The Birth Story

Sorry this has taken me so long to get posted, but I have been kind of busy! :) Hopefully I will have more time to get more posts up, but I'm not promising anything. Blogging is definitely going on the back burner for a while. Anyways, here is how Cooper came into this world. Enjoy!



The day before he was born, I took a sick day at work. I had been hurting all night long, and thought I deserved a sick day. Let it be noted that this was my first sick day I had taken my whole pregnancy. I was pretty proud of that fact! So I had all day Monday to lounge around the house trying to rest up. I still had 2 and 1/2 weeks to go, so I needed to get to feeling better. I really thought I would be at work the next day. Monday night, I just did not feel well. I couldn't really put it into words. I just kept telling Matt that I don't feel well. I went and took a shower and then got into bed around 10 that night. When I got in bed, I prayed and prayed to God to either take away all the pain I was having or to let me go into labor so I could get this pregnancy thing over with. Well, prayers do work! :) At 1:20 in the morning, I woke up to go to the restroom. There is nothing unusual about this because I usually had to go 5 to 6 times a night. Anyways, I went to the restroom and then got back in bed. As soon as I laid down, I felt a tiny pop (kind of felt like Cooper kicked me "down there") and then a gush of water. I quickly jumped up and ran to the toilet. Sure enough, water was pouring out of me. I promptly started freaking out (imagine that!), and ran to tell Matt. My poor husband was sleeping on the couch because of the lack of room in our bed from my enormous belly! Anyways, I ran to tell Matt that my water had broken and it took him a minute to realize what I was saying. I then ran back to the toilet (it really does just keep coming!), and called Labor and Delivery at the hospital just to get some confirmation on what to do. They told me I needed to come on in and they would check to make sure that my water had broken. Let me tell you, you will know if your water breaks! I had to ride with a towel underneath me to the hospital.

Here I am at 1:55 am ready to go to the hospital. Let it be noted that I had only slept for about 3 hours. Keep that in mind for later. I can't believe how big I am in the picture. And how swollen everything is. But I'm also very excited at this point! I'm not having any contractions yet, so I'm thinking everything is just fine.

The last picture of us as a family of 2! We had to take this one several times, because we were so tired that our eyes kept closing.

Here I am still in labor. I'm in pretty good spirits though!

Epidural is still working and we are just chilling waiting for everything to progress.

My friend April came by to visit me! She left just in time. Several minutes after she left, my epidural ran out. My nurse was in another delivery helping and forgot about it. We did not know it had run out until I started screaming! It took them an hour and a half to get me a new epidural. By that time, it was already too late. My pain had gotten in front of me, and they had a hard time controlling it. The pain never did go away. It would get better for a little while, but then it just eventually took over. They also did not have the epidural in the best spot. It was aimed more towards my left side, so I was numb on that side, but could feel everything on my right side. Nothing was working to make the pain go away. Needless to say, that is why I have not posted any pictures until Cooper is born. I was in labor for 19 hours and pushed for an hour and a half. Towards the end of the pushing, Cooper was not coming on his own. The doctor had to use a vacuum to get him out. Right before we tried the vacuum approach, the doctor told me that if this didn't work, I was going to have to have a c-section. There was no way I was going to have a c-section after 19 hours of labor. He also told me that I didn't know what pain felt like until I've had a baby vacuumed out. And boy was he right! I'm not even sure I can describe what the pain felt like. All I know is that I didn't care how they got him out, they had just better get him out soon! (Side note: if the epidural had been working, I would not have felt any of this!) After much screaming, crying, and pushing, Cooper came into this world!

This is the only picture that wasn't too scary! All the other ones show me bawling! I was so glad to meet him and have all of that behind me. I kept telling Matt over and over again that we were not having any more children. The doctor kept reassuring me that the next baby would be much easier. For about the first 24 hours, I was adamant that we were through having children. I told Matt we could adopt, but that was it. Now that 2 weeks have passed, I think 19 hours is nothing if I get another beautiful baby. Of course I'm also thinking that I don't want one for quite a while, but at least there is another one in our future! :)

Anyways Cooper was born at 9:27 PM. He weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces. The doctor told us that is he had waited until his due date, he would have been 9 pounds! So glad that didn't happen!

This picture is so funny to me. Cooper doesn't look anything like this any more. His face was all swollen and his head was cone like. He is a much prettier baby now!

Our pediatrician was there right after he was born! He is one dedicated doctor!

First time for Matt to hold him. He fell in love with Cooper right away!

Anyways, so there are most of the details of the birth story. Sorry if it has kept some of you from ever wanting to have children. But believe me, I left out a lot! And I still love him tremendously. I will try to post more often. Not sure though how that will work. I've been working on this post for several days now. Just can't seem to find the time!