Seth

So I got up and started my day with inconsistent pains. By 10 I called to make an appointment with my doctor, she could see me at 2, so I packed my bags for the hospital in the van, painted my toenails, and called the school telling them I'd pick up the kids at 12, When I went to get them Jonah had this huge smile on his face, "Mommy, did you have the baby?" "no not yet, but I think it's going to happen today!" I said, as contractions were starting to come every 20 minutes.
We went to Royal Diaperer on the way to the doctors, I was hoping I could finally make a decision about a car seat and stroller, then left for the doctor's. By the time I had arrived my contractions were closer to 10 minutes apart, so I called Justin, who thought he had a full day's work, and told him I thought I'd be heading to the hospital after my appointment, and he said, "Well, I think we'll be done earlier than I thought, so give me a call and I can come meet you there."
I went in to my appointment with Mariah and Jonah to help watch Mariah. My Dr. has told me before she thinks I might be a little anxious about thiings, so she was quite surprised when she checked me, she blew air out of her mouth like a horse and said, you're 4-5 cm's dilated, and I can stretch you to a seven, and your bag of waters is very thin. You're going to have this baby today!" So we said a quick "see you later" and I packed the kids in the car and drove myself to the hospital through contractions with three kids in tow. Mom met us there,we took a picture of me and the three kids,transferred the kids to her van, I blew them a kiss, and walked up to the front door with my bag over my shoulder, as Justin pulled in, I told him he had time to park the truck and change his clothes and i went into register, realising as I walked through the doors that I hadn't pre-registered, so I sat down and apologised for not pre registering, and she said it was fine, she got my info and gave me a card, I asked her, "don't I get a bracelet?", no, she said, I've always gotten a bracelet before, she said, "well yes, you do when you come back in labour."
"Well, I am in labour," I said!

Within a half hour I was in my room with Just changed into some tidier clothes I had brought for him. It was about 2:30 and I was feeling fine.

Note to Julia: of course you're feeling fine at this point, but this is when to get an epidural. Because you won't feel fine once it's too late to get one, dummy!

Justin slept, and I didn't want to be touched at all, I felt like my hips were about to dislocate themselves and any amount of touch would pop them right out of their sockets. I needed round of antibiotics for Group B before they could help labour progress, so that took an hour of the drip, then another hour of waiting for the antibiotics to do their job, then they broke my water, and the flood waters came! Then it was what felt like forever of breathing through contractions and pushing. I was expecting to have our little boy definitely before 7:30, but things just took longer, maybe since this progression from not ready at all to deliver, to having a baby had been only 48 hours, my body just wasn't as prepared as it had been before. They also discovered that my bladder was full, and was keeping his head from progressing, so one catheter later we were back in business, and within a half hour of me being certain he would be born, and eight hours of real labour, on the next push he was delivered. 7lbs, 9ozs, and perfect!
I've compared delivery to the sacrament before. Being as sick as I am during my pregnancies, crawling up stairs because I don't have the strength to walk, throwing up blood, blacking out when I move too fast, in pain every time I eat, regular food poisoning, my time is often spent pleading with my Heavenly Father. I've always loved delivery, and envied others' labours. Because that is a short period of time when I can be in-sync with my body, and I can feel and fight, and let out all the feeling and pain of being sick for so long, and the responsibility I feel for my family having gone through this as well, and then there's the last push, and the pain is gone and there's this perfect little baby, and all is forgiven. And all is healed. He was delivered, and I lifted myself on my elbows to see him, and all I could see was his little fist and arm raised high in the air, and I understood the sentiment, "We made it!"
They passed him to me almost immediately, and he was so beautiful, he had a full head of long brown hair with blonde tips, sweet little eyes and mouth and ears, and one of my first thoughts were - he doesn't look like the others! Maybe he's a Smith? He looked like a little surfer dude, overgrown perfect hair, a sweet little turned up nose, I could see him walking along the beach with a surfboard under one arm and a sandwich in the other, I could see him learning the drums, I could see him being a gentle brother and a loving son. Those were my first impressions of him. And he has proven to be everything wonderful. We all adore him! He following tradition went over a week without a name, but we decided on Seth Benaiah and that suits him! Our litle Seth-er, Sethoscope, Setheroo.
He is social and talkative, attentive, kind, playful and heavenly! He's been very healthy, besides a 3 day stint in the hospital at 2 1/2 months old for a urinary tract infection and a short lived fever. He'll chew on anything he can pull to his mouth: he's nearly 7 months now and so he's been teething for nearly seven months, still no teeth, but they should be here any day, which is what I've been saying for months! He loves his siblings, and thinks Christina is hilarious! Jonah Christina and Mariah are also head over heels with him, and that feels so heavenly!