Watered Spring: Now there are six!

Yup, we have now become a family of six! Crazy!!! We welcomed Ioan (pronounced Yo-an) William on May 22nd at 4:36pm weighing in at 7lb. 9oz and being 20 in. long. I was induced one day shy of 39 weeks and I am sooo glad they induced me. After weeks of contracting every 3-5 minutes and being in a great deal of pain, I was ready to meet Ioan. We arrived at the hospital around 6am and we began our induction. It was quite an eventful day for our little hospital- 6 babies were born that day! My OB was very busy. We were started on Pitocin around 7:30am, my water was broken around 11:30am, I got my epidural (which I am sooo glad that I got ) around 3pm, found out I was an 8 at 4pm, called a few friends around 4:15pm to let them know that Ioan would probably be arriving in an hour or so, and started pushing around 4:30pm and delivered at 4:36pm. It was a very fast delivery. Really almost too fast as I tore quite badly. I had a second degree tear up (it is not too common to tear up) and still tore down. I also burst a blood vessel which bled terribly and caused alot of problems! (Still is causing problems!) However, we are grateful Ioan is here and I am healing okay. We definitely have had some rough and busy couple of weeks since his birth. I had alot of blood loss and was quite anemic when I left the hospital. I am taking iron and eating yummy spinach salads and still struggling. When I saw the doctor this week he informed me that I would take a few months to return to normal. The blood loss has also caused me to have a low milk supply. After pumping after each feeding and nursing every two hours (a process that has taken an hour!), I am seeing an impovement in my milk supply and Ioan is finally starting to gain weight. (At a week and a half Ioan weighed in at 6lb. 11oz. and by the end of the week had gained 4 oz! I was impressed, but my lactation consultant wasn't completely impressed!) I am praying he will continue to grow. I have noticed an increase in his eating and in his sucking, so I am hoping we will be problem free from here on out!

All the kids are loving him. I am finding that being a mom of four is much busier now than with three, but nursing makes life busy! I am so grateful the Lord blessed us with Ioan and I pray that He will use us to train Ioan to be like Christ! I am overwhelmed by his grace in our lives and ask that you would pray that I would recieve an abundance of grace as I am tired and worn out and struggle with patience with my 3 busy children.

Well, I am tired, and that is all I have time to write! Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.