Coen's Birth Story: "A Great Day"

This post is dedicated just to Coen's birth story with lots of pictures and details since I will probably forget stuff soon!

Leading up to the delivery I was really nervous about having complications, the baby being healthy, and trusting doctors. If you know my experience with Ava, it will probably be no surprise that i was having a hard time trusting a doctor to slice me open with a c-section.

My c-section was scheduled for 12:00 on November 11. The night before Brent gave me a blessing and said that everything would go well. It helped me feel calm to sleep, until 3:30 am when I woke up feeling uncomfortable with contractions and pain in my back. I was pretty restless and didn't sleep so well the rest of the morning. In the morning as I was getting ready to go to the hospital my contractions were starting to get a little more frequent and stronger. My body was going into labor and I was so glad I had my c-section scheduled!

Leaving for the hospital- Ava was pretty happy to stay home and play with Grandma.

Driving to the hospital to have a baby. Eeek!

Brent dropping me off at the hospital doors.
Jen: Can we wait for a second, I'm having a contraction.
Brent: Sure, no rush.
Jen: This is so crazy, I'm in labor!
Brent: haha, your face is getting red, let's take a picture!

Last chance to take a picture of the pregnant belly which I miss afterward!

Waiting in our room for our 12:00 appointment time to meet our baby :) Brent was pacing around, staring out the window, and we both felt kind of antsy. I also was counting the number of contractions I estimated I had left. They were coming about every 5 minutes, and we had 45 minutes left, so about 9 more? Brent asked me if I felt like we were on death row, and it totally did! We just watched the clock tick on.

Here's a picture of my nurse (in the pink), my doctor (green scrubs) and anesthesiologist (black scrubs). I cannot say enough good things about the team of doctors and nurses I had at the hospital here in Texas. They were angels to me.

The anesthesiologist was particularly calming to me. If you remember, during Ava's delivery, I had a doctor "trying to get experience in placing epidurals" attempt to give me an epidural two times. The pain was horrific, he had to keep trying, and then the actual anesthesiologist placed it. Probably due to the failed first two attempts, I had quite a few complications including the spinal headache, nerves wigging out in my leg, a droopy half side of my face, and the epidural didn't effectively block pain in about half of my body.

I explained all of this to the anesthesiologist here and he listened to me and explained why some of the complications had happened, and what he would do to make sure they didn't happen. He explained carefully each step of what he would do in placing my spinal, the level of discomfort I would feel, and the time it would last. After I had talked to the anesthesiologist, I decided that I could do it and that Brent didn't have to be there to hold my hand (they typically don't have the husband come in until after).

He also told me he lets all of his patients choose which pandora station we all listen to during the c-section. I chose the Rachel Portman station, which is what Brent and I listen to for calm music (basically Pride & Prejudice type of music). The anesthesiologist told me he would stay by me during the whole procedure, and that everything was going to go so well. "It is going to be a great day!" he told me. It is what I needed to hear.

 12:00- and we're off!

They wheeled me into the operating room and the anesthesiologist walked me through the spinal. After it was all over I couldn't believe it. That's it?!?! It felt like a little shot in my back. He told me, that's how your epidural should have been last time. Argh.

As soon as I was all prepped with the sheet up, they had Brent come in. He sat by my head as they started the procedure. When it was time (maybe about 10 minutes of cutting me open?), they told Brent to stand up and look over the sheet and they would see the baby coming out. He stood up, and immediately I heard a big cry from a tiny body. It is the strangest, most exhilarating experience to hear a human cry and know that it is coming from this tiny little body that you have been growing. I remember the nurse saying, as they were pulling him out, "Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday!" It was calming to me because I figured she wouldn't be saying that if the baby had any major issues.

The anesthesiologist also doubled as our photographer of the actual birth so that Brent could just watch and enjoy it.

They cleaned up the baby and worked on him for a while as they stitched me back up.

He was 6 lbs. 11 oz, 20 inches.

A video where you can hear his strong cry:

 As they stitched me up Brent stroked my head, which was a nice distraction since I could feel some tugging, but no pain.

The doctors said a lot of c-section babies have a hard time getting going breathing since they didn't have the pressure coming out of the birth canal. The baby was kind of grunting while breathing, so they were going to take him to the NICU to watch his breathing. But first they gave him to me so I could see him.

First look at my little baby:

What do you even say about this moment. It is incredible.

A video:

After just about 15 minutes in the NICU they brought the baby back since he was doing well and we got to snuggle him in the room where I was recovering.

I love the look on Brent's face in this picture.

After that, they took me up to the room where I would stay for 3 days. The afternoon went by quickly as Brent and I talked to each other and stared at our newborn. The nurses also kept coming to monitor different things on me. We decided to choose the baby's name sooner this time instead of drawing it out to the last day.

A couple nights before we had stayed up late and basically decided on a name, which I say was the dark horse in the race! We had almost narrowed it down to Weston Paul (my favorite) and Keaton Paul (Brent's favorite). The only problem was we each didn't like each other's favorite name. So we went for the next favorite, Coen (after the Coen Brothers who Brent loves). We decided on Andrew for a middle name after my awesome brother :) Andrew is super smart, has such a funny sense of humor, is incredibly humble, and has amazing musical talent. In the hospital we decided to go with Coen Andrew after we looked over the baby and decided he did look like a Coen!

That evening Brent went back home to pick up my mom and Ava to come meet the baby. Ava was so funny about meeting Coen! She was so excited and cracking us all up. She immediately loved him and was so excited to have a "friend."

Look at her face in this picture :)

A couple videos:

When it was time to go home, Ava threw a monster tantrum at the car because mommy and baby brother weren't coming home. I'm glad I wasn't there to see that part or I would have cried. I snuggled Coen all night and slept a little under 2 hours that night! It was ok because when I woke up I felt like it was Christmas morning and I had the best little present in the bassinet by me.

My little Coen Andrew.

And that concludes the birth story! The anesthesiologist was so right, it WAS a great day! Everything went perfectly and I was so relieved and happy.