Daniel Noah

Yesterday was Livvy's 9th birthday.  Can you believe it?  Nine years?!?  It seems unreal that we have a nine year old.  It has gone by so fast - the days may seem long but the years fly by.

I will save Livvy's birthday party details for a later post.  Right now I need to write about the birth of our 6th baby, 5th son, before time passes like that of Livvy's nine years with only random memories and pictures to show for it.  Seriously, there are so many things that I wish I could remember - it seems like I remember less and less of each kid.  Sadness.

In the wee hours of October 13th, just 17 minutes past midnight, our little Daniel Noah was born.  He was 7lbs 14oz and was 19 1/2 inches long (exactly the same as Ben).   Daniel because it's a good name that can have various nicknames  like Dan, Danny, Danner, etc. (it's kind of a trend in our family).  And Noah after his big brother whom I hope he meets in heaven someday.

Timing of everything was such a big stresser this time around.  But, as usual, God's timing is perfect!  Labor started around 5pm while on a hay ride at the FHE Fall Festival.  I had taken castor oil earlier in the day to try to get things going - I was four days over due and I was done waiting.  It's stressful to have everybody waiting on you to do something that you can't start, and to have the timing perfect for laboring and birthing in a quiet, empty house.  Some think it's great to be surrounded by everybody and their neighbor when giving birth - not me!  

When the contractions began, I knew that these were the contractions that I had been waiting for.  They were much different, not painful yet, just different, than the contractions that had come and gone the week before when I had tried to get labor going then.  I thought the week before would've been perfect for baby to come...guess not.

After saying goodbye to the kids at the festival (my parents took them to spend the night at our friend's house who were out of town - talk about perfect timing!!) Tom and I headed home and readied the birthing pool.  This was our second home birth but first in a birthing pool.  I was excited to experience birthing in the water, but also nervous that the timing of everything wouldn't permit us to fill it up in time.  

Thankfully we had plenty of time to get the pool nice and warm for me to get in and labor in.  My midwives got to the house around 7pm and then I think I got in the pool around 8:30pm or so.  I stayed in the pool the entire time, except to get out once to pee - I got back in quickly noticing that the water helped relieve so much of the pain.  At 12:16am I had the urge to push.  I pushed once and out he came.  

The next morning my mom and dad brought the kids home to meet their newest little brother.

We are absolutely in love with this new little one.  Danner (I think that's what I'm calling him) is such a good baby!  The kids love to pass him around, give him his binkie, and/or hold him while doing school - there's no better way to make school fun than to have your littlest brother on your lap.