My Dear Sweet Nathan...

My dear sweet Nathan...

You are my "mommy's boy". You have been attatched at the hip since you were born! I don't think the cord was ever truely cut! LOL! You always wanted to be held and carried around...mostly by mommy, but you'd take anyone who'd do it. LOL!

Daddy used to try to exercise and sit you in your bouncey...he'd put on his headphones and look over at you and you'd be screaming your head off! LOL! You wouldn't let us put you in the swing, bouncey, walker, nothing! You wanted to be ON us! LOL! That's ok my sweet boy! We love you so much!

You always had the sweetest giggle. I have a video I made of you and Evie and Ev would come up and tickle you...and you'd let out the sweetest giggle. It just made everyone smile.

You are my "sweet lover"...and not just any sweet...CHOCOLATE! You will get along well with all the girls my baby boy! Chocolate is a girl's best friend...and yours too! Chocolate candy, chocolate pudding, chocolate ice cream, chocolate milk...my Natee loves his chocolate!

I always said you're our little fire cracker! You make things...well...you make things...EXCITING, that's for sure! LOL! There's never a dull moment with my Natee around. You make sure of that.

You have always been such a talker. Geeg will attest to that! We all say you talk from the time you wake up to the time your eyes close at night! You would have gotten along so well with my Grandma Malone. She was a chatty gal!

You have been such a blessing to us Natee. You are so active, exciting, sensitive, empathetic, and loving. We are so fortunate to be your mommy and daddy (and brother). Never forget how much we all love you. You are such a special boy to us.

Stay true to yourself and keep Jesus first!
I love you forever!
Mommy

...and brother makes FOUR!

About three years later, after the birth of our sweet Evan...we decided he needed a sibling.

My pregnancy with Nate was easy as far as they go...but being four years older than before...I noticed I tired more quickly and my back and feet ached more.

The pregnancy progressed just fine and we found out at our ultrasound that Nate was indeed a boy...LOL! Daddy picked his first name and mommy picked his middle name!

During one of my last few dr. visits, I asked Dr. Gerard how long overdue he generally let patients go. He told me if I didn't have Nate over the weekend, we would induce on Monday. The office went ahead and scheduled the induction for Monday morning at the hospital.

Well, I went home and took a nap. I had heard a rumor that if you sleep on your side it can put pressure in just the right "spot" causing your water to break and thus making you go into labor. So I laid down on my side and fell asleep. I woke up to a large "gush"! LOL! Sure enough, my water broke.

I called Jamie at work and the dr. at our office. The dr. said to come to the office to get checked because I wasn't having any contractions yet. I actually drove myself to the dr. office! LOL! Jamie met me there. Well, I guess things had progresses enough, because they sent us right over to the hospital next door.

By then, mild contractions had started. Thing went even faster than the 8 hour labor we had with Evan. With Nate it was only 4 hours. Dr. Gerard was in the middle of a c-section but kept popping in to check on me. Finally Dr. Lenters came in for the delivery. He was super nice. We really liked him. He told me if I planned on having any more children, if I even THINK I'm in labor I better get to the hospital as fast as my labors are...especially seeing as how I cut them in half each time! LOL!

Once again, I didn't get an epidural thanks to little, tiny, unprepared Holland Hospital. I did get some Stadol, again...which was awful. It didn't take the pain away at all. It just made the room SPIN and there was about 12 of everything...just spinning and spinning!

Dr. Lenters ended up using the vaccuum with Nate. Nathan ended up swallowing a little meconium and they had to suction it out. The nurse ended up "gouging" his vocal chord (which they'd never admit) so they blamed his "paralyzed vocal chord" on "stress during coming through the birth canal". Yeah...right.

Anyway...once again, I didn't get to bring my baby home with me. Excruciating pain for any mother!!! They wanted to keep him on observation due to the vocal chord thing. He did end up coming home a day later than me on an apnea monitor which lasted about a month. Nate did have a Barium Swallow test at Butterworth to make sure things were going ok. And thank the Lord, they were. He ended up being just fine.

Our little 8 pound, 20 inch baby boy...born at 7:32 p.m. on August 25, 2000. Welcome to our family Nathan Parker James!