He's here!

Well, the past 24 hours have been a whirlwind! Most of you have heard by now, but in case you haven't, Ethan came into the world 36 days early. It all started on Monday, February 14th. I had no idea that my water broke around 3pm. I thought I was just having some bladder issues. Little did I know that I'd start having contractions that night around 2am. I woke up with what I thought were "cramps" (later to discover they were really contractions). I woke Craig up around 3am and told him something wasn't right. We both agreed it was too early to be labor, but started counting the minutes between the "cramps", just in case. Around 3am, they were about 9-15 minutes apart. They started getting worse around 5am and so I got in the tub for an hour. That helped a little. After I got out of the tub, I told Craig that if this wasn't labor, I don't know what is! So, he suggested we call the doctor and after explaining the nights events, the doctor told us to head to labor and delivery. We packed up some stuff, but really didn't think we'd be staying so we missed a few things. We did remember the cord blood kit, thank goodness.

The drive to the hospital was the longest 40 minutes of my life. The contractions had picked up to only a couple minutes apart while we were in the car and that's when I thought I was going to die of pain. Once we got to the hospital, I was bent over in pain the whole time checking in and I think the nurses thought I was exaggerating since it's our first baby. They said I was early and treating me like it can't be that bad- maybe false labor. They checked us into the triage room to examine me and discovered that I was 5 cm dilated.

I immediately asked for the epidural and all the nurses pretty much ignored me during the mad rush that began once they determined that Ethan was coming SOON. There were about 8-10 nurses in the room rushing around as fast as they could. Within 15 minutes I was at 9 cm and still asking for the epidural. This time they didn't ignore my request and finally broke the news to me that by the time the anesthesiologist would get there, the baby would already be born naturally. I was devastated!!!! I wanted the epidural so bad. So, instead I was forced to delivery naturally. No drugs, no epidural, just pure pain. :) Luckily, it all happened so fast that I didn't have to endure the pain for as long as most.

A couple minutes later I was measuring at 10 cm (go time!) and ready to push. The nurses kept telling me not to push because the doctor wasn't there yet, but I chose to ignore that request, but tried my hardest not to. Thank goodness the doctor came in a minute later and said I could let my body do it's thing. After 2 pushes Ethan was here! We checked into the hospital at 7:15am and Ethan was born at 7:37am. Craig and I were both in shock.

Ethan was perfect when he was born, but was still required to go to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for 24 hours (this became hospital policy 2 weeks ago) because he was born under 35 weeks. We visited him every couple hours to feed him and drool over him. He's still doing fantastic- passed his hearing test, passed the jaundice test (meaning no jaundice), blood sugar tests, etc. We finally got him all to ourselves a couple hours ago so now he'll stay with us for our last night. He's eating very well and looking better and better each day. We don't know why he decided to bless us with his arrival early, but we're sooooo glad he did! Here are a few pictures...