Welcome Danny!

This is a very late announcement that our baby boy is here! He arrived at 4:40 PM on October 9th. He weighed 8 lbs. 4 ounces and was 22 inches long. He was a big boy!

This is his first picture:You'll have to excuse his mommy's very frazzled appearance, but it had been a rather long day. You can see how proud his daddy is in this picture! Arthur got to "catch" the baby. That was really special.

Warning: The following section contains birth details. They aren't terribly graphic, but if you don't want to hear them, skip this section.

I had the baby at Columbia Community Birth Center. That was a really positive experience. Even though it was a really long labor, I feel like it was the best it could have been (with the exception of some of the early parts of labor when I hadn't quite gotten the hang of relaxing yet). We got to the birth center late Thursday evening. The midwife said it was still early, so we should try to get some rest. She went down the hall to the other room to get some rest and told us to come get her whenever we wanted her, and otherwise she'd check on us in the morning. Things started getting really tough early the next morning, so Arthur went and woke her up. She came in and taught me how to relax and breath through the contractions and showed Arthur how to help me, and from that point on, I felt great and knew we'd make it fine. It really did not seem like it was so many hours later that he was born. I guess the focus I gained at that point made the time fly. I pushed for around three hours by Arthur's calculation (that was made so long due to a cervical lip), and the baby crowned for a full hour! He was born in water and started breathing on his own very soon after being pulled from the water by his daddy. For those of you who think they were crazy for letting things go that long, I was clearly doing fine and was making progress, and the baby's heart rate was excellent through the whole thing. I had excellent care. The midwife and doctor were both very helpful and attentive to my needs. With their support, and with the wonderful and invaluable support of my husband, I was able to do the whole thing completely naturally and drug free. I would do it again even if I knew it would be as long, though I hope it's not! :o)

Okay, that's the end of the birth story stuff. Here are a few more pictures if you're interested:
Holding Daddy's finger:

Arthur cutting the cord:

You can't really tell from these pictures, but he was a very alert little guy. He studied everyone's faces. Right after he was born, I was sitting in the tub holding him, and Arthur said something. He immediately got alert and turned toward Arthur. The doctor and midwife had been talking, but he didn't pay any attention to them, so he clearly recognized his Daddy's voice. That was really neat.

These pictures are at home the next day (actually, I guess the first three are from the day after that):

In his co-sleeper, and holding that paci in:

Watching Daddy:

Reading a story:

Being held by his cousin:

At the birth center shortly before we left:

My mom took some good pictures too, and if she doesn't use all of them, I may post some of hers. :-) I have a lot more recent ones on my camera that I'll get to eventually, but I don't have tons of computer time right now. :o) Thanks for checking in on us!