Our boon baby is here!

Hallelujah, we had our baby!

Coy Boone Christensen joined our family on Monday, October 30th, 2017.  Just about everything about the labor was different from my others, but his actual entrance into the world was marked by peace, quiet, and calm.  It was very sweet.  And he is just wonderful!

I am super excited, first that he came, second, that he came on the due date that I had in my head, third that he is a boy, and fourth, I'm just so happy that I am not pregnant anymore.  You know, you just get to that point where you're mentally and physically and in every way possible just at your max.  And then one day, it's all over.  And that day finally came for me.  It's amazing the lessons we women learn through childbearing, child-rearing, or even having those blessings withheld.  Powerful lessons one way or another.

I am so grateful for the six major blessings in my life--my children.  Each child different and delightful in their own ways.  Each a gift I am still unwrapping as the days and years pass.  I don't know that there will be anymore children joining our family, but I am sure feeling super blessed to have had these!  I turned 40 a few weeks ago, and I really wouldn't have wanted to spend my 40th birthday doing anything else.

I am so grateful to each of my children (and my husband)  who've helped so much during my pregnancy and beyond to facilitate welcoming another baby into our family.  It's never easy.  It always turns things upside-down for a time until the upheaval settles into a new normal.  And we get stronger again as we adapt and learn how to do things better together.

One major thing we've been dealing with is that Coy has had jaundice, which we've never experienced before. Because of our non-matching blood types (and Coy being Coombs positive), Coy's case was a little bit more serious than most.  So we found ourselves in the ER the day after we returned from the hospital, but we've been working hard to get his bilirubin number lowered and I think he's going to be just fine.

Through this, I've had wonderful women support me and my family by stepping in to babysit last-minute and bring meals, etc.  I am so grateful for these generous friends.  Their help made it much easier to deal with the unexpected doctor's visits and ER trip.  And having my Mom come help has been awesome as well.

Anyway, that's all.  Just giving you the long and the short of it.  If you're wondering about his name, we chose Boone as in "boon" because he is a blessing to our family.  We chose Coy partially because we wanted another three-letter name for our third boy, but liked Coy for it's old English meaning: quiet, calm, reserved.