He's HERE!

So Sunday I felt pretty HUGE and was the first day I was uncomfortable. I thought, "Man, Cole you can come any day now because you feel so big!" My parents were back from their vacation so I said to him, "Okay, you can come now!" I guess I have a very obedient child because Sunday night my water broke. I was a little unsure if that was it but as the morning went on it got worse so that by the time I got to the doctor's office there was no question about it. I awoke at 5:00AM with contractions that were about 10 minutes apart as well. When I got up they slowed down again so I didn't know what was going on - if this was false labor or what - but then when the water kept leaking so I called the doctor. After seeing them, they wanted me to go straight to the hospital and get on pitosin (sp???) Well, Rick had to finish things up at work and mom was the only one at her store and I didn't want to go to the hospital by myself. So headed to mom's store to wait for her replacement and then we'd go together. Right when I got to the store contractions started and were pretty frequent. By the time we got to the hospital they were regular and we didn't need any medication at all. The contractions were moving things along pretty quickly as well. I was 4cm dilated at the doctor's office and was 6cm by the time we got to the hospital. After a couple of hours, when they were getting really bad one nurse said I was 9.5cm dilated. I thought, "Okay, I can get through this without medicine." But after a few contractions where I was totally unprepared and when they would come right on top of each other I started doubting. Then a second nurse checked me and said I was only 8cm. That was SOOOO discouraging. After another hour or so I begged for the epidural. Then life was GREAT!! Thank you, thank you, thank you for modern medicine! I seriously was losing all strength and wasn't recouperating it in between the contractions. Even though the epidural slowed things down it was much needed and I haven't had any side effects. By the time we got to the major pushing with the doctor there I had so much feeling back and basically felt it all so I got the best of both worlds!

So in summary, Baby Cole Frederick Poling was born Monday, October 20th at 6:45PM weighing only 5 lbs 8 oz - so I didn't even have that on the scale for votes - congrats to anyone that guessed between 6 and 6.5lbs as you were the closest! He was 18.75 inches long. He is just SO tiny. I can't imagine pushing out one any bigger though! You mom's that do it are my heroes! He is just swimming in his little newborn clothes so I think we'll have to pick up some preemie outfits.

He's healthy but struggles keeping his temperature up. He's always borderline at 97.6 degrees - just enough for them not to put him back in the warmer. They said since my water broke early the babies tend to swallow more fluid than normal so all night he was spitting it up. Poor guy!

He is a good eater though - just like his dad! He has really long feet and we have no idea where he got those since Rick and I both have small feet. He has his mommy's forehead wrinkle which was very evident when first born but has now smoothed out. And he has the biggest, most observant eyes! Right now he is way too curious to fall asleep easily. He wants to know everything that is going on. We were tip-toeing around this morning so he would fall back asleep but we can't keep that up! We'll spoil him for now though.

Rick is the cutest daddy ever. He loves watching little Cole. It's so precious!! I, oddly enough, can't believe he's actually here! 2 1/2 weeks early but am so glad he is because I was getting anxious with every passing day. And obviously I think he's the most beautiful baby!! I'm doing well and try to sleep when I can. We plan on leaving the hospital around noon on Wednesday. I'll try to keep the blog posted with pictures. My sister-in-law Jefra took lots of pictures last night and has a few of them on her blog. Check them out. (Warning: he still looks like yoda since it was right after birth!) I'll post some of ours from today when I get the cord for the camera. Love to all!