Alexander's Birthday

Sarah gave birth to our son Alexander James Cooper at 1:55 PM today, Wednesday, March 21, 2007. He weighs 6 lbs 15 oz and is 20.1 inches tall/long. Both Sarah and Alex are doing well.

About 7:30 PM last (Tuesday) night, Sarah started feeling small contractions at irregular intervals. We went to bed at 10 PM hoping to get some rest and go into the hospital in the morning. Those plans were dashed when Sarah woke me up at 11:30 PM and told me the contractions were getting more frequent, regular and intense. At about 12:30 PM we called our parents and then set out for the hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital we got set up in a labor room. The doctor arrived shortly thereafter and decided to break the water to get things moving. After a restless night with only a few hours sleep between the both of us Sarah got an epidural and a drip to increase the contractions. After a few more hours of hard labor the doctor had Sarah start pushing shortly before 1 PM. Push she did, like a champion, but after 14 hours of labor and an hour of hard pushing she didn't have enough left to get the baby out on her own. The doctor pulled out the suction cup and five minutes later, with tears in my eyes, I saw my son emerge into the world. Praise the Lord and Thank You Jesus. It was a beautiful thing.

We want to give a huge thank you to our friend Carrol who joined us at the hospital and was a real friend in deed to Sarah and I throughout the whole process.