Nathan William Hawks

Here's our family update...

Nathan was born on Friday March 27th at 3:06 pm here in Provo. He weighed 8 lbs. 12 oz. and is the cutest baby of all time (no...I'm not biased at all). Here's the story. Thursday the 26th I went to my doctor appointment. I had progressed to about 2 cm (the week before I was 1-1 1/2) and since I thought I was going to go late, the doctor "stripped the membranes" which is a procedure that possibly helps speed up labor. We also had an ultrasound because the doctor wasn't sure if Nathan was head down, thankfully he was, so I wasn't worried anymore. Within a few hours I was starting to be in a lot of pain. I was home alone trying to deal with it and I started to think I may be having contractions. Around 8 we started timing the contractions. They were 3-5 minutes apart and lasted about one minute each, so we headed over to the hospital (because that's when they said we should go...). We got there at 12:30 am, got monitored for an hour, and got sent home because it wasn't intense enough. I considered shooting the nurse...I thought things were intense enough. So, we went home around 2 am and I felt stupid for being one of those girls who doesn't even know when they are in labor.
At 4 I started to notice that the pain was getting more intense. I didn't rush to the hospital because by that point I had no idea how intense things were supposed to be and I didn't want to be turned away again. Chris tried to help me relax, and my mom (who came into town) was also trying, but nothing was really working. I kept waiting for what the nurse said contractions would feel like, but I just had a ton of pain in my back...my mom told me that is called back labor and would only get worse...let me tell you....it's horrible! I finally decided that it was time to go to the hospital.

Here is officially how big I was as we were leaving for the hospital.
We got to the hospital at 8:30 and I immediately asked for some medicine to help with the pain- back - labor hurts like you wouldn't believe. The nurse went to go check with the doctor about getting me some relief during the observation time, and by the time she got back to give me some stuff I'd dilated another cm, so instead of giving me the medicine she paged the anesthesiologist. That man is now my best friend; within 2 minutes of him starting I didn't feel the contractions anymore and I could breathe and feel more comfortable and enjoy the experience. I progressed rapidly (Chris left to go eat lunch when i was dilated to 5 cm and less than an hour later we had to call him to get back quickly because I was at a 9 1/2).
The doctor was finally ready for me to push at 2:25, we took a 15 minute break because I was going too fast (the doctor thought I would take longer so he went to get a quick lunch- he was super busy that day). After a few good pushes Nathan was born! It was the most amazing experience ever. When they first put him on me and I could see and hold him, all the horribleness of pregnancy became completely worth it. I am still in awe of him everyday. He was so perfect. After he was cleaned off Chris and I got to have some alone time as a little family. It was amazing- I cannot describe how I felt and how I feel about Nathan and our family. I think only a mother can understand the feelings of immediate love.

Here's one of the first pictures of our family.
Here he is right after he was born...he had a super bad cone head but thankfully it went away quickly.
Here is my little angel...
And this is one of my favorite pictures. His face is so round! He is funny because he has a chubby little face and skinny legs...I love it!
Unfortunately, Nathan had to stay in the hospital one extra day. For some reason, he just was not eating enough (or hardly anything at all). He was rapidly losing weight and the doctor did not want him to go until he was eating better. He was also slightly jaundiced, so he had to be under the lights. While most babies don't like being so exposed, our little Nathan loved it- it looked like he was tanning.
Here is one of his first pictures at home. Adorable...his outfit says "I love Mommy" :)
We love our little baby...more pictures to come!