I’ve been in such a baby haze lately. I don’t know if it’s because he’s my last baby or what but I can’t stop staring and sniffing and doing a whole lot of nothing! I just love this lil guy! He’s such a little dream boat. And I’m already forgetting all the things about that magical day he came into the world so here’s my attempt at remembering. Even his birth day was such a gift cause I was just so worried about the holidays and Abbie’s birthday and all the things surrounding it. And there he was plopped right in the middle so that this momma doesn’t have to throw two back to back birthdays or holiday/birthday celebrations. I’m sorta weird about only celebrating birthdays on the actual day so this was a special gift to me ;) I had been getting contractions fairly consistently for a couple weeks prior – about 5 min apart every night from about week 36 to 38. They’d disappear in the morning and reemerge the following evening. Then at 38 weeks they disappeared completely and we were left thinking oh you know, that he’d never come. So when I woke up at 3:30 with some pretty strong contractions, I just figured here we go again! I got up and walked around, drank some water, bounced on my ball, sat on the heater, made a pie. Just kidding but they continued to come so around 5, I decided to go take a bath. Everyone says that baths help you to relax yadda yadda. I forgot mine will always, no matter what time of day or night, come with a chatty child. This morning was no different and before I could inhale one deep relaxing breath of contemplation, the sweetest little girl plopped herself on the stool next to me and started in with her questions about life. She was in the bath, she was out of the bath, in, out, in, out, in, out. It was 5, 5:30, 6, 6:30 and finally I convinced her to go tell daddy “momma is in waiboah”

The kids have been… mmm… challenging lately so with these contractions or whatever they were, continuing, we thought it best to ask my parents to take them and see if they’d amount to anything. The contractions that is ;) I wanna say they were anywhere from 5 – 7 minutes apart but getting sorta uncomfortable so my mom came and sooooo sweetly picked up my hooligans around 9:30 and we all wondered if this was for real or not.
This is my early labor face. Can I just say how much I love early labor!? It’s uncomfortable enough to be like HEY SOMETHING’S HAPPENING!!! It’s totally manageable with just enough work to feel like you’re doing something. I’m pretty sure this is what labor felt like before the fall ;) Greg whirled around and cleaned up the whole house – we are talking vacuuming, sweeping, heck he probably even dusted which is something men NEVER do ;) He was amazing! Our house was sparkling and spotless and it was such a glorious day and it was q u i e t and things magically stayed in place and man, it was just the most lovely early laboring environment. So I bounced around on my ball and tried to keep moving to speed things along but if you know me, if I’m not actually doing something like a project or chore, I preferably like to be in a sitting down or laying down position so this sporadic movement became old rather fast. Naturally I found myself in said preferred position and we watched a show to pass the time, causing all those contractions to disappear completely. So up I hopped again and started to roam my very clean house once more. Greg made us some lunch, I took one bite and thought, I need to be alone. I think that’s when things started to shift and I start concentrating through them. So I hopped in our ant infested, mold riddled shower and began the real labor part. They still weren’t that close together but getting very strong so I wasn’t sure what was happening. I didn’t think my water had broken yet and I dunno… it’s just not always all that clear! After a couple hours in and out of my favorite grungy laboring place, I started getting sorta discouraged and weepy and asked Greg if we should just call the midwife to see what she thought. I didn’t think I was very far along and didn’t want to get even more discouraged but wasn’t really sure what was going on except that it hurt and things weren’t getting closer together. So she came around 2:30 and said “you are very serious” which I guess is a good sign? We decided to have her check me and found out I was at a 5 and she could feel the water bag which was such a relief because being GBS+ AGAIN, I just wanted it to stay intact as long as possible to reduce the risk of infection. Both Abbie and Luke’s water broke early on so I knew I was in labor so this was a new experience that actually offered me a lot of relief! Seeing how I was, she ended up staying which made me think this was the real deal!

I tried so hard to just stay present – not looking backwards or forwards but just taking each contraction as it came which I really feel like helped things progress pretty quickly. Also, not obsessing about how long previous labors have taken but just taking this one as its own unique experience. I actually lost track of time and things seemed to move pretty fast which was so nice! Eventually I got the chills and sorta nauseous and Greg said, “not to get your hopes up, but the last times you’ve felt sick and got the chills, you’ve been in transition…” I sorta laughed at him cause it seemed way too soon for that but sure enough, the blur came, things started getting really strong, she checked me again and I was at a 7! and then a 9 and then really felt like pushing! It all seemed so fast but it was like seeing the finish line. With Abbie, she was obviously my first and I knew I definitely wanted more kids so being in so much pain was so discouraging knowing I’d have to go through it again.. and then Luke I felt like “you’re still only half way there!!! ahhhhh” so this time, I just kept repeating to myself “this is the last time! you never have to go through this again! you can do this. you’ve done it before and you’re almost there!” My gosh that made all the difference ;) One push and that water burst all over my poor midwife haha But seriously, it was such a relief to know he was protected for so long! And then I think it was 9 minutes later, he was born! MY GOODNESS I forgot how much work pushing is! haha. But seeing that head. I’m smiling right now. I cannot even begin to describe the intense feeling of relief when he was born. I DID IT! He was here! All my fear just melted away and I was left with the sweetest most mellow infant I’ve ever laid eyes on. He didn’t fully cry for over 24 hours. He just started nursing right away and snuggled right into our family like he was always meant to be. I’m still just so in awe at how good the Lord is to us. I feel so abundantly blessed I could cry. And I do. Often. Because hormones. Those are fun eh? And here’s a healthy dose of horrible iphone pictures to document the most joyous day :)

It had been on my to do list to take one more proper belly picture before he came out. It didn’t get done. So here’s the last picture of me pregnant ever ;) I was trying to see if he’d dropped or not to see if we were ACTUALLY in labor ;)


But I should have known by the fact that Bentley was always there whenever I looked down, bless his lil doggy soul <3

Ohhh I love this picture and I wish it was bigger but that guy. He stayed behind me the whole time and held me and it was the most comforting thing to have him there for that last hard bit. He kept trying to make me laugh by talking about how much pain he was in from hitting himself in the face with a medicine ball the day before but really, he’s just the best. I sure love him.

The sweetest moment with the worst chills I’ve ever experienced! They didn’t stop all night – I was shaking so hard I could barely hold him! Again with the hormones. Them be crazy! GOSH!

The picture we sent when mom asked if the kids would be sleeping over and if she should feed them dinner… and we asked her if she’d make some extra for all of us :D I’ve always been slightly delusional about the optimal labor. One it wouldn’t hurt. Two, we’d just put the kids down for their nap and when they’d wake up, they’d have a new baby brother. So this was a close second to get to sort of surprise my family since we weren’t actually sure we were in real labor. Sorta wish I could have been there when they saw it cause I heard there was screaming :)

The best dad <3


It’s just one of my favorite parts about home births – those little feet sticking out! <3

These two women have been there for all of my kids and I couldn’t be more thankful! They are amazing!


Meeting their new brother!

Ohhh the screening test :'( what a lil trooper!

Meeting Minnow!

I can’t even describe the joy and pride and perfection of everything and I know I’m already forgetting so much but man am I thankful. Little Noah, welcome to our family. You complete us :)