He was once this tiny 8 pound 11 ounce bundle of joy.
Okay, maybe tiny is the wrong word. :)
(Sorry for the not-so-great scan! This pic was taken pre-digital.)
My sweet boy joined our family at 1:45 a.m. on Sunday, April 13, 2003. Six days past his due date (which, by the way, in my mind was 5 weeks past due since his older sister was born 4 weeks before her due date! Those were the longest weeks ever!)
He was caught by Midwife Lori with Nurse Michelle assisting. Grammy, Daddy, and Big Sis Keira were all there to witness his birth. Which happened pretty quickly.
I had a contraction at around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday night (4/12/03), then nothing. Went to bed, had another contraction around 10:30 p.m. Then another about 3 minutes later. Then another ... and another. I called my midwife and she said she'd meet us at the hospital. We woke Keira, hoping she'd fall right back to sleep on the way there (it was about an hour's drive), but she didn't. She chattered the whole way down. :)
We left around 11:30 p.m. and arrived at the hospital around 12:15 a.m. Remember I said it was about an hour's drive? Yeah. We flew! Praying the whole time not to get pulled over and not to wreck and kill us all. The good thing was there was no one on the roads. The bad thing was the interstate we chose is really bumpy when you are in labor. :)
We had called my mom before we left, so she met us in the ER. They wheeled me right up to the birthing suite where Lori was awaiting our arrival. Lori checked me right away to see how much I was dilated. Fully dilated upon arrival! I can remember hearing the nurses in the hallway asking why I waited so long to come in. I didn't wait!!! My labor just moved along that fast!
Lori asked me to give her a urine sample in "the hat" but when I did, my water broke. Oops! :) After that things moved rather quickly.
She had a mirror set up so I could watch the birth but I wasn't able to open my eyes. :) I remember her being in the bathroom washing her hands and me telling her I needed to push ... now! She said to go ahead, just listen to my body. My body wasn't happy with me at the moment and just wanted that baby out! So push I did ... even though I was nervous about pushing without her being there.
It only took a couple pushes and out the baby came - yes, she was there to catch the baby. I remember Lori asked Doug if he wanted to catch the baby - he politely declined. Keira jumped up and said she'd do it! Thankfully Lori didn't let her but she was right down there watching the whole thing.
She scooped the baby up onto my belly. I was so excited and relieved that I forgot to look to see what the sex was. We hadn't found out with him because we wanted to be surprised, although I was convinced it was a boy since this pregnancy was so different from Keira's.
Finally we looked and found out he was indeed a boy. Keira wanted a little sister so bad. She cried when we came home from the 20-week sonogram and told her we didn't find out the sex. She'd wanted to know if she was getting the little sister she so desperately wanted. But when she saw Nicholas for the first time, it was love at first sight. (Too bad that isn't still true today!)
It has been an emotional roller coaster ride these past 7 years, but things seem to be getting easier. He's such a sweet boy with such a heart for God. He shows such compassion toward people - most of the time. :) He's a typical boy who likes to eat all the time and has way too much energy for me to handle some times. But I wouldn't trade him for anything. I might sell him though. Kidding!
Happy birthday, buddy! Love you!!!
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