Cohen William Baker has arrived!

He is here . . . and it is absolutely amazing! As you know from my previous post, I wasn't feeling very good last week. A lot of uncomfortableness and pain in my pelvic bone and back. But when I went to bed on Friday night, I did not think that I would be having a baby the following day!

Saturday morning, September 13th, at about 3:30am, I woke up with a lot of ab pain, and it was coming in waves. Later to find out that is what contractions felt like. So Mike and I started timing them and they were about 6 to 7 minutes apart and about 1 minute long. So we hung out at the house, walked around, etc . . . and finally at about 5:30am, I said, "Alright, I think this is it . . . we need to go." They were just too painful and nothing like I had felt before. So we got our things together, put Naismith in the car, dropped him off at my mom's house and headed for the hospital. We arrived there around 6:30am and was checked by a nurse and already at 4cm and 100% effaced with my water able to break at any point. So was admitted and told I was going to have a baby today!

So once admitted, I was moved to my labor room and at that point had then progressed to 6 cm. This was at about 7:30am. So started doing all the important things that we learned in our birthing class . . . walking, breathing, etc. About one hour later, I was at a 7cm. My mom and sister had gotten to the hospital and I was so glad that they were there. Mike and I spoke with the doctor and each other and with my last few contractions being the pain that they were, we decided to get the epidural and all seemed to get so much easier. I couldn't feel a thing and most of the time had no idea I was even having a contraction. Mike would look at the screen and say, "do you feel that? You are having a contraction." And I would just look at him like I had no idea what he was talking about!

Soon after the epidural, the doc, Mike, and I decided we need to break my water . . . it just wasn't going on its own. So after that things continued to progress. At about 10:30am, I had moved from 7cm to 9cm and was getting close to the end. And 30 minutes later had reach 10cm! I did my work for the next 30 minutes and Cohen had arrived. It was amazing! I immediately got to hold him and of course Mike and I both got teary. The whole process was so fast and couldn't believe that 8 hours earlier we were sleeping with no sign of having him that day. They then took him to the other side of the room, weighed him and checked him out. And then we got him back. Mike went out to the waiting room to ask Aunt Katy and Grammy/MiMi (or whatever her name will be) if they wanted to come meet him. They got to the room and shortly after my dad and stepmom arrived. It was so great to have them all there for this amazing experience!

After a few hours, we were moved up to the mother/baby floor of the hospital where we would spend the next few days. As we arrived, we stopped in the nursery and Cohen has his first bath and first shots . . . not fun, but didn't last long. And then we headed we all headed back to the room for rest.

Mike's sister, mom, and niece arrived later that evening from Kansas. It was so special to have them here and meant the world to us that they made the long drive.

We hunkered in for our first night as a family. I had a really hard time getting any sleep though. Between nurses coming in to check Cohen, checking me, us working on the whole feeding thing, changing diapers, and just being emotionally on cloud nine . . . it was hard fro me to unwind and get any zzz's in.

Cohen being a name that Mike and I really liked, William being after my grandfather (my mother's father) that meant the world to me and such a huge part of my life). It was an absolutely amazing experience and I can't believe that Cohen is finally here. It makes the long 9-10 month wait absolutely worth it and Mike and I are just in love. Here are a few pictures from Cohen's first few hours!