Ethan's Birth Story

Our sweet little boy has made his arrival, and let me tell you, this kid knows how to make an entrance. This is the story of our Ethan's birth...

On Wednesday August 10th I went to Dr. Lunt's office for my 33 week check up. Everything checked out fine. I was measuring appropriately and baby had a strong heartbeat on the doppler. Dr. Lunt sent me on my way and told me he would see me in two weeks. No bed rest, no restrictions. I was doing great. Jed had been in Atlanta for a work trip, so it was just me and Sassy at home. We did our usual thing that night and we were even working on a new bedtime routine. After Leah was asleep I did some reading and then went to bed. At about 11:45 pm I got up to go to the bathroom. I was climbing back into bed when my water broke. I couldn't even believe it. I was so stunned I didn't even know what to do. Here I was all alone, my husband across the country, and my water broke. Crap! So I called my brother and my dad to come to my rescue. Boo came over to stay with Leah and my Dad took me to the hospital. Once at the hospital the nurses confirmed that my water had indeed broke, I was admitted and I waited to hear from Dr. Lunt. I sent my Dad home at about 2:00 am. And I did my best to get some sleep even though I was attached to every possible machine and monitor on the planet. The baby was doing fine, and I wasn't having any contractions. That morning, August 11, Dr. Lunt came in to see me. We had a long chat about what are game plan would be, considering this baby was only 33 weeks and 2 days gestation. The plan was to give me antibiotics, monitor the baby, and as long as I wasn't showing signs of infection, the baby wasn't showing signs of distress, and I wasn't laboring, we would keep this kiddo in until 34 weeks gestation, then have a c-section. Sounded like a good plan to me. So I ate breakfast and made some phone calls and I started noticing what I thought might be contractions. I honestly had no idea what a contraction even felt like. I never had a single one with Leah. So the next time my nurse was in I mentioned it to her. I wasn't uncomfortable by any means, I was just noticing sometime different. My nurse said that it probably was very mild contractions I was experiencing, but nothing even strong enough to show up to me measured on the monitor. Jeni came to visit me and we chatted for a while, then she left to go get me some movies. I talked with my friend Nikki who was gonna come and hang out for a while and keep me company. At this point it had a been a couple hours since I started noticing those contractions and they seemed to be getting more intense and more frequent. So I mentioned it to my nurse again. Who told me the same thing. Still nothing strong enough to read on a monitor...so I'm thinking, jeez I must really be a wimp, cuz these suckers hurt! By the time Nikki arrived my contractions were so intense that I could barely hold a conversation. I called my nurse in AGAIN and told her that she had to do something! Anything! I was dying! Still nothing showing on the monitor, but she humored me, and called Dr. Lunt. Thank the Lord! He came down right away and checked me, and he very calmly looked at me and said "Well, you dilated to about an 8 or a 9..." to which I replied "Shut up!!!" And then he said " You're gonna have this baby right now. We need to deliver." Holy shit! There was no stopping this kid! Fearing that I was going to deliver vaginally right then and there, Dr. Lunt had the nurse grab an ultrasound machine to see what position the baby was in...guess what...breech! Crap! At the rate things were going he probably could have been delivered vaginally, but it was just to risky. It was gonna be an emergency C-Section. And mean while, my husband was somewhere between Las Vegas and St. George, trying to get home and the rest of my family was at work or where ever, but not with me. It was just me and Nikki, and thank God she was there. I was in so much pain and so scared. She was my rock. She held my hand the whole time. Everything from there went kind of fast. Luckily there were able to place an epidural, so I didn't have to be knocked out for the delivery. Ethan was born at 1319 and weighed 3 pounds 10 ounces.. Dr. Lunt said that he was so far down in the birth canal that even doing the C-Section he was still delivered head first. The neonatologist described his lungs as being stiff, and said they were going to intubate him. Nikki was the go between, running back and forth between me and Ethan, keeping me updated and talking to Jed and the rest of the family. They tried to intubate Ethan 3 times and he fought them so hard each time that they weren't ever successful so he ended up on a C-Pap machine. Ethan was taken to the NICU and I was taken to postpartum and I wasn't able to see him until my legs came back to me. But the important thing was that he was doing great. Jed arrived about an hour after the birth. He was pretty upset about missing it, but I'm just glad he's home now. I owe a huge thanks to Nikki for everything that she's done for me. She has truely gone above and beyond as friend and I am so lucky to know her. It is going to be a long haul before Ethan can come home to us. He will be in the NICU for a couple of weeks. His biggest challenges are going to be breathing, maintaining his temperature and eating. The eating is going to be the hardest and what keeps him hear the longest. But we'll get through this and eventually bring our little man home. I can't wait...


Having hard time breathing...


Doing a little better...


Getting ready to go to the NICU


Ethan was on a C-Pap machine for his breathing and under bili-lights because he was so bruised.