Confessions

I might as well own up to things now. The reason why I haven't posted for a while is that I lost our digital camera on our trip to Bryce canyon the first weekend in November. It's been rather disconcerting to try and post without any pictures. Every time I get a hankering to blog... I think of my lost camera and start to pout that I have no proof of the things which I would write of. I've been wallowing in my self pity for far too long... and coincidentally I have new pictures that we took with our wonderful photographer that I am amazingly proud of!

Also, I have a hunch that Caci is refusing to post on her blog until I post on mine.... or something. I am dying to know how her little Jace is doing and how motherhood is treating her.

On our side of the web things have been going great. My 22nd birthday came and went last week. Jesse built me a wonderful bookcase/entertainment center to go in our bedroom. It's huge and beautiful and I would show you pictures but alas for my camera! (I like to think someone snatched it right out of our car) Also this week Annie smashed her finger in her garage and took a trip to the emergency room... for more info on that you can check out her blog that I have linked. She's pretty much the bravest person I know. I figured out that much when we were little kids and she got stung by a scorpion... and also when she got lost on Pine Valley Mt. (hm... is anyone noticing a pattern?)

I can't think of much else that has happened this month... my memory is failing me... I feel almost handicapped without pictures to remind me. Maybe if I'm good Santa will bring me one for Christmas!

Wiggly boy, Halloween, Mom And Dad's Renovation

Well, I have quite the news for you all, besides all the normal holiday and baby news. My parents ripped out an entire room in their house to put in new flooring... and... oh yes...new bookshelves. Beautiful Cherry wood, richly stained and glossy. I'm including some pictures so you all can see the process from start to finish.

Step 1 was to move all the junk out and rip up the carpet. Step 2 was prying off the baseboards and painting the walls and ceiling.

Next, came the plastic wood floor, and cabinets! I included this picture of Dad in his cover-alls especially for you Spencer! I'm sure by now you miss them. Also, Spencer, as you can see, Mom and Dad did pretty well in picking out the color. I don't know if you can remember colors from the shop, but they chose one called "Kevin's Brew w/ black glaze". Jesse had the time of his life staining and installing these. But he had a lot of help from all the brothers: Special thanks to Ben (master painter), Alan (logistical manager), Dave (wood floor specialist)... and Annie (a very petite helper), Amanda, and Sara (the baby-watchers).

Now, on to other things! Halloween was the cutest one in memory, with Cooper as a purple dragon, Jesse as a prince, and I being the damsel in distress princess. All Cooper's cousins dressed up as well and brought knew definitions to the names of lion, fairy, ballerina, and skeleton. From left to right: Cash, Maddie, Elyza, Cohen, and Cooper. Happy Halloween everyone!

The marathon, Peeling apples: All tokens of Autumn

Seasons are changing, as are the activities of our small family. All the special autumn traditions are a billion times better with our little Cooper along for the ride.

As customary we watched the St. George Marathon from Veyo (mile 7) and were extraordinarily inspired by the runners. My parents have been camping out at that exact spot to videotape the runners (in case of cheating) every marathon for 10 years! So we bundle up against the cold and drive up at 4 am just to see this amazing spectacle every year. Jesse had me burn a special "marathon mix" so he could open all the doors on our Yukon and blast the music as loud as it would go without blowing out the speakers. This included classics like "Eye of the Tiger" and the "rocky theme". Lots of runners would be intently focused on the large hill ahead of them and then recognize a classic inspirational running song and look up to see me and Jesse boogying down. Some would blink in confusion and re-focus themselves, others would put their hands up and yell "thanks for the music!", still others would be walking until they heard the uplifting tones of "chariots of fire" and then begin to pick up their pace into a jog. I think because of our cheering and support, and especially inspirational dancing and yelling, lots of runners finished at least 5 min. faster. We tend to have that effect on people.

