Colin Michael

About 24 hours old

On February 7th at 8:17 AM, we welcomed Colin Michael, less than 7 hours after we got to the hospital.  He was 6 pounds 11 ounces and 19.5 inches, smaller than the 7.5-8 pound baby I was expecting.

I started having contractions that felt a little different than the Braxton Hicks I had been having overnight Saturday-Sunday morning.  They woke me up periodically, but nothing too bad.  I called work to see if they were going to be cost containing that day (too many nurses, not enough patients) and went ahead and was cost contained rather than going to work (even if they hadn't been cost containing, I probably would have called in sick; I knew I wasn't feeling right).  I went about my day pretty normally - ran some errands, went to the grocery store, hung out at home - but when it came time to go to the Super Bowl party that night I told Mike to go without me; I'd rather sit at home and watch the game and see if these contractions were the real thing.  Even when I told Mike earlier in the day that this may be the real deal, he still didn't believe me.

By mid-way through the game I was starting to feel a little more uncomfortable.  I was sitting on my birth ball and  rocking through most of the contractions but it still wasn't anything hugely painful.  I tried to sit on the couch to eat a bowl of cereal and immediately had to move back to the ball because it was the most comfortable place to be.  Mike got home and I told him that things were more intense than they had been but I'd let him know if I thought we needed to call the doctor or go to the hospital.  He went to bed around 11 PM and by midnight or so I realized we should call the doctor.

We called the doctor and he said to come in so off we went to the hospital.  I think we got there around 1:30 or 2 AM and once they got me all settled and on the monitor for a few minutes and were able to check me, I was 4 cm.  Mike was great through the whole thing, I couldn't have made it through without him.  I spent some time in the shower then most of the rest of the time moving around and sitting on the ball.  By 6:30 or so it was pretty intense and I had them check me again to see where I was.  I decided that if I had only gone 1 or 2 cm, I would really have to think about pain control because I didn't know how much longer I could do it.  Amazingly, I had dilated to 8-9 cm.  I kept on with the same methods of getting through the contractions as I had been doing and when the doctor came in just after 7 AM, I was complete.

Around that time I decided I needed a little pain control so got one dose of fentanyl right before they broke my water.  It helped me rest for a few minutes and also helped with the change in contractions after my water was broken - they were much more intense.  Right after the doctor broke my water, I started pushing.  The doctor kept saying that I was doing good and we'd have a baby after a few more pushes... little did I know, 20 minutes after I started pushing, Colin would be born, staring right at me looking dazed.

After his first bath

We stayed at the hospital for just over 24 hours.  Since Colin was a bit smaller than I anticipated, his going home clothes were a little big for him...

His old man jeans

My mom and stepdad came in to town but were not able to get to our house on Monday night because of a storm that kept them staying at the airport.  So they were able to make it to the hospital on Tuesday and have been here helping out since then.  It's been such a big help to have them around and I'm sure that we wouldn't have been able to make it through the first two weeks without them!

It's been an eventful 2 weeks and I'll add more over the next few days.  But needless to say, we are thrilled with our perfect little one and are so excited to see what the next days, weeks, and months hold for us!