Nathan's birth story

Since I recorded Colin's birth story, I have to keep things equal so here goes Nathan's story!

I was due the 15th, which was a Sunday. That means the Friday before is Friday the 13th. I'm not super superstitious but I really would prefer not to have my second born on Friday the 13th, bad vibes I guess. So Wednesday the 11th, my sister-in-law Roxanne offers to give me a massage, she is a message therapist. She is aware of my desire to have the baby prior to Friday the 13th and during the massage is working the labor inducing points. During the massage, I am also working my natural birth mantras. My goal is a natural, unmedicated birth. I was not able to accomplish this goal with Colin because it was so long -- I had an epidural.

Well, that was at 3pm. At 5pm I had my first contraction, but I didn't know for sure if it was. Colin's labor started with my water breaking, so I never experienced the contractions coming first. For the next five hours, the contractions are coming every 20-30 minutes with no regularity at all. I'm still not sure. By 11pm the contractions are more regular, and we are pretty sure a baby is on the way. However, last time it took 30 hours, so we figured we'd call the doula to give her a heads up, go to bed and try to get some sleep. Thought we had plenty of time.

From 11pm until 2am, we are laying in bed and I'm visualizing the pain leaving through Bob's hand. (Pretty bizzare, huh!) I didn't plan on doing this, it just happened. At 2:20am, the contractions are about 6-7 minutes apart and then Whamo!, a big kick or something and a big gush. My water broke and soaked me and Bob! Instantly the contractions go to 2-3 minutes apart and the baby is coming! We have to call Roxanne (she's going to watch Colin), call the doula and pack the remaining stuff for the hospital. We figure that there's a mid-wife at the hospital on call, so we didn't call them.

So we get to the hospital, breaking many traffic laws including flying around a car at a red light. During the ride the urge to push becomes uncontrollable, and I tell Bob "I'm pushing". He later tells me that he thought I was doing it on purpose! So as we are checking into the hospital a nurse hears me (the whole hospital probably heard me!) and wheels me back while Bob finishes the paperwork. Then they keep telling me not to push. We had to wait for the mid-wife, (who would've been ready if we would've called first!). Turns out the mid-wife is the one that I don't like. As I say, it's the bad one. She calls me Jennifer the whole time in the delivery room.

Thirteen minutes after checking in, a baby boy is born! Bob and I are shocked. We thought it was going to be a girl. The pregnancy was so different than Colin's. But we are not disappointed in the slightest, he is beautiful! My first impression of him, is that he is screaming and I told Bob to go comfort him. And Bob starts talking to him and instantly he is better. They had him under a light to warm him up, he was a little cool when born.

Then I'm shaking uncontrollably, and the doula shows up and convinces them to put him on me. My shaking instantly goes away! Silly hospital, why use a warming light when you have the mommy's body heat to warm him up!

Now the naming decision, we had a girl's name picked out, and brought a list of boy's names. We knew that the middle name was going to be Martin, after my dad. I can't even remember some of the options, but I knew that Bob really liked Nathan. The more I looked at him, the more he looked like a Nathan to me.

So Thursday, January 12, 2006, Nathan Martin was born weighing 9 lbs 8 oz and 22 inches long.