Yes, baby is here! Currently asleep on my lap is Joshua William, born on Friday 22nd of July at 11:53am.
On the Wednesday evening before he was born, Dad got home from work and let us know he had to go back into town for a night shift at the airport where he is working. Mum and I were a bit apprehensive - we didn't want the baby to come when Dad wasn't here! And sure enough, a while after he left Mum started have contractions that slowly worked down to about 15 mins apart. I called Dad to let him know things might be gearing up, and thankfully he was just about finished and ready to come home anyway. :) Dad got home, and we got things ready and waited... and waited. Nothing happened! Contractions never really got much closer and slowed down. Eventually I decided to go to bed and at least try and rest till things picked up more. The next day (Thursday) Dad told us he had sent a message round to the rest of his work team and told them he was on maternity leave! Haha and of course they said "congratulations" back, assuming that Mum had already had Joshua... oops :)
There weren't really any contractions to speak of until the next evening, when things picked up again. It was another long night of contractions, but not enough to really be called labor until morning, when dad woke me up and said things were finally getting going! Dad and I got the spa bath ready, and Mum got in. It seemed like the labor took a good while longer this time (Micah took about 30 mins!). When the midwife arrived she took one look at mum's tummy during a contraction and told us Joshua was posterior - that explained Mum's sore back and longer labor. She checked his heartbeat after a bit though and he had was good. Finally at 11:53am, Joshua was born. He came out rather limp and a grey/purple color- that spurred our midwife into action with massaging him and and making sure his mouth was clear. She even used some oxygen to get him going with his breathing. It was a bit of a shock to see him like that! He turned a healthy pink with a bit of massaging though, and he was fine after that. Phew!
We guessed the labor was about 4 1/2 hours long - as I said, that's longer than usual for Mum, but it really is quite short when compared to a lot of other women :)
Today Joshua is 2 weeks old (already!) and Mum says he is an "average" baby as far as fussiness goes :) He does not like to sleep by himself, but he usually is happy to drift of when he is snuggled by one of his numerous brothers and sisters. He sure had a good appetite too! He is happy and healthy and gets plenty of cuddles and kisses haha.
So there's your update on Joshua! Thanks for reading :)
~Rachel
