Welcome Coleman Thomas

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Welcome Coleman Thomas

It has been a crazy past 12 hours! We're excited to welcome the arrival of our little 4th of July firecracker - Coleman Thomas (Cole).

8:32pm - 8 pounds, 13.3 ounces and 21-1/2" long

Now, the story....

Yesterday morning I went walking with my friend, neighbor and fellow preggo Carrie. I told her that I did not feel a baby on Saturday - and I really didn't! After the walk, Eli & I went to Kohl's, followed by a nap and then pool time. We stopped in Food Lion after the pool to pick up some buns for our cookout and I started having back pains. They felt an awful lot like the back labor I had with Eli. I must confess that I immediately got scared. They got strong really fast and I just wanted to wimp out. Took a shower and called the doctor who advised that we go ahead to the hospital and that if I was in active labor that they'd keep me, if not I could walk around the hospital some and see if that would help. Quite many more back pains later (they were coming close together), we loaded Eli and his bag up and dropped him off at Ry-Ry's house for a sleepover. I so wanted to give him a goodbye hug and kiss but he was so excited to see Ryan that he didn't care about me and ran right inside. That was probably good because I ended up doubled over in the seat with another contraction. They were really hurting then!!

We got to the hospital and they checked me to see if I could be admitted. I was at 3cm so they went ahead and did so. The nurse asked if I wanted an epidural and I said "absolutely". I was so scared of the pain. This was a completely different feeling than when I had Eli. I had tears in my eyes and was just flat out scared. They put the monitors on me and called the doctor to let her know. One nurse took blood so they could do my bloodwork and then get me an epidural. I kept having really intense contractions. They checked me again and I had progressed to 8cm. They tried calling the doctor because she had to at least be on the property for me to get the epidural. A few more contractions and I yelled pretty loud (I'm kinda embarrassed but it really did hurt). Next thing you know, here comes Cole, not waiting at all for the doctor to get here. The nurses had to deliver him - three I think, my eyes were closed the whole time. He had the cord wrapped around his neck and they had to cut it to get him out and then his shoulder got stuck so there was some acrobatics to get him unstuck. All this took place in 1 hour 3 minutes after we arrived!!! His apgar score was only a 3 when he was born but then quickly jumped to a 9. They had to help him breathe a little to start and I was just waiting for that little cry - so happy when it came.

Cole is pretty bruised (a la Eli) and had to go to the special care nursery right off the bat since there was no doctor present when he was born, they wanted to check him out. They did some monitoring and checking on him and he is perfectly fine and healthy. We had a pretty good night last night. I didn't sleep much due to all the excitement and spent quite a bit of time snuggling with our newest little monkey.

We're excited for Eli to meet his little brother today and for the grandparents and our friends to come visit. Eli has no idea what is in store for him but he's going to be a great big brother.