He's Here

Hi All,

Well, we were expecting Ethan in early November, but
God had different plans.

On Sunday night (10/23/05) Kathleen was diagnosed with
preeclampsia (pregnancy induced hypertension). A
decision was made that she needed to be induced to
limit complications from the high blood pressure, so
at 6pm we went to the hospital. When we arrived at the
hospital Kathleen was examined, and low and behold,
she had already started early labor (she currently was
at 2cm). A pitocin drip was started at 10:00pm to
progress labor at an accelerated pace. By 4am her
contractions had increased and strengthened, but she
had made little progress- only progressing to 4cm.
After talking with our midwife, nurse, and doula a
decision was made to break her amniotic waters as that
would progress the labor and frankly by this point it
should have already happened. After her water bag was
broken, the contractions came strong and fast. By 10am
she had progressed to 6cm, and she was to 8cm by noon.


At 1pm the decision was made that she could try
moderate pushing as she was at 8cm, in "0" position
and her cervix was 100% efaced. From 1pm-3pm she tried
pushing a little but no progression was made - she
remained at 8cm, only now her cervix had also swollen
a little. At 3pm she was told that she needed to stay
in specific positions that would take pressure off her
cervix so that the swelling would go down - if that
didn't happen, there would be only one option: a
c-section. By that point her body was in transition,
when the contractions are hardest and fastest, but now
she couldn't push. This was a very trying and painful
time for her. We all took turns holding her hand and
helping her breathing. By 5pm the pain was almost
unbearable and no progression had been made. After 20
hours of hard labor (and with no pain meds!!) her body
was extremely exhausted and she was having great
difficulty handling the pain. She tried to catch a
little rest between contractions, but she would be
violently awakened every 2 minutes by the contractions
which were now lasting about 1 minute each.

By 6pm a decision had to be made. She needed to take
something to relax her body or she would not naturally
deliver Ethan. Talking with our doula, midwife and
reading the books we brought, the least intrusive for
Ethan would be an epidural. Narcotics would enter his
bloodstream, but the major drawback of the epidural
was a quickened lowering of her blood pressure. Since
she already had high blood pressure from the pregnancy
it would actually have little effect on Ethan. At 6pm
she was given an epidural and allowed to rest for an
hour. At 7pm she was checked and she still had not
progressed, the same report was given to us at 8pm.
She had not progressed for 7 hours. Something was
wrong and time was running out. At 10pm it would have
been 18 hours since her water had been broken.
Kathleen and Ethan were more susceptible to infection
by the hour. Ethan simply wasn't fitting. We knew that
he was in the correct position at the start of labor,
and no one could understand why she wasn't progressing
further. The midwife came in and started talking about
the possibility of a c-section. A c-section was the
last thing Kathleen wanted (it was hard enough for us
to make the decision to use an epidural), but after
talking with everyone in the birth support group and
with much prayer and petition to God, we were
comforted knowing that this must be the way Ethan that
was going to get out - this was the way God had
intended Ethan to come out. Kathleen was prepared and
taken to the Operating Room. When it was time the
nurse came and got me so that I could be with Kathleen
through the procedure. At 9:17pm on Monday 10/24/05 we
heard a little gurgly cry; Ethan was here! He was
moved to a table and cleaned-up. Then Kathleen was
allowed to hold him for a few minutes before he was
taken out of the room. Kathleen wanted me to fallow
him to the nursery, so I did. When I left, her mom
took my place with Kathleen in the Operating Room. In
the nursery Ethan was measured and weighed. He
weighed 7lbs 12ozs, and measured 20.67 inches. Then I
got to hold our son for the first time - an experience
I will never forget. Ethan was allowed to join
Kathleen about an hour and a half later, and both of
them were moved to a private room.

We learned that the reason for Ethan's delayed arrival
was that he had turned midlabor and had become engaged
in the Right Occipital Posterior presentation.
Basically this means that instead of looking in the
direction that he was going, Ethan was looking up at
Kathleen's ribs and his forhead had engaged in her
pelvis in such a way as to prohibit further descent.
We asked the doctor whether this position could have
been manipulated somehow, had we known of it, and
whether natural birth might have been acheived that
way. The answer was "no." Ethan had descended too
far in the wrong position and was, in essence, stuck
beyond correction. This information was a reassurance
that the correct choice had been made in allowing a
cesarean section to be performed.

Today Kathleen and Ethan were allowed to come home and
we are adjusting to life as parents. I'm going to take
a few weeks off, and Lori (Kathleen's mom) will be
here for two weeks. Kathleen and I look forward to
learning about being parents and all the little
experiences that come with that every day. We hope to
keep everyone updated through our baby blog. In the
meantime, head on over to
http://photos.yahoo.com/Lukeed to check out some pics
of the little man.

In all this God has continued to show us that His ways
are not our own and that we need to trust His
direction, as He has planned out every breath we will
take.

God Bless,

Luke