Dear Prudence,

This is what “beauty” was supposed to be back when you were born. I’m hoping, as you read this now some years hence, things have changed. I suspect, though, that less will have changed than I would hope. With any luck your mother and I will have shown you time and again that there are a thousand kinds of beauty in the world, and most of them — the best kinds — don’t need all this to qualify.

You will always be my beautiful daughter, and I don’t ever want you to lose sight of that.

— Dad

She weighed 9 pounds 8 ounces and measured 21 1/2″ tip to stern. Her apgars (1-9 score of healthiness) were 8 immediately after birth and 9 a little while later. We are very happy and have been slowly recovering from the whole process the last few days.

Delivery did not go as planned — little Prudence decided that, while other babies come out anterior and facing forward, she wanted to do it posterior and facing backwards. As a consequence, she got stuck in Mom’s pelvic bone. After five days of stop-and-go labor, we concluded that the baby was not coming out without a caesarean section. Fifteen minutes of major abdominal surgery later, Prudence was in the world and Meg had stitches and staples. Despite all that, the new Mommy seems to be recovering well, and the baby has been declared very healthy many times over by different pediatricians. It wasn’t the way we wanted to do things, but given the circumstances, we are quite happy with what we got!

And, of course, pictures: