Introducing Cooper Paul Hagemeier

Cooper Paul Hagemeier

Our little boy is finally here!  Cooper Paul Hagemeier arrived Oct. 28, 2010 and here is his birth story.

On Tues. Oct. 26th (Ryan's Birthday), we made a trip to the dr. for my 39 week appointment.  After being examined, my doctor told me I was 2 cm dilated and ready to go into labor at anytime.  Since I was on medication for gestational diabetes, she said she would like to schedule me for an induction if that was ok with me.  Considering I was really uncomfortable and eager to meet my baby, I started crying and say I would love to be induced.  We went down the hall where they called the hospital and scheduled me for an induction the following morning.

Pre-labor...waiting to be induced

On Wed. Oct. 27th we got up early, called the hospital for the go ahead, and arrived at Meriter hospital in the birthing center at 7am.   I was a little disappointed that I wasn't allowed to wear my birthing skirt since I had to have an I.V.  It took awhile for the nurse to set everything up, but by 10am, I was hooked up to an I.V. of oxytocin and was officially being induced.   The day went by really slowly.  Ryan and I watched tv on my computer and managed to take one nap.  They kept asking me about my pain which seemed minimal throughout most of the day.  Late in the day the contractions got a little worse and they gave me narcotics so that I could sleep.  It was obvious I don't use drugs since the narcotics hit me pretty hard.  After 12 hours, the resident told me I was still only 2 cm dilated.  I almost cried!  A little while later the dr. came in and said I was close to 3 cm and she broke my water.

After they broke my water, the contractions immediately worsened.  At first they gave me more narcotics because I didn't want to have an epideral for more than 4-5 hours and they estimated it would take an hour per cm.  This time, however, the narcotics didn't help much.  I began to have lower back labor pains which made me cry.  After an hour, I asked for the epideral and was relieved when they showed up to put it in.

Once the epideral was in place, I was able to take another short nap and insisted that Ryan get some sleep as well.  I woke up after about an hour and was starting to feel a lot of pressure pain.  The nurse said they would return in an hour to check on me.  After 30 min the nurse returned to check the baby monitor and realized I was having a significant amount of pressure pain and sent in the doctor to check me.  After they examined me, the resident said it was time to push!  So a little after 2am the pushing began.

Finally, at 5:23 am on Oct. 28th, our little boy was born.  The NICU team had to evaluate him and they said he was perfect...words every parent wants to hear.  Cooper weighed 7lbs. 9oz. and was 19 inches long.  I loved watching Ryan hold him, all bundled up in the hospital blanket.  After a long 9 months, we were finally able to meet our little boy!

We spent 2 more nights in the hospital.  It was nice to have the nurses there to help and there was an extra bed in the room for Ryan to sleep in.

On Sat. we finally took our baby home!