First Week at Home...

Wow, I didn't realize how much time and energy it takes to care for a baby and I guess there really wasn't anything anyone could have said to prepare me anyway.

We came home from the hospital on May 13, 2009 (Wednesday) around 5 p.m. My mom (K-K) drove us home from the hospital. She was unfamiliar with my car, so it was a little nerve racking when she pulled out on Hwy 84 in 1st gear (Colt thought so too - see pic!!). Thankfully we live only 5 minutes from the hospital and arrived saftely after I told her how to get in gear. Here Colt is on the way home from the hospital (hold on!!):

The past two weeks has been Spring Training at Northview and Josh, being the newly hired Offensive Coordinator, has been very busy. He has been taking 1/2 days off of school to be with us at the hospital. He could only manage to take a 1/2 day off to help us pack-up and take pictures of our last day. We were the featured couple for the new deliveries at Flowers for the Dothan Eagle. Sadly to say, he wasn't able to come home with us...When we got home Daisy and Gizzy were patiently waiting, we unpacked and my mom MADE me sit and rest. I was so glad she did! I didn't think about how I would feel after having a baby, all I could think of was him...but my body went through a lot and would only allow me to do certain things before I got exhausted. The first thing we did was put Colt in his bassinet to get some good pictures of him in his "going home outfit" and he just cried and cried...not a happy baby. He finally calmed down and was starting to settle in.

Our friend Leah brought us over Chicken Spag, salad and bread that night and it was the best meal I felt like I'd ever had. Oh, and she brought chocolate mocha cake...SO good! Thanks Leah!

Our first night was TERRIBLE!! Colt knew he was in an unfamiliar place. He slept in his bassinet beside our bed. Well, I say 'slept' but there wasn't much of that going on. He cried all night, I fed him, fed him and fed him...nothing seemed to calm him. Finally my mom heard him screaming around 4 am and took him from me. As soon as she came into the room, I just lost it. I couldn't stop the tears...I couldn't even calm my own baby. I was so relieved when she took him but felt guilty that I didn't have the right touch. I slept until around 6:30 when Josh came into the room (he slept on the couch b/c he had to work on Thursday) and I lost it again as soon as he started asking how it went and comforting me...instead of going back to sleep, I had to see what he was doing. I went into my mom's room and she was sleeping with Colt right on top of her...so sweet...a sleeping baby!! After that night, the nights began to get a little easier, though I dreaded when the sun went down and it was time to go to sleep again:(

All in all I think he's a good baby, he does sleep a lot but I feel like he sleeps more during the day than at night (but that may be b/c I want to sleep at night). He is SUCH a cute baby, I can't take enough pictures...actually I think I may have gone overboard. But he makes the best faces (duck faces) and he looks like he's going to have a great personality...he's very alert and happy most of the time.

His 2 day appt on Friday with Dr. Benak went very well. He weighed 7 lbs exactly and everything else looked normal, except he was a little jaundice. The doc told us to sit him in front of a window in the indirect sunlight and it should clear up (just like a plant).

We have had SO many visitors come over, it's really been an overwhelming week and the days are already flying!

Some of the visitors were Ava Grace Yates (1 month) and Canon Moss (2 months). Ava wasn't cooperating that day!

My mom has been a HUGE help this week. She has bought groceries for us, cooked, took care of me, and helped with Colt (of course) and just loves him! I couldn't do it without her and I couldn't thank her enough. I don't want her to leave!!!

Some of the firsts that Colt experienced this week is his first bath...well at home anyway...see how well that went (poor baby)!!

He also learned how to hold his paci in his mouth by himself (ok, by luck):

Colton Andrew Parrish

It all started on Mother's day (May 10). I woke up around 4 a.m. Sunday morning and began having contractions. Since this is my first pregnancy I wasn't sure what a contraction was suppose to feel like, but I was sure this had to be it. My first thoughts were how awesome it was going to be to have my first child on Mother's Day!! I didn't want to rush into things so I let nature take it's course and I waited it out. I didn't want to be the overzealous pregnant girl that ran to the hospital at the first sign of a contraction just to be sent home in embarrassment. So, the day went on. We went to eat with Josh's parents at Cracker Barrel for Mother's Day and all through lunch I had several contractions, but they were not constant and would stop after having an episode of them. I started thinking of all the things I needed to do before I was unable to go out for a couple of weeks...so I ran errands all day along with my contractions, they weren't stopping me, but they sure didn't feel good! I debated and debated on when and if I should go to the hospital...I knew things were happening but the doc said to come in if my contractions were every 5/6 minutes...mine weren't yet.