Another Fall tradition held by our family is the yearly drive to New Harmony to buy bushels and bushels of apples. My dad has been doing this since he was 5 years old. "What do you do with bushels and bushels of apples?" my attentive reader might ask. We bottle them! Last Friday night, as Jesse was away on a scout camp-out, me and Candice had a free night, so we spent 7 hours bottling 60 quarts of apples. They are beautiful! Also, it's a long awaited jump-start on our food storage.

These small and seemingly insignificant events notch out the time as the weather turns from warm to cool, and these last few jam-packed holiday months fly by. It's almost like autumn is the calm before the stormy tornado of decorating, parties, family, and sugary treats. Happy Autumn to all!

Big eyed boy

Hello all! No big news to post, but some sweet, awesome pictures of Cooper! The first is of Cooper waiting patiently for the shuttle bus in Zion's Canyon. He looks like a little old man! We had a fun weekend last week with Ben & Tasha, and Annie & Dave, when we went to Zion to watch "Shackleton's Journey" on the Imax. A documentary on the expedition of Sir Ernest Shackleton, who wanted to be the first man to walk across the south pole on foot in 1914. His boat was caught in the ice and it took him and his crew of 27 other men 18 months to get back to civilization, and not one life was lost! The film was narrated by Kevin Spacey - an exceptional movie, if I do say so myself.

Also, I think Cooper's eyes are the most beautiful and big I have ever seen. I love that boy!

Shots

I know that my posts usually revolve around Cooper, and I am sorry to those of you who find it boring... but he really is the center of our world. We have nothing else in our lives that we find even remotely as important as he is. Even his drooling would be considered more important than all of Jesse and my accomplishments combined. So, the subject of this entry is something that was quite upsetting to our little offspring. He got his 4 month shots this last week (I know, 4 months already!!!!), and he took it quite bravely at the time, but he whimpered for the next few days. He also contracted a small fever the night after, but I'm told that's normal. If you can see in the picture he has two cartoon band aids on his thighs, his own little "badges of courage". On the bright side, we measured and weighed him at this doctor visit: He is now a bouncing 14 lbs. 13 oz. and measures a whopping 26 3/4 inches. He's grown 5 inches and doubled his weight since birth! Imagine if we grew 5 inches in 4 months!! Also, I don't mean to gloat, but the doctor did comment on his very perfect head shape (what an odd thing to be proud of... but that's motherhood for you!).
Updates on the new things he's mastered lately: He's finally found his toes, and they are now his favorite things to play with. He gets frustrated when I put shoes on him, or those pajamas with the little footsies in them- because then he can't see his toes. He has also started branching out in the noises he makes with his mouth. At first he only yelled a "Ahhhhh" sound, now he has a full range of soft little "ah ah ah" sounds, to loud "bppppp" raspberry sounds (like the one he's demonstrating in the picture). He also loves squealing like a little piglet (not sure how he picked that one up). Anyway, we are enjoying our little man, and we lavish many nick-names and kisses on him every day.

Rice Cereal

I forgot to tell you all that we started Cooper on Rice cereal a few weeks ago. He had all of a sudden slipped back into sleeping only 2 hours at a time at night, and he would wake up ravenously hungry. So, we started feeding him rice cereal before we put him to bed at night... now he sleeps long and deep! But the thing about the cereal is, he loves it! He gobbles it up and grunts for more every night! He dives after the spoon when he sees it and tries to shove it on his mouth. If I don't feed him fast enough, he starts his whiny "uh uh uh" for more.

Houston, TX

We recently returned from an adventure in Houston, where we visited Aunt Kat & Uncle Jerry and our wonderful cousins (Kristie!!!). Annie, Dave and Maddie Berry traveled with us and made the trip very entertaining. I can't believe Kat and Jerry willingly volunteered their home to house 6 extra guests!!! It's so big though, that it did not seem crowded at all. I suppose now that we are gone, they may feel that it is rather empty (or they just miss Cooper!). They certainly gave us the royal treatment and we felt completely welcome ( they also offered a 24 hour babysitting service for Cooper... ahhhh... relaxation!). They took us around to all the sights we had energy to see, including: The woodlands mall ( a beautiful, spacious mall in the middle of "The woodlands"), the biggest horse in the world (who, by the way, drinks 2o gallons of water a DAY!), and the Houston Temple (very beautiful and lush, I loved the fountains). They also showed us all the beautiful neighborhoods and houses that they are fortunate enough to live in the midst of. We are very tempted to move! We had no idea Texas was so green and beautiful, we thought it was enveloped in dust and tumbleweeds and cowboys. I am a little sad that we didn't see cowboys. We did, however, see real live long horned cattle!


