Kolson Patrick Miller: Birth Story

Since we are basically caught up until October I will make part two relatively quick so I can get to the good stuff! Let's start with November...

National Bump day! Patrick wearing an empathy belly haha :)

The last two weeks of October I did everything I could to try and get Kolson out. By the last trimester of pregnancy I felt like I had been pregnant for 18 years. I walked two to three miles everyday and at night I bounced on a birthing ball until I couldn't feel my legs. A few people suggested drinking two tablespoons of castor oil to guarantee that he would make his grand entrance. Apparently Kolson was really comfortable where he was because I tried Castor Oil three times from October to November with no such results (by the last time I didn't even go to the bathroom once). I'm still convinced my mom worked some magic to make sure he wouldn't be born until she got here. 

35 weeks pregnant

Fashioning a belly on my first day of classes

My parents flew down to Beaufort on November 2nd and from that day on we were on baby watch. We all thought it would be any day because every time I went to the doctors they told me he was measuring ahead and he could come at any moment. Boy, were they wrong. Every day we would hope it would happen. I made sure Patrick had his phone on loud when he went to work just in case. Every night I went to bed disappointed. I didn't experience any BH contractions during my pregnancy so I had no idea what I was in for. 

Aren't they just adorable :) 

The night of November 10th Patrick and I were joking around. He was saying that since he got the Veteran's Day (the next day) off, he was going to do nothing but relax all day. Well, Kolson thought otherwise. Around 8 that night I started to feel very sick. I had a headache and was very tired and irritable. It was starting to feel like my period was coming. Around 11 my stomach started to hurt and it felt like I was getting mild cramps. I thought that maybe I was finally getting BH contractions and hopefully Kolson would get here by the following week. I went back to sleep and around 12:30 I was woken up with some pretty powerful contractions. I wanted to get excited but I kept telling myself at my appointment a few days ago I was only 2 cm dilated so it probably was nothing. I started to time them and when they got really uncomfortable I began walking around the house. My mom was awake and we decided around 5 am when the contractions were still pretty powerful that we should start to get ready. I woke Patrick up around 6 and at 7:30 we all started to make our way to the hospital. 


When we got there, I was put on monitors and the nurse would have to call the doctor to see if they should admit me. After a couple hours of waiting with serious contractions, the doctor came in to measure me. He said even though I was only 3 cm dilated I was 90% thinned out and having strong contractions so they would admit me!!! I was moved into labor and delivery and told they would give me some pitocin to get the process moving faster to see if my water would break on its own. A few hours later and there wasn't much progress. The doctor recommended getting an epidural before he broke my water because after that the labor would move along quickly. 

I got the epidural (did not hurt at all) and he said to get ready to go into labor soon. I was so anxious to meet my son, but unfortunately there was no progress. I stayed in that delivery room (not able to get out of bed because of the epidural) from 10 am to around 11 that night when the nurse finally said I was fully dilated and ready to start pushing. She did some practice pushes with me before calling in two other nurses to help me get where I needed to be before the doctor came in. I pushed for almost 45 minutes with them and they said the baby wasn't going anywhere so the doctor came in to talk to me. He told me he wanted me to push continuously for the next hour and if there was no improvement he would have to do an emergency c-section since the baby had been trying to get out for so long. Tired, hungry and extremely frustrated, I began to push...and push...and push. I asked my mom and Patrick how long it had been and everyone kept saying they weren't sure. By this point I'd just about had it and was begging for a c-section. My body was shaking and I was completely drained. No one told me I had been pushing for well over two hours straight. Finally the baby started to move down and the doctor was called in. After about 10 more big pushes Kolson was finally out. Poor little guy had the biggest cone head ever from getting stuck in the birth canal for so long. He didn't cry for a little bit which was very concerning to me, but eventually he let out a few little cries. Welcome to the world Kolson Patrick Miller!! Born November 12, 2015 at 2:22 in the morning. Weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces and 22 inches of pure perfection!

My prefect little angel a couple hours after he was born :) 

Kolson's favorite way to have his hands!

His crib tag :)

After that everything went by in a blur. I held him for a while and when Patrick went to bring my parents back home the nurse took him to do some tests (which he passed with flying colors!) and I basically went into a sleep coma. The nurse woke me up to take a shower and to show me how to bathe and care for Kolson. I didn't end up going to sleep until around 8 that morning. 

Later that same day Kimber her sister, and a co-worker all came by to meet Kolson. Kimber's sister took some really great pictures of Kolson in his Monsters Inc. onesie. When they left Patrick went to pick up my parents so they could come by for the day and spend some time with their new grandson. The rest of the first day went by very easy and we all just spent the day just enjoy our little one. 

