It was about 7pm and Brooke and I had just finished dinner. We were about to go up stairs when she complains that she is having some real weird gas! We shrug it off and head to the media room to catch up on whatever show that she had DVR'd from the day before, Brothers and Sisters or something. It was now about 7:45-8pm and she says to me "There is that gas again". I start to fear for my life as I think she is about to fumigate the room. 6mins later wow this gas is not right. Well as you probably understand that it was not gas at all.
Not much like the movies right. But anyway being the nerd that I am I get my blackberry out that has the chronograph on it and I start recording the time of the contractions. They were all in between 5-8mins apart. I was under the impression from my "Cosby Show" training that contractions would be about 20mins apart and gradually get closer together. Well that wasn't the case. We didn't panic, but were anxiously excited. We called our Doula (Guys: I'll explain it later, will sound too gay on this blog), Mary Michaud (wonderful addition to the team by the way), at around 10pm. She recommended laboring at home till Brooke felt ready to go and she started getting ready to meet us at home. So we cautiously breathed through each contraction as Brooke grimaced in pain and we laughed and cried as we knew the day had finally arrived for our precious gift from GOD.
It was now getting close to mid-night and we were still at home. Brooke's pain was getting worse but she sure didn't seem like she was about to give birth. She knew exactly when it was time to go to the hospital. So we loaded up the car and took off sometime after midnight. We called Mary and told her to meet us at the hospital as I ever so slowly and calmly drove to the hospital. Yea right!! I was doing 90 to nothing and 100+ as Brooke grabbed my hand and squeezed it till my knuckles nearly popped out of my skin through the contractions.
We skid into the emergency room with all our bags and Brooke's contractions now staying intense for a minute or more and happening every 3-5minutes. The first thing the nurse said when we got there was "Girl when you want the drugs, just let me know" Brooke and I turned RED, Brooke because of a contraction and me because we specifically told them not to ask us for drugs. We wanted a natural child birth!! So I reached in my bag to pull out the well drafted and reviewed birth plan that Brooke and I spent several hours writing only to discover that it still resided at home on the printer right where I left it.
So we finally get checked in and thank goodness that Brooke had pre-registered, because there was no way I was ready to do paperwork as my son was about to enter the world and my wife was in agonizing pain. The head nurse comes in and checks her close to the time that Mary is arriving at the hospital. The nurse looks up at Brooke and with a big smile says in a nice Texas accent "Girllll, ur 7cm dilated!" Which was a big relief to Brooke because she was fearful that she might be in for an extremely long labor. So far, we are about 5 hours in to the laboring process, and Brooke is doing great. We are sitting up in bed, standing, holding on to each other, using the birthing ball, so that Brooke can make it through. The next 2hrs show minor progress as Brooke moves from 7 to 9cm. Dr. Downey has now been called, another great asset to Team Copelin. The nurse said he would be there in 15min.
I am still not sure how Brooke knew the exact time to head to the hospital, but she also knew exactly when she was ready to deliver. Another 15-20min had gone by since the last time the nurse checked Brooke, but Brooke knew it was time and asked to be checked again. Sure enough Brooke was 10cm dilated and was ready to have Kaden. Now the nurse is like hold on the Doctor is almost here.
Dr. Downey arrives and like a scene out of Transformers the bed flew apart, lights dropped down out of the ceiling, and the seemingly normal hospital room instantly transformed into a delivery room. The whole time all this had been going on Kaden and Brooke were both doing just fine. The baby monitor that they insisted Brooke wear showed that Kaden was never stressed and Brooke was good also.
It is finally game time and just a little after 3:30am on November 4th, 2009. Brooke starts pushing. Up until this time, it was all pretty normal but now it was getting a little intense. The nurse is instructing Brooke to push, the contractions are happening every minute and lasting for a minute plus. We went on pushing and breathing for a little more than 30mins. And at last, after 39weeks of waiting, Kaden entered the world. It was amazing witnessing something so miraculous. I was overcome with joy and broke down into tears.
They picked Kaden up and placed him on Brooke's chest. We took towels and blankets and dried Kaden off. After a moment with Brooke, we took Kaden over to the heating table so the nurses could start their checks on him. After a few minutes and me getting some time with Kaden, while Brooke rested, we took him back to his MOM, and all was good. I sat down on the chair in the room to take it all in and immediately feel asleep as Brooke made calls to start letting everyone know.
Kaden had finally entered this world at 4:03am on Noveber 4th, 2009. He weighed 8lbs 3oz and was 21 inches long. Thanks to all the hospital staff, Dr. Downey and Mary Michaud. Thanks to Brooke for being such a strong and amazing woman, I love you. And most importantly, thanks to GOD for this wonderful blessing.