We were very sad to leave, our hosts were wonderful to us, and the area was so relaxing and serene. Our vacation would have been near perfect, except for a minor glitch on the way home. We were flying with buddy passes graciously obtained for us by Dave Berry, and when there weren't enough seats on the connection from SLC to St. George, Annie and Dave gave them up to me and Jesse! We are so fortunate to have such wonderful family! They ended up getting a hotel room and coming home first thing in the morning.

Cash - - The Boy - - not the singer, or money

We are posting a picture to introduce to the world, our new nephew Cash Jerry Syphus, son of Ben and Tasha Syphus. This is the only good picture I have of him... all the others were blurry because of his wiggly nature (or my poor skills at camera holding). He was born August 4th at 4-something in the morning after an exhausting labor (can I get a HOO-HA for TASHA!!!), he weighed in at 8 lbs. 3 oz. and was 19 in. long. A short stocky boy just like his very thick daddy. That kind of build is good for wrestling, certain positions in football, and bulldozing siblings (believe me, I know!). Ben and Tasha seem to be settling in nicely to their new roles as mom and pop, it took Ben awhile after the delivery to realize that squirming slimy thing was his boy, but now I think he can tell which end is which. I don't think Cooper knows of his new cousin yet, though he's seen him several times. But then again, he doesn't even know of the existance of his own toes.... and sometimes he goes cross-eyed trying to figure out who's chubby hand is clasping his (his own of course). So a relationship between cousins will have to wait until they can conceptualize other beings besides themselves. And just to brighten things up, some cute pictures of Coop-a-tons! (nick-name courtesy of Chris Syphus)

Phoenix, Elder Syphus, other tidbits

Hey all!
It's been nearly a week since we got back from Phoenix and I haven't updated our news! We left last Tuesday and drove to Vegas and waited for 3-4 hours for our flight (turns out the power went out in LA and no flights could take off or land! Sheesh! Waiting in an airport with a hungry Cooper is no picnic -- well I guess for him it is.). Once we actually got on the plain the flight was only about an hour. Sounds like a normal flight, right? Nope! It was Cooper's first plane ride! Little guy didn't notice it though, he slept through the whole thing.

Most of the time we hung out by the pool and took naps, we went shopping a bit and played with Chris and Shawn (my brother and his wife who live in Phoenix). Kaylee held cooper and gave him kisses! So so cute!


Also among the many firsts for Cooper on this trip, was his first swim. The kid's a born frog!
Also he looks way cute in his swim trunks!


Also among the recent occurrences --Tasha Syphus's Baby shower. The poor girl is swollen to bursting, but she's hangin' in there! I think she's got about 2 weeks left.


So... Spencer just sent home a CD of pictures, but sadly, none of them have labels or explanations... your guess is as good as mine! Isn't he just the handsomest missionary?! (I can say that, I'm his sister)

Jesse: Crime Fighter!

Who is a cabinet man by day, and catches burglars on the run on the weekends? That's right.. it's my very own husband Jesse! So here's the story as it unfolded:

Saturday 8:30 AM- Jesse and I are awakened by a phone call from his shop manager Eric Miller telling him that the cabinet shop has been burglarized and he better get down there to talk to the police. From what we can piece together there were two men dressed in black throwing papers around the office and just generally wreaking havoc when Fernando, one of the workers, walks in on them (there was nothing to take because, learning from a previous break in, they sent the cash box home with a secretary every night). They immediately took off on foot down the street and Fernando jumped in his car and followed them. He cornered them against a building and jumped out of his car with his tire iron! They somehow got around him and took off running into the hills. Fernando, unable to follow them in his car any further, drove back to the shop to call the police.

