The Coon Family: Baby Boy Coon Arrives!

Aiden Walter Coon was born on Monday, August 2nd at 9:40 PM at Saint Alphonsus Hospital in Boise. He is a big boy (as expected based on the size of Danielle's belly), weighing 9 lbs 6 oz, measuring 21.5" long, and with a 14 3/4" head covered in dark brown hair. Aiden's been a perfect baby so far, sleeping and eating well. Andrew has been a great big brother, and was very excited that his baby brother got him a remote control car.

We had been to Danielle's midwife earlier on Monday for a routine checkup. Based on Danielle's "progress", the midwife recommended that we schedule an induction. We had really wanted to have this baby naturally after the experience we had with Andrew, but we relented and scheduled the induction for Tuesday at 9 AM. Thankfully, Danielle started having seemingly minor contractions Monday evening. They were so minor that Danielle wasn't sure if they were "real" contractions, but they were fairly regular and the intervals were getting pretty close (5-10 minutes). Danielle called the midwife, who told her "YOU ARE IN LABOR, COME TO THE HOSPITAL NOW." We quickly readied Andrew for bed and snuck out while Grandma Terry read him his goodnight stories. We arrived at the hospital around 8 PM and got settled in the delivery room. The midwife and nurses checked Danielle -- she was already 8 cm dilated and she had only experienced some minor discomfort. They were very impressed by both her ease of labor (so far) and pain tolerance, and so was I! The midwife decided to break Danielle's water, and her contractions started to get stronger, but were still mild enough that she could talk through them. While waiting for things to progress, we walked down to the Jacuzzi tub in the facility. Soon after climbing in, Danielle’s contractions started to intensify. After about 20 minutes of strong (and stronger) contractions, she was experiencing a lot pain and becoming very uneasy. I decided to pull the emergency cord and get the midwife and nurses in to help me get Danielle out of the tub. The midwife checked Danielle in the tub and told her "TIME TO GET OUT. YOU ARE HAVING YOUR BABY!" At this point Danielle was having very strong contractions and was in a lot of pain. We struggled to get Danielle from the tub into a wheelchair and rushed her to the delivery room. Once on the delivery table, it was time to push. After twelve minutes of intense, drug-free, screaming-at-the-top-of-your-lungs pushing, Baby Boy Coon joined the outside world.

We spent the next 24 hours in the hospital recovering, getting familiar with our new baby boy, and enjoying the company of many visitors (oh yeah, and trying to decide on a name). After spending almost a full day with Baby Boy Coon, we knew that Aiden was the right name for him.

We're so glad to be home and very thankful for all who visited, called, emailed, texted, etc. We'll try to keep this blog updated (as much as our busy and busier lives allow) as our two beautiful boys grow up together.