Two Years Old!!

I honestly can't believe that two entire years have passed already since the day our lives changed forever! Our firstborn, Ethan Paul, is two years old today!!

The boy certainly took his sweet time making his grand entrance though! Not only did he decide to start his exit nine long days after he was due to arrive, but he also took his time making that exit too. Apparently he felt like being fashionably late to his party? Since I never recorded the details of his birth story two years ago, I am going to do that now before the details get too foggy in my mommy brain! Read on at your own risk as I recall that day... ;)

It all started early on Monday morning, the 2nd of March. It was 1 am when I woke up and looked at the clock, feeling this strange, different kind of pain. Not the same aching pain my hips had been experiencing for a couple months, nor the constant heartburn that plagued my last trimester. When it kept nagging at me so that I couldn't fall back asleep, I finally got out of bed and made my way to the couch to wait it out, hoping that I was indeed finally having labor contractions! Little did I know at that time that I would be waiting all day. I was actually scheduled to go in to have labor induced that day at 5 pm and ended up waiting until that time to finally make my way to the hospital. I had continued to have contractions all day long, but despite my careful tracking, they never made it to 5 minutes apart consistently, so the nurses told me to keep waiting patiently. Um yeah...me, patient?? Fortunately they weren't super painful all day long, but started to move that way around 3 pm that afternoon. By 5 pm I was miserable and we were stuck sitting in the hospital lobby waiting for an L&D room to be cleaned. Lovely. Finally they came to take me up to the room where I met the doctor who was on call that night - not my doctor, of course - but he seemed nice. Not too long after I arrived, my doctor showed up to start the induction process since things weren't moving along very quickly at that point. She inserted the cervidil and we settled in for the evening. Unfortunately, I had tested positive for Strep B at the 38-week check (one of the unlucky 10-30% that do), so I had to be hooked up to an IV with antibiotics for that upon admission. I was also quickly informed by the anesthesiology team that due to the two protruding lumbar discs in my back, they did not feel comfortable with the idea of giving me an epidural, so that would not be an option if I had wanted it. Didn't seem like a huge deal at the time because I was determined to make this a natural birth. Much later, after a couple hours of trying to push Ethan out though, I think I would have welcomed the idea, haha. ;) I continued to contract throughout the night and fortunately, thanks to an Ambien, was able to doze off in between the contractions. Remember, I had been awake since 1 am - I was exhausted already! Poor Josh, however, was stuck sitting in a not so comfortable chair beside my bed, trying to hold my hand through the bed rail (that he says they insisted be kept up, for my safety apparently) with no drugs to help him sleep. :( Looking back, I almost feel bad for him...haha!

As 8 am was nearing on the 3rd, I started getting this uncontrollable urge to want to push. It just felt like that was going to help the pain. But, it had apparently gotten busy in L&D and the doctor was not able to come in to my room. So, I had to wait for one of the midwives to arrive and then the real fun began. Yeah, lots of fun...I finally started trying to push the little man out. And I tried and I tried. Minutes ticked by, then hours. Finally, after four hours of pushing he made his appearance. I pretty much collapsed back into the bed out of relief and exhaustion. He arrived at 12:05 pm and was absolutely perfect!!! Weighing in as a heavyweight at 8 pounds, 7.2 ounces and 20 inches long, he was bright-eyed and amazingly alert for a newborn! Here is one of our first family pictures, after we had both cleaned up a bit. Trust me, I was looking pretty rough before that shower and no one wants to see those pics!! ;)

And here is a pic of our perfect little man, just a few hours after he came into the world, changing our lives forever...for the better! :) Happy 2nd Birthday, Ethan!! :)