Praise God! A new baby in the family once morei Our two year old now looks like he must be ready to go to school he seems so big. :) James Lucas arrived this morning around 8:30. He weighed in at 8 pounds and he is only 18 inches long, so he has a way to grow. But, so cute and healthy tho sleeping way too much for his five siblings. Hannah laid a cute blanket out on the floor at the birthing clinic... which acts and looks like a home away from home. She asked her mom if she would let him get down on the floor and crawl around. :) He has a lot of black hair and though Chris says he will have blue eyes, i say the law of averages says Caleb cannot be the only one with beautiful brown eyes like his mother. Everybody was there except for jim and me who walked in just as he came. I had slept on the couch there most of the night but then left to go get janell's nourishing soup, and my husband, and had to stop at the store for more bagels, and that was just one too many stops. Little James decided to switch around sometime in the birthing process and came face up, which made the end of the birth more difficult, but janell is a pro at this after 8 babies, and she not only got herself through it once again, but she again caught her own baby in the birthing tub. The midwife said she doesn't see that everyday!
Janell does baby labor well, but she drags it out, or her babies just like it in there and take their own sweet time. She worked this baby out, over about three days, and yesterday seemed like it had 48 hours in it. It wasn't challenge enough for her to be in labor, but the guys were here pounding away and putting in heat pumps. It took them two days instead of one and she was pretty much in labor most of that time. They tried to be considerate and she stayed up here while they did the downstairs and then yesterday she went down to her Cabin, and tried to zone in on the baby, but it was difficult with seeing strange men in and out of their truck whenever she looked out the windows from the basement.
We could have put it off, but it needed finished right away, to our way thinking, as the season has changed. We went from summer heat to that wonderful Indian Summer with coolness prevailing most of the day, or a heat that doesn't quite feel real,, and that runs away way too quickly. Anyhow, she felt, "...not too much pain...", but the emotions and exhaustion that come with labor pains that gently push to a conclusion, still exhausts a person and takes its toll, by the time the climax of story comes to fruition. Alls well that ends well and everyone is resting at this time. Joshua and Hannah are sleeping like they were up all night, but they were not, which makes me worry they will be up all night tonight!!!! Nonetheless, we will be warm or cool, as we choose to be.
So, life goes on now with another voice to listen to and another little person to love, cuddle, and marvel over. I was looking at Joshua's face as i watched him nap this afternoon and my gosh what a beautiful child, not unlike what his daddy looked like but not looking like my child either. He is his own person, a combination of mom and dad that turns into a whole new being with all that possibility that i so love to watch revealed as they bloom and grow.
I love watching the older boys these days and marvel at how straight and tall they stand and walk. They carry themselves so confidently and their smiles have grown full and beautiful. Their personalities go in all different directions and i have never in my life seen kids with such active imaginations. They have five acres to create and crawl, and they use every inch of it, even thirteen year old McKenzie. We have jumps for bikes, we have stacked hay bales for climbing way too high upon to wait for deer to show up, and oh, then the plotting and the planning of how you would shoot it if you were allowed to. We have horses, and a pony to ride, we have ropes that can be flung around all kinds of implements, including a little sister. We have a pond that used to hold water, but spearing make believe fish came with a consequence and it no longer holds water, much to the chagrin of the dogs who loved walking in it when it was so hot. Soccer goals and baseball bats, doll strollers, play guns and even a few neighbor kids once in awhile keep these kids going in all different directions. The kids have a good place to grow up here, and though chaos reigns when everybody is home, they no longer seem here enough as school robs us of our time to watch them jump their bikes or ride their horses.
Speaking of horses, Red seems better today though he has missed his antibiotic because of the birth and none of us know the concoction she put it in, but we will fix him up here shortly. In fact, Chris is working on receiving instructions as i write. I sure hope he continues to recover from a ridiculous, unnecessary accident. There was no way we could have even seen that little pointy metal piece hiding in the pasture. Hopefully we will eventually rid this place of danger for these horses.
There are lots of things on this property that we keep finding that are dangerous, mostly for the horses. Like when Chris made the round pen, and dug into the area where he had chosen, he found it loaded with pieces of old beer bottles. They seem to be surfacing all over this property!!!! No, not good for kids either, but the kids are old enough, and speak the Kings English enough to tell their dad: the horses-- not so much. We have a lot more clean-up to do before winter. Now that we have the heat pumps installed, and at least half of the deck staining finished, and the garden is about kaput ( it was 38 last night. The garden was mostly an experiment as it turns out. :( Thank goodness for the local Friday market); i hope we can do a couple of runs to the dump with some of this stuff that we will never use or need that they left us, mostly from the man-cave and around it.. I thought the ppl would be coming back to get some of the stuff they left behind but we are hauling it off to the dump very soon. Thank heavens the dump is free!
So, the weekend was a blessing: we got cheaper heat in the house, we got a baby to brighten the winter. We would like to hold the winter at bay, but forget that. We all survived the stress of James' arrival, Did i tell you all they had told us they were going to call him jeremiah, which i hated, and pretty much told them so? Well, they decided early on to name him after jim, and even Hannah kept that secret!!!! I love his name and he seems like a Jamie to me, which i hope will be ok to call him. I never called David, Davey, and did not like when others called him that, so i hope jamie is ok with them as i like it. :) Guess i better ask. :)
Well Gma, i better get with a project or two.: like holding the baby :) Take care of yourself
You know i love you ( this is how Gma and i always signed our very frequent letters to one another, and so i will continue because i just cannot forget)
*j* aka jacqueline
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