Colton Pictures & the Birthing Story

Just as I was dozing back to sleep after getting up to go to the bathroom, I felt my water break at 2:15. I got up, very excited. I wasn't expecting to go into labor until I got closer to the due date, August 3. So this was a very nice surprise, having the baby over 2 weeks early. I got in the shower (I had to shave my legs before going to the hospital). I woke up Eric and he thought I was kidding. He wasn't too happy about getting up in the middle of the night to go to the hospital, especially since he had spent the previous day preparing a talk to give as a high councilor. I called my parents and my mom came over to be with the kids. We headed to the hospital, arriving there around 3:45. Very mild contractions were just starting as we arrived at the hospital. I really hadn't had too many contractions on Saturday, my lower back hurt though.

An IV was started, along with penicillin to treat the Group B Strep that I tested positive for. I had hoped that the labor would be quick, just as it had been with the other boys (half an hour for Spencer, and 1.5 hours for Logan), but when I learned that I needed two doses of the antibiotic, 4 hours apart, I realized that things shouldn't go too fast so I could get the meds I needed. The contractions gradually got harder and more frequent. I wanted to have a natural, drug-free delivery, so I practiced a breathing technique and some other counting techniques I learned in my hypnobirthing classes. Unfortunately, the pain didn't go away, I was just able to cope with it a little better. My nurse came in a few times and asked if I was ok and if I was feeling the contractions. I told her that I sure was, and she was quite impressed. I'm pretty sure that by the time I got to the last 20 minutes before delivery, she wasn't quite as impressed.

By the time the last 45 minutes hit, I was ready for some kind of pain medicine, but Eric talked me out of it. When it came time to push, I had to wait for my midwife to come to the room. After pushing with two contractions, the baby was born. The baby was placed on my chest immediately and he laid there for quite a while, at least 30 minutes. It was a very sweet bonding time that we had together. As I type this, tears actually come to my eyes because I really enjoyed that time we had together. (With past births, I've gotten to hold the baby, but only for a few minutes before they've whisked the baby away to poke and prod it.)

We had a hard time picking out a name for the baby. We had narrowed it down to 3 names, but none seemed to fit exactly right. Eric left it up to me to choose. I decided on Colton Tyler. Before Grandma passed away, she wasn't able to sleep one night because she was trying to come up with a name for the baby. She had come up with Tyler. So in her memory, Tyler is Colton's middle name.