Final release of Beta version announced!

It took an all-nighter right at the deadline, just like all software products are completed!

It started around 10:30 Wednesday night, and Charlessa laid down around 11:00 to see if the contractions were going to stop.

They didn't, and interestingly enough, they were three minutes apart from the very beginning. Baby Beta started out in a hurry! The contractions became slowly stronger until 2:30 when we decided they were getting strong enough that we ought to get to the birthing inn. We got dressed, grabbed our bags, and off we went, arriving at 3:00 AM.

A half hour later our midwife arrived and we started to push soon after. Three minutes shy of three hours later we were still pushing. (That is, of course, a very generous use of the term "we".) However, the end was in sight, or perhaps I should say the head was in sight. When we got to be two minutes shy of three hours, we finally got to see Baby Beta! (to be precise, I had been seeing Beta for 40 minutes, but just the top of the head)

Thus, at 6:43 AM on August 6th, 2009, a tiny Baby Beta entered the outside world for all to see and love!

Beta started squawking very soon, and after a couple minutes of cleaning up, I got to clip the umbilical cord! Charlessa got to hold Beta for several minutes as they continued to clean up and take care of all that messy stuff that comes along with a birth. Then it was time to find out those vital details: weight, length, and which parent is most closely resembled.

A health 7 pounds and 5 ounces showed up on the scale, and Beta stretched the tape measure at 20 and a quarter inches. Upon close examination, it was a draw as to her parental semblance. A light brown hair grew profusely on the scalp, and features were so tiny as to be nearly indistinguishable. Nursing was a great success though - a successful latch and production within 30 minutes of birth was a note of great cheer.

Fifteen minutes later, I followed Beta over to get the very first bath and foot prints. Beta protested vigorously the bath which was decided to be a serious offense to the royal personage. But, all was forgiven when wrapped back up and placed under a warmer. Sleep quickly followed.

Charlessa was working on recovering the general use of her body after such a strenuous bit of effort. Various details and paperwork were soon resolved, and now we are very nicely ensconced in our post-partum room where we will be for a while.

Charlessa has nursed our young child a couple times now, and they make a wonderfully beautiful picture together.

We have finally released the production version of our product; no longer is the baby in Beta development, but has been released as a full child version 1.0. Yay! Well, that's the full story of how our beta version finally was released as the final product!

Oh, maybe I missed putting in a couple details. We had not decided on a name beforehand, for either a boy or a girl. We have finally settled on a name.

Baby Beta is a beautiful little GIRL named TABITHA GRACE.