Well.
Elle est la.
She’s here.
This morning I drank my magic birth potion.
The Internet articles said it was horrible but I really did not see what the big deal was. I put on my Amazing Race attitude and I plugged my nose and pounded 8 ounces of orange juice, a shot of vodka and three tablespoons of castor oil. I figured that someday I could at least say to my sister and sister-in-law,
“Go ahead, try it honey, I did.”
I was willing to risk the rumored horrible side effects (the turbo-lax scene in Dumb and Dumber) to get this baby in my arms.
and then… nada. (and I don’t mean Farm.)
I talked to my midwife at noon and asked if I needed to drink the stuff again and she said it’s never happened. So, that made me feel good but I still felt nothing. No stomach gurgling, not even a “toot.” We thought four hours would be long enough to know if Joel should leave for work but you can’t say,
“Call in and tell them your wife drank castor oil.”
Joel had to leave for work, a Chicago route tonight. I did not expect him before Midnight.
Then I tucked Amélie in bed and gave her a few moments worth of MeeMee’s and instantly the contractions began!!! Like a freight train, three minutes apart. I did my best to get Girlfriend tucked in without alarming her. I so badly wanted her to take her nap. Then I took a deep breath, called Joel who had left for his downtown Chicago delivery schedule an hour before…”Come home.”
Thankfully he had not pulled out of “headquarters” yet or else he would have been on the Kennedy unable to turn around…
-Called this midwife and said “You’d better come now.”
-Called Momma, said, “I just gave Amélie her MeeMee’s, you better come now.”
My first contraction was at quarter after one,
“It’s a quarter after one, I’m all alone and I need you now…”
And by 3:17 Juliette Élisabeth was born. Into the hands of her Daddy.
We are elated.
There is so much more to say… the gentle tender reactions of the siblings…the wonder and AWESOMENESS of Homebirth… But I’ll save some for tomorrow and close by saying
THANK YOU JESUS!!!
Congratulations on a beautiful baby girl! Juliette – a beautiful name! May God bless you all.
Love it! Juliette Elisabeth are my names and I’m an retired dancer working on my second Masters degree. I wish her every success. I’ll say great choice of names, but then again I would. My shortened form is Jay and I’m not the only Juliette I know who uses Jay
Wonderful!!! Amazing!!! Yeah!!!
Congratulations Mommy!!! I am so happy for all of you. Her name is beautiful and so is she!!!
You look radiant…truly remarkable!!!
I am praying for health and happiness for your family and much rest for you!!! God bless you all!!!
Enjoy!!!
XOXO
Cathy
I have fallen in love with your joie de vivre… Congratulations…
She is a treasure. Thanks for being so open and generous with your blessed life!
Welcome Juliette!
Congratulations. She is beautiful – your other two are so sweet with her. So glad she is here!
Gwyn Rosser @ The Pink Tractor
http://www.gwynrosser.blogspot.com
Angela,
All I can say is Wow…I am speechless. How have you had time to write this post??? You are amazing. You look beautiful. Juliette est si mignonne comme tes autres enfants…
And, I must say that it seems like a totally different experience for a homebirth compared to going to the hospital (which is what I did when Amelia arrived). Most women would still be in a hospital bed at this point. Please do share any information about this experience. I am intrigued. I am so happy for you that Joel got to be with you during this heavenly moment.
And did Amelie sleep through the delivery? Tell me the castor oil also takes away the pain!!!
Oh, hilarious comment about Dumb and Dumber (my second fave movie after Amelie, of course).
Oh, and Juliette is a perfectly French name. Je l’adore!
She is just beautiful. I Love that babylove… All the photograhs are great. Cant wait to see how the next few months unfold. Congrats…
Hi Angie,
I am so happy for you and for your whole family. She is beautiful and you look amazing! I can’t wait to hear more about her. Was she your biggest baby? Wow, you are amazing!!
