!

Baby Ethan is finally here!

After 16 LONG hours of hard labor at the hospital our little bundle of joy arrived on Sept. 4th, 2009 at 12:13am. Ethan weighed 6lbs 7oz and was 20 inches long.

He had some difficulty breathing at first so spent two days in NICU- which nearly killed me and chris! All is well now and we are very much in love with our new little man.

More details to follow :)

I'm pretty sure this kid will never come out!

So here I am at 37.5 weeks- a point where even the doctor didn't think I'd make it to. Why oh why does this child feel the need to stay inside me? Is it really THAT comfy in there that he doesn't want to come out and play??

I've spent the last two weeks in pure misery and pain. Sleepless night, exhausting days and I'm not even working!! I have no clue how women work until the day they deliver. Now trust me we need the money more than ever and I get that sometimes that just what you have to do but I couldn't even try if I had the employment to do so! Heck, I can't even drive anymore cause my belly won't allow me to turn the steering wheel.

Don't get me wrong- I'm glad he's safe and sound, and now full term (woo hoo!) but really kid you need to get out...like NOW!

So to my beloved son, please evict my belly in the next 24 hours before mommy dearest loses her mind.

Here's a lovely "bump" shot to give you all a chuckle:

Happy Anniversary to my one true love!

I can't believe that it has already been a year since me and Chris got married! Time has flown by so fast, and I just can't seem to grasp the reality of it yet. It didn't hit me until mid-day that a year ago today we became husband and wife. I guess a lot of people lost a lot of bets ;P. No one really thought we'd make it this far and yet we did. We beat the odds and came out on top. We're happy, in love, and in a matter of days will be the proud parents of a beautiful baby boy!

Now if we could just win that million dollars we'd be golden...

Movin' on up...

As many of you know, things have not been easy on me and Chris the past few months. The economy has really hit us hard- with Chris not working much and me having to slow down cause of the pregnancy-so once I was put on bedrest at 29 weeks, it all just went BOOM! The months of trying to float by, the scrimping and saving, just couldn't continue on anymore.

With our son coming into the world any moment now, we needed to have a better plan. "Getting by" wasn't going to cut it when it came to our baby. He deserves the best. He deserves to be safe. He deserves parents who are not at their wits end wondering if they will be able to provide for him. He didn't ask to be brought into this world, and there is no way we were going to allow him to have a life anything less than AMAZING.

So with that, on September 26th, 2009 Chris will be moving our belongings to Washington State, while me and Ethan continue on our wait to the 6 week mark and then fly up to meet him. After months of discussing this option we finally came to the decision that the move was the only way for us to get back on our feet.

While it is by no means an ideal situation, it is what is best for us and for our son. Leaving AZ and everyone here will be unbearably hard but we will make frequent visits and you better believe we will be back as soon as we have things where they should be.

This opportunity is for me to finish my degree and Chris to get back to working. I hope that everyone around us understands what we are doing and supports us in this decision, for it has not been an easy one to make.

Time flies...

...when your confined to your house...NOT!

Let me go back to a month ago when all the "fun" stuff started...

On July 7th I had been working all day and although I felt funny I chalked it up to the pregnancy. I was 29 weeks and HUGE so I didn't think much of it. A little after noon I started realizing that the pressure I had been feeling all weekend was getting worse and I was also experiencing some tightening all over my belly. I knew that my OB was in surgery cause she was working on my boss! I waiting until about 4pm to give them a call cause I knew I was going to be going home any minute and sure enough the nurse said head to Labor and Delivery ASAP. Once there, they hooked me up to a monitor and sure enough I was having contractions every 3 minutes! Not only was I contracting but I was dilated a fingertip. The immediately gave me Terbutaline, and everything calmed down. I was sent home and told to be on bedrest. JUST PEACHY!

The following day was supposed to be our follow-up 3-D ultrasound and the nurse gave me the go ahead to still go as long as I went straight there and back. Which we did. Later that night I started feeling contractions again and started timing them but this time they were every 6 minutes. That was enough to send me back into L&D though. After two attempts of the Terbutaline, contractions slowed down and now I was given the oral medication to take at home as well.

That Saturday, July 11th, Chris left to do some errands for his boss while I stayed home to rest. I had been having a really hard time on the medication and just didn't feel right. He called me around 11am and I couldn't even put a sentence together and got very frustrated and started sobbing. Then when I would try to get up my legs would go stiff as a tree trunk and lock up to the point where I would almost fall over. Chris insisted I call my OB, and she sent me back to L&D. This time I was still having minor contraction, but nothing in comparison to the days prior. They switched my meds and all was calm again.

This time around I felt like a million bucks by the next day! I was still on bedrest but as long as I was taking it easy I could get up every once and a while and do an errand. Chris was a huge help and started taking over some of my clients since he wasn't working much. The kids ended up liking him more than me! SHOCKER :P!

As much as I wanted our little guy out, when I look back at things I am so relieved to know we made it another 5+ weeks. He has been able to grow so much in that time and each week he stays put means less time he would have to spend in NICU. Even though he is such a big baby (at my 33.5 week appointment he measured 37 weeks!!), we're not sure where his lungs are at this point and since I have such bad asthma problems, it's a big concern that he will have breathing issues as well.

So here's to hoping that our little butterball will back just a little bit more....