Ringing in the New Year...

...with a Baby Boy!

JPK was born in a VBAC Home Birth on January 1st 2010 at 6:15 am. Weighing in at 8 lbs 13 oz and measuring 21 inches long, he decided to make things a bit difficult for mommy by having both his hands beside his head. So although his birth was "natural" in that we didn't use any drugs, it was certainly not intervention-free. It involved...

*a five hour labour
*the midwife breaking my waters
*a fourth degree tear PLUS
*an episiotomy (this was neccessary to prevent further tearing)
*30 minutes of pushing
*a trip to the hospital to repair the tear (the midwives are only allowed to repair lesser tears)
*in the ambulance, because I couldn't sit up without nearly fainting (I was a bit dehydrated and quite hungry)

So, that's the birth story in a nutshell. I might write more about it later, and possibly post a picture or two of my beautiful new boy. Monkey is doing so well at helping and loving his baby brother, and I am so proud of him.

Happy New Year to you all!