{Ethan Perry Graebe}

My last post was made Thursday, August 23 at 8:04pm. When I went to bed that night, I randomly made the comment to Eric, "I hope I don't go into labor." Not ten minutes later, my water broke. It was 11:45pm. It was just one more sign that Ethan was running the show! From there, we woke up my parents, Eric packed his bag, I finished packing mine, and we called the on-call doctor. Thankfully, it was Dr. Stowell who was scheduled to deliver Ethan the following week. He told us to come on in and "think about having a baby tonight!"

The ride to the hospital was surreal. We called my dad, my brother, Eric's mom and dad, and sent texts to our siblings. By the time we arrived at the hospital, I think it was around 1:30am. From there, it all happened pretty fast. All our parents met us at the hospital, I was prepped for surgery, and we were well on our way to meeting our sweet baby boy.

As they wheeled me in to the operating room, they made Eric wait outside and told him the nurse would come get him when ready. Well, that felt like a lifetime (for both of us)! By the time he was allowed to come in, I was pretty out of it because of the spinal block and morphine. Eric was right there with me next to my head giving me support and keeping me updated on the status of baby Ethan's arrival. We welcomed our precious baby boy, Ethan Perry Graebe, into the world at 2:59 am.


I do remember seeing Ethan for the first time, however I don't think it completely registered. I felt like I was fading in and out of consciousness and even remember asking the doctor at one point if I was okay - I told him I wasn't breathing right and he said, "you're right, you're not - and that's completely normal." Meanwhile, Ethan was getting the best care from the nurses and Eric was his #1 fan taking pictures all along the way. I do remember the nurse bringing Ethan over to my face for the first time - again, being completely out of it, I think the only words I managed to stumble out of my mouth were "hi" - haha. But, he must've known he was talking to his mommy for the first time because he kept putting his hands on my mouth...so precious. Eric and I both were shocked when they weighed Ethan and announced he was (only) 5 lbs. 10 oz! Not two days earlier at our ultrasound appointment, they had estimated his weight at 6 lbs. 12 oz!


About 90 minutes later, Eric, Ethan, and I were wheeled into our post-partum room where we were met by four very proud grandparents who just melted when they saw him. The first day of Ethan's life is pretty much a blur for both Eric and I. Since we never went to sleep Thursday night, we had been up for hours on end and felt completely delirious. The nursing staff served as our life savers that day - and for the three days after for that matter. We spent our time in the hospital getting to know baby Ethan, working on breastfeeding, welcoming all the visitors we had, eating pizza and breadsticks that was delivered straight to our room from one of our local favorites, and just soaking in the fact that we created life - and a very adorable one at that! =)

We were released on Monday afternoon and have been settled in at home since. I'll make the next post about our first week as a family of three! So, that was a quick, condensed version of our little man's birth! We marvel at the pure sight of Ethan. We study his fingers, his ears, his little button nose, the hair on his head - and realize it's all perfection. Our lives were enormously blessed and changed forever at 2:59 am on Friday, August 24th and we will never be the same. We are so grateful for the best gift we've ever received!