Highlights of 2008- Colton joined our Family!

I decided to do something this month to recover from my guilt of hardly posting at all last month and to recap the year, since I didn't start blogging until half way through . . . so every day in December you will get "Highlights of 2008". Not in any particular order, chronologically or significantly, but this will be our year in a nutshell. Hope you enjoy!

So although I said that these weren't in order, this one probably is the most significant and the first that came to my mind. Plus, I feel bad about not posting pictures or anything when he hit the six month mark last month.

Colton Doyle Jensen joined us on Saturday, May 17, 2008 in the evening (horrible, I know, I really can't remember the time). I will spare you the gory details, but share a little, because who doesn't love a good birth story, right? He was due on May 25, but since both of my other boys were a week early, I was kind of planning him to be that way too. But when that weekend started to roll closer and NOTHING was happening, I decided I better make some plans so I didn't just sit around waiting for a week. On Friday (the 16th), my friend Dorie and I went to the spa and lunch at the cheesecake factory (thanks to an awesome, unsolicited Mother's day present from my hubby). Got home that night and talked to my friend Amber on the phone in Denver, who was expecting a baby day before me. She was seriously wanting to have her baby on the 17th, so she called me to tell me some herbal thing she was trying to go into labor and was trying to get me to do it too. My philosophy with babies is that no matter how much pregnancy sucks at the end, they are always easier in than out - so I was in no rush. About an hour later, I realized I was either continually peeing my pants or my water had broke. My husband thought it was funny. I assured him that it was not funny, because peeing your pants is not that unusual at this stage. Anyway - I am dragging this out. Turns out my water did break, I tried to convince my husband that I could sleep at home and go in in the morning, because at this point I was still not contracting or anything. Didn't work. We checked in at midnight (after a stop at the gas station for some last minute snacks), they put me on pitocin about 3am and by 3pm they were talking c-section because nothing was happening. My mother-in-law and my other two boys came to visit around 4 because they were tired of waiting and when my husband went to walk them out of the car Colton decided it was time to come out. Russ came back, got the nurse and he was already crowning. A short time later, there he was, 7lbs 7oz and only 19 1/2 inches - my smallest baby yet. (See I told you I would spare the gory, painful details).

It took us a few hours to decide on Colton's name. We had obviously debated for months and not decided on anything. His middle name comes from my great grandfather, Doyle Porter Likely. Saturday morning I got a call that he had gone into the hospital the night before. A few hours later I got the call that he had passed away. He was 101 years old, he was still living at home with his wife Betty. They are both amazing. I am really happy about the legacy of his name. As a side note, my brother is also named after him, Matthew Doyle, and growing up I always thought he had a weird middle name and felt sorry for him. Now I love it! Strange how things change, eh?

His brothers love him (most of the time) and we are really happy that he is in our family! This was definitely the biggest event of 2008.