Colton's Birth!

He's here!  My sweet little baby finally made his grand entrance!  And much less exciting, but I have to point it out: THIS IS MY 700TH BLOG POST!  What a lucky number for such happy news!


Colton's birth was perfect.  Everything about his birth was exactly what I wanted it to be, and what I felt it could be: a peaceful and joyous experience.

So the story, in all its messiness, goes like this:  I'd been having contractions off and on for weeks, but never anything consistent, and usually not even anything very painful.  Mostly just oodles of Braxton-Hicks contractions, although they were getting so strong that it was hard to tell if they were real or not.  After much debate, my Mom and sister finally left Monday night to go to New York.  My Mom was running out of time to visit my other sisters there (who had vacation plans for later in the week) and Tracy needed to get back to work.  They both would have been willing to stay another day just in case, but at this point I felt like I was feeling so much pressure to produce a baby, that it would be easier for them to leave and dispense with the guilt than to stick around waiting for things to start.  I guess I felt like that watched pot that will never boil or something.

Yes, I really was that big.  That's what nearly 10 lbs of baby looks like!

Naturally, as soon as that decision was made, I proceeded to have small contractions all throughout dinner.  But I didn't mention it.  I knew if I told Mom and Tracy, they'd immediately change their plans, stay another day, and nothing would happen.

That night I had some strong contractions for about an hour and a half.  I finally texted my Mom to tell her-- by this time they were in New Jersey.  They offered to turn around and come straight back, but I told them that dying by falling asleep at the wheel would not help anyone out.  And as soon as I went to sleep, the contractions stopped.  So that was the right move.

Tuesday, the next day, was long.  Oh my goodness it was a long day!  It was full of grocery shopping and trying to take care of kids when I had little to no energy.  Walking to Bentley's school to pick him in the afternoon up was sheer torture.  Even trying to make the car stop when I was having a super strong Braxton-Hicks contraction seemed like too much work.  It was not a fun day.  I went to bed that night wondering how much longer I could survive like that.  When Craig's alarm clock went off at 6 the next morning, I woke up because I was having a contraction.  And then they kept coming every 7 or 8 minutes.  And they were strong.  Craig and I spent a few minutes trying to decide whether or not he should go to work.  I was worried-- again-- that if he stayed home, nothing would happen.  But he pointed out that me trying to manage three kids while in labor seemed like a reallly bad idea.  So I agreed and he called in sick.  And naturally, the next contraction was way later and I worried that we'd effectively stopped my labor.  But seven minutes later another one hit.  So I stopped worrying.  And as it turned out, it was a REALLY good thing Craig stayed home.  Otherwise I think he would have missed it entirely.

That was 6:30am.  Around 7 I texted my midwife, Tierney, to let her know what was happening.  I told her I didn't think we'd need her any time soon, but that I was surprised at how intense the contractions were already.  Just a few minutes later I realized that I was bleeding.  And then the next contraction came after only 5 minutes.  And the next came was only 3 minutes later and it lasted a full minute.  I texted Tierney again and warned her that maybe she should be coming sooner than I'd thought.  She wrote back, "Call me."

I waited for another contraction to pass and then made the call.  I explained what was going on.  "It sounds like things are moving fast and I would rather be there for a bit waiting than worry about missing it, so I'll come now.  I'll be in the car, on the road in 15 minutes," she assured me.  I was so relieved.

I tried to keep busy emptying the dishwasher, but I only got halfway through it.  (Craig says that I just wandered away and left Ryder to try and finish without any supervision.  Oops.  He says that was when he knew that things must be close, because I clearly wasn't firing on all cylinders any more.)  Craig ran around getting the kids dressed and fed and calling his parents to come and help.  (That was a great irony-- the last few months, we have consistently reassured them that with my Mom and sister here, we wouldn't need any extra help.  So naturally, we end up calling them at 7:30 on a Wednesday morning begging for help as soon as possible!  They were very gracious about coming immediately and NOT rubbing that fact in our faces!)  At one point I sat down on the couch next to Ryder, who wanted to pretend to take a nap.  A contraction hit, and he began playfully kicking his feet against my stomach, which was awful.  But I was in too much pain to stand up and move.  Fortunately Craig saw what was happening and came to my rescue! 

Tierney arrived at 8:05.  After Craig and she brought in all her supplies, she listened to the baby's heartbeat and then gave me leave to get in the shower.  Up until that point, I hadn't felt like I was allowed to do anything to help with the pain-- relaxing too much might speed things up too fast, so I hadn't really been trying.  But that shower really did the trick for me.  Each time a contraction hit, I'd get down on my hands and knees and rock back and forth blowing through my lips like a horse.  (I read somewhere that forcing your mouth to relax like that-- a singer's trick-- helps everything else relax, too.  So I've always stuck to that.)  And I'd try to focus on how each contraction was one less to get through and that it was opening me up and bringing me my baby.  But I'll admit that I did a little bit of whimpering then, too, because it hurt a lot.  Just before the hot water ran out, Craig's parents arrived around and took the kids to Chick-fil-A to play.  That was around 9am.

