It's A.....

At 12:05 AM, I about jump out of bed - not really, I'm hooked up to everything, but all of a sudden, I'm feeling a CRAZY amount of pressure and call the nurse to come right away.  She's comes in, checks me, and then says "OK - well then, do you remember how to push?"  I was floored - WHAT?!?!  Already?  Yep, she says I'm at 10 cm and it's time to go!!  She calls in the doctor, he's there by 12:15 am and sets up all his stuff.  We get ready to go, push for about 5 minutes, and then the baby is here!!!

When the doctor says "It's A BOY", I burst into tears!  I was so overwhelmed and relieved that HE was finally here and we knew it was a BOY!!  I don't remember crying that much with the other babies, but I was quite overwhelmed with this one!  I remember it felt like an ETERNITY before I heard him cry, and I was so glad when I finally heard it!!

This was the only baby that we didn't know the gender (by "we", I mean everyone except for David).  People asked me if I was just DYING to know what it was.  I was! During pregnancy that is.  Once labor started, that seemed to take a backseat.  It surprised me a little bit.  But the mom instinct in me took over I guess, and all I wanted to know was that my baby was healthy and okay. And he was!!  I was just so excited that HE was here!!!

David texted Kelli to tell her the baby was here...and that we were both fine...but wouldn't tell her gender.   We had said we weren't going to make it public (no FB announcements or labor play by play for me!!) until after the baby had been born and we had told the kids.  Kelli was about to go ballistic - I said YES of course you can tell my sister that it's a BOY and his name!!  She was texting my mom, dad, and sisters and keeping them in the loop for us.  They were all strictly informed NOT to tell anyone until we told the kids :)

 Judah Benjamin

Born on 8/11/12

12:25 AM

(Yes, David commented about the fact that IF ONLY he had come 25 minutes earlier....)

We had decided on a girl name very easily (Kara Joy - Kara is from the greek word "charis" meaning joy).  The boy name was harder.  We both liked two names pretty equally - Judah Benjamin and Jonathan Eli.  About two months ago, David told the kids the names we were thinking of (we didn't tell anyone else!).  All the kids immediately said they liked Judah, but not Jonathan.  We didn't rule it out, but over time, we all sort of settled with Judah - it just seemed to fit!!

Once he was born, I asked David "So is it Judah?"  We agreed that it fit! David pulled out his bible to reread the verse that it came from - Genesis 29:35.  It says "Then she conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said "This time I will praise the Lord." So she named him Judah...then she stopped having children."  I totally died laughing - I didn't remember the last part about "stopped having children".  David said "SEE!  It's a WORD from God - Judah is the LAST one!"  :)

 8 pounds, 6 ounces

20 1/2 inches

 Wrapping up my baby burrito

 Hello handsome boy!!!

 Judah and Daddy

 Time to check the Apgar scores again (he was 9 and 9 - such a smart boy!  :)  ) and then head down to the nursery for bath time!

 You'd think it was a full moon or something - there were a ton of babies in there!  I couldn't even move out of my labor & delivery room until the next afternoon because it was so crowded!

 David came back to the room because they were waiting for Judah's body temperature to go up a bit before his bath.  He stopped by the cafeteria (which opened at 1:30 AM!) to grab some food - he had been saying he was STARVING since we got to the hospital....so he got some scrambled eggs and kielbasa.  Yuck!

 Bath time!!!  David said he did NOT like it!!

 Judah LOVED this part - who doesn't love to have their hair washed?!?!?

 I'm cold - wrap me back up!!!

 Look at that HAIR!?!?  I was shocked!!!  We only had bald babies up to this point!  If I hadn't seen him come out of me, I wouldn't have believed he was mine!!!  I have a baby with hair!!  :)

Aaahhhhh..that feels better!