Welcome James Thad McCune!!

James Thad McCune graced us with his presence at 1:45 this morning, June 11th.  He weighs 9lbs 4oz (!!) and is 21 in long.  Everybody's doing great- praise the Lord.  We can't believe we're a family of 4!

Not only that, but now I'm a dad with SON!! Some more responsibility just got put into my life.

Lord - what an opportunity - remove the anxiety that comes with raising kids. Open our hearts to receive this little one and to love him as we've loved Hannah and as you love us. 

It was a WILD day!! I can't believe that even as I write this at 10:45pm only 24 hours ago we didn't even know James would be here!

At 11:15 on the 10th Virginia felt the first pangs. We we're sure if this was it as she had been having braxton-hocks contractions for the past week. These felt a little harder so we paid attention.

Rewind a little...my mom had come into town on the 9th, the official due date according to our only sonogram. We really though James would be here by then as Hannah came on her due date. Alas...But we did have a great Saturday and Sunday taking it easy as we had no plans whatsoever. In fact, on Sunday we even tried a few things to speed labor along. We had egg plant parmesan for lunch. Virginia did the elliptical. She walked up and down stairs. Apparently it worked!

She passed the mucous plug at 10:45 or so, though, according to our Bradley Childbirth book, "this is the least trustworthy of all indicators." So we didn't get our hopes up.

By midnight we called Charlotte, our midwife. Being in Alpharetta, she understandably wanted to be sure this was it before making the drive. At this point we were at minute long contractions, 6-10 minutes apart. In other words, nothing to hurry for.

however, within 15 minutes we were at 90 second contractions 5 minutes apart. This baby was coming!

I split time coaching Virginia through contractions and setting up the family room. With my mom, we covered windows and started filling the birthing tub. Ya, we were't going to have to to fill that 150 gallon thing!

While I was out, Virginia's was burst - and I do mean BURST!! There was a puddle in the bed. Not only could we have not made it to a hospital, Virginia couldn't have even made it to the family room! With the water breaking, contractions immediately increased in length and intensity, going longer than 2 minutes and coming 2-3 minutes apart. This baby was coming!! Good thing Charlotte arrived at 1:15 or so.

I would have helped her carry her instruments in through the rain but for Virginia having what we know know were pushing contractions. Charlotte thought she was kidding when she called out, "I'm ready to start pushing!" The next few moments are a blur that flew by. Hair appeared. We tried to hold V back so as not to tear. I dug through Charlotte's bag to find the heart rate monitor as she held James in. Turns out his heart rate was dropping. Charlotte yelled for V to push wether she wanted to or not. A head appeared, cord was around the neck but Charlotte easily removed it. One more push and James came into the world!

It was unbelievable and I had a front row participatory seat. After some tense moments, we learned we had a boy, James Thad, and that he was doing great! All this, two and a half hours start to finish in our bed!!

I told my mom to go downstairs but she understandably disregarded this and ended up being an incredible help. So she immediately came in. Thad and Suzanne arrived shortly thereafter and went out to Walmart at 3am to get us diapers because we forgot. Meanwhile Hannah, whose room is across the hall, slept through the entire ordeal. 

Unreal. A wild experience and we can only thank God for arranging all the pieces to fall into place. Should we have decided to give birth in a hospital, I'm not sure we would have made it - after about an hour, Virginia was a place where she couldn't even stand. We are grateful for this experience.

The real hero though is Virginia. She was incredibly brave, taking no meds and relaxing unbelievably through a series of intense contractions. Her pushing when she didn't have a contraction potentially saved James life at the cost of several sutures to her. I am so lucky to be married to such a strong, yet loving woman.

Well it's now just past 11 on the 11th. Just about 24 hours from when our birth story began. Virginia sleeps soundly next to me and James is sleeping in the family room with Nonee, who has been an incredible servant to us this week. I have slept 2 hours in the last 48 so am signing off for now!

Welcome James Thad McCune - we love you!!