It's a girl!

Phoebe Josephine Savvas was born into our lives on 7-31-08 at 3:57 pm. She weighed 9lbs, 4 oz and is 20 inches long. She has brown eyes and lots of hair, and we have confirmed that it isn't just us - she's completely adorable (and terribly smart, to be sure). She is very sweet, and is doing very well. I have been tired, but am recovering, and feeling much better each day. Labor was a long road - 48 hours and 2 and a half of pushing, holy crap! The hardest part of a 48 hour labor is that even though the first 12 hours weren't that hard to cope with, I couldn't sleep or eat much in that time, which made the duration a bit harder. However, I am very proud of myself for hanging in there, and grateful to the entire team of midwives, and especially my stellar husband, Charley, for their support, which made all the difference. Phoebe was born at home, and it reconfirmed what a special and wonderful thing that is - and the entire team can take credit for the accomplishment.
We are having wonderfully relaxing days cuddling and getting all the stuff accomplished in the process of caring for a new baby. It is rediculously true that it took both of us to clean up her first poop and put a new diaper on her! We are having a blast. Cheers! I'm sure I'll come up with a more detailed birthstory soon.
It continues to be blasting hot and very dry, so for the most part, we are content to snuggle in our colorful little cave of a house. I noticed there was a lot of life up and about the property the evening I went into labor - a wasp dragging a drugged spider victim to its lair, a flock of dragonflies, a pair of sulphur butterflies, lots of gekos up and about, even a rattlesnake! We haven't seen that much action lately with the hot dry weather. More soon!