Welcoming Baby #8: Our Catholic Family’s Birth Story ❤️

Welcome to our official birth announcement for our newest blessing, Louis Joseph Yasinski, born on January 3, 2025, the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus! 🙌 As a Catholic family, we are thrilled to share this joyful moment with you. In this episode, we recount the journey of welcoming our eighth child, from the surprises of late pregnancy to the blessings of his safe arrival.

Watch video podcast

Transcript

hey it's good to see you this is the official birth announcement of Louis Joseph Yasinski our newest son Janelle yeah it's exciting so uh he was born on January 3rd 2025 yeah and some of you been like has the baby been born has the baby been born yes the baby's been born but we've just been busy because baby's been born that's why we've been busy it's but he was also born later than I really thought he would be yes so today we're going to walk you through our the birth experience of the the whole thing if so if that's the kind of video you're interested in keep on watching if not you can just click stop here because we're just going to share personally so going back to before he was born Janelle we had a little bit of a a waiting game yes okay so basically um from December 18th onward I thought that this baby would be coming um all of our babies so this is baby number eight every single one of them has arrived before their due date um I had never reached Beyond 39 weeks and one day and so my earliest baby came that was our son Jacob he came at 37 just after 37 weeks so basically I I anticipate babies like when we're pregnant a baby's arrival from the 37 week Point onward and um prior to that week I remember feeling actually at 36 weeks I remember think oh my goodness is this baby coming I thought I was having some contractions and so I was getting kind of a little bit nervous um we were planning for a home birth and I knew that before 37 weeks you can have a home birth so I was like oh my goodness okay I got to know where to go for the hospital and everything and no baby came and then we continued on 37 weeks started getting ready for Christmas Christmas came Christmas went started getting ready for New Year's New Year's came New Year's went still no baby and every single night I would go to bed thinking is this baby going to come because usually these labors start in the middle of the night and um I would actually it was funny because I would I would often tell people this was the best pregnancy and I'm 43 years old and it was kind of I thought oh like when we first conceived I thought oh my goodness this is probably going to be really hard people always say it's harder when you get older and I was really pleasantly surprised at how amazing I felt throughout the entire pregnancy and then the last month and a half came and I was like oh my goodness I can like barely walk up the stairs I so winded I have to like sit down prepping food at the island um you know I feel faint my iron levels were low so I I've been on iron and um it was just like getting really challenging and also one thing that I was really blessed us was like I didn't have any anxiety um because I felt like the other pregnancies I often felt very anxious uh especially as we approached the delivery of the baby just thinking okay I got to like go through this again and um but this time I I really had no none of that and but as we approached like Christmas and everything it was just like my heart just started getting filled with a lot of not worry but it was just um that anxiety that I thought I didn't have it it had come back and I was having a hard time sleeping and I was worrying a lot thinking of all the worst case scenarios and I remember there was even like one morning I woke up and I was like dry heaving in the sink I just was just so consumed with like I don't know if it was fear or what it was so anyhow so I was really um feeling anxious about everything and especially just you know people wondering oh has the baby come you know cuz honestly I thought I'd be like going to church with a baby in a in a bucket seat and here we are still pregnant but you know what it's it's funny because I really have nothing to complain about and I was telling Ken all the time I'm like I feel like I have the best support I have everything is in place there's absolutely no reason for me to be anxious about things but I think it's part of like my personality I'm kind of like to have everything ordered orderly organized I know when things are happening how they're going to happen there's no surprises but with a baby you really can't plan that like especially if you're not having a scheduled C-section right which I wasn't and um so anyhow on because I was over 40 um The Midwives had just SG they suggested if I wanted to I could go and get an ultrasound done just because um they say sometimes for older women this is a geriatric pregnancy um that sometimes they just want to monitor the placenta just to make sure that the baby is is you know getting the proper nutrition and everything so on New Year's Eve I went for an ultrasound and when I was there the ultrasound tech just you know kindly told me she's like oh the baby's measuring seventh percentile and for me like my babies are always small she said it was approximately 6 lb and 4 o and so I was like oh yeah like I've had five like in the 5B babies and up to just under 7 lbs like all my babies have been small so I didn't think anything of that and then when I went to go see the Midwife and I told her I said oh the lady said that the baby's measuring seventh percentile she looked at me she's like oh Janelle you know what we won't be able to do a home birth because if the baby's measuring seventh percentile then you don't qualify for home birth and for a home birth and so now you'll have to have the baby at the hospital and we were all set up with the pool was blowing up it's a blowup pool cuz jelle would have a water bursts typically and we were ready and we had all the things and this was all some change and kids thinking yeah right not that the kids are there join the just be clear no it's very private yeah but you know everyone was anticipating this and then um so then I think my Midwife was worried that I'd be really disappointed but you know what there was something within me that was I don't want to say almost relieved but I think part of my worry was oh my is are the midwives going to get here in time is everything going to fall into place like it was just one more question mark having a home birth and and I know other people have concerns about home births and stuff like that I've it's never been an issue like all of my babies have been very I haven't been prone to like high complicated births or anything like that so it's always been a really beautiful experience but for some reason this time I was feeling a little anxious so when this kind of happened I remember feeling like okay is this God's Little Gift of Mercy to me because he knew I was just so anxious about everything so then I knew that we would be going into the hospital and um that was on Tuesday and she the Midwife had to send a referral to obstetrics because um baby's measuring small and uh basically the obstetrician told her she's like you guys need to get the baby out and if the baby's not out um by Friday or Saturday then we will be doing an induction and I've never had an induction I've never had any kind of medical interventions for any of my deliveries they've all been natural births and um and actually like when you go to the hospital you could still have um a water birth and be still under the mid the care of mid the Midwife so um as the days went on I still didn't go into labor uh we did a couple things to um try to like encourage labor um but it still didn't happen and then it was Friday morning and I knew that okay induction could happen like the next day and so the Midwife was like well do you want to take um some castor oil and I had done this one time before and it had really put labor started labor and so I did I took some castor oil and the castor oil seemed to to do the trick and I started having some contractions um before lunch on that Friday and uh I just was like let's go to the the hospital I just felt like more relieved once I was there because the last delivery went was only 3 hours so I was like oh my okay is this going to progress really quickly and um they were consistent contractions um when I got there I think it was only like 3 or 4 cm dilated which you know still got some work to do still have some work to do and they definitely weren't difficult contractions yet and then um we we went for a little walk and came back and then I think it was almost like 5:30 and the Midwife said do you want me to break the your Waters cuz then it would probably progress the delivery quite quickly and I was like sure like let's I was just ready to get this baby out and and everything was fine like baby was like happy like heart rate was good I was doing good and so she did and um it was literally like within an hour and he was here mhm yeah so you're it's probably 5 hours at the hospital I think it was something like that well I yeah I think by the time we got there it was like 2 1 or 2 in the afternoon baby was born at 6:32 or yeah yeah and I'm just so glad he's here so that was on the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus on January 3rd and um yeah it's just so wonderful to now have him in our arms and not in my