Picture taken by Kimber's sister 

Kolson in his bassinet 

Mom and I opening gifts from my study group!

Until next time, 

Tati :)

Catch-Up Part One

It's been so long since I last posted a blog. I was just coming back to Beaufort from a months stay in Mass and I still had a ways to go in my pregnancy. Well a lot has happened in the 4 months since I posted. 

I came back from Beaufort and started school a little over a week later. After experiencing going to school while pregnant I must give credit to all women who do it. I didn't think it would be that hard, but towards the end of my pregnancy it took a lot for me to drag myself to class. I was taking four classes; two on campus and two online, so my schedule was pretty light, but with all the baby planning I had to do, I still had a lot going on.

With all the gift cards from the shower back home, I put a pretty big dent in both of my registries and I had a lot of the things I needed for his arrival. August seemed to go by pretty quick; with the planning for the shower back home done I spent most of my time planning the shower here in Beaufort. Patrick and I decided on a Lion King themed shower (I couldn't find much for Monsters Inc.). The shower was on September 13th at a function hall at the Marine Corps Air Station. 

Kimber and I with a car full of decorations, waiting for the hall to open!

The day started off as a disaster. We reserved the hall from 12-4 that Sunday (having to pay extra to be there at 12 to set up) and were told to make sure we got there at 12 sharp. Kimber and I decided on the way to get the cake from the baker that we would go to the function hall for 12, unload some of the foodm then go to the bakers and finish unloading. Well, we got there at 12 and all of the doors were locked! We called the function hall about a million times and no one answered. I was getting so angry at this point. Meanwhile, Patrick was going to the exchange to pick up the sandwiches we ordered for the shower. I called him to tell him that the people who work at the function were not there and he told me that the people at the deli forgot to make our sandwich platters. Let me tell you, I was fuming at this point. No sandwiches  and the function hall wasn't open for us to start decorating. Kimber and I waited outside in the heat until around 12:45 and decided to go get the cake and come back. When we got back it was a little after one and the place was finally open. 

Patrick and I opening gifts :)

Kimber and I 

I ran in to talk to a worker about what happened and to see if they could extend our time an hour to compensate for the missed hour. The guy at the front desk was very apologetic and willing to work something out. After that it was a mad dash to get everything set up before two when the party was set to start. Somehow Kimber, Ashley and I managed to pull it off and we barely had time to get changed before people showed up. 

Our snack table with Lion King themed food

We put a lot of time and effort into it and, unfortunately, of the 40 people who said they were going only about 18 came. However, the people that did come were good friends and co-workers and it made for a very good time. We had a bunch of fun games and activities (my personal favorite was writing messages on diapers for us to read when we change Kolson in the middle of the night) and a ton of food and snacks. Even though it ended up being a good day, I don't think I will ever plan my own baby shower again for co-workers haha. 

The girls one the diaper relay of course ;)

A few weeks after the shower I began to freak out about not having a car that would be safe for Kolson. In May I got into a pretty bad car accident and my car was totaled leaving us with Patrick's two door Honda Civic. So, we started the time consuming process of searching for a car. We made an appointment and drove up to Charleston (which is around 2 hours from Beaufort) to test drive a car that I really liked only to get there and find out they sold the car while we were driving up. I know, I have terrible luck, but they could have at least given us a phone call so we wouldn't have wasted all that gas. We figured while we were up there we might as well look for other cars, but had no such luck. The following weekend we made another appointment in Hilton Head to test drive a car only to find out that the car was in Savannah Georgia. Then another car we made an appointment to test drive was being leased to someone who was having their new car detailed. By this point I was ready to say forget the car and just deal with a two door for now, when Patrick suggested we check out a Nissan dealership. We both were in a terrible mood when we went in, but that changed. We had the nicest car dealer I've ever met. She was an elderly lady who owned her own restaurant and had been on The Food Network and she said she was only working to make new friends. She truly cared about what we wanted and did everything in her power to make sure we found a car in our price range that was safe and reliable for a baby. The manager was willing to negotiate with us and brought the price of our car down to below our asking price. We left there happy and with an SUV that I am in love with. I would definitely recommend this dealership to all of my friends. Thankfully after that October went by smoothly and nothing really crazy happened. Catch-Up Part Two to come soon.

Until next time,
Tati :)





                                                                Some more shower pictures:

Our beautifully decorated favor and sign in table

Isn't this cake adorable? :)

Everyone got to guess when Kolson's due date would be

Table decorations