Ethan - from conception to birth

Ethan's Story

Jeff and I decided that we wanted to start our family, very quickly after getting married. I believe that we were pregnant the very first time we tried - as luck would have it. I am certain Jeff was a tad dissapointed that it did happen so fast! He was very excited about the "trying part".

I found out that I was pregnant on a regular week night. Jeff was on his way to baseball and I was barely one day late, but I just "knew". Once I completed the test, I got all misty-eyed and went out into the hall to tell Jeff. I showed him the test and he asked "what does it mean". I said it means you are going to be a daddy and we hugged. I think even Jeff was a little misty eyed at that moment as well. We decided we had better not tell anybody, because it was so early, you just never know. I had to go across to the street to tell our neighbour Joanne something so away I went. I knocked on her door, told her whatever it was that I needed to tell her and she asked "what is up". I said "what do you mean". Then she said "what is going on" and I felt like I was going to burst so I blurted it out. So much for keeping secrets.......

So we ended up leaving a few weeks later on our belated honeymoon. We were headed to the East Coast for some traveling. We were heading out with Bob, Eileen and Charles for the first leg of the trip, and we were planning on staying at Don and Maureen's cottage for the first few days. We left at 6am in the morning, and I had my first official day of "morning sickness". I was sick the whole way down. I think we stopped at every rest station. I would start to feel better, but then I would get sick again. Let's just say I didn't drive very much of the trip. We made it all the way to the New Brunswick border the first night and stayed at a quaint little hotel called "The Ritz". We ate supper at approx. 10pm and went to bed. Jeff and I stayed in the "honeymoon suite". It was wonderful. The sink leaked on you when you were brushing your teeth (I thought Jeff had peed on me), the there were many other very memorable traits. I awoke the next morning with the worst eye infection that you ever did see. Likely all that stopping in every rest room from London to New Brusnwick.

Nevertheless, we modified our plans a bit the next day and spent the better part of it at a small town hospital (we thought it would be faster than the big hospital in Moncton). Well, it was a good idea in theory, except for the only doctor went home for a three hour break one patient before me. It was a LONG day. We ended up staying at the cottage, then heading out for some sightseeing for the rest of the week. We traveled through Nova Scotia the first week seeing many sights - had scallops in Digby, lobster and sticky buns in Alma, kayaking in the Bay of Fundy and a wonderful whale watching trip where we saw one of nature phenomenons. There was a congregation of whales in one spot for some reason and we saw so many of them it was incredible. We headed to PEI for the next week and then home through the States staying our last weekend in Lake Placid. We met up with some really great friends of ours while staying on PEI. My morning sickness somewhat abated and my eye infection cleared right up, but I was sooooo tired all the time. And I was not able to eat very much seafood some days, which seems ike a very cruel punishment when you are out on the east coast. We did plan to do quite a bit of hiking and camping, but my massive tiredness and sickness prevented us from that, so we stayed in B&Bs and hotels. I do remember feeling very ill the night we stayed in Halifax and Kirk Johson was fighting on PPV. Since Kirk is from Halifax, we wanted to go see the fight in a pub (and it wasn't available in the hotel room) but I had a bad case of morning sickness that night, and we had to miss the fight. He lost anyhow.....

Fast forward through nine months of pregnancy. I loved being pregnant. It was such a wonderful feeling, until the day that I woke up and I was so swollen I looked like the Michelin man. During my pregnancy I had placenta previa, insane swelling, too much amniotic fluid and many other problems. By the end of it all, I was over 200 pounds. Quite a sight to see. I had two inched of swelling over my entire body. The six month mark was when I really started to swell and it only got worse. People kept telling me at Christmas that I was going to have a New Year's baby. Jeff constantly had to step between me and perfect strangers, as I was quite sick to hear how BIG I was and apparently my looks would put people six feet under.

