August 14, 2008   Today was our second day home from the hospital.  As many of you know we planned a home birth but after 32 hours of laboring at home, a stalled labor, and sheer exhaustion we went to the hospital.  At the hospital we were pleasantly relieved that our friend Penni was there to be our midwife and to receive and epidural.  I had the epidural and pitocin to induce stronger contractions. 12 more hours later I still was not progressing and our baby was showing signs of fatigue.   It seems he wasn’t coming down (engaging in lower stations) and putting pressure on the cervix properly. We never determined why he wasn’t “fitting in the funnel” but I only gained another 2 centimeters in the 12 hours at the hospital.   At 2:58am Sunday Zephir was born by cesarean. Christopher and I were elated to have him in our arms and to see his amazing-ness. We and are in AWE!   Thank you all for your support and love, we feel so grateful and so honored.  And we are SO EXCITED to share these pictures of Zephir and looking forward to introducing him to each of you.   Zephir is a wonderful little baby and according to his parents he is gifted beyond belief.  He has already earned 7 gold medals. (Giving Phelps a challenge for his medal record). He has received a gold medal in individual nursing. Stole the gold in all around sleeping, scored high in lethal cuteness, broke the world record with machine-like pooping, exhibited excellent marksmanship peeing on his parents, performed a flawless execution of funny faces and fulfilled his familial legacy in flatulence.   Here is a link to our picasa website to view the photo log of Zephir’s every moment.   http://picasaweb.google.com/carmenripley   Love, Carmen, Christopher and Zephir