Cooper James has arrived

Cooper James Rogers was born 8/3/09 at 11:57 pm. He weighed 6 lbs. and 12 oz. and was 19 1/2" long.

I started contractions around 1:30 am on Monday morning and they continued through the morning. I called the doctors office to see if I should come in and the nurse told me they were not consistent and that I should drink some water and lay down and take a nap I was probably dehydrated. I took her advice and the contractions stopped. Needless to say I was not happy. I was ready. So I sent Jason to work.

I woke up from my nap and felt pretty good around 2:00 the contractions started again. I waited until 4:00 to call Jason. At this point the contractions were 20 minutes apart. By the time he got home from work at 4:20 the contractions were 5 minutes apart. We followed the instructions from our labor classes and packed our bags and I ate something light. At 6:00 I had Jason call the hospital to see if I should come in. They did not hesitate and said yes. I was so excited. By the time we got in the car the contractions were 3 minutes apart. I was not so comfortable at this point.

On the way to the hospital Jason asked if it was okay to stop and get something to eat. I said yes it could be a long night. Right, it is our first baby this is going to take a while. It was the longest 5 minute wait for him to come back out to the car.

We arrived at the emergency room around 6:30pm, I was up in triage around 7:00. They checked me and I was at 3cm and the contractions were still at 3 minutes apart. The nurse said you are going upstairs to labor and delivery. The nurse had told me they just sent 4 women home ahead of me. I was nervous that I was going to be number 5. I was very uncomfortable at this point and refused to be put in a wheel chair and walked to my room. By the time we got to our room I was dilated to 4cm.

The doctor came and said give her what ever pain meds she wants. We are going to break her water. After they broke my water I sat in the whirlpool tub for an hour and half. I had to wait for and epidural so the whirlpool kept me distracted. By the time I got out of the whirlpool I was dilated to 8 cm and it seemed like 2 minutes later I was dilated to 10 cm. No time for an epidural. I was not sure at this point how I was going to do it. Two hours of pushing and Cooper arrived.

Cooper spent the first night in the NICU. He was not breathing well when he came out. So they kept him over night for observation. I was able to see him and hold him for the first time around 3:00 am on Tuesday. We are so excited that he is here. We can not wait for everyone to meet him