Bringing Home Baby

Our time in the hospital was absolutely wonderful.  A private post-partum room in New York is not covered by insurance and will run you anywhere from $550/night up to $4,000/night (for the 3 room suite).  We opted not to pay the cash for the room (I'm working on convincing Brett to let me use that money toward clothes & shoes :)), but got lucky lucky lucky.  You see, if there are no more shared rooms available, you get a private room, for free.  Usually you get moved once a shared room opens up.  Somehow, the stars aligned and we scored a private room for free, for the entire stay.  I think in addition to sheer luck, our labor & delivery nurse really liked us (and the treats we brought to share) and worked her magic.  So though I had requested at minimum to be on one of the newly renovated post-partum floors with a window bed overlooking Central Park, I was more than happy to take the private room on the non-renovated floor with a minimal street view.  Had I been in a shared room, I would have pushed to leave after the required 24 hours that they need to keep the baby.  But, since my mom was here with Sadie (thanks Mom!), we decided to let Brett and me enjoy the time to get to know our little man.  Since he was born at 1:14am, we kind of had three nights in the hospital.  Long, yes, but why not?  I may or may not have been caught by a nurse standing up on the bed with a mini photo studio set up in our room, snapping pictures of Colton our last night there.  What can I say, I was feeling good and pictures those first days are just priceless. 

Our floor didn't have a family lounge overlooking the park, so before we headed home, we strolled up a few floors to get a picture overlooking the park.

This time around, Brett made sure to take home as much as he could the night before, so we didn't have so much to load into the cab.  We still had quite a bit, but knowing that we had a doorman and elevator meeting us on the other end (unlike our lovely 5th floor walk-up with Sadie), we weren't quite as concerned.

Colton enjoyed his first taxi ride and not surprisingly slept through the entire thing.  We were just excited to get home and be with our cute Sadie.  She was somewhat indifferent when we walked in the door and continued watching her movie.  But after a few minutes, she came over to Colton's car seat and asked if we could get him out.  She loves her little brother though she is trying to make sense of it all in her own time.

Family of four

 

 

I adore those deliciously kissable cheeks!

 

Introducing Colton Brett

Colton Brett

Born: November 23, 2011 at 1:14am

Weight: 9 pounds 9 ounces

Height: 22 inches

APGAR: 9/9

Here's a little sampling of pictures from the experience of welcoming our newest addition...

All settled in to the hospital

Brand New

Mommy/Son Bonding right after delivery

Dr, Colton and Kris (aka 'My Beautiful Mormon' as nicknamed by her Jewish Dr)

Father/Son Bonding

Meeting Big Sister

Info on our name selection:

Deciding on a name has been a struggle this time around. We’ve gone back and forth countless times. We wanted a two syllable name but one that could be shortened. We also wanted a name that was common enough but wouldn’t put him as one of five boys with the same name in his classes at school. A while back, we stumbled upon the name Colton and fell in love with it immediately. We also loved that we could shorten it to Cole. Cole had been at the top of our list for a while and when we realized that Cole is a short form Kris’ maiden name, we liked it even more.

Brett is obviously a family name, a nod to both the baby’s father and past generations. For the first-born son, bestowing the name of the father as the middle name is a family tradition dating back four generations.

Quick Recap of Colton’s entrance: 

Our Baby Story (lasting 4 hours 59 minutes in the hospital)

Background: The due date had come and passed, as had Kris’ patience. With every passing day it seemed as though baby would never make his entry, somehow preferring his mother’s womb to the cruel world. Given the estimated size of the baby (a growth scan had estimated 8 lb 15 oz on Nov 4), the Dr was concerned and wanted to get the baby out as soon as possible. Based on commentary from the Dr, we had every expectation of delivering in early to mid-November. But the days kept going by and Kris wasn’t progressing on her own. We had been to the doctor on the 14^th, the 16^th, the 18^th, and the 21^st, with each appointment yielding a similar conclusion: the baby was big but Kris was not ready. But the morning of the 22^nd felt different (at least for Brett; Kris did not want to get her hopes up). We now pick up the recounting on the morning of the 22^nd, and continue to the end as it unfolded.

9:15a: Ultrasound Growth Scan to check baby’s size. Baby measuring 9 lb 11 oz, big head, long femur, normal belly.

11:15a: Dr appointment. Stripped membranes, told us to eat pasta, go home and make our last minute baby preparations, take Castor Oil at 4:00p and come back at 5:00p. Hopefully tonight was the night!

5:00p: Dr appointment. Stripped membranes again, 3 cm dilated, ~50% effaced. Told us to take more Castor Oil, get donuts/treats for nurses, call him at 7:15p, and be in hospital shortly thereafter (just after the nurses change shifts). Brett thinks Dr is joking about the treats. Dr assures us that he is not.

