Baby Cook Has Arrived!

On Wednesday, at 2:38pm EST, Sarah and I became very proud parents!

UPDATE: Here is the full story on Ted's (Henry's) arrival~

It was mid-afternoon on December 14 when Sarah and I arrived at the Women's Hospital. We came to the hospital on the advice of the mid-wife at Sarah's OBGYN clinic. The mid-wife was afraid that Sarah was in the early stages of pre-eclampsia, unfortunately her fears were correct. Sarah was in trouble, and she had to be admitted to the hospital.

That Tuesday evening Sarah was admitted to Women's Hospital, and so was "I." Little did we know that our stay at the hospital would last nearly a week. Sarah was promptly given medication to counter her high blood-pressure episodes, as well as another drug to induce labor. Since she was a week overdue, the Doctor was afraid of complications with the pre-eclampsia.

Sarah spent that night and the next morning with intense pain and discomfort. Apparently, the different medications she took affected her body adversely. At some point during the early Wednesday morning, I directed the nurse to administer Sarah the epidural. Thankfully, this helped Sarah tremendously with her painful discomfort.

Wednesday morning was an interesting day, to say the least. Sarah's family (Tom, Cynthia, Audrey, LT, Miranda, Hannah) and my family (Sam, Torie, Paige, Taylor) all arrived at the hospital room. I made a visit to the Friendly Shopping Center/Harris Teeter Starbuck's Coffee location and gathered some coffee and condiments. We already had some Moravian sugar and spice cookies in the hospital room, so the coffee and cookie combination seemed like a logical choice.

The next few hours seemed like a family birthday party, but Sarah was completely out of it. She could barely speak due to her medicated state, but she could certainly appreciate everyone's attendance. When she was feeling more alert, we turned the television on to watch our favorite soap opera, "The Bold and the Beautiful." After the long soap opera pause by "Ridge," B & B signed off for the day. Then the Doctor, who we will always know as "Vanessa Williams," entered the room. "It is time," she said. That meant everyone had to leave the room, and Sarah had to start pushing.

Sarah started pushing at 2pm, and 38 minutes later, Ted made his arrival. I "cheered" Sarah on with my Santa hat and UNCG pom-poms. "Push him out, get him out," I exclaimed. He weighed eight pounds and nine ounces, he was a large baby. He cried as soon as he began breathing, and he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. He looked almost like me, with some physical characteristics of Sarah. He had her temperament - he was a good baby and did not cry without reason.

While Ted was being cleaned and inspected, I took some pictures of him with my digital camera. Sarah's first view of Ted was actually on the LCD screen of my Kodak digital camera - how fitting for our "microchip." After settling Sarah with Ted, I ran down the hallway with cigars in one hand, and Freixenet Wine in another to announce to our family the arrival of Ted. Like Sarah and I, all were stunned with emotion and good feelings on the birth of this wonderful person.

We stayed at the hospital through Sunday, due to Sarah's condition. Ted was healthy, and was officially discharged before his mom. By Sunday, Sarah was doing much better. We left the hospital gratefully as we returned to our little house on Northridge, with our new son, Henry Theodore Cook.

Click on the link below to see a slide show of pictures (Quicktime ONLY):

>baby_cook.mov

C.