Cooper & Hadley's Birth Story-December 11, 2008

It has been almost 5 weeks now since the babies' birth & I have been meaning to sit down & write their birth story & am just now finding the time to do so. I don't want to forget any detail of that day, so I wanted to document it....so here it goes.

December 11, 2008 started off like any other day of bed rest. Michael left for work & Charlie & I went back to bed for a couple of more hours! I was trying to get all the rest I could before the babies arrived & what else was there to do but go watch TV on the couch! At this point, I had either been in the hospital (Nov 25th-29th) or at home on bed rest (Nov 29th-Dec 11) for about 2 1/2 weeks. I was so ready to have these babies, but I knew the longer I could carry them the less time they would have to spend in the hospital. I finally got out of bed to get something to eat & started to get ready for my doctors appointment. I had an ultrasound at 2:30 and was to see Dr. Laws at 4:00. Going into my appointment, I had a feeling the babies had dropped because the night before Michael & I had gone to his Christmas dinner party for his office. To enter the restaurant, we had to walk up a ramp & I felt like I literally had to pick my belly up to make it up the ramp. I was very curious to see how I had progressed.

Both of our mothers hadn't been to an ultrasound yet, so Michael & I invited them both to our ultrasound that day. I wasn't supposed to be driving, so Michael's mom picked me up & we met Michael & my mom at the hospital. The ultrasound went great & we got some great video & pictures of Cooper & Hadley. Both Grandmothers were over the moon to see the babies during the ultrasound. The ultrasound tech gave us weight estimates of 5 lbs even for Cooper & 4 lb 15 oz for Hadley. We also saw that each baby had lots of hair which I was so excited about. She kept commenting about how low Cooper's head was. She was unable to get a good measurement on his head because it was so low in my pelvis. After she got all the measurements on the babies, she had to do a vaginal ultrasound to see how my cervix was thinning. She had a very hard time with this also because of Cooper's head, but did say my cervix was really thin.

Both of our moms hung around to see how much longer Dr. Laws thought I might make it. They did the normal tests, & my blood pressure was elevated. He checked me to see if I was dilated anymore than before. Note: I was dilated to a 3-4 cm in the hospital over Thanksgiving. I was still at a 3-4 cm that day, but my cervix was much thinner. He also commented on how low Cooper's head was & that he could feel my bag of water. He wanted me to lay down for about 30 minutes to monitor the babies & then to check my blood pressure again. I was asking what doctor was on call that weekend, because I really thought that it couldn't be much longer till these babies were coming. He never answered me, but said he thought I might make it until Christmas. WHAT??? That was like 2 weeks away! I knew there was no way. Both of our mothers left at that point since I was just laying there being monitored. As the 30 minutes wore on, I started to get more & more uncomfortable. The babies heart rates looked great & my blood pressure was back to normal, so we were about to be sent on our way home. As we were getting ready to leave I had to sit down because I was so uncomfortable. The nurse walked in & I told her I was very uncomfortable & so she sent us on to Labor & Delivery to be monitored a little more.

By the time Michael & I got to L&D which is just 1 floor down & only took about 10-15 minutes, the contractions were getting stronger. I was checked once we got in an observation room, & I was already a 5-6 cm dilated. That nurse told us that we were going to have some babies tonight!! That is the moment I started to panic. It was the most overwhelming feeling I have ever felt. We started calling our family & friends! Our whole family was at the hospital within an hour & we were in a delivery room very quickly. I was checked again once we were admitted & I was a 7-8 cm. From this point on, everything is kind of a blur for me. All I know is that I wanted my epidural. I remember it seemed like eternity until the epidural guy came to give it to me. They kept telling me he was in a C-section & would be there as soon as he could. All I remember at that point was my back labor! OMG...it was horrible! After two attempts, I finally got my epi about 7:15 pm. It was pretty painful but well worth it! I think it was around 7:50 when I began to push! I just remember looking around the room at all the drs & nurses...I swear there were probably 10-12 in the room! It was chaos & I was just ready for it to be over! After about 20 minutes of pushing & a slight episiotomy, our first born, Cooper Thomas entered this world at 8:04 pm. I got to hold him for a few seconds before the NICU nurses took him from me. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. He was having a little trouble breathing & needed some oxygen. I was so worried about him at this point while I laid there waiting for the next contraction, but there was so much going on in the room & couldn't even see what they were doing. Then I realized, I wasn't through...I remember telling Michael & Dr. Laws that I couldn't do it again. They were so reassuring & the next thing I remember, I was having another contraction. After a few more pushes, our second born, Hadley Owen made her grand entrance at 8:11 pm. It was a breeze compared to Cooper's birth. Even though Hadley was doing great, I only got to hold her for a second too because they needed to get Cooper to the NICU & they wanted them in the same isolette. At this point, I still couldn't believe I had the babies so quickly. I was just at my dr. appt about 4 hours prior. I am so thankful for a quick & easy delivery!

I had the babies on Thursday & was released from the hospital on Saturday. However, since I had babies in the NICU & was breastfeeding they allowed me to stay in my hospital room free of charge as long as the L&D wing didn't fill up. I was overwhelmed that the hospital offered this. I am not sure how I would have made it if they hadn't allowed me to do this. We live 20 minutes from the hospital & I would have run myself ragged going back & forth. Thank you so much St. Edwards for offering this! The babies had to stay in the NICU for 12 days. Cooper required oxygen for 2 days, but after that was breathing fine on his own. Really the only reason they had to stay for so long was their feedings. They ate great at first & then got lazy with their feedings. They had to both get feeding tubes since they were taking so long to get down their bottles. They were burning more calories than they were taking in. After 12 tiring days for Mommy & Daddy, our sweet babies got to come home on December 23, 2008 just in time for Christmas!! We had the best Christmas ever as a perfect family of four and looking forward to many, many more!