He has arrived!
On June 14th 207 at 4 pm, exactly, we welcomed Weston Clayton Cook into the world!
My due date was June 16 versus 17th depending on which OB/midwife you talked to; they were going based on an ultrasound. For some reason I thought baby boy was coming early, and he did by a few days. When were were booking Grandma Weis' flight out, originally it was for overnight of June 14th, but when it went time to buy the flight, I just couldn't do it. Something told me Grandma Weis needed to get here earlier and good thing she did. She landed 3 pm and Weston was born at 4 pm! By 6:30 Grandma and Elli were at the hospital to meet Wes.
Mac and Crystal went to dinner and a movie on Tuesday night, with plans to spend all day with Elli on Wednesday as an "Elli day." When we got home she was sleeping and I snuck into her room, which I have never done before, to watch her sleep and give her a kiss. Talk about women's intuition.
At 3:30 am my water broke but I wasn't sure until 4:30 when I finally woke up Mac. He jumped out of bed stating "I am ready, I am ready." This was very similar to when Elli was born, having my water break before labor started. We laid back down for another hour but couldn't sleep. Finally at 5:30 am we pulled Elliot into our bed to have some family time, followed by picking up coffee and breakfast at the local coffee shop and taking Elli to do her favorite thing; go to the park and swing on the swings! We were definitely the only people at the park at 6:30 AM! Good thing because I would have gotten some looks bending over, breathing heavy, as the contractions were irregular but had started at this point.
Our lovely nanny, Magdelena, met us at our house at 7:30 am and we said goodbye and were off to the hospital. Leaving Elli at the house was hard, knowing that an era had come to an end, we were now going to be a family of 4! We arrived at 8 am to OB triage. They monitored us for an hour before our midwife arrived. Weston's heart tracings were great, but the contractions died down a bit with laying in bed for an hour!
Since the contractions had slowed down, neither Mac nor I were excited about spending the morning/day sitting in a hospital room. It was non-traditional, but our midwife let us get a dose of antibiotics and then leave the hospital to walk around downtown Seattle to enjoy some food and get the contractions going again. We took a walk to get burgers, fries and milk shakes and went to the college campus across the street from the hospital. By noon the contractions had really kicked in and I was hiding on college benches during contractions. We started up the hill back to the hospital, only to take it REALLY slow because of contractions, we got a few funny looks :)
We checked back into labor and delivery at 1 pm. Between contractions I was doing pretty well and I don't think they understood that I really was in labor by how I looked. The midwife didn't want me to get in the warm tub because she thought it would "stall my labor." She was also worried that the way my contractions were stacking that they weren't effective and kept trying to talk me into pitocin, which I was not happy about. I could tell things were progressing! I was using my hyponobabies meditation so I think they were being deceived ;) After being in the room for 15 minutes with me, seeing me start to sweat, get nauseous and shakey....they retracted there prior opinions and let me get in the tub. The midwife even asked the nurse to set up for delivery already. I was only 3-4 cm at this point.
I spent the next hour+ in the tub, it really helped. Just like with Elli, I had to be bending over to relieve the pressure off my back. It was really hard to lay or stand up. At about 3 pm I was 8 cm. This time was intense! I got a brief break where I laid my head back and then by 3:30 it was time to get out of the tub. The midwife made a joke about an unintentional water birth being frowned upon. This labor was way more intense and without breaks than with Elli. At 3:40 I was 9 cm and 3:50 was 10 cm. The midwife had me try sitting on an exercise ball and I would like to believe that I tried it and nicely said no, it was really uncomfortable for me :) I continued to need to lean over and Mac was a great support giving me counter pressure.
Right about 3:45 Weston had a deceleration where his heart rate when down to 70 during a contraction. They wanted to try to get me to lay on my left side to help his heart rate but it was nearly impossible for me to lay in this position. Good thing I was then 10 cm and we were able to focus more on getting him out :) With 4-5 pushes and 10 minutes he was out. Dad accidentally helped the OB catch him.
Weston came out pink and with a vigorous cry! Apgars 8 and 9. Within 5 minutes he had already pooped on me...thanks son. Dad was able to cut the cord. Mom and baby were healthy. A relatively uneventful, quick but INTENSE labor and delivery!
I was able to be up and around within the hour. Mom and dad got some skin to skin time. Weston was 8 lbs 9 ounces of pure muscle :) 19.5 inches. My first words to Wes alternated between, "boy you have a strong cry," "I love you." and...."do all boys have balls that big when they're born." Apparently the answer to the last one is...yes.
We had some great family time and I think there nurses were scared by how up and about I was. I really wanted my IV out and they were VERY resistant.
By 6:30 pm Grandma Weis and Elliot had arrived at the hospital. Mac greeted them downstairs and got takeout Thai delivery. Elliot was enthralled with "baby brother" from the first second she saw him. She immediately ran to the bed, hopped up and wanted to investigate. She liked to look at his fingers, toes, kiss his head, and unfortunately try to pry his eyes open too. Mac and I were able to enjoy this amazing first moment where Elli met "baby brother" for the first time. We were able to relax together as a family eating take out Thai food. Elliot and grandma were then back on their way home for bedtime.
Wes slept great the first night other than one "event." After nursing he had a gagging, gasping episode where he turned blue around the lips and dusky. Mom did some burping/back thrusts and he was better by the time the nurses got there but it still scared us! The pediatrician thought it was a mucous plug, makes sense. No more episodes like that thank goodness. Between pictures, immunizations, bath, pediatrician, midwife, hearing tests, cardiac tests, etc it was a busy morning. Elli and Grandma were able to make one more visit. Then by 3 pm were were given the clearance to head home!
We had a sweet greating from our fur children at the door. Madison didn't care too much, Cooper was highly invested in sniffing the baby out. Overall I think they were more familiar with babies now after Elliot!
We were blessed to have a healthy baby boy and a relatively easy and uneventful birth! We are officially a family of 4 (6 if you count dogs) and couldn't be happier!
