Kim always looks forward to these times when she can pass the responsibility over to me to write the Update. It is kind of sad, however, that she has to resort to giving birth to a child to get me to do it. Maybe we can work something out where I write more often to give her some relief (but I wouldn’t hold your breath).
If you have kept up with some of the last newsletters that Kim has sent out, you know that we thought that she would be having the baby a lot sooner than she did. You also know that she has been tremendously uncomfortable with lots of back pain and labor pains that seemed to start precisely at 2:30 a.m. each morning. Needless to say, it was with great anticipation that we waited for this baby to finally come.
I think Kim had also mentioned that we made a trip to the hospital a few weeks ago, certain that she was in labor and that the torment would be over. Frugal Kim of course was mainly concerned that every trip to the hospital would cost us $100. In fact, the day that Cooper was born, she was most reluctant to go upstairs because she viewed it as another C-note down the drain. Well during that first visit to the hospital, we found out that she was dilated to 3 cm (even with all that labor!) They told her that although she was experiencing severe contractions, the baby hadn’t dropped yet. Nothing like paying a hundred bucks to find out that you are in excruciating pain for nothing!
Well, July 3rd rolled around and Kim had a doctor’s appointment that morning. During her visit, she found out that she was at 4-5 cm and that the baby had completely dropped. The doctor could tell she was very uncomfortable and asked if Kim wanted her to call over to the hospital to see if they had a bed. Of course Kim responded that we had well checks scheduled for three of the boys and she really didn’t want to reschedule them. So away we went to the pediatrician’s office instead of the delivery room.
Early July 4th, Kim woke up with some severe contractions and went out into the family room. At around 3 a.m., she was still contracting very regularly so she decided to take a shower and get ready to go to the hospital. I woke up for a moment and thought, "She’s taking a shower; we must be going to the hospital soon." And then I went back to sleep. When it is your fifth child you tend to take things in stride. So, Kim woke me up at 4 a.m. and let me know that if I wanted to shower before we went to the hospital, I had better get going. She also called her mom to ask her to come over. Once her mom arrived, however, the contractions were starting to come less frequently. I think if Kim was a swearing woman, I would have gotten an earful, but she’s not, so I didn’t. So we waited.
As Kim continued to contract, although less regularly, I did what all good husbands should do, I went to Lowe’s and got some parts to hook up the barbecue. I mean if I wasn’t going to actually be able to barbecue on Independence Day, I was at least going to make sure that the grill was ready as if I would have been able to barbecue. It is about peace of mind you know, ensuring that 50,000 BTUs are ready for action at the push of an igniter switch.
After the barbecue was hooked up, Kim and I discussed our next steps. Finally we decided to go. Since our insurance no longer allowed us to go to Mountain View hospital where all our other kids were born, we made the trek to Summerlin hospital, which takes about 20 minutes. While on the way, Kim’s contractions pretty much stopped. So we decided to hike Red Rock! Well at least the air conditioned Red Rock Resort and Casino (did I mention that it was 116 degrees in LV on the 4th?) We would have gone to a movie but I couldn’t convince Kim that Transformers was a romantic comedy. So she settled for a smoothie and a walk around the hotel. Reluctantly we then drove over to the hospital.
At this point it was a little after noon and Kim was having a contraction once every 20 minutes or so – if that. We got to the parking lot and Kim wanted to just go home. This is where my male skills of logic kicked into action. I reasoned with her that the doctor she had seen just the day before was the doctor on call. I also pointed out that she was ready to send Kim over to the hospital that day as well. Lastly, I tried to let her see that the alternative to going upstairs was to go home and continue to be miserable. Of course my powers of persuasion proved too much for her and we went inside.
As we walk into the delivery area, I notice right a way that two ladies are in the triage room and another one is in the hallway with some portable partitions surrounding her. My immediate thought was "Dang those powers of persuasion! Look what I have gotten my wife into!" The nurses gave Kim a gown to change into and had me wait by one of the other beds hanging out in the hallway. The situation looked bleak. When Kim returned, the nurse asked when she had last visited the doctor. When Kim told her that she had just been the day before and that she was at 5 cm. The nurse just said, "We’re not even going to worry about this bed out here then." And she immediately took Kim into a delivery room. Whew, although we weren’t for sure out of the woods, we were greatly relieved to be in a room and not the hallway.
Kim’s contractions were pretty much gone but the doctor ordered that the nurses break her water around 2 p.m. With all of our other kids, that pretty much gets things moving - and moving fast! Kim was contracting and decided to go to the bathroom. By the time she got back to the bed she looked at me and said she had to push. Mind you this was 30 minutes after they broke her water. I wasn’t even there for that because I went downstairs for some chicken! So they call the doctor and I am doing my job of pretty much doing nothing while Kim tries not to have a baby before the doctor gets there. When the doctor got there everything happened super fast and out came Super Cooper at 2:41 p.m. Kim handled everything better than could ever be expected by anyone, especially since she had been so tired from all the sleepless nights.
We settled on the name Cooper, even if it took until the next day to be absolutely sure. There are only so many boy names that Kim and I can agree upon and even though he was born on the 4th of July, I was not giving in on the Freedom thing. His nickname is Doodle, however, because of Yankee Doodle Dandy …Born on the 4th of July. The middle name Warboys (which my mom extremely dislikes – because she can’t "hate" anything) is a family name. It was my great great grandmother’s last name, and Kim and I felt it had a nice Independence Day feeling to it.
So that’s Cooper’s news, here’s some stuff about the other boys:
Aiden graduated from kindergarten last Friday and was so proud to have his little brother, Cooper in the audience. His class sang, "How sweet it is to be loved by you," to all the parents. It was very adorable.
Grey, along with the other young ones, had his well check and was shocked to find out that he had to get five shots. Although he did tear up a little, he was determined not to cry so he could tell Aiden how brave he was when he got home.
Gage got one shot and cried and cried. He was hesitant from the moment we walked into the office. I guess he still remembers his hospitalization when he had RSV. Poor kid.
Jace had five shots too and was doing OK until he got his third. He looked right at the nurse and with his sternest voice said, "NO, NO!" with a waving finger and everything. He still got all five shots however.
This is long enough, so thank you all for your warm thoughts and words. Take care!
The Bishop Family
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