This evening I heard some the exciting news that two of my dear friends were engaged. I was so happy for them and tried about three different numbers, talking to two different people before I was able to reach them. It has been fun watching the Lord lead their lives together. I was finally able to talk to my dear friend and hear her side of the proposal, I had heard her finances early, and then we talked and talked and she asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding! I was so overjoyed I didn't know what to say other than that I would be so honored to be part of her wedding. We had some fun wedding planning talk and I'm really looking forward to helping her put together a ceremony that will bring honor and glory to the Lord.
After all this excitement I was getting my pajamas on to get into bed when Freida called down and said that it was time to go to a delivery. It was about 11:10pm at this point, so I quickly got ready and jumped in the car. We had about an hour drive, saw plenty of dear and yawned most of the way there. Her husband met us as we pulled in the driveway with a flashlight to help guide us to the house. This family is also Swartzentruber Amish.
We carried our things in and went to see how she was doing. She mentioned that the contractions were getting harder and that she felt as if she wanted to push. We arrived at 12:40am and the baby was born at 12:55am! As she was starting to push Freida told me that I would be delivering this one and to put the sterile gloves on. I tried to put them on so hurriedly that I was having quite a hard time getting them on right, I could see the baby's head and I was praying to get them on so I didn't miss the birth as a result of not getting the gloves on. I got them on just in time to deliver the head and then the rest of the body.
The baby was meconium and came out crying. To get her out a bit faster I moved her up and down a few times and then she came most the way out and I gently pulled her body out the rest of the way. A sweet little girl, she's so precious! We got her dried off and up onto her mommy, her cord was long enough for her to be comfortably on her mom's tummy and even to start nursing right away. After the cord stopped pulsating I clamped and the dad cut the cord. We got her all situated and then we brought the sweet little one out to do her Newborn Exam.
She's 8lb 4oz, 20 1/4 inches long, with a little 13 inch head and 12 1/2 inch chest. It was time to get her dresses so I went and found her little shirt and dress. I'm getting to know how the Swartzentruber Amish do things so I can do most of it without being told. I put her all together and then went and rocked her by the warm wood-stove. It was so peaceful just sitting there with her with just the soft warm light of the kerosene lamp. We gave her to Katie and then Freida decided she needed to take a nap before heading home. So she laid on the cot and I decided to try sleeping in the rocking-chair. Well an all wood rocking-chair is great, except for when you're trying to fall asleep. That attemp failing I decided to try the floor. I took the thin cushion off of it and placed it on the floor and stretched out on the hard cold wood floor. Thinking that I was close enough to the wood stove I tried to sleep, that attempt failed as well. So I moved the cushion to the other side of the wood stove and this time a bit closer as well and curled up on the floor and actually managed to sleep for about 20 minutes. As i was laying there I could here the gentle breathing of the mother peacefully sleeping in the room, and the tick-tock, tick-tock of the two clocks that were going at different rhythms. Every half an hour you would hear them go "ding" "ding" "ding" which is why I know I never slept more than twenty minutes. At about 4:00am Freida got up and got Katie up to go to the bathroom, at this point she brought the little one out and put her in the cot. I took the opportunity and gently picked her up and carried her back over to the rocking chair where I rocked her, and almost myself, back to sleep.
This was Katie's 9th child and 6th girl. We left the softly lit home as peaceful as we came, with dear little children sleeping on the floors completely unaware that when they awake they will have a new baby sister. As we squinted to see our way out and off the porch we felt the fluffy flakes of snow falling on our heads. It had warmed up to about 20 degrees and was quite a relief after several days of below zero weather. As we turned the car lights on we could see that the snow was coming down and blanketing everything. It was snowing so much that we could barely see anything. I love it when it is big and fluffy snow, it's so beautiful. We arrived home and I'm quite exhausted to say the least. So I'm off to bed. I'll see if any of the pictures I took with my phone turned out and put them up after I wake up. This makes four births in six days! It's been a wonderful first week thus far and we have several more that could go into labor at any moment.
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