Baby Donovan is here!!!

Whew! It's been a busy last couple of weeks as new parents! Donovan Briggs Merrill was born on Monday, October 13 at 10:31 p.m. weighing in at 7 lbs. 4 oz. and was 20 inches long. My water had been leaking since the night before, but I wasn't sure what was happening because I didn't have the stereotypical gush of a water breaking that you hear about. So Josh and I went to work Monday morning as usual. Meanwhile, wildfires raged in the hills of the Porter Ranch community less than a mile across from the church where we work, and we decided to head home at 1 p.m. But the 118 freeway, which gives us a 10-minute commute home, was shut down because of the fires, and we had to take an alternate route home that took an hour. I called my doctor on the way, just to be find out whether or not I should come into the hospital. He said, "Angela, remember that I told you if you were sitting in a pool of water or your contractions became so painful that they take the smile off your face, you should check into Labor and Delivery right away?" Oopsies...

We were admitted into the hospital at 5:00 p.m. After the the nurse did some tests to make sure it was amniotic fluid, she called the doctor upon confirmation. At this point I was already three centimeters dilated. We thought it would be a good time for Josh to go out to the car and get our overnight bags, but while he was gone, doc arrived and broke my water completely. Soooo painful! A few minutes later, I started having major contractions. Josh came back into the room and I was like a different person--eyes closed, in the zone, trying to remember my relaxation techniques to get through each intense contraction as they came. Between each contraction, I got the words out to tell Josh I thought he needed to call both of our moms. I had a feeling this baby was coming soon!

"You know," the nurse said, "you can get the epidural any time. You're four centimeters dilated and you don't have to go through this pain any longer if you don't want to..."

A word to those who have labored naturally:

God bless you. You are superwomen. I can't imagine going through an entire labor with the pains I endured for an hour that were only going to increase in frequency and painfulness. My mom did it with all three of us girls, and my mother-in-law labored naturally for 24 hours with Josh--and he was nearly 11 pounds!!! I know that the Lord gives us the strength to get us through the pain, and women have done it without drugs for thousands of years...but needless to say, I took to the nurse up on her offer for that epidural!

Once again, I was a new person. The anesthesiologist was amazing and about 10 minutes after he administered the epidural, I was completed pain free--I couldn't believe it! Then Josh and I watched a couple of episodes of The Office on DVD on our laptop, and our moms arrived around 8:30 p.m. God was so good to clear up the traffic from the wildfires so they could get there right in time.

After about six hours of labor, I gave birth to Donovan. Besides meeting and marrying Josh, it was the most amazing experience of my life. We stare at this beautiful little guy every day in awe of God's goodness--how He perfectly formed this person, our son, and entrusted his life to us. Thank You, Lord, for this gift!

Stayed tuned for more Merrill Family news. This is the last post on this blog, but Josh and I will be starting a family blog soon! (And in "mommy time," "soon" could be a few weeks, haha!)

Love to you all,

Angie, Josh, and Donovan