Instead I have a 3 and a half week old.
(this was written on Friday November 16th)
Our Sweet baby boy... Cooper Jay Wood, was born on October 22, 2012 at 6:41 pm.
He was 7lbs and 1 ounce and 20.5 inches long.
He is wonderful. And makes us all so happy. This is the story of his birth.
So Cooper had a two vessel cord. Which basically meant that chances were that he would be totally fine. But that I would worry sick the entire time I knew I was pregnant! Basically his cord could have stopped working at any time. Also he could have had heart or kidney problems. To monitor this we had several ultrasounds (I think around 8) And did NST's twice a week from weeks 33 on. And we were also told that we should plan on the baby coming early. To prevent any failure to thrive at the end.
Things were going well.. until our second NST. His heart rate was dropping periodically and they sent me over to labor and delivery. We were 33.5 weeks along. They ended up doing a really fancy ultrasound, monitored us, And sent us home. A week later.... same thing happened. As you can imagine... at this point I am a nervous wreck! At my 36 week appt... a Friday. My doctor checked me and I was dilated to a 3 and 100 percent efaced. He predicted we would have the baby the following Monday and we were so surprised! But I had been contracting pretty good for a couple of weeks and we were ready. And lets face it... the two vessel cord and his heart rate dropping all the time had me totally freaked out!
On Monday morning I felt like I was leaking fluid. I called the doctors office and they told me to head to labor and delivery again. I was a mess... super upset that I was making Scott miss work again! But we headed over anyway. We got there at 11am. I was thrilled when a client of mine, Becky Lindstrom was my nurse! How fun was that... I shot both her daughters weddings and have done pictures for her several times! So awesome! Anyway, they decided to monitor the baby and check me and my fluid. Turns out at this time it did not appear to be leaking fluid. I was at a 3+ and the baby was looking good. I was having contractions in the beginning but over the course of a couple hours they had stopped all the way. After about 2.5 hours Becky came back in the room She was giving me the going home pep talk.... Baby looks good. Everything is fine. Time to go home... but... I am going to check you first. When she did... I was at a 5. Yup. Laying down for 2 hours. No contractions. Went from a 3 to a 5... guess who was not going home. It was baby day. And it was about 2pm.
We were excited. I was emotional. I know I had only known of the pregnancy for 16 weeks. But I felt like I had been waiting forever. 6.5 years to be exact. This was a big day for us.
They gave me an epidural. I was in no pain so it was a little weird to be getting it so soon. But we were trying for a VBAC and I needed to be numb in case they needed to do an emergency c-section. We were excited because like Abby, Cooper was measuring big and the doctor pretty much told us to kiss a vaginal birth goodbye because he was so big. But because he was early we were able to try.. which was great!
Anyway. So I was numb. Contractions started coming on strong. And we waited. We called Abby when she got home from School and told her the news. She was so excited! And worried that the baby would be born on her birthday... I told her I would do my best.
I was also concerned that I would miss the debate that night... weird I know.
I progressed fairly quickly. It took until about 5pm to get to 7cm.
I was comfortable and relaxed. Until about 6. My epidural was not working on my left side. At all. It was horrible. I was at a 9 at this point and in an enormous amount of pain. She checked me again and I was at a 10. The anesthesiologist was on his way to give me more epidural. But in the meantime the only thing that made me feel better was to push. So I did. And it was the best feeling ever. No pain at all! They were able to get me numb again and then Dr. Haskett came in and said it was time. I pushed for about 20 minutes and then he was here! It is worth noting.. he came in time for the debate. And I was watching the O'reiley factor during my delivery.
I have to say.. having had both a c-section and a vaginal birth... there is nothing like the experience of a vaginal birth. It was truly amazing. I was on cloud nine. Looking back I feel bad because at the time I didn't realize that Cooper was struggling so much to breath. They were about to take him away from me.
Scott went with him while they finished up with me. My mother in law came in to reassure me he was ok. I knew I should be worried when Scott called my sister to tell her to have me come down to the nursery right away. They were about to intibate my baby. I came down and he was on a cpap. It was so sad to see him struggling so hard to breath. They were going to give him some medicine to help with his lungs. Honestly it was a bit traumatic. They were hoping that would solve the problem. But he was soon after admitted to then level 2 nursery (nicu).
Cooper on the Cpap machine. This is what he looked like when I first saw him
Loves having his hand held!
Basically Cooper was having trouble breathing. He was breathing way too fast. So we spent the first two days counting his breaths per minute. Then he appeared to have an infection. Our pediatrician thinks that I may have been leaking fluid after all.. and that is how the infection came about. For this reason I am so glad Cooper was born when he was. Despite his rough start it could have been much worse. I have to look at it that way or I get upset!
They had to give him a feeding tube. If he were to eat on his own we run the risk of him aspirating his food because of his fast breathing.. And he was on Oxygen..Annoying!
Oxygen
Oxygen and a feeding tube
first family picture
One of the hardest things I have ever experienced was leaving the hospital on Wednesday without my son. With Abby I refused to leave. But with Cooper we had no idea how long he would be there. At the time it was looking like it could be weeks. And I knew I had to leave at some point. And I had Abby to think about too. So I decided to go home. It stunk. I cried. Alot. But thankfully I was able to spend a lot of time at the hospital. I got there for his first feeding in the morning at 7:30. And would pretty much stay all day until about 9 pm... with a 2 hour break in the middle of the day for a nap. It was hard and exhausting. And a very difficult way to get better after having a baby. But I am so glad that thanks to my Mom, my in-laws, my sister and my wonderful husband. I was able to do be there for Cooper as much as possible.
Before they let you take your baby home on oxygen and monitors they make you "room in" with them for 8 hours. Basically you are in a room with him along to make sure you can handle all the alarms going off all the time. We did this with Abby. We were coming home with the same exact set up... we are pretty much pros. But we did it anyway. It was a very long day... but it went really well.
Leaving the NICU for the first time. Time to "room in"
This nurse is one our favorites. She was one of Abby's Nurses when she was in the NICU. This is one of my favorite pictures by far... I love the other nurses in the background!
We were able to take Cooper home on Sunday night October 28th. Around 10:30 pm. The long and short of it was... his breathing got fixed. His infection went away. And we had to take him home on Oxygen. After 6 days in the NICU we were finally able to take our Son home.
Had to do this one in color so you can see his cute going home outfit!
Things have been amazing ever since. Cooper is such a Miracle. I am so grateful to have him in our home. Abby adores him. She really really does. They are so lucky to have each other.
Love that she is Shshing him here.. calming him down... LOVE that!
Reading to her brother
My kids.. I am sure am blessed
He is a dream baby. He rarely cries. I mean hardly ever! And for the first week and a half we were home he woke up 2x a night to eat. And now we are just down to one. And when he wakes up he goes right back to sleep! What can I say... we love the kid!
Now that he is almost 4 weeks old.. here are a few fun Facts about Cooper.
He has the best Hair.. literally the best!
He loves having his hand held. Ever since minutes after birth Scott started holding his hand to comfort him and he still loves it!
He only wakes up once during the night! LOVE that!
He is the Gassiest baby ever!
He smiles in his sleep.. like a lot!
He loves his swing
He loves being swaddled
He pees on us a whole lot! Boys are a lot different to change than girls!
He has the funniest sneeze ever! He sneezes 5 times in a row and holds in the third one! We have been trying to get it on video but no luck yet!
He loves when Abby reads to him. She started days after he was born and its a tradition every night.
We feel so incredibly blessed to have Cooper and Abby in our Family. We know that it is nothing short of a miracle that we have both of them in our lives. And what a wonderful life it is!
