Cooper Schlenker Wilcock
Now that I am over a week old, I thought I would officially introduce myself. I was born on February 18, 2014 at 6:33am. I was 20 1/4 inches long and 7 pounds, 1 ounce. Though I didn't make labor too bad for mommy, it was different than what she was used to with my brothers. Houston was born 3 weeks early and Damon was born 2 weeks early so thought I would keep up the trend and come exactly 1 week early. Mom had been anxious for a while and was thus going on walks everyday trying to induce something. The day the contractions started was a pretty normal Monday. Mom, trying to recover from a busy and tiring weekend was in cleaning mode and oddly enough got a huge burst of energy to complete everything she needed to. Because she was so busy, we weren't able to go on our typical afternoon walk so mom took my brothers out for a night walk. They played eye-spy in the dark and made light shows with flashlights; a great memory for the final hours of having only having her 2 boys. After we got back and went to bed, mom got busy again and that's when the contractions started. At about 8:30 they were about 10 minutes apart and pretty mild. By 10pm they were 5 minutes apart and becoming more painful. From mom's experience, her water should have broken by now but nothing happened. This made the decision to go to the hospital hard to make. But as the pain grew more intense, mom and dad made a call to a friend's husband to come spend the night so they could leave. The stress of dealing with labor pains is nothing compared to mom's stress about leaving her boys behind and in a confusing situation. We are so grateful for the help we received from some great friends throughout the whole experience of my arrival.
When we got into the hospital room around 12:30 mom was dilated 4cm so the nurses let her stay even though now relaxed, the contractions were over 5 minutes apart. They encouraged her and dad to walk around to move things along and after an hour mom was dilated to a 6 and happy to be making progress. By this point, mom and dad were both exsausted so mom encouraged dad to sleep while she watched youtube videos and tried to silently endure the relentless labor pains. The following 3 hours were long, lonely and very painful. As the morning drew near, another girl who had mom's same OBGYN was starting to push. So mom's nurse threw out the idea of getting my epidural and having the doctor break my water while he was there and available. Mom was all for moving things along so at 5am she got the epidural... SWEET RELIEF and at 5:30 her water was broken by the doctor. By about 6:15 she was dilated to a 9 and the doctor figured, with it being her 3rd child, she could start pushing. After 8 minutes of pushing, I took my first breath at 6:33. While she was pushing mom felt like she was hosting a party. Along with daddy, mom's nurse, my nurse and the doctor, there were nursing students accompanying each nurse as well as a resident doctor performing the actual delivery. Everyone had big smiles as soon as they heard my cries. I was put directly on mommy to be cleaned up and warmed up and was immediately calmed. As mom and dad admired me, they noticed my nice round head not crushed from hours of pushing. They noticed my cute little round nose, turned up just slightly like daddy's. My eyes are big and slim sort of like Houston's and my cheeks are full and so soft. My hair seemed to be the biggest hit. All the nurses kept commenting on the nice auburn color it was. It must have been the neon lights because after being home, the red tinge is less noticeable. After some sweet, memorable snuggling, mom tried to feed me for the first time and I latched on like a pro. Not once have I had problems eating which is a huge blessing!
Mom can't believe that all three of her children's labors have started in the middle of the night thus starting her off on NO sleep and no chance to catch up because of frequent feedings. Mom did her best to rest up while in the hospital. She looked forward to my brothers seeing me for the first time. It was a pretty precious experience though Damon was more "hands on" than we all expected so some boundaries will have to be set.
Damon trying to catch up on sleep after a crazy, confusing day.
Though the hospital stay was nice and mom wanted to stay longer, we all knew we had to get me home. Daddy was scheduled to leave on a baseball road trip on Feb 20 so we needed to make sure mom and I got settled before he left.
Houston and Damon sharing a room for the first time.
We are very lucky to have great friends that helped take care of mommy and my brothers while daddy was gone. We had meals brought and the boys were taken to play at friend's houses so mommy could take care of me and continue to rest.
Papa and Grandma Schlenker thankfully came to visit 2 days after daddy left which was a life saver. Especially because Damon got a little flu bug.
Daddy happy to be home
