Jessa Duggar and her new, yet-to-be-named son are currently at home, happy, healthy and resting comfortably.
But the reality star opens up in the latest issue of People, telling the magazine that her journey to motherhood was anything but easy.
For plenty more on Jessa and Ben – including exclusive pictures of their son and a look into their lives at home – pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
“Labor is hard,” Jessa says in this week’s cover story. “It was very intense, very long. Everything was different than I expected.”
It didn’t help matters that Jessa and Ben Seewald’s first child was born four days late and tipped the scales at a whopping 9 pounds, 11 ounces.
After 10 hours of contractions, Jessa admits that she questioned her plans for a home birth.
At one point, she desperately wanted a hospital and an epidural… though not badly enough to abandon her dreams of a natural birth in the end.
Seewald, meanwhile, admits that it was “emotionally difficult” to see the love of his life in such pain, but it all paid off, of course.
The latest addition to the Duggar family entered this world at 6:54 p.m. on Thursday, November 5.
But the drama wasn’t over for Jessa.
Jessa began to bleed so profusely that her midwife grew concerned and her mother, Michelle Duggar, called 911.
Not long after becoming a first-time mother, Jessa was rushed to the hospital.
Jessa was likely concerned about her own well-being at the time, but tells People that the hardest part was immediately leaving her newborn.
“I had dreamed about those first moments, getting to breastfeed right away, all that,” she says. “And so when I had to go to the hospital, it was a shock.”
After nearly passing out, the TLC star had to undergo a blood transfusion and stay in the hospital overnight; but at least her son was brought to her at that point.
Now she and Ben are settled in to their home in Springdale, Arkansas, adjusting to life as parents. As proud, blessed, excited parents, that is.
“I can’t believe he’s really ours,” Jessa says. “It is so amazing. He’s a miracle.”
