My Fruitful Life: We are now a family of 5!

When I started this blog, I thought we may only have one child. God has been so gracious to us! After four miscarriages between Blue Rock and Princess, I have had two more relatively easy pregnancies and healthy children. I am so pleased to introduce you to our 3rd born child, we'll call him Blue Knight. Knight because chess is one of his brother's favorite games and knight is one of my favorite pieces from chess. I'll start with a letter to him and will include some sweet details from my labor and delivery. Only read if you want to know his birth story. Otherwise, here's his stats: 7 lbs, 10 oz, and 20.5 inches long. He was born in the evening after almost 11 hours of labor.

Dear Blue Knight,

This is your birth story. I want to start off with saying how happy and excited that God placed you in our family. You are welcomed with lots of love from me, Dad, your brother, and sister as well as many others, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

You were born on at 7:27 p.m. You weighed 7 lbs, 10 oz, and were 20.5 inches long. You have dark hair and blue eyes. You came 10 hours and 45 minutes after my OB broke my water. Normally I would not schedule an induction but I felt with the planning of your siblings care, that it would be fine to schedule a partial induction. It was the hardest and most exhausting and painful day of my life! But you are more than 100% worth it! After my water was broken, Dad and I did lots of walking, climbing stairs, I sat on different birthing balls, and was able to let you progress without the use of Pitocin, IV, and pain medicine. Your birth has been my hardest yet but I was so happy I was able to pull through and have another drug free labor and delivery. You are so handsome and we are so blessed!!

I ended up with a 2nd degree tear and am trying to take it easy as I recover. It took about 5-6 pushes to get you out! We arrived at the hospital at 7:30am, the doctor broke my water at 8:45am. I was having mild contractions at first so Dad and I walked and walked and climbed stairs. The nurse kept thinking I should get Pitocin to move things along. My wonderful OB recommended that we just wait it out and not have any extra medical intervention since I've had two natural births in the past. I was able to eat crackers, pudding, popcorn and a protein bar that I hid in my bag on the way to the hospital, and drink lots of water and juice. I requested no IV and was able to not have one. But that meant I had to drink lots of fluid on my own.

Since you were born so late in the evening and they said it would take about 2 hours before I could go to my room for the night, I decided to wait to let your brother and sister meet you the next morning. Plus Dad and I were exhausted! When Blue Rock came in the room to meet you for the first time, he raced to my bed and confirmed you were his brother. He asked why you were not crying. When Princess was born, she cried a whole lot at the hospital. He then asked to hold you. When Princess came over, right before Blue Rock, she wanted to hold you right away as well. She kept saying, "baby, baby. Hold hold the baby." For a 19 month old she speaks very well and can even say your name. Both kids got to hold you and kiss you. Opa and Grand C came to the hospital to meet you and so did Aunt M. We had some church friends visit us as well. We are looking forward to our friends coming by and meeting you at our house over the next few weeks.

The first night at the hospital you slept great. We were even able to swaddle you and put you in the bassinet by my bed. You did one 3.5 hour stretch of sleep. Of course a nurse came in around 4am to take 3 viles of blood from me so I didn't get to sleep that much. But you and Daddy both slept through it. We were hoping to leave the hospital soon after your 24 hour check-up. You looked great except you are a little jaundiced so they wanted to keep us another night to check your blood in the morning. We asked if we could just leave and come back in the morning. Thankfully our nurse got a hold of your doctor and she said we could go home. We were released from the hospital at 10:30 pm the next day. Your first night home you slept well but wanted me to hold you and nurse you almost all night. From about 3:30am to 7am, you had a good stretch of sleep. Which is excellent for a newborn. You are calm and as sweet as can be!

We praise God that you are here, healthy, and part of our family. We love you, Blue Knight!

Love,
Mom

Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from Him. - Psalm 127:3

Here are some pictures from your birth and the first few days at home.