Your first week of life

A week has already passed by since you've joined our family.
Looks:
You are still as cute as can be. Lots of people think you look like your Dad. You actually remind me a lot of your Uncle Mark. Probably because he was so small and skinny too. Dad says you remind him of his cousin Doug.
Sleep:
Your first night home I kept your bassinet by our bed. You woke up probably 2-3 times to eat.
however as soon as you latched on, you'd fall asleep. Last night was your best night so far- woke at 3am, nursed for 30 min and went right back to sleep and didn't wake again until 7:30am. Thanks for the sleep!
Eat:
Either I'm better at helping you to nurse or your better at nursing than Meriden. You latch on correctly almost always. However, keeping you awake to eat is usually a battle.
Doctor:
You got circumcised yesterday. Dad went with you to watch and I stayed with Meriden. I felt so bad for you. Thankfully you're healing well. We use A LOT of vaseline. You have also gained back your birth weight + 2 ounces so you are now 7lbs 4oz. The dr. was proud of you. I've been scared that you were catching Meriden's cold but the dr. said you sound fine. I was so worried 2 nights ago I stayed up almost all night holding you up right to help you breath. 

From Dad

Dear Jeffrey

            I am so glad you have joined our family.  You bring so much joy and happiness to my life.  My life keeps getting better and better.  First I got your mom the girl of my dreams. Next I got Meriden, my chunky monkey, and now you my little Jeffie.  I feel honored to be your father. 

            Jeffie, I want to let you know how amazing your mom is.  She is an elect lady and you are one lucky dude to have her as your mom.  She went through a lot hard times to have you.  I am thankful she was willing to go through every thing she did to get you here.  She carried you in her womb for 9 months.  At first you would take all her energy and make her feel sick at night.  As you got bigger she got diagnosed with gestational diabetes.  To make sure you grew healthy and had the right sugar levels she had to control her diet and not eat any yummy food.  She had to eat the same kind of food day after day, just meat and veggies.  To monitor her sugars she had to poke herself 4 to 5 times a day to check her blood sugars.  The last two weeks she couldn’t eat any carbs at all.  If she did her blood sugar would spike.  She didn’t eat any carbs so you could come home from the hospital soon and not have to stay there for weeks. 

            On top of all that you kept kicking her and making her uncomfortable.  I don’t blame you, it must have been pretty cramped in there.  Your mom was very uncomfortable a lot of the time.  Her back hurt and she couldn’t go hiking or do very much fun things.  I am so grateful for her sacrifice to get you here. 

            When you decided to come out early it didn’t give mom enough time to get an epidural so she had to birth you naturally.  An epidural makes it not hurt as bad when you are coming out the birth canal.  We were trying out our new tent trailer at Lincon Beach Campground and mom started to get contractions.  We thought they were fake like we had with Meriden.  At 3:30 AM we decided to go home so mom could take a shower and relax.  The contractions didn’t go away and at 6:00 your mom woke me up and said the contractions were real and you were on your way.  We got to the hospital and the nurse said it was too late to get an epidural.  Your mom was so strong and brave and pushed you out all by herself and felt you the whole way out.  After you got out the doctor had to push on mom’s belly to make the uterus clamp down so she would stop bleeding.  He had to do it over and over.  It wasn’t fun for her because it hurt a lot. 

            Now for the next 6 weeks she has to heal and get better.  Like I said earlier she went through a lot to get you here.  I am proud of her and grateful for her sacrifice and all she went through to get you here.  Your mom is an amazing woman.  She is very brave and loves you and me so much.  I love her so much for getting you here.  We are going to have a lot of fun together.  Mom is really fun.  She will take good care of you your whole life.  We are both lucky to have her.

