Eden Keziah

Our fourth little blessing was born August 27, 2018, in a little house on a little farm on the outskirts of Waco, TX. She came a bit unexpectedly, one week early, unlike my three other late arrivers. 

Sunday (the 26th), I waddled my way to church, thinking briefly about how embarrassing it would be if my water broke in the middle of worship or something (yes, this is fully where my brain was). I quickly pushed that particular thought aside, remembering that I was still a full week away from my due date, and that I likely still had two or three weeks to go. We came home from church, and I worked on several projects, unusually full of energy. I baked two loaves of banana bread, organized the baby's closet area, vacuumed the apartment, and went swimming with the family at the pool. We came in and had a nice leisurely dinner and put the girls to bed. Brad and I stayed up reading for awhile, while I fought for a comfortable position to lay in bed and hoped for a good night's sleep. Brad fell asleep, so I reluctantly turned out the light and got "comfortable", and almost immediately started having little contractions. I figured if I just relaxed and went to sleep, they would stop. An hour later, sleep still eluding me, I decided to get up, and lo and behold, for the first time ever, my water broke!

I called Joycelyn around midnight to tell her we would be on our way, and we got our things together, woke up two excited girls and one grumpy one who wasn't interested, and headed off into the night to have a baby.  We got the girls settled in their sleeping bags in a spare room, Brad promptly fell asleep, and I labored alone for a few hours until sometime around four in the morning, at which point, I was clearly in transition, ready to have this baby! I fully expected a quick and easy labor and birth, as she was my forth, and Izzie had come so fast and (relatively) easy. This did not happen. Instead, I stayed in transition for six hours, Eden "stuck" and me wishing with everything in me that I could magically transport myself to a hospital and have a dang epidural and MAKE THE PAIN STOP! (This did not happen either...)

At 10:04 the morning of the 27th, she finally made her appearance. Never before in all my life had I felt so exhausted, but also so fiercely strong. It was by far the hardest thing I've done in all my 36 years. Within a minute or two of her being born, Addison, Lily and Izzie were in the room, up on the bed peering at her with wonder and so much instant love! I fed her for awhile and then nodded off, in and out of sleep for the next four hours, until we were given the "all looks great" and sent on our way home to rest and snuggle up with our new baby. 

It's been four months (I'm a bit late in finally getting around to writing the birth story), and I still can't stop telling people how great the experience of having a home birth was. My three experiences of having babies at hospitals wasn't bad per say, but the difference between a hospital birth and a home birth was just staggering to me! It was so peaceful! The lights were dim, when I needed to walk around, Brad or the midwife would help me up and even took me outside to get some fresh air during the thick of it. When I was convinced I couldn't do it, they prayed over me, and there was music, laughter, and just a beautiful ambiance the whole time. No one ever seemed in a hurry or alarmed, although they were absolutely clear in the last minutes that I had to get her out NOW or else she was in danger. I felt completely secure that both the baby and I were in perfectly capable hands, and where at a hospital I surely would have been forced into having a c-section after being in transition for so long, Joycelyn allowed things to happen naturally. And then, getting to go home four hours later! That was a bit nerve wracking at first, but it was really amazing, sleeping in my own comfortable bed after such a grueling labor and delivery. To wake up to a home cooked breakfast from Brad instead of florescent lights and hospital coffee and eggs, well, it was pretty perfect.

And just like that, we are a family of 6.