A big sister is born

What I remember about Karina being born was that she looked SO chubby. The doctor exclaimed, "Wow! She's big! I'd say at least nine pounds!" He was surprised to later find out she was only 8lbs. 10oz.. Her little face looked so chubby! It quickly slimmed down after a few days but I was astounded by her chubby little chin and cheeks and back. Everyone else was (and still is) stunned by how dark her hair was and how much there is of it, but for some reason it looks perfectly normal to me, exactly as it should. Now when I look at Annalise's baby pictures it's her that appears to be strangely blonde and pale.

When Karina came out, they set her on me, but facing away so I couldn't see her face. While they cleaned out her nose and mouth was probably only seconds but seemed like an eternity. Finally a nurse said something about it and they turned her around and gave her to me while they continued to wipe her head and hair clean. She was so unfamiliar! I was thinking about that, about how she looked, how she was different from Annalise, how we had TWO distict children now, when Dave and the other people in the room were getting concerned because she was just flopping over and not crying (possibly not breathing?). Dave told me that hours later. To me, everything seemed normal, but the nurse did mention that she only got a 7 on her APGAR because she was so purple-colored and floppy. Her color was very noticable though. She looked like another race! Her hair was wet so it looked black and curly, and her skin was so dark.

Our doctor had been out of town for a couple of weeks and his first day back was the day Karina was born. I was so glad he could be there and he seemed to enjoy himself. After a quicker delivery than I could have dreamed of, the doctor stood up and said, "Well... that was fun! Thanks!" I held Karina for a few hours before I handed her away to be cleaned all the way up and weighed and measured.

Annalise came and met her new sister that night.

On September 20th, both Karina and an adoring big sister were born.