The day before I had Colt:

Well, I guess the most logical thing to do in the case of going into labor was go to the movies...yes, that's right. Josh, Deborah, Barry and I went to see "State of Play" on Sunday night, I really don't know what I was thinking!!! I had contractions throughout the entire movie and it wasn't an easy movie to follow, so if you asked me what it was about, I can't tell you a thing!

We timed my contractions that night and they still weren't constant. So, we went to bed as usual. My mind raced and the contractions kept coming. I started timing them again around 1 a.m. and they were finally constant enough for me to gather up the courage to tell Josh that it was time. He laughs because I was very nonchalant about it.

When we got to the hospital and I finally got into a room on May 11 around 2:30 a.m., I was 3 1/2 cm dilated!! Yeah, the nurse said 'I think we are going to keep you,' music to my ears! I didn't get sent home. To help with the pain, the nurse gave me some drugs to help me sleep since nothing was really going to happen until morning. The drugs slowed my contractions down to about nothing:( But it didn't matter to me b/c those drugs were awesome!! We called our moms and texted our friends to let them know we were having a baby!

That morning around 7 a.m. Dr. Mullins came in to break my water to get things moving. My mom, John and Rebecca were already there...they got up super early for the first grandchild!! My contractions started soaring and around 10:30 I got my epidural, I had had enough of those contractions and from then on it was smooth sailing for me but not the baby. They started the Pitocin soon after that to speed things along. Colt didn't seem to take too well to the Pitocin b/c every time I had a big contraction his heart rate would fall below the red line...not good. I had to wear an oxygen mask beginning at 11 a.m. and lay on my side the entire time. We had one big scare when his heart rate was below the red line for 4 minutes and 15 seconds. Dr. Mullins gave me 45 seconds and if his heart rate didn't go up they were going to have to take the baby, luckily after he said that it went back to normal. It had become a pretty long day. I was fine, but I felt bad for everybody else that was waiting on us:( Finally around 5 pm they said I was fully dilated and it was time to meet our little baby!

First I should mention that Dr. Mullins is a fairly new doctor and wasn't even on call that night, but he stayed for me. Usually doctors come in at the last minute to basically catch the baby but he was there for the whole delivery. Also, the nurse that had been with me all day (Carol) was suppose to get off at 3 p.m., but she also stayed to see me through. The staff at the hospital were absolutely wonderful!!

Dr. Mullins seemed to think that it wasn't going to take long at all, but little did he know the baby's head was face up. I don't want to know what he did to move his head in the right direction, but he did it. The whole delivery process was nothing like I had expected. Between each push was very relaxed and laid back. Josh and my mom were in the delivery room. Josh seemed to stay back a little during all the pushing. I believe he 'looked' one time and got a little faint. Between pushes I would ask him if he was ok...needless to say he didn't get too close to all the excitement. We would talk about every day things like the last thing we were doing was having a baby, then once a contraction started it was intense coaching and pushing. During one pushing episode, Dr. Mullins' phone rang which was the ring tone of his little girl laughing. We thought that Colt was arriving just a laughing!! He was so embarrassed. After about an hour of pushing, Colton Andrew Parrish finally was here!!

Time of birth: 5:56 pm
Weight: 7 lbs 2 oz
Length: 21 inches

He was very swollen but I could tell he looked a lot like Josh:) He has dark brown hair and a pretty good bit of it, dark blue eyes, some sprigs of long eyelashes, an olive complextion, big hands with long fingers and big feet and was oh so cute...okay he was perfect! He was very alert for about the first 3 hours. He was just looking around and very content.

I can't believe he's finally here!!