May 15th: Dawn of a New Ara!

At 7:43 PM (what a civilized time), May 15th 2006, our beautiful wonderful daughter Ara was born. She eased her way into this world after hours of not so bad contractions, and then 45 minutes of near hilarious pushing. All this was helped along by the most amazing midwife, Sylvie, without whom, none of this would have been possible. The able obstetrician, Rob Dawkins, was almost an afterthought, and pranced in, wearing dapper white, to help with the cleanup, and some of the heavy lifting. Beautiful Ara gurgled a little with her first cries, but was mainly calm and wise looking, just kind of peering at us, and taking it all in. We then spent four wonderful nights at Matilda hospital on the amazing Peak in Hong Kong. I have to say, that this was probably like staying in the best (and most expensive!) hotels: constant room service and babysitting, and gorgeous views. It was a lovely way to ease into parenthood. (maybe even too lovely - we had No Idea how hard it would be without the staff of 30 that Matilda provided!) The night nurse, Juliana, was amazing, and taught us the importance of cuddles and burps. Of course, she said that Ara was her Favorite Baby, but I bet she says that to all the moms!