Friends and Family,
Michelle and I would like to announce the birth of our daughter, Ryan Elizabeth Cooper. She was born on July 1st at 11:56PM at Harris Methodist in Fort Worth, TX.
Starting a family is much like embarking on an epic adventure and our beginning lived up to that billing without doubt. Michelle began first stage labor on Thursday June 30th at about 2:30 AM. We counted contractions and waited for signs and finally went to the hospital around 4PM. She was only dilated to 3CM after 13 hours of good, hard, evenly spaced contractions so we were sent home. We labored at home until 5 am the following morning before we returned to the hospital. Despite hours of much harder contractions and very little rest Michelle was still only 5 CM although she had achieved 100% effacement.
They decided to keep us this time so we began laboring at the hospital and shortly thereafter her water broke. We continued to labor for a few hours but due to lack of rest and a total of 30 hours of labor we chose to have an epidural. Michelle was able to rest and work through contractions with much more ease but still, progress was slow. Finally at around 7:30 PM she reached full dilation and was able to start pushing. We went through 6 different positions for laboring and pushed with every single contraction for 3 hours but Ryan would not budge an inch. The midwife and nurses said they had never seen someone work with such determination through this stage and I can say that I saw my wife in a new way. I could have never imagined that after all she had been through that anyone would have that much fire left to fight so hard for the birth we had planned to have. Finally under the advice of our midwife and the OBGYN on call and after almost two full days of uninterrupted labor we chose to have a cesarean and relieve the stress for both Michelle and Ryan.
Her procedure went very smoothly and within moments of my arrival in the OR the sounds of a healthy and very vocal baby filled the room. She weighed 8 pounds 5 ounces and was 19.5 inches long at birth. Nothing I imagined about how this day would be could have prepared me for the overwhelming feeling that you have when you get to see and hold the little life that you and the person you love most created together. Michelle was soon able to hold her and the two have been bonding and recovering together ever since. Both are doing great and though we had to alter many of our plans we couldn't be happier. We are happy to share the news with all and appreciate all the love and support. We will post pictures on Michelle's baby blog and facebook in the near future.
Attached is our first family photo taken by one of the attending nurses in the operating room. Feel free to email and text and we will reply as we have time.