When the hot water was gone, there was nothing to be done but get out of the shower, even though I didn't want to.  I was trying to dry myself off, but I was too shaky to do much of anything, so I finally just sat down on the toilet.  And that was where my water broke, right at 9:08.  And then I moved to pushing.

Now this is what I love: as I sat there straining against all those urges and all that pain, Tierney calmly squatted down in front of me, held my hands, and began speaking, "Okay, Alanna," she said, "What would you like to do?  You can have this baby right here if you want, but I think you'd be more comfortable on the bed.  Do you want to try and move or do you want to stay?"

"Let's go to the bed."  I said, and she and Craig helped me back to the bedroom, which was all set up.  But notice how it was my choice?  How she didn't yell at me or coerce me?  How it was calm and everything was fine???  THIS was what I was hoping for!

(Sidenote: as I walked to the bed, I looked out the window and wondered briefly if anyone could possibly see in on this beautiful spring morning...  Um, they certainly would have gotten an eyeful if they did!)

I got onto the bed and began pushing.  And it was AWFUL.  Absolutely awful.  Everything hurt.  Colton's head came out but everything was still hurting and I couldn't understand why.  And then again, very calmly-- but this time a bit authoritatively-- Tierney began talking to me.  This time she said, "Alanna, we need to get this baby out now.  I need you to push now."  Tierney didn't tell me at the time, but his cord was wrapped around his neck, and according to Craig, he was very blue.  As soon as his head was out, she fixed the cord, but he still needed to come all the way out so he could breathe.  Craig says that as she fixed the cord I said "Ow," but I don't remember that or if that was why I said it.  I've always loved how Craig has big, broad shoulders, but it didn't occur to me until that moment that those shoulders could make for an awful delivery.  I certainly didn't feel like I had anything left to give, but there was nothing to do but to keep trying, so I buried my face in my pillows and squealed and moaned while I pushed with whatever was left in me until his shoulders worked their way out, too.  As soon as he was out, he quickly began breathing and pinked right up.  It wasn't until a few moments later that he actually cried. 

He was out.  He was here.  And I was done.  It was 9:18am.  My entire labor had lasted just over three hours.  And all the pain was gone like it had never happened in the first place.  I laid right down on my bed, with Craig beside me, and was handed my little baby and we just sat looking at each other while Tierney placed warm receiving blankets over him and me.

Chunky arms!  What newborn already has chunky arms and shoulders?!?!

Look at that face!

One of my favorites

Tired, but so happy

After a few minutes, Colton began to get fussy.  I tried halfheartedly to feed him a few times, but I was so happy just looking at him that I couldn't bear to sit up and make a full effort just yet.  And newborn cries are so funny-- so demanding and puny all at the same time-- that it was hard for me to take his crying very seriously.  I just wanted to talk back to him!  Eventually I got my act together and really worked on getting him nursing, and after a few tries he latched right on and had a good first meal.  He was a hungry little thing!  That was the best and quickest that any of my babies have ever nursed!  And once he'd eaten, he was very happy.

I handed him over to Craig at that point and let Tierney examine me.  I had a small tear which she stitched up while Craig held my hand (Colton nestled in his other arm).  Once I was fixed up, Tierney examined and weighed Colton.  We'd been making guesses about what he must weigh, but none of us were even close: 9 lbs 14 oz!!!  No wonder it was so much work getting him out!  He weighed almost a pound more than Ryder, and I'd thought Ryder was a chunk!

At this point, we got me tidied up just a little bit and Craig's parents brought the kids back so they could meet their 2-hour-old brother.  Tom and Donna had taken the kids shopping, and they'd each picked out a toy for themselves and one for the new baby, so they marched in very proudly with their gifts for their baby brother.  It was so sweet to see how proud they were and how excited!  Ryder especially-- I'd worried so much about how he would react to not being the baby, but he was as excited as the rest of us, constantly pointing to Colton and squealing, "Beebee!  Beebee home!"

Band of Brothers

So peaceful.  I think he was several hours old before we bothered to put any clothes on him...!

Looking like a chubby old man-- and finally wearing a onesie!

It was exactly as I'd imagined it could be.  It was hard and painful, but beautiful and peaceful and joyous.  I can't think of a better way to welcome a new little soul to our family.

Getting burped

Such a wonderful big sister

Proud big brother

Helping Ryder hold the Beebee.  Who is almost as big as he is!

Welcome to our family, little Colton Robert.  We already love you so much!