Cooper Alexander!!!

Cooper Alexander was born on March 9th at 6:15 a.m. I was only in labor for 2.5 hours!! It was truly amazing.

I'm going to try to make this a quick post because it's 3:15 a.m. and Cooper just fell asleep (which means I should be sleeping lol).

I woke up at 3:37 a.m. Sunday March 9th needing to pee. So I got out of bed and went to the bathroom. While I was on the toilet I felt this weird pressure and when I wiped I saw my HUGE mucus plug (apparently I'd only lost a very small part in the shower Friday). I couldn't believe how big it was, it was crazy! I called for Paul and showed him, we decided that we should try to get some more sleep because it could be any time now.

As soon as we got back into bed I started having contractions a minute apart, lasting a minute each. They were so intense and crazy and hurt like Hell. It made me feel like I had to pee all the time, so painful. I was sitting on the toilet screaming in pain while a bath was running for me and Paul was in the bedroom calling the midwife and Jenny. I was taking my gown off to get into the tub when he came in and said we were leaving for the hospital, the midwife said to bring me in immediately, and Jenny was already on her way!

How scary! This was it, we were going to be parents in less than 2 hours (of course we didn't know it would happen so quickly).

We got to the hospital and they checked me, I was 7 cm dilated. They wheeled me down the hall and checked me again (maybe 5 minutes between the two checks) and I was 9 cms. At this point things get a little fuzzy for me. I remember my midwife saying she was going to break my water, and really not wanting/liking her doing that. But she did. I remember them putting in and IV, and an OBGYN coming in. My natural birth had gone from intervention free to lots of interventions that I didn't want in a matter of seconds. The next thing I knew, there was a man standing at the foot of the bed (OBGYN) telling me that he was going to use the vacuum to help deliver my baby. That Coops heart rate was dropping rapidly with every contraction and we needed to get him out quickly. I was not happy about this, but pushed when he told me to and tried to do everything he said.

They did use the vacuum to deliver Cooper. I remember the dr telling me to push for 10 seconds 3 times per contraction. So everytime I had a contraction I would start pushing and count in my head... I always seemed to get to 10 before he did! I would be at ten and ready to release my push and he'd still be counting 6, 7, 8. I hated that! lol

Next I heard him say they were going to give me an episiotomy. I told him no. And Jenny was telling him that I didn't want one either... I am so pissed that he did one. It was totally not necessary. He said he was going to do it to place the vacuum - but didn't do it until Coops head was coming out... It was totally not necessary - just something he wanted to do to make it easier on him... So pissed over that one.

I did deliver Cooper without any pain medications!!! I am so glad that I was able to stick to that, with my birth plan totally going out the window, that's the one thing I can say I did!!!

I also remember at one point looking around the room and there were literally 20 people there - most of them just standing around ...

Oh yea, I forgot. On the drive to the hospital I remember hearing the song "Lonesome Loser" by Little River Band on the radio. Lol! Now that song will always remind me of that morning.

I was literally falling asleep between contractions/pushes in the hospital. It was amazing. Between contractions was wonderful... even if it was just for a minute. I would totally relax, close my eyes, and start to fall asleep. And then I would feel another contraction and instinct to push took over... Pushing felt really good!!

As soon as Coop was born they said "It's a boy!" I actually aske "are you sure?" LOL! Paul was crying saying "Coopers here, he made it, we have our little boy!" It was amazing to hear him say that, to hear how proud he was and happy.

They placed Coop on my belly and Paul cut the cord (remember how he was afraid to do this lol).
Things went from there. They left Coop on me for about 5 minutes and then came and took him to do whatever the hell it was they thought couldn't wait. The whole time Dr. was pushing on my tummy trying to deliver the placenta (which felt weird... it kinda plopped out). Then he sewed me up. The whole time I was yelling at them to bring my baby back to me. At one point I told Paul to just pick him up and bring him back. Eventually he came back!

Coop latched onto the breast pretty quickly, but only for a few seconds. And we've been having nursing problems ever since... But that's another post...

It's now 3:30 a.m. I should get to bed... Coops totally asleep and looking like a gorgeous angel!!!

We are so happy and everyone is doing great!!!

xoxoxo

Amanda