Happy Birthday Cooper!!!

So, I really wasn't expecting to have a baby last week but Cooper had different plans! I honestly thought for sure that he would be born some time this week since I made it to 39 weeks with Eden. But here is how his birth story goes...

Tuesday I was feeling kind of off all day and my stomach just wasn't feeling good. I had taken milk of magnesia that the doctor told me to take to help deal with a few ailments (sparing you all the details) I was having. I chalked it all up to that. The tummy issues did cause me to have more than my normal 6 to 8 Braxton Hicks an hour but that seemed very logical as well. When I got home from work Eden was a little off her game - a combination of being tired and having a light fever from teething, so it was a looong evening to say the least. I did manage to get some cleaning done and actually packed our hospital bag because I was bored. Garrett and I went to bed as normal.

Then at midnight I woke up to go to the bathroom and I was having some very mildly painful Braxton Hicks (they were contactions but how was I supposed to know) but I had had these before at night, so I just drank a ton of water and crawled back into bed. I woke up on and off to go to the bathroom and to try and get comfortable. Finally at 5am, I woke up and after a few of what I believed to be true contractions, I decided that it would be a good idea to go to the hospital. I woke Garrett up and told him that I thought I was in labor and to call my parents. He called them and I decided to do some laundry while Garrett hopped through the shower. Shortly after 5:30am my mom arrived to stay with Eden and we were off. In the car my contractions started to get pretty painful and I was having trouble talking through them but they were still very manageable. BUT the kicker is I had made up my mind that I WAS going to get an epidural this time because I didn't think I could stand the pain of them getting worse or more frequent for the next 5 hours.

We get to the hospital at 5:45 and the parking lot was empty. Garrett was like, "We can get an awesome parking spot!" I told him that I really didn't want to walk that far, so we pulled up to the front but the doors to the women's center wouldn't open because it wasn't 6am yet. I am now bending over having a contraction and saying you have to be kidding me. Garrett picks up the phone on the building and tells the lady in the most chipper voice, "We're having a baby!" and we get let in. We get let into a triage room where they make sure you are actually in labor. I don't think the nurse believed me because she asked if I had been timing the contractions and I said no but that they really hurt so I decided to come in and that they seemed to be getting more frequent fairly quickly. She hooks me up to monitors and after 5 minutes of being monitored she calls someone on the speaker phone and tells them to get a room ready for me because she was keeping me (apparently 4 contractions in 5 minutes means you are in fact in labor). She asks me if I would like any pain meds and by this time with the contractions coming so fast and the pain intensifying I tell her I would like an epidural (I still think I am experiencing normal labor and that I have 5 hours to go). She checks to see how dilated I am and says, "You're at 9.5 cm...I am sorry but you aren't going to get that epidural." This is when things went crazy!

She gets back on the speaker phone and is practically yelling, "We are having a baby...NOW!" The first thing that goes through my mind is that there will be no doctor and that I will be giving birth on this little bed. Thankfully they get a room for me very quickly (the exact room I delivered Eden in) and I am now thinking that they are going to want me to walk there but of course they just wheeled me to the room and I get on a much bigger bed designed to have a baby on. I swear that it took the doctor forever to get there (maybe 10 minutes) and the whole time I am thinking that I can't believe this is happening again. The doctor finally gets there (not my OB but another one in his practice who is all muscle and bald), he then breaks my water - this was the only thing keeping him from coming at this point - and starts chatting with me. Then about 10 minutes later Cooper arrives! I pushed 5 to 6 times and he was born at 6:33am!!! He was 7 lbs 2 oz and 20 inches long (exact same measurements as Eden - I make very average sized babies:-)).

God answered my prayers for a fast delivery and for the fact that I never got my epidural. I wanted a short delivery so there wouldn't be an option and I was given that (although at the time I was wondering what I was thinking). Garrett was so wonderful through the whole thing! I couldn't have asked for a better man to be by my side!!!

Praise the Lord for short labors and short births!!! But I am wondering if next time I should just check into the hospital as soon as I feel slightly different...