Our Newest Adventure...

Hello world,

Sorry for the long break in posts but we have a really good reason...promise! 

We would like to introduce you to our newest adventure...

Our precious new son, Cooper James Fleming. 
Born May 29, 2016 at 36.6 weeks gestation. 
3:18 pm
6 lbs 7 oz 
19 in long

He certainly gave us a run for our money arriving 3 weeks early but he is doing well and we are so in love! So before sleep deprivation truly sets in we wanted to write out a bit of his birth story so we can remember how this precious little life came to be. 

***DISCLAIMER - THIS IS GOING TO BE A  LONG, REAL, RAW, NO HOLDS BACK POST. THERE'S GOING TO BE SOME MEDICAL STUFF AND TALK ABOUT LADY PARTS AND HOW LITTLE PEOPLE GET OUT OF THERE...IF THAT GROSSES YOU OUT YOU MAY GO BACK TO YOUR REGULAR FACEBOOK SURFING OR WHATEVER YOU WERE DOING! ***

So let's back up...

Thursday  5/26-I ended up going home early from work after having REALLY strong braxton hicks contractions consistently every 2-5 minutes for up to 4.5 hours and being advised by my OB to go home and chill out...so I followed orders.

Friday 5/27- I still wasn't feeling great so I called in to work. This ended being a HUGE fortuitous blessing from GOD. Without knowing what was coming, I slept in, packed my hospital bag, packed the diaper bag, got all the baby laundry washed and put away, got a few groceries and was basically ready.

Saturday 5/28- I felt so much better with NO signs of going into labor at all (PS - at my OB appointment that week I wasn't dilated or effaced at.all. and everyone felt I had at least 2 weeks to go...). I got up and ran a few errands to include running up to the mall to return a few things.

SUPER EMBARRASSING MOMENT/SIDE BAR ALERT...Ya'll - I have thrown my back out MULTIPLE times this pregnancy. My lumbar spine and sacrum have been really unstable especially towards the end of this pregnancy and when I throw it...it.is.bad. I can't stand straight, I can't walk with a typical gate pattern (or even properly preggo waddle for that matter) and it causes all my back and ab muscles to spasm.  This has happened at least every few weeks or so so I'm not unfamiliar with it but it SUUUUUCKS when it happens. So painful and really limits my mobility for days.

So with that being said...I have NO IDEA how I did this but I did something while I was walking around on Saturday and completely threw my back out in the middle of Nordstroms. So now I couldn't stand up and was in incredible pain but the BEST part was that the spasms that come with it caused this huge preggo (with a baby that really liked to kick her bladder) to COMPLETELY pee myself in.the.middle.of.the.store. Not like a little guys...like pee in my flip flops. So gross. So embarrassing. I hate pregnancy moment #247,690,678.

So I took myself and my pee pants directly home, barely got in the door and proceeded to have a COMPLETELY embarrassed hormonal ugly cry in front of Alex (who seriously gets like a million gold start husband points for dealing with me in this season guys...it has been rough living/being in my general vicinity and he is amazing.). Once I was calm, we decided to go out for lunch (it was  a BEAUTIFUL Colorado day) and then to hit up Little Man Ice Cream .

If any of you know me well...I have a passion for good ice cream and have very few limits as to what I will seek to get it. I had wanted to go here for weeks so I was super pumped!

Once we got there, the line was around the block (as per usual) but it was a gorgeous day so we decided to wait. We got in line, had a lovely conversation with the couple in front of us about how we had at least 2 weeks to go and (as per usual) I had to go to the bathroom within the 1st 10 minutes of line standing. Unfortunately the only place close where I could go was this SUPER hipster longboard/skateboard shop next to the ice cream parlor so off I went leaving Alex in line for pending ice cream glory.

Long story short - although I did indeed have to go to the bathroom, as I stood up my water broke COMPLETELY. Again, not like a little "hmmm did my water just break?" moment...this was the human version of Noah's flood guys.

Nasty and weird and just ugh. Not to mention this would then be the SECOND TIME that day that I was COVERED in body fluids and wet pants of some kind...Ya'll to say I was in shock and simultaneously so grossed out was the understatement of the century. AND it just.kept.coming.

So there I am in the hipster skate shop surrounded by wanna-be lumberjacks oozing with mustache pomade and I waddle my walking walrus hiney out of there trailing water. Perfect...

I got to Alex as fast as I could (leaving a water trail behind me...lovely), told him what had happened, pretty sure I induced his life's first mini heart attack and he sprinted to get the car (PS...Alex hasn't run in like 5 years). Once we located the appropriate recyclable grocery back that will now never be used again most waterproof thing we could find in the car, I got in and we were off to the hospital.

We arrived at Rose Hospital in record time (way to go Alex!), parked and puddled in valet waiting for a wheel chair and got processed through the ER and up to Labor and Delivery super fast. Since this little guy was only 36.5 weeks along and I was fully ruptured they got me admitted super fast. Needless to say we were both in shock of what was going on and I was pretty much bawling because my insurance and disability benefits didn't kick in at my job until June 1 so this meant that not only would we be delivering on our Cobra policy (which we were still under from Alex's previous job and thankful to have insurance of some kind but not ideal to have a full delivery on it) but also that I would not be eligible for any disability pay benefit while I was on maternity leave. This was less than ideal and definitely added a stressor to an already stressful situation. On top of that since we weren't exactly expecting this little this early Alex had to make a run back to the apartment to pack up the car!

