Thank you!

An update: Mariana Ruah was born on Saturday, November 6, 2010 at 10:40pm. She was 19 inches long, and 7 lbs. 6 oz. in weight. Mom, baby, dad, and dog are adjusting well to this new reality.

As an addition to my last post, I thought that my praise and admiration for Swedish Covenant Hospital midwife group should continue, and begin to name names. Our midwife on Saturday night was Darcie, and she was assisted by Hannah, a midwife-in-training. Both Darcie and Hannah, as well as the nurses, were fabulous. The picture on the left depicts Mariana with Gina, of whom we spoke highly in the previous post. Gina came to visit us in the Mom/Baby Unit on Monday morning. We hope to add pictures of Darcie and Hannah in the near future. As you can probably imagine, Saturday night was a bit hectic and momentous for us all.

In addition to the expert care provided by the SCH midwives, we were accompanied by Andrea Bukiewicz and Amy Ortega. Andrea and Amy are doulas, women whose job and passion is to assist the woman with the birth process: before, during, and after the birth. Andrea and Amy were caring and excellent. They truly love their vocation. We are blessed by their lives.

Our childbirth educator was Holly Barhamand, who taught our course through Birthworks International. Holly was not only our teacher; she has also been a mentor, friend, and companion through this entire process.

Of course, absolutely none of Saturday's fireworks would have been possible without my fantastic and powerful partner, spouse, wife, best friend, and baby-mama - Krista. She labored for seven hours without pain medication. I was able to bear witness to her inner strength, beauty, goodness, and fortitude.

I'm sure that Krista and I will soon co-write and post the longer story of Mariana's birth, but I couldn't pass up this opportunity to thank the caring professionals for their assistance and presence last week.

To Darcie, Hannah, Gina, Andrea, Amy, Holly, and Krista -- Thank You!