9ish- Jesse arrives on the scene and discovers some important facts: The supposed get away vehicle that was parked up the street was Jesse's work truck that had previously that week been taken to a repair shop! (we found out later that the auto shop had been broken into a few days previous, but had not missed the key to Jesse's truck which was stolen. Apparently the thieves had returned several nights later and took the truck!) The "Green Valley" stickers were torn off of it and the camper shell was ripped off (probably sold) and the license plate had been changed to a Florida plate. They looked around in the truck and saw a pistol in the back seat! At this point the police told Jesse and Eric to go around to the other businesses and notify them of the thieves so they could be on the look-out.
Jesse and Eric considered the situation carefully, but their thirst for justice got the best of them and they drove away to try and apprehend the men from the other side of the hills. They had to turn off the main road to go up into the hills and they were bouncing around in low gear, smashing through the sage brush and over rocks! When they got to the peak of the first hill they took out the binoculars and scanned the dusty hills for any sign of the black-clad men on foot, but there was no sign of them.
So they kept going, hill after hill, until they finally came to the last and highest hill. As they peered down from the top they spotted two men running, out of breath, and dressed in black! The Police were at the base of the hill trying to make it up to the men, but they, of course, were winded as well. So Jesse and Eric, fresh as daisies, took off down towards the men, running at full speed! The thieves, seeing that they were cornered, with two large scary men running at them from one side, and police with a shotgun aimed at them on the other, they raised their hands in the air to surrender. Jesse and Eric held them until the police arrived and handcuffed them. Only one officer was able to make it up the hill to cuff them, so Jesse got to lead one of the cuffed men down to the police.
We found out later that that these men were AWOL from a military unit stationed in Texas. They are going to serve some hard time for sure!

Jesse previously held a life-long dream of being in a bar-fight, but after this he says, his thirst is satiated! OH! And here's a cute picture of him and Cooper: :)

Also in our family news:

-Cooper got his 2 month shots today (ouch!)

-The Dooley family reunion was this weekend... it was great to see the family that we haven't seen for years... Uncle Mike and his family from Missouri, Aunt Lisa and her family from California... and also never seen before (by me anyway) Grandma and Grandpa Dooley in the same room!

-Fight night was Saturday night - a battle between Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz.... the latter winning the fight in a matter of seconds.

-We are also anxiously awaiting the birth of Tasha and Ben's baby who is 5 weeks away from his due date!

Smiles :)

Guess what?!!!! Cooper has learned how to smile!

He's smiled before on rare but happy occasions, but today he mastered the art of smiling! He grinned and laughed at his mamma all day long!

Here's a small glimpse of what I've had all day:

Camping!

Hey everybody! We are in the best mood because we just got back from our 3 day 2 night real live camping trip! That's right everybody! At 7 weeks Cooper is now officially part of the Syphus family because he can camp! I haven't been camping since just before we got pregnant with Cooper so I've waited quite a long time for this.

We headed out Thursday afternoon and got to our camping spot about Dinner time. Lucky for us Mom and Dad Syphus had already come out on Tuesday and set everything up. In fact, they were making dinner just as we pulled up! Hooray for easy camping! We couldn't have a camp fire because of all the fire danger, so instead we just sat around the.. uh.. lantern... and told stories, and Ben even broke out his guitar.

Friday we drove out to Twin Point and looked out over the Grand Canyon, the view was amazing! Cooper's never seen anything so Grand... literally! We spent the day driving around on 4-wheelers and eating (I love camping!). Jesse and Dave Berry found an ingenious use for the winches on the front of the 4-wheelers by hooking one end to a dead tree and then gassing the 4-wheeler into reverse. I think they felled every dead tree within a 5 mile radius of our camp-site. Also that day, Cooper seemed a little dirty so we gave him a bath in a pot! Cooper really knows how to rough it! That night we had an AMAZING dinner of dutch oven pork ribs and potatoes. Dad Syphus works miracles with dutch ovens, I swear those ribs just melted in my mouth! Besides, everything tastes better when you're camping. We spent another night around the lantern playing games and talking, it felt great to have everybody there..except Ben...and Annie...and Spencer.

