The new baby: Alisha Pam

Friday, December 9, we got to meet our daughter, Alisha. As with newborns, she came out cute, but looking like she'd spent too much time on the stove cooking. The picture below was taken on the morning of the 10th. (Mount Auburn Hospital provided the hat.)

 

Zach came by to meet the new intrusion on his life Saturday (thanks, Justin, for the family photo):

 

On first meeting he proclaims her "good" (which lasts about till she comes home and he realizes that things are going to be different).

 

And Sunday we headed home, Alisha engulfed in her giant car seat. 

Her birth was so uneventful it was both surreal and almost boring. I was induced on my due date, because of the potential medical risk of her small size. This was based on a tape measure to my belly plus ultrasound measurements that put her in the 13th percentile for weight. Well, she came out at  7 lbs 13 oz - perfectly normal in size. I wasn't super excited about the prospect of being induced, but was honestly scared of going into labor in the middle of the night or at work, given how quickly things happened with my first birth. So having the whole thing scheduled for a Friday morning gave me the peace of mind that Zach could be taken care of and there would be no ambulance involved. I started the pitocin around 11 am, started active labor at 5:45 and delivered Alisha at 7:02.

Alisha is named for her Aunt Jenni (Jennifer Josh's sister) - her Hebrew name. (Elisha, which is a boy's name - we think it was intended as Aleeza, but was mixed up in her hazy post-newborn days.) As happy as I am to honor Jenn with a namesake, it startles me daily -- that we have a daughter named after Jenn. Her middle name, Pam, is in honor of Josh's Aunt Pami, who passed away 2 years ago.