Yep - It is true - the newest liberal on the block arrived on Tuesday October 11th, 2005 at 2:17pm. We were very shocked to hear "It's a Boy!" but very pleased when he peed all over the nurses straight away. He weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces and was 21 inches long...he was not the most beautiful baby when he came out - but as the day went on...he became the most handsome fellow around! And although his nicknames will always be Baby Liberal and Taco Rito, his birth certificate says Zane Martin Kooy Codel.

Mama liberal sure is a trooper and the birth story proves it! You all thought the lengths she went through to try and get Bush out of the White House were over the top...the birth of Zane may well top anything she has done before. Very briefly, her water broke at 1am on Sunday and she started having contractions. She did what she knew to do and that was wait around having contractions until they got so close together that she had to go to the hospital. Early Monday morning, after a day of contractions (and very funny hands and knees positions at home), her doula came and everyone determined that it was time to go to the hospital and pop out the baby. Unfortunately, when they got there, it was no where near time (Liz's cervix was not dilating as expected from her contractions). They were not allowed in the alternative birthing center, but also could not leave the hospital. So there they stayed - with Liz running up and down the halls for the next 24 hours trying to get her cervix to dilate properly. There was screaming, yelling, cussing and a whole lot of indecency. After 60 hours, 3 midwives, 2 doulas, a chiropractor, the diagnosis was fetal intolerance to labor and Liz had to be wheeled off to the OR for a C-Section. 58 hours were totally unmedicated - because Liz is not only crazy, she had one heck of a coach (Adrian) who refused all pain medication for her - even when she threatened to kill him if he didn't give her some! She only got the epidural to get the c-section.

Liz, Adrian and Baby Zane spent several days in the hospital trying to figure out what went wrong - but can only come up with that they did everything possible to try and get the baby out naturally, but Zane just wanted to come out a different way. Very few women would go past 24 hours - but Liz was willing to go for days if needed!

A Special Note to Liz swimming friends - no swimming for Liz for a while, which totally sucks. Apparently her abs were pretty impressive and the surgeon did not have to cut them! Must have been all those flip turns she did - even the 2500 yards she did 16 hours before going into labor. We did not circumcize baby Zane but will do it when he is 13 if we get any flack from people!

A special note to Liz's drinking buddies - it took a few days, but Liz has already had a large glass of wine - now on to vodka and beer! 10 months sober and Liz is back on the wagon. She kept asking when she could drink at the hospital so she expects a visit from Child Protective Services any day!

Thank you all for your well wishes...we will send out photos soon!

Love,

Liz, Adrian and Baby Liberal!