A child is born

This day a child is born... not on Christmas, but on the morrow.. At 4:20am our little baby boy was born. And we shall call him Elijah Joaquin Brunner. He weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. We happily welcomed him into this world in the comforts of our very own home. Our midwife was out of town, but Natalie Lake came to our aid and helped us receive our little bundle of joy. His due date was December 13th, but he wouldn't have it! He decided to come during the busiest day of the year! At 4 am Christmas day I woke up with contractions that were 8 minutes apart. I was so excited, so I went back to bed to see if I could wake up and be ready. Woke up hours later and still 7 minutes apart. At around 1 pm they were 6 minutes apart. At 5 pm they were 5 minutes apart and Jared and I decided to go for the coldest walk of our lives. That day it was in the 30s and windy, poor Jared! All I wanted to do was go for a walk. At 8 the contractions were 4 minutes apart and we finally told our back up midwife to hustle to our place. At 9 she arrived. At 10 I began to push. I am not one to post entire details, but I will say that my dear husband was my rock. I don't think I could have given birth to our child without his love and constant support. He held me, he kissed me and he continually reassured me. What I experienced was complete joy as we together spent hours helping our baby enter this world in a safe and loving way. I am happy we gave birth to our baby at home and that once he was born we were the first to hold him. No one took him away and he was ours.

 First picture of this little man!

 Our very first family shot! This was taken after we slept. We were too in love with baby EJ to care about taking pictures right after he was born.

 Here he is a whole day old! See how wide awake he is?! He was born just like that, wide awake ready to look around and learn! I love it!

 I love these two pictures! The two men in my life fill my heart with so much love and joy!

Well, there you have it. The first 4 days of Elijah's life. We love him and are so happy to have him in our lives!

 Brand new Grandma Dora came to support her daughter and got to spend some quality time with newborn Elijah before traveling back to California.  She was so proud of this little guy.