Birth Story of Colter

I want to document all the important details of Colter's birth story before time passes and I forget so here we go!

On Monday, March 16th it was a semi normal day, nothing that would indicate that I might be on my way to having a baby two weeks early. I came home to take care of Bridge since he was running a fever from the night before and Ben headed into work in the afternoon. I worked on laundry, painted my toe nails and semi cleaned up around the house. We had Bridge's favorite meal of spaghetti and we all sat in the living room folding clothes before we headed into bed. I remember making a comment to Ben before I went to bed about how glad I was that all the laundry from the weekend was done and put away. Mind you Bridge threw up multiple times in the middle of the night Friday night so my piles of laundry were monstrous. 

As I was putting Bridge down for the night I was snacking on some pineapple. Still no signs, everything continued as normal. I went to bed and tossed and turn more than normal so I decided to sleep a bit on the recliner. I then woke up and laid in bed again. Around 4:30 I needed to go to the bathroom. I remember thinking "hmm, that doesn't seem quite right I was still "peeing" even though my mind was telling me I was done." I didn't think to much of it so I went and laid back down on the bed. As I laid down more water went down my leg. I turned over thinking again that's strange but why worry I am only 38 weeks it can't be my water. As I turn to the right side it did it again. I went straight to the bathroom and as I sat down a gush happened. I called for Ben, "Ben can you come here please." He later told me that he knew something was up because I was way more active and such and when I called for him he just knew that it had something to do with my water breaking.

I remember looking up at him saying, "I am not ready, what are we gonna do? I don't have my bags back, mom's not in town, what are we gonna do with Bridge, Should we call your parents, what about mine, do I call the doctor, what about labor and delivery.?" I was stunned to say the least. He calmly told me, "everything is going to be fine. Just get in the shower, I will back my bags and we will figure this all out." I tried to soak in all the emotions that I was feeling but it seemed like I could barely get a grip that it was actually happening. I stood in my closest and called my mom from Ben's phone, later she told me she knew something was up since a phone call at 5:45am her time was not normal. She told me that I just giggled and was way to calm when I was telling her all this. So not like me but I believe I was just so shocked. Luckily she took it upon herself and switch her flights to get to town by the time Bridger needed picked up from day care. 

After hopping out of the shower I called Labor and Delivery and asked them if I could hang around the house and wait to come in until daycare opened. They told me to call my doc and check with him on a few things. So I did. By the time we were pack, dishes done, and reality was setting in it was already 6:45am. Daddy insisted that we stop at Starbucks for coffee for him and a chocolate milk and a sandwich for Bridge. Off we headed to daycare. We both took Bridge in. It was an emotional moment when I kissed Bridges headed and told him to have a good day. Almost started to cry. Here I was dropping him off with daddy as a family of three and knowing that when I saw him next we we would be a family of four. Whooo I get emotional just typing this. 

We kissed big man good bye and headed out to the hospital. Low and behold the interstate was backed up which gave us a good amount of time to talk and let it all sink in. I still think I was in complete shock. I remember Ben asking, "are you still leaking", "yes honey I am still leaking." 

We found a parking spot way at the end of the lot, walked to labor and delivery and as those doors opened I remember thinking, "here we go!" The nurse walked in checked my urine and pad and without hesitation said, "yep your water broke you are here to stay." And around 9:00am we were admitted with an IV in and petocin started. 

The doctor was going to come in first thing in the morning to check me but since I wasn't having any contractions he decided to wait till the lunch hour. Ben and I hung out in the room and worked on a lot of work, chatted, watched tv and of course the first round of the March Madness started in the evening. By 12:30pm doc checked and I was 2cm 50% and baby was still very high. Doc said I would be lucky to have this baby by the end of the day. We knew it would be a long haul, but I certainly didn't think we would be laying around for a long time to finally get into active labor. Doc said he would be back to check on me after office hours.

When the nurses did their shift change at 7 our nurse called the doc to give him the update that I was at 20 pitocin and my contractions were very mild. He mentioned to her over the phone that he was considering an internal monitor to see the degree of the contractions. When he came to check on me around 8pm I was at 3cm, 80% and a -2. The doc was able to up the pitocin and get things rocking. He told me and nurse that things would probably pick up and if needed he could get from his office to the hospital in as short as 5 mins but normally about 10mins. Sure enough he would later be called and told to hurry up and get here. He made it in 7 mins. It was the longest 7 minutes of my life.

At 10:00pm my contractions were STRONG, I asked for my epidural and by 10:30 it was in, with no complications, and I was doing much better. I knew this time around I didn't want my epidural so strong that I couldn't feel the urge to push so I was very adamant that we start a low dosage. It was no sooner that I started to feel the urge to push and knew that we better tell the nurse. Sure enough she checked me and made a quick phone call to the doc.

He walked in and by 11:22pm our sweet baby boy was born. The delivery was fast, but beautiful. Exactly how I had hoped it would go. Our Colter Ray weighed in at 7lbs, 0.05 oz and was 20 inches long. He is perfect.