The Birds & The Peas: Week 40 | Tuesday: C-Section, delivery and meeting of Cooper

My wake-up time was 5:15am and it was a tough morning. I had a mixed bag of emotions including being tired, anxious, overwhelmed and scared. After getting dressed and loading the car up with all of our needed supplies and hospital bags we headed to the hospital. It was imperative to have Owen and my parents with me for support.

We arrived at OU Medical Center's Children's Hospital at 6am for check-in and completion of paperwork for admittance.

Next we were taken to our first room for monitoring and OR prep - this would be where we'd stay for the next one and a half hours although mom and dad left after about a half-hour to give us a bit of privacy. During this time I changed into a gown, was hooked up to baby monitors, received my IV (ouch!), gave blood for lab work, gave consent for anesthesioly and surgery, and was given my hospital bling (5 bracelets for ID'ng).

At about 7:35 it was time for me to go into the OR and time for Owen to change into his scrubs.

I was scared to death.

My nurse walked me down to the OR. Once we passed the OR/surgical doors it was absolutely freezing. I figured this wasn't normal as the nurses and doctors were all a buzz about it. I walked into my room and there was about ten people busily preparing for my surgery - the amount of busy people, the intense cold, and the rows of sterile surgical instruments, all served to freak me out even more - especially since Owen wasn't there yet.

They first sat me on the bed and covered me with heated blankets for the cold - but that didn't help my exposed backside where the spinal tap was about to be placed. I was shivering so intently that my teeth were actually chattering - I kept wondering if that shuddering was going to effect the spinal. My OB/GYN doctor and nurse sat with me holding my hands under the cover as I silently cried my eyes out. Looking back the tears were that of an overwhelming mixture of emotions none of which was more amazing to me that I'd be meeting my first baby soon.

I felt the local anesthetic prick and then they did the actual spinal. I actually felt the spinal a bit and it was painful and I gather that this wasn't normal because as soon as I said something three people repeated it to the anesthesiologist. After a little more local I was good to go. As soon as they finish a spinal they spin you around and lay you down very quickly so that the numbing medicine doesn't pool in your pelvic cavity - they idea is you want that stuff to spread as much as possible to make sure you don't feel a thing - which is much appreciated!

Very quickly after I lied down things went numb from my lower chest to my toes. I felt some tugging and pulling but didn't realize they had already started the surgery. Soon after Owen was able to join me and I felt much better with him by my side. Owen later told me that he came in after they made the first incision of the skin and he was able to watch the entire rest of the surgery.

At about 8:03 Owen told me they saw a head and then I heard some baby cries and cooes and at 8:04 Cooper Richard Hein was born.

My doctor put Cooper over the curtain and I just stared in awe - it took my doctor asking me if I wanted to touch him for it to become real. So, I got to touch his little hand and then they took him to a station to my left for all of the tests, weighing, etc. They announced his time of birth, his weight of 7 pounds 10 ounces and his length of 21 inches.

About this time I started feeling really tight in my chest like I couldn't breathe. The anesthesiologist gave me some extra oxygen and they gave Cooper to Owen to hold. They left soon after to go to recovery and told me I would be joining them in about 10 minutes. It was more like 25 minutes but soon enough I was wheeled into recovery and was able to hold my sweet baby boy.

During recovery Cooper breastfed, was given his first bath, had his first picture taken, and got his first visitors of Nani, Papi, Levi and Jess - all one at a time.

After a few hours in recovery we were taken to our room where we'd stay for the next few days. The suite we stayed in had been completely renovated and was really warm and comfortable with wood floors, a great view and plenty of room.

The rest of the day we all took turns loving on Cooper, taking photos and visiting.

2/22/11 was a great day. The best of Owen and I's thirty years.

Here are a few photos from Day 1: