Noah Fortino-Young's Birth
    September 2, 1996


    Noah Samuel Fortino-Young came into the world on Labor Day, appropriately enough, September 2, 1996. Sarah Young gave birth to Noah, in her room. Noah's father, Paul Fortino assisted, along with Kate and Donna - the midwives, and Steve, Cynthia, Karen, my lovely boyfriend Andrew, and me.

    Noah was born at 7:02 PM PDT, and weighed almost exactly 8 pounds. He has lots of curly black hair, Sarah's lips, and a delightful nose that is reminiscent of both his father Paul, and Sarah's father     Al. He is just fine and so is Sarah.

    It took a lot of work to get Noah here. Mostly Sarah's work. Here is a picture of     Sarah and her birth team working through a contraction.

    This went on for several hours. Here's a picture of a short     break in the action.

    The most amazing moment came when Sarah had been pushing and pushing for hours, and we had been watching Noah's head appear, little by little. Suddenly, she gave a great push, and this little blue face popped out. In this picture, you can see     Noah's face, before the rest of him was born. His face is right in the middle there, under Donna's elbow. Tilt your head to the left for the full effect.

    Here is an amazing sound file of     Noah's first cry, with his first breath, seconds after he was born (about 2 minutes to download at 28.8, AIFF format, 441K, 40 seconds long). You can hear everyone else in the room crying and laughing too. (Compare that with Noah saying his name at 15 months -- about 20 seconds to download, AIFF.)

    Here is     a very happy Noah, the morning after his birth, at about 15 hours old. Here is a very happy Sarah at the same time. Here are Noah with his dad, Paul, and Noah and Steve.

    A few more: here are     three happy women and a baby, also the morning after Noah's birth. And here is Noah at 3 hours old, in Andrew's arms. There's a picture of Noah in my arms too, but it makes me look like I have 10 chins, and I'm afraid you can't see it.

    Mail your congratulations directly to     Sarah, and Paul and Steve, and any comments to me.

    Finally, you can visit     Noah's own home page, maintained by Paul.

    (Most of these photos were taken with an Apple Quicktake camera, which is why they were ready to look at so soon.)