Ford Christopher Cook March 3, 2007

We welcome into the world, Ford Christopher Cook! Here are the particulars up front:

Born on March 3, 2007 at 3:03pm
Weight 8lbs 2oz
Length 21in
Hair: blonde

About 9:00pm on Friday, Meredith started to feel a little bad. Alexander and I were watching a movie with Meredith's mother, Brooksie (Grandmama). Around 10:00 Meredith said that she really felt like she was having contractons on a regular basis so we called the midwife, the birth photographer (to give her a heads up), my Mom (Nonna) and Meredith's sister Anglea to say:

"We might be having a baby."

After Alexander was in bed, I took a small nap and Grandmama stayed up with Meredith watching late-night television to about 2:30am. We then called the midwife to come over. Meredith had only progressed about 3cm. So the midwife went back home to sleep while we worked at Meredith progressing.

We called Bonnie Kitchens our Midwife about 11am. She came over and Meredith had only progressed about half a cm. That was really discouraging. She had worked so hard for so little progression. Additionally, we hadn't had that much sleep so her fatigue level was increasing. We moved from the side of the bed on the balance ball to the bathtub several times - and increased our walking around. Meredith also did a little pregnancy yoga to help reposition the baby a little since he was riding high.

Meredith's family and my mom were really big help throughout the day. She finally progressed around noon and by 3pm she was pushing hard. Like the powerful woman that she is...she was able to do it with as little stress as can be expected.

The black and white photos above are from Meredith's professional birth photographer. They turned out fantastic.

Meredith and Ford are doing terrific and are nursing well.

Happy day.