I have been thinking about how to record Ethan's delivery and what to post. I decided to make a record of all of the details I could remember so I would be able to look back and share his birth with him. Some of this is a little personal, sorry - I want to be able to have all of the details for his book.
Sorry if it's long and boring.
We went to the hospital at 5 on Sunday evening, March 30. We arrived and checked in. I was starving, but was told we couldn't eat for 2 hours. (Or go to the bathroom. Yikes!)
They put the cervadil in, which was supposed to stay in overnight. It was to soften and ripen my cervix. We started a movie and Jeff went to get dinner. Jeff took a sleeping pill after dinner and the poor guy was OUT! They also gave me an Ambien to sleep but of course, I didn't. The cervadil started giving me cramps. The nurse came in around midnight and told me there was a serious storm and we may have a tornado. if that happened, they would move us to the surgery rooms. Silly me, all night I worried that Jeff wouldn't be able to wake up because the sleeping pill knocked him OUT!. He's quite the heavy sleeper.
I got up to take the cervadil out around 5am and took a shower. Dr. Seres came to check me and I was still not dialated and only 50% effaced. So she started the pitocin at 5:30. She came in around 9am, my contractions were pretty consistent and painful, but nothing I wasn't prepared to handle. She said that she wanted me to have an epidural, even though I didn't want one. Around noon, she came back and I was only dialated to 1 cm. She broke my water and up went the pitocin (AGAIN). About 30 minutes later, Ethan's heart rate started dropping, especially if I laid down. He struggled to have it come back up. It would drop to the 40-60's. They put me on oxygen and I had to sit in the same position. His heart rate continued to have problems so around 4 Dr. Seres came back in and said that I needed to have a C-section, there wasn't a choice. I was devastated. I called Aunt Laurie, she agreed. I didn't want to do it if I didn't need to. Jeff and I both cried and I just couldn't understand why I couldn't have him "normally". Dr. Seres said she didn't want to wait and after the OR cleared out, we would be going in. She said about 5:15. They came and got me around 5pm. The Dr. turned up the epidural. I had the worst headache and was so distraught. It freaked me out when they strapped me to the table with my arms out to the side. Then he put on the oxygen and the mask on my face made me really freak out. He had to take it off. I was burning up and cold at the same time.
Jeff and my mom finally came in after they prepped me. I couldn't stop the devastating feeling that I had. Jeff stayed right in front of my face and kept whispering encouraging and loving words. My mom watched.
I felt them cut me. Yes, I actually felt the knif slice my stomach. It didn't hurt but scared me even more. What a bizarre feeling. Then they started to try to get Ethan out. They struggled for quite some time. He was stuck in my pelvis or something. I kept feeling them push and pull on my stomach. Jeff and my mom said the table was rocking back and forth. There were two nurses on the side of the bed that crawled up to help. It took them over 20 minutes to get Ethan out. They finally got him out at 6:07.
They showed to me immediately, and then took him away. I sent Jeff with him. I wanted to make sure he was OK. I heard him cry and I started to cry. (or maybe I was still crying - I just cried harder!) My mom stayed with me until they made her and Jeff leave.
After hearing Ethan cry, I fell asleep or they put me to sleep (not quite sure). When I woke up, they were starting to move me. I kept asking what happened, because I knew something wasn't right, but all they would say is "you just had a baby". Well Duh! :-) I felt so strange. After talking to Dr. Seres, she told me they put me to sleep. She said that I was in shock and couldn't handle what was happening, so they had to knock me out. She said it took quite some time to repair the damage and close me up.
They started to take me to my room, passing the nursery so I could see Ethan and Jeff. What a joyous sight!!! I saw my mom and asked her what was wrong with me. She told me that Dr. Seres came to talk to them. A large vein started bleeding and she couldn't stop the bleeding. So I lost a lot of blood. I was so concerned that she gave me a hysterectomy or something. I wanted to make sure I could still have kids. (yes, everything is just fine!)
Normally one should have a hemoglobin level of 12-14. I lost quite a bit and only had 5.5. Dr. Seres told me I needed a transfusion, but I refused. I didn't understand what she was saying. All I knew is I didn't want a strangers blood in me. She tried to tell me several times, but I kept refusing.
I can't remember a lot of the first couple of days. It's a Little blurry. I remember seeing Ethan and wanting him so bad, but being so weak that I was afraid to hold him. But I couldn't stop holding him. I wanted to look him over, but just didn't know how. (sounds strange, but I was kind of out of it.) He was so beautiful. I just loved him so much, it was overwhelming! I remember wanting to take a shower so badly but couldn't hardly stand up to make it to the shower. They put a chair in the shower for me and Jeff practically carried me to it. He bathed me, washed my hair (cute husband!) and then dried me off while I sat there. He dressed me and put me back into bed. Ahhhh... to be clean.
I had an enormous headache, even before having him, but it just got worse. Finally Wednesday night I told the nurse around 11 I couldn't take the headache anymore. She said the on call Dr. requested that I get another blood count. It dropped another unit from what they thought and so she said I pretty much had no choice. They tried to start a new IV because the needle needs to be rather large and they had 3 nurses try to start a line. One location had infiltrated so the whole arm was painful and sore. They had to take blood several times from my hand and then some retarded lab tech couldn't find a vein in the other arm so he went fishing until I couldn't take it anymore and told him to quit. So needless to say, the veins in my arms and hands were not happy with having another IV started with an even bigger needle! Finally the baby nurse came in and she got the line started after a couple of tries. It was horribly painful. So they did a blood transfusion. They have to check your blood pressure and temp every 5 minutes for the first little while of each bag they give you. So the nurse stayed with me and she helped reassure me that the blood was safe.
After two weeks being home, I am finally starting to feel better and a little normal. My blood count is still low, which is probably why I am still so weak and tired, but I am feeling a ton better! The Dr. said it would be several months before it was built back up.
Ethan had a slight case of jaundice and so he had to sit on the billiruben lights for a day. That was horrible for me becasue I couldn't hold him. I wanted to so desperatly. He was circumsised on Wednesday. The Dr. said he slept through the whole thing. What an angel. He is such a sweet little boy. Who knew such a tiny little guy could bring such a flood of overwhelming feelings of love. All of the pain and trauma I went through was worth 5 seconds with him.
Ethan Jeffery Johnston was born on March 31, 2008 at 6:07pm. He was 7lbs 2oz, 18 3/4 inches long. He had a beautiful head (not pointy!) with a ton of hair. I never got to see his eyes open for about 2 days. His eyes are probably going to be brown like his daddy's but for now they are a dark grey brown. He looks just like daddy, handsome. He is so loved, so wanted and so darn cute!!!
So today is Ethan's one month birthday. Some would say Woo Hoo! But I am so sad. He is growing so fast. We waited so long for him to come to us, I don't want him to grow up so fast. It seems like just yesterday we were going to the hospital. How is it that it takes forever for every month of pregnancy to pass, but just seconds for a month with a newborn???
He is so darn cute. He has some baby acne and he has a big bald spot in one area, but we think he's adorable. We took some pictures on Saturday and we had to do a backwards comb-over to cover up the bald spot. It really didn't help, but it was funny doing it.
