She's HERE!

After much anticipation, we present our littlest pipkin
Iona Setsuki Christina Birch

born November 19, 2006, 4:37am, 8lbs 14 oz

It turned out that she wasn't late at all, our first hunch about dates was right and the ultrasound threw us all off. There were no issues with labour, just my standard 3 hour travail, in and out of water. After deciding that I'd martyred myself through 3 pregnancies I told the midwife to break my waters...but then I couldn't make it back into the pool for my waterbirth. Standing through the next 3 giant contractions, our peanuckle made her appearance. She is so peaceful and quiet, we are worried that we might forget her somewhere ;) The kids are thrilled as you can tell in this photo ("Hey, we've never been woken up 7 before!")

Thank you all for thinking of us, I would have posted sooner, but the midwife forbade me from coming downstairs for 10 days and the laptop doesn't have a camera hook-up thingie. (I snuck down tonight to go to Fingal's Cub investiture). So, I should head back up into confinement and I'll post more pics soon!