Harmony Rose Taylor has arrived! Now 39 hours old. =)

Just letting you know she's here, born on Monday night 7/20/09 at 10:20pm. 7lb 0oz and 21" long - and, she was born in the car. =) Very cool story, looking back on it, but of course at the time, rather um...yeah, traumatizing! Especially for my poor husband, I think if he ever was prone to having a heart attack, it would have happened then!

We're still at the birthing center, which once again I just have to give glowing reviews...they are SO awesome here!!! I'm going to work on writing up the whole birth story because I definitely want to document this one. But just wanted to let you know she's finally here, and doing GREAT - she is the sweetest, most mellow baby I have ever had. Harmony really is the perfect name for her. At least, so far - DH keeps cautioning me that things could easily change.

She's got lots of dark hair, even an inch long in some places! Which is really different for me, ALL of my babies have had peach fuzz for hair. Her eyebrows are also darker than my other babies...and she has these long eyelashes that stick straight out like her Dad's. Most of my other kids have long eyelashes too but they curve up - it's so fun to see and meet this new little person that is going to insert herself into our family and make such a big impact on the dynamics of things. You see how the most recent baby, Jack in our case, has become such an absolute delight and is such a joyful part of our family. Then to look at this new little one, and wonder in what ways she will do the same.

And - a girl! I LOVE having baby girls, they are so much fun to dress and are so pretty with curls and well, it's just fun. I wanted a boy for Jack's sake, to have a little brother, but who knows - God knows what he needs and evidently his little testosterone-filled body needed a sister to calm him down. =) He really is a BOY boy, so maybe needs little Harmony to round him out just right.

I feel SO fantastic!! I love love LOVE having a natural birth, there is just no comparing how it is afterwards. It's exactly like it was after Jack's natural birth - I was able to pee quite quickly, and bowel movements are no problem. I think it definitely helps that I have some sun color from being at the pool alot, but I don't feel frumpy or lumpy - I feel like I look good. My tummy has gone down really really fast and I feel like I'm skinnier than after I had Jack. Maybe because with this pregnancy I started out weighing less? The other thing is I have hips again! Having a baby always widens my hips for a month or two which is fun since naturally I have a boyish type figure with not much in the hips department.

I'm really curious to see how much I weigh when I go home, I'll weigh in the morning tomorrow. I'm determined to eat raw starting tomorrow and also start exercising right away. NOT the way you're thinking, though - not working out, but stretching and doing the safe exercises they say are OK right away after you have the baby. It shouldn't be that hard to stay raw since 1) the farmer's markets are chock full with all my favorite foods right now and 2) I can finally lose weight again! I get that excitement of watching my clothes get more loose, and it being summer is great motivation as well. I hope, anyway. We'll see how it goes once the hormones really start kicking in.