All in all it was a way fun trip. The scenery was beautiful, and it was fun to have all the little nieces and nephew around! Cooper did great on his first camp-out. The only thing he struggled with was staying warm at night because he kept kicking off his blanket, so I had to bring him into our sleeping bag to keep warm. I didn't mind so much though, he's really snugly when he's sleepy! He sure does like being home though, I think he missed the a/c and his REAL bathtub!

He has a Name!

Cooper Jesse Callahan now has a name (he's not just "baby" anymore)! He was blessed yesterday by his Daddy in Sacrament meeting along with Grandpa Syphus, Big Daddy (Jesse's grandpa), Grandpa Doug, Grandpa Kevin, Alan Syphus, Dave Berry, Flint Chandler, Eric Miller, Chris O'Connor, Jimmy Lindell, and Bishop Jones. Jesse had a slight fever though so he was sweating like crazy!

Saturday, the day before the blessing we went to Zion and Jesse hiked a slot canyon called pine creek with some guys from work, Candice & Flint, and our brother in law Dave. It's a cool little canyon that was carved out by water, and to get through it you have to repel every so often down into ice cold pools of water, and then tread water while you un-clip from the rope to swim out. Meanwhile, me, Cooper, Annie and Maddie stayed at the bottom and took a short hike of our own on the weeping rock trail. Our valiant hikers took a little bit longer than they thought they would, but at least no one was hurt! *Also, Dave was the hero of the day by diving down into the murky water to get the bag of rope that sunk. Without him, they probably would have been stranded and cold and lonely!

Last but not least, last week we went to Sand Hollow Reservoir for family home evening with my family. All the kids played on the red sand beach and paddled around in the water. Cooper enjoyed being held over the water but not actually touching it. I think he was trying to play the part of Moses and part the "red sea". He does look very commanding, if you overlook the small matter of him wearing only his diaper. I know, I know he looks like a poverty stricken little guy, half naked like that, but he evening was very warm and he seemed to enjoy it at the time! By the way, can you believe he's already holding his head up?! He's so strong! Not to mention his killer biceps and cut shoulders. This little guy has a future!

Memorial Day Weekend

Fight night was fun for everyone involved (except for poor Royce Gracie who lost the fight), we had tons of food and Cooper got passed around like a collection plate. He loves being held and cuddled and loved. The fight was a little disappointing as Matt Hughes beat Gracie without much of a fight. But we enjoyed the friends and family. And as you can see by this photo, some of us were more into the fight than others.

Cooper had his first "camp out" this weekend when we went up to Pine Valley and stayed in the cabin. We wanted to stay outside in a tent so we could "camp" but it was too cold outside and we didn't want to chance it with our little guy breathing cold air so we slept inside. We had lots of fun with Nikki, the Berry's, and the Chandler's and Mom and Dad, and, of course, the twins. We stayed up late playing games (me and Annie dominated at Disney Trivial Pursuit), and in the morning those that were motivated (pretty much everyone but me and Cooper) went hiking up Pine Valley mountain. We went 4-wheeling during the day--Jesse let me drive :) while Cooper was left at the cabin with Grandma Wendy with a few ounces of milk in a bottle to tide him over till I got back. He did pretty well! Mom missed him like crazy though.

I can't believe Cooper is already almost a month old! He's gained several pounds and he holds his head up and smiles. I still can't believe that he's here and alive--a living, breathing little guy that is the spitting image of his daddy. I was there for the whole thing, but I still can't believe what a miracle he is.

Jesse is having a blast being a daddy, in fact, a lady came up to me in relief society last week and told me that she's never seen a dad so involved. Whenever he's holding Cooper (pretty much whenever he's home) he's always giving him little lectures and teaching him. Like when he walks him in the halls at church he holds Cooper up to the pictures of Jesus and Moroni and tells him all about them. Jesse is still taking care of me too, I've had an easy time recovering because Jesse has cooked and cleaned, he's even done the laundry! On the weekends he takes Cooper in the mornings so I can have a few extra hours of sleep. Yep, our little family is functioning great, and we're all slipping into our new rolls of Mommy, Daddy, and Son, just fine.

