Cooper Joseph Driscoll

He's here! Ok...so I'm a couple weeks late in announcing this and a couple MONTHS late with an update. I was pregnant and now have a baby. So that's my exucse. Get over it. :-)

Anyway, I typed up a brief birth story that was sent out with our family newsletter last week. Here it is:

I went into labor on my due date (Tuesday, Jan 20th). The contractions were about 15 min apart. By 3 am they were 3-5 minutes apart, so we headed to the hospital around 430 am. I had high hopes because it didn't take long for the contractions to get pretty close together. I was barely 1 cm. We stayed for a few hours and ended up going home. We took a walk that afternoon and when I got back the contractions got a lot worse, so we went back to the hospital. Still only 1 cm. So we went home...again. I called my visiting teacher and she sent over a couple preisthood holders to give me a blessing. The next morning we were supposed to have my weekly doc appointment, but the doc wanted me to head to labor & delivery to be checked. Still wasn't that far along. I had been really nauseous, so the doc prescribed me some meds to help with that and that would make me sleepy. He thought that sleep would help my body relax and get the labor going more and told me to come back when I woke up. I got a few hours of sleep and ended up going back into the hospital around 5 pm. My mom was also here by then. I was only 2-3 cm. I got an epidural, the doc broke my water, and then they started me on pitocin for about an hour and that got things going (FINALLY!!). Sometime in the middle of the night I got to 7 cm...and stayed there for two hours...and then my epi wore off and I had gotten a fever. I got another epi and meds for the fever and kept begging for a c-section. Chris and the doctor wouldn't give up though. Early, early Friday morning they put me on pitocin again. I was at 9 cm, almost 10. I started pushing, and stuck with it for about an hour and a half. Cooper wouldn't budge. By then my body was completely worn out and my fever was back. Doc finally agreed to a c-section. Cooper was born at 9:32 am on Friday, January 23rd, 2009. He was 8 lbs, 1oz and 22 in long. Chris was the first one to hold him and wouldn't let anyone else hold him until I got to. It took me a while to wake up in recovery and I was pretty shakey from some of the meds they gave me. We were in the hospital until Sunday afternoon. Mom stayed until Wednesday (although I tried to convince her to stay a few more days) and Dad was able to come up for the weekend. It was really nice to have them up.

Cooper is a pretty good baby. I think he's finally gotten his days and nights figured out. He hardly ever cries; just wimpers a little. I'm trying to breastfeed, but I am just not making enough for him. He'll end up emptying both sides and still drinking 1.5 - 3 oz of formula. He definitely is his father's son. I fear we'll never have enough food in the house to keep both those boys fed. Cooper got my chin and Daddy's hands and feet (they're huge!!) and he's pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen.

My recovery was very frustrating at first. I hadn't anticipated a c-section, even though I knew it was still an option and was open to it. I just didn't think that would happen. I wish I would have researched recovery after a c-section just as much as I did for a regular delivery. I had no idea what to expect, especially since I had never had any type of surgery before. I was able to get up for the first time the next morning and took several walks around the hospital before being discharged Sunday afternoon. I was off my pain meds (vicodin) 9 days after surgery and now I'm able to do pretty much what I want without any strain.

Chris is such an awesome dad! I knew he would be, but it's just so adorable to see how he acts with Cooper. We have a pretty good routine at night. Chris gets up and gets Cooper for me. I'll nurse while Chris makes a bottle. I feed him the bottle and then Chris usually burps him. I know that I couldn't do it all without his help!! I don't know how single moms do it.

Well, Coop is taking his morning nap which means I should use this time to be productive...or eat! I'll try to get better at updating this and I'll post some pics later!