Cooper: A Birth Story

On the Monday before this babe's arrival I timed contractions all day long. These contractions had been happening off and on the previous week, disrupting my sleep and making me antsy. Being a few days overdue and desperately wanting reprieve, I asked for a stretch and sweep at my midwife appointment that morning. By Tuesday, things had settled somewhat, much to my disappointment. The slow and gentle snowfall made for a quiet, peaceful afternoon. As things began picking up again, I timed contractions and waited patiently for progress. By evening everything had petered off once more. On Wednesday I met with my midwife and again spent the day timing contractions. My body was already so tired of laboring and I had high hopes that the next morning we would be bringing a baby home. On Thursday morning, I woke again to do the regular morning routine, so tired of laboring. After a week of almost constant contractions and two stretch and sweeps by my midwife, I started to lose hope that this baby would ever come! 

As with all of my deliveries, I received a priesthood blessing from Mike before baby came. I was counseled to trust in God's timing. That I would look back on this and be able to recognize His hand in the experience. That I would feel joy as I held this babe in my arms. That I would be able to mentally handle the labor and that the pain would be manageable.

Finally, on Thursday evening around 7PM contractions had been close and painful enough to head to the hospital. I was having a hard time laboring at home with all of the noise and fighting, I needed a quiet space. My midwife met us without hesitation and I was dilated enough to stay (she would have let me even if I wasn't). We laughed about how this babe waited until it was good and cold (-40C) to make his appearance. Our babes always seem to come during a snowstorm or a cold snap. 

I happily settled in, unpacking baby essentials, lip gloss, my water bottle, and a change of comfy clothes. After the freezing cold trip into town, my body took a bit to get back into the rhythm again. I took a warm bath and labored on my own in the tub. When things started picking up again, I walked and walked around the delivery room to help my body keep moving. Baby was happy and tumbling around still. Mike left every hour or so to quickly start the car and keep it warm.

Around 11pm I started feeling tired and defeated. This had literally been the longest labor of my life and I had been contracting all week long. I lied in the bed on my left side (as advised by my midwife) and after a few more contractions, my water broke and that familiar urge to push arrived. I mustered up all of the strength I had left and began the hardest part. My midwife team was amazing and encouraging and quietly worked where needed while I took deep breaths and pushed.

Mike stayed by my side, offering water during each interval and encouraging me along the way. After close to two hours of pushing in many different positions, I was close to giving up. I was sore and tired and mentally exhausted. Just when I uttered the words, "I can't do this anymore!" I was given strength for the final push that brought him earthside at 1:31am. He was immediately place on my chest and covered in a warm blanket. It was such a relief to finally meet him. He came out very purple and took a second to have his first cry. His forehead was bruised from his sunny side up entry. 

They slowly clamped and cut the cord while I snuggled him and then he immediately nursed while the placenta was delivered and the midwives finished a few things up. He weighed in at 7lbs 15oz and was 20" long. Daddy got to snuggle him while I showered and cleaned up. Then we dressed him in some cozy sleepers and a warm mamma made hat and got ready to head home to our warm bed!

Mike and Lisa both went to warm up the vehicles, but when my midwife came back she told us her car wouldn't start. We happily gave her a lift home on our way out of town. Cooper slept all cozied up in his car seat for the entire drive home. At 4am, my dad, woken by the car lights coming up the drive way, sleepily rushed to the back door to unlock it for us. He briefly met Cooper before sending us both to bed. Mike tucked me and babe into bed with his heated blanket wrapped around us both. We slept soundly until the sound of little feet pitter-pattering into our room around 6am to crawl into our bed for snuggles.

 This pregnancy has taught me to surrender to His will for my life in so many ways. It took a lot of faith and trust to respond the the prompting that there was another little one waiting to join our family. Things seemed pretty perfect with our girls as bookends to all of the boys. It took great hope to wait and wait for this pregnancy to finally become a reality. And it took great patience and trust as we anticipated his arrival. But I know that Heavenly Father has a perfect plan for each of us, and as I have lived my life striving to know and follow the plan He has for me, I have been blessed with great joy time and time again.  

 

Raspberry Jam Bars

Today was wonderful! I woke with some specific tasks to accomplish between feeding and snuggling and managed to get most of it done.

One of those things was to use up all of the left over jam that didn't get jarred yesterday (I underestimated my jar count when I was sanitizing jars). The rest of the raspberry jam got turned into raspberry jam bars, and they were so yummy I may have eaten almost half of them before the afternoon rolled around. 

A lot of my days are filled with feeds, snuggles and quiet moments staring at this sweet boy. 

He's so perfect!

While the boys alternated through piano lessons, the littles hung out at the new park! Fin was so sweet with Lily and Sawyer. The last rays of golden sunshine kissed our cheeks before it dipped behind the mountains for the night.

Ollie snuggled Cooper while I made dinner, and then everyone went their separate ways taking care of homework, packing lunches for the next day, and getting ready for bed.

 

The Things That Matter Most

Today I woke to a clean kitchen thanks to yesterdays hours of effort. I couldn't wait to get to the crabapple juice and raspberries I had thawed for today's jam making escapades. I've devoted a lot of time lately to after school sports, taxiing kids around, making meals, chores, laundry, music lessons and nursing sessions. I needed to get my hands into something fun! It's all about striking a balance.

 

Learning when to clean and when to call it clean enough. Paying attention to the things that spark joy in your soul and making time for them. 

Slowing down to savour the babe snuggled up on your chest before they grow and no longer sleep with their legs curled up beneath them while they grin in their sleep. 

Pausing to feel the warmth of the Winters sun on your face as it pours down on you while hanging the quilt out to dry. 

All of these years of motherhood and juggling all the things have taught me a lot about balance and making time for those things that matter most and fill my soul. 

