Waiting for Ethan

I don't consider myself an impatient person, but I'm not the most patient person either...

***WARNING: This is a little wordy and lengthy, but I want to record it for our family. Feel free to skim or not even read it if you don't want to.***

I have elasticity issues with my skin. For example: I have a skin condition called anetoderma: a benign condition with focal loss of dermal elastic tissue, resulting in localized areas of flaccid or herniated saclike skin. So if you've ever noticed weird little bumps on my upper arms, that's what it is. They don't know what causes it or how to cure it. It doesn't hurt or itch or anything really - it just looks funny. Weird, huh? There are some other examples I could give about my non-elastic skin, but that would be TMI - so just be aware that there are some other issues too.

I had a bad tear with Olivia that I did not handle very well at all. This on top of my other elasticity issues caused a little bit of concern with my OB doctor that I could tear again to the extent that it could give me bowel issues for the rest of my life. Yuck! So throughout this whole pregnancy, we've been discussing delivery options: c-section, early induction, or just do it all naturally and hope for the best. After having an assessment done at 36 weeks to get an estimate on the size of our little man, we opted for the early induction. It would just be a week early, which would give us about a 1/2 pound cushion on his size.

With that decision made, we scheduled an induction date of Friday, March 2, as my doctor was the one on-call that day and would be the one to deliver the baby. It's now almost the afternoon of Saturday, March 3 and guess where I am? HOME! GRRRR!!!! The hospital had a large influx of women coming in who were in labor, so they were having a hard time getting the women in who were scheduled to be induced. On Friday morning, they were still trying to get women in who were scheduled to be induced the previous day. My OB called me somewhere between 5:00 and 6:00 that evening sounding a little frustrated himself about the craziness of the hospital that day. He said it was super busy and the staff kept saying the were going to move "this person" and "that person" so they could get people in, but it never happened. He was calling to let me know he was going home soon, so we could either continue waiting to be called in and have a different doctor deliver the baby or we could reschedule for Monday when he would be on-call again. However, if we waited until Monday, it would almost defeat the purpose of the early induction and having that 1/2 pound cushion. We decided to continue waiting, even though my doctor said he highly doubted I would get a call that evening and it would be Saturday morning before I would be able to go. I was really bummed not to have my OB being the one to deliver since he was there for all our in-depth conversations about the elasticity and tearing concerns and he knows all my thoughts, feelings, and concerns on the matter, but what can you do?

I was told to call the hospital at 6:00 on Saturday morning if I hadn't heard from them by then, so I did. The charge nurse said I was on her "to do" list to call me exactly at 6am to tell me to come in, but they had another surge of women come in a couple hours earlier who were in labor. She said it's the weirdest thing, but every time there is a crazy thunderstorm in the middle of the night, it puts women into labor. Crazy! So unfortunately she couldn't tell me to come in just yet and said to call back at 9am if I hadn't heard anything by then. She also said that there were only 2 women (including myself) who were scheduled to be induced today so I should definitely be able to come in today at some point.

I call again a little after 9:00 and guess what? They had just given their very last labor bed to someone who came in. AH!!! Will these women ever stop going into labor around here?!?! (FYI: They have to keep 1 or 2 beds open for women who come in who are actually in labor and can't give those last couple beds to people who are scheduled to be induced. That makes complete sense to me, but it's just frustrating.) They are literally packed to the max capacity right now, so we're praying these ladies push those babies out quickly and that no one else goes into labor so we can meet our little boy. I was told they would call me as soon as they had room for me, but that I could call anytime to check the status of everything.

I'm trying to stay calm and not let myself get too frustrated, but all this waiting for the phone to ring is terrible! Our lives are pretty much on hold right now because we don't want to be out doing something when we get the call to go to the hospital. Paul also took yesterday and today off work and doesn't get paid for it because he has to work there for a year before he gets paid vacation....so that obviously upsets me that we have 2 days unpaid for no reason at all. I'm trying to stay positive, though, and telling myself there may be a reason we have to wait. Maybe I'm supposed to learn more patience. Maybe something bad would happen to Ethan if he were born when it was scheduled. Maybe something bad would happen to me. So I just take deep breaths and tell myself we'll get to meet Ethan sooner or later.

For now, we're just waiting for Ethan...