It's a ......

FAMILY! A new little family!
They had a beautiful baby boy at 11:14 am. He's 20.5 inches and a whopping 8 pounds 13.8 ounces! That Mary can grow a baby!

Both of his APGAR scores were 9, so he's doing well!

I won't disclose his name at this time since I didn't think to ask Mary & Josh if they wanted to let the whole world know or if they planned to continue to refer to him as "Dude"!

It was so interesting to be on the other side of the birthing process. I'm honored that Mary and Josh both wanted me to share it with them. I would love to tell all of the details, but I'm not sure that they are mine to tell-and they do have a blog :-)

I will say that at one point Mary fainted or blacked out (I'm not sure the difference?)--it was after the birth by several hours and we sat her up so we could get her in her chair to move her to her to the post partum room and she got too light headed and blacked out for just a few seconds. I saw it coming on based on her eyes and and I'll tell you what, I don't have daughters but I think that's how I would have felt if she was my daughter--like I couldn't help fast enough and it hurt my body physically, like she was a part of me. I sure love that dear girl!

It wasn't a huge deal really, they just put her back on the IV and hydrated her some more. She had also only had minimal food in the prior 24 hours so all things put together made for one woozy new mama. But after that I did have to take a walk and call Tim, I knew logically she was fine and it wasn't a big deal, but the lump in my throat made me feel otherwise and I needed him to talk me down from being too emotional.

In the end, they moved her to her new room in her bed to circumvent that whole situation again. Mary asked for that the first time around and was denied--I think she new she wasn't ready to get out of bed yet. Goes to show you should trust your body! I stayed to make sure she got to that room okay.

The babe is hungry and rooting all the time. He's figuring out how to latch and is doing well with it. If he keeps nursing at the rate he's going, Mary will be sore, but proud of the strong little guy she grew with her own body.

I'm thankful to be able to have been a part of it and am utterly speechless at the magnitude of how thankful I am she and the baby are doing well and ended up with a natural childbirth (after some jumpstart assistance to ripen the cervix). Thank you for all of the prayers, but don't stop, the first couple of weeks will be difficult for Mary, and Josh too.