Cooper's Birth Story

I don't have this on my blog yet, so I want to go ahead and put it here. And yes, I'm giving it the label "Birth Stories" as in plural, because hopefully, I'll have a bunch more birth stories to tell you. But here's his.

I had a rather easy pregnancy with Cooper. I had zero morning sickness. I had a small battle with an ear infection, but other than that, just the minor aches and pains that everyone gets. Then my water broke at home when I was 37 weeks and 5 days. It was later in the evening, probably about 8:30 or so. It wasn't the big gush like you see in the movies, so at first, I really thought I had peed on myself. Then it happened again, and I just knew.

So I went to wake up Dixie, who had already gone to bed. I said, "Babe, I think my water just broke." And he replied, "Are you sure you didn't pee on yourself?" I said I was sure, and he told me to call the doctor. While I was on the phone with the doctor, I guess Dixie realized it was go time, and he was up out of the bed, running around the house. My dad had just woken up (he lived with us at the time, and works graveyard), so he was there to witness us freaking out a little. I started crying, because I was so scared. By the time I got a call back from my doctor and got off the phone with him, Dixie had already posted on Facebook what was going on. So we load up the car and head to the hospital.

When we got there, they put us in a triage room and checked me. I was only about one and a half centimeters. I wasn't having any contractions yet, and the nurse said they would put me in a room, and induce me in the morning if my contractions hadn't started by then. Not long after the nurse left, my contractions started and they started strong!. I made it through, oh maybe, three or four contractions before I was hitting my button and begging for pain medicine. So the nurse brought me a big fat shot of Demerol and a big fat shot of Phenergan. The Demerol was great, and I was sailing high til the Phenergan kicked in. Apparently, I'm allergic to it. The effect it had on me was like Restless Leg Syndrome, but all over your whole body, and times like, a hundred. I was beyond miserable. Shortly after that I went on and got an epidural, and while I wasn't in pain, I was still miserable from the effects of the other medicine. It was so bad that it took the nurse several tries to get the catheter in because I could be still. I also had several visitors come by the hospital that the nurse turned away because I was so bad. (There were some people that I didn't know had even shown up until after I was discharged.)

I was in labor for nearly 20 hours and stalled at 8.5 centimeters because Cooper was face up and just big. So Dr Reed decided we needed to do a C-section. By the time he said that I was ready to throw in the towel anyway, so I didn't care one way or the other. We went into surgery and Cooper was born at 7:43pm on December 23rd, 2011 with no complications. We stayed a few days and then went right home.

Next time, I will know to go straight to the epidural and skip the narcotics, and maybe it will be a more pleasant experience.

Cooper is 6 Months Old!

My little boy turned six months old today! I've been telling people all day and it still hasn't really kicked in that my boy, my little baby, is six months old. It's hard to believe. I totally forgot to take his picture, so here he is asleep. Haha! It's easier to take a good pic this way since he's not wiggling all over the place. 

Weight:  

I'm really not sure honestly. I figure around 19 lbs. He was 17.5 pounds at around 4 and a half months old, so maybe around 19. I could be way wrong though. He will be 7 months at his 6 month doctor appointment so we'll see for sure then. 

Height:

Again, not sure. He was 26.5 inches at his last appointment so maybe what, 28? IDK

Clothing:

He is certainly wearing 6-9 month stuff, and even some 9-12 month things. For sleepers, he has to have 9-12 because the 6-9 month ones are too short for his long legs. 

Diapers:

We are in a size 3, and I think he'll stay there for a little while. He's in a stage where he is constantly trying to get away from me during diaper changes. 

Feeding:

Boy loves food! He has a bottle every 3-4 hours, eating 8 ounces at a time (I know right!). He has been eating baby food consistently for about a month now. We had been offering it to him sporadically, just to introduce it, but it has been full time for a while. For breakfast he gets cereal and a fruit (we've had peaches, apples, pears, and bananas.). Around lunch he gets a vegetable and dinner a vegetable. For vegetables, he loves carrots, squash and sweet potatoes (all the orange ones). He isn't really into the green beans or peas, but he will eat them if you mix it with something else, like carrots. He is trying to hold his own bottle, but he'd rather someone hold it for him, and I'm always happy to do it.

Hair/Eyes:

I still can't tell what color his hair is/is going to be. It's kinda blonde, with a red tint in the sun, which he gets from his daddy. But sometimes it looks dark. He has a little cradle cap, but we are working on it. He has a bald spot on the back of his head from scooting on his back so much. His eyes are still beautifully blue, and I hope they don't change. 

Sleep:

He was doing so well before we moved, but this move has thrown him off. Pre-move, he was going to bed around 8 or so and sleeping until 6 or 7am. When I started back on day shift, I had to get up earlier to take him to my mom's in the morning, so he started going to bed earlier, usually around 7, and he sleeps until I wake him up at 5:30 or so. Now that we have moved, he is pretty much on the same schedule, but he has started waking up at night. He's not hungry, he just wants to be cuddled and he goes right back to sleep. I know I know, I have to break him of that and quit picking him up but it's hard because I know this is a new environment and he has to get used to it. 

