Cooper Thomas Wolohon’s birth story - from Mom's perspective
My due date was October 8th, so when planning the
weeks and days leading up to that date I thought I had some waiting time ahead
of me – considering most people do not deliver early with their first baby. At
least this was what people kept telling me and well we of course know that
Cooper Thomas had other plans! With this
in mind I had been preparing to take my structures exam, which would be my
final architectural licensing exam. The first available date to take the test
was October 1st. I thought that was cutting it close to my due date,
but I still wanted to go for it! This planning process also included my mom
coming to Colorado to be with us for the birth and help in the early days of
being new parents. Mom and I had talked in great length about when she should
arrive. If it was too early, I worried that I would run the risk of feeling
like a “watched pot”, but I also hated the idea of her missing it. We decided
that she should keep her September 30th plane ticket that she had
made two months earlier.
All the plans were in motion. It was the morning of September
30th. This was a busy day. I took Tucker to the vet that morning as
scheduled for a routine check up. All went well and as we returned to the house
around noon I suddenly felt very tired. I kept in the back of my mind all the
advice I had heard about if you feel an extreme wave of exhaustion that close
to your due date, you better rest because it could be the last time before you
go into labor! I honestly just thought I was maxed out with my studying and
needed a break, so a nap sounded perfect. About 12:45 I woke up from my nap
with a strange cramping feeling in my lower belly. I really didn’t give it too
much weight other than being slightly annoyed it was interrupting my sleep. I
decided this was my wake up call and it was time to start studying again.
I resumed studying at the kitchen table, but continued to
have these cramping feelings every so often. Around 2:30 I decided to text
Tommy and cue him in to what I was feeling. In what would only come back to be
hilarious wording later I said, “I don’t mean to alarm you but I might be
having contractions. Probably just indigestion, I can’t tell for sure.” I mean
really, who doesn’t know they’re in labor?? I guess that would be me. In
retrospect it definitely made the whole process feel a lot faster with all the
doubt I was having early on about whether this was the real thing or not. I
decided I would start timing the cramps and keep track of the frequency in my
notebook as I studied. I was having a hard time ignoring them, with good reason,
as they were 10 minutes apart.
Around 4:00 I left the house to go to Whole Foods and then
pick up my mom at the shuttle stop. As I was doing my grocery shopping I
carried a basket, rather than pushing a cart. I'm not sure what I was I thinking
with that decision! I had to periodically set my basket down in the middle of
the aisle and wait for the “cramping” to pass, and then I would then go back to
picking up the things I needed. I’m sure everyone around me was wondering what
the big pregnant lady was doing taking up the store like she owned it. The
“cramps” were happening every 4-5 minutes and I was not thinking clearly.
I hopped in my car and drove over to wait on mom to arrive.
The cramps were getting intense and by the time mom arrived at 5:00, I could
not keep up a good face. I told her that I think I’m having contractions and
asked her to continue writing them down in my notebook. They were happening
every 3-4 minutes now. I was texting with Tommy and after looking back at those
texts it was clear I was not convinced they were contractions or that I was
actually in labor. This was probably because I was so focused on taking my exam
the next morning that I was in total denial. Mom and I got back to the house
and I started trying to make dinner. Soon the pain was so distracting that I
couldn’t continue, so mom took over while I hung out on the exercise ball.
Tommy got home from work around 6:00. We all talked about
how this was probably false labor and started looking up ways to stop false
labor. Tommy, mom, Tucker and I all took a walk around the neighborhood. It was
a rather difficult task for me as these “cramps” were continuing every couple
of minutes and required me to stop and just breathe through them. Once we got
back to the house I attempted to lie down on the bed to rest, and as soon as I
did my water broke. It was 7:40 and I was finally convinced that this was it – I was
actually in labor! We rushed to get our bags (that were 90% pre-packed)
together and Tommy called our midwife to let her know we were ready to come to
the hospital.
Soon after we were in the car headed to the hospital. I
could feel every bump in the road and just wanted to get there as fast as we
could so I would have as few contractions as possible in the car. We pulled up
at the emergency room entrance and Tommy jumped out of the car and ran inside.
I got out and followed him, feeling upset that he left me behind. Soon I realized
he had gone ahead to get a wheel chair for me. The ER was a wild place at 8:30
that night. Thankfully we had pre-registered with the hospital so we were
quickly escorted upstairs to labor and delivery.
Once we were settled into our room, I changed into a gown
and things really got going. Dian Sparling (my nurse midwife) soon came in to
check on me. I was 3 cm dilated and slightly dehydrated. They gave me some IV
fluids to help with dehydration, and I immediately felt more energized. We had
the sweetest nurse, Michelle, who helped us get adjusted to the scene at the
hospital and we had our doula, Stephanie, present to help us get into a rhythm
with labor. I had decided well in advance that I did not want an epidural and I
stuck to that decision throughout the entire process. Labor was intense, but I
just took each contraction one at a time and reminded myself that I could do
anything for one minute.
