Ethan's Birth Story

Since the site is brand new, we've been thinking of putting all of the kids' birth stories up. That way we have an on-line record for safe keeping... and plus they make for fun reads and good nostalgea... plus we can see how we've changed over time (even if it is just a couple of years)

Here they are, as they originally appeared...

Dr: It's a boy!
Homer: And what a boy!

Ethan Maddison Greer Lavictoire was born Friday August 16th, 2002 at 2:30am. To Amanda's chagrin, she is now the mother of a Leo. Oh well, he was four weeks early. The good news is we didn't have to go through the final month of anticipation. I'm very thankful for that (among many, many other things).

Ethan weighed in at a healthy 6lbs 5oz's, actually on the hefty side for only going a supposed 36 weeks in utero. The Dr has since said he may have been a good 37+ weeks...

Mom is doing phenomenally well, except for sleep deprivation. Many of you (notably the women) will be interested, perhaps in awe, or maybe envious to know that Amanda was neither torn nor cut. Nothing! She considers herself extremely lucky on this count. In fact, she certainly never ceases to amaze me these days. The morning Ethan was born, we wanted to go visit him in I.C.U. (just precautionary measures, due to his "premature" status) and Amanda got up and walked from one end of the Hospital to the other... she wouldn't hear of taking a wheelchair!

A brief summary of the day, for those interested in more than the pictures attached:

I'm going to go with the major (and some minor) milestones of the days really. Many of you who have had kids will enjoy and appreciate the events. Those who haven't had kids, well, you may or may not be interested. But some of its funny... especially the fact that we took forever to realize that a "mucus plug" is synonymous with "water breaking"...

Wednesday, Amanda's last day at work.

Thursday, on the board for this day were professional pictures of her belly that will never be taken.
instead:
Thursday begins at
1:30am: Amanda notices her water has broken.
2:30am: Amanda tells Todd "I'm leaking". But the leak is slow, Amanda decides to see if she can sleep more before calling the Hospital.
3:30am: Nobody can sleep, so a call is placed to the H. They tell us that her "mucus plug" has popped. Get some sleep and see the Dr in the morning, they tell us.
5:00am: Nobody is sleeping yet. Todd gets up for the day.
6:30am: No change, so Todd and Amanda go run an errand to pass time until the Dr's office opens.
7:30am: Breakfast at Denny's. Amanda is hungry, but the food is terrible. First call to Todd's Mom. She is a little disconcerted about Todd and Amanda's non-challant approach to the events of day so far. She later describes us as being "in denial".
8:30am: A call to the Dr's office, no answer, Amanda infers that the office must still be closed. She requests a sleep break.
10:30am: Second call from Todd's Mom. She is much more than disconcerted (yikes!). Todd and Amanda go to the Dr's office.
11am: Dr tells us we are in labour and that since Amanda's water broke at 1:30am we are to be at the Hospital for 1:30pm for an antibiotic I.V. (Amanda is 2cm's dilated at this point)
11:30am: Go home and pass a little time... call family and a few friends.
1:00 pm: Amanda wants to go back to bed, Todd makes her finally get in the car to go...
2pm: Manda is checked to H.
3pm: Manda is hooked up to Penicillin. (she is still 2cm's dilated, with 80% effacement)
3:30pm: Manda reluctantly agrees to going on oxitocin to be induced. The minimal amount of oxitocin is administered.
5:30pm: No noticeable difference in dilation or effacement. Contractions are not producing effective results at this time. Manda surprises all the staff with her ability to speak through all of her contractions.
9pm: Contractions have steadily increased in pressure and intensity. Amanda is now dilated to 4 cm's with 90% effacement. We know that we have at least 4+ hours left. And Amanda is seriously doubting whether she will have any energy left to push, both due to the length of her day and the intensity of the contractions.
Amanda reluctantly opts for the Epidural.
10pm: Epidural is administered, Amanda is relieved and ultimately pleased with her decision. Although she doesn't sleep, she does rest a bit.

Friday:
Friday was to be Manda's Big Baby shower.
1am: Epidural is starting to wear off.
1:30: 9cm dilated, paper thin effacement. Amanda is loving her ice chips. She also is beginning to feel nauseous with the pain.
1:55 am 10 cm's!!!!!! We are ready to push, Amanda is extremely relieved, this stage brings her a much needed 'relief' from the transition stage.
2:00 am: I see Ethan's hairy little head three inches away from the world.
2:15 am Dr shows up. Amanda's confidence goes through the roof! About 4 or 5 intense pushes and...
2:30am Ethan is born, everybody is happy. Amanda is quietly, exhaustingly, watchful and noticeably moved. She was amazing. I was, at this point, pretty much a babbling idiot. But, a happy babbling idiot.

A couple (2) of hours sleep. Exhaustion.

By 8am, we had named him.

Saturday:
A few more hours of sleep.
Early morning, Ethan finally forms a successful latch, and begins feeding. (phew! I know this can take longer, but at this point, I start understanding how parents worry about EVERYTHING!!)
Discharged from Hospital at around noon time. Still exhausted.

Now, it all happened very, very fast, although many of the steps seemed to take forever. I can remember a couple of occasions where I felt the beginnings of a paradigm shift for me. But really, everybody who has kids talks about that stuff. To me, it would take me a novel to explain many of the changes that this have already affected in me, from the trivial changes in attitude to the sublime changes in belief. And really, I'm not even certain that I would be able to explain the fundamental change that it has made in my perception of the world.

The effects of these days, outside of the presence of Ethan and our love for him, are simply ineffable.

Hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it.

Cheers.