The Newest Addition to Our Beach Cheap Urban Homestead

Less than one day old! Loralinda Joy joined our family "officially" at 6:15 AM on Thursday, November 10, 2011. We had an Unassisted Homebirth. Caught by Mama, Assisted and Witnessed by Daddy. Big sister Lyliana slept through the whole thing; she was probably tired from the day before which was her 5th birthday.

She was 7 pounds 9 ounces, 20 inches long. A gorgeous healthy baby girl. We had no ultrasounds during this pregnancy, so her gender was a complete surprise.
The birth was amazing and beautiful.
God has blessed us so richly. I could type all day and not come close to describing His love.


After a period of adjustment, we are trucking along. Loral is nursing and sleeping well. Lyli is loving being a big sister. The chickens are finally getting some attention from me, after being fed and watered by others for the past 2 weeks. And Charcoal, well, he's pretty happy. He spends most of his days guarding my garden from the neighborhood squirrel.


I am so thankful to have a husband who understands my soul's need to be outside in my garden. For the first week postpartum, all I did was walk around and look at everything, usually with Loral nursing in her baby wrap and Lyli playing on her bouncy-horse, drinking in the beauty of growing things. We were blessed with rain that week.
During the second week, I did some small chores like watering the plants from the rain "barrels."
And on Thanksgiving Day, my husband tended to the baby while I got up early to clean out the chicken coop, adding all the scratched bedding and manure to the compost pile. I couldn't have asked for a more splendid morning.
Since then, Lyli and I have raked up the sycamore leaves to be added to the compost. We had such fun! And we've harvested a couple of salads from the garden. The cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli are doing well, and the carrots and beets are hanging in there.
All in all, I'm glad to see that our homestead can survive a couple of weeks of Baby-Brain fog.
Blessings!
-Lainie

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