Cole's Story

I know a lot of you either know a lot of this already or don't care, but I'm sharing anyway because I love hearing/reading birth stories...

Background: I'm a good baby baker. So good that my babies don't seem to want to ever come out (unless forced). I carry high so I don't dilate or really efface much. I went 6 days over my due date before we evicted Jace, and Brooklyn we scheduled 6 days before her due date. Both babies were born on the 4th of the month (August 4th and October 4th), so when we went to our first appointment with this pregnancy and were told our due date was May 4th we knew that would be the day.

Fast forward 7-8 months to April 26th. I woke up in the early morning with painful contractions. Now I've had Braxton Hicks contractions throughout all of my pregnancies but these suckers HURT!! I tried to sleep through them and eventually got up to take a bath and drink water to try to get those babies to go away. I know it probably sounds crazy, but I really didn't want to have my baby until our induction date. I still had a lot to do, and we'd figured out arrangements for the bigger babes, etc. Anyway, I wasn't ready. I timed the contractions after all of my attempts at stopping them failed and they were consistently 3-5 minutes apart for 2 + hours. When my OB's office opened I called to see if I could go in and get checked, but my doctor was in surgery all day. They said I needed to go to the hospital to get monitored. Ugh.

After I got off the phone, I think I was so taken back that I scared the contractions away! They were still consistent, but not all of them were painful. I kept telling Trevor he should go down and work on the basement (we were hoping to have the kids' rooms finished down there before the wee little one arrived). Every time I told him that, I'd have another painful contraction. We finally decided to go up to the hospital just so we could see what was going on. We dropped the kids at my sister's and reluctantly went to the hospital.

When we got there, my contractions slowed down . Of course. I kind of felt dumb, but oh well. There were still some painful ones, but nothing too bad. The nurse checked my dilation and I was a 1+. I know that doesn't sound impressive to most, but that's the most I've dilated on my own, ever. We told her we'd prefer to wait to be induced but if they could give me something for the pain and make the contractions go away, I'd happily be on my way. They gave me a lortab and we left. We didn't even make it to the parking lot when they started getting really painful again. I was doubled over in pain. I didn't want to go back (I already felt stupid) so we went back home, leaving the kiddos at my sister's just in case. I took another bath. Didn't help. Not even close. By this time I didn't care when we had our baby, just so long as the contractions stopped and the pain went away. I yelled at Trevor nearly the whole way to the hospital that that he was driving too fast over bumps ;o).

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When we got back to the hospital about 5:30ish I was at a 3+. They started fluids and admitted me. I got my epidural, the doctor broke my water, and at 10:28 p.m (without any pitocin and pushing through 2 sets of contractions) we had our sweet precious boy. It was such an awesome experience!! He was perfect!! The other really neat thing is that even though things didn't go as planned, he was born on April 26th which just so happened to be his Uncle Jeremy's birthday.

Welcome to the world Cole Jeremy Zezula!!

Cole's first picture. 7 lbs, 2 oz and 20 1/2 inches of perfection!

Still a little shocked. So were we!! It still hadn't really "hit" me that we were having a baby. I thought I had another week to prepare myself!

Our first picture. We're so happy and instantly in love.

Grandpa and his newest grandbaby.

Jace with his brand new baby brother. He was a little reluctant at first, but still wanted to hold him. (Although when we asked him if he wanted to take him home, he said he'd rather bring Logan home [his cousin who's 11 days older than Cole]).

Our first picture with the whole family. (Thanks for telling me how crazy my hair looked, Tara!!)

Grandma Barnes with Cole.

Daddy and his boy.

Jace and Brooklyn were a lot more excited with the idea of Cole second visit to the hospital. Brooklyn even got off the iPhone to come give him loves, although she didn't really want to hold him quite yet.

All ready to go home!! It still boggles me at how tiny they are in their car seats!

We have almost survived the first month with Cole in our home! We've had some ups and downs, but it has been so wonderful having a newborn around. The kids have adjusted well and love their little brother a little too much sometimes! The recovery and adjustments have been much easier the third time around. We just love this little guy so much, and even though he keeps us a little sleep deprived (okay, sometimes A LOT) we couldn't imagine our family without him!!