Coleton Brian Abeel

Our little boy arrived yesterday morning, April 20th at 7:20 a.m. He weighed 7lbs 14oz. and is 21 inches long. It was a smooth and easy labor, however, it was not a smooth and easy delivery! I began having contractions the afternoon of the 19th, and began timing them as they got more painful and consistent. We called my mom-in-law to come over and headed down to the hospital around 9:30pm. They checked me in and I was dilated to a 4, by the time the I.V. was in, the Dr. had seen me, and I had filled out all my paperwork, I was in a lot of pain and was ready for the epidural. Thankfully it came quicky and I was completely comfortable and relaxed shortly after midnight. At that point they said to just rest and they would check me every so often, the epidural had not slowed down labor at all, the contractions were still strong and close together, I just wasn't in pain...heavenly! So Jordan and I slept and rested for about the next five hours, while I went from about 6cm to 9cm dilated. They broke my water at 6:20am and that brought me to 10 immediately, and they said it was time to push. This is when the craziness began! In between pushing Coleton would show signs of stress, and they began to all look worried, and lots of people were rushing into the room to do things. They put an oxygen mask on me, and kept having me push. He wasn't really going anywhere though, barely even crowning after a while, and I was feeling a lot of pain. Because he was under so much stress, they said they needed to use the vacuum and get him out as soon as possible. So I kept pushing, and the Dr. was pulling with the vacuum as hard as he could, and ouchie it hurt really really bad. Even trusty Jordan, who is usually not afraid of being right in the action, being a paramedic and all, had to take a seat for a minute, we were both pretty worried about everything. Coleton was finally born at 7:20am, he was "sunny side up," which is face up instead of face down like they are supposed to be. The cord was also wrapped around his neck, and he had a MASSIVE bruise on his forehead from the pull of the vacuum. Sunny side up is not an ideal way to birth a child, it is a lot larger part of the head that comes out first, and normally with a vacuum extraction, there is a slight bruise/misshaping on the back part of the head, but because he was face up, the vacuum was sucking on his forehead. Poor little guy! It was definitely a traumatic way to enter the world. I can't say that I scraped through unharmed either, the Dr. did an episiotomy to get him out, and lets just say the post-partum recovery has NOT been a walk in the park. The recovery is also when I thank my lucky stars that Jordan is a Paramedic, and is not afraid of some squeamish things.

His bruising was so sad! Thankfully it is already MUCH better.

The amazing pictures below are thanks to Taylor...I love having a photographer in the family!

Thankfully Coleton is here safe and sound, and so far he has been such a sweetheart! He has been nursing wonderfully, and then pretty much sleeps the rest of the time. He is so cute, and Clara has been such a wonderful big sister so far. She has not been jealous at all, and really seems to love him. She can say his name really well too, which is cute. Anyways, we got home today a little after noon, they had to test him for jaundice first, which he hasn't developed, thankfully. They told us that due to the traumatic birth and severe bruising they would be really surprised if he didn't get it, but so far he hasn't! We are feeling so blessed to have him in our family now, and can't wait to watch him grow!

A couple pictures from our first day at home...it's nice to be back!