10 days old
Ethan is now 10 days old and it seems like it was just the other day that Marie was giving birth to him. What an incredible experience that was. The actual delivery went much faster than we expected. We went in at 7:30pm on Labor Day for Marie to be induced. At 8pm, 12am and 4am, they inserted a pill vaginally to help thin Marie’s cervix. We didn’t get much sleep that night since nurses were coming in every two hours and I had to help Marie get unplugged from the monitors almost every hour so she could go to the bathroom. When they started the pills to help thin her cervix, she was dilated to one. Her doctor arrived in the morning and she was dilated to three. At that point her doctor broke her water. Apparently it was quite the flood since her doctor and the nurse were quite surprised by the amount of fluid that came out. Shortly after Marie’s water broke, her contractions get really strong, with only 30 seconds to a minute between them. She was in a lot of pain for about half an hour when the nurse asked if she wanted her epidural. The anesthesiologist came in and did the epidural, which went in fine the first time. Shortly after that, Marie’s lower body was completely numb.
Within an hour, she went from a 3 to complete and her doctor said she was going to start pushing out the baby. This caught us totally off guard since we thought we had a lot more time. At this point, I was on Marie’s left side with one of the nurses on her right, helping Marie pull back her legs (since they were completely numb to her) so she could push during contractions. Marie’s mom arrived just in time to help hold back her other leg. During the pushes, I could see the top of Ethan’s head. Within 20 minutes, he was coming out. I had my camcorder sitting on a table shooting all of this. Right before Ethan came out, I grabbed the camcorder so I could get a better shot of the action. After he was out, I gave the camera to Marie’s mom so she could film me cutting the umbilical cord. I grabbed the camera back from her after that and film Ethan getting cleaned up, weighed and measured.
The first time I got to hold him, the tears just rolled down my face. That whole day, every time I looked at him, I couldn’t stop my eyes from watering. I was just so overwhelmed with joy. He was everything I could have hoped he would be. We left the hospital around 2:30pm on Thursday afternoon. We were both anxious to sleep in our own bed again. For the next couple of days, Marie’s mom would come over around dinner time and stay until the next morning. She called herself the nighttime nurse. We would alternate shifts for getting up to feed the baby but most of the time all three of us would get up together. It was nice having her at our house for the first couple of days while we were learning the ropes.
Ethan is doing great and already sleeping thru the night. I usually feed him before I go to bed around 1am and he doesn’t wake up again until around 6am-7am. His umbilical cord came off on the 6th day. I’ve been pee’d on a couple of times already and I’m sure that won’t be the last. This little guy sure can fart too. Some of his farts put mine to shame. Would you think for sure that he was filling his diaper but then you check and it’s empty. I tell you what, baby poop is some of the nastiest shit (no pun intended) I’ve ever seen. Yuck!
Last night we went to my friend Dan’s house and did a photo shoot with Ethan. He was pretty fussy and didn’t care for all the flashes. We did manage to get a couple of good shots and will be sending out birth announcements to family and friends shortly.
And here it is Friday night. Two more days and my vacation is over. The two weeks went by so fast. I’m really not looking forward to going back to work and being away from my son.
Ethan Jerome Minch
Marie gave birth to Ethan Jerome Minch on Tuesday at 1:46pm. He was 7 pounds 11 ounces and 21 inches long. The delivery went very smooth and much faster than we expected. It was hands down the greatest experience of my life. I can’t even explain how much I love this little guy.
Mom and Ethan are doing well. We got home Thursday afternoon and are starting to get the hang of things, tho we are still on pins and needles every second. Above is a pick of the little guy just over 24 hours after he was born.
Gotta run. Time for his next feeding!
Off to the hospital
Getting ready to leave for the hospital in a few hours. Got the house all cleaned up and got our bags packed and ready to go. I installed MAME and a bunch of rom’s on my laptop and copied over a few movies to the hard drive to give me something to do during the times when Marie is sleeping. We also packed our favorite card games: Skip Bo and Uno. I’m just amazed at how many of our family and friends have been calling us over the last couple of days to check in and see how things are going. Marie & I both thank you all for your love and support.
The next time I post on my blog, I’m gonna be a dad!
Grandfather clock
Today Marie & I got a Grandfather clock delivered to our house. We inherited it from my father-in-law’s mom. Her health is declining and they had to move her from assisted living to a more around the clock care facility. She and her husband received it on their 50th anniversary, which was on December 8th, 1990. It’s a Howard Miller 64th Annivesary Edition Floor Clock. I was really excited about getting this as I love Grandfather clocks. The Larsen’s, who were my neighbors growing up, had one in their living room and I loved hearing the chimes. Marie on the other hand was not so excited about it. It looks really nice in our living room and it’s already starting to grow on Marie. Here’s a pic:
There is a light in the bottom of the unit that makes the clock look really cool at night (hence the cord plugged into the wall). It plays 4 different chimes and does the normal Big Ben chime at the top of the hour. Unfortunately it’s 11:45pm and it’;s still chiming. I set the switch by the 9 to silent but it didn’t do anything. Reading the manual didn’t tell me anything about that switch since it’s a generic floor clock manual and deals more with the maintenance of the clock. I went to Howard Miller’s website but couldn’t find any information regarding this specific model. I emailed them asking about how that lever is supposed to work. Hopefully we will get a response soon as those chimes just might wake me up at 6 in the morning…
Vacation (all I ever wanted)
My vacation started today at 6pm. I’m off until September 19th, tho I’ll be checking email and voicemail since it’s impossible for me to stay completely away from work. I haven’t taken more than a week vacation since I started working at CMC 8 years ago. Damn, has it been that long? It seems like it was not so long ago that Patrick & I were pulling miles of CAT5 cable throughout the ‘new’ building in our overalls and getting sore fingertips from wiring up all the connectors. Good times, good times.
As you probably guessed, still no baby yet. More than likely they are going to have to induce her. We have an appointment tomorrow morning. They will be doing another stress test and Marie’s favorite part - the physical examination. I wasn’t with Marie the last time but she said it was extremely uncomfortable. I can only imagine. Maybe we’ll go in tomorrow and she will be dialated and they will have to rush us to the hospital. Speaking of hospitals, I really wish they had wireless Internet access. I think I’ll bring my laptop regardless to give me something to do while Marie is resting.
And on a completely different note, check out this website one of my clients sent me today.