Its a...Its a...Its a....!

GIRL!

Born Friday morning, at 9.37am, after a long night of sporadic stop-start contractions, no sleep, a night and dawn of walking walking walking around the house, looking out at the dim misty morning, waving my bootie around, breathing my way through each contraction, as excited Dad and the midwives drink tea and eat toast.

I will refrain from giving you every juicy detail, needless to say, it was wonderful experience, and surprisingly different to the births of the boys.

Well, ok, just a few juicy details and magical moments.....

In what has got to be the most uncomfortable moment imaginable - her head appears, reality hits that yes it is actually a baby coming (out of THERE !)- in that moment the world pauses, waiting for the last contraction to clear the shoulders and bring her gushing - in this, the of moment of birth, I feel the universe hold its breath. Even among the euphoria and the rush of all sorts of hormones, fluid, and the logistics of catching her before she went down the toilet I was crouched over !- even among the screams of pain and joy - who is making that noise? oh - actually, it is me! - in this moment I feel the universe pause, then I feel God breathe softly into the small body of this angel, and she lives. And lets out a ripping yell and there it is, we have a daughter.

Climbing onto the couch with her skin resting against mine, she is still. And I finally get my cup of sweet tea and toast, and deliver the placenta and bask in the bloody glory of it all.

The boys arrive home with grins from ear to ear, they rush in to inspect their baby sister.
Big Brother suggests we call her Baby Jesus. He's right in the Christmas spirit.
Little Brother kisses her gently. Later when she lets out a cry - the first noise he's heard from her - he looks at me with concern and suggests 'We should go to the hoff-dill (hospital)!'

20 mins after she is born, a pod of Orca whales are spotted in Wellington harbour. When Dan and the boys go into Eastbourne later that afternoon, to get a few feminine hygiene essentials from the supermarket, they follow the whales as they swim up and down the Bays. In places the 6 majestic creatures are only 5-10m from shore, even swimming under the wharf at Days Bay. In the way that nature knows, and responds, we know they have come to welcome our baby girl.