Colton: 1 Month

Our little baby is already getting so big so fast! We had his 1 month appointment yesterday and he was 9 lbs 13 oz (50%) and 24 inches (95%). Looks like we have a future giant on our hands. The doctor thinks the nurse may have not had the most accurate read on his height so he may stay the same for the next couple months haha. I was pretty amazed how much weight he gained though! At his 2 week appointment he was back up to his birth weight so he pretty much gained 2 lbs in 2 weeks.  I think this is normal for babies but it just blew my mind! 

 It has been a pretty amazing first month learning about parenthood and Coltons little personality. I just wanted to write down some little facts about him.

- He has a love/hate relationship with his pacifier.  He never wants it in his mouth unless he is sleeping.  He will be crying as we're putting him to bed so we give it to him and he is instantly calm.....until he spits it out 10 minutes later and we have to keep putting it back in his mouth until he is asleep enough to not notice it fall out.  One of the best reactions we get is when we try to stick it in his mouth and he decides he doesn't want it so he keeps his mouth wide open and shakes his head until we take it out.  I think we've gotten to a point that it is more entertaining for us so we will keep doing it for a reaction.

- He loves loves his swing! He is content just hanging out in it or sleeping in it.  This is great for us because he rarely is in a bad mood while he's swinging. I didn't think it was a necessary investment at first, then after my friend told me how her daughter did so much better with the swing, I decided to get one.

- He has slept in his carseat most of the time because he hates being flat on his back.  We have just recently moved him into a bassinet.  He seems to be doing better in that now because he is a little bigger so he is a little more comfortable.

- He is the worlds loudest sleeper! He is making noise all night long! We have just had him sleeping in his room from the beginning.  We had someone stay with us for a couple nights so we moved Colton into our room and it was honestly the worst nights of sleep Trent and I have had since he was born.

- Sleeping has been hit or miss with him.  Somedays he is a champion sleeper and others he is doing everything he can to not sleep.  He will give me a break every couple nights and sleep 5-6 hours straight at night. I'm liking this trend so far.

- He hates being put to sleep initially but generally will be pretty good at night and go right back down after I feed him in the middle of the night.

- He loves the car! I really don't think he's ever cried in the car before.  Regardless of where we're going he will fall asleep instantly when we turn on the engine. This has been heaven sent! I have been able to take him out at naptime and he will be asleep until it's time to eat.

- This boy is a terribly loud eater.  I tried feeding him in our room during the night once and Trent kicked me out because Colton just gulps galore and was keeping Trent awake.  I am a little worried about feeding him in public.  I feel like it will be a very awkward experience when everyone within a 20 foot radius can hear him eating.

- He has become a bit of a spit up baby.  The last week or so he will spit up a lot of the milk he just ate.  The doctor said it is because he is trying to drink too much.  I am hoping he grows out of this sooner than later. He did this when we introduced him to our Sunbeam class and one of the girls looked at him and said "I think he's sick". We didn't have a problem with them trying to touch him the rest of the class.

- He doesn't really know how to feel about the bath yet.  I think with it getting colder here he likes the initial warmth of the water but then hates to be wet when we take him out.

- He has the best reactions to noise. He gets really startled and will get a confused look on his face. He will pull out his claws when it's really loud.

- Unfortunately he has thinned out quite a bit in the hair department on top. He has a pretty attractive mullet right now.  We are trying to rock a comb over to hide his bald spots.  I told Trent that he and my dad will have the same haircut when they meet at Thanksgiving.  He also has a pretty low hairline. I guess he is his father's son.

Here are some pictures of him over the course of the month!

The Birth of Colton Trent Romney

Well a pretty important life change has happened. We had our baby boy Colton! It was pretty unexpected the way it all happened. Just a little warning that this is a long and complicated story.  

I was 37 weeks along and had just started going to the doctor every week to get checked.  I walked in his office on Wednesday the 12th and the nurse started to take my blood pressure.  She had a little bit of a puzzled look on her face and took it again.  She then was asking me what I had to eat that day because it was a little high and sometimes diet can do that to you temporarily.  She thought I was just anxious to be there so they left me in the room for about 20 min to see if it would go down.  Then my doctor came in and rechecked it and it was still really high.  He told me the week before it was 110/70 and this week it was 140/90.  He told me to go down the hall to get some bloodwork done and then call him the next morning after getting my blood pressure taken again.  

