Birth Story

Cohen Jon Sullivan

July 3, 2009 at 3:52 a.m.

6 lbs. 9 oz.

18 inches

Cohen's labor and delivery was quick, only 4 hours from the first contraction at 11:52 p.m. to his birth at 3:52 a.m. We knew on Thursday that he would most likely be here any day, and waited all day for labor to start, with irregular contractions since Tuesday. Nothing happened though, so I went to bed as usual and Jonmark stayed up working. At 11:52 I woke up with a contraction, and noticed he wasn't in bed, so I checked to see when he was coming to bed, but still didn't think anything of the contraction since I'd been having them for a while. Twelve minutes later I had another one, then another in 5 minutes, and another in 5 more minutes. They were much more painful than the contractions I had at the beginning of labor with Mykenzi and Camden, so I asked Jonmark to come sit with me. At that point they were continuing every 5 minutes, and he was nervous about the drive to the hospital still, so after only 40 minutes of contractions, though very painful, we decided to leave. We dropped off the kids, and got to the hospital as fast as Jonmark could, arriving at a little before 2 a.m. I was at 5 cm., checked into a room begging/screaming for the epidural (after being told I might not have time), so I had about 5 nurses all working at one time trying to get everything ready. I finally got the epidural at 3:05 a.m., which they told me would take full effect by about 3:25 and the nurse would come put in the catheter. When she came back to try that, she said the baby's head was too low for a catheter and I was already completely dilated. She came back with the doctor a few minutes later, he broke my water, and Cohen was born at 3:52 a.m. after about maybe 10 minutes of pushing. He came out screaming and wide awake just looking around the room, which was completely opposite of Mykenzi and Camden. This 4 hour labor and delivery was exactly half of Camden's 8 hour labor and delivery. Thank God for that because it was the most painful of all 3, so at least it was quick and I did get a lot of relief from the epidural even though I didn't have it for very long.

We came home from the hospital yesterday, so we were able to enjoy the 4th with the kids and Jonmark got to see the fireworks with them. Cohen is doing well, and Mykenzi and Camden seem to be adjusting well!