it was 1:30 in the morning on monday, june 23rd that i woke up to a POP and then water leaking... it took me by surprise! my brain started racing, did my water just break?! i knew it must have since i clearly wasn't peeing my pants. so i reached over and woke kevin up by saying, "i think my water just broke!" he was wide awake after that and asking what we needed to do next. i looked in my handy book from our birth class on what to do when your water breaks and i called the hospital to tell them my water broke and asked what i do next. they said to come right in! so we gathered our hospital bags, woke up my mom and told her to get ready and we were off to the hospital by 2:30am. my contractions started about 20 minutes after my water broke, so i definitely knew this was real and i'd be having my baby that day!

the contractions were definitely painful, especially trying to sit through them in the car. they felt like bad menstrual cramps but all over your belly. we were low on gas, so we quickly had to fill up (make sure your tank is full when you know you're due!). we got to the hospital around 3am and we went into the maternity welcome center where they ask how your pain is, why you're there, etc. once that was done, we headed up to a labor and delivery room where i changed into my lovely hospital gown and the nurse came in to check how far i was dilated and to see if my water really broke. i was at 5cm dilated and my water definitely had broken. However, when she was checking my cervix she noticed that she couldn't feel his head. they put on the monitors to keep track of my contractions which were happening frequently (i don't remember the details on it). Since she was concerned about not feeling his head, they had a guy come in to do an ultrasound to check the position of the baby. Once he checked it, he immediately said bluntly, "well he's breech so you'll have to have a c-section." i thought, WHAT?! A C-SECTION?! that's when i started freaking out inside. i was totally not prepared for hearing that. i couldn't help but start crying. i was so scared of having a c-section and i wasn't expecting that to happen. the nurse was a little more understanding and said that they might be able to turn him around, but she had to check with the doctor. when she came back, she said that since my water had broken, trying to turn the baby around would be too risky since i've lost a lot of the amniotic fluid already.

i then felt him move around a ton inside which i thought, "oh my goodness, maybe last minute he'll turn himself so i don't have to have a c-section!" well, that's not what happened... i told the nurse that he was moving a ton and i was leaking out a lot of amniotic fluid. she checked his heart rate and noticed it was dropping. to make things worse, my blood pressure started rising. she quickly called in more nurses and the doctor and they acted FAST and took me away to the operation room. right then i knew things must not be too good. since i was dilating quickly, they had to be quick in getting the epidural and anesthesia in. while they were doing that, kevin came in the room all changed into the hospital garb. he held my hand while they put the epidural in (which wasn't bad at all). it was the weirdest feeling having my body go completely numb. they put the curtain up so i couldn't see what they were doing (thank goodness) and they started the c-section.

i felt the pulling and tugs from them opening me up and soon after i heard our little boy's cry! i was SO HAPPY! kevin ran over and watched them pull him out and snapped a couple photos (shown below). i watched them as they put him on the weighing table. kevin and i had placed our guesses on how big he would be. i said 7lbs 6oz and kevin guessed 8lbs 4oz and was SPOT ON! we couldn't believe it! at that time, it was 4:54am when he was born.

while the doctors stitched me all up, i just laid there watching my little boy. i couldn't believe he was MINE and that was the little boy my body had created and carried around for the last 9 months. it was an amazing feeling, even though the moment wasn't how i had pictured it to be like. (obviously i had pictured a vaginal birth and being able to have them lay him on me right when they took him out, but oh well! next time.) i watched them as they wiped him down, measured and weighed him. kevin cut the umbilical cord and the nurse grabbed a photo of it. thank you random nurse! 

since colsen was breech, when they laid him on the weighing table, his legs were sticking straight out over his body. it was hilarious!  

once they were done stitching me up, they dropped the curtain and they brought colsen over to me so i could see him up close. he was so precious! i just couldn't believe i had become a mother.

they wheeled me in to a small recovery room where the nurses cleaned me all up and put on my "mercy secrets" aka the mesh underwear and i delivered at mercy hospital haha. the nurses were hilarious and saying the funniest things! anyways, that's when kevin finally found my mom and she came in to meet colsen! after a couple hours we went up to the mother and baby postpartum room. i had to stay at the hospital for 4 nights and on that friday afternoon we busted out of there. i was SO ready to go home and bring our sweet baby.

although his birth wasn't what i had envisioned in my mind, i wouldn't want to change anything about it. i think it was best for the both of us and i'm so thankful that i had great nurses and doctors that knew just what to do to safely bring our little boy into the world. kevin and i are so happy to have him here with us and we're enjoying all the snuggles and kisses we can get :)