The birthstory...about time, eh?

This is me and Cooper about 15 hours before he was born. I love Halloween and wanted to celebrate in a special way since it also coincided with turning 31 weeks! We painted my baby bump and passed out candy to the nurses...who knew that the next morning would bring so many surprises!

I woke up on November 1, 2009 with a terrible backache but I thought that maybe I had just slept wrong and if I got up and moved around that I would start to feel better. I thought that maybe I should mention this to my nurse after an hour of constant back pain and noticing that Cooper wasn't moving around as much. Cooper was always very active so this alarmed me even after taking a sip or two of Coke and he still wouldn't move much. So, my nurse decides to go ahead and put me on the monitor to see if I was having any contractions. Remember how I wasn't allowed more than 3 contractions in an hour time span? When I got hooked up to the monitor it was discovered that I was having contractions EVERY 3 MINUTES! Heck, I had never been in labor before so how the heck was I supposed to know!?! (I had an emergency c-section with Lily).

I had called my hubby when I woke up and mentioned the back pain but assured him that all was well and to come to the hospital after he finished my laundry. Imagine his surprise when I called him back to tell him that we were going to have a baby that day and to come to the hospital immediately.

I give amazing kudos to the teamwork on the high-risk floor because I was down in the labor and delivery within 5 minutes. My surgery was actually done in the main hospital's operating room because it was too invasive of a procedure for L&D. My hubby made it from our home to the hospital in 8 minutes (scary because it normally takes 20 minutes!) and made it in time to take a pic and give me a kiss...

Good gracious~ I look crazy bloated (which is a nice word for fat but I did have a baby!)

They had to do everything to me while I was awake due to the fact that they needed to get Cooper out of me as quickly as possible because I would be asleep for the c-section and hysterectomy. The anesthesiologist was so nice as he put the picc-line into my sub clavicle area and the arterial line into my wrist...for the record, I acted like a big girl in front of the professionals but that crap hurt like hell...and, he was even more nice as he talked to me while I feel asleep and the last words that I remember him saying were "you're going to have a beautiful baby boy when you wake up..."

Which is why my first words when I woke up (whenever that was!) were "is it a boy?" My hubby was there in recovery to show me a picture of our sweet baby boy that required no intubation and just a c-pap at birth. My hubby's face was priceless as he told me that Cooper weighed 4 lbs. and was 16 and a half inches long. This was my first glimpse of my boy....

His lungs worked wonderfully for a 31w1d baby boy from the expression on his face...and, yes, I am posting a picture of all his glories...I debated heavily on posting this pic but decided that nakedness is cute AS LONG as it is in baby form :)

Literally, he was born within an hour of my first complaint of back pain to the nurse. This hospital and it's staff are phenomenal! Actually, this hospital has the only stage 3 NICU in the southeast...which is why we were willing to move in at 24 weeks and didn't (completely) freak out when the possibility of a preemie turned into a definite decision.

Cooper spent 2 days on a c-pap and about a week on a nasal cannula...and has needed no help in breathing for almost 2 weeks. We're now up to 2-4 feedings by mouth a day (we need 8 to go home) and he is a picture of health (minus a heart murmur that almost all preemies have...) We have been extremely blessed to have made our way safely out of a very high-risk pregnancy and pray everyday that Cooper continues to grow stronger and healthier...