Happy New Year, everybody! This has been a long time coming… I know I haven’t blogged since I posted our maternity pictures, so I thought it was fitting to start the year’s first post on a personal note – looking back at the birth of my son, Ethan… I’ll reminisce about his birth with a few words but I’ll let the images speak for themselves — thanks to my photographer friend Cassidy of Thompson Photography Group for capturing an incredible 30+ hours that changed us forever…

When my labor started around 1am Saturday December 7th, I kept calling my contractions Braxton Hicks contractions because they didn’t hurt. In fact I made it to 6cm without any pain – literally no pain at all. But without anymore progress for hours, they first broke my water — then later I was given pitocen. Then finally 6 hours at 10cm without epidural, it quickly became the most painful experience of my life! Baby Ethan had not descended yet. 3am Sunday morning, I was riding the worst of the contractions. Ethan was still sitting high & I was completely exhausted — I finally asked (begged) for epidural. I don’t know how I sat still through 3 contractions while getting my epidural but I did. All I kept thinking was that after the epidural – I wouldn’t feel any more pain.  Once the epidural kicked in I was able to rest for an hour in hopes that my body would relax enough for Ethan’s descent. After 33 hours of labor (the last 6 hours were pure torture riding through contractions at 10cm dilated), I had an emergency c-section because Ethan just would not descend and after an hour of pushing his heart rate was going down. Thankfully, the C-section went well and my baby was finally in my arms. I’m so happy with the doctor & nurses who completely followed my birth plan and who allowed me to labor on my own without pushing me to a c-section. All I know is that I wouldn’t have been able to make it through the toughest hours of my life without my amazing husband, my mother in law, Charmaine & Cassidy there by my side helping me breathe, visualize & soothe me.  I am absolutely the luckiest girl to have had such incredible support.  Now, onto the images… thanks to Cassidy we have these memories forever…

Even at 6cm dilated, I was all smiles – no pain…

Once they gave me pitocen, my pain level went from zero to 100!

Charmaine & Dave helping me through a contraction…

Emotional moment when we made the decision to have the C-Section…I’ve never had any kind of surgery so it was pretty frightening…

All suited up for surgery! After a tearful moment, excitement on meeting our son kicked in…

The very first moment Dave got to hold Ethan…

My sweet boy…

Meet Ethan Ray Newcomer

Born December 8, 2013

9lbs 13.5oz  21 & 3/4 inches long

(photo by me)

Check out other fellow 10-on-10 photographers below & see what they’ve been up to:

Courtney Z Photography
Anya Elise Photography
Grace Photography
CLB Creative
Twinty Photography