All the stuff I never knew

These past few weeks have been amazing as we have gotten to know our little guy. I thought I knew his personality and preferences from him being in my tummy for 9 mos., but that is nothing compared to all we've learned in the past little while.

I've never been happier in my entire life, or felt so complete. These few thoughts that Caci sent me via e-mail almost hit it on the head:

1. You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.

2. You finally stop to smell the roses, because your baby is in your arms.

3. Where you once believed you were fearless, you now find yourself afraid.

4. You're less self-involved and more self-motivated.

5. The sacrifices you thought you made to have a child no longer seem like sacrifices.

6. You respect your body ... finally. (Hooray for baby-making!)

7. You have stronger opinions and are stronger willed.

8. You respect your parents and love them in a new way. (Hooray for grandparents!)

9. You find that your baby's pain feels much worse than your own.

10. You believe once again in the things you believed in as a child. (Hooray for the tooth fairy!)

11. You lose touch with the people in your life that you should have banished years ago.

12. Your heart breaks much more easily.

13. You think of your baby 234,836,178,976 times a day. In fact, you're so busy with this that you forget everything else.

14. Every day is a surprise.

15. Bodily functions are no longer repulsive. In fact, they please you. (Hooray for poop!)

16. You think before you speak.

17. You become a morning person. (Hooray for watching the sun rise!)

18. If you have a son, you no longer curse men. (Hooray for all men!)

19. If you have a daughter, you hope she won't endure your same heartaches.

20. Your love becomes limitless, a superhuman power.

Me and Jesse have never laughed so hard at all his little grunts and squeaks. He's such a good baby and doesn't cry very often, and when he does it's not very loud. But he still doesn't have a sleeping schedule down yet, so I only sleep 2 hours at a time (Caci enjoy your sleep now!). We're planning on taking him camping in a few weeks (Wahoo!) , so hopefully he's got some sort of pattern by then.

On a side note, Jesse is super super excited for FIGHT NIGHT tonight. He's been counting down for several weeks the fight between UFC fighters Matt Hughes and Royce Gracie. He invited some people over and bought double stuffed oreos, so I think it should be pretty eventful. He's just afraid one will knock the other one out in the first round and it'll be a 30 second fight. For Jesse's sake I hope it's long, and not to gory.

It's about time!

It's about time for a lot of things! First of all, COOPER! Nine months is a flipping long time! Second, time for this blog (Caci's been nudging me along for quite a while now, guess it's time to present our little family to the web for all to see). Third, family, after all - isn't it about...Time?

I really want to just gush about how much we love Cooper and how cute and perfect he is, but I guess first things first - I better set the story straight about how he got here.

On Saturday the 6th of May, me and Jesse went shopping to gather up the last few things that we needed to get Cooper's room complete. We spent the whole day washing clothes and setting up a bed, hanging up cute froggy decorations and cleaning or house. We knew that Cooper was going to be here soon. We even packed a few things in the car just in case my water broke. That night Annie and Dave came over to set up our new computer so we would have somewhere to download all of our cute baby pictures once Cooper came.

Jesse and Dave ran to the store to pick up a few miscellaneous items and me and Annie stayed and watched Top Chef (Love that show!). We started timing my contractions just for fun (they had been coming all week basically) and they started getting stronger and coming about 15 minutes apart. When Jesse and Dave got back I told Annie she might get a call in the middle of the night, so be prepared! Me and Jesse stayed up timing contractions and they started getting pretty serious around 10:30ish and about 7 minutes apart.

We had previously decided that we were going to try to handle them at home for as long as we could so we wouldn't just be sitting at the hospital for hours (riiiiight). So for the next 7 hours till about 5:oo AM Sunday morning we took walks around our apartments and I had 3 baths (hey, they helped with the pain), sat on the couch, then the bed, then the couch, then bed, just trying to get through contractions and relax.

