By Alesia Stanford for Dailymail.Com 10:03 pm December 23, 2023, updated 10:20 pm December 23, 2023
Jessa Duggar received a special delivery!
The 31-year-old former reality star, who announced her pregnancy in September, announced the birth of her fifth child on Instagram on Saturday.
“The baby is here and we couldn't be more grateful!” she wrote, sharing a snap of herself and the swaddled newborn in her hospital bed.
She shared a link to her birth story on YouTube.
The Just Counting veteran shares children Fern, Ivy, Spurgeon and Henry with her husband Ben Seewald, 28. The couple have been married since 2014.
Jessa Duggar recently received a special delivery. On December 19, she gave birth to her fifth child, a boy. “The baby is here and we couldn’t be more grateful!” she wrote on Instagram on December 23rd
In the 10-minute YouTube video, Jessa spoke to the camera and revealed: “Today is Monday December 18th, I woke up around 6am and felt my first contraction where I thought, 'This feels like one.' real contraction.'
The night before, she said she felt what she thought were Braxton Hicks contractions, or false contractions, for much of the day.
On Monday morning, she timed the contractions at about 15 minutes apart and decided to “be proactive, finish packing the birth bag and throw in the last few things.” She also unpacked the new car seat for the baby.
To speed up her labor, the experienced mother threw herself up the stairs of the newly renovated home she shares with her family in Arkansas.
She told Ben, who was recording her movements, that the contractions were about five minutes apart at that point but that they had slowed down and she wanted to “make sure they kept up.”
Jessa also struggled with “nerve pain in my leg.”
The couple arrived at the hospital just before 4:30 p.m. and after an examination she was admitted.
Jessa opted for an epidural to relieve the pain, but told her fans that it was “great on one side and a little spotty on the other” and that while the pain relief wasn't perfect, the experience was 80 percent better be better. '
Jessa woke up early in the morning on December 18th and announced that she thought she had gone into labor after struggling with what appeared to be Braxton Hicks contractions the day before. After packing her bag, the experienced mother-to-be paced up and down the stairs to keep her contractions going. She and her husband, Ben Seewald, arrived at the hospital around 4:30 p.m. and were admitted. The birthing mother decided to have an epidural to relieve the pain
The doctor later informed her that the baby was not in a good position for birth, so Jessa, with the help of her midwife, “adopted different labor positions to help turn the baby.”
Jessa's mother Michelle was by her side during this difficult time.
The epidural had been stopped so the laboring mother could change her position, and Jessa admitted she was “not mentally prepared” for the pain during the three to four hours it took to move the fetus into the correct position to bring, occurred again.
Once that was accomplished, she was able to be given the painkiller again around 2:30 a.m. on December 19th, and about 15 minutes later her water broke.
It happened very quickly, and after just three pushes the little one came and was placed in his crying mother's arms.
After an examination revealed that the baby was not in the birthing position, the epidural was stopped and Jessa and her midwife worked for several hours to turn the fetus. Jessa said she was “mentally unprepared for the pain” during the three to four hours it took to prepare for the delivery. The baby, a boy, was born in the early hours of December 19 after just three pushes. “It was the most beautiful moment when they raised the baby and laid it on me and just held it there. I think there was just so much emotion in that moment,” Jessa said. Dad Ben carried the newborn to the scale, where she was weighed at a whopping nine pounds and 14 ounces
“It was the most beautiful moment when they raised the baby and put him on me and just held him there. I think there was just so much emotion in that moment,” she said.
“It's been a year since we lost our last baby… and it's just been a flood of emotions welcoming our little baby into this world.”
Dad Ben carried the newborn to the scale, where he weighed a whopping nine pounds and 14 ounces.
The couple has not yet announced the baby's name, but more details will be revealed in the next YouTube video.