The Birth...

Here's a little recap of the moments leading up to the arrival of Ethan...

Thursday, October 20th (my official due date)

3 PM: Had my 40th week appointment. We discussed induction options and decided that if he didn't come on his own, we would induce the following Tuesday.

6 PM: Mike and I decided to go walk around at the mall. I had felt a few contractions at this point but was unsure they were contractions. From what everyone's said so far, I'm supposed to know when I was having contractions. Since I didn't know, I decided that they couldn't really be contractions. In any case, I mentioned it to Mike and he decided that we should time the contractions.

8 PM: By this point we were finishing up our meal at Cheesecake Factory and my contractions were coming between 45-60 minutes apart. At this point, I was pretty certain that they were probably contractions. I was told by the doctor that you could not do anything during a contraction because the pain would be too much. I was still able to walk and talk, which was why I wasn't 100% convinced.

10 PM: The contractions were getting stronger, lasting longer, but still coming at about 45-60 minutes apart. I decided that I needed to get some rest since that's what I've been reading in the books. Mike was already asleep at this point.

12 AM: Not sure how long I slept for (felt like 10 minutes), but I was woken up by my contractions. They were now coming every 10 minutes and were mildly painful. I decided I wouldn't be able to sleep since they were coming every 10 minutes and tried to find something to watch on TV while flipping through the pages of What to Expect When Expecting. I felt like I still needed to read up on the labor process.

3 AM: Contractions are coming much stronger now. I tried taking a warm bath to distract from the pain (something I read in What to Expect and seen in documentaries). I can't say that it helped. The contractions were coming between 7-8 minutes now.

6 AM: I woke Mike up so that he could drop off our dog to out favorite dog sitter (thank you to the Espiritu family). Contractions were teetering between 5-8 minutes. I finished packing my bags, made myself something to eat, and watched TV to try to distract myself from the contractions. Watching TV did not help. The contractions were pretty painful at this point, and I had to concentrate to get through each one.

8 AM: Mike came home...but he had to get on a quick call for work. It wasn't as quick as I had imagined. While he was on the phone I packed the car and we were finally headed for the hospital around 9.

9:15 AM: Checked into the hospital. I was really glad that we did the hospital tour at this point.

9:30 AM: The nurse and the doctor came in to examine me. I was 3 cm dilated at this point.

11 AM: Another examination...still 3 cm dilated. The doctor decided to break my water to help speed up the process. I was also told that I wouldn't be able to get an epidural between 12-1 since the doctor had a scheduled c-section at that time. I decided that I could wait it out until after 1 PM.

12:01 PM: Must be something psychological but it was at this time that I decided that I really needed an epidural. The pain seemed to get a lot worse once noon hit.

2 PM: Apparently the surgery ran a little long and I ended up having to wait until 2 to get my epidural. I've seen videos of the epidural and seen how painful the process looks. But at this point, I figured that the pain from the epidural couldn't be much worse than my labor pains. The epidural went slower than I thought (I think it took about 30 minutes, or maybe it just seemed that way). The plus side is that it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. I was at 4 cm now.

3 PM: Ahhh...yes, the drug finally kicked in. Nap time!

5 PM: Woke up from the nap and found that I was really cold. I was so cold that I was shivering pretty badly. I later found out that I wasn't just cold, that having shakes was normal with an epidural. Another exam...labor wasn't progressing as the doctor had hoped so I got a dose of pitocin to speed up my labor.

6:30 PM: Pitocin worked...I was 6 cm dilated now. Feeling a bit nervous and in disbelief that I would be holding a baby before the night was over.

8 PM: Mike's dad arrived at the hospital but he didn't know where to go. Mike went downstairs to go meet him. While Mike was gone, I had another exam and the doctor said that I would need to start pushing in 15 minutes.

8:15 PM: The nurses and doctors came in and told me that were were ready to start pushing. We pushed through 1 contraction but the baby's heart rate was dropping quite a bit so the doctor wanted to give him a break to see if his heart rate would go back up. The doctor said if the heart rate doesn't go back up that we would need to do an emergency c-section. I was feeling pretty nervous at this point. Mike wasn't back yet and I was learning that we might need to have a c-section to get the baby out. I felt like I wasn't ready to push the baby out, but I didn't want to have a c-section either.

8:30 PM: It felt like an eternity but Mike finally came back. I was afraid that I would be giving birth by myself!

8:45 PM: I had pushed through 2-3 contractions at this point but with every push the baby's heart rate would drop to an alarming 70-80 bpm. The doctor gave us the option of getting a c-section or a vacuum assisted delivery with the next push. If the next push didn't go as planned, we would need to get a c-section. We opted for the vacuum assisted delivery.

8:59 PM: I pushed and pushed with all that I had and the doctor helped pulled out our little baby. They plopped him on my belly and told me to open my eyes (I had my eyes closed the entire time). Mike cut the umbilical cord when he was laying on top of me. They then took him away for a few minutes for a cleaning and checkup.

9:45 PM: First breastfeeding...yes, it is as painful as everyone says it is.

11 PM: Left the delivery room and got to the recovery room. I was very exhausted by this point and I couldn't wait to sleep. But Ethan was crying so the nurse asked if I wanted him to be at the nursery. They didn't have an opening at the nursery (which I thought was odd) so they put me on a waiting list. I don't even know when they took him away because I was so tired that I passed out.