Ocean's Birth

A hospital birth is not what any of us wanted, but at the end of the day we are just thankful our pretty princess made it out of the womb safely! As our surrogate Leah described it, she birthed the baby, looked up, and the room was filled with a whole swat team of hospital staff doing various tasks! I'm not even sure what they were all doing, but Leah got taken care of and Ocean was placed on my chest for the golden hour of bonding and nursing, so all's well that ends well. I birthed Uri in the comfort and privacy of home with no one but Jacob to assist me, until the midwives and my sister-in-law arrived 20 minutes later, and the midwives did all of Uri's newborn care. Leah also birthed all her own babies at home. So the hospital with its myriad of staff and bright lights was a very different experience, but we got taken care of and all is well. Leah is well, Jacob and I and Ocean are well, all are well. Leah and her family got a chance to see Ocean and say farewell, Jacob and I were so thankful to get home and sleep in our own beds after 16 days of camping out waiting for Ocean to be born, and we've settled in so nicely with our little treasure. Thanks to all for the prayers and for everyone who brought us meals and everything!

Here's a picture of Jacob cleaning Ocean off before we left Leah's room to take baby to our own hospital room.

Also, for the record - Ocean is not a tiny baby! She may have started off at 3% when the monitoring began, but she grew to 52% by the time she was born! Little champ! 😍