my jude

I mentioned in my last post our family has grown! I’d like to introduce to our Jude. This kid is precious… it’s so sweet having a newborn in the house again. It makes things crazy, but an undeniable sweetness is always around. He’s got a big brother and a big sister – so we didn’t know Jude was a boy until he was actually born! It was such a fun surprise and I’m glad we decided to keep it a secret from ourselves 🙂

I took this photos when he was just a week old – it is so crazy to me that that was already two months ago! We are so thankful for this little guy and how easy my recovery process was this go around. I thought I’d share just a bit about his story (so skip on ahead if births aren’t your thing!) My labor with him was all in all about four hours. I woke up with contractions and waited about an hour to see if they would stay consistent before I woke Michael up. When I realized they were I woke him up and we called our friend from church and she rushed over to stay with our big kids. We made it to the hospital in about 15 minutes and I was 6 cm when we got there. My labor with him was… perfection. It was just so peaceful and I’m so thankful for that! We were the only people in that area of the hospital so it was quiet and just so nice. It was just Michael and I and our photographer in the room. I bounced on the ball and we turned Rend Collective’s album Art of Celebration on Michael’s phone – we put it in a styrofoam cup to amplify the sound – it worked beautifully! That CD is so wonderful, if you’ve not listened to it yet… go get it! It’s been the only thing I’ve listened to for months! Anyway 🙂 the room was just so calm and peaceful and I had contractions every 3 or 4 minutes. I’ve chosen to forgo the epidural every time I’ve given birth… I have lots of reasons for that that I won’t go into because every woman’s decision about her birth is her own and at the end of it the most important thing is a healthy mom and a healthy baby. But if you want to talk about natural birth – I’m totally your girl! 🙂

Contractions continued like waves and eventually the nurses told me it was time to push – even though I’m not sure I was totally ready. I was fully dilated but the sensation to push wasn’t too strong. So this is the least favorite part of my story. The nurses were a bit overbearing and I ended up pushing without contractions because well, when you have three people yelling in your face to push – that’s what you do! It was an incredibly hectic time especially after such a calm and peaceful labor. End of story is, Jude was born with his hand on his little chin and that was where the sense of urgency came in to play… they needed to get little boy out! He weighed 8 pounds 10 ounces and is an incredibly healthy little guy. I am everso thankful for him and my experience. Every birth is just an undeniable miracle in itself! So, all of that to say here he is at about 1 week old.

* Tip for new mamas – the first 2 weeks of babies life is a great time to capture newborns!