The Birth of Lincoln Gates Eliakim

Baby Gates arrived this past Monday, March 12th, at 40 weeks 2 days, despite all the "precautions" we had taken to avoid an early in the week baby. Somehow I had convinced myself that the power of positive thought would certainly play a roll in timing his arrival and avoiding anything before Thursday evening. I made plans and arranged for everything to take place Thursday or Friday evening...as schooling husband was given one day off. If baby arrived on Thursday we'd have all day Friday and then the weekend before his need to return. As it was, baby Gates arrived on a Monday...in the very middle of the day with absolutely all of the children awake and playing. I had Tuesday to recoup and by Wednesday was already back up and running a household.....not entirely optimal by any stretch...but we made it work. By Thursday night I had a sinus infection which was entirely unrelated to birthing a baby a mere 3 days before...but it certainly hasn't aided the recovery time any. Admittedly, Wednesday and Thursday were a bit rough but by Friday we seemed to have found a routine that works. So it is that body recovers from having a baby while having 10 other children still home and a husband that is absent from 6:30am until 6:30pm. By Friday night I began to run fever due to sinus stuff....but schooling husband is home for the weekend and children and I all survived until Friday...a massive success in my mind. I'm a little bit exhausted but all is indeed well.

I stand in absolute awe over the miracle of this tiny, downy headed baby that sleeps beside me, nuzzles velvety face into my neck. If these days could just last a little bit longer than they do. I watch our others run and play, walk and talk, and I know that in a mere 3 months this roly poly boy will be even an even rolier and polier, smiling handsome interactive boy and 6 months from now he'll be sitting and have changed so much from this tiny baby now cradled, sleeping in my arms. Just 12 months from this moment he'll be eating, walking and playing amidst the others.....so loved in every way. So I sit and I hold him for hours on end, nurse him through the night, listen to his squeaks and grunts, smell his new skin.....because I know it's for but a fleeting moment in time. And I wish the clock would just tick a little slower. These newborn days are but only a blink in time....and it's so bittersweet in every way. I'm so in love with watching them all grow, but oh how I love these sweet newborn days spent cradling this new life...watching each of the others marvel over the newest brother they have been given. As always, I stand in awe over this moment in time. So amazing, so sweet, so soft, as we come to know this new tiny person in our lives.

His Birth Story....

I woke throughout the night several times to larger than usual contractions Sunday night/early Monday morning, but nothing to warrant saying anything to anyone. I woke with husband at 5 am and by 6:30 body was showing physical signs that labor was imminent...probably within 24-48 hours. With that turn of events I alerted him to changes before he left for work and told him of the 3-4 contractions experienced in the night. As I knew it would, it drove him a bit nuts to have to leave but, knowing it could still be a couple of days away and the fact he can miss very little of academy, he drove away into the dark morning and I began to prepare for everyone's morning routine. We were supposed to make a trip to Target that day and head back to the lake for more hiking...but due to body changes decision was made to stay home.

Contractions were non existent for the morning and it confirmed to me that we were still a day or two away from seeing a baby. Restless husband texted every hour and called at every break. I continued telling him to stay put...that nothing would happen soon. I laid down for a nap with little ones at 2 and at 4 was awakened by contractions once again...and a phone call from husband. They were consistently every 20-30 minutes apart but strong enough to know that it'd be going somewhere. Schooling husband could hold out no more and, despite my protest, said he was headed home early. I continued to maintain it'd take the entire day for anything to build and we might just have a baby sometime after midnight. Somewhere in my head I maintained that labor would gradually build, pick way up after children were in bed, and we'd have a baby sometime late that night as children slept.

Rising from nap it became a little more apparent that was not the case. At 4 pm contractions were 20-30 minutes apart. I began getting babies up and picking up house only to quickly discover the more I moved the more I had and the more intense they became. By 4:16 pm they were every 3 minutes from what I could estimate...not even close to going away or decreasing in intensity. Earlier I had told Brad to stop by the store for easy dinner stuff. Somewhere in there he called saying his car, which we've never had a problem with, suddenly would not start as he attempted to leave store parking lot...and could I come get him. At this point I inform him that this was going a little faster than anticipated, they were coming about every 3 minutes and it might take me a few minutes to get out the door, as contractions were a little closer together than they had been 20 minutes ago. He stayed on phone while I had two contractions and at that point began to panic a little, saying to just leave right that moment and pick him up...now. After getting kids rounded up and in house I eventually made it to truck. Having just cleared the driveway phone rings saying car had started and he was headed home...fairly swiftly. By now it was 4:45 and contractions were now at 2 minutes or so apart...maybe closer. Not sure. I never time them...I absolute loathe timing them....so it was all just an estimate as I mentally tried to take note of the frequency...since it was going a little faster than my planned birth.

By the time he drove up I was happy and talkative between contractions but leaning against door frames when they did come. With no time to fill up the birth pool decision was made to seek relief in tub until we could get around to the pool. Children carried groceries in while he filled tub. In my happy little in-between contractions state I'd been randomly posting progress updates on Facebook. Unknowingly to me, we now had tons of people following our labor on fb. I still have people emailing and coming to us saying they were "laboring with me". I find this more than a bit humorous and a little bit amazing now. At the time I was completely unaware just how many people were eagerly awaiting the arrival of our baby with us. So, with husband not so entirely convinced phone needed to be mixed with bath water he took over updating while I labored..reading me all the comments and staying quite amused by them all himself.

