Welcome Colton Swift Wagner!

Well, Colton is almost 3 weeks old and I'm just now getting to the post announcing his arrival. Welcome baby Colton! He was born on November 16 at 7:57pm, which I though was funny because all of my kids were born in the evening....Mackenzie around 6:30, Brandt at 5:45, and now Colton took his sweet time and almost came past 8pm. Here is the story of his delivery....

We arrived at the hospital around 7:30am with Brandt in tow, and checked in downstairs in the lobby. We headed upstairs where they checked us into room 317 (we thought was funny because it's like St. Patrick's Day 3/17 and we had an Irish nurse!). Soon Karah, our nanny, came by to get Brandt for the day, and they got me set up in bed. They got me on an IV with Pitocin and broke my water around 8:30am, and then I had my first contraction around 9:40am. The contractions were getting stronger and about 2-3 minutes apart, so I got an epidural around 1pm. They kept checking my cervix and it seemed I was staying around 2-3cm dilated FOREVER. Finally around 6pm I was at 5cm dilated, so I knew that was when things would start moving, as that's how it was the 2 times before. Our Irish nurse, Anne-Marie, promised we'd have the baby by the end of her shift at 7pm, so we were getting close. No such luck! It wasn't until about 7:30pm that they checked my cervix, and WHOA, I was 10cm dilated! It's amazing how fast it moves along when it decides to. We got ready to start pushing....

Colton was "sunny side up", which means he was heads down but facing upwards instead of downwards. This is also referred to as having "back labor" because it's so much harder to push a baby out when they are facing the wrong way - our pelvis is not designed as well for that. Mackenzie started off this way too but I got up on all 4's and she ended up turning. Well, the doctor (Roy Bergstrom) also said Colton had turned as I was starting to push, but it turns out he ended up flipping back and did indeed emerge "sunny side up". However, I did have to push harder than with Brandt, although it was till only for 8 minutes.

Colton emerged with Daddy ready to pull him out, as Dr. Bergstrom had let him before with Brandt, and suddenly I hear something about the cord being wrapped around his neck. They abruptly told me to stop pushing, and I couldn't see but could hear them calmly talking about cutting the cord that was wrapped around my precious baby boy's neck. No one seemed panicked, but I still couldn't help but get a little scared that something was wrong. It seemed like no time at all and they said that Daddy could pull him out the rest of the way, and they laid him on my chest. He was purple! My little squirmer inside me had gotten that cord wrapped around TWICE. He was perfectly OK though and pinked up in no time. The doctor and the nurses were commenting how big he was....which I was not used to with my typical small babies. When they finally got the scale in the room, we could officially announce that Colton Swift Wagner was born at 8 lbs 4 oz and 20.5 inches long. Wow! He was a big boy.

Everything post-delivery went smoothly and Colton seemed calm and laid back right from the start. He slept pretty well and also seemed to latch on breast-feeding better than my previous 2. Big sister Mackenzie and big brother Brandt came to visit with Aunt Erin the following evening, and it was super-cute to see Brandt's reaction. He kissed his baby brother and then seemed to move on, checking out all the cool buttons and cords in our hospital room. Mackenzie, of course, was sweet as can be - she has such a huge heart for babies. We were able to leave the hospital around noon on the 18th and head home with our new little boy to join the rest of our family we were dying to see.

Colton went that Friday (3 days old) to the doctor because he was looking a little yellow (jaundice). He wasn't too bad though, but he was weighing only 7 lbs 10oz at this point. They wanted me to start supplementing at this point over the weekend and come back Monday. He was back up to 8lbs 1 oz by Monday and doing great! By 2 weeks he was at 8lbs 8oz (50% on weight, height, and head). I decided to switch to pumping and feeding (instead of breastfeeding), as I was doing both and seemed he was not getting much from breastfeeding, and at least with pumping I could tell what he was eating. He is now almost 3 weeks old and he's eating about 24 oz a day, which is great! He doesn't go back to the doctor until he is 2 months old.

Speaking of doctors, Brandt is doing great and finally gaining weight! He has been doing the nebulizer twice a day for his breathing problems, and we see a pulmonary specialist next week to hopefully diagnose what has been going on. We are thinking asthma.

Mackenzie had her 8 year old well visit last week as well, and she's doing great - in the 35th percentile for weight, so she's growing great! She's always been in the 10-15% range, so I was happy to hear how well she's doing.

We're gearing up for the holidays now and looking forward to my dad coming this weekend, my brother next week, and my mom at Christmas. I head back to work on January 4th. It'll be here before you know it.

That's it for now....signing off....