Colton David Christ

Welcome Colton!

We are now a family of six, it's still a little hard to believe.  This past week has just flown by but Colton is a week old today.

Colton David Christ - 7 lbs 13.5 oz - 21 inches - 5:22am on Oct 1st

Last Tuesday night, September 30th, Craig and I were watching tv and talking about how we thought Colton wouldn't show up for at least a few more days if not a week and even my doctor had said earlier that day that I wasn't progressing much but he was comfortable with just letting me go another week and then we'd talk about inducing at that point.  I wasn't having any contractions or any sign of him making his appearance when I went to bed that night.  Around 1am, October 1st, I started to wake up and was uncomfortable but thought it was just the way I was sleeping so I restlessly tried to sleep until 2am when I finally got up.  Shortly after that I realized I was having contractions and they were pretty regular but not that close together yet, about 7 minutes apart or so.

Kamea, Laila and Hayden meeting their new brother

I decided to go fold laundry, as some of you know my constant battle with laundry there's always way too much laundry piling up at our house and I can't ever catch up.  So from 2am until 4am I folded and dealt with the contractions still thinking there's no way I had progressed enough to go to the hospital yet despite the contractions getting closer and closer.  I was really hoping to have an unmedicated birth this time after having gone with the epidural for Laila and Hayden so I wanted to labor at home as long as I could then go to the hospital.  Well, shortly after 4am Craig woke up from the sounds of one of my contractions (it was getting very painful at this point and despite my efforts of not waking the whole house up I was getting louder).  When he got up he asked how far apart my contractions were and when I told him they were about three and a half minutes apart he asked if we had called any of our friends yet to watch the kids.  I said I hadn't, I was wanting to wait awhile so we didn't wake everyone up and I wanted to go take a shower.  Well, the contractions continued to get closer and more intense and Craig, luckily, said it was time we called someone right now and get going.  Apparently I was still in denial because I had no bags packed and was still determined to go take a shower.  Craig threw together some stuff for me and then said we had to go once our friend had come over to watch the kids who were all still sleeping.

Big sister Kamea holding Colton

Big sister Laila holding Colton

Getting out to the car was a struggle and on the way to the hospital I realized I had the urge to push.  Craig said later that he almost considered pulling in to another hospital on the way to our hospital because he was worried that the baby was very close to coming and he didn't want to pass up a perfectly good hospital (kind of like you don't want to pass up a good runway when you have an emergency while flying, haha).  Well, we made it to the hospital at 5:00am and he went straight to the ER and told them I was having a baby.  Apparently the person he spoke to gave him that look like he may be overreacting and we didn't need to rush until Craig said my contractions were non stop, there wasn't really any time in between.  After that they got me in the wheel chair and hurried me upstairs.  It turns out I was totally dilated and ready for the baby to arrive.  They called the doctor and then it was a matter of trying to stop me from pushing until he arrived.  At 5:20 the doctor showed up and Colton was born at 5:22am, 22 minutes after we got to the hospital!  He weighed 7 lbs 13.5oz and was 21 inches.

6 days old

We stayed in the hospital for two days and I was so excited for the kids to come visit later that day after school for the first time.  The girls were so adorable, they couldn't wait to hold Colton and kept reminding Daddy and Hayden to wash their hands before going to touch Colton.  Kamea and Laila took turns holding him and giving him kisses.  Hayden was interested at first but said he didn't want to hold him and was happy just watching.  He wasn't upset when I was holding Colton and didn't seem jealous but just seemed indifferent about the whole thing.  Since coming home he's held Colton once but immediately said "the baby's too heavy!"  He's always curious where Colton's at when he wakes up but that's about it.  The girls are still super excited and helpful with Colton until he starts crying then they say "Mom, your baby's crying!!"

Watching over their little brother

The girls adore him and want to hold him all the time

Such proud big sisters

Colton had his first doctor's appointment yesterday and is doing great, he's gained 9oz already above  his birth weight.  We're all doing well too, still trying to adjust to having another little one...he's so quiet it's easy to forget him when we walk to another room but Kamea always reminds us not to forget "the baby."  We picked the name Colton a few months ago, Craig and I were just listing off names that we liked and when this one came up we figured we'd think about it and see if anything else came up that we liked more.  The name kind of stuck over the next few days/weeks and we decided it'd definitely be Colton.  We picked David for his middle name after my uncle, David Sawyers.

Scrunchie face

Thank you everyone for the wonderful congratulations on Facebook already and everyone that helped us out that morning and first day, we really appreciate it!

Craig's squadron had this super cool sign at our house for Colton

Colton made it on the board on base