He's here! Jem Kekahuaina Lillywhite!

Yea!  Here's some wonderful news amid all of the crappy news happening in the world right now!  Supe and Beacher's little guy made it here safe and sound, and Beacher did too.  I'm just going to copy Supe's birth announcement.  We are always excited to have these little ones join the family.  Jem makes #26!  Now we are even at 13 boys/13 girls!  And now we have 3 boys including Jem, Brenden and Kai who will carry the Lillywhite name forward for this part of the family!  We were sorry not to be able to at least be at the hospital or go there afterwards to see Jem and Beacher and Supe, but the Covid-19 keeps us at a distance for now.  So tiresome it is!!!  Birthday - Wednesday, July 8th, 2020. A little piece of heaven here with us!  

The Jem Child has arrived!  He was pretty dang good about it.  He let Kal sleep in till 7 am before starting contractions, only made her labor for 8 hours and push for 40 minutes.  Showed up on his due date, 2 days after Kal's birthday and 5 days before mine.  Kal was incredible.  She did it with no meds.  It was really hard at some points and she definitely reconsidered that choice but by then it was kind too late.  Watching her struggle made me feel supe helpless and scared.  Really hard to see someone you love much in pain and working so hard at doing something so unknown to us.  The nurses were really great tho and helped so much.  Then Dr. Lunt came and guided akal through the pushing so well.  It looked so hard!  Kal is the toughest person I know (like stupid amounts of pain tolerance and dedication) and to see or working that hard was really intense and emotional for me (and her obviously).  She did awesome and after 40 minutes he was here!  Supe white and slimy haha.  Some brown fuzz.  I thought his hands looked like chicken feet (which we've been feeding to Auri our dog lately).  But then he was able to go snuggle up with Kal and it was one of the coolest things ever!

 Both Kal and Jem are doing good now.  I think Kal maybe slept an hour last night but hopefully that will increase soon.  Dr. Lunt and Dr. Clark have both been by this morning.  Supe good guys!  Jem's full name is Jem Kekahuaina Lillywhite.  Jem is from To Kill a Mockingbird, one of our favorite books. Also named after the Jem trail, one of the best mountain bike trail of all time.  Kekahuaina is Hawaiian (Jem is 1/8th Hawaiian) it means Guardian of the land.  But no just like land as in a plot of land.  Like the land and people and animals and stuff.  PRetty cool we thought.  Kekahu is a famly name from Kal's side.

Jem weighed 55 lbs when born, but magically shrunk to 7 lbs. 10 ounces when they weighed him. Weird.  He is 20 inched tall. Or long.  He's pretty freaking awesome.  He like to eat a lot and poop lots of black stuff.  He hates it when I change his diaper and loves it when mom holds him.  Seems to be indifferent about me singing to him.  So glad Kal and Jem are here safe!  Love you. 😘😘

And here's Kal's report:

Jem decided he wanted to come right on his due date and be in on this week of birthday celebrations!! (Mom's is July 6th and Dad's is July 13th) I don't think he could've made it any easier for me during labor unless he just magically floated out, but I guess I can't be too picky, so heavens bless you baby haha.  Iam so grateful for Supe for being with me every step of the way.  Any brief moment he had to be away from me while I was laboring were the hardest for me.  I love you!!

And here's our report:

We got to meet Jem on Friday, July 10th.  We came with masks on and got to visit with the new parents and hold Jem.  He's a really cute little guy and looked so good for having just gone through that whole birthing process.  We are so happy to have him here with his mom and dad and good dog Auri!  She seems to be happy to have him as part of the family too!  We look forward to getting to know this little one and hope for a wonderful life for him!  He has come into this world during a really crazy time.  And I don't know...we are getting into lots of crazy times to come in the future it feels like.  I'm so happy he has wonderful parents to take care of him and teach him.  And we will leave it to them and Heavenly Father...and all of the rest of us who love him, to help him have that wonderful life we hope for with every child that comes to join our family.  

Today is July 19th.  And today is the day I got to hold Jem (without my mask on) and finally get a picture with him.  He's such a cutie all bundled up in his burrito wrap!