Introducing Nathan Terence Taylor!!

After 9 months + 4 days of waiting, we are so happy to finally meet our little baby boy - Nathan Terence Taylor! And what an amazing adventure it has been getting here. On Monday night at around 9:30pm I started feeling some cramping - but having never been in labour before I had no idea if they were the real thing or not. After feeling this same cramping every 10 minutes or so, I figured this must be it. Paul was napping on the couch, and at around 10:30, I brought down a cup of tea for us, and proceeded to tell him that I thought I was in labour - I've never seen Paul wake up so fast!

By midnight things were getting pretty intense, and our midwife Sandra came over around 2am to see how things were progressing. By 3am I was in lots of pain, and ready to head to the hospital - but when Sandra called Markham Stouffville they had no beds available. She also tried Ajax Pickering, but they were also full, so we managed to find a spot at Oshawa General. Unfortunately, Sandra doesn't have privileges there, but she came along for support. By 5:30am my water broke, and Nathan was born at 7:05am - 9lbs 11 oz, 23 inches long. Paul was an amazing coach and cheerleader, and was very proud to cut the cord.

We were lucky enough to get a private room, and lots of visitors. Both sets of grandparents were there right at the start of visiting hours at 11am to meet their newest grandchild.
Here's a picture of Nathan with his Nanny (Paul's mum) and Oma (my mom)Here's my sister Suzanne and Nathan's cousin Alexis - I'm sure they will have lots of adventures together.

Later that night Paul's sister Jenn and her family arrived (...I don't think we got any pics...whoops) Aliyah, Michel and Zachery were very excited to meet their new cousin. Afterwards Andie and Steve popped by and gave Nathan his first hockey jersey - they are the official hockey consultants for Nathan, as neither Paul nor I know anything about the sport.

Paul was able to spend the night on a cot in the room - here's my boys having some cuddles before bedtime - we were all pretty pooped by Tuesday night.

By Wednesday at around noon we were ready and anxious to come home - Nathan looks pretty excited too! The pediatrician checked Nathan out, and we were very happy to hear that he is negative for the FyA antigen, which was what my body had antibodies against (I had frequent blood tests throughout my pregnancy to make sure the antibodies didn't increase and attack the baby's blood cells) - what a relief, and answer to prayer.

The next day Sandra came over and checked both myself and Nathan - he's breastfeeding like a champ, and I'm already feeling close to my regular self again. He's sleeping in 3 hour stretches, and then lets us know that it's time for a feed and a diaper change. Paul has already become a diaper changing machine.

Nathan's eyes are dark blue, and he has just a light dusting of blond hair - what a cutie!