Monday, June 04, 2007

IT'S A BOY!!!

Wow, what a crazy weekend! We went down for Kimberly's shower (my sister-in-law) but found out on the way that she had just been admitted to the hospital b/c her water broke! (She wanted a home birth but her midwife legally couldn't do it b/c according to her calculations was only 35 weeks.) We got to Will's parents around midnight and Mom and Dad had already left to go to the hospital. I told Will, "Well, we'll just go over first thing in the morning; with this being her first baby, she probably won't have him before 8 or 9am ." We woke up at 6am only to find out from Will's parents that she had the baby that night. She was admitted around 8:30pm (3cm. dilated, completely effaced) and JONATHAN LAURANCE was born at 11:48pm after just 20 min. of pushing. He's 6lbs. 11oz. and 20 1/4 inches long and absolutely A CUTIE! Can you imagine how big he would have been had she waited till her original due date of July 1!

I'm not sure whether to be jealous of her short labor or to feel sorry for her that everything came so fast and she didn't have much time to prepare nor have much relief between contractions. Of course, later she realized she had been in labor all day while out to eat and to the mall w/Mom but didn't realize that's what contractions felt like. Hard to know when it's your first time!

What a blessing that her midwife and nurse-midwife were able to be in the room w/her and she was able to have a natural childbirth just like she wanted (minus the birthing pool). She was able to labor the entire time standing up and squatted to push the baby out. Laurance is already a protective daddy-it's so cute to watch! And, my, I don't remember Ella ever being so small (of course, she technically wasn't-she was exactly a pound more) but still, I've already forgotten how tiny newborns are. And...I can't tell you how much more seeing him made Will and I want another one soon.

Mom and baby are fine. Kimberly didn't need stitches but they are monitoring the baby for jaundice. He's a 12.5 right and if he gets to a 20, he'll have to get on antibiotics. So please pray the sunlight will help him and he'll get better soon. They had him under the lamp at the hospital for a few days but didn't make them bring it home w/them.

So, is this a first? You have a baby shower but the guest of honor can't attend b/c she just had the baby? We decided to go ahead and have it b/c it was too late to call everyone and it would've been too hard to try to schedule it all again. It all worked out fine though. It became a little more of a drop-in shower but we all had a good time and instead of seeing Kimberly, they saw pics of the new little family. I was a little disappointed that we didn't play games since that was my main contribution to the shower, but that just means I can use some of the games for Emily's shower and my work is already done...that is, unless I talk w/Liz and we decide to come up w/some crazier ones. :-)

We're so thankful we were able to be there to share in the miraculous event. Every birth truly is a miracle and every baby a blessing from God. And we're soooo looking forward to living closer to them so we can raise our babies together!

9 comments:

rcsnickers said...

Wow, I should of came here before Emily's then I would of understood the early birth. What a surprise! What a precious beautiful son ... made me cry!

So happy to hear she had a wonderful natural birth! And you guys got to be there. What a gift from God.

Letisha

Emily said...

These pictures are so wonderful. What a blessing that he's healthy, though early!! So glad Kimberly came through it okay...mom said it was very painful, but the actual labor was short. I'm glad they were able to do the birth the way they wanted. Little Jonathan is so precious...I think he has Laurance's nose :) I guess Kimberly is probably home by now...mom said she was coming home today (Mon).
What a story they'll have to tell about this little one's birth! :)

Laura said...

Yeah, but the doc thinks he was more like 37 weeks when he was born, so if you consider that 38 weeks is fine, then he wasn't that early after all.

Yes, Mom did say she heard lots of moaning, etc coming from the room but that's to be expected. I'm just soooo proud of her and them for sticking to what they wanted to do even though they had to have the birth at the hospital.

And yes, she's at home now. They got home about noon today-she said she felt like she was in prison at the hospital-and it took about 4 hours to discharge them w/all the paperwork. Craziness!

Elizabeth said...

Thank you so much for your post! The shower looked so beautiful! I wish I could have been there. I'm dying to see you, but we really thought Faith was coming. I'm so glad you were able to be there!
Don't worry about the wanting a baby feelings. It is documented that newborns give off a hormone that makes you want to be pregnant! I'm going to be such a mess when Faith comes. We'll wallow together, or celebrate new pregnancies. Maybe Emily knows where another bomb is... hehehe

Nene said...

The shower looked so nice! I'm sure everyone was exhausted after such an exciting weekend! So glad everything worked out perfectly and the precious new little one is here!!

Elise @A Path Made Straight said...

Well, actually... my baby shower for Corban was scheduled for May 6th, 7:00 PM. My water broke at 5:30 PM. So I missed mine!

The great thing is, they had the shower anyway, ate the cake, took LOTS of pictures, and went through all of the presents that were in bags - the ones that were wrapped they just left alone.

When we came home from the hospital on the eigth, Corban's room was full of presents! It was so much fun to go through them while holding him on my lap...

What a great story - I'm glad she did so well! And you are one proud sister-in-law! :)

Erin said...

Thanks for sharing!! Wish I could've been there to share in the excitement. As for not knowing if in labor or not, I didn't know with either of mine until well into it all. So glad the experience went well for them.

Pictures are adorable! Tell them congrats for us.

Erin

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to that cute new nephew. He's lovely.

And this is a baby shower worth remembering ;-) and a story that will be told on...

Laura said...

Wow, Elise, so I guess it happens more often than people think! For my other sister-in-law we're having her shower 2 months in advance just to be on the safe side. :-)

Liz-I think you're right-but I'm sure that "you're so cute-I just want a baby just like you" feeling we have around newborns would go away if we could be there for a 3:30am feeding. :-)

So glad you all enjoyed the news and pictures. I am thrilled w/my new nephew!