Friday, July 1, 2011

Welcome, son




Elliot Juniper Hartman was born last Saturday, June 25, at 2 am at our home here in Lake City. He weighed 9lbs and 6oz and was 23 inches long. His head measured 14 1/2 inches and he was 11 days past my due date. I had about three hours of "labor" which consisted of light contractions that were 30 seconds long and 6 or 7 minutes apart....and then about four difficult contractions during which he was born. After his head was born, but before the rest of him, he was spinning and twisting his head all around as if he was trying to swim out. He was born in a birthing tub and came out completely in the caul (meaning my water never broke he was born in the amniotic sac). According to Wikipedia, this is very rare, occurring in about 1 of 80,000 births, and is a sign of good fortune. We removed the sac so he could take his first breath.  We were surprised after a few minutes to discover that we had another son. I suppose I had convinced myself we were having a girl. All of our sons were born in the wee hours of a Saturday morning. Priya was born on a thursday afternoon. (I should have known). We had just settled on a girl's name during early labor, and hadn't been able to agree on a boy's name. After five days, we were able to finally name him Elliot, which is the French form of Elias or Elijah, which means "the Lord is my God." Juniper is in keeping with our first two children who have naturalistic middle names. He has thus far been an amazing little guy. He eats and sleeps well and looks quite a bit like his brothers did at this age. If I had to guess at this point, his scant dark hair will lighten and his eyes will go brown and he will look much like Levi. Thanks for all the well-wishes and prayers during those last few weeks! 

3 comments:

Amanda Brown Hall said...

Amanda, he is absolutely handsome! I know that you 6 are having a wonderful time. It sounds like you all have many fun adventures together. I am glad to see you are doing so well. I really enjoy reading your blog!!

Also, you live in an absolutely gorgeous country!! I love the scenery!

Joanne Brandt said...

Priya looks like a natural holding her baby brother. Thanks for posting the photos!

Donna said...

YAY!!!! How wonderful! I had a hunch it would be a boy- we are living the same life with the same kind of kids (and now Shelley (who also has our kids) is pregnant and I think she will have to have a boy as well). :) He is so adorable- I LOVE a chubby-cheeked baby- so kissable. And I'm so happy to hear that he is easy-going so far. God bless you and enjoy your babymoon- I know you know it will fly by. :)