Cooper is HERE!!!

Justin Cooper Johnson was born Friday November 10th at 5:10pm. Cooper is doing wonderful! Mommy is also doing great. As you can see Gavin is happy to be a big brother . Daddy though is struggling to get back to his pre-pregancy weight. Friday was an eventful day. We went in at 6am to start the process of bringing Cooper home. I will say that our hospital is great; however, for a few moments, I thought we were having this baby in a back alley. Anyways, after they stuck Candice 4 times trying to start the IV and 2 times to get the epidural, we, I say we, Candice began labor at about 10am. The epidural started out wonderful. Candice was seeing visitors and taking photos. But around 3pm, her epidural started wearing off on her left side. They gave her a few boosts, but by 4pm the pain was unbearable. During this time, Candice and I renewed our vows and promised each other that in fact we love each other. Enough said. Just prior to this though I had a thought. We named Justin Cooper after Candice's brother. He in fact was a brother to me in many ways. I thought wouldn't it be neat if this baby weighed 9 lbs 3 oz. 9-3 being September 3rd Justin's birthday. Candice thought no way this baby is 9lbs 3oz. We knew he was gonna be a big boy, but when the nurse announced 9 pounds 3 ounces, Candice and I lost it. It was a God thing! So 9 pounds 3 ounces , 23 inches long. Now we understood why the epidural wore off. Combine his size with the fact he was face up put a lot of pressure on her back, which weakened the effects of the medicine. We made it through and out he came. We had many guests arrive and they got to share in his first minutes of life. Daddy and Big Brother got to enjoy a nice El Bubble Cigar hours after Lil Brother got home. We will post more later. Thank you for the prayers, cards, phone calls, flowers etc. during our wonderful time.

Eric