Nathan’s Arrival (the Reader’s Digest version)
Our little guy Nathan has a pretty incredible birth story. Ask us some time if you want all the details – we're not sick of telling it yet. Nathan was due to arrive around April 29th but he had other plans. At 8:30pm on last Friday evening (February 11th) things seemed not quite right. A visit to our nurse midwife at Mount Auburn Hospital determined that my water had broken and set everyone in motion to prepare for our baby’s arrival at just 29 weeks old. The biggest question was how long labor could be slowed or stopped so that baby could have more time to mature. As we left Mt. Auburn by ambulance around 10:30pm and headed for Beth Israel (where they have a level 3 nursery and can care for babies before 32 weeks) everyone thought it would at least 24 hours before we became parents – possibly even a few days. By the time we got to BIDH (it was maybe a 15 minute drive) I was 4 cm dilated. The Resident told us “we’ve kept women pregnant for a few days at 4 cm, but not many…” but still, no one was panicking. I had only mild abdominal pain and no real sense of contractions, so it didn’t feel like things were happening quickly. My parents ignored our instructions to stay home (we really thought we’d have time to get settled and used to the idea of having a baby) and arrived at the hospital around 12:00am. My mom joined us in the delivery room and a few minute later the real work of labor began. 30 minutes and a half dozen contractions later we met our little boy. At 12:32am, Saturday February 12th, Nathan came out talking and waving to everyone and we got to hold him before he was taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Every system and organ in his body still needs to mature, and he’s having to quickly learn skills that I should still be doing for him, but in spite of it all, Nathan is a healthy little boy. And super cute!