Most of you who follow us on Facebook already know but we wanted to announce the exciting news that our daughter has arrived!  She was born six days after her due date and was 8 lbs 10 oz, almost a pound more than her brothers or sister weighed when they were born!

At ten till one in the morning I had posted on our Facebook page that I still hadn’t had the baby.  Oddly enough it was just ten minutes later I thought I might be starting labor!  I had been having some contractions here and there for around a week but at about 1am they were coming more often.  I timed them for about a half an hour and they were coming every 5-7 minutes so I decided I should try to go to bed and get some sleep.  At 2am the contractions were definitely regular and closer together so I told Jason that I was in labor and he needed to get things ready because we still hadn’t completely finished packing our hospital bag.  At 3am the contractions were getting more painful and I started to get the kids up and ready to bring to my mom’s house.  I would stop to breathe through my contractions while I was putting away laundry, cleaning up the house, and packing a bag for the kids.  Jason left just before 4am to bring the kids to my mom’s and by the time he got back it was a bit after 4am and contractions were really painful.  I prayed for the strength to get through labor and for a healthy baby.  I was shaking and had cold sweats and I knew I needed to go to the hospital.  I called my doula Stephanie and she said she’d meet me there.

When I told Jason that we needed to leave he still didn’t seem to believe that I was really in labor!  He wanted to take a shower before we left but I told him that we had to leave NOW!  By the time we got in the car my contractions were really intense.  I was in disbelief when Jason realized that I didn’t have my purse with my ID and insurance card and we had to turn back!  But I was soon in a zone and barely processing anything happening around me.  I was focusing the best I could on getting through the intense contractions.

We got to the hospital and when we made it up to labor and delivery the nurses saw me (and heard me!) and put me right into a delivery room.  It was about 5:30am by the time I was in a room and when they checked me they said I was 9 cms!  My doula arrived soon after and helped me through a few contractions but after only a short while it was time to push.  The doctor hadn’t even arrived at the hospital yet so I had a team of wonderful nurses with me.  After ten minutes of pushing (which felt like an eternity!) our baby girl arrived at 6am!  I had a completely med-free, natural birth.  No epidural, no pitocin, and they barely had time to even put in an IV!  It had been just over 5 hours since I had put on Facebook that I still hadn’t had the baby and just over a half an hour since I arrived at the hospital.

When I first held my baby girl I don’t think I said anything; I just stared at her and felt the presence of God.  I prayed and thanked God for our healthy, precious daughter and for the blessing of my husband and all of my kids.  I am humbled by my blessings and so in love with this beautiful miracle!

Because things went so quickly Jason was only able to take a couple pictures during labor but I thought sharing one was a good way to start the story.  Here I am getting through a contraction while my doula pushes against my knees for counter pressure:

Our baby girl weighing in at 8 lbs 10 oz!  She looks so much tinier than that!

The nurse washing her hair.  Everyone commented on how much hair she had but all of our kids had a lot of hair.  I think our second son still wins for having the most but you can see that she comes in at a close second!

Our oldest meeting his baby sister for the first time:

Big brother was completely in love and just kept giving his new sister kisses and whispering to her about how much he loves her.

The new big sister!

God is good!  My kids are amazing.

More pictures at the hospital:

We were able to go home the next day and it was great to be able to be together as a family!  Here are some pictures from our little girl’s first week at home:

We did a newborn session when our daughter was just two days old.  Here are just a few of our favorites (though we saved our most favorites so we wouldn’t ruin the surprise when we sent them to our families!):

And finally, a picture of me in the hospital with each of my kids and the same thing with Jason and our kids:

 

Thank you so much to everyone for the congratulations, thoughts, prayers, cards, and gifts.  We truly appreciate everyone helping us celebrate and welcome our baby girl into the world!  We’ll have more pictures of our newest blessing on the blog soon as we look forward to the milestones of her first year. 🙂