Your birthday 11/17/17

Thursday, November 16th, 36 weeks 4 days and only 4 days till my scheduled induction date.I was scheduled to be induced early because my doctor said with my polyhydraminos and Ethan's belly measuring smaller than it should be it was best to let him come at 37 weeks since I would be considered full term.
I woke up feeling today was the day. I didn't quite feel right. Something told me Ethan would be coming soon. I went to work as normal, but walking around and doing as much as I usually did was not in the cards for me. By the time I made it home around 3:00 pm I started tracking my contractions. They were 3-4 minutes apart. But a part of me was still in denial this was really labor. I began making our family "bear" shirts so we could have them to wear when we went home after Ethan was born. Brent made it home from work and he asked if I called the doctor to see if we needed to go to the hospital, of course I had not and decided to continue to wait. Around 8:00 pm I finally called the on call nurse, "sounds like active labor to me" she said. Brent loaded up the hospital bag, the car seat and diaper bag and the kids and I all loaded up and headed to the hospital. 
My contractions were getting stronger as we sat waiting in triage while they got us a room ready. We finally made it to labor and delivery by about 10:00 pm. My sister Melissa came and picked up Colton and Destiny since it was so late and we decided it was best for Destiny to just go to school like normal Friday, little did I know God's hand was in this decision. We had planned to have her in the delivery room when Ethan was born, I cannot imagine her being in there knowing what would happen next. My parents came up to the hospital and sat in labor and delivery with us also. I was determined to have this baby without an epidural this whole pregnancy and to hopefully go into labor naturally. Labor was so intense and Brent was amazing sitting by my side the whole time. Everything seemed normal, labor was progressing just as it usually had with the last two pregnancies. I finally decided to get the epidural since my labor was so intense. About 30 minutes after the epidural my water broke, I went from a 5 to an 8 and it was time to push quickly after. 
The nurse said Ethan was "not happy in there" and they got me ready quickly. I could feel Ethan coming and later what would be labeled an "explosive birth" he came out almost before the doctor could catch Ethan. With my polyhydraminos I had way more fluid than I could ever need and because of this it caused him to come VERY quickly. 
My heart stopped, Ethan was not crying, MANY staff members including nurses and the doctor gathered around Ethan and I panicked. I didn't hear it but Brent said they called code blue, I didn't even see Ethan's face. Brent would later tell me when he came out he was blue. I sat there waiting in tears wondering if my baby was breathing and alive. No one said anything to me as I laid there helpless to see and hold my newborn son. Brent was finally able to go and see him on the other side of the room and took a picture once he began to breathe. Just in enough time for them to take him away to NICU. The photo he took made my heart drop, he was so tiny and there were things that didn't look quite right, i couldn't figure out what it was. It was within the 1st hour the neonatologist came into the L&D room to begin going down a list of things "wrong" with my baby boy. None of which i even understood, none of which even he understood. He couldn't explain what was going on with our boy but that he would be transferred to Cook Children's Downtown. 
It was 3 hours before I ever even laid eyes on our sweet Ethan. He had a breathing tube in his mouth and was hooked up to all kinds of things I had never had even seen in my lifetime. With everything going on with him being hooked up all I could do is pray over my sweet boy. Teddy bear transport then took him to Cooks. 
We sat at Texas Health waiting for him to arrive at Cooks and hopefully get word on what was going on. I was not able to be discharged from the hospital till 12 hours had passed since his birth, Time stood still. Before being discharged we got the life changing call from Ethan’s doctor at Cooks. TRISOMY 18. 
I can’t begin to explain to you how long that phone call seemed to last as he went down a list of everything that would eventually determine his few short days on earth with us. I couldn’t listen to the entire phone call, Brent had to finish listening for us as I broke down and felt my world fall apart. 
How could this happen? The doctor never said anything was wrong my entire pregnancy, everything seemed to be going as it should. How did this happen? Why? I had wished this was just a nightmare and that I would just wake up. Brent and I held each other tight and and cried for hours till we got to our boy.

Ethan Henry Skaggs
11/17/17
4lbs 13oz 17 inches long
Born at 1:24 am