Catch up

Saturday evening Granna and Pops came up to see their grandbabies! Mom brought lasagna up and we all ate supper together! So nice not to cook! ;)

Lyla has been a GREAT big sister. She has transitioned so well! She loves to help and if I mention doing anything with the baby, she's one step behind you saying, "I too". Every morning she asks for the baby and likes to check up on him during the day. Whenever we change his diaper, she likes to pull her stool up and "help".

Kisses are often given as well! I cherish seeing them interact together!

She's also been a stinker here and there. Her new thing is to crawl up on the entertainment center and lay! She's pretty proud of herself!

Sunday was a good day! Shelly and her son Dalton came over to meet Cohen.

Lyla got to play and was actually a good sport at sharing her stuff... for a little bit! ;)

Cohen had his first bath at home Sunday afternoon. He really didn't cry so maybe we'll have another water baby on our hands!

I love a baby all fresh and smelling good from a bath!

In the afternoon, we headed to an ice cream social at Sean's mom's church. Sean's a lover of homemade ice cream! Cohen also got to meet his Nana and Aunt Ruth as well! He was a great traveler and slept all the way there and back!

That evening, our friends Alicia and Clay came over to meet Cohen and brought dinner for us! Thank you guys!



Their daughter is 9 days older than Lyla! Ly and her played with a cupcake gift Tayla got her. It was cute seeing them play at Ly's table together.

Monday Aunt Nee and the girls came over to visit. The girls all dressed up in tutu's and put a show on for us!

They were also practicing to be future KU cheerleaders!

Abs and Cohen

Today we've all done a little of this! Cohen slept great last night with 2 4 hr stretches! We had to take him in for lab again. His number today was 18 so it went down .1. We have to check again tomorrow and hopefully it will be our last time! Miss Ly spent time outside with daddy playing in the sprinkler and her little pool today!

Sean goes back to work tomorrow and I'll miss having him around. I haven't felt good today, actually felt the worst so far. Hopefully I'll be feeling better soon!

My hope is to be a better day to day blogger, especially now that Cohen is here. I've lacked big time with pictures these past few months so hopefully that'll change. But I print out my blog and so I want to have all our day to day stuff, boring or not, documented! Hence the reason there were 3 posts today!

His first visitors

After we had our family time, Mr. Cohen got to meet the rest of his family!

Grandma

Granna
PopsUncle Dan, Aunt Nee and the girls

Abi

Avery

Grandpa

Our first family picture

Meeting big sister!

One of the things I was adamant on was that Miss Lyla would be the 1st one to meet Cohen once we got back to our room. So pretty much the minute we got to our room, Sean went out to get her! I was nervous she wouldn't come to me since I was in a hospital bed and in a strange place but once she saw me she came right up to me. She loved the baby and kept saying "baby" over and over again. He was about 3 hours old here.

Cohen bought her a little baby doll and Lyla loved it!

Daddy and his kiddos!

Mommy and her babies!

I'm so glad we did it this way and I love having the memory of how she acted whenever she came in to meet him! She's such a sweet girl! And she still is acting great with him and adjusting well! She loves him to death, asks about him all the time, and wants to hold him. I think she'll be a great big sister!

4 days old!

Today was Cohen's first doctor's appt. We had to get his blood drawn again for his bilirubin so we headed to the hospital to do that and then went to my old office to visit with a few of my old employees. Then we headed to his appt. He now weighs 7 lbs 1 oz, so he lost a few ounces since we were dismissed from the hospital, but it is normal. They also measured him and he was 19 1/2 inches so who knows what his real length is! :) Also his bilirubin was 18.1 which was up 1.1 point from Sunday so we should be getting ready to go on the downhill slide. Other than that, everything was great and he goes back in 2 weeks.

She likes to help out a lot. One thing being helping to "carry" him.

He's not looking so purple anymore. He still has a little bruising on his forehead and on his cheeks.

Other than that, we were pretty lazy today. However, 1 exciting thing we did today was sign a contract on a house! So fingers crossed everything works out. I'm trying to be optimistic but lots of things have to fall into place for it to work!

{I also posted about Cohen's birth story today. It's the post before this!}

Cohen's Birth Story

Thursday, August 18th was a whirlwind! The day, especially the morning, went extremely fast.

At my appointment on Monday, Dr. Lloyd decided we would need to induce me by the end of the week if Cohen didn't make his appearance before hand. He was on-call that Thursday, so that was going to be "baby" day!

41 weeks 3 days

Sean's mom arrived at our house Thursday morning and was staying with Lyla while I was in the hospital. Sean and I arrived at HMC around 6:00 a.m. and they got started on me right away. By 7:00 a.m. the Pitocin was started. I was contracting here and there and would sometimes have a contraction pattern, but then they would spread out for a little while. They weren't painful at all and totally doable. When I was checked in that morning, I was still dilated to a 4 (same as my appt on Monday}. At 10:30 Dr. Lloyd arrived to check me and break my water. When he checked me I was still a 4, even after 3 1/2 hours of pitocin. So he went and broke my water and by the 2nd contraction I was already having to breathe through them. I labored laying over the bed and then over the ball for a little while before I had to get up. I labored the rest of the time standing, leaning over the bed. I progressed quickly and it wasn't long before I was hurting and just breathing through the contractions wasn't cutting it. My doula and Sean did an awesome job of keeping me focused as well as massaging my back. Cohen was sunny side up for a while and it took him a little bit to turn and get in the right position, so I had a lot of back pain with my labor. Everything progressed so quickly that I had no idea what time it was. At one point I lost focus for a little bit and started crying and wasn't sure I was going to be able to do this. At that time I started feeling pressure with the contractions and had a lot of bloody show. The nurse decided to check me and I remember saying that if I hadn't progressed any that I was done!!!! I got back into bed and remember having a contraction and it was sooo painful to have to labor laying in the bed. When she checked me I was already at a 9! I got back out of bed and I would guess within the next 5-10 minutes my body took over and my body was naturally pushing the baby out. I got back into the bed and remember feeling the worst pain EVER. I absolutely hated the feeling of the baby coming down the birth canal. It was painful and just a weird sensation. At that point I remember screaming and freaking Sean out! Finally I relaxed and let my body take over. I pushed once and remember the nurse telling them to get the doctor now! Dr. Llyod came running in, gowned up and was barely set up when I pushed again. He quickly had to cut me and a second later Cohen's head was out! I barely pushed again and Mr. Cohen made his appearance. My doula and Sean guessed from the point of me pushing to the time he was out was under 5 minutes, if that. Just 2 pushes and he made his appearance!

He came out with his face completely purple. My first thought was that he wasn't breathing but they said because he went through the birth canal so fast, he ended up very bruised. He literally looked like he was beat up. I felt horrible even though I know it wasn't something I did. His apgars were 8 and 9 and we spent the first hour of his life snuggling chest to chest! I loved it. They gave him his shot while nursing along with the eye ointment.

After snuggling, they gave him his first bath and did his hand print and foot print.

Love this sweet little feet!

Overall, it was an amazing experience even if it was super quick. I loved that I was able to do it naturally and felt a huge sense of accomplishment for doing so. I remember so much more of Cohen's birth than I do with Lyla's and I felt incredible after the delivery as well, which I believe is because I didn't have any medications. About an hour and half afterwards I was up and dressed and just felt great. I absolutely loved our doula and I couldn't have done it without her. Sean was a much better support person this time as well! Of course I can't go back in time, but I wish I would have considered doing this with Lyla's birth!