New Beginnings

With the birth of our son we decided that it was finally time to start our own blog. Despite being told that blogs could be summed up that never has so little been said about so much by so many, it just seems like a great way to update everyone at once without sending 500 emails which would likely end up in the junk mailbox.

Here's the skinny on our new son, Alexander James Cook
He was born on Thursday Nov. 20th at 10:18 a.m., 6lbs. 8 oz., 20"

Now the full story
Hanna actually started having the stronger labor pains about 5:30 Wednesday morning. From then until about 2:oo p.m. they remained 'bad enough that you can't walk or talk through them' 10 mins apart. From 2 on they began to grow closer together. When she went to the women's health clinic around 5 the doctor told her to go home. She was only dilated to a two or three, with nothing to worry about. That night we had the last of our pre-natal classes at the hospital from 7:00 to 9:30. Since her contractions were still going strong and we were already there, we thought we'd just get a second opinion. When she was checked at about 10:00 she was a 4 and at 11:00 she was a 5. It was on!






She recieved her epidural about 11:30 and for the next few hours she was about as happy as a geek promised a lifetime supply of caffeine!







It was really cute, because her little sister had just announced her pregnancy, so Hanna was trying to show Rachel how easy and nice childbirth could be. Little did she know what was in store for her!



When she was approaching 10 cm and everything was ready to go she started to notice the pain again. They told her if that happened that she should let them know so she could give her more medicine and make her as comfortable as possible. After they had given her a second dose she said something to the effect that she was going to throw up and pass out. While we're not exactly sure what happened it sounds like the anesthesia somehow made it into her bloodstream. Consequently she could not feel or move anything. He heart rate jumped up to about a 106 and she went into a comatose state. I just kind of stood there at the foot of her bed, unsure of what to do. Luckily though, Gary (Hanna's step-dad and retired anesthetist) was there, jumped up took over the situation, and likely saved Hanna's life. Thanks Gary. Although the baby never felt a thing (Hanna's body was breathing and working fine, she just didn't know it for a while) Hanna had to be kicked off the painkiller. In essence she did a natural birth. OUCH!

At first Hanna proclaimed that she couldn't do it, but as soon as she she started pushing, she didn't stop. I've never seen her so focused. 3 good pushes every contraction, and great focus on relaxation and breathing in between them. In the end she delivered after about an hour of pushing. Not too shabby!

Alexander was cleaned and monitored almost immediately because there was a little meconium when the doctor (Robison) ruptured the bag of waters. They had him on oxygen for the for the first little while.


But he didn't need it!

In fact, he was blowing bubbles shortly thereafter!

Finally it was mom's turn to hold the baby, and she looked so happy to be able to see her son!

I added this one just for fun, because all I did during that whole hour while she was pushing was fan her of. When she was in the middle of a contraction and pushing I would fan as fast and as hard as I could. When she relaxed, I fanned her slowly. I know it's nothing compared to what she did, but my arms are still a little sore. This poor magazine was torn nearly to shreds.

We finally made it home today (Saturday the 22nd) at about 2:00. I could tell he was happy to be in his new home. If anyone wants the better versions of any of these pictures let me know and I'll send you copies (these were all cut and optimized for the web ... habit).