Ethan's Story Part I

To keep this more of a "story" than a biography I decided to break it up into parts and post 1 a day so you don't see it in its entirety and think 'I am not about to waste my whole day reading this'! Here is the first half and I will post the next on Tuesday. After Tuesday we will post updates on his progress. We appreciate every one's well wishes, prayers, and concern. We love and appreciate you all!

Blake & I were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Ethan's due date, May 14th. We decided we should get all of our home improvement projects out of the way before he came because we knew we wouldn't have time after that. We started painting and I started deconstructing my office to box up so we could start the nursery. Long story short, the house was a wreck! Now that you have that visual image, let me tell you how I quickly learned you can never plan ANYTHING when it comes to kids!
It all began Tuesday morning February 22nd, I woke up thinking I was about to wet the bed. I ran to the bathroom wondering why I couldn't hold it all of the sudden. I looked online and found that losing muscle control in your bladder during pregnancy was pretty common. I went bed thinking 'Oh joy, yet another not so fun side effect of pregnancy' but not concerned. I went to work dealing with this new problem all day but not saying anything because it was too embarrassing. On my way home I called my Mom to vent about 12 weeks of dealing with this! She said I should call my doctor but it was almost 5:00 & I was stuck in downtown Orlando traffic. We had a childbirth class that night so I decided to mention it to the instructor & see what she said. During the class she told us she had thought her water broke when she was pregnant but it was actually what I was going through, lack of bladder control. See, it is normal! I was even more reassured it was nothing to worry about but I still mentioned it to her after class. Her response? "Go to the hospital now!" But its normal, right? I said"Seriously? Really?" Again, "Go to the hospital now!" Blake started to worry but I kept thinking she just wants to be safe & cover herself legally. I'm fine. We get to the hospital & I am checked, the whole time thinking there isn't going to be any place open to eat by the time we get out of there. They call my doctor which I assume is routine & still not worried about anything but dinner. My doctor showed up examined me & informed me I had a rupture, was leaking amniotic fluid, & would be transferred to another hospital better equipped for high risk pregnancy & would spend the next 5 weeks on bed rest there. All I could say was "Seriously? Really?" She said yes & then the tables turned. I lost it & Blake started reassuring me. They wouldn't even let Blake drive me, I had to go straight there in an ambulance while Blake went home to get some stuff for me. I tried bribing the EMTs in the ambulance to stop by the house so I could see my dogs, pick up some stuff, & maybe straighten up a little but they weren't buying it. Blake met me at the hospital with stuff for me (except for the dogs which I had asked him to stuff into bags). The new plan was to keep me in the hospital until 34 weeks when the risk of infection from the rupture outweighed the risk of having him prematurely. My parents after getting the news hopped in the car at 2 am & drove straight down. I was nervous & scared but I had the best team in the world taking care of me & I'm not talking about the doctors. I can't began to tell you how fortunate I am to have the best husband and parents in the world. Blake went out and bought board games, a deck of cards, and brought in dvds to prepare for my five week incarceration. He slept at the hospital every night and my Mom stayed with me every day (even though I was sleeping half the time) so Blake could go home & try to get the house back to normal. Poor Blake now had the task of painting the house, cleaning out my office & moving it to another room, selling all of the furniture in said room, & preparing the nursery by himself. Mom was a big help again by cleaning up, doing laundry, & doing touch up paint. Have I mentioned how lucky I am?