Imaginations Running Wild

This morning Lily and Sawyer engulfed themselves in a world of pretend. I overheard Lily empty out the backpack of stuff they had packed for their "hike" and Lily giggled, "Sawyer...there's a tu-tu in here..." she scrunched her nose and laughed once more, "Why did you bring a tu-tu?" Sawyer answered, "In case we have to go to a dance!"

Then they went to the beach with their baby dolls and then to the dancing place and then they found a face mask and played dentist. They each took turns laying on the floor while the "dentist" looked inside their mouth with a flash light. When Sawyer found this flower headband and decided to use it as a head lamp, I cracked up laughing at how legit it looked. 

Cooper napped for a few solid hours which allowed me to get through piles and piles of dishes. I haven't seen my island counter tops in a while. I ran the dishwasher and threw dinner in the crock pot. In the afternoon he napped again in his sunlit bedroom while I folded a few loads of laundry and tidied the living room. The house is finally falling into routine again! I even dared to pull out some berries and juice from the freezer to do some jam and jelly tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Slowing Down

This morning we got to spend some time snuggling by the fire. We slept in a little bit since there's no seminary this week due to the high school exam schedule. Our morning study was a little bit later and our morning a little bit less rushed. 

Once I got the children off to school I spent most of my time catching up on dishes, dishes, dishes. I also managed a quick trip to the grocery store with Cooper while my parents watched the other two littles. It felt good to get out and back into routine again.

After school I met Joe and a friend of his and drove them to Caroline for their basketball game. Their team only scored three baskets and one of those was from Joe! We ended up bringing his friend back with us to help his mom out. We picked up Hyrum from practice and made our way home for dinner. Thankfully I had planned ahead and just needed to warm the enchiladas in the oven. 

When dinner was finished we all loaded up again to drive into town and drop Joe's friend to his mom and pick up Camilla from basketball practice. Cooper was such a champ with all of the extra driving and running today.

We spent the evening beside the fire once more. Camilla hung out on the couch doing homework on my laptop and Hyrum cozied up in one of the grey chairs with his nose in a book again. He's read so many books already this year (just like his mamma). Things are slowing down and the days don't feel quite so packed. A lot of things got put on hold as we waited on babe's arrival and then adjusted to life as a family of ten. I am looking forward to finding another book for myself, making some jam and jellies and tidying up the storage room (which is a huge disaster right now). My eyes are so tired I almost have to hold them open with my fingers, but my heart is so full. I love spending time with our big kids having late night conversations. We are truly blessed!

Cooper's Gramma Blanket

My talented Mamma has made blankets for each of her new grandbabies and left this hanging on the crib for Cooper the other day. It was quite fitting that she chose stars as I literally wished upon a shooting star for this babe one Summer's night. We waited longer than usual for this little man and are so glad he's blessed our family. The quilt turned out so beautifully and it will be something that we will cherish forever!

 

A Full Weekend

Today involved some serious coordinating and team work to make it to everything we had to do. Daddy took the big boys to Cochrane for hockey and Lily, Coop and I watched basketball all day long. Sawyer opted to stay home with Gramma for most of the day. 

They had a team drop out of the tournament, so the girls ended up playing in both tiers which meant they got to play six games this weekend instead of three. They played hard despite how tired they were! 

Cooper pretty well slept through everything while Lily played in the stands and entertained the fans. Lily loves to yell and knows most of the girls names on the team, so we would hear a lot of "GO Webels!" and "Go Camilla! Go Janae!"

Daddy ended up making it back to town early evening, and stopped by the school for her last game of the day. 

Cooper: One Week

This morning we woke to the most stunning sunrise! My favorite part about this new addition is the morning views and big windows. 

Watching the sun rise and fall each day is something that fills my soul.

We spent the majority of our afternoon at the high school watching Camilla at her Basketball tournament! One of the Mom's made this sweet hat for Cooper in Rebels colors so that we could cheer them on in style at their home tournament this weekend.

Grampa, Lily, Cooper and I enjoyed watching her team this afternoon!

 

After dinner and as I was watching Hyrum so tenderly hold his baby brother, I realized that Cooper is a whole week old already! He's settled in nicely and brought us so much joy!

Naptime

We are feeling pretty tired after our big day yesterday!

Today will be two hours of piano lessons after school while we wait in the van and run errands.

I am so glad this babe takes a soother!

 

Baby's First Outing

Our sweet Cooper is growing and changing already! This morning he seemed so much more content when he woke.

 Lily helped me change his bum and then asked if she could snuggle him for a bit. 

She always feels like such a big girl and requests that I don't help her. 

She adores him.

It's not often Sawyer asks to snuggle him as he's often busy playing, but when he does, he is so tender about it. Cooper is pretty lucky to have these two at home during the day!

Today was our first big afternoon away from home, so we took some extra time feeding and making sure we had everything together before leaving the house. 

After a quiet day filled with snuggles, we headed in to the middle school to watch Hyrum's basketball game. This is his second year playing and he's improved a lot since last year. Camilla had piano lessons and walked over to the middle school when she had finished to meet up with us and cheer her brother on. It was fun to sit together and visit while the little boys played out at the park. When Cooper started getting fussy, I pulled him out of his seat and fed him. His little cries echoed through the gym causing heads to turn. It's not often a baby attends a middle school basketball game.

After Hyrum's game we visited with friends for a few minutes and then picked up a few pizzas to eat in the van. We slowly made our way over to the high school to watch Camilla's basketball game against Sylvan. 

The girls played their hearts out and made some good shots. I love watching our number 4 zig and zag all over the court. She is quite passionate about this sport and it shows! We finally made it home close to 8pm, tired and ready for bed!