Love Dad

Jeffrey's Birth Letter

April 4, 2013, 7:54am
7lbs 2oz, 19 inches

My sweet little Jeffrey Jeremy Cooper,

Today, you were born. I did not think you were going to be born today, but you decided to surprise us! Mommy has been so very careful about every little thing she puts in her body, testing her blood sugar 5 times a day and measuring and weighing all her food. In the last two weeks my body especially has had troubles with any carbohydrates. I have been eating only meat, cheese, eggs and A LOT of vegetables. I knew you’d be worth every little sacrifice. The doctor was a little concerned with the gestational diabetes so he planned for you to come on Monday, April 8^th. You were to be induced at 8am. I was grateful because this way, Daddy and I could go see Lord of the Dance- tickets we bought months ago, go to Daddy’s mission reunion and enjoy conference all before you would come to us. Mommy also had a great big desire to go camping in our new pop-up trailer since we hadn’t used it and we knew we wouldn’t be using it for some time after you were born. Yesterday Mommy and Meriden spent the day with Autumn and her family. Daddy got off work and we arrived at home from SLC at about 7:30pm. By 8:00pm we had the car loaded and the trailer hooked up to go camping at Lincoln Beach. While Daddy set up the trailer, Mommy grilled some veggies and chicken on the grill. We enjoyed a yummy dinner and put Meriden to bed. The weather was great- about 43 degrees. Daddy and I spent some time outside staring at the stars and talking. We were so very excited to have you join our family. It seems like so long that we’ve been waiting for you to get here. We snuggled up in all our blankets and watched “Red Dawn”. It ended at about 12:30am. Now, for the past week, I’ve been feeling Braxton Hicks about every hour. There were 2 Sundays that they were especially bad. With Meriden, I had these a lot. And she was 5 days past her due date. Your due date wasn’t until April 10^th! After the movie, I really started feeling what I thought were BH. They were so consistent that I started timing them. Wow, 9 minutes apart. Huh… well, they’ll go away. 12:39…. 12:48…. 12:57… 1:06... these are really hurting…2:04…2:13… 2:22… and then, a really special experience. I felt Grandma Meriden Burk’s presence with me. I felt as if she was sitting next to me and in my mind I head, “Cherise, don’t worry. Everything is going to be all right… I reflected on that a lot during your birth and I know it was a tender mercy from our Heavenly Father because he loves us… 3:00…3:09… 3:18… 3:27… Um… Steven, I’ve been having labor pains the last 3 hours. Can we go home so I can take a shower and relax? Okay babe… Grab my duffle, camera, purse, laptop and of coarse, Meriden. Unhitch the trailer and head home. Boy, these really hurt. We got home and I told Dad to go to bed, being completely certain that these were BH. I took a bath… still there… walked all around the apartment… still there… rocked on my hands and knees… tried to fall asleep, they kept waking me up. Finally, around 5 or so, they hurt so bad that I decided to take another bath. Daddy had turned down the water heater so I could really get some good hot water. I took the shower head off and sprayed my tummy with the hot water. For about 15 minutes I didn’t feel anything. Yes, they’ve finally gone away. Nope… they came back except this time so painful I could hardly stand it. Oh my I thought, this is real. This is really real. I got out and woke Daddy up. I had to lay down through the contraction and now I was starting to moan they hurt so bad. We called Grandma Cooper and she suggested going to the hospital. We called Aunt Chelsea and said we’d be bringing Meriden right over. Daddy packed all our bags as I told him what to pack and then every 4 mintes he’d run over and help me relax through some extremely painful contractions. Finally, we had the stuff ready and got in the van. Daddy drove about 90mph and Aunt Chelsea met us outside to take your sister, Meriden. Daddy drove really fast to the hospital while every few minutes I would groan with pain. We grabbed a wheelchair and ran up to labor and delivery. By this time the pain was so bad I could hardly stand it. Pleeeease, get the anesthesiologist! I need an epideral!! The nurse hadn’t even checked me in when she checked my dialation. Fully dialated! She could feel the sack. Now each contraction I feel like I have to push. She told me to keep breathing, the doctor would be here soon. I couldn’t help it, I HAD to push. The doctor- Dr. Skinner, who lives in Woodland Hills was about to take a shower when he got the call. He jumped in his car, sped and ran down the halls. By this time, your head, through the sack was really showing. I had not had any vitals taken, any IVs hooked up, any information given. I just pushed with all my might! Your head came out and then one more push and the rest of your body was there. I was shaking really really bad. They asked if I wanted to hold you but I could hardly breathe or think, so I said give me some time. They weighed your sweet little body. 7 lbs 2 ounces, 19 inches long. You are just a little guy compared to your sister’s 9lbs 2 oz and 20 inches… but she was almost a week late and you were about a week early. They said everything looked great and you were hollering just perfect. You were so beautiful and handsome and perfect and I was so relieved. The pain was still right in the middle though. The doctor had to stitch me because I had ripped 1^st degree tears and a little on my euretha. He did give me a shot to numb me. He also put in a cathader. I felt some of the stitching. He also put 8 pills up my rectum to help my uterus clamp down. He also pushed as hard as he could on the inside and outside of my uterus trying to help all the birth to come out and clamp down. He showed me your placenta and your nice healthy umbilical cord. Finally, he was done. It took probably an hour of working on me in which I was tensed, screaming and in as much pain as the peak of birth. I missed the epideral so bad. The good part is, Daddy and I won’t be paying $1500 more dollars to have it. The nurse, Marie, was finally able to take my vitals and information. You were put on my tummy, even during the pain and slept right through my screams. You were looking for milk. Finally I was able to just nurse you and I finally was able to feel peace. You latched on just right and did a good job sucking. You nursed on both sides for about 20 minutes. Daddy and I just relished every second of you. We admired your long fingers and toes, your super thick dark curly brown hair, your cute little nose and every other possible detail about you. We love you so much. Thank you for joining our family. We’re so excited for Meriden to meet you!

I love you so much!

Love,

Mom