At 5:00 I decided that if they got any worse I wouldn't want to be driving in a car, so we better head off to the hospital. When we got there they checked me and I was only dialated to 2 cm (10 is the goal). They kept me for an hour for observation to see how far I would progress and at the end of that I was at about 3+ cm. So we settled into our delivery room and met our new nurse Lynette (an angel I swear). The next 2 hours took me to 4 cm (I was completely efaced at this time... must have been all the walking!) and that's when the trouble began.

At 4 cm my contractions started to decline in intensity and come less frequently. So, we started walking the halls, Lynette ran me a bath (and picked me flowers!) and they broke my water. After about 2 hours we were about to head out on an hour long walk to take us around the whole hospital to try and get things going, so Lynette was doing routine check on the baby's heartbeat and it plummeted pretty low. She said "I wish I wouldn't have seen that, now I have to keep you in bed." With me in bed, my contractions petering off, and the baby's heartbeat unstable, we had one alternative: Pitocin.

Pitocin is a drug that speeds up contractions and makes them unnaturally painful, but it does bring the baby quicker, which was our goal at this point so we decided to start the drip. *usually this is when you would also begin an epidural to avoid the painful effects of Pitocin, but since we were trying to go naturally, we decided to see how far we could go with the added "boost"*.

I did surprisingly well, I have to say, I am quite proud of myself and my wonderful coach Jesse. The pain got pretty intense, but we had practiced long and hard and it paid off for several hours. In the space of about 3 or 4 hours I progressed from 4 cm to 7cm - we were doing awesome! Even with Pitocin I was handling the pain relatively well. That is the point where we hit yet another road block (somewhere between 12:00 and 2:00 in the afternoon).

Up to that point, the pain had been almost unbearable, but we had been progressing smoothly, so it made it seem worth it. It was then that the progression stopped and I stayed at 7 cm for 3 or 4 hours. To be going through so much pain, only to be told after hours of this you are no closer to your goal than before is pretty depressing. I started losing my grip mentally and crying through contractions, yelling at Jesse and starting to be unreasonable ( I think I bit him a couple of times too). My mom and Annie kicked it in high gear at that point and their sweet voices are really the only things that kept me going just a little while longer (after all, you can't bite your mom).

Annie, and my mom decided me and Jesse had some decisions to make about pain medication so they left the room so we could decide what to do. Jesse had been wonderfully trained to handle my unreasonable state, so it was in that manner, just us two, that we made it through one more painful hour. Jesse crying and pleading just as much as I was that this would be over. At the end of that we decided to take a drug, I can't quite remember the name ( could ya blame me?) that took the edge off and made me kind of loopy. We made this decision in hopes that it would relax my body enough to help it progress and dilate further. It worked! An hour later I was at 8 cm! But that's as far as that pain medication could take me.

At the same time I hit 8cm is where the medication started wearing off. I had a dilemma, 2 more cm to go, and the pain was worse than it had ever been. Also a problem was that even though I was at an 8, the baby wasn't dropping into the birth canal. Jesse tried coaching me through one more hour, but it turned out I just bawled and pleaded for about half the hour and then the nurse came in and said she had spoken with the doctor, and he decided that after 20 hours of labor, and the baby's heartbeat unstable as it was, the only thing to do was an epidural because the baby wasn't dropping. Which either meant he was too big, or my body wasn't relaxing and opening up enough for him to drop. It was then that she scared the crap out of me and mentioned a c-section in the case that the baby didn't drop in next little while.

We readily agreed to an epidural and in 5 minutes the guy was there and prepping me. After all those hours of pain a needle in my back was NOTHING! and a few minutes after that, I was pain free! For the next 2 hours me and Jesse dozed in and out of sleep and at the end of 2 hours the baby was right there! ready for me to push! I pushed through about 5 contractions and Cooper was here! All 7lbs. 11oz., 20 3/4 inches long. We couldn't be any happier, we love this little guy to death.