And then there were four.

I've been told that ye readers have banded together and are nearing mutiny if we don't post something soon.

So that being said....

We're THRILLED to announce the birth of our second son, Blake Benjamin on Friday, March 19, 2010 at 11:34pm (after a healthy 19 hours of labor...and since I--the laborer--am writing this post, I'll take my liberties and add that in). He weighed 9 pounds even and has been adorable from the very moment he was born.

We are IN LOVE.

At 4:30am on Friday I rolled over in bed and felt/heard this {pop!!} followed by a giant gush. Since I'd never even considered this happening, I wasn't prepared for it at ALL. Never the less, I'd heard enough stories about how women don't go into labor after their water breaks, so after we cleaned up a little, I told Joe, "Well, things won't start for a while, so we might as well go back to bed for a few hours."

Famous Last Words.

Not fifteen minutes later, the contractions started....and they started at 4 minutes apart. Sooooo....that's when we headed to the hospital, right?

Wrong!

Rather late in my pregnancy, we opted for a change in prenatal care. After a lot of thought, research, prayer, more research, and the advice of a few friends, we opted to plan for a home birth. And I couldn't recommend it enough. We had long been uncomfortable with the incidence of interventions that is so common in American obstetrical care, and we knew that a home birth would be the most secure, safe, and comfortable way to get baby Blake from the inside to the outside.

I don't have anything to compare it to, so I'll just say that labor was labor. But at 11:34, out came Blake in all his glory--born peacefully in a pool of water in our living room--and he was eager to show off his lungs. =)

And without further ado, might we introduce Blake.