It’s certainly unanimous around here, baby Clare is the CUTEST baby! I’ve been slow sharing, she’s already 4 months now! I had a checkup on the day she was born and the midwife said I looked very ready to go into labor, so much so that she was going to call me at 4pm and check on me before leaving the birth center for her nephew’s hockey game. She called me at 4pm and, being the people pleaser I am, assured her she could go to the game and I had only had a few contractions that day and please don’t miss it for me. She paused for a while and said, “Shannon…….for some reason I just feel like I shouldn’t trust you. I’m going to stay here tonight.” SO rude haha! Then my friend brought us some dinner for which I was eternally grateful for in my very-pregnant-4 days-til-due-date state. I ate the salad without any problem and got a few bites into the mac and cheese and had a HUGE contraction. I told Luke we should PROBABLY wait for another one before we decide to call the midwife and head to the birth center. Luke and the children stopped eating and all silently stared at me with the intensity reserved for a bomb about to explode. Another contraction quickly came and Luke called the midwife and I breathlessly gave instructions to the children. Which only made everyone’s eyes bigger, the breathlessness, not the instructions. Which I’m sure were very boring and I can’t actually remember. Luke and Hannah and I got in the car and drove a little faster than we should.

Luckily the birth center is only 8 mintues away (but who’s counting?). When we arrived I resolved to just keep moving, just put one foot in front of the other, to get into the birth center, up the stairs and into my room despite Luke’s very sweet offer to carry me. The midwife was getting everything organized and filling the birth tub while I sat on the bed. She checked me and the baby and all was well and I was nearly completely dilated. I pushed with my next contraction and afterwards she told me the tub was ready and I could get in if I wanted to. I was at the point where I don’t think I could have walked over there and I knew I needed to stay put. With two more contractions baby Clare was born into Luke’s arms pink and crying and after only a 40 minute labor! I’ve always told people that movies are so unrealistic in how they portray labor as so fast and rushing to the hospital at the first contraction, but this one was about like the movies! Clare Juliana was exactly 9 lbs and had a full head of dark hair! I had the sweetest, most gentle birth assistant take care of me afterwards in a way that only someone with about twice as much life experience as me could give. We were able to go home just 4 hours later to sleep in our own bed! My favorite part was when we got home Luke got Clare and Hannah and the bag into the house and told me to wait in the car and he would come back to help me because of the snow on the ground. I had a moment of quiet to admire the stars and thank God. Luke hurried back out and walked me in slowly with his arms around me and he exclaimed that she is just the sweetest baby and we both laughed and teared up a bit. Katie was still awake and Audrey quickly woke up and came downstairs and we all passed her around and basked in her cuteness while Luke loaded up the woodstove. They reluctantly left our new bundle and got snug under their down comforters for our first night together as a family of 10.

Ok OKAY! I will refrain from adding 300 more! We have been busy with springtime on the farm, Luke rented a no-til drill to re-seed the pasture the cows were in over the winter and to touch up a few areas that didn’t grow in as thick as he wanted. We then conceived the idea that we should use it to make what we have named “The Chaos Garden”. We dumped all our garden seeds together that might do well out in the field without attention (pumpkins, cantaloupe, watermelon, zucchini, beans and peas) and used the drill to seed them in about 1/8 acre in a purposely overgrazed area of the pasture. It took 15 minutes, the hardest part was opening all the packages, haha! No tilling, no weeding, no planning, let’s see what God does with it!

And here’s some baby animals and our smiling faces!