We finally made it to the last two weeks. I ended up working right up to the end of my pregnancy. My poor students, I don't know how they put up with me. I remember everytime I went to work, they would say "oh, you didn't have your baby yet?". I started labour about two weeks before Ethan was born. I had one big night of labour and I really didn't think it was that bad. I remember laying on the couch and sending Jeff off to Monday Night Hockey telling him I was fine and that I would call. I ended up dilating 2 cm that night and when I went for my checkup on Wednesday, the doctor said "that was the real thing dear, you need to come in if it happens again". So the next day, it did start again. But it didn't last through the night, and we got sent home by a very rude nurse. I tried everything. Walking, raspberry tea, raspberries, castor oil, deep knee bends, any old wives tales you can think of - I did it. That child was simply not coming out. I went for my appointment the following week and they booked me for March 6th for induction (my actual due date). I was thrilled. I got everything in order. We were told to wait for "the call". Well, they called to tell me that they were crazy busy, but thought I might be able to come in later in the day. I wasn't allowed to eat, as there was a chance I would be having a c-section. It was a very long day, and finally they called at dinner time to tell me that they were too busy and I could get called in the middle of the night or potentially in the morning. I seriously thought at that point that I was NEVER going to get my child out of me and that I would be a huge marshmellow type person for the rest of my life. At least I got to eat supper! So we went to bed, but didn't sleep that well. Which, looking back, kind of sucked, because it was likely my last chance for a restful sleep for many, many years. The phone finally rang about 6am to tell us to come down for 7:30. We got all packed again, and away we went.

They broke my water when I got there, my little itty bits of labour had not helped me to progress at all. Apparently I had something called a "tough membrane" and it took forever for my water to break and drain. The baby had "pooped in the womb" so me and the baby had to be watched and the NICU team would be there once the baby came. They hooked me up to an IV and the labour drugs. Things were progressly "nicely" until about lunch time. I ended up getting contractions upon contractions and I really wasn't progressing very nicely at all. I was in a constant contraction that never ended. They gave me an epidural to help with the pain, but there still was not good progression, so they decided to turn off the pictocin to see if my body would continue naturally. Well, 45 minutes later, there were NO contractions....nada, nothing. They started the pictocin AGAIN and I started back into regular contractions. I keep going until the shift changed and my nurse went home very dissappointed because she has been with me for 12 hours and I never got to have my baby. The next nurse and doctor came on shift. Our full day "story" got told again. Dr. Victory, the resident that was on, took one look at me and said I will be giving you a c-section in the middle of the night as no baby is coming out of a small thing like you, how tall are you anyhow.

So, we waited, and waited and waited......I dilated fully, but the head never came into the birth canal. Finally, they said that I could start pushing but we would end up with some sort of forceps and complications. So it was 1am, been in labour since 9am, fully dilated and they want to cut me open. We got prepared to go into the delivery room and we finally got there about 2:30 or so am. I didn't react very well to the drugs and Jeff had to sit near my head holding my hand and my head as I was shaking to death. Couldn't stop myself at all. It didn't take very long for them to cut me open and pull my baby out. I remember they had cut into my uterus and pulled out Ethan's head to suction him. Ethan was a hungry little fellow as all of a sudden I heard "oh my, the baby is sucking Dr. Richards finger!" before they even pulled him all the way out. Finally we heard "it's a boy" and we saw this baby hanging upside down over the green sheet. Off he went to get checked out by the NICU and they were sewing me up. He came out in under five minutes and Jeff got to hold him. What a proud daddy! He got to hold Ethan for at least an hour before mommy could get a hold of the baby. They sewed me up and send us off to the recovery room. Grandma got to hold Ethan before the weighed him and we asked her to take a guess on his weight. She said "he feels like a sack of potatoes" and she was right. 9 lbs, 14oz. Pretty darned close to ten pounds. He was a little butterball, looking like a three month old baby. The rest of the time in the hospital was full of itchy skin, lots of visitors, successful breastfeeding and home - approx. 48 hours after birth. I lost about 45 pounds in three days and the rest of it came off within 6 weeks.