One Year Ago today, I was in pain. Pain = Baby.

Right now we are celebrating Cooper’s first birthday in Disney World! I just wanted to tell you all about one year ago…


Saturday April 26, 2008 at 6 am my water broke. I was 2 weeks over due and had a c-section scheduled for later in the week. I was ecstatic. My mom and baby sister (who is 10 and I delivered her when she was born at home) were here from GA to be with us for the birth. I labored for 12 hours at home with contractions ever 3-4 minutes. We walked, squatted, showered and walked some more. I distinctly remember looking up at my mom and saying “this is freakin sweet!”

Let me explain. I am a certified labor assistant, and a nurse, and have been to lots of births. I wanted to go through labor so bad. Call me crazy, but I was looking forward to this very moment and was treasuring it all. I wanted to have a completely natural birth and be cool, calm and collected through the entire thing. Okay, back to the story.

I was starting to feel lots of pressure and the contractions were getting closer, so we started the 30 min drive to the hospital. I got all checked in and told every nurse that my Dr. told me I didn’t have to wear a gown. He approved a cute black dress that I labored in. Hehe. I am such a snot. I had been in labor for about 13 hours and they told me I was 1cm. 1 freaking centimeter. I felt like I had done all this work for nothing. I tried to sleep, had lots more contractions and took a shower (then dried and straitened my hair and reapplied make-up for the 1st time). 6 hours later, they checked me. 2cm. Lovely. Nurse: “Try to get some sleep…this is going to take a while.” Oh really? Thanks for that. Seriously. And you really think I can sleep when I am getting woken up with miserable pain every 2-3 minutes?

Sunday morning. Been at the hospital 12 hours. Total labor 24. My doctor was in Napa for the weekend and the on call Dr was getting antsy. She was about 4 months pregnant and her belly was hanging out of her scrubs. I was so distracted that I couldn’t even focus on what she was saying. Anyhoo. I walked the halls 50 million times. I got checked and I was at a whopping 3cm. I was beginning to think that my girlie parts were broken.The nurse referred to my cervix as Fort Knox. That is so comforting. At about 2pm, I finally let them give me pitocin. They wanted to give me pain meds or an epidural, but I was hell-bent on not having either. Well, pitocin with no pain meds makes you want to slap your momma. Or hubby. Or anyone. I kept it together, squatting with every contraction that were coming about every 1 1/2-2 min apart now. I had my ipod in and I boogied. This lasted for about 6 hours. They checked me and I was 6cm. Yay for progress! I showered again (and yes primped again, too with help from my mom) and walked the halls lots more. The pain was getting to be and at 37 hours of unmedicated labor, I was considering some pain . The nurse checked me and I was at 4 1/2cm. Wait! Wrong direction! Who knew when a girl who is 5’2” tries to deliver the child of a 6’3” man, it gets a little squished down there? I was so discouraged. I ended up getting something in the IV to relax me. They thought it would help loosen me up, but it just made me quite loopy and saying some weird things, apparently. I felt like I needed to push, but my cervix was swelling shut due to an alarmingly massive baby head in the southern hemisphere. Cooper’s heart rate started to slow with the contractions and we got really scared. My Dr. came in just then from his Napa getaway and was so great. He told me I could keep trying or he could do a c-section. After 39 hours of giving it my all, I was ready to stop. I felt like I had failed myself, but knew I was doing the right thing for my babies health. As I walked into the operating room, (remember the crazy “relaxing” medicine) I got real close to my Drs. face and asked him if he was drunk since he just came in from Napa. He assured me that he wasn’t and off we went! I did beg for a little shove and tuck if I was going to already be opened up, but I got denied. Psh.

I have been put to sleep before, but oh my, that half feeling, half not thing is so weird. I could feel pulling and pushing. I knew that there were 2 doctors pushing on either side of my ribcage to get some stuck body parts out. I knew the hubs was white as a ghost and there was no one there to catch him. Then I heard that little cry. My heart melted instantly. They lifted up this massive baby that looked just like my hubs and he peed on me. Yup. Over the curtain and in my face. Thanks, dude. I should have known then that he was going to be a handful.

Cooper William was born April 27, 2008 at 10:26pm, weighed in at 9lb 2 oz and was 21in long. Luckily, my Dr. was known for his C-section incisions and I ended up with a 5in beauty. I left the hospital 2 days later and my life has never been the same!
Even though I ended up having exactly what I dreaded, (the c-section) I know I did everything I could have done and just about all the things I wanted to do. I went through the whole labor just how I wanted, with no screaming, no cursing, feeling my body work as it was intended to and wearing my black dress. I just didn’t do the pushing. Or the tearing. Or the painful sitting for weeks postpartum. I think in the end, I made out pretty sweet. No, really sweet.