Our Lovable Moon

Little Luna Mabel was born yesterday, September 5th at 2:25 in the afternoon. Lots of people have been asking about the name. Mostly, we just liked it. In the past couple months I've talked to 2 European women who have had daughters named Luna and I liked the sound of it so much. Unfortunately, we can't say it in their cool accent. (Try puckering your lips and saying it lightly and exaggerating the "OOO"). But, seeing as we lived in a Spanish country we felt that we also had the right to that name (which means moon). Mabel we just liked but it also happens to mean "lovable" in Spanish (from the word "amable").
Yesterday was also special because it was my mom's 60th birthday. Happy birthday! Last week during staff meeting our director asked me and my friend Rachel if we knew about when we'd have our babies. She is already scheduled for a C-section on the 10th so she knew. I kind of jokingly said "Friday, I'm going to have it on Friday". I knew this was my mom's birthday but also I was very ready to be done with pregnancy, and I wanted to beat the hurricanes that were heading our way. LIttle did I know that I had the supernatural power of choosing the day I would have my baby.
God was protecting us again and gave us an amazingly smooth and fast birth. I started contractions in the morning, but really irregular and not sure what to do. Terry went to work but I called him home around 12:00. We sat around questioning when to go and when we finally did around 1:45 I was already 8 cm. Great news, except that also meant no epidural! My friend Rachel keeps telling me that pain is my friend during childbirth. To some degree yes, I had great motivation to push Luna out quickly. But, having done it both ways now, I still think that the epidural is my best friend.
Carrie brought Hazel over to see her little sister soon afterwards. At first, she was kind of freaked out. I think it was because I had an IV attached to me and was holding a stranger. She understands baby and understands that mommy had a baby but was still really confused. Eventually she warmed up to her and was giving her kisses. But, today when we dropped by to see Hazel on the way home, Hazel was very concerned that Luna had "her" blankie. Here we go!

We were also really nervous about the impending hurricanes. I don't know how much you're following them but we've been following hurricane Ike for the past few days as it was predicted to head straight for us exactly when I'd probably be in the hospital. Fortunately, I had her early and it also looks as though Ike will skirt north and we'll get no more than the usual amount of heavy rains.
The first night, Bob and Carrie took Hazel and Terry stayed with me at the clinic. All 3 of us slept amazingly well. We're home now and trying to figure out this family of 4 thing. Terry kept saying yesterday how we get to start all over again with all the fun stuff babies do. I hope we can remember this when 2 seems a little overwhelming.

More photos.