Nate the Great

Well, we made it though the first day of school. I also had a doctor's appointment that day, and I was still only dilated to 1cm (for the second week in a row). I had decided that it would be at least another week or so, which would be good so that the kids could get settled into their school routine before our new baby got here. But, apparently that little baby had other plans.

Tuesday evening we got the kids to bed and then Ben and I stayed up reading (The Mockingjay) until about midnight. Then we finally decided we should go to bed. Around 2 a.m. I woke up to a gush of water. After a few minutes of being stunned, I figured that my water must have broken. I woke up Ben, who was equally groggy, and replied "are you kidding?". My water had never broken in my previous pregnancies until we were at the hospital -- I think he wanted to give us a new experience. We called our sweet friend and she rushed right over to stay with our kids and get them off to school the next morning. And off we headed to the hospital. We arrived around 3 a.m., and I finally started to feel some contractions. We hung out for a long time, and things progressed slowly.

Things didn't get really interesting until we turned on the T.V. around 7 a.m. and there was a Psych Marathon on. We hung out some more, but at least the entertainment was good. Around 9 a.m. my doctor decided to start some Pitocin to speed things up a little, I think by then I was dilated to 6 or 7 cm. Then things started to get a little more serious, the contractions took some concentration to get through, and I felt like he was coming soon. Around 9:50 a.m. I felt like I needed to start pushing. The doctor and nurse came right in and got the bed ready. And after one good contraction and three pushes . . . out he came (10:02 a.m.).


Of course, then I got really emotional and started blubbering about how wonderful and perfect he is and how helpful and kind everyone was (which is all true . . . just probably incoherent). This picture is just seconds after he was born and they put him on my belly.

After a few minutes they take him away to weigh and measure him and clean him up.

Look at those lips!

They got him all ready and handed him to his sweet daddy. Watching Ben with his wonderful new baby made me get teary again. He is such a wonderful dad and an amazing husband. I was so grateful to have him by my side during the labor and delivery -- he is awesome! Over the next few hours we held him and finally decided on a name: Nathan Gary Van Tassell.


Ben went home to get the kids off the bus and get Sarah from Brittany (who was totally great to wake up in the middle of the night and take care of all of our kiddos). Then he brought them all to meet their new brother. Of course they had to check him all out -- make sure he had all of his toes.


They all were anxious to hold him.


It was a wonderful day. How amazing that our Heavenly Father trusts us with these little ones. Each of them are so sweet and wonderful! Here is our new family of six: