I am here to announce that our baby was born on Friday, August 15th at 2:58 in the afternoon and it is a ….
BOY!!
We feel so blessed and are so happy with our new little guy. I have so many things to say and I have no idea where to start.
To begin we have named him Garrett Michael Reid and he surprised all of us by being born weighing a whopping 11 pounds and 3 ounces, 22 inches long with a 15 cm head. He was born at home, in water, with the assistance of my wonderful midwife Sherry and her two assistants, Dorise and Susan. Thanks to Sherry I was able to birth my gigantic little guy without tearing! I am so glad I did not know how big he was going to be. Having no fear over his size definitely allowed me to birth him without complication. I fear that had he been born in a hospital he would have been an emergency c-section or at the least, I would have had an epesiotomy. His head was born under water but Mike had to support me while I stood to birth his shoulders. I’m not going to get to the birth story today but labor began around 5 in the morning (I’ll have to look at my notes) and he was born at 2:58 so it was a short labor. I can not tell you how relieved I was considering that his sister, Camden, was born after 58 hours of labor. Thank you Red Raspberry Leaf Tea! The birth was so wonderful and I am so happy with how things turned out and feel so blessed to have been able to have and give my son the birth experience I have always wanted.
I took new pictures today and yesterday but haven’t had a chance to upload them to the computer yet and Garrett is sleeping on me so I’ll have to do that later. For now here are a few pics. Thank you Emeth and Shelby for being at the birth to help and to take pictures and I’m sorry to Lisa and Shilowe who wanted to be there so bad and weren’t able to.
When I share the birth story I will include pictures of the birth.
Here he is!!
Garrett Michael Reid
Journey To Here 
Someone shared the link to your blog on my local homebirth yahoogroup. I’m going to save the link and return when I can.
Garrett is beautiful. I’m glad you shared your homebirth story with the world. Slowly more people will understand.
I had my third baby at home 21 months ago and even though my first two hospital births were easy, my homebirth was the BEST.
I was also following a link but I am definitely adding your blog to my feeds! Congratulations, on your big baby boy.
My homebirthed babe was small compared to Garrett ( he was only ten pounds;-) but I do remember thoughts similar to yours after he was born. I felt so lucky to have avoided a C-Section or the ICU by choosing a homebirth. I didn’t need a single stitch after he was born either. It is a shame those hospital baby docs won’t try to learn a thing or two from the midwives.
I followed your link from the Push email newsletter. Congrats on your 11lber! The 11lbers are always so cute. :) Enjoy him.
how fat! and believe me, fat is a good thing! congrats and well done.
Congrats Jessica!!! I’m so glad your labor was shorter this time and you have a healthy baby, he is a cutie!
Congrats on your new “little” guy!
Ohmygoodness! Those adorable little cheeks….I think I’m in love!!! He is so perfect Jessica! :o) Congratulations to you and Mike and the girls. Jaya and I are excited to see you guys and meet the handsome little man!
He is adorable and I cannot wait to meet him! Congratulations!