Happy Birthday Eathan!

I started this post on Eathan's birthday, but just finished it today. (lame I know) It's a long one... proceed with caution...

Today is Eathan's 8th birthday! I am taken back as I reminisce about the last 8 years. Eathan is a load of fun, but has kept us on our toes more than any other child yet. I think I have learned the most from him... hands down... and that is a good thing. He is a very kind, thoughtful child with an abundance of common sense and critical thinking skills. He is also full of energy and never stops!! The action and laughs never stop when Eathan is around. We are so proud of him for the good choices he makes and love what he brings to our family. Eathan will be baptized on Saturday, so I will post more about that and his birthday party later.

I want to start a new tradition on each of my children's next birthdays. I want to record all of the details I can remember about their birth. This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time and I figure what a better time to do it than when I am reeling about how long it has been since they were born. Please bear with me if this gets long... I am trying to include as many details as possible... this is for posterity :)

I found out I was pregnant with Eathan in early December 2000. I originally thought I wouldn't be sick this time (like I was with Chansey) but just a few days after finding out I was pregnant, the nausea and throwing up began. I spent a couple of miserable weeks trying to manage my horrible sickness alone, but to no avail. I ended up in the Emergency Room on December 19 with severe dehydration and hyper-emesis. Thankfully, they didn't make me stay in the hospital, but sent me home with a permanent IV and I began home health care that night. I was hooked up to the IV with my backpack and pump for over two months. I tried to be without it once during that time, but got violently ill again, so the doc made me go back on it. At about 18-20 weeks I felt better and began to live a normal life again.

The rest of my pregnancy was normal and I had no other complications. We were so excited when we found out we were having a boy! (I had always thought that I would have a lot of boys) Towards the end of my pregnancy, I started to sense that I was HUGE and this baby was going to be HUGE too. But, nobody believed me, the doc said he thought Eathan would only weigh about 6 lbs. The largeness of me (and the baby) and the mid-summer blistering heat made me very anxious to deliver. I would walk around the mall every day trying to coax labor, but it never happened. I was dilated early and had constant contractions for weeks, but no baby. I went to the hospital on July 22nd in a lot of pain wondering if I was in labor. Well, I was dilated to a four and having regular contractions, but not progressing much. So, my doctor told them to keep me overnight and he would come in the morning and break my water. But, guess what... they sent me home instead!! I only found out that they didn't do what the doctor told them because at my appointment the next day he was surprised that I "chose" to come home. I was so mad at those nurses.

After a few more days of non-progressive labor, I was admitted into the hospital on July 26th. They had to give me some pitocin and break my water to help me along. The type of pain I was feeling was strange... unrecognizable to the previous labor pains with Chansey... much worse in fact. Well after pushing for about two and a half hours (and hemorrhaging) they finally had to use the vacuum to get Eathan out. And we quickly realized why I had so much trouble. He weighed 8 lbs. 11 oz and his head was a bone crushing 16 1/2 inches! (Normal is 13 ish) So, he was huge... and he wasn't coming because his head wouldn't descend because it was so big. YIKES!

Once the delivery was over, we were all relieved. Most of the nurses commented for the next few hours on how lucky I was that the doctor didn't make me have a c-section. The doctor commented that I was lucky to be so healthy. He had previously had patients with higher blood counts than mine who had to have blood transfusions... I felt so lucky and blessed!! We were all healthy and happy, but had to stay in the hospital for a full two days. That was not really fun except a lot of people came to visit since we were there for so long.

I could go on forever about all of the joy Eathan brought to our lives for the last 8 years, but that would take forever. However, I would like to note two more memorable things about Eathan as a baby... First of all, he was so good!! He would eat and sleep and that's it! For months! He was so happy and so calm... what happened?! :) Also, he spit up more than any child I have ever seen!! He had projectile spit-up every time he ate. The pediatrician never worried about it because he was so big and grew so fast, but it sure was annoying. He grew out of it around the time he turned one, but people that were around during that time still comment about it.

One more notable thing... Somehow, on our first date, baby names came up. Todd and I both agreed that the coolest boy name was Eathan (keep in mind that 'Mission Impossible' was new at the time and that is the main character's name) We also agreed that Eathan Todd Breinholt was a really cool name. Isn't that funny that we ended up naming our first son that?!

We love Eathan so much! Happy Birthday Dog! (That is his nickname... it started out as E-dog and then just evolved into 'Dog')