Welcome Baby Ethan!

It has taken WAY too long to get this post up, but you will see why as the story progresses. Here is my LONG birth story, feel free to skip to the end result if you don't have a lot of time, lol.

I went to my doctors appointment on Monday the 16th (4 days from my due date) in hope of some good news (progress!). I had had contractions for quite awhile the night before but they never really got very intense. I had taken my blood pressure a couple times over the weekend and it was high, and it was high again in the office. So the doctor checked my cervix and he said he had good news, I was 4 centimeters dialated! Yay! So he started to tell me that he was sure I would go into labor in the next couple days, but then I told him about my blood pressure being high over the weekend, and he said to go ahead and go to the hospital so they could do more labs. I asked if I was going to be sent home again, and he said no, that I would be admitted and he would induce. So we got to the hospital and they started me on some antibiotics for GBS which needed to be given for about 4 hours before they could induce. So they didn't start the pitocin until about 3 pm. After a couple hours I started getting some contractions that were pretty bad and so the nurse checked me and I was still 4 cm and the baby's head was still very high. So I asked for some pain meds and she gave me something which relaxed me enough that I was drowsy, unfortunately the contractions tapered off as well and I reached my limit for what the doctor had ordered of the pitocin. The nurse said they would let me rest for a few hours and start the pitocin again. So all my family went home (except Kev). I think they started the pitocin again around 2am and by early morning I was in enough pain that I needed an epidural. I think the nurse checked me at this point and I was 5 cm. The epidural pretty much only worked well on one side but it was still a lot better than no relief. My family came back in the morning, but my contractions tapered off again and the pitocin ran out. The doctor decided to take me off everything, let me eat, and try the induction again that evening. He was going to let me walk around, but since I already had the epidural even though it had worn off, they couldn't let me. It was nice to eat and have a break, but by this point I just wanted out of bed. I think they started the pitocin again around 6pm but I didn't start having bad contractions until about midnight. The nurse checked me and I was at 6cm, I was so happy (and in a lot of pain). They turned my epidural back on but I was still having really bad contractions for a few hours. So when they checked me again at about 4am and I was still 6cm and the baby's head was still high I felt totally defeated. I had been in the hospital for almost 48 hours at this point. Kevin and I started talking to the two nurses about our options. In my head I knew I couldn't start all over again so when one of the nurses said that if I wanted a c-section she was pretty sure the doc would do it, I knew that was what I wanted to do. So she called the doctor at about 6am and he said he would do the section at 7:15. We barely had time to call our families to let them know what was going on. They got us both ready and by 7:46 we were welcoming Ethan Emery Foley into the world. How I wished they had offered the c-section the day before! It was all over so quickly. Kev got to stay with him as they cleaned, weighed, and checked him out. He weighed 7lbs 11oz and was 19 inches long. I got to hold him within 20 minutes of his birth and he was so beautiful. The recovery in the hospital was pretty tough ( but I remember it being pretty tough with Dyl too). It takes awhile before you and move around at all and then it's pretty painful. I had to rely on Kev a lot to do everything for me and Ethan except the feedings. It seemed extra rough because we had already been in the hospital and deprived of sleep for so long. I had also eaten one meal in about 3 days, and had to go about 4 days without a shower. Food and a shower never felt and tasted so good! It was also difficult because what we thought would be 2 days in the hospital away from Dyl, turned into 5 days. He did so good with his Grandpa and Nana and we are so thankful to them and everyone who helped us out during that time. We were released from the hospital on Friday and since Kev had the next couple days off we got to spend some great quality time together bonding as a family. So far Dylan is doing great with his brother and is so excited when Ethan is awake and looking at him. I hear "Oh he's so cute!" about 20 times a day from him. There is more to tell but I will save that for my next post. Here are some pics:

39 weeks

Well, here are my 39 week pictures, and I'm about as happy as I look in the pictures, lol. Just waiting for my appointment on Monday hoping for some good news. Let's hope there will be NO 40 week pictures!