LeAnn:)
Good grief…one minute your blogging pregnant…then it seems all of a sudden….a beautiful “Hand-held”, (that is what my husband & I call sweet little babies). And you really do look great! Home birthing…I hope you will share more. Soooo sweet! Congrats to you & your whole family! What a beautiful baby girl!
I just finished the dishes and decided to pop up here and check your “progress.” As the blog reader was checking for an update I said to myself, “Let’s see if she’s arrived . . . ” then I stopped — did I just say SHE??? Hmmmm . . . After the blog reader found your latest post I opened it to meet Mademoiselle JULIETTE. (It was a SHE!!! My heart knew!)
Congratulations and my prayers continue for you, my sweet zany friend from the parisienne farm.
; D
Congratulations on your beautiful daughter – a precious blessing from the Lord!! What a beautiful name you chose! May God richly bless you!
Renata 🙂
So happy for you and your family! How exciting! She’s here and well. Congratulations! Thanks for the pictures, she is beautiful!
Congratulations on your new little bundle of joy, Juliette! I was just looking at the blogs and saw this pretty little baby on Savvy City Farmer and then saw yours on Parisienne Farm Girl… and for a moment, I thought wow, two babys both born on farms on the same day and they look like twins! Then I realized they are both pictures of little Juliette. Such a sweet baby!
Congratulations and welcome to this crazy world sweet Juliette!
May the days of your life be filled with the love of Christ.
You should be very proud Mama, what an amazing job you did…rest well tonight – we expect a full step by step recap of how it all happened tomorrow 😉
xo, *S
I am so happy for you and your family.
You look awesome and the baby is beautiful!
So glad everything’s ok.
Looking forward to more posts.
XXOO,
Teri
Look at you Miss Beautiful. You didn’t even mess up your gorgeous hair. Well done.
I am adoring the pictures of your home delivery. What an amazing adventure. Juliette is a fitting name for your precious new daughter, I love it.
So happy that everyone made it home to be together. The picture of your Mom/my friend is great.
Hugs to all,
Sue
Congratulations!! What a beautiful baby, and a lovely family!!! You look amazing for having just given birth!!! I love the name.
God bless,
Selina
Oh adorable… many congratulations how absolutely gorgeous she looks…. My eyes are filling with tears looking at your photographs… So happy for you all. xx
Congratulations on your beautiful baby girl!
Congratulations on your beautiful addition to your sweet family.
Berte in Texas
Oooh she is so sweet, she looks like a chubba bubba, how big was she??
Congratulations and a job well done,you all looks so radiantly happy, welcome to the world beautiful Juliette, Amanda
Congratulations! Welcome to the world Juliette!
Congratulations! I was checking in everyday to see if the baby had come yet. I love her name. You don’t even look like you just had a baby, your gorgeous!!
God Bless!!
Congratulations – such a beautiful baby!
Congrats you guys!!! WOW. Another daughter. Just amazing. She is beautfiul. I am so happy all went well with your delivery too. The pics of Aidan and Amelie seeing her for the first time just bring tears to my eyes. Those are memories you will never forget, watching your family expand and fall instantly in love right before your very eyes.
I can’t wait to talk to you! Love you all…
SN
Yay-she’s here!!! She is gorgeous!!! Beautiful name!!! Congrats!! Can’t wait to hear more. Love you all!!!
Oh how precious she is! I love love love her name too!! You look great!! Great pictures!
Juliette looks as if she is going to have all those darling little rolls on her fat little arms that her big sister had!!!!! Too sweet!! What a beautiful family!!
God Bless!!
Congratulations! Juliette is a beautiful name and beautiful baby! I swear, you don’t look like you just gave birth – you look amazing! I do hope you’ll fill us all in on your take of the concoctions role in the birth and all about the home birth. I’m truly interested to hear all about it (and see more pictures).
XO,
Pam
So happy for your newest little miracle. She is as beautiful as her siblings already. Congratulations-enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.
WAHOOOOO!!!!!!!!
Congratulations!!!!!
She is BEAUTIFUL, of course.
That castor oil is slick!