Fun Stuff:

He is rolling over like a pro! Both ways too! He loves his walker and his activity center. And he can't get enough of Tec the Tractor (Baby First TV). He has started reaching for people ever so slightly, and that has tickled his PawPaw to death! Cooper loves his PawPaw Wayne (Dixie's dad). We go to his house and Cooper just lights up and giggles. Cooper likes everyone. I've taken him by my office and he just laughs and laughs with my two boss ladies. He is such a charmer. 

Fun moment:

 At the Thrift Store the other day, I was walking around, with Cooper in the buggy in his car seat, and an older, gray haired lady stopped to see him. She started talking to him and he was smiling back and squealing like it was his job, and the lady turned to me and said, "He knows a grandma when he sees one." Love it!

Sleeping through the Night....Part Deaux

(Ignore the fact that it's been so long...) So Cooper has been sleeping through the night since he was a little over two months old. It started out as sleeping from about 9pm to about 5am ish, maybe a tad longer some days. It has gradually grown to where he would go to bed between 7 and 8p and wake up around 6-6:30. Then when I started back working, I have to be in at 7am, so I would get up and get myself ready then wake him up around 5:30am to get him ready right quick and off to my mother's house. Since he was up so early, he had been going to bed a little earlier, but still sleeping through the night.

 Well, that got thrown out of whack when we moved. We recently bought a new place, and since moving in, Cooper hasn't slept well. I know that the new environment is throwing him off, plus he is teething something fierce so that has a lot to do with it. But wow, this mama was thrown for an even bigger loop! I got really used to sleeping again! The last week or so has seen Cooper getting up every 2 hours at night. He doesn't want to eat or anything, he wants to snuggle and be rocked. And of course, bad mommy, I don't have the heart to let him cry it out and go back to sleep on his own. So I get him up, rock him to sleep, and put him back in bed. Which takes about 30 minutes each time he does it. That means I've been losing about two hours of the sleep I usually get, plus the time it takes me to fall back asleep. So maybe its three hours. Either way, I'm exhausted.

 Last night, he managed to sleep all the way through, but he was up for the day at 5am this morning, therefore, so was I. I'm so not sure what's going on. I know I just probably have to give him time and let him get used to his new surroundings. So I guess that's what we are doing. Giving it some time.

 In other news, the boy loves food! We have started him on baby food full time, which he gets twice a day right now. He usually gets a fruit for breakfast, usually bananas, and then a veggie sometime around lunch-ish. He loves bananas, and has had peaches also. As for veggies, I haven't found one that he wouldn't eat. He likes squash, peas, sweet potatoes, but his favorite so far is carrots. I can't get them in fast enough. With the other foods, when he sees the next bite coming, he opens his mouth, but with carrots, he has his mouth wide open before I even get the next bite ready! He loves it! I'm so glad, because my eyesight sucks bad, so maybe the carrots will help. Or maybe it won't have anything to do with it, but hey, a mama can hope.

 Now that I've been up over an hour, it's time to get ready for work. I love our new place because it's 4 miles from my job instead of 24, and it's less than 2 miles from Dixie's work. Awesome I know! Maybe I'll get around to posting some pics of the babe, but you know, they are all still on my camera, which I think is still packed somewhere....I think....it better be...

 Anywhoozle.... off to work. Maybe I'll have a good story or something later...

# 15 - Check!

So number 15 on my 101 list was to let someone watch Cooper overnight.

Last night, my mother kept Cooper overnight while Dixie and I went out to Scooter's to celebrate his birthday. We had such a good time being out with our friends and knowing that Cooper was being well taken care of.  We didn't close the bar down like I thought we would. We left Scooters before 1am. I know! Lightweights! LOL I think we were more interested in a full night's sleep.

I left Dixie in the bed this morning and went to pick Cooper up around 9:30. Here he is at MawMaw's.

It's bad quality, I know. Blame the crappy cell phone camera. He did so good at his MawMaw's house, even though he didn't really sleep through the night. We expected that though, being his first night away from home without Mommy and Daddy. He went to bed around 11, and woke at 4am and again at 7am. Not too bad.

So yay for my first check off my list! I have a few more things to add to it, but I'm still about 3-4 things short. I'll update the list soon.

Sleeping Through the Night!

I am the proud mom of a good sleeper! Finally! Now if only I could be a good sleeper. :-) For the last 4 nights straight, cooper has slept 7+ hours at a time! Usually he goes down between 10-11p after his last bottle and gets up around 5:30-6am, then he'll eat and go right back down for a couple more hours. It has been wonderful! He is in a much better mood in the mornings since he is sleeping better. I just love love love getting him up around 8am and he just smiles and coos at me.

And this is all thanks to my wonderful husband. He has got Cooper on such a good schedule. I had a bad habit at night and early morning feedings of letting him fall back to sleep without eating much. But Dixie has him on a good schedule where he eats better, and I got better at making sure he eats enough, and he sleeps so much better and longer. It's awesome.

