gingerichhome: Joshua Shawn Gingerich

We Welcome : Joshua Shawn Gingerich !!

Sunday, August 3, 2014, was a week after my due date. Jacob had been asked to preach at Grace church. Not knowing when baby would be making his arrival, he turned that down but had a sermon started. Since nothing was happening by Sunday morning, and they hadn't gotten anyone else to preach, he let them know he could do it after all.
We had a restful afternoon and in the evening we joined dads and their company for supper. During the evening I had a few contractions but when we went to bed I told Jacob that I still wasn't sure if it was the real thing or not. A few nights before I'd been up four hours or so with false labor and didn't want to get too excited if that was what was happening again. I slept maybe an hour or so. Around 11:15 I woke up and my contractions were about 7 minutes apart and that was the end of sleeping for the night. Sometime in there, Jake woke enough for me to tell him what was going on, and then he went back to sleep.
I had been praying that the baby would come in God's timing (preferably before my 12:30 Dr. appointment on Monday when she said we'd discuss inducing. I'd been induced twice before and had about vowed I'd never do that again! ) According to my past "laborings" I figured by the looks of things maybe I'd be having the baby about the time of that Dr's appointment and I smiled at God's timing.
Well, over the next couple of hours my contractions were mostly 3-7 minutes apart. I had been taking "Gentle Birth Formula" and wasn't sure how that would affect this birth and I prayed that I'd know when it was time to head to the hospital since I wanted to let everyone else sleep as long as possible (hubby,mil, photographer, and Dr.) but didn't want to have it on the way to the hospital either.
I woke Jacob up at 3:00 AM and told him I didn't think the baby was coming quite yet but I think I'd be more comfortable waiting it out the rest of the time at the hospital. He called his mom so she could finish the night out up here. I think once he saw how long and hard the contractions were he started hurrying a little more. He got stuff out to the van and I called Heather (friend and photographer) and got the Dr. out of bed.
We left home at 3:30 and in about 20 minutes (just a guess) I was in the birthing bed and the Dr. said I was at 8 cms. Usually when I hit 7 cm, it goes fast if she has "broken my water". The nurse told the Dr. not to do that yet because she wasn't done checking me into the hospital. I was not too happy about that as that was taking her just too long in my opinion! I was sure the baby would've arrived a bit sooner if not for that. But finally the Dr. could do her thing, I had a couple hard long contractions, pushed twice and..ta-da ! There he was! :)

Joshua was born at 4:22 AM a little more than a half hour after getting in there. He weighed 7lbs. and 1.7 oz. and was 20 " long. My lightest baby yet. He definitely belongs to us with his round face, dark eyes, and black hair !

He had such good color and was so alert !
The children came in around 9 AM. They all just Loved their new little brother ! Joey didn't want to share him and tried to take him right out of my arms. Hannah was so motherly and in love, Heidi was quietly happy, Mahlon sweetly informed me that, "You are still fat, Mommy!" :)