Colton's Birth Story

On January 6, 2016, I woke up around 2 am with contractions. It was 17 days before my actual due date, so I wasn’t sure if I was really in labor. The contractions were about 15-20 minutes apart, but a few were so strong that they brought tears to my eyes. I decided to wake Hunter up and we got ourselves ready to head to the hospital. Hunter’s parents came over around 4 am to stay with Weston. As we got to the hospital, triage measured me at 5 cm. They admitted me to a room around 5:30 am and as soon as my bloodwork came back, they said they would be able to give me my epidural. My epidural went so well and was working beautifully by 7 am. They wanted me to lay flat so that it would work on both sides. In the meantime, I decided to put on some makeup so that I wouldn’t look a mess in all of our family pictures we were about to begin taking. Hunter jumped in the shower. All of a sudden, I started feeling lots of pressure. I waited until Hunter got out of the shower and told him and he said to call the nurse. I called the nurse and she came in and said my doctor was actually there doing her rounds and she’d come check me. My doctor said I was 10 cm and that it was time to deliver this baby. We prepared for delivery around 8:21 am and Colton arrived at 8:38 am. It was the easiest delivery I could’ve ever imagined. Hunter even said “Babe, you didn’t even break a sweat!” With our first child, his words were “Man, you could’ve squatted a Buick,” so this was a nice change of pace for us. LOL! They took my sweet baby boy over to get cleaned up and I noticed that it was taking longer than normal. My doctor could see my concern, so she tried to ease my worries by telling me they were just doing their routine checkups and tests. After she finished with me, I still didn’t have baby Colton in my arms. She went over to the nurse to check on things and she came back to my bed and said “Carrie, they think he’s showing 4 markers for Down Syndrome. His eyes are almond shaped, he has a mark on the palm of his hand, the top of his ears are crinkled, and he has a little extra space between his big toe and second toe.” At that moment, I completely froze. Here’s what flew through my mind: “Is she joking? If so, this isn’t funny. Am I dreaming? How could this be? None of our ultrasounds showed any signs of Down Syndrome. At our 4D ultrasound, the tech even said that if he had Down Syndrome, some of his measurements would be larger than normal and none of his were.” The joy and excitement that was initially in the room was gone. In its place came shock, fear, confusion, sadness. As they brought my baby to me, I remember holding him and I felt so completely guilty. Here I was holding my brand new baby who lived inside me for 9 months and I was disappointed. I was heartbroken. This wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted him to be just like his big brother….I wanted him to be “typical.” It was the hardest, most shocking day of my life. Never once in my pregnancy, or even in my entire life, did I picture this. I gave birth to a child with Special Needs. I was grieving the loss of a dream. Of the life I thought I would have. I was completely blindsided. I spent most of that first day in shock. I was just trying to process everything. I didn’t know how to tell people. I ended up just announcing that “He’s here. We are a family of 4!” I wasn’t ready to break the news to people other than close family and friends. I watched my 6’5”, 250 lb. husband sob. He doesn’t ever cry…and it absolutely broke my heart. We were scared. There was nothing we could do to fix it. Our lives would forever be changed. As the weeks passed by, our tears began to subside. We soon realized that Colton is just a normal baby. He eats, he sleeps, he poops, he cries (but not very often). I set my alarm to wake him up every three hours to feed him because he doesn’t wake me up. He seriously is THE BEST BABY I’ve ever been around. At 2 months old, he sleeps through the night (11-7 most nights), he smiles, and he rocks tummy time. We take him to church and out to eat and he is always so good! He is the biggest blessing and he is winning over our hearts. I’m beginning to realize that God has been preparing our hearts for this for a long time through 3 unsuccessful pregnancies. At the beginning of my pregnancy with Colton, I thought I was going to lose him, too, but I didn’t. He was meant to join our family. I prayed for 2 healthy little boys…and that’s exactly what I got. Our little Colton is absolutely beautiful. He was born with blonde hair, blue eyes, and ONE EXTRA Chromosome. And the more time that passes, I don’t care about that ONE EXTRA chromosome….because he’s my son. He was perfectly and wonderfully made. He is going to change my life for the better. I don’t care how many therapy sessions we have to attend, or how many hours of my time are spent teaching him, I’m going to do it. He is a blessing. He is like any other baby. He just wants to be loved and treated like any other “typical” child. We may have to work harder than we would with a “typical” baby. We may have more doctors’ visits that we would with a “typical” baby. But it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how or when he gets there, just that he gets there. His daddy, his big brother, and I will be his biggest fans. We are a proud family of 4. We don’t know what the future holds for us, but all we can do is take it one day at a time. If you went back to 1993 and told a little 10 year old girl from Indiana that she’d someday be living in Little Rock, Arkansas, married to her high school sweetheart who likes to hunt and fish, have two little boys, one with Down Syndrome, she wouldn’t believe you. I would’ve never pictured that life for me….but it’s awesome. I don’t know what life is going to look like in 22 more years…and that’s ok, because it will be better than anything I could ever imagine for myself. God has a plan…and I can’t wait to see that plan unfold.