The only problem is....Cooper no longer wakes up at 2am, but I do! Every night I wake up when he usually woke up and I have to go to his crib, which is like, 2 feet away, and poke him to make sure he's breathing. And every time I hear, "He's fine, you better not wake him up," from the other side of the bed. Haha! I never wake him up, I just have to make sure.

Oh, and Cooper has become a mover lately while in his crib. His crib has a changing table attached to the right side of it, and instead of slats on that side it's a solid panel. Well the first night he slept all the way through, I think he would have slept longer but he had scooted himself all the way up to where his head was up against that solid panel. And he likes to sleep with his hands up above his head, and every time he would go to throw his arms back, he would hit the panel and it would wake him up. At first I couldn't figure out what the noise he kept making was until I finally got up to look and saw it. I scooted him back down and he slept a little while longer.

So after that we started putting his head at the other end of the crib and this morning, he had turned sideways and his head was up against the slats on the front side of the bed. I wish I had thought to take a picture but the camera was in the car. I think if he hadn't gotten up against the slats he would have slept a little while longer. I guess we are going to have to get him some bumpers. We never actually got him a bedding set because A) they are unnaturally expensive, and B) half the stuff that comes in a bedding set, including bumpers, aren't supposed to be in the bed with the baby. So what's the point, right? Well, we are going to be looking into those breathable bumpers. It makes me feel bad when he gets his little head up against the rails.

Speaking of his little head, despite the fact that he already doesn't have a lot of hair, he's getting a little bald spot on the back of his head. LOL

And speaking of hair, I think a lot more of mine is falling out. Like, it scared me this morning. I know that's "normal" or whatever but my hair is a big deal. I mean, yes, I hardly ever actually do my hair because there's just so much of it and it takes forever, but I really do like it. I don't want to be bald. Which shouldn't be a problem. According to my stylist sister, I have the perfect kind of hair. It's not thick, as in each strand, there's just a whole lot of it on my head.

How did this go from my son's sleep habits to my hair? I'm not sure either. Oh well...

until next time....

Ohhhh.....Ahhhh....

So Cooper has always been mesmerized with our TV. Maybe because it's huge (55 inches) and it dominates the room so it's the easiest thing for him to look at. He has also been turning his head toward sounds since he had the tiniest bit of control over his head. But he never seemed interested in smaller objects, like toys. He has a mobile over his swing that he sometimes looked at intently, but it only lasted a few seconds. He has a short attention span. Here the last few days though, he is noticing and checking out things.

Today when I came home from work, he was laying in his portacrib in the living room staring at a little toy. My mother bought this little toy a couple weeks ago that is meant to hang from the handle of a car seat. Well, in the car seat, it seems to hang too close to his face and he didn't like it. But Dixie had it hanging on the side of the crib, and Cooper was just staring at it so hard! I said to Dixie, "Look how hard his checking that thing out." And Dixie says, "Yeah, he's been doing that for about 15 minutes now."

He liked it so much! Later this evening, after we all ate and played a little bit, I layed him back in the portacrib, and he started staring at it again, then he reached out for it! That's a milestone I have been sorta waiting for him to hit, reaching out for objects. He didn't grab it, but he reached out and hit it. The toy has three parts: the plastic clippy piece at the top that attaches it to something, a middle round piece that jingles, and a little stuffed lion on the bottom. I think Cooper figured out that if he touched it, that it would jingle. He still isn't that coordinated with it, but he reached out several times and made it jingle. The rest of the time he sat and talked to it. Well, of course he didn't make conversation, but he cooed and squealed at it. I think he likes it.

Cooper has a lot more control over his head than most babies do at this age (according to Baby Center). As soon as he gets a little bit more steady with it, we are going to get him some sort of exersaucer play thing. Since he's noticing things now, we are going to start buying toys and things. We didn't get any toys as gifts, and we didn't buy any because, well, he wouldn't need them for a while. (We bought clothes and diapers instead.) I am excited to see him notice things and start to sorta play.

He has been smiling up a storm lately, and he coos all the time. He loves his daddy! Dixie will lay him on a blanket on the floor and just talk to him and Cooper loves it! Half the time Dixie isn't making much sense but it's his voice I guess. Cooper will just smile so big and kick his legs so hard. He hasn't really laughed yet. He smiles and makes a funny sound like he might be trying to laugh, but it isn't quite there yet. I can't wait til he does.

Right now, he's laying in his portacrib, talking to his other friend, the ceiling fan. They have a good relationship. When the fan is off, the air conditioner blows it just hard enough to make it turn really slowly, and Cooper seems to be able to actually track it, so he stays occupied with that a good bit.

So enough random rambling about my son...I have a pile of laundry from several days ago that just won't fold itself. I probably won't fold it tonight either. In the morning. Hopefully. Oh how I hate to fold clothes! That's a lie, it's not the folding that I hate, it's putting it away. I love to finish folding and see neat stacks of t-shirts, jeans, baby blankets, and onsies. Then I have to put it away. Ugh. Hopefully I can motivate myself to do it tomorrow. Maybe. I'll let y'all know how that goes. LOL.

until next time.....