Surprising My Hubby about Baby #7

 Almost a year after his arrival, I have the bandwidth to write down the birth story of our "third last child" - Malachi Jarrott.

Malachi was conceived on my birthday - days past my ovulation date, when all the symptoms said we were clear.  (We knowingly didn't use protection, but there are secondary reasons for that, which is another story and testimony.)  I should have started my period when I was at Women's Encounter with my sisters and niece.... But it didn't show up. (Glad they didn't notice!) After a week, I took a test.

For all of our 6 previous children, Paul has either known because we were planning, or has been suspicious, so I have never surprised him with pregnancy news.  I sat on this surprise for days, and finally my chance came.  Paul's work had done a big remodel and had added a new cafeteria.  He had been asking for me to come visit, so I took the two little girls and went up to eat lunch with him for his birthday.  (It was actually the day before his birthday.)  I told him I would text him from the parking lot to let him know we had arrived.  So I texted, "We're here." and then "PS. I'm pregnant."

He was already waiting at the door for us and saw me pull in, so he didn't check his messages.  We sat at the cafeteria and he ordered some food for the girls and we sat down to chat.  It was pretty obvious he hadn't read my text, so I said, "You need to check your messages."  He's like "okaaaay...." and picked up his phone.  He looked at the message, and then looked up at me and asked, "Is this a joke?" 

It wasn't, but at the same time, it was.  I knew he wouldn't react in front of the coworkers in the cafeteria (they already tease him about his big family), and we couldn't talk about it in front of the girls unless we wanted the whole world to know, which I definitely wasn't ready for.  I could tell he was surprised and confused and happy, but he just said, "I have so many questions."

There was definitely a lot of texting (and deleting texts from my phone because of snooping children!).  So Malachi was part of both of our birthdays in the summer of 2024.

We finally started telling people in September, when I couldn't hide it any longer.  We told the kids first.  Opal just said, "Nope!" and walked away.  Jacob declared he was moving out.  And guess who the two that are the most doting on this new little one?  Yep.  Those are the two!

How Did We Get Here, Part 2

I briefly explained our view of family planning in this post.  After having Opal 5 years ago, we stuck to our natural family planning - and figured with my advancing age, that our chances of our family expanding were rapidly declining now that I am over 40.

But God is full of humor and blessings.

He surprised us this year with our third "last child."  We now have 7 kids!  We never planned to be "one of those weird families."  (And I still don't consider us one of "those" families. We are a very normal family, that happens to have a lot of kids!)

We started marriage in 2004 planning to have an "acceptably large" family of 4 kids.  I did not have regular menstrual cycles (one or two a year), so we had to use ovulation drugs to get pregnant with the first two (boys), born in 2007 and 2009.  We had a miscarriage in 2011.  After being pregnant with a girl (born 2012), it seemed that my hormones finally figured it out and I began cycling regularly. We had our fourth (another boy) in 2013, and whereas I was "done" mentally (4 kids in 6 years), I can't say I ever truly felt like I knew we were done.  (Everyone says you know.)  

Paul was leaving it up to me, as it is my body that has to bear pregnancies, and I was leaving it up to him as it's his finances that have to provide.  We both felt that we needed to trust God, but agreed my body needed a break.  (I had been pregnant or nursing all but a few months of 8 years.)

Then we became pregnant with #5 within months of having the "let's give your body a break" talk.  Another girl was born in 2016.  (And this was after having an ovary removed due to a cyst!)

After this baby, my cycles became extremely regular, and we thought this we had this family planning thing really under control. No babies for 4 years seemed to verify that thought.  And then there was that one month in spring of 2020 (the spring of Covid lockdown)......  Our 6th was born in early 2021.

At this point we both felt we were done, but still not willing to have surgery to demand our will over God's.  Our oldest was almost done with home school high school, and our youngest was just starting.  I was managing a thriving ministry at church, and we were all involved in ministry at church and helping on my family's farm.  Life was full, and we were content and abundantly blessed.

Everything on the internet about fertility in your 40s says it is almost impossible to get pregnant.  Apparently that doesn't apply if you've had 6 babies already!  We got pregnant with baby #7 on my 42nd birthday, despite carefully tracking my cycles, and the calendar and physical symptoms showing me being days past "the danger zone."  Ironically, my sister had just given me back all the baby stuff I'd given to her.  I took it to donation, but the pregnancy center was randomly closed, so the car seat and other items stayed in the back of my van for two weeks.......where it still was when I found out I'd need them again!

Our 7th was born in March of 2025.  I've had babies in three separate decades!  ('00s, '10s, and '20s)  God is good, and never ceases to amaze us.

Testing, testing.....

I'm considering a return to blogging. It's been 5 years, and our lives look a bit different now......