Just like with our first Mason James, I wanted to share Cooper Ford’s birth story. It’s true what people say, that each pregnancy and birth are so different. I couldn’t have had a more different experience for Cooper’s birth as compared to Mason’s. If you didn’t read Mason’s birth story, you can find it here…but long story short, I was induced at 37 weeks due to complications and after my water broke in the hospital Mason was born less than 3 hours later and after only 3 pushes. They cut me to help with his delivery, again because there were complications but his birth was fast.
But this post is not about reliving Mason’s birth but to share Cooper’s birth story with you. I had an uncomplicated pregnancy with Cooper and he was measuring at around the 48th percentile during my last ultrasound. Everything looked great for us to be able to have Cooper at the local maternity center as opposed to needing to go to the local hospital for delivery. I gained and grew much quicker than with Mason and was hoping Cooper would make his arrival earlier than his due date of June 28th.
Luckily for me, I prayed it into fruition because on June 18th at around 7:30am my water broke. It wasn’t a huge gush of water, more like a small burst and then my water continued to drain slowly for a while afterwards. My contractions started shortly after but because they were so few and far between, plus very mild, I wasn’t sure if they were true contractions or Braxton Hicks. Since I was induced with Mason, I never experience Braxton Hicks contractions so this was all new to me. Justin took Mason to preschool that morning and during the time he was away my contractions started to become more regular and I could tell they were in fact true contractions. I packed up the rest of the things I wanted to bring in my hospital bag for myself and Cooper while waiting for Justin to come home. Justin quickly packed for himself as well as installed Cooper’s infant car seat in my car.
It’s true what they say that you’re more relaxed with your second. I definitely knew what essentials I needed to bring and a few extras for my own general comfort but besides that, we traveled much lighter this go round. I also had an Amazon order out that didn’t get. delivered until the morning after Cooper was born so we had my father in law meet Justin in the parking lot of the maternity center to bring them to us. I was waiting on my robe and pajama sets. While not necessarily to have in the hospital, I much prefer to be comfortable in my own clothes as opposed to wearing the provided robes. These pj sets are great for nursing and are so soft and comfortable postpartum. I sized up one size to a medium in both.
We headed to Sutter Maternity and got there around 9:45am or so. It felt like hours before the nurse actually checked me to see how dilated I was. The only thing I wanted was an epidural. Besides that, I had no birth plan. All we wanted and prayed for was a safe delivery and healthy baby. Both of which we got. The first time the nurse checked me I was around 5-6 centimeters dilated and she said she could feel Cooper’s head of hair. I was overall so much more relaxed. In between breathing through my contractions we were laughing and having a good time. I ate lunch prior to getting my epidural and then it was just a waiting game till I reached 10 centimeters which happened right around 5pm. They gave me a bump to my epidural at one point as it was starting to wear off.
I pushed for two hours and while I couldn’t feel any pain from the contractions the pressure alone was painful and I did feel it, especially towards the end. I was exhausted and honestly didn’t think I could push through at the end. But, with lots of words of encouragement Cooper was born at 7:05pm. Cooper was 7 lbs 9 oz at birth and 19 1/4 inches long. He, just like his brother, was born with a head full of hair and couldn’t have been more precious!
Here comes the TMI portion of Cooper’s birth story…so if you’re not interested in the details, scroll on down! As you can probably imagine, pushing for two straight hours I tore pretty bad. I honestly didn’t even hear what the nurse said but Justin said I got 7-8 stitches. I tore in an awkward spot (I’ll just leave it at that) that was very uncomfortable for recovery. It was painful for at least 3-4 weeks post delivery. I tried everything to ease the pain and discomfort. Sitting in the shower with the water coming down on me was probably the most soothing for me personally as well as sitting in warm water just past my waist for 15-20 minutes at a time. I used witch hazel pads and numbing spray until they ran out. I also got hemorrhoids from pushing. The largest one was about the size of a marble. The hemorrhoids quite possibly could have been more painful of a recovery than the tear was. It hurt to sit down and of course I was sitting most of the day nursing Cooper so that was no fun. To ease the discomfort I did end up sitting on Cooper’s Snuggle Me Organic. I used it like I would a donut seat had I gotten one. Who knew that the Snuggle Me would have so many uses in our house besides just a lounger for the baby. Lexie and Jackson have also taken a liking to sharing it like a dog bed. It’s a good thing that we actually have two of them!
Would love to hear how some of you mamas went into labor? Did you get induced? Did you have a planned c-section? Were you overdue and decided to try every trick in the book to start labor? Or were you early or right on time with your due date?
Shop our Newborn family photo outfits:
If you’d like to see how I styled this dress (currently on sale for under $100) while pregnant you can check out the post here.
Gorgeous photography by Birch Studio Photography.
