Baby Genevieve is here!

We are now home and recuperating. Feel free to call me, I'd love to hear from you and share my story. I'm going to add my birth story to the blog later, but for now here is an e-mail that Chad has sent to his colleagues at work on June 24th:

For those of you that play Halo, read on. For those of you that don’t, skip to the bottom for translation/additional details.

As the sun rose on a crisp summer Saturday morning in June, the rumblings of an impending battle started brewing in the south. As the day progressed skirmishes erupted between Master Chief’s SPARTAN brethren and the invading armies every few minutes. As the sun past high overhead, the attacks were almost constant requiring the urgent attention of the SPARTAN medical officers. For one brave soul, arrival at the medical corps couldn't’t have come soon enough. The pain of her condition would have been terrible, almost tearing her apart, save for her keen ability to focus her mental powers elsewhere. By evening, however, even her mental redirection had broken down and stimpaks had to be broken out to assist her. They worked for a while, but by the following morning, little energy remained in her to continue the fight. At 6:53 AM, surgeons moved in to bring forth a new generation of SPARTAN warrior.

Code named “Genevieve,” the new warrior is undergoing extensive testing. In holding her head high, she already displays the characteristic almost inhuman strength of the SPARTAN, but without her armor. The remainder of her MJOLNIR armor is currently being fabricated to fit her 18 ¼”, 6 lb. 9 oz. size. Testing has also revealed that the new generation of SPARTAN comes equipped with an infinite supply of biological sticky grenades capable of sending even the most hardened enemy fleeing for their life.

A photo of the new SPARTAN generation has leaked from the UNSC Top Secret files:



Translation
My wife started laboring Saturday morning (her actual due date), and we headed to the hospital 3 hours later with 2 minute contractions. We were using Hypnosis for Birth, which is a series of relaxation techniques to help reduce the level of pain. Unfortunately, the baby wasn’t cooperating. She was “sunny side up,” which is incredibly painful for the mother due to additional pressure on the tailbone. We had hoped to have an all-natural birth, but in the end, we had to accept an epidural. By 6:30 A.M., after 20 hours of labor, the last 3 of which were spent actively pushing, the baby had turned, but not enough. Exhausted and overwhelmed with pain despite the epidural, we found ourselves in the unfortunate position of requiring an unplanned C-section with a wedged baby. Genevieve Ella Willwerth was born at 6:53 A.M., Sunday, June 22. She was 18 ¼” and 6 lbs. 9 oz. She is very calm, very alert, sleeps for hours and hours on end (even through the night last night), and surprised us by holding her head up already. Mom is not doing nearly as well as Genevieve with pretty severe pain from the surgery, but she is managing. Oh, and Mom hasn’t changed a diaper yet…

Genevieve practicing her air guitar for Rock Band:




As you can see Genevieve has a touch of Jaundice, hopefully this will go away soon. Below is the message my dad sent out regarding Genevieve's arrival.
On Sunday, June 22 nd, after 18 hours of delay, Genevieve Ella Willwerth made her appearance into this world at valley Medical Hospital. The daughter of Dixie and Chad Willwerth, she weighed in at 6 lbs. 9 ozs. and measured 18 1/4" long. As you can see, all are doing (and looking ) great.

Click this link to see pictures: Genevieve