Courtney & Tyler: Cooper's Birth Story

When I was 39 weeks 1 day pregnant I started having what I thought were Braxton Hicks (which I had been having for the past few months), but they kept happening every 15 minutes. They weren’t very painful but they seemed more painful then the regular Braxton Hicks. Our friends came down from Layton that day and we took the girls to the Aquarium so I was doing lots of walking. I figured that once I ate something and laid down they would go away but they didn’t. I started timing them and they were from 8 -15 minutes apart for the next 3 hours while I was laying down. It was weird because they weren’t super painful and I could talk through them, but I just had this feeling that he might come soon. So we packed Payton’s bag and put her to sleep at grandma’s around 7:30 just in case we had to go to the hospital in the middle of the night. After getting home around 8:30 I took a warm bath which unfortunately stopped my contractions. Bummer. We were all excited for nothing.

The next day Tuesday, March 31 (39 weeks 5 days) it started out pretty normal. I was continuing to have occasional Braxton Hicks that were a little more uncomfortable through the night before, but just like before nothing came of it. So that morning I went to the gym to walk (hoping to progress labor). Then around noon I went to drop my car off to get my brakes fixed. The pads were really worn down and I had been meaning to do it for a while. I figured I didn’t have much time to get it down before the baby came so I quickly took it in. Afterwards I laid on the couch and I started having Braxton Hicks again but they seemed more regular then usual. I started timing them and for an hour they were from 8-12 minutes apart. But this is exactly what happened on Saturday. I called Ty just to let him know and he said he was going to head home from work and run to the grocery store real quick to get some food since we had nothing in our house.

An hour later I was still having the regular Braxton Hicks. At that point Payton and I were just watching a movie. The car place called and told me my car was ready. I figured Ty could take us to pick it up once he got home from the grocery store. About 20 minutes later (around 4:00) my water broke all over the couch. I FREAKED out. I never expected that to happen because with Payton they had to break my water and not until I was 7 centimeters dialated. I called Ty (who was in the middle of grocery shopping) and told him to get home ASAP. He left a half filled cart in the middle of the store. Then I called my mom and asked her to come over to get Payton.

Once everyone got to our house Ty started to bring the bags to our car and realized our car wasn't here. After my water broke I totally forgot that our car was at the shop still. Of course the day I take the car in I go into labor. Just our luck. My mom was just going to drop us off at the hospital but my wallet and Cooper's car seat were in my car. I figured we had time to go get it because it was only 2 minutes from our house. Once we transferred cars we were on our way to the hospital. Ty hadn’t eaten anything all day and was starving. My contractions were 4 minutes apart but they weren’t that bad so I figured we had time to stop.

After getting food we checked into the hospital around 5:15. Around 6 they checked me and I was only at a 2.5 and 90% effaced. At first I thought I was going to have to go home because I wasn’t at a 4 but because my water broke I had to stay.

My doctor came in and told me they would let me progress and check me again around 10:00 and if I hadn’t progressed then they were going to have to give me pitocin. I really didn’t want that to happen. My contractions were still really mild so I didn’t ask for my epidural yet. About 45 minutes later they suddenly spiked and were SO bad. So around 6:15 I got my epidural. At 9 they checked me and I was at a 7. YAY! No pitocin for me. Then at 10:15 I was fully dilated and they said I was ready to push. They called my doctor but made me wait to push until he got there because they thought it wouldn’t take me that long to push him out.

They were right. At 10:30 I started pushing and out came Cooper at 10:38 pm on March 31, 2015. We barely avoided having an April Fool’s baby. He was beautiful and HUGE compared to Payton. He was 8 pounds 12 ounces and 21 inches long (compared to Payton who was 7 lbs. 2oz. and 18 inches long). We are so in love with our new baby boy Cooper Seth Radmall.