Long Overdue Announcement...!

Hello, friends!
Wow...so much has happened since I last posted!!

As I'm sure most of you have guessed by now, we had our little boy join the family. :) Eben Gray was born on April 16 (How is he already a month old?!) at 1:30 p.m. He weighed 7lb, 10 oz...not so big as we expected considering that he was 2 days late and I was approximately the size of a tanker truck! ;P His name is pronounced just like "even" but with a B.

Due to the COVID craziness, we actually ended up switching our birth plan from midwife assisted hospital birth to home birth at 37 weeks along. This was a pretty drastic decision to make so late in the game, but it was made easier by the fact that I would potentially have had to give birth without my husband if we had stuck with going to the hospital!! That wasn't something I even wanted to consider. I couldn't imagine having Luke miss such a precious event as the birth of our first child! (I also couldn't imagine going through labor without his support!)

As difficult as the circumstances of the switch were, I honestly am so thankful we did a home birth. It was such a calm and non invasive experience compared to the hospital. We had all the comforts of our own home, complete control over the environment, no beeping monitors or bright lights or people coming in and out...all around it was just a sweet experience. Plus, I got to do a water birth, which I wanted all along, but our hospital didn't allow, so I had given up on that idea. While our midwife was here and available for us throughout the labor, she mostly just stayed in another room within earshot and let Luke and I be alone as we went through the hard work of bringing Eben into the world together.

I was in hard labor for 15 1/2 hours, with 2 1/2 hours of pushing time. It was so, so difficult and exhausting, but obviously very worth it for our sweet little man! Luke was SUCH an incredible help and comfort to me through all the long hours of pain. He stayed by my side every moment, encouraging and supporting me both physically and mentally. I am truly blessed with a wonderful husband!

Little Eben has been such a joy to us over the short time we have had him in our home. He is a very serious little chap...still haven't seen him smile except by accident in his sleep! ;)

Here are a few pictures for you! :)

And here is one from his 1-month pics a few days ago.

We are quite in love with our little peanut! :) So thankful for a safe delivery and a sweet healthy son!
Mykaela