Colton's Arrival

This pregnancy had been a trying one for me, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes around 28 weeks.  After that my life was consumed with doctor appointments, a very strict diet, insulin and more doctor appointments.  I had a high risk pregnancy because of diabetes, my history of a large baby (thanks to Eva), and my history of preclampisa (from when I was pregnant with Allyson).  Most weeks I had 3-4 appointments it was a stressful time for sure.  Everything was just fine through the entire pregnancy but I had to be continually monitored in case anything changed.  One benefit of all the appointments was the bi-weekly ultrasounds where I got to see our baby.
My doctors decided, in an effort not to have another 11 lb baby, to induce me at 39 weeks (luckily for us just after my brother's wedding...like two days after).
Monday, October 6th I called into the Labor and Deliver to see if I could come in and start the induction process.  They had room but told me to come as soon as I could.  By the time we got everything together for me, the girls and a few last minute things situated around the house we finally left around 9:30am.  

Our last picture as a family of 4.

The plan for my induction was to take it slow and see how my body would react to the medication and then decide if I would be admitted or go home for the night and try again the next day.  By the time we got to the hospital they were filling up quickly (I guess there is some truth to the full moon theory).  Thankfully they still had room for me.  So we got settled in.  After a long day of being hooked up to monitors they decided I had progressed enough to be admitted.  They were actually surprised at how fast I had progressed.  Knowing how slow my babies can be I tried not to get my hopes up, but I thought we might be having our baby sometime that night.  

Of course that didn't happen, I spent a night getting my blood sugars checked every hour, alternating between walking and being hooked up to the monitors, and surviving 5 failed IV attempts (the 6th time was the charm...I guess).  

When the Doctor (Dr. Westgate) stopped by in the morning she wanted to really get things moving.  Thankfully my nurse, Jenny, wanted to make sure I got my epidural before we got things moving too quickly and she called for the anesthesiologist.  The anesthesiologist was a funny guy, he got really annoyed at all the noise from the construction workers (they are renovating the hospital) and went out and told them to go work somewhere else.  The best part is they did!  He said he wouldn't want his wife or his daughter to have to listen to that while in labor.  So besides liking the guy for taking away labor pains he gave us a little peace and quite too!

After the epidural was in I was able to rest quite a bit.  My nurse Jenny stayed in my room the whole time because my pregnancy was high risk she wanted to keep a close eye on everything.  She was great, even if she had to keep checking my blood sugars every hour.   Dr. Westgate came to check on me around 1pm and she broke my water and really upped the pitocin.  She said we should plan on having this baby by 5pm and she headed back to the clinic.  Things really progressed fast from there and Jenny had to call Dr. Westgate to come back around 2:30ish. Dr. Westgate and the nurses barely had to time get all set up, I pushed a couple of times and Colton was here.  So much easier than my previous two deliveries, I am sure in part because he was not face up (like my girls).

You can see one of the nurses scanning my arm band getting ready to check my blood sugar, and Coton's sugar levels.  Poor Colton didn't appreciate the heel sticks 

Jenny taking measurements and trying to get his blood sugars high enough.  Thankfully he only had to have one dose of sugar water and a few oz of formula and he was fine.  

My parents and Steve's mom brought the girls to meet their new little brother.  It was so nice to see the girls, and they were excited to see us too.  

The girls were very cute with Colton, Eva just kept giggling.

The grandmas both noticed that Colton had on a pink hat (Steve and I hadn't even noticed) and Linda went and got a more appropriate blue hat from the nurses.  

Ally loved holding Colton, though she was a little unnerved by what she saw under the blankets (he didn't have a diaper on yet).  She will have to get used to having a boy around.

I love this picture

(blogger is not cooperating and won't rotate it correctly, but I had to include it anyway)

Our nurse on Wednesday turned out to be the girlfriend of one of the firefighters Steve worked with.  She was really nice and took great care of us.

Colton all set to go home, 

We headed home Wednesday evening, the nurses are great at the hospital but nothing beats being in your own home.  It did help that my parents kept the girls at their house so we didn't have to jump into being parents of 3 right away.