The View From Here: Happy Birth-Day Cooper!!!!!

I always want to remember the circumstances that surround each one of the children's births, so here is Cooper's Birth Story!

Throughout half of my pregnancy I had Braxton-Hicks contractions. They were nothing new to me. I felt them with each of the other pregnancies and for the most part thought nothing of them. However, around 31 weeks, I started to notice a change in them. In the evening on the days when I was my busiest they would come on stronger and became more frequent. I would usually drink a lot of water and take a warm bath which would help to relax the contractions and at around week 35 I stopped doing a lot of my normal activities because I was having them a lot more during the day too.

On the afternoon of Feb 24th around 4:00pm I noticed the contractions were becoming stronger and more regularl, but they were still 15 minutes or more apart. This time, however, they came with lower back pain as well. I went to bed that evening and knew in my gut that something was different when I could not fall asleep until around 3:30 in the morning. The next day, Feb 25th, Matt said that he thought that it was probably the beginning of labor. I agreed with him, but the contractions had subsided, so I did not feel a need to call the doctor yet.

Around 12:00 noon they came back. They were still 15 minutes or so apart, but as the day went on they became stronger. I was not sure if I should call the doctor because I could still function normally and they were still so far apart. It was a Saturday and I HATE calling doctor's oncall. However, to ease my mind, I decided to call. They are paid to be oncall...right?!?! I was just going to ask her when she wanted to hear from me next and just give her a heads up that this was how I was feeling.

I called the oncall service and they told me that Dr. Wright was oncall and that she would call me back. I really like Dr. Wright, but she was the only doctor that I had not seen during this pregnancy. I had seen her in the past, but it had been a few years. I was scheduled to see her at one point, but she had to cancel my appointment due to family issues. Oh well, I thought. I really liked her before, so why would I not like her now??

She called me back and I explained to her what was going on and to my surprise she responded, "Well, let's have a baby!" Her response caught me off guard, but I was scheduled to have a C-section on the 27th, which at this point was only 36 hours away. She also did not want me to progress any further into labor and risk me having another fast labor like I did with Logan. I got off the phone and called down the stairs to Matt, "Are you ready to have a baby today?!?!" He was surprised too, but we quickly got into gear called my mom, who was going to leave for our house in 10 minutes anyway...she was coming for a visit, packed the bags, took a few last pictures and we were on our way to the hospital.

We arrived around 6:00pm, checked in, headed up to OB, and got our room. After a few minutes Dr. Wright came in and during her exam found that I was already 4-5cm dialated. She wanted to wait a little while for the food that I had eaten to digest before surgery, but during her exam and the nurses interview my contractions went from 15 minutes apart to 5 minutes apart. Cooper was on his way. There was no denying it at this point. Dr. Wright assembled her crew and I was off to the OR around 7:30. She also told me that she contacted the doctor that was scheduled to due my section on Monday, Dr. Tate, and that Dr. Tate offered to come and scrub in for the surgery. Dr. Tate delivered Emily and I would consider her my primary OBGYN. I really like her a lot, so I was honored that she offered to come for Cooper's birth.

In the months that led up to Cooper's birth I had been extremely nervous about the C-section. I had no problems at all with the last one, but for some reason my nerves had gotten the best of me. However, today I was not as nervous as I thought that I would have been. I did get a little overwhelmed when I got into the OR and I had to get the spinal and wait while they draped everything over me and prepped me for the surgery. I was shivering, which they said was normal due to the anesthesia, but let me tell you it was kind of annoying.

When Dr. Wright and Dr. Tate came in they told the nurse to go get Matt. Dr. Tate asked me how I was doing and I told her that I was okay other than the shivering. She said that was good because she just pinched me really hard and I did not feel it. At this point it was 7:55, Matt was holding my hand, and they were on their way.

We were so excited to see the baby! We did not know if it was a boy or girl, so we could not wait to meet our little one. They started the surgery and three minutes later, 7:58pm, they told Matt to stand up and look (he had asked to see the baby being born). A second later I heard him say, "It's a BOY!!!" We both cried and laughed with joy. They held him over the curtain for me to see and then wisked him off to the other side of the room for the pediatrician to check him out. The doctors asked us what his name was and I said, Cooper Thomas." Matt took a few videos and pictures from across the room and before we knew it they were bringing Cooper over for Matt to hold. Matt brought him up close to my face and I cried again. The pediatrician came over and told us that he looked perfect and that he had no concerns at all. We were so happy.

Matt held Cooper there with me until my surgery was over. Previously, when we were still in the room I asked the nurse how long the surgery would last and she said about an hour and a half. These doctors had me closed up and done in a little over a half of an hour. I could not believe it. I was thrilled to say the least.

Matt went back to our room with Cooper and called my mom, who was at our house with the kids, and called his family. They wheeled me back in and I finally got to hold our sweet little boy.

My mom had just put Logan and Emily to bed, but we told her she could wake them up and come over for a short visit. Meanwhile, my sister arrived at the hospital and was visiting with Cooper when my mom came with the kids.

Logan and Emily were so happy to see Cooper. Matt told them all that it was a boy and finally revealed that his name was no longer "Pooch" that it was Cooper Thomas. They both had smiles from ear-to-ear the entire time they visited and got to hold their little brother for the first time too.

The kids did not stay and visit for too long before my mom and sister took them back home to put them to bed. Matt stayed for while longer, so that we could start to get to know our little guy. It was a wonderful smooth joyful day that God put together so carefully for our family to enjoy. We could not be happier and love all three of our children so very much.