Ethan Jay Furniss

7 lbs. 2 oz. 21 in. long
Born at Mountain View Hospital in Idaho Falls Idaho
at 3:43 p.m. Saturday June 28th, 2008

Ethan’s birth was anything but what we were expecting. I started having contractions late Thursday night, but they were still 15 min. apart and pretty light. By 4:30a.m. Friday morning they were getting harder and about every 6-5 min apart. I already had a doctors appointment scheduled for that day, so I just relaxed and decided to see what the doctor had to say at the appointment. Jeremy decided to stay home from work and go to the appointment with me and we took my hospital bag in hopes that it would be time.

My appointment was at 10:25 a.m. and the doctor said that I was dilated to a 3 (Finally, until now I had not dilated at all.) She told us to go take a power walk and then go to the hospital. We went to Tautphus Park to walk. We walked for about an hour then went and get some lunch. We started back to walking around 1 p.m. and walked and walked and walked. Except for a few rest breaks we walked until 4 p.m. My contractions seemed to be getting longer and harder. Finally it was like they never really went away just some times there were a sharp pain and the rest of the time it was more of a dull pain. I finally told Jeremy I thought we should go to the hospital.

We checked in and they checked me. The bad news I was still only at a 3. I could not believe it. My doctor got there after about an hour. She was telling me that I had to go back home, but thanks to a great nurse who suggested she check me again they found that I had made it to a 4 and would be staying at the hospital. I was planning to see how far I could go with out getting an epidural, so they put me in a Jacuzzi tub so that I would be relaxed. I loved the tub and was able to breath through my contractions. I did this until about 7:30p.m. when I got out to see if I had dilated any more. Sad news I was still a 4, so my doctor and I made the decision to brake my water at about 8 p.m.. We found that the baby had pooped in the amniotic fluid and so they knew they would have to change what they did when he came out just a bit.

I then got on the birth ball and really focused on by breathing. I was having very long and hard contractions, but Jeremy and my doctor were there the whole time helping me through it. By 9 p.m. they put a IV in my hand to give me some pain killers to take the edge off of the contractions. They did take the edge off, but that is about it. I also felt very out of it. The pain killer only works for an hour so by 10 it was gone. They checked me again to see if I was making any progress, but I was still at a 4 my doctor did not know what to do because I was having very steady, hard, long contractions that should have been helping me to dilate. She finally said that I needed to get an epidural to see if it would relax me enough to start dilating. They called the anesthesiologist at home to come in. They tried to give me some more pain killers, but they did not work. All I could do was try and breathe through the contractions. I finally got the epidural around 11p.m. It was heaven (Both for Jeremy and me). My doctor went home to take a nap and I was finally able to fall asleep.

The epidural did not help me dilate, so around 1a.m. they started me on Patosen. By 6:30 a.m. on Saturday I was finally at a 6. It was really just a waiting game to see when I would be ready. People came in Saturday morning and had their babies before me. That was frustrating. My mom finally got a hold of us at the hospital because she knew I had a doctor’s appointment on Friday and had not been able to get us, so she was worried. She is funny like that, but I am so glad that she cares enough to worry. Some time around 9 a.m. I got to a 7 then around 11 I was at an 8. The nurse told Jeremy that normally people progress 1 centimeter an hour, but not me. At noon my body became more or less immune to the epidural because it had been in my body so long. It was set up on a drip line, so I was still getting it but all of the sudden I could feel the full affect of my contractions and it really hurt. It was hard because I had not worked up to this it was just like I could feel nothing then I could feel everything. I don’t know how long it took the anesthesiologist to get there and give me a very strong dose and for it to kick in, but it seemed like for ever. It was even harder to see Jeremy because there was nothing he could do. He was in the corner and I could tell he was praying. When it was over I could also see that he had been crying. It is very hard to see him like that.

Around 1 p.m. the doctor finally said I could push. My mom called just as I was getting ready to push. The baby started coming down but after an hour they decided that he was face up and they wanted to see if they could turn him. I lay on my side to see if he would turn but at 3 p.m. the doctor came in and said the baby’s heart beat had flat lined, or in other words was very weak and they would have to take the baby c-section. Both Jeremy and I cried. After that it was like a movie when they are rushing around trying to get you to surgery. Jeremy got into scrubs and they even had to take my blood in the hallway because they were in such a hurry they could not wait for the lab tech. The drugs they gave me really knocked me out, so my main focuses was trying to be awake enough to see my baby.

I was in luck the doctor that did the c section has over 30yrs of experience and the baby doctor that was there works part time at primary children’s. I had a great team to do the surgery. I did not even know they had started until I heard Ethan cry. Someone said “Is it a girl” “No it’s a boy”. Then they decided that he had taken in to much of the poppy amniotic fluid to let us see him or let Jeremy cut the cord they just started working on him. He had some grunting going on with his breathing so they took him away to the nursery just holding him up for a second. I did not really get to see him. They also found that I had an irregular heart beat and had to call in some tests and a cardiologist. They still don’t know what is going on with my heart, so I will probably have to go have some tests done. They think it was brought on with all of the drugs that I had.

When they were running the entire test on me my mom and sister Tami showed up. My mom just knew something was wrong, so she drove to Idaho Falls to see me. She was not allowed to see me for some time, but Jeremy did get to take them to see Ethan. Finally, I got to see my family and my little boy for the first time. I am very sore from the c-section and from pushing for and hour. We had to stay at the hospital until Tuesday because of the c-section. I got to know a lot of the nurses and am surprised at how many of them have had a c-section before. All of the staff at the hospital were absolutely wonderful. I could not have asked for better people to be there when I was going through this. Ethan and I are both fine now and learning new things all of the time.