Welcome Baby Cohen!

Its been too long since I've updated and I decided I REALLY needed to update before I forgot the little details of Cohen's birth. Yep, that's right, we've had another boy! And he is seriously the sweetest little thing and we all love him to pieces. But more on him in a bit. This is the story of how he joined our family.

Around the new year, I was starting to get a really bad headache and every time I had my blood pressure taken, it was super high. So after about a week and a half of this, my doctor decided he was going to induce labor. I went in on the 9th of January for a check-up and was sent to have my baby! I wasn't quite ready to add another child to our family but ready or not, he was coming! I came home to grab a few things, including Brian, and off we went. We got there around 4 PM and was hooked up to IVs and antibiotics as soon as possible. I was dilated to a 3 at that point so they hooked up pitocin, which I have never had the pleasure of experiencing until then. It wasn't the greatest stuff and started to make me really nauseous. I was already pretty nauseous from my bad headache but the pit made it so much worse! They gave me some anti-nausea medicine to help with that and off the nurse went. I didn't see her much, which is different from my other two births. The other times, I was checked every hour, on the dot, to see how I was progressing. With Cohen, the nurse said she didn't want to check as often to prevent infection. Totally understandable. But to all those who have had babies, that final stretch can seem like forever and it is nice to know how much longer until you see your baby.

Anywho, I started having pretty hard contractions about 10 minutes after they started the pit so I asked for the epidural. The anesthesiologist took forever! But finally got my epidural around 5:30( I think, I'm starting to lose the little details). He had to take my blood before I could get it because my platelets were low and going lower, which he said is a sign of preeclampsia. Luckily, my levels hadn't dropped enough to where I couldn't have my epidural. So I got it and was feeling much better. Some of my sisters came to the hospital, as well as my mom and Doug, which was fun. We just chatted and joked until about 9 o'clock, when I was starting to feel a lot more than I wanted. My nurse checked me and I was at a 6. Seriously?! I was a little disappointed but hoping this kid would make his debut on the 9th sometime. I was still feeling a lot of pain so I hit my button for a boost of epidural meds a few times. Didn't help. Around 9:15 I had to urge to push. It hurt soo bad!! So I had one of my sisters find my nurse. She took awhile coming in since she had just been in and I wasn't too far along. At about 9:30, I was about in tears and she finally came in. She checked me and I was a 10 and ready to go! She couldn't believe it! But she rushed out and called the doctor to get there ASAP. He got there about 9:40, had me push and Cohen was born at 9:43 PM. Sweetest sound in the world, hearing him cry. And so relieved to have him out. According to my doctor, my epidural had stopped working at about 9 and had worn completely off by the time he was born. No kidding?? I felt it all. Luckily, there was no tearing or cutting or I think I may have kicked my doctor in the face.

Cohen James Harding was born 7 lbs. 9 oz. 19 1/2 inches long. I'm pretty sure they had my due date wrong, seeing as he was my biggest and earliest at 2 1/2 weeks early. But he is perfect in every way and we love him so so much! The boys had no problems with him once we came home. They had issues with me but they love baby Cohen so much, maybe a little too much sometimes.

 He was born with a lot of bruising on his face from coming out so fast. They even had  little sign in his crib saying he was bruised so they didn't think he wasn't getting enough oxygen. Poor baby :(

 I just love how tiny everything is when they are first born. Oh I love him!

 Going home!

 He was born with soo much blonde hair. When we had an ultrasound done at 34 weeks, the technician said she saw tons of hair. I thought for sure it would be dark with how much there was on the screen but he came out just as blonde, if not lighter, than Ethan. Crazy!

 Again, tiny. Love it!

Nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby!