Ethan's due date

Today (Thursday May 8) is Ethan's official due date and today he is exactly 3 weeks old. Can I say how happy I am that I didn't have to wait until today to have him join our family. First of all, I don't think I could have lasted 3 more weeks of pregnancy and secondly, at the rate he was growing he would have been 9-10 pounds. So let me reminisce about the week of his arrival. It goes something like this:

Monday April 14 It all started of with a routine Dr. visit and very high blood pressure. Next thing I know I am going to the hospital so they can monitor me and baby. After 5 hours they send me home, with no baby.

Wednesday April 16th I go again to Drs. office and still my blood pressure is too high for them to send me home, so now I am on my way to the hospital again, but this time I have a feeling I will get to have the baby.
After many hours of monitoring they decide to have me stay and they will induce me Thursday morning. So during the night they put a balloon device on my cervix that will help open it up, since I haven't dilated at all.

Thursday April 17 I woke up after a very long night of no sleep and pure excitement and anxiety. Between the blood pressure cuff that went off all night long, the beeping of all the monitors, and the excitement of knowing my baby will be coming I couldn't sleep. They start me on the pitocin at around 7:00am. At the same time I got to have the epidural, because the anesthesiologist wouldn't be available later. In walks some young guy that looks like he just graduated last week from medical school. Why can't I have the gray hair anesthesiologist that has done this thousands of times? I only like resident Doctors when they are on Grey's Anatomy, not resident doctors doing procedures on me. He takes a very long and painful time administering the epidural. I am not happy and convinced he is doing it wrong. (A little foreshadowing)

The rest of the morning goes pretty smoothly I gradually am dilating and I am starting to feel the contractions more and more. Okay I am really feeling those contractions and I don't want this to be a natural experience, please get me some more drugs. So they send another anesthesiologist and he does something (not sure what) but whatever he gave me helps take the edge off the pain with the contractions.

At 2:05pm on a beautiful Thursday sunny afternoon in California
Ethan Leland (Mark's middle name that we thought we should pass down since it has been passed down for 3 generations) enters the world. He is healthy and beautiful. My first baby that doesn't get whisked away from me right after delivery because of breathing problems. (and he was my preemie weighing in at 7 pounds 14 ounces) So I actually get to hold him and enjoy him for a long time. I love those moments when a new baby has entered the world. I wish I could bottle it up and open in up when ever I wanted to. It is such a spiritual, sweet and bonding moment. I remember looking look over at Mark and the look on his face was so sweet and simply full of joy. He is always such a proud new daddy. The moment a new baby enters this world puts everything in life into the right perspective. It is amazing to feel the awesomeness of something greater then us all.

Then the next few days after the wonderful delivery were just tough days for me. I won't bore you with the gory details but here are some highlights:

Continual high blood pressure, a lazy uterus that doesn't know how to go back down in size on it's own. Lots of massaging of my sore and painful stomach to help out my lazy uterus. 3 shots in my hip to help with my bleeding. Apparently I am a bleeder. A very painful "procedure" that my Dr. did to help with my blood clotting problems. Lets just say it was painful and of course the shot of Demerol didn't work until after he was done torturing me. And then once the Demerol kicked in all I could think of was where can I get some more of that stuff. Pitocin drip for 3 days. Killer Migraine which I thought was an epidural headache and luckily it wasn't. One emotional breakdown where I told Mark that no one is allowed to prick me, prod me or do any kind of procedures on me and if they do could they just put me to sleep for a while. A bladder that didn't know how to work on it's own. And so finally once all those things had settled down then I was able to go home on Sunday afternoon. I was so happy to leave the hospital. One thing I know for sure good health is truly a blessing and something I should never take for granted.

Here are some pictures of things we won't miss from our hospital stay:

Here is the lovely blood pressure cuff that went off every half hour during the night and all during the labor and delivery. It was lovely, my new best friend, we were inseparable during my 5 day stay at the hospital. I've never been so happy to say good bye to something.

Mark's lovely accommodations. He spent all four nights with me in the hospital. He was so terrific. He never left my side those 5 days and the few times he left to go get something to eat some drama was happening to me and I would call him with tears and he would come racing back. He deserves a medal!! I think he really grew to enjoy this comfortable bed that he slept in. In fact he loved it so much maybe I will get him one for his birthday.

Here is my puffy hand that was constantly being injected with pitocin for 3 days straight. That's why you don't get to see my face. After 3 days of an IV drip you can just imagine all the fluids I was retaining. People that came to visit got a good chuckle when they saw my toes and feet. It was comical.

This is my beautiful prize which of course was worth it all!!!! How can I complain when I got to bring home this sweet package.