Happy Birthday Nathan!!

Happy Birthday to You Nathan!! :) Today Nathan is 4 years old! He was so excited about it and has been talking about it for the past 2 weeks. Yesterday was especially exciting for him because he only had one more day of being 3. I told him it was his last day to be 3. He said that when he is 4 he will be big, and he won't fight any more, and he won't whine any more, and he will say his words right because he will be 4. (That's what he said.)

This morning he came into our room at about 5 am and said, "I am 4 now?" For his birthday he wants to go trick-or-treating and wear his pirate costume.

I tried to get a good picture of my little 4-year-old this morning, but he just wanted to mess around. Here he is.
Because today will be so busy, we decided to sing to him early this morning before Jeremy went to work and give him his big gift. A bike!!!

Now he won't have to ride that girly pink bike everywhere.

Today will be a really fun day for Nathan. I hope he doesn't mind that we will mostly be celebrating him tomorrow.

I was trying to dig up some old baby pictures of Nathan and I can't find any on my computer! I wanted to write about the day he was born. Nathan is a very special little boy and I'm so happy to have him in our family.

**Birth Story of Nathan**

When I was pregnant with him, we went trick-or-treating on October 30th because Halloween fell on a Sunday. I walked all over kingdom come being hugely pregnant. Samantha was really small and was tired of walking, so I carried her on my big belly most of the night.

The next day, after church, I was sitting on my bed when I thought I had to go into the bathroom. I went in there and sat down on the toilet and felt a big gush. I looked into the toilet and it was just straight blood everywhere! I called Jeremy and knocked on the wall trying to get some help. He didn't come because he was making dinner and was busy. I yelled again furiously and he finally came in and I showed him. He hurried and called Mama on the phone to come and get Athena and Samantha. I didn't dare get up because I was bleeding so badly.

I finally got up when they got here and put a towel between my legs. As soon as I got up the contractions started. Jeremy and Robert gave me a quick blessing that everything would be OK and we hurried to the car to get to the hospital. We had to drive from Payson to Orem (about 1/2 hour) and the whole time there the contractions were coming really hard and really fast. I was having a few contractions a minute, just one on top of the other. Jeremy was scared he would be delivering a baby in the car! It took us about 20 minutes to get to the hospital and thankfully the street lights worked in our favor.

When we got to the hospital, everywhere I walked a trail of blood just followed me. I was really scared and didn't know what was going on. The pain in my belly was terrible - on top of the painful contractions. I was admitted immediately and taken to the birthing room.

Once I got in there it was a crazy place. There were doctors and nurses running all over the place trying to get things together. I don't think we could have fit one more person in that room. I asked for an epidural and was told I couldn't have one because they didn't know why I was bleeding so much. The anesthesiologist gave me a spinal block instead, but it didn't work. I just remember being in excruciating pain laying on the bed and focusing on the light above me just to not think about the pain. I heard the Dr tell one of the nurses (who happened to be pregnant) that he thought my placenta ripped, and she should hope it doesn't happen to her because it's one of the most painful things that can happen when you are pregnant. Gee, that sure didn't seem to help! Thanks doc.

It seemed like all of this was an eternity, but it really all happened in a time span of about 1/2 hour. Then the baby (Nathan) seemed to be distressed because the heart beat slowed way down. The doctor said they might have to do an emergency c-section. That freaked me out even more so then I started to panic. He checked me and said that because I was dilating so quickly they would try to have me push him out. I was only dilated to 8 cm when the Dr told me to start pushing. I pushed for about 5 minutes. When Nathan was close enough for the Dr to reach in and grab him, he reached in and pulled Nathan out - breaking my tailbone.

When Nathan came out he was almost white. I didn't see him because they quickly cut the cord and whisked him away. Jeremy told me he looked horrible. When my midwife came to help me out after they took Nathan away, she looked at the cord and gasped. I asked WHAT? She said there was a tight knot in the cord and she had never seen a baby that wasn't stillborn who had a knot like that in the cord. Then she pulled out the placenta and the top of it looked like it was ripped to shreds, like chopped meat. THEN the spinal block kicked in and I was numb until 3 in the morning - after fully feeling every ounce of pain that was dished out to me. GREAT!

I know that Nathan is supposed to be here in our family. I feel so blessed to have him and am so grateful we both made it through that experience together. Nathan is so much fun and it's been a wonderful 4 years with him. :) HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN - I LOVE YOU!