November 2, 2016
10:00 PM
7lbs 15oz
21 inches long
It’s been over a week since our precious little boy was born! Time has flown by… or has all run together, either/or….
It was a whirlwind of a day. We were supposed to get a call from the hospital Tuesday night about 8 or 9 to tell us to head that way. They were going to hook me up and start me on a cervix softening drug, and then Wednesday morning induce with the pitocin. We waited, and waited, and by 9:00 still hadn’t heard from them. At that point, I actually started having some early labor signs. My parents got to the house around 9:30, contractions started, but weren’t that painful at all… they were about 3 min apart. We waited until about 11:00 and called the hospital because at this point it was getting a little ridiculous. They said they didn’t have an order for me to come in and that they were just going to call me around 5:00AM to tell me if I needed to head to the hospital or not. Bummer. So we went to bed knowing we had to get up super early and head that way! I was so nervous, but excited, knowing we were going to meet our son that day! I got the phone call about 5:30AM telling me to come in no earlier than 7:00AM and they would get me checked in. We get up there, carrying a week’s worth of bags (I can’t help it), get to the assessment room, fill out the paper work, and then just waited. There was another girl in there with me, she looked about 30 weeks pregnant, MAYBE. All dolled up, looking cute, her husband carrying one tinu book bag. I thought to myself, what could she possibly be here for?! Then the lady made the call and said her TWO inductions were here and ready. I was like, seriously?! This girl is getting induced today?! So Bubba started talking to the husband and he informed us this was her third, so they had been there before and knew the ropes. Whatever. We get to our room, get settled… they hook me up to the monitors and realized I was in fact still having contractions about 3 min apart they just weren’t that intense yet. Got my IV (TERRIBLE), and finally got the pitocin started about 9:00AM. Well, then the contractions started getting more intense by the minute it seemed. They kept increasing and by 11:30 they were about 1.5 minutes apart and pretty painful. The midwife had already checked me and said I was about 3cm when I got there, said she’d be back at around 1:00 to break my water. I got the epidural about 11:30. I was terrified. Not just because I hate needles of all shapes and sizes, but because I was having these extremely painful contractions while they were giving it to me. It seemed like it took FOREVER. Once I got it though, it was amazing. No pain at all, however, I will say, the sensation I felt in my legs was the most obnoxious feeling ever. I assumed they would be numb to where all feeling would be gone, but it felt like my legs were asleep for hours… oh well, it was better than the alternative. So they checked me again about 1:00 when they broke my water and I was about 4/5CM. Progressing a little bit. Came back about 4:00 and I was like 5/6CM… a little more. All this time increasing the pitocin. They made the guess that baby would be here by 8/9 PM based on my dilation and how I should progress after 6CM. Yay! Well…. About 7:00 they checked me again and NOTHING. I hadn’t progressed ANY. So they started moving me around in different positions trying to get the baby to drop lower since he was still kind of high, in hopes that it would help my dilation. Well, when they started that, the baby’s heartrate suddenly dropped… and I mean dropped to like 40/50/60 range… so they moved me back, kept trying different positions and it just kept making it worse. The baby was not getting any better. They threw on the oxygen mask and kept me in the one position that raised his rate. While all this was going on, I wasn’t thinking anything was wrong at all, just thought it was normal… until they rolled me over and I see Bubba standing there with his hands over his mouth and tears in his eyes, pacing the room. Then I got scared. My heartrate jumped up. Finally things got under control and all was well. They monitored baby for about an hour and shut off the pitocin in the meantime. An hour later they came back and cut it back on. Within 10 min it happened again. Heartrate dropped to like 40, and this time, they weren’t acting the same. There were suddenly about 6 or 7 nurses surrounding me, moving me, keeping the oxygen on, I was crying, scared, not knowing what was going on. Then my nurse leaned down to me and said they were preparing the OR for a c-section and I would be wheeled back shortly. Well, I completely lost it. The one thing I didn’t want, and was terrified of the most. I could not get my emotions in check at all. I was crying uncontrollably, which was increasing my heartrate. I had to try and calm down to keep the baby calm. It was the scariest moment of my life. Almost like an out of body experience because I seriously couldn’t even talk to myself to pull myself together. Within 10 minutes they wheeled me into the OR, there were like 15 people all around me, moved me onto the table, strapped me down, and then started the procedure. All I could do was pray at that moment. I felt completely helpless. I just kept praying out loud, trying to control my emotions that would not stop. Bubba wasn’t even in there yet. Little did I know he was throwing up in the prep room. They bring him in and I think within 20 min (so I was told) Cooper was born. He was crying, thank God! The last we knew his HR was so low, it was scary not knowing that whole time. They took him away, cleaned him up and gave him to Bubba. He brought him over to me and I got to touch his head briefly. He was beautiful! Then they took him away with Bubba and I was left in the OR to finish up. I’m pretty sure I blacked out during that time because it’s kind of a blur. They wheeled me into the recovery room and I’m still crying uncontrollably because now I don’t have my husband or my baby. It seemed like forever before Bubba finally arrived with Cooper and when he handed him to me he immediately got quiet and was just so comfortable on my chest. Most amazing feeling in the world. We sat there together just the three of us for a short time before they wheeled us to our room where all of our family was waiting for us. To top it all off, we got to watch the last inning of the world series and see the Cubs win! 😀 What an awesome historical event to tie to his birthday!
The last week at home has been wonderful. My mom was with us up until yesterday. I don’t know what I would have done without her here! Cooper has done amazing, but the night feedings and no sleep has been pretty difficult to adjust to. But we’ve had plenty of help all around, Bubba’s parents coming and cooking dinner, it’s been great. But it has flown by for sure. I can’t believe he’s already 9 days old. I’ve tried to get in a few photo sessions here and there when I’m up to it and he’s sleeping. We have our official photos next week!
He had his first doctor’s appointment Monday. I walked out the door with the baby in the car seat and my purse. No diaper bag. No, diapers, no blanket, no nothing. Get in the room and the girl says, alright, strip him down to just a clean diaper. And we looked at each other and were like, OMG, please be CLEAN. haha! He was. But then I had to hold him and rock him the rest of the time to keep him warm because he was naked. The doctor laughed, said it wasn’t the first time he’d seen that. But all was well, he was healthy. His weight was down to 7lb 4oz, and his jaundice levels had risen some but not enough to be too concerned. We go back Nov. 18!
1 WEEK
Likes: Cooper loves to be swaddled, all the time! He loves to be held and loves to sleep in my Boba wrap while I’m working (where he’s at now!). He loves his swings, when he’s really tired.
Dislikes: He hates to be naked and have his diaper changed. You would think we were torturing him the way he cries. And then he stops as soon as it’s over.
THINGS HE CAN DO: He is breastfeeding amazingly! He’s a little snorter. He snorts all the time, haha! And he sleeps great during the day (insert eye roll emoji). Not quite as easy to go back to sleep at night after a feeding, but hopefully that will change.
SIZE: He’s wearing newborn diapers and clothes, but only a few NB size clothes fit him and the rest are huge.
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