Back to Labor and Delivery

Well, my blood pressure was high again at my appointment yesterday, so I got sent back to OB triage to get labs done again. Of course after 3 hours everything came back fine and I got sent home again. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to have any complications, I don't even really want to be induced, I'm just sad we had to spend Kev's last two mondays off in the hospital. I am also determined to not go to the hospital again without getting my baby! If my blood pressure is high again next week I am going to make him promise that he will do something about it if he is going to send me to the hospital again. 9 days until my due date, althought that isn't super comforting to me at this point since I haven't discussed how long my Doctor will let me go past my due date. They also checked me at the office yesterday and I'm not dialated at all and the baby's head is still floating. Keep praying for my comfort and sanity! Thanks!

Ethan's Room

I finally feel like Ethan's room is ready to go! We kept it pretty simple this time, but I think it has some cute touches. I left the walls white because I didn't want to make anyone paint another room for me. It can always be painted once he gets older and cares. Here are a couple pictures:

My Mom made the cute letters above the crib, and she also made the crib skirt and curtains in the same sage green fabric. Dylan's "ocean" themed swing sticks out but it will probably end up somewhere else in the house.

My Mom and I put these cute pictures together, we used the fabric from the skirt and curtains and added cute wooden animals. There are actually 4: tiger, elephant, zebra, and giraffe

This is my Nana's rocking chair (that I used with Dylan too). She rocked all 11 of her children in it. So special!!

Quick update

There isn't much to report but I did go back to the doctor on Wednesday. When I first got in the office my BP was 148/98, same as when I got sent to the hospital on Monday! I really think that I must get nervous when I get there, but I really don't feel like I am. Luckily, I was seeing the nurse practitioner and she had them take it 2 more times, and it went from 133/93 to 127/75, which is normal. I am so thankful because I really didn't want to go to the hospital again, especially since I knew that it would be normal once I got there. They are repeating the labs they did at the hospital on Monday and I am going back to the doctor on Monday to get checked out again. She (the NP) was also able to feel that the baby's head was down, just not engaged in my pelvis yet. So that is good news. I will update as anything happens!

My "fun" trip to labor and delivery

So yesterday I had a doctors appointment; they took my blood pressure right away and I saw that it was 148/98 which is high for me (I think for anyone). So they hook me up to the monitor and I told the nurse I had been having some contractions since the night before and I was feeling some pressure in my pelvis. I'm laying there on the monitor and the baby is going nuts, not just little kicking, like rolling and twisting and doing who knows what. I didn't have a contraction while I was on the monitor but the nurse got the doctor to check my cervix anyway. First he came in and told me since my blood pressure was so high he needed to send me to the hospital so that they could run tests for pregnancy induced hypertension. He said if I had it they would have to induce labor, but I didn't have any of the other symptoms so they would most likely run the tests and send me home. I thought it was dumb that they wouldn't check my blood pressure again before I left the office. Then he checked my cervix and said he couldn't even feel the baby's head in my pelvis and that he might even be transverse. When I got up and walked out I wasn't feeling the same pressure that I did when I walked in. I'm still not sure what happened, but I'm wondering if there was a chance that he could have moved that much while I was laying there. So I met Kev at my Moms to drop of Dylan and we headed to the hospital. They hooked me up to the monitors in Triage and immediately my blood pressure was normal (I knew that would happen!). I still had to wait for the labs which they thought would take an hour, well it was 4 hours before I got out of there. All the labs were normal except my platelet count was a little low. Platelets are what make your blood clot and I had been worried about this for this pregnancy because when I delivered Dylan it took a long time for the doctor to stop the bleeding and then I ended up severely anemic afterwards. I am going back to the doctor tomorrow and they will probably be sending me for more labs to check my levels again. All in all, it was not a pleasant way to spend Kev's day off, but it's good that this has been brought to my doctors attention so that he is aware of it when I deliver. I will update with anything new as it happens!