uterus we're all grateful for that yeah yeah so I left the hospital about 9:00 that evening you were there by yourself yeah okay had to come back for the kids were here at the house and in the morning I went to pick up Janelle at 11: 10 10 and we left you really weren't there very long no and we came back here jelle rested up and then we had the great blessing of my mom coming to assist ini but coming home you know the kids know baby's been born and they're anticipating this and just coming home I was really blessed to see their excitement they were all like they wanted to see baby they wanted to hold baby they they they missed Janelle as well but this there's nothing that you really prepares you for that experience also not only of your child being born but the joy of your children when they see the newest member of the family in the world outside the uterus and uh that's a really special experience and as a children have gotten older they've grown in maturity their appreciation has matured and that's what I think has been so beautiful to see especially with our older ones they just want to hold him they want to kiss him they love him uh and that's what we want for our family we want each other to love each other and it's just so beautiful to see this naturally blooming in our family so you know when Janelle has a baby you know she went to bed you know and and rest it up and um and we still didn't have a name oh yeah it's funny the last couple babies it's taken us a while to pick a name maybe it's because they've both been boys yeah girls names just come easily for some reason boys names I don't know what it was like we were going to like the name Genevie isn't that beautiful or like Veronica that was another name on our list but clearly we had a son and so um it was a shorter list it was a shorter list and we we kind of thought of some different names I really like French names but anyhow um we kind of stumbled upon Louie which has been on our list for many years but um and why did we pick that name well there a number of saints uh I think first you mentioned it brought it to my attention and we started discussing there's many many Saints within the tradition of our church that hold that name not just one um and you you like the French sound of it as well and it's a beautiful name we thought so yeah nothing more deep than that yeah and uh so here we are uh my parents have come to assist which has been a tremendous blessing because uh Janelle is busy and if you have uh don't remember you're unaware of the amount of attention a little baby needs right before right after they're born can you just explain like what you do with your day like what in the world do you do with your day well I feel like okay so right now we're trying to be on a schedule where I nurse him every two hours so basically in the beginning it takes a long time to nurse a baby so um especially him um and so it can take up to like 45 minutes so then if you start let's say nursing at 8:00 that takes till 8:45 and then you have to do it again at 10:00 so you really only have a window of an hour and 15 minutes to like um do other things or take a little rest or whatever and and in the beginning I was doing that all through the night and um yeah now we can let him have a little bit of longer stretches because he's putting on weight and stuff but uh yeah so was exhausting it's exhausting and so even during the night if you're feeding that often when you're off an hour and a half you got to sleep you got to rest up right yeah so it's busy I mean it's been so nice to have like meals made and you know the homeschooling still going on and like we've had so much help and it's like we have such a beautiful Community here people are just so generous and kind and and actually um I don't know Ken just took it upon himself to like plan the baptism and so um he was one week postpartum and here we were having a baptism for Louie and uh so he's already been baptized which is like such a blessing I got to do that as soon as possible and so I just called up my brother father Dan and who is also our pastor and we got it booked yeah so that was wonderful um and yeah now I feel like we can just proceed into not so ordinary ordinary time hey yeah yeah so thank you for those of you who have been following our journey we appreciate you we we appreciate all of you who will watch our videos uh that you Journey with in life life with us uh this is real life for us and you share we also share a spiritual life with you and we thank you for journeying with us we thank you who uh support us especially our monthly supporters and those who have contributed uh we are really grateful this channel belongs to you you made it make it possible you allow us to be able to do this financially so thank you and we thank those of you who also pray for us um there's so many wonderful comments that come to us daily and uh it's a real honor and a blessing to serve this way sometimes I can't believe that people actually watch but uh in any case it's I'm just so grateful to you to come and enter into our lives so thank you yeah so thank you for entering into the joy that we have for this new child yes okay we'll see you next Wednesday