The new family photos shared by Ben and Jessa Seewald taken with their beautiful baby boy show the new mother smiling from ear to ear, but Jessa was admittedly not in a smiling mood when she went into labour.
The experience was traumatising for Jessa, 23, who endured a nearly 48-hour delivery. "Labour is hard," Jessa shared with PEOPLE. "It was very intense, very long. Everything was different than I expected."
Baby Seewald was originally due for delivery on Nov. 1, but he decided to come a few days late. Jessa also wanted to have an all-natural home birth, but after suffering from 10 hours of contractions, Jessa was almost tempted to change her mind.
"I said, 'That's it! I'm done! I am going to the hospital and I'm going to get an epidural,' " she said. "They asked me if I really wanted to do that and I said, 'No, I don't, but I do.' I wanted to try natural if at all possible."
Jessa was in great physical distress during that time, causing her husband Ben to get worried. According to the new dad, seeing Jessa in pain "was kind of emotionally difficult."
"I was trying to keep it positive," he said. "There were a few times, she was like, 'I can't do this.'"
But Jessa soldiered on, and their son finally arrived on Nov. 5. Everybody involved in the birthing process was joyous, but it was short-lived because Jessa suddenly began to bleed a lot.
Jessa said "everyone stayed calm" while her mother Michelle Duggar dialled 911. "I tried to keep my head, I was awake and alert," Jessa recalled.
The hardest part about being rushed to the hospital, Jessa said, was leaving her newborn son. "I had dreamed about those first moments, getting to breastfeed right away, all that. And so when I had to go to the hospital, it was a shock," she said.
Jessa had to take a blood transfusion and stay overnight at the hospital. But she did not have to stay away from her son for too long since her family brought him to the hospital to be by her side.
