The Free Birth of Isaac

Two weeks ago I gave birth to my precious, third son, Isaac Stephen. Here is his birth story for those who are interested.

I guess it all began nine months ago when God blessed us with the conception of a new life. Fast forward to January 2012. By now I felt huge and was ready to be done being pregnant. I had a very healthy pregnancy and a very active baby who kept me up late at night with all his kicks. With this pregnancy I had done all my own prenatel care (I did this with Samuel too), in which I focused on good nutrition and exercise. Tim and I also planned on a quiet homebirth with just our family and one close friend present. By January I had everything ready: all the baby diapers and clothes folded, my sling hanging up and a few basic birthing supplies stashed in a drawer.

On Friday evening I had some contractions come every 30 min and stay like that but then when I went to bed they petered out. The whole weekend was like this- off again and on again. I was tired of getting hopeful only to discover it was not the real thing so I made some plans for the next few days to distract me.

Then on Thursday morning (Jan 5) I woke up at 5am. At first I thought, "Here we go again with the 'false' labour." But 30 minutes later things were getting so intense I had to get up and walk around so then I knew it was the real deal. I called my friend, Emily, who was coming to the birth to give her a head's up since she lives 2 1/2 hours away and I have fast labours. The next little while was quite peaceful as the house was quiet and dark. I lit a candle and walked and swayed through the waves (this is what I called the contractions as it more aptly discribed how they felt like to me). It was a time I could tune into my body and baby as it went through the remarkable process of birth.

After awhile Samuel (1yrs old) woke up early since I was no longer in bed beside him. I then woke up my husband, Tim, to watch Sam so I could focus on the birth. Emily also showed up and sat quietly in the background. The waves continued to last about a minute and came every 7 to 8 minutes. When things would get a bit intense I would breathe and slowly walk around while focusing on being in the beautiful presence of Jesus. It would be just Him, me and the baby.

By 9am Josiah (5yrs) and Annah (4yrs) were awake and things got noisy and bright. I could tell the waves were not being effective as I focused more off the birth and more onto everything else going on. Labour kind of stalled (as I have seen it do many times in distracted mamas) so I knew I needed to get refocusd. Tim put Samuel down for a nap then took the two older ones to a freind's house. As soon as Tim pulled back into the driveway "Boom" things started happening fast.

I started having waves very strong, intense and close together. After several of those my water broke and I felt the baby move down. At this point I decided to get into the birth pool Tim had set up for me in the living room. The water did not seem to help a lot as I had a few more powerful waves. At the same time I could feel the baby making his way though the birth canel.

He made his way down very quickly. All at the same time I could feel the burning as his head stretched my perineaum but also the amazing feel as I cupped his emerging head in my hand. And then his head was out and I heard him make a little noise. At this point I was in the pool, kneeling down (like the classic kneeling proposal position). Tim sat quietly in front of my watching it all and Emily was off to the side filming it. But in the moment for me it was just an incredibly intimate time of just me and my baby as he emerged into the world. After a short pause I felt his shoulders rotate and then all of him slipped into the water. I sat back and lifted him up onto my chest. I was the first one to touch and hold him (I found out later it was only about 10 minutes from the time Tim got home till Isaac was born at 10am).

It was a magical moment, relief it was over but such a joy at holding my new baby in my arms. After a few indignant yells my new son immediatley started looking to nurse. Once he latched himself on and he stayed at my breast suckling for the next hour. He was perfect in every way and I had to thank God for him. I was surprised at how thick the vernix on him was, more then any of my other children had at birth.

We relaxed in the pool for awhile, getting to know each other. After about 25 minutes the placenta came out with minimal bleeding. At this point I decided to get out of the pool and get into bed. Tim took a few minutes to hold his new son. After we got settled in bed Isaac fell asleep (and he basically slept the next week away). Samuel woke up and was more interested in the still attached placenta then the baby (we cut the cord after three hours). Tim picked up the older two and they were very excited to meet Isaac. They all crowded in the bed to see him.

All in all it was a pretty easy birth but a very empowering experience. I spent the next 5 days in bed focusing on bonding with my new baby. He is a great nurser, cuddler and sleeper. I recovered from birth very fast (I only had one tiny tear that healed quickly). The next day when we weighed him, Isaac was 8 1/2 lbs and 20 inches. AS I write this, Isaac is now two weeks old and snuggled up in my lap nursing. I am very blessed.

Here are a few pics. In the last two he is only a few minutes old.

All is calm...

It is unusually queit here this morning. Josiah is at a birthday party (Tim is with him). Annah is wrapping me some Christmas presents (for next year :)And Samuel is building a tower with the mega blocks.

