Birth Story

I first want to say... giving birth is definitely the most amazing experience of my life. Seeing my son for the first time and holding him for the very first time is something I will always remember and always cherish. He is absolutely amazing and I am every day thankful that the Lord has given brad and I such an amazing opportunity.. such a wonderful blessing .. to take care of a tiny little helpless baby, and help him grow into an amazing child (although hopefully not very soon. i want him to stay little forever.)

So here is a summed up version of Colton's birth:

My water broke around 4am Saturday morning, although I wasn't having very many or very intense contractions. Brad asked if we could sleep a couple more hours before going to the hospital since I wasn't having contractions 2-3 minutes apart yet. Haha he definitely didn't understand! At the hospital, they gave me pitocin to get my contractions jump-started and to get me to dialate.. I was only at 1-2 cm when arriving. Around noon, they re-checked and I hadn't dialated any more. My contractions were then one minute long and pretty intense, with only one minute in between each. Since i couldn't get an epidurral until 4cm, and it didn't look like that would happen any time soon, I went ahead and asked for pain medications. I had thought I didn't want anything but the epidurral because I didn't want my baby to come out sleepy, but the nurse assured me that pain medication will help me dialate faster since my body will be more relaxed. She added it to the IV and from that point on, I was pretty drowsy. I remember I could feel the pain about the same as before but I was too drowsy to care anymore. I drifted in and out of sleep for several more hours and when they checked me again at 4 or so, around the time the pain meds were wearing off, I had dialated to a 5. Thankfully! So I got the epidurral and slept another hour. Around 645 it was pushing time and Colton was born around 715. The pushing wasn't painful- but it was hard. I am so thankful that I got the epidurral because this big baby ripped me - vaginally and cervically. That would have been very painful. Because of the tears, I had to get sewn up (obviously) and it took two doctors to accomplish this. I was not allowed to hold Colton right away like I had asked. I wanted to hold him before he was even washed up, but the nurses wouldn't allow it and so I couldn't hold him for almost an hour after he was born. When I finally was able to, it was beautiful and amazing. I am so thankful for him and I can't imagine my life without him.

Brad has been the best dad I could have ever hoped he would be. He changes diapers more than I do (a lot more!) and he loves Colton so much. We are constantly "bickering" over whose turn it is to hold the baby. I never knew that having this baby would increase the love I have for my husband. It definitely has and the Lord has blessed us more than I would have ever hoped.

There's more to say.. but my baby is hungry now. :)