Jenny began having contractions about 2am, which is the same time I woke up that morning.  Jen called me a little after 5am, to begin the process of keeping us informed of where she was in her labor, as we live 2 1/2 hours away from her hospital.  She checked in every whip stitch and around 7:30am, I called Aunt Jessica and Aunt Allycin and said, "We have action!"  They checked in as the day progressed and no word.  As Jen called to check in with me, her contractions were still irregular and so, she decided to take Bailey onto school and go about her day as best she could. 

 

When Bailey got out of school, they planned to meet Cory at the Cheese Factory for lunch.  I mentioned to Jen that the road there was terribly rough and maybe very uncomfortable for her to be driving on.  Well, the ride there did prove to cause Little Cohen to decide to move his arrival along.  Jen called me and said that her contractions were nearing 5 minutes a part, as well as much stronger and that they got their sandwiches "to go". 

 

She said that they were still trying to get in touch with Wendy, who was suppose to take care of Bailey when they went to the hospital.  Finally Cory called Wendy's husband Russ, who as it turned out, was in Rensselaer, which is in the opposite direction of the hospital, having lunch with Wendy.  Cory ended up taking Bailey to meet up with Wendy. In the meantime, I am a nervous wreck as I am talking to Jen while her contractions are coming closer together and getting much stronger and she is waiting for Cory to get back from dropping Bailey off.  Keep in mind, that the hospital is still about 30 minutes away.  Once I knew Cory was in the driveway, I got off the phone and started my calls.  

 

Ok, I must admit, from the time I called Tom out of work, all time seemed to go into slow motion.  I had to wait for them to get him the message, him to get out of the plant, drive 10 minutes home.  While I waited, I got the van ready, our bags loaded and coffee made for the 2 1/2 hour trip.  Somehow I must have known that Jen was going to go this day, because the day before when I went to town, I stopped to get gas.  I only planned to get a few dollars worth, as the price was just coming down but for some reason, I went ahead and filled it up.  What a gift to have a mother's intuition!!! 

 

After we arrived at the hospital at about 4:30, Jen's labor had again slowed some, so around 5:00 we decided to go down and get some dinner.  Great Granpa Wayne arrived while we were in the cafeteria, and Aunt Jessica was not far behind him.  When we got back up to her room, the doctor came in and said, he didn't want her to linger in pain and knowing that all the family was coming in from out of town, he suggested that they break her water and start the meds to get things moving a little faster.  She was dialating slowing also. What seemed like only a few minutes after he broke her water and started the meds, the labor increased.  Her contractions were coming every 2 minutes and very strong. 

 

Jen decided to have some pain meds to just take the edge off.  Well, it wasn't long after that she asked for an epidural. The doctor checked her dialation before the epidural and she was only at 6.  The anesthesiologist came to administer the epidural and literally by the time she was done, Jen had jumped from 6 to 8 and was having the urge to push.  The anesthesiologist didn't even have time to get all of her things out of the way before they had to start bringing in all the birthing equipment. 

 

The doctor was trying to help the nurses get the room ready but Jen was wanting to push and so, the nurses sent the doctor to get dressed.  Well, just as with Cohen's big sister Bailey, they are impatient and didn't want to wait around for the doctor to get back and prepped.  The top of Cohen's head was coming and since the doctor had barely gotten one glove on, the doc gently pushed back and told Jen not to push yet.  Well, Cohen must not have heard him, because he was coming... ready or not!!  As I was watching the entire thing at this point, I was about ready to push the doctor out of the way, because I wasn't about to see my new grandson hit the floor because of the lack of a glove!!  Well, thankfully that wasn't necessary and Cohen came into the world screaming at 6:47pm!  What a beautiful site!!!