Baby #3 Has Arrived!

Wow, a lot has happened this summer since I last posted - we've had a busy few months, and enjoyed doing most of our summer bucket list items (except for the beach, but maybe it can still happen later this fall).

Our most recent developments include, but are not limited to, the early arrival of our sweet little man, Benjamin Andrew!

He was born early via non-emergency c-section due to an unresolved placenta previa. It was all a very different experience from the home birth we were planning, but given the situation it became our only option. Thanks to the prayers of many friends and family, things went as smoothly as they could have, with no complications (and God willing, none during my continued recovery), and we are SO thankful for modern medicine (ultrasounds which showed that this was the case - I had no symptoms which would have clued me in to this), and our access to doctors who will take on a patient last-minute to perform c-sections.

Thankfully we knew that this was necessary before I was actually laboring, so we were able to schedule it, which gave me the chance to kind of mourn the loss of our intended home birth experience, and really choose this situation knowing that it was the only way this baby could be born.

We're so thankful that my mom is with us and was able to relieve Michael at the hospital for the overnights and most of the recovery time.

I had the thought that it would be nice to have some nice pictures of all of us at home, though, as a kind of closure on the whole procedure. So I asked my friend Rachel to come over and take some pictures in the vein of a "fresh 48/lifestyle" sort of shoot (even though Baby Ben was 9 days old...but he's so tiny he still looks like he was just born :) Rachel is intending to start up her own photography side business, so if you're local I definitely recommend contacting her about having a session of your own! She was so patient while we wrangled the older kids, trying to get them to smile and sit still for a few pictures of all of us together.

So, without further ado, here are some of the really great shots Rachel took of all of us!

So, to sum up, we're all smitten with our little man and are adjusting to (a) life with Mommy somewhat out of commission while recovering and (b) being outnumbered by littles in our house (It's all zone defense from here on out!)

Hopefully while I'm resting up I'll sort through some of our summer photos and post another photo dump of what we've been up to this summer, but don't hold you're breath ;)

Once again, head over to Rachel's blog, Three Little Cupps in a Cupboard, and contact he for you own photo shoot! Her work is great!