Thursday, November 10, 2011
Ethan's first smile
Ethan's first smile came yesterday as Julie was holding him. It was her birthday and on her favorite time of day, 1:11 pm. If I am joking, then my name is Brian.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Finally!
Okay, so on Ethan's fourth day of life, I am finally updating this blog. Ethan Brian was born on November 5, 2011 at 9:50 a.m. at the hands of Dr. Terry Grogg in Mount Carmel West Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Got all that? Okay now say that sentence five times fast. For all you that didn't, let's move on. He weighed 6 pounds and 9 ounces and was 20 inches "tall" as I like to say. 20 inches in length makes him sound like a salamander to me.
He was a "traditional" birth and I will have to admit, I was quite emotional when he came out. I couldn't control it. Dr. Grogg swept him out and put him right on Julie and I was absolutely in awe. Kind of grossed out too because he was kind of pale and of course, had lots of nastiness on him. Grogg clipped two parts of the umbilical cord and told me to cut between the two. It wasn't hard at all. Then the nurses took Ethan over to the scale and cleaned him for a little while, weighed him, put nasties on his eyes. To say he was upset is a severe understatement. He cried so extremely hard I'm surprised he didn't need some throat spray afterwards. Initially, he was fine when held and quiet, but when we would move him, he would express his disagreement.
After a couple of hours after both Julie and Ethan rested, they prepared us to move out of the birth and labor center and into the regular room. Julie sat in a wheelchair and held Ethan and I was able to push them into the other section. Right before, however, they had me push a red button and when I did, it played a soft lullaby that played over the entire hospital, announcing that a new life had started. Realistically though, Ethan's life was 9-10 months already in the making, but a birth is obviously a huge step.
We had several nurses and PCA's (Patient Care Assistants) for the next 50 or so hours and they were all fabulous. Marla, Cheryl, Kalie and Penny were in Labor and Delivery. Nancy, Rochelle, Lannie, Lisa, and another Lisa were the nurses. Helena, Jenna, Sonya (who smelled nice), and Dottie were the PCA's.
The first night was rough. Ethan would wake up frequently which nothing really apparent wrong, but would just whine. His crib was played between my pull out chair and Julie bed, so we were able to quickly calm him. The nurses had asked if we wanted him put in the nursery overnight, but I said no quickly for two reasons. One, I've been away from him for 27 years, and more importantly, we don't have any nurses helping us here in Plain City, so we might as well get used to taking care of him throughout the night.
Also, so many people, naturally, have told us "Get ready for no sleep!" I've understood that, but didn't know why until after Ethan was born. It's not because he randomly gets cranky, but because he needs to feed every 3 hours or so! It's not a want, it's a need! But yeah, the night was long, because every time he would cry, we would get up and help him get back to sleep and every time I would wake up, I would look outside. Seriously, it's still dark? The extra hour from Daylight Savings Time ending didn't help either.
Day two arrived and it was his circumcision day. Neither of us attended for obvious reasons. Because of the drugs, he was oblivious to all his visitors for several hours, including the time when Grandpa Klay changed his diaper for the first time. He also started taking to his bottles better on this day. He averaged around an ounce of formula every three or so hours, but because the nurses were very strict on making sure he fed often. They wrote down what time he started, how much he took, and how long it took. We have since done the same thing at home, just to make sure.
On the 7th, they assured us we were going home that day after all Ethan's tests cleared him. Actually, Ethan was discharged before Julie was! But finally I got all of the stuff into the CR-V, brought up his car seat and Julie was put into a wheelchair and held Ethan's car seat while a nurse pushed her out.
We stopped at my work first to start processing his insurance. Quite a few of my co-workers came out to see the new cuteness. Then we went to one of our favorite work lunch places, Penn Station and showed him off. But finally we got to go home and it wasn't nearly as difficult for us as I can hear it is for some. Ethan slept a lot and didn't really seem concerned that we were in a different place.
I felt bad the next morning because I had taken some Ny-Quil to work on a cough that was irritating me and it knocked me out until 6 a.m. when Ethan was due for his second feeding overnight, while I thought it was the first. I know Julie has forgiven me.
We were busy today. After just hanging out at home for a little while, we all went and voted. Ethan voted for me as President and Julie as Prime Minister. Then we went to First Watch, Giant Eagle and then home. He was great the entire time. He never screamed and cause a ruckus in either place. Speaking of a ruckus, we stopped by Cindy's, Ethan's babysitter once Julie has to go back to work. She had about eight kids, ranging from 19 months to probably around 9-10 years old. Only half of them will be there during school time.
We are home now and we have had a little more difficulty with him today. He hasn't been as happy today and we can't really figure out why. I guess we still have much to learn about our son! And whatever we learn, I will make sure we put it on here. I can't wait until Ethan is getting ready to graduate high school and this is all read back to him. But for now, we will enjoy every day individually because he is already so different from the first day.
