It's a......

BOY!!!

Thomas Jackson Boytim was born at home on May 13th, 2011. What a birthday gift for his oldest sister Katie, who turned 13 on the 13th!!
Thomas weighed 10 lbs and was 22 inches long... I will post the birthstory at the bottom, for those that don't want to read it but would like to see the pictures :)
p.s. - there are no "birth" pictures :)

Very first picture - just a few minutes after coming into the world!

With midwife Diana - notice his hat..it does not fit. None of the baby hats I had fit the boys head - he just had to do without :)

Katie's birthday cake. The Allision family was over for Katie's birthday (and turns out Thomas' birthday too!) I even got to come out to sing happy birthday and visit for a bit.

Katie and Bella waiting to eat cake


Katie greets her birthday buddy the next morning

he is a happy boy

Katie and Jay check out their baby brother

Jack wants to hold him all the time!

Jay too!

Bella likes to get in on the action just as much as anyone else - this boy is going to be LOVED!

and Card - he is REALLY enjoying having another little brother. He really likes having five boys in the family and only three girls...

Sweet brother love

and now - short birth story... just skip if you don't like to read them.....

Even though I was purposely trying "not" to have the baby on Friday (Katie asked me not to have the baby on her birthday because she was really looking forward to her dinner with the Allison family). I woke up around 4am with some back aches and kept waking up about every 15 minutes just uncomfortable. I finally got up at 5:30am and read my Bible a bit and then started Katie's birthday breakfast. During my Bible reading the contractions were every 9 minutes and about a minute long. While I was up cooking they were every 5 minutes but only lasting about 30 seconds. Will got up around 7am and decided to call Paula (he gets anxious about having her here - worries I will deliver with just him here). Katie got up around 8am and we told her the "bad" news - she was sad until I told here there was no reason the Allisions could not still come for dinner - we would have a baby by then - she was more excited then. Paula got here just in time to have breakfast with us (Katie got bacon, sausage, biscuits, gravy and eggs for her breakfast). Paula checked me and was 5 centimeters but still very thick cervix - so she said it would probably be today. I started walking around some more and even took some herbal "Start-up" to keep things going. The contractions were never really regular - I kept worrying that it was stopping. I would have good contractions every 4 minutes apart and then they would just stop. Paula said I was talking myself out of being in labor - every time they would get regular I would "panic" and think "there is no going back now!" and they would stop. Paula finally took Katie to town to get her a birthday gift (she was really leaving so things would start going - having her here was stressing me a bit...). She got Katie a very cute hamster...

She was only gone for about an hour but contractions picked up and when she got back I was at a 7. I got in the water - though I was not really uncomfortable yet, but the contractions stopped in the water. I got out again and went out in the living room and had 4 really good contractions in the rocking chair (my great grandmother's rocking chair - I wonder if she ever labored in that chair...) and then went back into the water. I was in the water about an hour and my water broke. I had no urge to push, which worried me - I have always (last 4 births) had my water break, next contraction a head was out and next contraction a baby was born. I was scared he was stuck. Thinking back, it probably would have been better if I would not have known in advance that he was a big baby - I really feared through the whole labor that he would be too big and get stuck. Paula checked me and I was a 9 and had a cervical lip. She said to wait to push... I finally had the urge to push a few minutes later but it took a good 3 or 4 pushes for his head - that worried me too because I have always been a one push girl :)

then the body came and I just kept saying "I am so glad you are here, I am so glad I am done!".

There was a true knot in the cord - meaning at some point he had tied a knot in the cord and there was a good possibility at any time that the knot could have gotten too tight in the uterus and he would have cut off his oxygen supply - the midwives kept saying he was a miracle baby - true knots are not very common... Even though he was almost 3 weeks past due date, he was covered in vernix. The midwife said that was seen a lot in babies whose mothers had blood sugar issues (that would be ME!).

So Thomas is here and nursing well :)

Thank the Lord for another beautiful little one (or... beautiful big one...) :)