Meet Eli

Elias Henry Clement Cornell was born on Monday, November 26, 2007 at 6:02 AM Western. He weighed a whopping 8 lbs 9 oz and was 21 inches long. Suzie was in labor for 28 hours. Things started happening at 1:30 AM on her 30th Birthday (November 25th). She woke up and spent the night out in the living room as I slept. I woke up at 8 AM to find out Suzie was up all night doing laundry and other things and that the labor process started. She was a trooper hanging around the house all day Sunday while going through contractions. Towards the end of the Eagles/Patriots game, it was time to go! At 8 PM, we left for the hospital and by 9 she was in the delivery room and already had her epidural. At midnight she was complete dialated and was ready to begin pushing, but the baby still had a way to go, so the nurse had Suzie wait until about 3 AM to really start pushing, so the contractions would help bring the baby down and she could save her energy. After three hours and the help of a vacuum, Eli was born at 6:02 AM as the sun began to rise in Los Angeles. Suzie is doing well and Eli is an amazing and beautifully healthy boy. This is his first photo taken about 10 to 15 minutes after his birth.




For those curious about the name:
Elias is the Greek form of Elijah, the name of an important prophet in the Hebrew Bible. Elias is thought to be linguistically derived from Elijah because the Hebrew suffix -yahu, rendered -iah or -jah in English is consistently replaced with -ias in Greek, as seen in other names such as Isaiah/Esaias and Jeremiah/Jeremias. Elias may also be an ancient Greek name related to Helios.
The real story:
I really wanted to give him a name starting with "E" in memory and as a tribute to my mother Eileen. Suzie really liked the name Eli, but she wanted him to have a longer first name, since we both have longer names that can be shortened. I came across the name Elias in a book of baby names, while we were vacationing in St. Martin in July and we both loved it.
Henry is the first name of Suzie's Grandfather, who passed away last Christmas, and her Uncle, and is her Father's middle name. Clement is my father's first name and my middle name.