Our beautiful baby boy - By Ashley Copeland

Our beautiful baby boy Cooper Ralph Copeland was born December 9th at 10:24am (40+2 weeks).

 52cm long

3570grams 7 pound 14

35.5cm head circumference

His birth was beautiful. We met with my OB on my due date and was given a S&S. I was 1cm dilated but my cervix hadn’t yet ripened. We were offered the choice to go the hospital the following day to be given a gel to help soften my cervix or wait another week to go into labour. We made the decision to be induced the next day.

I was given Prostin gel on Wednesday night around 7pm.  After I was given the gel, my waters broken naturally around 8:30pm which is not common (my OB said the gel was probably just what my body needed). I wasn’t allowed to go home, so I tried to get some rest. I then started having contractions at 2am and they were about 8 minutes apart. I then started to set up the room with candles, a diffuser and we dimmed the lights. The midwives gave me the space I needed. My husband rubbed my back, I used a heat pack, a gym ball, shower and bath throughout the early hours of the morning.

Around 8am, I was getting strong urges to push and not a lot of breaks in between contractions. I was 5/6 cm dilated. I had forgotten that I had hired the Elle Tens Plus machine from MamaandI, so I got my husband to put it on me. I swear this got me through each contaction. My contractions grew in intensity but my beautiful midwife and husband(Calumn) helped me through them. The midwife used the analogy of the contractions being like mountains ( “breathe through the contractions like your climbing a mountain, you’re nearly at the top and you will get a break”).This really helped me push through the pain .

Around 9:30am ish I had really strong urges to push and within 40minutes I was able to push him out with the help of my midwife, OB and incredible husband. My midwife told me that Dreams by Fleetwood Mac was playing while I delivered Cooper (it’s now my favourite song). He was placed on my chest and I was able to breastfeed him. I had a second degree tear which was repaired while Cooper was on me. Calumn cut the cord after delayed cord clamping, and while I had my first shower, he was able to have skin to skin.