The next morning I called him after having it retaken and he said my bloodwork came back clear so we had a couple options.  I wasn't preeclamptic yet, but the high BP is one of the first signs it is coming.  He said we could wait it out through the weekend and go to his office on Monday morning to check my status or I could check into the hospital that day to start the induction process. 

Unfortunately with this timing, Trent had his first set of tests starting that Friday.  If I waited until Monday to go in it would mess up his testing for the whole week.  So we decided to go to the hospital to get everything going.  

This was about 10 am and he told us to be there around 3. So Trent went to school to take a quiz while I cleaned our apt and got all of the bags ready to go.  This was actually pretty funny because when we got to the hospital there was another couple in the waiting room to be induced and they had one little bag and we had seriously enough baggage for a 2 week vacation.  I was almost a little embarrassed how much we had, but oh well. 

We were checked in around 4:30 and ready to go.  At this point I was thinking we'd have the baby Friday morning. Boy was I wrong.  Because I was 2 weeks early, they had to do a cervix ripening where they pretty much stick a little pill up there to get me effaced enough to push him out.  They started this around 8 pm and said they would check me every 3-4 hours and put a new pill in.  I ended up having a lot of contractions (I wasn't feeling them) so they didn't do another pill until 6 am.  

My doctor came in around 10 and we had a little chat.  Basically they weren't really able to check my status because it caused too much pain for me. He wasn't sure if I was progressing or not. He said we could do an epidural so they could check or I could go home and come back the next day.  We decided to stay and get the epidural even though this increased my chances of having a C-section. At this point my mom had arrived so we were calling my dad and consulting with him about what we should do. I think he even called his brother who is an OB to get his opinion. One of the perks of coming from a family of Doctors.

I got the epidural around 1.  I was a little nervous because I thought it would hurt a lot worse than it did. It was honestly the tiniest pinch and not even uncomfortable.  I got very lucky with my Drs.  Mind you that I hadn't had any contraction pains yet.  My OB came back in and checked me and I was dilated to a 3 and 75% effaced! We were so excited. So they got me started on the pitocin and broke my water around 3 o'clock.  

I was progressing pretty quickly and was at a 7 or 8 by 8 o clock.  The unfortunate part was the Colton's head was at an awkward angle and the possibility went up that I would need a C-section again.  The Dr. tried to move him around.  At 10 o'clock I was at a 10 and ready to go.  Unfortunately Colton's head was still awkward and the anesthesia was too strong for me.  I was pushing for maybe 10 minutes but I couldn't feel anything so we stopped and had the anesthesiologist come back and lower my dosage.  

The nurse had me get on my hands and knees to try to move Colton around.  This seemed to do the trick because by 11 we were ready to go again and he had moved enough for me to start pushing again.  

Pushing hurt more this time around because my epidural dosage was as low as it would go.  I drank some apple juice before we started and ended up throwing it all up while pushing.  Note to self: no sugar right before a physically exhausting activity. 

I was getting frustrated because Trent and my mom were giving me positive reinforcement and making me feel like I was almost there, when really I still had a good hour of pushing to go haha. I think I may have told them to stop because they were getting my hopes up too high. 

Then miraculously he finally came out at 12:30 am on September 15th.  He was 7 lbs and 14 oz and 20.5 inches long.  I have to tell you, I told Trent a good month before that September 15th sounded like a good day for him to come so I was excited that my prediction came true! 

They held him up for me to see and then took him over to be dried off and checked.  I was hysterically crying because I was so overcome with so many emotions.  I was mostly excited that he made it out ok and that I was done with the labor haha.

It was such a surreal feeling to suddenly have this human outside of my body.  It was almost like I was in denial the whole time that he was really alive in there.

They finally brought him over after what seemed to be an eternity and I officially met my little boy.  He was crying while they were checking him and then when they gave him to me he suddenly stopped and became very calm.  I couldn't believe he recognized me right away.  It was such an amazing feeling.  It was honestly the true meaning of love at first sight. I was so amazed at how quickly the mothering instinct took over and how in that quick moment it went from everything revolving around us to everything revolving around him.

I am so grateful for the blessing I have to be his mom and for Trent to be his dad. We couldn't be more thrilled about this new journey of parenthood and watching this little boy grow everyday!

Enjoy the pictures of our pride and joy!