He was a "traditional" birth and I will have to admit, I was quite emotional when he came out. I couldn't control it. Dr. Grogg swept him out and put him right on Julie and I was absolutely in awe. Kind of grossed out too because he was kind of pale and of course, had lots of nastiness on him. Grogg clipped two parts of the umbilical cord and told me to cut between the two. It wasn't hard at all. Then the nurses took Ethan over to the scale and cleaned him for a little while, weighed him, put nasties on his eyes. To say he was upset is a severe understatement. He cried so extremely hard I'm surprised he didn't need some throat spray afterwards. Initially, he was fine when held and quiet, but when we would move him, he would express his disagreement.
After a couple of hours after both Julie and Ethan rested, they prepared us to move out of the birth and labor center and into the regular room. Julie sat in a wheelchair and held Ethan and I was able to push them into the other section. Right before, however, they had me push a red button and when I did, it played a soft lullaby that played over the entire hospital, announcing that a new life had started. Realistically though, Ethan's life was 9-10 months already in the making, but a birth is obviously a huge step.
We had several nurses and PCA's (Patient Care Assistants) for the next 50 or so hours and they were all fabulous. Marla, Cheryl, Kalie and Penny were in Labor and Delivery. Nancy, Rochelle, Lannie, Lisa, and another Lisa were the nurses. Helena, Jenna, Sonya (who smelled nice), and Dottie were the PCA's.
The first night was rough. Ethan would wake up frequently which nothing really apparent wrong, but would just whine. His crib was played between my pull out chair and Julie bed, so we were able to quickly calm him. The nurses had asked if we wanted him put in the nursery overnight, but I said no quickly for two reasons. One, I've been away from him for 27 years, and more importantly, we don't have any nurses helping us here in Plain City, so we might as well get used to taking care of him throughout the night.
Also, so many people, naturally, have told us "Get ready for no sleep!" I've understood that, but didn't know why until after Ethan was born. It's not because he randomly gets cranky, but because he needs to feed every 3 hours or so! It's not a want, it's a need! But yeah, the night was long, because every time he would cry, we would get up and help him get back to sleep and every time I would wake up, I would look outside. Seriously, it's still dark? The extra hour from Daylight Savings Time ending didn't help either.
Day two arrived and it was his circumcision day. Neither of us attended for obvious reasons. Because of the drugs, he was oblivious to all his visitors for several hours, including the time when Grandpa Klay changed his diaper for the first time. He also started taking to his bottles better on this day. He averaged around an ounce of formula every three or so hours, but because the nurses were very strict on making sure he fed often. They wrote down what time he started, how much he took, and how long it took. We have since done the same thing at home, just to make sure.
On the 7th, they assured us we were going home that day after all Ethan's tests cleared him. Actually, Ethan was discharged before Julie was! But finally I got all of the stuff into the CR-V, brought up his car seat and Julie was put into a wheelchair and held Ethan's car seat while a nurse pushed her out.
We stopped at my work first to start processing his insurance. Quite a few of my co-workers came out to see the new cuteness. Then we went to one of our favorite work lunch places, Penn Station and showed him off. But finally we got to go home and it wasn't nearly as difficult for us as I can hear it is for some. Ethan slept a lot and didn't really seem concerned that we were in a different place.
I felt bad the next morning because I had taken some Ny-Quil to work on a cough that was irritating me and it knocked me out until 6 a.m. when Ethan was due for his second feeding overnight, while I thought it was the first. I know Julie has forgiven me.
We were busy today. After just hanging out at home for a little while, we all went and voted. Ethan voted for me as President and Julie as Prime Minister. Then we went to First Watch, Giant Eagle and then home. He was great the entire time. He never screamed and cause a ruckus in either place. Speaking of a ruckus, we stopped by Cindy's, Ethan's babysitter once Julie has to go back to work. She had about eight kids, ranging from 19 months to probably around 9-10 years old. Only half of them will be there during school time.
We are home now and we have had a little more difficulty with him today. He hasn't been as happy today and we can't really figure out why. I guess we still have much to learn about our son! And whatever we learn, I will make sure we put it on here. I can't wait until Ethan is getting ready to graduate high school and this is all read back to him. But for now, we will enjoy every day individually because he is already so different from the first day.
Friday, October 14, 2011
First of many
This blog has been created to allow all family members and friends from all over the world to see our wonderful son in many different ways. Now granted, he has yet to have made his grand appearance, but the anticipation has never be higher for his arrival. Ethan's Krib will include stories and pictures and hopefully videos! When he is older and knows how, I hope to have him include his own side to the blog and eventually show it off to his wife. Hope you enjoy everything we show you! Enjoy!
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