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!!