Colten Matthew Hunt

 As December went on and on, without the arrival of our baby, I grew nervous.

I was afraid that he was going to be HUGE, and that my mom would come and go before the baby was even born!

At my 38 week appointment, a Monday, I brought up my concern about his size with my doctor.

Cayden was 23 inches, and 9 pounds, 4 oz when he was born and had problems throughout the delivery and with his lungs after he was born because of his size.  I was worried that since we were having another boy, he would also be big, and we might have similar problems.

I also felt a lot different with this boy than I had with the girls.  He felt bigger to me; I felt very tight in my stomach, I had a lot of pressure and was getting really sore.  Some nights I felt like I could hardly walk!  I thought it was all because of his size.

I asked the doctor if he felt big to her; she guessed that at that point he was a good 8 lbs, at least.

So I asked her about induction, just in case...

Of course, I always get the doctors and clinics who have a policy against induction, unless the baby or mom isn't doing so hot.  Which unfortunately (or rather, fortunately) is never the case with me.

But she did listen to me, and said that she'd talk it over with doctor in charge and let me know.

Well, that week passed.  My mom flew in from Colorado that Thursday and we went about the business of preparing for a baby.  We made food and froze it, grocery shopped, cleaned, made our Christmas cookies, wrapped presents, went to movies, and all sorts of other things.  The baby STILL showed no signs of wanting to come out.

My Dad called almost everyday, telling me that I really needed to have that baby, because my mom was supposed to leave the next Wednesday. 

Thanks Dad, I was pretty aware of that!  Too bad I really couldn't do anything about it!

Unfortunately you can't schedule your baby, and my due date was kind of vague.  Based on ultrasounds (and I had a LOT this pregnancy), and on my date, the due date was anywhere between December 10 to December 19.  And even though Cayden was 2 weeks late, the girls each got earlier; Mason was 10 days early.  So I just figured that even if this 5th baby wasn't more than 10 days early, chances were that he'd be earlier than my due date.  So I told my mom to come around the 10th.  Which she did...  But the baby did NOT.

Anyway, Monday (2 days before my mom was supposed to fly home) my doctor called around lunch time.  She said that they had set up an induction for me, that Wednesday.  But she wanted to see me one more time before the baby was born, so I went in to see her Tuesday morning.

I hoped that they would be able to strip my membranes, which would hopefully put me into labor naturally that day.  That's how it worked for Mason; she was born less than 24 hours after they did it.

Well, it worked like a charm. 

After I left the office in the morning, I could feel that something was finally happening.  My mom made some phone calls and was able to change her flight to Friday without penalty.  I was so thankful that she'd be there until I got home from the hospital, allowing Andy to stay with me, and I wouldn't have to worry about my kids being a burden on someone else.  Thank goodness for small miracles!

I took my mom and two little girls to the lovely Springfield Mall and we wandered around, shopping the day away.

My contractions started getting regular about 8 or 9 that evening.  I tried to go to bed, hoping that I could catch a few hours of sleep before we had to go to the hospital.  I may have dozed a little bit, but not much.  I woke Andy a little after 1 and we went in.

Fort Belvior is about 30-40 minutes away from our house, and I was a little concerned about getting there in time, so we left a little earlier than I usually like to, and Andy sped there!  Which is probably a good thing, because I was hurting pretty good by that point.

When we got checked in, and the nurses got all the monitors hooked up, they were a little concerned about the baby.  His heart rate was lower than they liked, so I had to wear an oxygen mask and have an IV drip to try to help him out.  I think he stay low the whole time, but didn't dip below 80.  Cayden had the same problem, but went down to 50.

I ended up having an epidural because I was so tired.  The nurse also said that if I were to have a C-section because the baby was having problems, it would be a lot better to have the epidural in place.

This was a fabulous epidural, and it was so nice not to be hurting anymore.  I even got to doze a little bit!  Unfortunately, it also shut down my labor.  My contractions totally went away.  Right after I had the epidural I was dilated to a 9.  Two hours later I was still at a 9.  If I had just held on, the baby would have been born a few hours earlier, but as it was, I dozed, Andy watched the monitors, the baby stayed put.

I had to have pitocin in order to get things moving again, and our baby finally came at 5:57 am, December 15.  He was 21 inches long, and weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces, which lands him smack-dab in the middle of our pack.  Cayden and Ashton were bigger, Lillian and Mason smaller.

He was not as big as I feared.  Thank goodness!

We had pretty much settled on naming the baby Colten by the time he was born, but had no ideas for his middle name.  We actually didn't chose one until 4 or 5 days after he was born.  We came up with a list of names, narrowed it down to a few, and then let Cayden choose.  Matthew it was.

Andy and I napped a little through out the morning while Colten slept.

In the afternoon Andy went home to be with the kids and sent my mom to the hospital for a few hours before he came back with the whole family.

Cayden, Ashton and Lillian were all so excited, but also I think a little aprehensive, to meet their brother.

Mason had no idea what was going on.  She didn't even notice him, or care that there was a baby for a good 20 minutes.  But then she was all over him! 

Cayden was the first to hold Colten.  He already loved that little boy so much!  He was very gentle, but was afraid of hurting him.  He didn't feel comfortable holding him for very long, and would rather just look at him and pat his head.

Ashton is completely different.  All she wanted to do was hold that boy!

She just took him over, and started rocking him and bouncing him.  She's just like a little mommy.

Lillian also fell in love.  And she claimed the feeling was mutual.  She kept telling everyone how much the baby liked her already.

We all love our new little boy.  Colten is a joy to have in our family.  I'm so thankful that he was born healthy and well.  I'm grateful my kids are so excited about him, and accepting of the craziness this new baby brings to our lives.  And and I love Andy so much for being such a good Daddy.

I'm excited to see what life has in store for this little cutie! 

How lucky I am to be his Mommy!