Rutherford Photos

When we decided on the name Rutherford I came up with the idea to take his newborn pictures with the books that Samuel Rutherford wrote.

I was really hoping to find some that said "Rutherford" in really bold letters on the spine but I couldn't find any.

Though it didn't quite work out as planned, I still love how it turned out.

So here's Rutherford with some of the works of Rutherford, along with some favorite quotes.

“Believe God's word and power more than you believe your own feelings and experiences. Your Rock is Christ, and it is not the Rock which ebbs and flows, but your sea.” 

“When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord’s choicest wines.” 

"Of all created comforts, God is the lender; you are the borrower, not the owner."

“Christ, for this cause especially, left the bosom of God, and was clothed with flesh and our nature, that he might be a mass, a sea, and boundless river of visible, living, and breathing grace, swelling up to the highest banks of not only the habitable world, but the sides also of the heaven of heavens, to over-water men and angels”

Something an English merchant said about Rutherford's preaching: 

“I came to Irvine, and heard a well-favored, proper old man [David Dickson] with a long beard, and that man showed me all my heart. Then I went to St. Andrews, where I heard a sweet, majestic-looking man [Robert Blair], and he showed me the majesty of God. After him I heard a little, fair man [Rutherford], and he showed me the loveliness of Christ.”

Another quote about Rutherford: 

“I have known many great and good ministers in this Church, but for such a piece of clay as Mr. Rutherford was, I never knew one in Scotland like him, to whom so many great gifts were given, for he seemed to be altogether taken up with everything good and excellent and useful. He seemed to be always praying, always preaching, always visiting the sick, always catechising, always writing and studying... Many times I thought he would have flown out of the pulpit when he came to speak of Jesus Christ. He was never in his right element but when he was commending him. He would have fallen asleep in bed speaking of Christ.”

I thought it was rather fitting to do his pictures with his dad's favorite thing...books.

We have a few..

That is not counting the ones in Stephen's office or the 5 big boxes of books we have stored.

We also did a photoshoot with the girls and Rutherford.

Though we got a couple cute pictures, the photoshoot was mostly a fail.

Turns out its really hard to get 3 little ones to sit still, smile and look at the camera.

This picture makes me laugh, it's so Jane. "There's a baby crying on my lap, whatevs"

Then we attempted a family photo with the tripod and the camera remote, also didn't turn out like I wanted but it's fine.

 Got some with his eyes open.  It's amazing to me how "boy" he looks.

A couple of pictures with me in front of the camera instead of behind it :)

Rutherford's Birth

Rutherford was due on the 10th but he decided to wait and be a Valentines baby.

I started having contractions at 9pm on the 13th.  I knew they we the real thing because they hurt a lot more than Braxton Hicks and, like with my previous labors, the pain radiated into my hips.

They continued all night but stayed 10-15 minutes apart.  It was a long night for me.  Just as I would start to doze off, another contraction.

Morning came and I assumed that they would slow down and then pick up again in the evening.  That is what happened with both girls and babies are born in the middle of the night, not in the daytime, right?

Still, I told Stephen that I didn't think he should go to work but he said he would just go in to teach his class and be back by 11:30.

Well, around 9am the contractions had gotten about 5 minutes apart so I called Stephen and told him to come home.

Then I called the on-call midwife number (there are 4 midwives at the birth center and they rotate) and was thrilled to have it answered by the same midwife I had when I had Jane.

I also called Miss Ann, a lady from our church who had been patiently "on-call" for us for the last few weeks to come and watch the girls.

Got everything together, said goodbye to the girls and drove to the birth center.

We got there at about 9:45am.

We were in the same room as when Jane was born, it was like deja-vu!

Contractions got closer and stronger and once they became what I consider "really" painful I got into the tub.

Being on my 3rd natural birth, I knew that I was getting close to pushing.

Like always, getting in the tub helped with the pain a ton.

After a few minutes I felt my water break and felt the urge to push.

It was only about 10-15 minutes of pushing but oh my goodness did it hurt!

I am really quiet during labor, usually just a little moaning during the pushing but that is it.

This time, I was yelling/screaming.

Stephen told me after that it really freaked him out.

But it was over in a blink and there he was, born at 11:15am, just an hour and a half after getting to the birth center!

As soon as they weighted him it was clear why it hurt so much, he was 8 lbs 14 oz!  That is 2 lbs bigger than Alice was!

Thankfully there was no tearing (another thing water birth helps with).

He has a head full of brown hair, just like Alice did.

We rested the rest of the afternoon at the birth center and then headed home at 6pm.

The girls were SO excited when we got home.

Jane kept saying "hold-da-baby".

Stephen's mom flew in that night and stayed a week to help out, which we really needed!

Stephen's favorite thing to do with babies, nap :)

The day after Nancy left, my parents came for a few days.

Rutherford's a little over 2 weeks old now and already 10 pounds!  Alice didn't weigh that much until she was 2 MONTHS old!  He is definitely going to be my big guy.

We are adjusting well to 3 kids.  I managed a grocery store trip with all of them so I'm feeling pretty good about that :)

The girls are doing well, a little more acting out due to the fact they have figured out mom is not as on top of discipline as usual but we are working on it.

Alice is totally in love with Rutherford and Jane, well, she's just doing her own thing as usual and doesn't notice him much.

I can't believe how blessed we are, especially when I think back to the years we thought we may never have kids, and here we are with 3 beautiful, healthy kids!  Praise God!