Your Birthday

Being pregnant was not my idea of fun, but it was well worth the journey as my prize at the end was you. You were born on August 1, 2008. It was a Friday, and I had felt like I was going into labor for over a week. That Friday in the early hours of the morning, I started having contractions. Neither of us could sleep as we were awake watching the clock. At about five AM I got up and took a shower and called G, as she was in Cleveland. After the shower, the contractions stalled and we thought it was a false alarm. But then my water started to break, just a little not enough for me to be sure. Your Aunt Amy was up by now and she and G agreed we should go to the hospital. Daddy, was very calm and collected, he had everything under control. Getting us to the hospital and knowing we had everything we needed. We were both so excited because we knew we were going to meet you soon!
We were at the hospital by nine AM, by ten AM, they had started the pitocin and by noon, I was having my epidural. Things were moving along. The last few contractions before the epidural about did me in. At around one pm, Daddy and I were the only ones in room when about 9 nurses and doctors came in and said that your heart beat was too low and they were ready to give me an epidural. We were really scared because we weren’t ready for that. But you finally stabilized and your heart rate came back up to the 140’s. As the day grew on, you were still not ready to come out. I thought you were going to make it easy on us, but no…. They finally realized that you were upside down. Well right side up for everyone except unborn babies. I guess you were already too big for your britches. G, and your Aunts Amy, Jenny and Mandy were all disappointed they didn’t get to watch you arrive in the world. So at that point we had to have a C-section. That was very scary. I was scared. But I couldn’t have done it without Daddy. He really did a good job of taking care of me. He was very calm and I was definitely not. But you arrived finally at 7:42 pm. It was so overwhelming. Daddy was watching the nurses to make sure you were OK and also checking on me to make sure I was ok too. We were in the hospital for the rest of the weekend and we left on Monday. Those first days in the hospital were so special because it was just you and me and Daddy. We were learning what to do to be parents and just realizing how special those moments were. To have a little life in our hands was incredible. Neither of us realized how fulfilling you were going to be for us. It was as if you created a little rainbow in-between us. You had many visitors too, of course. G, Amy, Jenny, Mandy, Jenny, Brandy, Madison and Aidan, Aunt Rikki, Amy and Nate, and BTS too…Many, many people already so in love you little Ethan.