Our precious Ethan Samuel

Ethan Samuel Klingler was born on August 1st, 2014 at 6:49am.

He weighed 7lbs 14 ounces and was 20 inches long.

Once again, for my own memory I'd like to write down his birth story so I can remember all of the details someday!

On Monday, July 28th, I was 39 weeks.  Peter half joked (but was mostly serious!) that it would be good for me not to go into labor early this week because it was going to be a really full week at work (He works in technology and there were some updates/upgrades happening for the school district)  So I was pretty proud of myself each evening on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday when baby had stayed put.  Peter put in some longer work hours and I kept myself busy with lots of activities with the boys.  We hit up the park, joined friends for an all day park date, and just enjoyed summer.  Of course, I wasn't sleeping great most nights but that was nothing new.  I would often rotate between our bed, our guest bed and the rocker recliner in our nursery when I was restless just for a 'change of pace.'

And, I was super excited because I had checked a local facebook site and there was going to be a garage sale on Saturday at the house of a lady who I always buy tons of boys clothes from since her boys are just older than mine.  I always get great deals and I was glad I hadn't missed it earlier in the summer.

Anyway, Thursday night I didn't sleep great, but again that was nothing new.  So I didn't want to disturb Peter so I went to the guest bedroom.  Apparently he wasn't sleeping great either because sometime around 4am he got up to go the couch to work.

At 5am, I felt a contraction.  I thought to myself "hmmmm, I'm pretty sure that was a contraction."  So I rolled over to my other side, and 5 minutes later I felt another contraction.  I thought "Yep, that was a contraction."  So now I sat up in the bed to see if they would continue.  4 minutes later I felt another contraction.  Now I thought, "Okay, I guess labor has started, better go tell Peter."  My next thought was "Of course I'm going into labor.  Now I can't go to the garage sale tomorrow."  And I kind of laughed thinking that God had a bit of a sense of humor in His timing!

So at 5:15am, I went downstairs to tell Peter that contractions had started, he looked at me with big eyes and said "Really?  That's great!"  Then around 5:20am I texted my mom to tell her labor had started and could Amanda come over so she could stay with the boys when we needed to leave.  Peter went to get a shower, and I went to get a shower in our guest bath.  By this time the contractions were still 4 minutes apart but were starting to hurt really good.  After I was ready and put the final things in our hospital bag, I had to get on my hands and knees to get through the contraction.  I never did this with either of my other boys but for some reason it provided a bit of relief.  Peter thought it was odd that my contractions were that painful so quickly (and so did I, it kind of worried me that this was going to be a tough labor), so we hurried a little bit, but didn't feel rushed.  Mostly, we wanted to get to the hospital in enough time to get the antibiotics to treat my Group B strep.  You're supposed to get two doses in 4 hours.  Now with Benjamin, I was in labor 12 hours and with Jonah even though I was induced it was around 10 hours.

Amanda arrived about 5:40am and my contractions were still about 3 or 4 minutes apart but really painful.  I was concerned they weren't going to let me eat anything once I got to the hospital so I quickly made some peanut butter ritz crackers to give me a bit of protein to last through the hours of labor.  At 5:45am though I was back on my hands and knees in the living room in between crackers to get through the contractions.  My sister looked at me like I was a little crazy, but it was what I had to do.  Of course, Peter wanted to take a picture to document the moment before we left for the hospital.  

(immediately after fake smiling for this picture, I was on all fours again barely getting through a contraction!)

Peter finished loading the car and we left for the hospital just after 6am, about an hour after I felt my first contraction.  There had been a huge lightning storm all night so the weather was a bit eerie that morning, but all I could do was look at the clock in the car and realize my contractions were still coming and that they hurt.  A lot.

The front entrance to the hospital opens at 6am and it was 6:10ish so we parked the car and once I got out, I immediately had to get on my hands and knees again.  In the parking lot.  At this point, I think Peter looked at me like I was crazy.  But I couldn't help it, the pain and pressure was so much that it was the only thing that could help me through the contraction.  Thankfully no one else was in the parking lot though I'm sure the security camera monitor was having a good laugh!  We finally made it inside and sat down to 'register', and get my hospital bands, verify insurance, etc.  This was oh so fun as my contractions were still awful.  The registrar asked if I could walk back to labor and delivery and I said sure, thinking that I should be able to walk at this point, I mean, I've only been in labor for just over an hour, let's not be a wimp April.  So I stood up, got around the corner, then had to get on my hands and knees again.  That's when we got the wheelchair she offered a few minutes earlier, only this time I took her up on the offer.

Peter pushed me into labor & delivery ward and the nurses were super sweet and greeted me.  They told me they wanted to have me get on the scale and check my weight.  I could hardly get up out of the wheelchair but after a minute or two I did.  I have no idea what I weighed, I could only get through the contractions.

