Collins Birthday

I can not believe he is already almost 1 month old! Here is how his birthday began.
The weekend before he was born, I had a to-do list a mile long. I wanted everything done before he was born so I could just enjoy the little guy when we came home. David and I worked hard all weekend doing odds and ends like getting the trampoline net put up (2 months later), cleaning out Davids closet, and taking care of our weed patch, I mean garden. Tyler and I were out digging up potatoes in what was left of our garden. The weeds were 4 feet tall and I wanted David to get rid of those damn weeds. But first, we had to get the potatoes  Eight months and three weeks pregnant I am out digging damn potatoes. I should have been sitting on the couch eating ice cream.

Soon as I was done, I started having contractions. With Jake and Tyler, when I started having contractions, it took about 12 hours and then I went to L & D. So, I was expecting to go in by the morning. By morning the contractions had not got any stronger or closer together. I figured I just worked too hard the day before. My actual due date was a week away. Through out the day on Monday, I would get one here or there, but not anything major. I went about the day taking the kids to the store and the library. Danielle came over and announced she was pregnant again. I'm so excited our kids will be kind of close in age. My mom arrived around 5. I had called her the night before and told her she should probably drive down from up north. Finally at 7:30 they started coming frequently. We started keeping track but they were not close enough yet. I went to bed and tried to sleep. At 2:30am I started to get ready to go. I took a shower and packed the rest of my bag. By 3:30 I was ready to go. We got to the hospital at 4:00 am. The baby wasn't even here and I was already sleep deprived.

L & D had some repair work being done to the ceiling so it was pretty crazy when we got there. When I got checked I was dilated to 4. They got me settled in room 411. It was now 5 am and it was still dark out. Time was going by so slow! The good news was Charlotte, who was my nurse with Jake was now my nurse again, and she was so great. Although this was also when I started having flashbacks of giving birth to the other 2 boys and I started crying. I knew what was in store for me and I was freakin scared. Can ya tell?

Dr. P arrived at 7 am and broke my water. Up till this point, the contractions had been tolerable. Now they hurt. Bad. I didn't put much thought into pain medication. I knew I didn't want an epidural because I had heard a lot of stories about how it causes headaches. I already get migraines and didn't want to chance it. Charlotte talked to me about a few other choices, but she said a lot of them affect the baby. By now I was at 7 cm and I was in some major pain. My mom was crying to see me like that. Charlotte suggested getting on my hands and knees. I seriously felt like an animal, but I was willing to do anything. After a few contractions on my hands and knees and I was dilated to 9. I layed back in a normal position and Dr. P came in. I stared pleading with him to get me an epidural. His response was "that horse already left the barn." They told me to push if I had the urge. I never have really had the "urge" with any of my births. When I had my next contraction, they told me to push. I did a little, and then I told Dr. P he would have to pull the baby out because I was not going to push it out. He told me no, and to push again. I feel sorry for the other women who heard me, because I started getting a little hysterical. Dr. P some how managed to calm me down. For a few seconds, I sorta blacked out, it was almost like a moment right before you go into a state of shock. Hard to explain, but that is how I made it through the last push. And then I have never felt such relief in my life.

I was so happy. So happy to be done, happy to have a sweet little tiny baby, and happy that he was healthy. He was born at 8:33am. I didn't get to hold him right away because he had meconium. Those nurses had him for a whole half hour before I got to hold my sweet baby. And they were less than gentle with him. After having 2 babies already, I was going to ask that they wait to measure, weigh, stamp his feet, ect. I felt strongly that that sort of stuff can always be done later, and the baby had had enough trauma just being born. I wanted just to hold and bond the few minutes after he was born. But, that all went out the window with the meconium. It is dangerous if they don't take care of it right away.

Finally I got to hold him and see his face. He had a ton of hair and everyone commented on how much he had.

We got moved to the other wing mid-morning. I was looking forward to the boys meeting their new brother. I kind of compare having a baby to planning a wedding. You plan and plan for months waiting for the big day, and then it happens and when it is over, it's like now what? So having the boys come up was another part to look foward to. All the other visitors waited until 4 or 5 when they got out of work, which was exactly when I got really tired after being up since 2:30am. We had back to back visitors from 4 to 9pm. It was a long day.

I still can't believe we are now a family of 5.

Happy Birthday, Collin. We love you!