Around 10:00 I was ready for Dian to check me again, and at
this point I was 8 cm dilated. That was really fast progress, for which I was
extremely grateful. At 11:30 I was ready to start pushing, and pushed for just
10 minutes before Cooper Thomas Wolohon made his grand entrance. It was 11:40 PM, he weighed 6
pounds 10 ounces and was 21.5 inches long. Words cannot describe the emotions
that I felt at that moment. It was incredible to see and hold our baby boy. He
was perfectly healthy with a full head of strawberry blonde hair. He was the
most beautiful baby I had ever seen. They laid him on my chest and he
immediately lifted his head and gazed right into my eyes. It was no doubt love
at first sight and I was hooked on this sweet baby boy. Within 30 minutes of
being born he was breastfeeding! Cooper was a very determined boy who knew what
he wanted and needed. It will be fun to see how these traits observed right
from the start continue with him as he grows.
We love you so much Cooper!
Cooper's birth story - from Dad's perspective
Cooper's birth story - from Dad's perspective
I was experiencing an already busy day at work starting up
construction on a project when I received a text from Alanna at 2:41. The text read, “I don’t want to alarm you,
but I think I might be having contractions”.
She went on to try to explain them away by saying that it must be
indigestion even though they continued.
As I went about my day, I tried to wrap things up, but in the back of my
head I was thinking this could be the day we get to meet Cooper. As I continued to work Alanna kept texting me
while she was running errands to prepare for her mom, Sashi, to arrive. Alanna texted me from the grocery store so I
thought, maybe the contractions aren’t that bad. Later I found out that if the employees at
the grocery store saw Alanna during a contaction, they were probably secretly
preparing to deliver a child in the store.
Around 5 o’clock Alanna was waiting to pick up Sashi from
the airport shuttle stop. Alanna texted me, “Whatever these are they are, they
are about 4-5 minutes apart”. As soon
as she said that I started to gather my things to head home. I think Alanna was
still hoping it was indigestion, but from what it sounded like they were
definitely contractions.
When I got home Alanna was on the exercise ball, Sashi was
preparing dinner, and I was given the task of timing contractions. We decided that if Alanna was in false labor
then taking a walk would make them go away.
On our walk the contractions were coming every 3 minutes and Alanna had
to stop and either lean on me or put her hands on her knees every contraction.
When we got back to the house Alanna sat on the exercise ball again and Sashi and I continued to prepare dinner. I remember asking Alanna what she would like
on her burger and she definitely was not in the mood to eat. I thought if she was going into labor she
needed some food for energy because it could be long night.
After looking up how to determine the difference between
false labor and actual labor, I decided to call our midwife, Dian. I left Dian a message, and as I was waiting
for Dian to call me back Alanna’s water broke around 7:20. I think once her water broke it dawned on
everybody that Cooper was really on his way.
I called our doula, Stephanie, and I tried to recall to her the times of
her contractions and when her water broke.
I asked Stephanie if we should head to the hospital, and she seemed to
waffle on the situation. I told her we
were waiting for Dian to call back, and we would decide if we were going or
not. Once I finally reached Dian, she did
the same waffling on whether or not we should head to the hospital. I finally told her we are going and she
agreed that it would be good for us to head out.
I gathered our things as fast as I could and we headed out
the door, luckily we were planning on finishing packing our hospital bags the
next day so I only had to grab a few lingering items. I drove as fast as I could out of the
neighborhood while Alanna was having very intense contractions, she would
probably tell you I wasn’t going fast enough.
We ended up driving up on a car going really slow (the speed limit) as
I looked for an opportunity to pass the car in front of us, I realized it was a
cop. Good thing I didn’t fly around him
on the two lane street, we did think for a second about asking for a police
escort, but he eventually turned onto a side street.
Once we arrived at the hospital I parked next to the
ambulances and headed in to get Alanna a wheel chair, threw the keys at Sashi
and then wheeled Alanna in to the emergency room. Things seemed pretty hectic in the ER at that
time, there was a metal detector that I didn’t know what to do with, and then
the people at the front desk asked me what I was there for. They didn’t see Alanna in the wheel chair
over the counter, all I could do was say something like, “She’s pregnant…baby”. Then someone said, “oh, follow me upstairs”.
As soon as we arrived in the delivery room, Alanna changed
into a gown and I downloaded all the information I could to the nurse,
Michelle. I forgot to bring in the birth
plan, but fortunately it was still in the car from when we showed it to the
midwife a week earlier. Once we were settled in to the delivery room, or as
settled as we could get, the nurse started to take vitals of Alanna and
Cooper. They quickly decided to give
Alanna an IV for fluids, and we found out it is not a good idea to try to place
an IV during contractions.
Once the IV was set and vitals were found to be on schedule,
Alanna was free to continue through labor.
She had some intense contractions, which she worked through like she had
been through this before. By 10:00 PM Alanna was at 8 cm and I started to think will Cooper be a September baby or an
October baby. I recalled that earlier in
the day Alanna told me that September 30th was Trey Anastasio’s
birthday. So, secretly I was hoping he
would share the same birthday and maybe some of that musical talent would also
be shared.
At 11:30 PM it was time for Alanna to push, once she was told
it was okay to do so, she became very determined to bring Cooper into the
world. She was so determined she only
pushed for 10 minutes, which has to be some sort of record. At the end of those ten minutes the most
beautiful moment happened when Cooper popped out and breathed his first
breath. After 9 months it was amazing to
see all of Cooper's features, his nose, his lips, and his head full of hair. I am so proud of my wife for taking labor and
delivery head on, all natural, and the only way she knows how, with
purpose. I can’t wait to see what is in
store for our family and this little guy.
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