A couple minutes later I walked into the room they assigned me.  This was at 6:30am.  Aubrey, one of the nurses, asked me what my pain was.  Now, in my head I'm thinking that my pain is a 15!  But, since I didn't possibly think I could say that knowing I had only been in labor for such a short while, I told her it was a 6 or a 7.  Aubrey said, "Finally, someone who knows the labor pain scale.  Most people come in here thinking they are a 20!"  So in my head I thought "Thank goodness, I said 6 or 7 instead of 15 or she would have thought I was a wuss for sure!!"

She asked about an epidural and I said they didn't work for me, but I was open to something else that might help.  The pain was pretty horrific at this point but again I was trying to put on a brave face.  But then I let out a yell in pain and said I could sure use something to take the edge off.  Aubrey was really sweet but told me she wanted to get me on an iv first and check me to see how far along I was.

I said, "okay, great."  But then I couldn't move to get undressed to get into the hospital gown.  It took about 3 minutes to be able to bear it enough to even get my pants off.  Finally I was in the gown and got onto the bed.  Immediately though the next contraction caused me to flip myself up onto my hands and knees while I was on the bed.  The pain and pressure was awful and I think I said something like, "I don't know what to do!  This hurts so bad!!"  Peter was so calm and told me that I did know what to do, and it was going to be great.  He's always so steady during labor.

Seeing that things were happening quickly, Aubrey pulled in the closest person she could find to give me an iv and the lady rolled the cart in.  I managed to lay back down in the hospital bed and Aubrey was going to check my progress.  10 seconds later she checked me and said, "oh well, hello baby!!  I'm going to double check but I'm pretty sure you're complete.  Yep, you're complete.  Do you feel like you need to push??"

At this point my mind is spinning.  Yes, I felt like the contractions were miserable enough to have been transition labor.  Yes I felt the pressure which is probably why it relieved it some to go on my hands and knees.  But for some reason I couldn't process that it was all happening so fast so my mind was a bit in shock.  Aubrey told the lady with the iv cart that there wasn't going to be time.  They had called my doctor 7 minutes prior at 6:40am, but now at 6:47am, it was time to push.  Aubrey told me to grab my legs.  HUH?  I asked her "how?"  Ha!  She told me to grab them and pull them back and with the next contraction I tried to push a little, but honestly it was a bit overwhelming so I didn't push that hard.  Aubrey told me the baby's head was there and you'll feel the 'ring of fire' but to really push next time.  So one minute later I pushed once, the baby crowned, and one more push and he was born.  Aubrey, our nurse, caught him on the side of the hospital bed.  The only other person besides Peter in the room was another nurse, Angela (Funny enough I had actually been to a garage sale at her house the week prior and told her I might see her in a week after I realized she was a nurse!)

She placed Ethan on my chest and I just stared at my beautiful baby boy.  Kind of in shock that it had all happened.  He was born at 6:49am, 19 minutes after we got to our hospital room, 1 hr and 49 minutes after my first contraction.  It was while I'm looking at him that I couldn't stop laughing.  I just couldn't believe I had had my baby so quickly, without an iv or pain meds, and without my doctor.  And the labor was done.  I kept laughing since it was a mix of disbelief, relief, pure joy and amusement over the whole situation.  The nurses just looked at each other and at me and told me that my joyful reaction was going to make them cry.  Later, Peter told me when I was laughing that he wasn't sure if it was a good laugh or bad/crazy laugh at first so he was relieved to see I was just happy!

I couldn't believe he was in my arms!!!

I held Ethan close then realized, "Oh!  We need a picture, grab the camera Peter!"  So we enjoyed the next few minutes and took some pictures.

(Aubrey is on the right and is the one who caught Ethan.  Angela is on the left and came in quickly to help!)  I guess they were pretty amused by the whole situation too since they were laughing as well! :-) 

sooo excited to meet our little Ethan and a bit in shock at how quickly it happened! 

proud Daddy!

10 minutes later at 7am, my doctor arrived.
She was at least there to deliver the placenta and give me a few stitches.  I think it threw her off a bit to come into the situation after he'd already been born, not knowing what had happened, what had been done, given, etc.  And both Angela and Aubrey had to work a bit of overtime filling in my charts (like you normally do during labor) since their shift was supposed to end at 7am.....guess I gave them a different last 30 minutes of work then they were expecting :-)

My next thought after wanting to take a picture was great, labor is over, Ethan is here and perfect, and we made it in time for breakfast!  Ha!

Ethan Samuel definetly made up his mind he wanted to be born and wasn;t going to wait.  And though it was a bit traumatizing at first that it happened so quickly (I mean can you really have a baby that quick without an iv, charted contractions and a doctor?) we were soooo excited to finally meet our sweet Ethan.  Our perfect third boy and generous gift of God.

I will document the rest of our hospital stay and meeting his big brothers in another post!