Introducing our little Zipporah 'Zippi' Patricia....

Praise God! She is here safe and sound!!!

She was born at 3.20am on Thursday morning and weighed in at 6 pounds 14 and a half ounces.

She measured 50cm.

Zipporah was Moses' wife and she was faithful to Moses when the Lord was going to deal harshly with him. You can read the story in Exodus chapter 4 HERE. She has Patricia as her middle name after a beautiful woman (of the same name) who was like a grandmother to Brett his whole life until she passed away in 2001. I loved Pat too and she would have loved all our children. All of our kids have a family middle name.

Ok so here she is....

The birth was incredible!

On Wednesday I'd had some mild contractions (but I'd been having these for weeks leading up to the birth) but life continued on as normal. We spent most of the night looking at more nappy options online and at about 11pm i went to bed. I got up at 1.30am to go to the bathroom, felt a bit of a 'pop' and noticed what i thought might have been part of the show. I waited and realised that this could be it! Brett stirred and asked if everything was ok and i thought i'd better ring the hospital and see if it was worth popping over to get checked out. By this time I'd had one or two more mild contractions.

When i rang the hospital, I got the beautiful midwife who actually once risked her job to make sure i was safely travelled in an ambulance when I was rushed down to give birth to Stassi 7 years ago. It was the same midwife who knew me instantly and said, 'Oh Lus, there is no anaesthetist on tonight or tomorrow, so you'll have to go straight away to Nepean (an hour away) and knowing you, you should leave now!'

Brett and I had prayed about this many times during the pregnancy. See, even if you don't plan on needing an anaesthetist, you still can't labour at our hospital unless there is one on call due to liability risks. We had placed this situation into the Lord's hands so many times and completely trusted that He had the best plan in mind for us and that His peace and presence would be with us no matter where we laboured!

When I got off the phone, I called mum and dad (who also live an hour away), and I called Nomes our friend, to come and sit with the children (who were of course fast asleep!) Mum and dad were concerned about me travelling in the car (with my history of quick labours) and began praying as they travelled.

I began to also feel uneasy about travelling and as we packed the car I had my first big contraction. I stood in the ensuite and said, "Lord, please give us your wisdom now - should we stay go down in the car or go to our hospital instead? Please give us your wisdom!

" I called the hospital back to tell them I would prefer to come in and get checked out first before we travelled. They thought that was a fine idea and so we headed off to our hospital.

On the way there, Brett prayed over us and we again asked the Lord to go before us and make the path smooth for the right thing to happen; whatever that was according to His perfect plan! I had another contraction. We got in the maternity doors at 2.45am. A cannula was inserted immediately for the strep b meds. An ambulance was called and we were told we would still have to travel down the hill. I was examined and was 3-4cm's. The beautiful midwives went and filled in paperwork and while they were gone, I got up on the bed on my knees. I had quite a few very strong contractions and then told Brett I felt like bubby was trying to crown.

He got the midwife quickly :) She came in, gave me the gas and Brett put on the video camera in the corner. He came and rubbed my back and kept reassuring me.

I kept saying Psalm 46:1-3 in my head over and over again:

"God is our refuge and our strength; an ever present help in times of trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains melt into the heart of the sea, though the waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging".

Then three minutes later, she was born!

Here's the amazing thing though; she had the cord wrapped around her neck twice. And of course, the midwives were able to deal with that quickly and without incident. However, if we had gone in the car when we been told, we would have only been half way there. And the midwives were able to tell me to stop pushing at a certain point while they unhooked the cord (of course i had no idea what they were doing!) If I'd kept pushing, (and I wouldn't have known any better if i was on the side of the road!) it could have been a very bad situation for our precious Zippi. BUT PRAISE GOD! He made a perfect way for us to be able to labour there with the supervision of the beautiful midwives who have been like family to me over my 4 births.

So after 30 mins of being in the maternity ward, little Zippi entered the world! One of the midwives commented that it was one of the quickest, quietest and most beautiful births she's witnessed! The Lord was in that room with us and He filled it with His joy, love and beauty. I was so honoured to be there and be a part of such an incredible worshipful experience.

After I was fixed up and showered, we made our way to the room (single rooms here in the brand new maternity wing) and we cuddled with her, i fed her, we prayed over her and just enjoyed being together. There we watched the sunrise for the first time craddling our gorgeous Zipporah in our arms....

and marvelled at God's creative hands...

This was the view from outside my window...
And here she is resting on the bed....

I called home at about 8am when I knew the kids would all be up. Mum and dad had told them that we had gone to hospital but that was all they said. So I asked Stass to put the phone on speaker and told them, 'Your little sister is here - Zipporah has arrived!' and they all shrieked and screamed down the phone with JOY! Stassi actually cried with joy :) And of course, so did I!
When they arrived at the hospital, they were so overcome by how wonderful she is and were in complete awe. They loved their first snuggles with her...




and their first kisses too....

here are our 4 beautiful children together for the first time...

and our first family photo all 6 of us (lol saying that feels so strange and yet so right at the same time!!!)


and just a couple more shots of our gorgeous princess because I want to share her beauty with the world!

Her hands in her daddy's are so tiny...

and of course he is besotted with his new little princess....

Getting ready to leave the hospital...

Leaving the hospital grounds...

Daddy popping her into her capsule...

We always get a family shot before walking into the house for the first time with each bubby...

And these beautiful little signs were posted through the house for us...

So after 36 hours in hospital, we are home and have settled in really well.

I will try and return emails, phone calls, etc in the coming weeks but it might take a while as we adjust :)

Thanks to you all for your prayers, love, support, texts, calls, emails, parcels, words of encouragement.

Glory be to our God for our precious little Zipporah!

More soon,

Love Lus & Brett & the kids xxxxxx