Yeah! I am so thrilled to have another niece. I KNEW it would be a girl and I can’t wait to meet her. I can’t type any more because I’m at work and I’ll start crying! 🙂 Love you and will see you soon.
ps. Amelie’s curious face, Aidan capturing it on video… too much, just TOO MUCH!
–Victoria
Beautiful baby, beautiful name!!! You look beautiful too after having just given birth — good gracious woman!!! I’m glad you had a great homebirth. I try not to relive too many regrets that I couldn’t:( Enjoy this sweet time!!
Love, Renita
Congratulations to you all. Lovely photos especially of your other children looking so proudly at her.
Oh my goodness! How beautiful. Her name is lovely.
Congratulations!
Congratulations! She is absolutely gorgeous and I just love her name. I’m so glad that your labor went so well.
I am so HAPPY for your whole family, and the pictures are so precious! What a beautiful name, and what a welcome baby, can’t wait to see her growing up with her sister! You make home births look like the perfectly natural thing to do!
XOXO
Joni
Congratulations! What a beautiful girl and a beautiful name! You sure don’t look like you just had a baby – what about that magic potion!!! I’ve enjoyed finding and reading through your blog-I love your style. 🙂
God Bless you all~
Sarah
What a beautiful baby girl, and what a lovely name you’ve chosen for her!
Congratulations, sweet friend.
PARISIAN FARMGIRL! Je te félicite!! Elle est magnifique la petite! Comment vas-tu? Comme tu es superbe même après avoir mis au monde cette jolie fille! Bisous! Anita
congrats!!
she’s beautiful.
xo
Oh my goodness you look incredible! God Bless you and keep you and make HIS face shine upon you and your newest little one.
Congratulations you blessed, blessed family.
I had one by castor oil – it really works!
What wonderful news!! I am so happy for you all. I just read your comment on my blog last night and thought, oh no…poor thing, still nothing. Then…I popped over to your mom’s blog and saw that sweet Juliette had been born about 4 hours after you left that comment! WOW!!! You go girl!
I’m thrilled for you and what a beautiful name! You look radiant and sweet Juliette is beautiful. Good job mom – congratulations!
God Bless you all,
Kathleen
What a woman you are! My daughter had her last two boys at home and I must say, it was awesome. Your photos bring back all those happy memories. You look fabulous! Congrats and best wishes.
What a joyous time in the life of a family. I remember each of my six births as if they were yesterday and that flood of emotions that come with each one. I never looked as great as you after any of them though. Your look wonderful. I’m so happy for you.
hugs
I wanted to thank you for stopping by the other day and leaving such kindness at my place.
Beautiful sweet girl! and what a classical name…I love it. Blessings to you all. What a wonder you are baby, posting, pictures and all!! Thank you for sharing with us.
So happy for all of you. What a gorgeous baby!!!
Lovely little lady you have there! Many congratulations and warm wishes to you and your entire family!
Happy Babymoon~
Fondly,
Renee (Anne-Marie’s sister-in-law)
Congratulations for beautiful little girl! Her name is graceful – Elisabeth… My little daughter is Elisabeth too – “Erzsébet” in hungarian language. God bless You!!!
Félicitations pour l’arrivée de Juliette Élisabeth. Je lui souhaite la bienvenue dans le monde. May she be blessed as well as your lovely little family. Regards.
Oh, I have tears in my eyes just from reading and looking at the pics. Congratulations!
Cngratulation on the arrival of your beautiful baby girl – you have chosen such a pretty name. Everyone looks so happy and you my dear look so lovely, how do you do it?
Many blessing to you and your sweet family!
Congrats on that beautiful baby! I am so happy that everything went well! You have a beautiful family!!!
Oh happy happy!!! Congratulations! It has been forever since I made it around here and I just KNEW I had to check in. WHat wonderful pictures. You look so beautiful and so does she! Health and Joy to you and the little one. I’m off to read more.
xxooxx,
Jen
Here I am again, months later, and getting the tears in the eyes again. So precious.