Nathan

It's hard to believe that Nathan turned three weeks old yesterday. Time is going by so quickly, and he seems as though he's already doubled in size. I love the newborn stage--so it's hard to feel like he is growing out of his tinyness in a flash. Nate is an extremely easy baby (though I could say the same for all my cuties). He only gets upset when he's hungry--much like his big brother. One of Jason's nicknames is "Meatball" because he was SO chunky as a baby from eating SO often. Well, Nate is quickly on his path to having a similar nickname. This hunger/crying factor gets a little tricky with diaper changes--he chooses to do a lot of body emptying when I'm in the process of changing his diaper. At first it was quite frustrating, and messy, but now I have quite the system to keep him and me clean. I should take a picture of our love seat laid out with all the necessities of a happy diaper change...

Well, I thought I'd share his birth story.

Jason and I stayed up until 10 pm Tuesday night watching the season finale of The Good Wife. At 1 am I woke up--with contractions. I had been having them at night for at least a week, but they always went away when I went to bed. So, the fact that they were coming in the middle of the night, plus they were affecting my back a bit made me assume it was CD. The noise from the player woke Jason up--I told him it was real but to go back to sleep. Of course, he couldn't. Around 2 we decided to call our midwife, Richelle. With Lorelai's birth, I waited a long time to call her. She got there maybe 20 minutes before Lorelai was born (her assistant didn't make it in time). I didn't want to have that rush again, so I called "early". Jason and I started setting up the pool, and filling it with water. And I relaxed a lot on the couch. Richelle arrived around 2:30 and got everything else set up.

Jason was great about applying pressure to my knees and back during contractions.I continued relaxing on the couch, listening to my CD and talking with the midwives and Jason. I can go deep into relaxation on my laying on my side. But another thing I wanted to do differently than Lorelai's birth was acclimate to being in the pool before I felt the baby moving down. So, I got in around 4:30, and continued listening to my CD. At 4:57, I felt my water break, and the baby instantly began moving down. It went POP--I went on my hands and knees--pure instinct. After a few contractions, and eight minutes, Jason received our cute little baby. I asked a few times what it was, Jason was too in love with the little guy to hear me at first. Finally, he did and told me we had another boy!

The kids, and our downstairs neighbors, slept through it all. I was exceptionally quiet this time around. Jason heard the baby crying around 6:15 which woke him, and soon Addie and Lorelai came into the living room. They were instantly smitten with him.

I've been blessed with all my births (especially the last three)--but this was by far the most fulfilling. Probably because I didn't have any expectations beyond how I knew I would be. I am super laid back during the thinning and opening phase, but the birthing phase (those 8 minutes) I need lots of support from the people around me. I kind lose it. And though I don't say it, or even really think it, that's the time when I possibly could feel that I never want to have another baby, lol. But, I can survive 8 minutes. With Addie and Lorelai I'd visualized myself remaining in complete calm during the birthing phase, like I do during the first phase. But that's never the case. So this time I didn't have my hopes let down. I was still calm--just not serene.

We are so blessed. We are a happy family who love each other, play together, work together, and enjoy being there for each other. Every single one of us LOVE our Nate.