Gabriel Jonathan

One week and two days before my due date, God decided to surprise us with the birth of our 4th child! It started as a normal morning with the Lillian wake up call at 5:30am, Bible reading, prayer, Jamey's appearance around 6am, little play time, breakfast, Reuben waking up at 7am and getting ready for my weekly doctor's appointment. School had to be by-passed since the appointment was scheduled for 8:45.

Jim and I left the house just after 8 to go to my appointment. With this pregnancy I have had contractions here and there for weeks so I thought nothing of the fact that I had a couple of contractions during the morning and on the way to the office (which is thankfully connected to the hospital). I signed in and sat to wait to be called back. I was so tired and was just trying to stay awake. I remember thinking I hope they call me back soon and then had a contraction that caused my water to break. That I was not expecting. Jim told the people at the front desk. They got towels and a wheel chair and whisked me down to labor and delivery. I went to triage first (I have never done that before so it was odd) to get admitted and checked out. Though I was not contracting regularly I was around 4cm. They soon moved me over to my designated labor and delivery room and the waiting began. Thankfully my body responded and began to contract regularly after an hour or so. God gave me strength and thankfully held off very intense contractions until the end. Because of my water being broken I was not able to move around as much as I would have liked in the hospital setting, but I was able to move around in the bed to help bring the baby down. Praise the Lord, I did not need anything to augment my labor. It took a little while, but by God's grace my body did what God designed it to do. Around 1:30 I felt the rest of the water break and the baby moved into place. I knew it would not be long.
I am very blessed that when that happens it is quick and at 2:07 pm the baby made it's way into the world. I looked down and Jim said, "It's a boy!" "It's a boy," I responded laughing. I could not believe I had another boy. I really thought this one was a girl based on my pregnancy, though I had had some doubts. But a boy he is and a beautiful one. He weighed in at 7 lbs 11oz and is 19 inches tall. We quickly began kangaroo care and it was wonderful. I love having my baby on me.

I was having trouble seeing his face and I wanted to look at him since we were still not settled on a name. He soon was acting hungry so I got him situated to eat and got a good look at him. We pulled out the boy name list and started working our way through it. After looking at him we realized our current top choice did not fit him. We got it narrowed down to a couple and decided on Gabriel which means God is my strength, the same meaning of our other top choice, but Gabriel fit him much better. The meaning is dear to me as that truly has been my theme in this pregnancy. I have struggled a lot with not being physically strong enough to do the things I needed to for my family during the pregnancy. But God has given me strength. God has given me the grace I needed to do what I can and to learn not to feel like a failure when I had limitations. God truly has been my strength. Jonathan is after Jim's brother, which also means Gift of God. This baby, like all babies, really are gifts from God and we are so blessed to have another child. And so we welcome Gabriel Jonathan to our family.