Cooper Todd

So it's been almost two years since I've written a post. Today is my Coopy bears birthday and I don't think I've ever shared his birth story before. So here I go...

One year ago.
It was around 2:30am on December 10th 2015. My due date had came and went and I was not happy about it. I told myself I would not get my hopes up of having another 'early baby' because I had read all the stories and heard all the wisdom that all birth stories are different and just because your first was early didn't mean the second would follow suit. Alas. There I was, disappointed because the Lord and my Coop were not on MY time. I was even so bold as to think 'well, guess he's never coming out then.' Being mellow dramatic at 40 weeks pregnant is completely warranted ok? So at this time,  I awoke to some pretty intense cramps in my back. Unfortunately this had happened almost every night for the past two weeks so my expectations were low. Even still these were 'cant fall back asleep' ' worthy.
As I lay there,still, just listening to the clock tick. Another one. A few minutes later here comes another. I'm fully awake at this point just ready to shake my husband awake in excitement that this is indeed the real thing! I was still a little in disbelief, also a little bit starting to freak out because the pain was becoming familiar and I knew it was only going to suck more from here. So I waited through another one to mentally prepare for either the disappointment  of getting everyone all riled up and still be nothing [and feeling a little bit like a whimp because if these weren't real I might have to rethink my birth plan] or for the thrill of meeting our new baby. I nudge [shake] Cole awake and say something along the lines of 'I'm having contractions stop sleeping now'. Also having checked on me for weeks and timed countless Braxton hicks during our Grays Anatomy binges with me he also was not ready to come to terms that this could be the real thing. --He's also not a good person to wake up in the middle of the night on any night but that's neither here nor there.
We whisper back and forth deciding whether or not to wake up my mom. We decided 'might as well'. So the three of us are awake and debating if now or later is a good time to go to the hospital. A few need to know facts are we live about 30-45 minutes from where I was delivering and I have an irrational fear of giving birth in a moving vehicle unless said vehicle is an ambulance. I also went in too early with Bentley and regretted it. I was doing this all natural again so I wanted to do as much as I could at home before I was stuck on a monitor and/or possibly be sent back home. As we were discussing all of our options I started to get to a place where I had to stop talking and do a little dance against our half wall to labor through some pain. That's when my mom -being the wise woman she is-  told us to leave and probably stay in that area no matter what. So it was now around 4am, we grabbed the bags, kissed our sweet sleeping baby on the head and bid farewell to the life we all had been accustomed to, had an impressive contraction before I could jump in the truck to head to the hospital. As we drove I got a little sick  due to the pain but also from sitting. Cooper was pretty far south and hanging out towards my back so sitting made everything feel super pleasant.I wanted my dancing method back. The guy at the gate, bless his heart, noticed my seemingly crazy breathing and was obviously terrified as he  asked Cole if I was 'ok' and to my husbands true form he nonchalantly said 'she's in labor' and the man quickly gave us back our IDs and we sped off.
Somehow we got up to labor and delivery. I don't know if I've just blocked it out or just was too excited that I wasn't paying attention but I really have no recollection of walking from the truck to the elevator and through the double doors. Anyway, they send us into triage where they check me and I was 4cm dilated so all systems were go. I was technically able to be admitted but that would mean being hooked up to monitors and possibly IVs and just nonsense when you're trying to dance around through contractions. So they wanted me to stay for an hour or so to see how fast I was progressing. So they hooked me up to those annoying belts that make sure Cooper isn't having a hard time and there we did more sitting. Cole took a nap and I watched a cooking show. It was now around 6:30 am and they came to check me again. I was now 6cm dilated. I felt pretty good at this point and was actually starving and wanted breakfast. So I asked if we could go to the Denny's down the road and get some food because I really didn't want to be admitted until I was 'climbing the walls' as someone described it to me once. Now you might be thinking I'm crazy but I was in labor with Bentley for 30 hours. No drugs. Little intervention. And I was terrified of this going the same way. I may be tough but I'm no saint. 30 hours of excruciating pain is no picnic. So since I was still able to walk around and mostly talk during contractions I wanted to keep going on my own.

The nurse went to ask if they were comfortable letting me get too far out of their sight and the conclusion was I could not leave the hospital with how fast things were moving and how close I was but they agreed to let us go down stairs to the bagel shop if we wanted to get some food. Off we went down the elevator and as we started down a long hallway we began a series of stops along the walls every 6 feet or so. My amazing husband was calm collected patient and so supportive even though he was starving.
We were about 15 yards away from the bagel shop and there was the reception desk where  a sweet elderly lady was working. I stopped to breathe through a contraction there and the poor woman was very concerned for me. She was persistent that I needed a wheel chair and we tried to explain that I was in labor and was trying to walk it out. She didn't back down without a fight which was sweet. By the time we got to the bagel shop I was anything but hungry but I knew Cole was so I said ' Go ahead and I'll wait out here then we can head back up to L&D'. So I waited for what seemed like an eternity. Mind you it was now around 7:30-8am and people were filing in for work and I was standing right in front of the main entrance. So many people were watching me doing my Cuban  motion and breathe very low breaths -- it's amazing how little you care about what people think when you're in that much pain.
We started our journey back upstairs and coincidentally had to stop in front of that poor lady again. She insisted again but so did I and we trecked on, stopping  about every minute. At this point I was pretty close to climbing the walls 'literally'. We got stuck in the elevator due to my contractions and Cole had to basically lift me out of it or else we probably would have just delivered right there. We got back to our triage room and as soon as they saw me they knew I was ready to be admitted. I stood in the doorway of the triage room and danced through a contraction and had enough time to walk directly across the hallway to dance again. No sooner I had darted to the first trash can I saw because the pain was making me nauseous . I scribbled my signature on some consent forms, tried to hold still as they hooked me up to the fetal monitor, and was poked more than I was bargaining for while putting an IV port thingy  in my hand. I had remained relatively calm up until this point but now things seemed to get chaotic from there.  It was now about 9:30am and I was feeling an all too familiar feeling of 'transition'. My amazing midwife was very confident my baby boy would be making his entrance within the next hour or so. I however was not convinced because of my previous labor and false hope. I started crying and pleading that no one would lead me on. I was so scared I was still in for 20 more hours of this pain. While working through more contractions something changed and I let out a scream --which I apologized for a few minutes later. That's when they checked me again and I was now at 9.5cm and we were just waiting for that last bit of dilation and for my water to break then we could start pushing. When my water did break they noticed some meconium[or however you spell that]  in the amniotic fluid so when he arrived he had to be swept away to make sure he didn't breathe any of it in. I was ready to push but I was told to hang on to get everything squared away and when I was given the 'ok' I gave one big push and he was here. 10:30am my baby boy came zooming into the world and has been a joy ever since. We stayed in the hospital a little over 24 hours and we started our life together as a family of 4. It's been an incredible year. Adjustments were hard but God is faithful and we can't imagine life without our pup!