5:30p: Walked home from the Dr’s office (~1.6 miles) in the pouring rain, Kris having strong contractions 3-5 minutes apart the entire way. Stopped at Crumbs for mini cupcakes for the nurses.

6:30p: Came home to eat dessert with Sadie, Kris showers, blow dries hair, and puts on make-up.

8:15p: Admitted to hospital, nurses love the Crumbs mini cupcakes.

8:45p: Resident checks Kris, 4 cm, 50% effaced.

9:47p: Dr arrives to check Kris, measuring the same, breaks water. 

10:30p: Contractions starting to get more intense. Pain now at a 7/10 for Kris. 

11:00p: Kris gets a quick visit from a friend working in another wing of the hospital. A nice distraction. Kris holds a conversation through the contractions.

11:15p: Dr checks Kris, measuring the same. Recommends epidural, Kris says no. 

12:52a: Contractions have become very strong over the last 1.5 hours. Pain now at a 10/10. Kris doing a great job. Kris now wants to know where she's measuring. Is adamant about getting the Dr to check her. Brett encourages her to wait for the doctor to come in on his own and assures her that she can do it.

12:55a: Dr comes back (on his own) to check Kris, measuring 6 cm, still partially effaced. Says Kris is progressing, though a little slower than he would like, recommends an epidural, stating that he does not believe it would slow down the process. Says he hates to see Kris in this much pain.

12:57a: After letting the Dr leave the room, Kris declares that she wants an epidural (thinking she still had various hours of hard labor ahead of her), is very adamant. Brett pushes back based on Kris’ birthing plan, but eventually agrees to get Dr.

12:59a: Brett runs out to get Dr in Doctor's lounge, says "she wants it". Dr says "I think that's a wise decision" and runs to get anesthesiologist.

1:01a: Anesthesiologist comes in to go over epidural procedure, says he needs to look at labs and will be back in about 5 minutes.

1:07a: Contractions intensifying, Kris starts feeling an extraordinary amount of pressure, exclaims that she needs to push. Brett runs to get Dr and says "she says she needs to push". Dr immediately comes and calls to get "Kristi" the nurse. Other nurse says "who's Kristi?" (her name was Kristyn) and Dr says "just get me a nurse".

1:08a: Doctor comes in and calmly says "now let's see if she's fooling us". Checks Kris and says she's at 10 cm and can be ready to push, but this needs to be a “controlled” push. Frantically calls to get another doctor in the room in case of shoulder distortia since baby is expected to be so big. Anesthesiologist had walked in the door just after Dr, leaving shortly thereafter without administering the epidural (obviously).

1:14a: Baby born after ~5 minutes of pushing. Kris did an amazing job! 9 pounds, 9 ounces (95^th percentile), 22 inches (>97^th percentile).

After everything calmed down around 4:00a, Brett went to the Nursery to look at the new baby and ask the nurse if they had the chance to measure him. The nurse says: “he was 22 inches, you hit the jackpot!” And that’s exactly how we feel. We hit the jackpot and are excited to announce the entrance of Colton Brett into our family. We are so very thankful for a safe delivery and good experience as we welcomed this new little/big guy into the world. And Sadie is thankful to finally have this baby brother she’s been hearing about for so long. An easy Thanksgiving for counting our many blessings – both old and new.

40 weeks + 1 day

Playing the waiting game is no fun, especially when your doctor has been telling you for months that he won't let you go past 39 weeks given the size of the baby.  My mom got here late Wednesday night.  Thursday we briskly walked up to Costco (~2.3 miles) in an attempted effort to get things going.  A few decent contractions while in Costco and then...nothing.  So we at least accomplished a huge stock up shop.  Yesterday brought with it my due date and another doctor's appointment (third one this week) with yet again a 'not today' response from the doctor.  So instead we headed to a nearby Indian restaurant and ordered the spiciest dishes that my incredibly weak mouth could handle because we figured that it couldn't hurt my chances of going into labor.  After which Brett and I took advantage of having grandma in town to hang with Sadie while we caught a performance of Billy Elliot before it closes in a few weeks.  This morning we enjoyed a family walk in our new neighborhood.  It's hard to imagine that our little family of three is soon going to be a family of four.  But if you ask me now, it feels like that just never may happen.


This afternoon my mom, Sadie and I headed to Chinatown to pick up a few hats for my little sister.  Sadie was in heaven modeling the hats for us and the creepy street vendors happily let her do so in hopes to sell lots of them.  We finished the night with a 3D movie in Times Square, one of Sadie's first movies in the theatre (I think the last one she went to was when she was 2 weeks old).  She was digging the 3D glasses and unlimited popcorn!

Love these two!

Love this picture! Big props to Brett on capturing this!

39 weeks

There is nothing better than a beautiful, crisp fall day in the city.