When I downloaded the pictures from our camera I was surprised to see that there were 145 pictures on the chip when I knew I had only took a few pics since last time I deleted the camera chip. Then I remembered yesterday I let Annah take some pics witht the camera and I guess she really got into it. She took pics of various items and people. Here are a few samples of her photography : )


We had a nice Christmas. This year we deliberatly planned to have a quieter Christmas since we did not know if baby #4 would show up during this time or not (obviously did not :). While I like lots of people and holiday bustle around Christmas it worked out nicer then I thought. The children had a great time too. Here are some photos of them opeing their gifts Christmas morining.



Overall it was a very enjoyable Christmas. I hope all of you did too!

On another note sometimes this past week or two I feel like people are regarding me a ticking bomb ready to go off or something :) Even if they do not ask, the unspoken question is "No baby yet?" Nope, no baby yet :)= All along I have not been sure of the exact dates since due to breastfeeding my cycle was not regular when I conceived. All along I have known it would be Dec or Jan and at this point looks like it could be Jan. 2012 is a good year, right? Anyway aside from being a little impatient, I am feeling really well. Not even any swollen feet or backache, just sore ribs where the baby likes to kick me. This could possibly be my most active baby yet. Any guesses as to whether it is a girl or boy? I will certainly let everyone know when he/she makes their debut. No worries, it will happen!

Getting ready for Christmas...

Over the past week I have done some Christmas things with the chidren. They are really into the whole Christmas thing. Here are the two oldest- very proud of the tree they helped decorate.

They were so enthused they decorated their room too!

I had a Christmas party for the children and had some of their friends over. One thing we did was dress up and act out the nativity story. Here are all the "wise men" trying to give baby Jesus their gifts. One even brought a stuffed kangaroo as a gift!

Some of the children who came who dressed up to act out the story of the birth of baby Jesus. It was very funny to watch them act it all out. I think though that their favourite part was getting all dressed up.

All the children decorated cookies. Here are Josiah and his friend Drake, with their decorated cookies. (That is not blood on Josiah's forehead. A few hours earlier Tim took him for a haircut and he came home with red gel on his bangs).

The children decorated this gingerbread house. In past years I have made the gingerbread myself but this year I am trying to take it easier because of the upcoming baby so I bought this one :)

Everyday they make me or their dad christmas cards and gifts. The funny thing is that they want us to have them right away not on Christmas day. They also like to make things to mail their Grandmas.

I am getting excited about the upcoming birth of our fourth baby. He or she should make their appearance sometime this month or in the beginning of Jan. I am doing very well but starting to feel very ready to meet this little one :)

Getting into the Christmas spirit...

So today we finally started gettting into the whole Christmas thing. I have friends that decorated at the begining of November but I prefer to wait till December to start. So today we started by making some Christmas cookies which the children throughly enjoyed doing.






Now this weekend I think we will get a tree :)

I am back!

I have not been posting for a few months but I think I will get back at it. We all had a great summer. We spent a lot of time outside.
In fact the children and I are still spending a lot of time outside especially since this past week has been so gorgeous. I am trying to get as much sun and fresh air as I can in hope that it will carry me through the long winters we get here.
My gardens did really well this year and we had a very abundant harvest. Nothing like being able to go out into your own backyard and pick fresh tomatos or beans. One very cute habit that Samuel got into was to go outside and pick me a tomato and bring it in to me. As you can see he was so proud of himself and amazingly he never brought me a green one.



Samuel has grown so much in the past few months and is starting talk in sentences now. He also wants to do everything that his older siblings do.



Samuel also still gets into everything though :)



OK. Tim wants some time with me now so I will go. I guess this was mostly about Samuel but he is pretty cute :)

My children like to help around the house and yard. They especially like to assist me when I am doing a job or special project. Some recent examples are when we all picked beans in the garden, cooking pancakes for supper, or cleaned out the van. Here is Josiah helping out when we planted the gardens.

As well as helping Tim and I with what we are doing the two older children each have their own chores in the morning. Besides making their beds and cleaning their room, Josiah does the chickens and Annah odd jobs like sweeping the porch.


Both the older two have started to do more cooking in fact they keep asking to cook something! Yesterday we made pretzels and here is Annah when she made devilled eggs. I helped a bit but it is surprising when given a little guidance what she is capable of :)

Here Annah is so proud of the end result. She was especially excited to give some to her dad and when he got home she went running out to show him.
I believe it is important for children to learn to be good workers. It is important to grow up knowing how to work and having a good work ethic. How better way to learn then by their parents when they are young so it grows up being a part of their character? Also having the mentality that they are a needed and important part of the family helps build a strong sense of indentity. As children get older they can truly be an indispensible part of the family if they have been taught to help out in many ways. I am already amazed at how helpful the older two are. And Samuel tries :) Plus look at the last picture of Annah- nothing like a happy feeling of accomplishment for a job well done.
What are your thoughts? Do you think chores good for children

Enjoying Summer

I know I have not posted in awhile but we have been so busy enjoying the summer that I have not had time to post. With such a long winter here you have to take advantage of the sun while you can.