welcome jude

He's here!  2 weeks ago he arrived, and I'm just now finding some time to blog.  Life is busy with 3 kiddos, but it is sure wonderful.  I know its only been 2 weeks, but I tell everyone I feel like the transition from 2 kids to 3 has gone much smoother than 1 to 2.  I'm thankful for that! Back to the highlight of our news:  Jude Evan McCoy was born Aug. 4, 2012 at 12:35 p.m.  He was 7 lbs 5 oz, and 19.5 in long.  Not that those stats are huge, but once again when we were told the baby would be small and in the lower 6 lb. range, our baby proved otherwise.  I did end up having to be induced, even though I would have liked to go on my own! We checked into the hospital at 6:00 a.m.  They didn't really do anything with me till around 9:30ish.  Between about 10 to 10:30 my doctor broke my water and got the pitocin going.  Right away the contractions were fast and hard.  15 minutes after my nurse checked my "labor progression" I called her in and told her I really thought she better check me again.  She kind of looked at me like, "Lady, I just checked you!" but she did it anyway.  Sure enough, I was 7 cm dilated.  She said in about 10 minutes I'm going to check you again, and then we'll get the doctor called in here.   After that last check, the doctor was in and I was pushing.  Thank goodness b/c I was wanting to push for quite some time! :)  The actual delivery was very fast, and I was so thankful for the nurse and doctor that I had.  The nurse told me exactly what to do in between contractions and pushing, the doctor was so calm and was giving me orders as well that I wouldn't have known if he wouldn't have told me what to do.  I went from hearing the doctor say, "Oh,  he's got lots of dark hair!" to "He's a perfect, happy baby!"  Right away I got to have him on my tummy & chest, a moment that I'm sure all you moms that have experienced can relate to, and time stood still.  Those first moments with all of my children are truly at the very top of my list (other than marrying Bart).  When Jude first came out, I was like, holy moly, its Max the 2nd, but the second and third days, I started to see Zoe in him too.  Now I see a combo of both Max & Zoe & then some of Jude's own look.  I'm so thankful to have another safe delivery and another healthy child.  God has been so gracious to us, and we really do consider our children the biggest blessings we've been given.  Thank you Lord.  Jude was known as "baby boy McCoy" for a day and half b/c we were 100% with the his first and middle name combo.  We got to a point where we knew Jude was his first name, but the middle name was still in limbo.  We named him Jude Evan b/c Jude means praise or thanks and Evan means God is gracious and it's Celtic meaning is young warrior.  Both Bart & I have always been really into name meanings, so along with having to agree with a name that we liked the sound of, we wanted the names to have strong meanings.

We are enjoying a newest family member and both Zoe & Max have been great big sister and brother!  Once again, my heart is full!