COOPER IS HERE!

Dang. I'm so sorry it's been such a long time since I've posted, but I've been birthin' and feedin' babies for about five days so far. Now, the birth story for those who have been waiting:

Saturday, Oct. 15, UT game: Luke and I went with Ty and Charis to the UT football game on Saturday afternoon. Ty got tickets from his work, so me and my 38 week pregnant self went to eat and went to the game. It was SO hot! Without even realizing it, I did all of the things you're supposed to do to put yourself into labor - walking up a lot of stairs, walking that morning with Luke, eating Mexican food at Hula Hut after the game, etc. Needless to say, I was exhausted after that day out.

When we got home that night, I felt SUPER uncomfortable. I took a bath and sat on the couch and felt a little better, and then went to bed. Same old night ...

Sunday, Oct. 16, 3:30 a.m.: I woke up for normal pregnant reasons and was just listening to the house noises, when I felt a pop sound, followed by another louder popping sound. I was all, no way. I walked to the bathroom, and low and behold, my water had broken. This of course scared the heck out of me, so I woke up Luke, and off we went. It was pretty frantic. By the time we got into the car and had everything we needed and were on the way, my contractions had started full force. And man, contractions are not cool. New found respect for natural birth people. I sure couldn't do it!

We got to the hospital, I changed, and started the contraction process. Ouch is an understatement. At about 6:30 I asked for the epidural. The anesthesiologist (is that right?) was going to be 30 minutes late because of a twin c-section, so that was fun. His replacement got there pretty quick and went for the epidural. But, instead of an epidural, she gave me a spinal block, accidentally. This happens to one out of every 100 epidural tries, so I was "lucky!" I was totally and completely numb from the chest down. I'm serious when I say that someone could have cut my legs off and I wouldn't have known. Oops. They stopped the medicine and said that I had to wait for it to wear off for about two hours before I could feel anything. I was dilated from a 4 to a 10 in one hour, but had to wait to push. Woo-hoo! After I started to feel my toes and legs (which is so weird, by the way), I started to push. I pushed about two and a half hours, and out he came! It was absolutely the most amazing thing I've ever done. It was so great. Luke cried like a baby. He's perfect.

The worst thing so far is the spinal headache I have, and have had since Monday morning. It comes at about 1:00 p.m. and doesn't go away until about 7:30 p.m. If I wasn't confined to lying down completely flat when the headache hits (only thing that works) things would be awesome. He's eating pretty good, but got pretty skinny Tuesday and Wednesday, so that scared us. We went to the pediatrician this morning and he said that everything was totally fine. Same weight as he was when he left the hospital, but we've had to supplement with formula a couple of times. He's doing great today. He's seriously the most awesome thing Luke and I have ever done and will ever do together. I really don't think it's hit me yet that he's our forever!

I'll try and keep more pictures posted!