I climbed into tub around 5:15 but it left much to be desired so I continued asking if it was possible to fill the pool up...knowing as fast as it was going there was no time. To say that it was small, hard and confined doesn't even come close to doing the scene any justice. So, I lay there with visions of a huge, soft, deep, inflatable pool floating through my head as I tried to get comfy in the tiny confines of hard, shallow tub. By 5:45....30 minutes after entering water....phone had been laid aside and things grew intense.

Worthy of note here too, would be the fact that labor was to be kept under wraps by outside children in an effort to keep deputy landlord at bay. But, as things seem to always go with excited children involved, landlord who stood on his own deck next door, was indeed informed of baby's very impending arrival. At this news he then asks trampoline jumping kids..."So is your mom in the bathtub?"...as he seems forever amused and perplexed by this. So, with me laboring in tub landlord was now filled with visions of a baby being born in his rental house. To his credit, he stayed away, despite his previous offers to assist, and labor continued on with good landlord now waiting for news of baby's arrival also.

I can truthfully say this labor and birth were not nearly as effortless as Graham and Gatlin's birth. The word discomfort is what continues to come back to mind even 16 months after their arrival. Pain was entirely minimal and pushing was effortless. One push for 7 lb 8 oz Baby A and he emerged into a watery world before being brought up by his daddy's big hands. 2 pushes for 7 lb 5 oz Baby B and he was born...with minimal effort and no true pain. The myth that kids just fall out after you birth about 5 of them continues to irritate. As this birth proved there is still a massive amount of work, pain and tears involved in getting something that big out of confined spaces....whether you succeed in accomplishing that feat in 2 hours or 42 hours. By 5:50 or so pushing began. But far from the last birth experience, this baby's head and size proved to be much much bigger than his 16 month old twin brothers'. And so I pushed...and I pushed...and I pushed....for 15 agonizing minutes. And what was supposed to be rather painless in water was not so entirely painless at all. Tears fell as progress was slow and it was very much a 3 steps forward 1-2 steps back process. Husband comforted as only he can, required eye contact when I was convinced baby was quite stuck and encouraged when I saw no hope of the whole thing ever ending. And finally....after 15 entire minutes of pushing....our new baby boy emerged into shallow tub water at 6:06 pm only an hour after husband had arrived home. Older children waited inside listening for a baby's cry, middle ones jumped happily outside, and babies ran through the house playing and jabbering as we welcomed our 8th boy to the family. Had Brad listened to me and stayed at school until 5:00 traffic would have put him home at 6:30 and I would've been on my own. Thankfully, he knows me better than any other and he responds when he feels the urgency within. So it was that he arrived home at 4:45 and we welcomed a baby boy at 6.

Baby Gates weighed in at 9'6, holding the title to heaviest baby born to us yet. Before he set the new record Gavin held it at 9'5.

And now, due to so many having asked and the intense interest ...the quick story behind his name. The more we have grown the more we have realized how much emphasis God puts on a name. So, after much thought we wanted something that symbolizes North Carolina and what the Lord has done in bringing us here, what He's taught us, how we continue to grow, and the absolutely amazing things we've seen Him do on our behalf. Carolina is the feminine form of Charles. The two states of Carolina are named after British king Charles I. Since we already have a Charles after my grandpa and my sister does also we didn't want to venture down that road again. We both really love the name Lincoln and it means "from the lake land" or "settlement by the lake". It summed life up pretty well after having come from such severe life altering drought to...water, rain, life....where all of life flourishes.

Gates means "gateway" or "gates that lead into". So together it means "gateway into the lakeland" or "water land". Pretty fitting.

Eliakim is Hebrew and Biblically based. After surviving '09 we felt really led to give Graham and Gatlin Hebrew names in order to honor what God had done in our lives......giving us more children when they said we probably wouldn't have anymore and everything that happened that year. To us their names are remembrance stones as those that the Israelites erected everytime God moved on their behalf. So Graham's Hebrew name "Elishua" means "my God is wealth". Speaking life after what we had been through and after feeling so attacked and poverty stricken in every way....financially, child bearing, the wellbeing of our children and family....and then we were given our sweet, red headed, wild man, Baby A. Gatlin's Hebrew name "Elishama" means "whom God answers". It was so personal and close to our heart that we didn't make public the Hebrew part of their names for a very long time. But after all we have walked since then and what God continues to do we knew we wanted to do the same again with each baby thereafter. Especially after the moving journey.

Bringing us to Baby Gates. Eliakim is Hebrew and means "whom God will raise up". In Hebrew you read right to left so when put together his name in its entirety means "whom God will raise up in the gates of the water land". Symbolic of Brad's and my life here and what God is doing but also dedicating his little life to the Lord too.

And so it is that we welcome our sweet new boy to this world. How absolutely amazing his little life is and how totally, wrapped up in love with him we all are.

Going from bath to bed...with a baby!

Waking up to a flower on my pillow.