Following our trip to Jackson Mirae and Jay flew home to St. Louis on Sunday from the Jackson Airport. We then headed back to my parents house where we had been living for the past 8 weeks while finishing school. We finished packing up the belonging that we had kept with us after moving most of our belongings out to St. Louis Memorial Day weekend. We then left Monday, July 27th for St. Louis. TJ's grandparents are serving a mission in the Philippeans and we had a year between graduation and when TJ will hopefully start dental school so thanks to Pops and Gem we are house sitting their beautiful home for a year. We live in a great neighborhood and have an awesome ward. It has been a huge change for me though...and the farthest I have ever had to live away from home. It is nice to be by TJ's family though and have the opportunity to get to know them better!
The scarriest part of the move though was that I was less then a month away from my due date! I had to go to a completely new doctor, find a hospital that I wanted to deliver at (wierd that when you live in a big city you have those options...they even offer hospital tours where they try to persuade you to deliver at their hospital). Anyways everyone was great here in St. Louis in welcoming us. I had two showers in addition to the two that I had in Idaho before leaving. It was amazing to me that I had so much support, even people I didn't know showed up to introduce themselves and welcome us!
ANYWAYS....we found a hospital and a great doctor. Cohen Brody Bunnell arrived on August 23rd and 1:09 am. He weighed in at 7lbs 9oz, and measured 21 and 1/4 ". Here is the delivery story. I know its almost four most later but I mostly want this blog for my record anyways. So here it is plain and simple...the story of our little Coco bean's birth.
Let me just begin this story by saying that when I had my first appointment in St. Louis on the 30th of July that I was dialated to a 2 and 50% efaced. Then following week I was dialated to a 3 generous 4 and 75-80% efaced. They kept telling me that they would be surprised if I made to my due date or the 22nd when I was planning on being induced. Each week came and went with no baby, and each week my doctor was more and more surprised to see me. On Friday the 21st my mom, Merilee and I went to St. Louis Mills and walked the outlets for hours to try and induce labor but still nothing happened. I even tried drinking raspberry herbal tea and that didn't work either. So on Saturday August 22nd I called an hour early (8:30 am) as directed to Missouri Baptist hospital and asked if my induction appointment was still a go. They said yes...and so I got ready and we drove to the hospital. I still get butterflies just thinking about it!
This is TJ and I being directed by the nice sign to the labor and delivery floor of the hospital!
Around 10:00-10:30 am they finally got me admitted and into my room. This is me posing in my awesome hospital gown.
TJ and I in our last family photo of just the two of us.
Jay and Mirae came to lend their support also. They even wore matching blue shirts for Cohen's big arrival. (They actually didn't even plan this. When the saw each other before they came to the hospital Jay said, "I want to go home and change!") It was great to have them there. Jay left for the actual delivery but Mirae stayed all the way till 1:09 am when Cohen FINALLY decided to make his entrance!
And of course Merilee and my mom were there at my side through the whole thing. They were awesome and most of the time a huge help. It didn't help though that when I started to push Merilee started asking the nurse how exactly that head was going to fit out that small hole.
This is me sitting straight up in my bed trying to make things move along a little more quickly!
TJ holding my hand trying to make me feel better. 
Around 11:00 am they started me on the pitocin. This was honestly the worst part of my whole labor and delivery. They couldn't get the I.V. in my arm so then they had to put it in my hand. It hurt the whole 2 1/2 days I had it.The nurse told me that because I was already dialated to a 5, yes that's right a 5 that she thought I would have the baby in 5 maybe 6 hours tops. She told me that as soon as I had a couple of painful contractions they would give me my epideral then break my water. A couple of hours came and went and I still hadn't felt a thing exept the stipid pain of the IV in my hand. They kept trying to turn the pitocin up and I even bounced on a birthing ball for an hour to get things going. My contractions were one on top of the other but they weren't strong enough to make any progress. My first nurse's shift ended at 3 pm and she was really surprised that I didn't deliver before she got off.
My next nurse came to me around 4 and suggested that I just get the epidural and then have them break my water so that we could get things going. I told her that I would think about it then after about 1/2 hour I told her to go ahead and order the epidural. She did that and around 5:30 pm I got my epidural. I was so relieved because I don't do well with pain and I now had the epidural and was at ease that I would never have to feel a painful contraction. Around 6 pm they came in and broke my water and checked me. I was now between and 6-7! My nurse then told us all that we would for sure have a baby by 9 pm.
Me after the epidural. It's an aweful picture but my face just expresses how great the epidural makes you feel...even if you weren't experiencing pain in the first place! 9 pm came and went and my nurses shift ended and I again recieved another new nurse. She checked me and I was now dialated to an 8. She told me that we would have a baby by 1:00 am....but I didn't at all get my hopes up. Around 10:30 pm she checked me again and I wasn't progressing. She found that the baby was turned sideways so his head wasn't coming down the birth canal like it was supposed to. She told me that I need to get up on my hands an knees so that he would turn. She told me that I needed to do this for an hour. Any of you that have had epidurals know that your legs aren't functioning and to be asked to kneel is quite the task. It felt like the yoga pose where you are on your forearms and toes. Every 5 minutes I was asking how long it had been. After 1/2 hour I couldn't do it anymore so I called the nurse. She came in and checked me and I was dialated to a 10 and ready to push. She told me that it could take 1-3 hours for first time moms! I was bound and determined to get him out in an hour, and I think I was exactly 59 minutes of pushing!
Here is Cohen tipping the scales at 7lbs 8.9 oz. With a beautiful head of dark hair.
Cohen in his car seat ready to go home!
TJ getting Cohen ready to go home. He was so little!!!
We were pretty sure Cohen was the cutest baby at the hospital. They kept putting the little hat on him...but I would always take it off cause I wanted to show off his sweet hair!
Aunt Meme at the hospital with baby Cohen right after he was born. He loves her!
One of our first family pictures together. We love him so much and feel so blessed to have him in our lives. We stayed at the hospital another couple of days. We left around 2:00 pm on Tuesday the 25th. Well there you have it...the story of baby Cohen's birth. I think that Cohen must have known that his mommy was kind of a wimp and didn't want to cause me any pain till after I had the drugs to make it all better. I will be forever greatful to him for it. I just hope I'm as fortunate everytime!
