The Surprising Birth of Emma Merchant

Dear All,

This John Merchant writing on behalf of Diane, who is recovering... After
much monitoring and hand-wringing, Emma Merchant was born this morning at
7:00am via c-section. Because she was born three months early, she only
weighed 13 ounces (395 grams) at birth. She made a lot of noise when they
took her out and has been moving her arms and legs pretty consistently.
Diane and I feel incredibly fortunate to be in Iowa City, where they have an
excellent neonatal intensive care unit. They are working hard to get Emma
stabilized, and we are hopeful that she will hang in there and begin to put
on weight. It will be a long road, but we are off and running.

Diane is recovering well, although she is very tired.

Sorry for the mass e-mail and quite note, but that is the easiest way to let
a lot of different people know what is going on.

John