 Once I got upstairs, I wasn't in active labor at all - no contractions that I could feel, not dilated, not effaced. Nothing but being completely ruptured and having absolutely no fluid. All of Cooper's amniotic fluid was gone and he essentially had no cushion around him. They warned me that because of this, labor could be more stressful on Cooper and would be significantly more painful (i.e. contractions when I was at a "1" or "2" would feel more like the strength and pain level of someone more at a "7" or "8". The goal was for them to watch me for 6 hours and see if I could go into labor on my own (they will only give you 24'ish hours after you're totally ruptured before baby has to come out one way or the other). Also because of this - if I didn't progress this put me at a much higher likelihood of needing to proceed with a c-section for delivery. So what do we do while we wait to progress and know that eventually I'm going to be confined to ice chips?!? We get sweet sweet Chick-Fil-A and I order the big fries...oh ya...

I'll be the first to say - I had no intention of ever creating a birth plan. I fully believe that babies come the way they want to come and besides fully believing in giving birth at a hospital, I did not care how Cooper came. If I could avoid a c-section I wanted to just because the recovery time is shorter but as long as he was healthy and I got pain meds - that's all I was asking for.

So after 6 hours and some suppository that I cannot remember the name of to try to help me progress wasn't showing to be effective we decided to proceed with starting a Pitocin drip. My contractions definitely started to kick in then. They had told me that I could have an epidural at any time but to try to go for as long as I could without it as I would be in bed after the epidural was put in. Ya'll...two things...1. I needed Alex to help me move in bed at all because my back hurt so bad  and I couldn't get up anyways and  2. I only got to a 1...a ONE before I literally felt like I was being disemboweled from the inside and very quickly accepted their offer of an epidural. Truly... MAD respect to all those women out there that actually made it the whole way without drugs because this was me once I decided an epidural was indeed for me...like stat...stat means now...

Sweet sweet epidural relief. Thank you Jesus. 

By the time I delivered you could have cut my big toe off and I wouldn't have had any idea.

Bingo Mr Anesthesiologist. Hats off to you good sir. Well done. 

Once I got that sweet spinal block things really started to ramp up. It took about 6 hours to progress to a "4" but after that this game got real. Unfortunately with the game ramping up - came a lot of stress on Cooper. My contractions were the strength of being an "8" and lasting typically up to 4 minutes with only 30-60 seconds in between. This gave very little time for Cooper to recover and because he had no amniotic fluid around him at all and lacked any cushion, every contraction collapsed his cord and put major stress on him causing his heart rate to get significantly lower (like in the 60's and 70's where it needs to be more than 100). This got pretty intense and it started to look like I was just headed for a c-section since Cooper didn't seem to be tolerating labor. However, my L&D nurse (Brittany B) was AMAZING and brilliant and such a great advocate for me. She suggested that we try "replacing" Cooper's fluid to give him a cushion and a better shot of trying to get through labor. This process is called amnioinfusion and is used to alleviate pressure in cases of cord collapse. Turns out that method plus keeping on oxygen and keeping me only on my left side kept this little one stable for the vast majority of labor. I couldn't be on my back or right side so once we figured it all out I stayed on my left side and waited for go time. 

After getting to a "4" I then progressed from a "4" to a "10" in just 90 minutes! Crazy times! Brittany came back in, realized it was indeed go time, called my OB (Dr. Jacobsen with Rocky Mountain OBGYN) who was thankfully the on call OB all weekend. Something else new to me (you know besides all the things) was since Cooper couldn't tolerate me being positioned on my back or right side - I had to stay on my left completely through delivery and delivered him laying on my side. Definitely not what I pictured but definitely effective so we'll take it! 

Once it was time to go, we started pushing and sweet Cooper James was out in less than 15 minutes (like 10 pushes) and immediately crying (Apgars 8 and 9!). Because he was early they did have to have a NICU nurse present but seeing as well as he did after delivery they decided they weren't needed and Cooper J got to stay with us! Needless to say once they announced "It's a Boy!" Alex and I were both in tears. We were just so thankful for this healthy sweet boy in our lives and we couldn't believe he was actually here! 

While in the hospital, Cooper was an absolute angel. Unfortunately because he was 1 day shy of 37 weeks when he was born - he had to do all the "preemie" testing before we could check out. This was no fun but definitely provided us with ample snuggle time with our little guy. 

We spent one night in post partum and both of us were cleared to go so after 24 hours we were headed home!! We cannot thank the AMAZING staff at Rose Hospital enough. From the moment we walked in the door to the moment we left, our care was nothing but impeccable. The nurses in labor and delivery, post partum and well-baby nursery were all excellent, compassionate, thorough, timely, excellent advocates for their patients and provided really amazing overall patient care. We could not have been more pleased and impressed with our stay. Major thanks to Dr Jacobsen with Rocky Mountain OBGYN too (obvi) for always being so positive and encouraging (even at 3:00 in the morning) and bringing our little one into this world safely! 

So we have been home all week and are getting our feet under us! Stay tuned for further updates! We are so glad Cooper is here and safe! He is truly one loved little guy! 

Thank you to everyone for all the support, prayers and encouragement you have sent us on this journey. We are so grateful and hope that sweet Cooper gets to meet all of you soon! 

And sweet Cooper James you are loved more than you will ever know. We cannot wait to see what kind of amazing person you grow to be and feel so blessed to be your mom and dad. Here's to you sweet one...you are our greatest adventure. 

Sending all our (slightly sleep deprived) love! 

Hannah and Alex

PS - this little video is amazing and pretty much everything you want to tell a little person on their first day here...so here you go Coop. Always remember to dance :-)