Ethan's Birthing Story

I can't believe my little Ethan is days from turning one. I also can't believe it was a year ago that I went to the hospital and had a baby. As funny as this sounds, I feel like Ethan is younger than and year but that it's been more than a year since that fateful day. Weird, eh? I thought I would share my birthing experience so that I don't forget it and since I'm so close to having another one.

Towards the end of pregnancy I had two big symptoms, swelling and PUPPPS. I had to walk to the nearby pharmacy to use the blood pressure machine every couple of days to make sure my blood pressure wasn't getting high. My feet were so swollen that flip flops were the only things that fit, I couldn't even squeeze on a tennis shoe or mary jane. Plus I couldn't really reach my toes anymore so having cute painted toenails was out of the questions. Needless to say, I tried not look at my hugely un-cute feet... which wasn't hard since there was a giant belly in the way. Did I mention how HUGE I was? It came to the point where the bottom of my stomach was completely horizontal if that makes any sense.

The second big symptom I had was puppps. It only occurs in .5% of pregnancies and there is nothing that really helps to relieve the itch except getting the baby out and then it will slowly go away within a week or two. Mine showed up about 2 weeks before Ethan was due and stayed primarily along my stretch marks until after Ethan was born, when it spread to every crease on my body. Armpits, all hinges, even in between my fingers and toes. It was horrible. Nothing eased the itch. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't wear clothing, even if my arm brushed up against my belly, it would flare up and be on fire with itchiness.

The night before my due date I swore that I was going to march in the doctor's office in the morning and demand to be induced. I couldn't take the itch anymore. Luckily, while laying in bed at 6am, I felt my water break. Up until that point I hadn't really felt any large contractions, mostly just aches and pains from a heavy belly. I woke up Jon and then quickly waddled over to the toilet until all the "water" was out. I was so excited!!! "Yes! I'm having the baby today, no more rash!" I had already packed our bags, plus the hospital was literally across the street anyway. We arrived and I was checked into my room by 7am.

One of my biggest fears for the day was getting an IV. I know, I know, it's dumb. But I hate needles so much and honestly I knew that if I had to stare at this tube coming out of my arm all day that I would be totally freaked out and not be able to focus on the task at hand. So the nurse covered the area with a bandage so I didn't have to see it and I eventually forgot about it. Eventually. It still freaks me out just to think about getting another one. I was immediately given some petocin to get the contractions going. After a couple of hours I decided that I was ready for an epidural. I was progressing fast and I could definitely feel the contractions now and I wanted to make sure that I got the needle in and it was working before the intense pain started.

I was progressing so fast that we were worried that my family wasn't going to make it to the hospital in time. They were driving down from Boise. They made it with plenty of time. I decided to have my mom, dad, sister and step sister in the room along with Jon. My sisters are teenagers and I wanted them to have the experience of seeing their sister, who dated and married a returned missionary in the temple, bring a baby into a very happy and spiritually righteous family. :) They were probably really freaked out now that I think about it.

I quickly dilated to a ten and was ready to push. I was already REALLY tired since I hadn't slept in days from the rash. I knew I only could take so much pushing and after an hour and a half I was done. I needed a rest. Ethan's had was literally starting to stick out and I was done. This, of course, was bad. So the anesthesiologist came in with a "cocktail" in hand which allowed me to take a whole 20 minute nap. I never felt so refreshed. I couldn't believe what 20 minutes did. I was ready for Round 2. I didn't know how long I would last and so after consulting with Jon and the doctor, we decided to use forceps. This also meant that I only had a couple of pushes left. If the forceps didn't work, well, I would be wheeled into surgery.

I screamed and pushed twice (really this means 2 sets of 3 pushes) and Ethan was out. I couldn't believe it was over. I almost felt like, man, I still have a little more push in me, let's keep going... ha! Ethan was rushed to be cleaned and measured. 8 lbs 13 oz, no wonder I had such a hard time pushing him out. I'm a petite girl! Then came the wonderful experience of being stitched up. This is the part that all moms seem not to mention. I knew labor and birthing was going to hurt (which it did, like a mother, even with an epidural) but I was never really briefed about the pain of everything after the baby comes out. I ripped in two places, very large tears. And to add to it all, the doctor was called away while in the middle of sewing me up, leaving me sitting there, with my legs open to the world and the medication wearing off for about an hour. By the time he came back, I was completely worn off of the epidural and could feel every single stitch he made. OUCH!

That's it, the rest is history. Then came the decision to have Ethan sleep in the nursery that night and the battle of getting him to latch on. My milk didn't actually come in for a good week, it was not fun. I pumped and pumped, tried a prescription which was horrible and eventually used an herbal supplement that helped my milk to come in. I'm hoping this second time around for two outcomes: I'll be more of a trooper during labor and I'll have a better grasp on breastfeeding right off the bat. We shall see. :)