Joyful Pictures

I'm still in recovery.  But I can sneak out to the computer and post pictures, right?  And tell the birth story?

Little LJ was born at 7:50 pm as you know.  This was after only three hours of active labor and just 20 minutes after the midwife arrived.  My midwife was attending another birth over an hour away and said she couldn't make it to our house until 7:45.  I thought for sure the baby wouldn't arrive until much later based on the length and frequency of my contractions.  We are all very thankful the midwife got here earlier than she estimated!

LJ was born in a birth tub in my room.  This was my first water birth and if God blesses me with more babies, the rest will be born in the water as well.  The water gave me the feeling of weightlessness and it was so easy to get into a comfortable position.

IJ and S were staying at a friend's house during labor/birth, but the girls and D were home with us.  We had made all sorts of "if...then..." plans on what to do with the kids during labor.  With the last two homebirths, the babies were born at night when everyone was sleeping. This baby came so fast that the kids at home didn't even finish their movie before they got to come back and meet their new sister!

Having F and E here was very special.  They were able to inspect the umbilical cord and feel the pulse before it stopped and was cut.  They got their baby dolls and crawled into bed with me to practice keeping their babies' heads warm and nursing.  They are pretending to nap with their babies against their hearts in the picture above.  IJ and S love to pet their sister's head and hold her.  But having the girls there to practice their mommy skills is something special.  Not every little girl gets to experience this miracle!

Check out that dark, dark hair!  My five other babies were either blond or bald.  F was the darkest (you can see her first pictures HERE), but not nearly as dark at LJ!  It looks like LJ is going to have dark eyes as well.  She is my biggest, brownest baby yet and as you can see, she is perfectly round and pink all over!  When I hold her I am amazed that just a little while ago that big, brown and pink round baby was inside me!  No wonder I needed to rest, put my feet up, and nap every day!  She's huge!

She is also following the same pattern that she followed in the womb.  She wakes up at bedtime and spends a few hours moving around-right when I'm ready to sleep.  These last few weeks I've had to go sleep sitting up because she would kick my dinner into my esophagus!  Last night she kept me busy until 2:00 AM or so...but then she settled down and slept the rest of the night.  I'm hoping to get her exposed to natural lighting today to help set a good circadian rhythm.