Judah Paul Thomas, welcome to the world!

We have a baby!

Judah Paul Thomas was born at 3:34 pm Eastern time. He is beautiful, and cried as soon as he came out. It was amazing. We both looked at him and couldn't really believe or understand that he was our baby, the same one that has been wiggling around inside Mandy's belly, kicking her, the one we've been listening to with our stethoscopes almost every day lately, the one we've been praying for and thinking about, trying to figure out a name for. And it's him.

(If you've read the earlier posts, some of the following is some of the same.) Our doctor, Dr. Hawkins, came in at one point before the pushing started and gravely told us that his heart rate was dropping down too low too much, and that we needed to go and have a c-section. Mandy was in tears, and I was fighting to hold them back--I mean, it's not that c-sections are the end of the world (after all, as we both told each other minutes afterward, "I was born by a c-section!" "Yeah, I was born by a c-section too! And look at us!") but it's just not what we were planning or thinking about.

Then we prayed, and I called my Dad, and he and my Mom prayed, and Mandy's parents prayed, and I don't know who else was praying but I know a lot of you were. And then, a few seconds after the Doctor walked out of the room, suddenly his heart rate strip looked perfect. Absolutely perfect. And kept on looking that way. We still thought a c-section was coming, so we didn't make much of it, but after about 10 or 15 minutes, Dr. Hawkins came back in and said, "Now, look at what this little rascal is doing!" pointing out his great heart rate strip. "If you want to we can just hold off on the c-section for a while and see how he does."

So hold off we did, and with lots more praying and worrying about his heart rate which kept on being borderline--just barely good enough to keep him out of a c-section--but still good enough, and eventually Mandy was pushing, and we had to stop for a while and let the baby rest because his heart rate kept dropping down a lot whenever she pushed, and then, finally she could push again, and about 45 minutes of that and Out Came Judah! Crying and flailing and beatuiful, into the world.

Mandy's doing fantastic, and our little Judah is doing fantastic. He's 54 cm long, and weighs 7 pounds 9 oz. He's good at nursing already, and we're exhausted. I'm going to spend some time with my little family, and thank you all so so so so much for everything, all your thoughts and cares and prayers and love and support. You guys are amazing!