Kohen Mitchell Brower

On Thursday, November 4th, 2010, at 4:59 pm, Kohen Mitchell Brower joined our family.  He weighed in at 7 lbs 3 oz., and was 20 1/2 inches long.  When he was finally ready to come out, he was here within minutes.  It was a very long laboring process, but delivery was literally over in one contraction and about 3 pushes.  It was crazy.  But, to remember everything, here is the story....

I went into the hospital about 8 pm Wednesday night.  I was anxious to get this whole thing started.  Mostly, I couldn't wait until I could get my epidural so that I could feel no pain.  You see, for the past month, I had felt nothing BUT pain, so I couldn't wait to feel some sort of relief from it all.  When we got to the hospital, the first two people that we came in counter with that worked at the hospital didn't really think that we would be having a baby the next day.  It was kind of annoying because I just kept thinking..."you have no idea what I have been through the past month!  I deserve to have my baby NOW!"  When the security guard wheeled me up to the lady at the front desk of the Birthing Center, she said, "this girl is hoping to have a baby tomorrow" (like she didn't believe that I really was going to). 

Then, when the lady at the front desk was wheeling me back to my room, she asked when my due date was.  I told her November 18th, and she said, "well, that is coming up!"  I just thought, "Lady...did you not get that I am here to have a baby TOMORROW?!?!  NOT on the 18th?!?!" 

Who knows...maybe I was a tad too sensitive at the time.  Knowing me, Jerrod probably heard something completely different, but until he starts blogging, you get my rendition of everything!  

I couldn't wait until we could get things going so that I could somehow show everyone that I did indeed get to have my baby very soon!!!  

Things had to be started out slowly because my body technically wasn't ready to push out a baby.  I wasn't dilated or effaced at all, so we had a ways to go. 

They gave me a pill to help soften my cervix all night.  They gave me a sleeping pill and some pain meds to help me sleep through the night.  I was pretty out of it all night and was grateful for it.  

The next morning, I woke up and showered.  I am sure my nurse was wondering why I had to do my hair and make up, but I had a date with my newest son that day, and I wanted to look pretty for him! 

After I got all ready, they decided it was time to start the Pitocin.  I couldn't wait to get that started because I just knew that it would speed things up.  We started that around 8:30 am or so.  After a little while, I could really feel the contractions coming on.  I really didn't want to feel a whole lot of pain, so I begged for them to give me an epidural.  I think I got my epidural around 10:30 or 11:00.  Can I just say that my anesthesiologist was AMAZING?!?!  She was SO gentle and it hardly hurt at all to get the epidural.  She took her time and it really was the BEST epidural experience of my life!  It is crazy how I could get so excited about something like that. 

Things were moving so slowly and I was averaging dilating about 1 cm an hour.  I was getting so discouraged.  I knew that he would come, but I wanted it to be sooner than later.  

At 4:00 pm, my nurse came in and checked on me and told me that I was only at a 4.  I was SO sad.  My friend, Delee called me right after that and I told her that I was only at a 4 and that it would probably be at least another couple of hours.  She had just gotten done at the Dr.'s office with my Doctor, and she said that Dr. Taggart said that he guessed that I would have a baby by 5 or 6.  When she said that, all I could think was "Yeah, more like 6 or 7!"  (If you haven't noticed, I wasn't extremely positive!) 

After that, my nurse came in and said, "Let's try a different position."  She then put me in the weirdest position.  I thought that there was no way that it was going to help, but I didn't really have any other options at that point.  After about 10-15 minutes I started to feel a lot of pressure.  I knew that something had changed...QUICKLY.  I told my nurse and she checked me and could not believe it herself.  Within 20 minutes I had gone from a 4 to a 10 and his head was right there!  She ran out to call Dr. Taggart and told me not to push!  She came back in and said that Dr. Taggart was on his way and that I wasn't allowed to push.  It was so hard to NOT push, but I wanted to wait for him to get there.  We called my Mom to try to get her to hurry up and get there. 

The next thing I knew, the nurse ran out to the hall to tell Dr. Taggart that he didn't have time to put his scrubs on.  He ran in to the room and they tried to get him dressed as quickly as possible.  He then sat down, felt Kohen's head and said, "You don't have to wait for a contraction, you can just push now if you want and he will come."  I started laughing and then he said, "Or, you could laugh him out!" 

(My Dr. is the BEST and he is hilarious) 

I decided to wait for another contraction and when it came, I just started pushing.  And BAM....3 pushes later he was here!!!

My very FAVORITE Dr. EVER!!!!  He is amazing and I don't ever want another Dr. again!

If any of you have ever had a baby, you understand the extreme hunger you build up while in labor because they won't let you eat anything.  Well, I ALWAYS look forward to my first meal after delivery! So, here I am looking over my menu...tounge out and all!

Grandma and her 4th grandchild!  Mom missed the delivery by minutes because she had to drop the kids off at a friends house.  Sorry Mom!  

Kohen and Aunt Jaela

The first time the kids met their new little brother was PRICELESS.  I loved seeing their faces and they kept going back and forth holding him.  They couldn't get enough of him.

We had some great friends come and visit us while we were waiting to go home the next day!

Katie Tyler

Nena Emmett and Camila Anderson

Getting ready to go home!

Our new family!

The first few days home....

We are so in love with our newest addition.  He has brought so much joy into our family already.  He did really well nursing.  He started out getting up every two hours during the night to eat, which was a hard transition, but it was expected.  It is a good thing that I love him so much!  

He got a little bit of Jaundice 5 days after he was born, but ended up being just fine.  

The kids continue to love on him as much as possible.  They love to hold him and give him kisses.  They are also wanting to help all the time.  They are so sweet.  Kohen is pretty lucky to have such a great big brother and sister.  

Kohen, 

We love you more than you know.  In your short time with us, you have brought so much joy into our lives.  We know that you are meant to be in our family.  We are excited to watch you grow and become your own person.  Thank you for coming to our family.  We love you! 

Love, Mom and Dad