A Baby Story

minutes old baby Cooper

Unfortunately this post will not end with footage of the birth like in the show but here is the story. I decided to only write it out once so you get the Flake Family Journal version...sorry!

I went in to be induced at 7:30 am. We scheduled the induction two days before when I went to my doctors appointment the day after my due date and found out that Cooper's head was still no where near being down, I was completely undilated, and I was still 50% effaced (same as the previous three weeks). I wasn't so excited about the induction and planned on saying that we'd wait as long as we could when I went to the appointment but when I heard that nothing had changed and that my doctor didn't want to let me go over a week over, I decided to go ahead and do it before the weekend so that Derek would be able to ask off less from work.

So...back to the induction. I got to the hospital, waltzed up to the brand new unit on the 4th floor and got settled into my room. Dr. Tindall was in surgery so my nurse got my IV in (actually another nurse did because she tried twice without getting it to work...needles hate my veins) So at about 9:30 Dr. Tindall induced me with a Foley catheter (puts the catheter in, tapes it to my leg, when it falls out I'm dilated to a 4) This was quite uncomfortable but much better than using gels or other chemicals in my mind, so I was happy to be doing it this way! It fell out at about 11:30 and I felt great amid my contractions so Derek and I did some laps around the hospital floors while we waited for the nurse to call the doctor. He came and broke my water at 12:37 - Derek missed this procedure as he was down in the fabulous (it really is fabulous) cafeteria getting a grilled cheese with ham and fries. Anyhow, as soon as my water broke the contractions became much more painful. I stayed in bed for the next while so they could monitor his heartbeat and tried to breath through the contractions. I got up to walk around so that his head would hopefully move down and requested that I get my epidural before too long. My nurse told me to give her plenty of notice. So she went to get my IV of fluids to walk around with but by the time she got back I was throwing up so we decided to just get back in to bed. The epidural lady (anesthetician?, anesthesiologist?) Melissa came at 3:30pm and did a FABULOUS job with my epidural. I was shaking with pain from trying to hold perfectly still in the hunched over epidural position during contractions (the epidural itself was very tolerable). Then I was SO happy, my epidural was perfect - I could feel and move my legs and feet but could only feel the pressure of my contractions. Then we hung out for the next several hours while I remained dilated to a 5 (where I was before the epidural). Then magically, before 5 and 6 I dilated to an 8, was fully effaced, and his head was in a good position....BUT he was posterior. So I got a new nurse at 6 who had been doing this for 29 years and she got Cooper to turn in only 40 minutes by having me lay on my side with an exercise ball between my legs...I love this lady for this.

At 7pm the nurse started having me push and went to get Dr. Tindall about 10 or 20 minutes before 8. At 8:02pm Cooper was born! Everything went perfectly, I loved the hospital staff, enjoyed the fabulous food, and returned home with Cooper Sunday morning at 10:30am.

So here is what we did our first day home (Monday)

Went on a walk in the Moby (thanks aunt Kelly!)

I only missed two days of walking to have Cooper...we love our walks!
Had my first bath.


and had Grandpa Reed, Travis, Kendra and Carson come to visit us! (haven't uploaded these pictures yet)

We love our Cooper Kid so much and can't believe how good he is. We are really spoiled. He is a great eater, fabulous sleeper, and hardly ever cries. I can't believe how adorable his face is!

Whew, again, sorry if that was too much info but now I can print it out, stick it in my journal, and go back to my mothering duties!