She's here!

After 39 weeks of anticipation, Cooper Jay made her debut into our lives on May 21st, 2010 at 7:33 am. She weighed 8 pounds 7.8 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long (more than a pound and more than an inch bigger than her older brother at birth!)

So this will be my first "birth story" post. There may be more information than you care to know about me, but like many I have opted for the blog for journaling purposes and these are just some of the things I'd like to remember about this event in our lives. Because I wasn't blogging when Axl was born I plan to insert some things I remember about his birth...mostly things that stand out now because they were different than the more recent birth of Cooper. So, read at your own risk--it really was an extremely special day for our family.

So everything started early on Thursday morning, about 3:30 am when I was awoken by a painful contraction. Throughout both pregnancies I experienced many, many Braxton Hicks, but mine have NEVER been painful, just a tightening that I noticed because it was a little difficult to draw a breath. In fact, the only painful contractions I had EVER experienced were induced by Pitocin (Axl) after my water broke but I didn't naturally really go into labor. So, of course, this surprised me...enough to stay awake and time the subsequent contractions, lasting until about 5:30 or 6. Most were about 8-10 minutes apart. I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for Friday morning, my 39 weeker. I got up, a little excited I must admit, and got ready for the day, only to find that once I got moving, they slowed and sometimes I didn't even notice them. This didn't keep me, though, from tying up some loose ends (including braiding my hair--I liked having it braided and out of the way during labor and delivery with Axl) in case something was happening. The doctor's appointment proved to be a disappointment when she checked me and I had remained 1-2 cm and 75% effaced from the week before.

I went home and continued about my day. Tyler went in to work at 1:30, Axl napped and when he woke we got ready to go Wal-Mart and family night at Tyler's parents' house at 6. All throughout the day I had those contractions...some more painful than others, periods of consistency and periods of randomness. I started writing them down at one point and was timing them at about 6-10 minutes apart, but when we got out and going that evening I didn't pay much attention to them except that I was still feeling them every once in a while. By the time I got to the Hamilton's I was feeling no less than CRAPPY. Not necessarily because of the contractions when they were happening but I was just tired and sore, etc. I chased Axl around the yard for a while and at one point had to RUN to the swingset because he was approaching the swings...which were occupied and it would not have been pretty had they taken him out! At that point I just couldn't chase him around anymore so I made him, crying, sit up on the porch with me while I rested for a bit. If I was holding Axl I essentially couldn't walk because my crotch pain was so bad. I attributed it to just contracting all day and eventually just decided I needed to go home. Bonnie helped me get Axl to the car and I called Tyler on the way home. He told me I should time the contractions when I got there and to let him know what I found out.

Thankfully De was coming over that night for girl's night and she was able to meet me at the house—but not before I made my way slowly into the house with the little man and didn't realize I set an open box of cereal on the counter. He promptly found it and dumped it all over the floor. I just sat down and cried until De got there. We got him into the bed and continued on with girl’s night; watching the most intense episode of Grey’s Anatomy EVER as I slowly realized I was, in fact, in labor. I started writing the contractions down; consistently 5 minutes apart for almost 2 hours. I sent Tyler a text with the times in it and when he called back we were in the middle of a serious part of the show so I told him I’d have to call him back. (He loves telling this story…him trying to get me to decide whether or not we needed to go to the hospital and me saying, “I’m going to have to call you back; the show is getting really intense”. We ended up deciding that Tyler should come home at the end of his shift (10pm) instead of working late, we’d drop Axl off at Tom and Bonnie’s to sleep and we’d head into the hospital. It took us a little longer than expected to get things together and by the time we left the house the contractions were about 2 minutes apart. (by the way—De was freaking out more than anyone at this point, ha)

We made it into the hospital at about midnight where they hooked me up to the monitors in this extremely uncomfortable chair/bed in about an 8X8 foot room. A resident came in to check me (it has NEVER hurt me to be checked and this woman DID NOT know what she was doing! …thus a very painful experience.) and determined that I was contracting about every 2-3 minutes and had progressed from the morning to 3 cm. She then said that because we thought my contractions were lasting about 30 seconds that they were most likely not real contractions and that it probably wasn’t true labor. She would check me again in TWO HOURS and decide whether or not to admit me. I came dangerously close to hitting her in the face because by now my contractions were EXTREMELY PAINFUL and I couldn’t imagine sitting in that chair for 2 hours, much less being sent home. After she left the room and I almost shed a couple tears, a doctor came in and told me, “You’re in labor and we’ll be admitting you now.” Wow, I’m glad people can learn in a teaching hospital, but sometimes it’s not fun to be the guinea pig!

We moved over to the labor and delivery hall and got settled. I was ready for the epidural pretty quickly but that would prove to be another frustrating experience. The anesthesiologist came in in a pretty timely manner and went over all the details with us and we got set up. He began his work and shortly after the attending came in—just as the resident was having some trouble. Apparently he kept hitting bone in my back and couldn’t get the catheter thing in far enough, then ended up hitting a vein, then, after running a bunch of test doses determined that they had a “good” epi. I knew right away that it was definitely different than the epidural I had with Axl (which they did have a little trouble with, something about hitting vascular tissue), and spoke of my concerns, but they left me with instructions to let them know if I had any problems. I kept waiting for things to feel numb and it never happened. All of the test doses they had given me slowed my labor so the contractions were farther apart, shorter, and less intense…thus easier to handle which made me think it might be slowly working. WRONG. After a while everything picked back up and there was absolutely NOTHING numb about anything that was going on! We called them back in and the resident said he would do another, moving into another “space”. (I’m freaking out at this point) I try to remain calm as I politely request he wait to begin until the attending got there; which he did. Though as I sit there, exposed, hunched over, in indescribable pain, I hear the attending say, “Where is the space you entered before?” , to which the resident says, “Right here, where the blood is.”. The attending replies, “You’re going in the same space.” I, aloud, say “You’re kidding me!?” I have never really been so frustrated in my life. Though within about 2 minutes he had moved to the above space, smoothly placed the epidural and given me a combination epi and spinal—I think because they knew I was so mad and in pain. The feeling that followed was euphoric and I was just full of relief. This working epidural was placed after 4 am. While getting the second epidural my water broke and I was ready to get things going!

At about 5:30, I think, I was checked again and she determined I had another bag of water to break, which they did and my parents made their way from Paris.

I was checked again at 6:30 and was at 9. Shortly after 7am I was at 10 and began pushing. (One small detail I should mention is that at this point I told my dad I didn’t mind if he stayed in the room as long as he didn’t look, ha. I NEVER would have thought I would do this, but it was nice to know he was there. He just sat in the back corner of the room with his head facing the wall J) I pushed the same length of time, about 20 or 25 minutes, as I did with Axl, and little Cooper entered the world at 7:33 am! The pushing experience was definitely different than Axl and more painful than with Axl but I will spare most of the details. Surprisingly I didn’t tear near as badly with Cooper, which proved to be wonderful for recuperation. Also—a side note for me to remember is that the epidural does not make a lick of difference by the time it is time to push. It still hurts extremely bad…especially the stitching part…

All in all I’m glad it’s over and Cooper is worth every miserable moment experienced during pregnancy, labor, and delivery. We love our little girl so much already and can’t wait to share her life!