Introducing Colleen Paige

Hi everyone! We would like to introduce Colleen Paige, who was born July 6, 2007 at 3:25 am weighing 8 lbs, 6 oz and was 21 1/4 inches long.

Colleen's Birth Story

The weekend before Colleen's birth, Dan and I were working around the house, trying to get our house cleaned and run errands before the baby was born, but of course, you never get as much done as you'd like to. After running around on Saturday, I thought I could feel the baby lower than before, but I called my sister in law, Beth, and she reassured me that feeling the baby lower could happen weeks before delivery. I had a doctor's appoinment on Tuesday and with the exception of the swelling in my feet (which had been that way since May), everything looked great. My doctor checked me and I was not dilated at all and she said that we had 'weeks' before the baby would come.

Then it all started on Wednesday July 4, 2007. Dan and I spent the afternoon with Kara and Darrell eating crabs and delicious cookout food, then we went to Emilia and Claudio's house to enjoy more delicious food and see the fireworks from the Inner Harbor. Despite the rain, they still had the fireworks and everyone was outside enjoying the show and the rain. During one of the fireworks, I felt something weird, so I went to the bathroom, and everything looked normal, so Dan and I went home since we both had to work the next day.

During the night and around 6am, I could feel something was weird, so I called my doctor and I told her I thought my water MAY have broken, but it was very subtle, so I really didn't know. She said to go to the emergency room to make sure. I called Dan (who sounded calm at the time), I called Katie and Dave to let them know I wasn't going to be in at work until later (if at all) and then I called Cristin to tell her I wouldn't be carpooling with her that day. I think that's when I started to cry. We weren't ready!!

Cristin drove me to the hospital, where they confirmed that my water had broken. I giggled and cried again. I cried because I wasn't ready and it was kind of scary and I giggled because there was nothing I could do about it. They gave me cytotek to bring on contractions, which didn't do too much, then they gave me pitocin to really get things started. Pitocin does work! The contractions started and the nurses told me to 'just do my breathing' to get through the contractions. I didn't tell her I didn't take any of those breathing classes!! They gave me an epidural- more contractions. Saw the doctor- more contractions. I had a second epidural because the first one was not in the right space- more contractions. Despite the contractions, I was very slow to progress, which is what led us to do a C-section. The surgery began at 3am and Colleen was born at 3:25am. Dan immediately said that she looked like me and she came out crying!