I’m a little late in writing this but I have to say, there is a lot of adjustment when a family grows from three to four. I am trying my hardest to fit into the role of supermom of two but the learning curve is steep. Thank the Lord Nathan is a well-behaved and sleepy baby.

His two week check-up went splendidly. His is 9 pounds 11 ounces putting him into the 77th percentile for weight and he is half an inch longer at 21 1/2 inches putting his height at the 79th percentile. He’s well on his way to a career on the Cardinals’ defensive line.

He is such a wonderful baby. He always looks like he’s got a little grin on his face. He seems to sleep about 23 hours a day only to wake up to eat and take a look around before nodding off again. This doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his witching hours though. If he decides to get fussy, he’ll wait until his daddy comes home to show off his personality. But this only happens occasionally. When he is awake, he loves watching his big brother play and talk to him. As soon as he hears Caleb, he’ll look around for him. This makes my heart instantly melt. I love watching my boys interact with each other. Here are a few pictures of the bothers from the day Nathan turned 2 weeks old:

My dear friend Amber came over the other day so we could take Nathan’s newborn pictures. He was quite the trooper for 3 1/2 hours of photo taking with only one projectile poop incident. I really wanted to capture every detail of his babyhood from how curly and snuggly he is to the wrinkles in his lips. Even though memory is a powerful tool, having photographs to help me remember this fleeting moment in our lives.

The brothers hanging out this morning:

At 9:18 pm on August 10th, 2011, Nathan Andrew was born! He weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces and was 21 inches long.

We were scheduled to be induced at 6 am on August 10th. I woke up at 4 am ready to go and called the hospital around 5 to check the availability for beds in the labor and delivery ward. Apparently, every full term fetus had decided to make their appearance that day so the nurse said there was nothing available and all I could do would be to call back in about 4 hours. Slightly deflated, I wobbled my way back to bed. At least now we could have a normal morning and not be rushed to go in. Around 9, I called again only to be turned away with the same instructions. A little more deflated, we packed up and went to Target to burn some time and anxiety. I knew by lunch that chances were slim they would take us in at all that day so I waited a bit longer to call and took a nap instead. I woke up around 1:30 and called the hospital knowing full well, they hardly take inductions past that point. To my surprise, the nurse asked if we could come in right away. Since we had our bags literally packed for weeks, we were more than ready. So we dropped Caleb off at his uncle and aunt’s place and hurried over to the hospital. This was it! We were prepared for a long night of labor. At least the Diamondbacks were playing that evening.

It took a while to get settled in our room (the hospital was packed). They finally got us hooked up to the IV and pitocin around 4:30. I was dilated to 4 cm and 50% effaced. At first, I had only minor cramping and discomfort but about a half hour later, my doctor came in and broke my water. At that point I was already dilated to 5 cm. My doctor predicted labor would only be about 4-5 more hours. Since my body has been telling me it’s been ready to go with bouts of false labor and steady dilation each week, I knew that breaking my water would probably get things going naturally. The added pitocin really only made things go faster. About five minutes after my water broke, the contractions quickly became very intense. I couldn’t believe how quickly everything was moving. about 15 minutes went by and the pain was terrible. Not wanting to miss my chance for an epidural, I gave the go-ahead for the order. 10 more minutes of crazy painful contractions and the anesthesiologist made it to our room and hooked me up to the epidural. At first, I could only feel it working in my right side and began to panic a bit. They had me move around and the anesthesiologist adjusted the catheter in my back and after a while the problem cleared up. Trauma averted. At this point, 7pm, I was feeling great and the nurse checked me again. I was 8cm and totally effaced. Just an hour or two longer and we would be pushing! We watched a few innings of baseball and I started to feel some pressure. Turns out baby was making his way down and I was almost set. Once the doctor came in, and everything was set up for delivery, it was time to push! Time in labor: less than 5 hours! After about 25 minutes, Nathan was born! He took his first breath, cried a bit, and took a look around. Then they nurse took him to get cleaned off and checked up. We could tell right away he was a very big baby but I was surprised to hear 8 pounds 13 ounces! He looks just like his brother did except for the lighter hair and extra pound of chunk. Here are a few pictures from our delivery: