Tuesday, January 19, 2010

I'll Keep My Legs Crossed While You Take a Nap

**In celebration of the Birthday of Nate the Great, we are replaying Nate's birth story which is adequately also titled: "The One Where Nate's Daddy Wants to Sleep In" **

He is my firstborn-the one I "practiced" on.

The one who made all other babies look like a waste of time--after all, no other baby was as wonderful as him!

He had elfin shaped ears the first few months of his life and the top of his hair grew into one tall swirl that could be pulled up to look like a giant Shirley Temple ringlet. He would get fussy in the evenings but a bath cheered him right up. And he loved his Daddy so deeply from the very start.

And when it was time for him to be with us, Daddy is the one who wanted to go back to sleep!!

When I was pregnant with Nate the Great, we were coming up on our due date and I wasn't working. Read that: I was bored out of my mind. I had folded every onesie. I had washed every blanket. I had arranged and rearranged the baby's room. Two days before my due date, I picked my sister up from work so we could have lunch with our mom. While at Taco Bell, I found a piece of plastic of some kind in my taco and got a card worth 10 free tacos! Later that evening, we went to our friends' house for movie night. It was during the movie that we thought we had some contractions. Wrote down a few things but ultimately didn't have much to report.

I did discover something worthy of reporting when I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I'd peed my bed. Wait. that's not what that was.

"David, my water broke, call the hospital and ask them what we should do."

The reply: "Groooooooannn."

I went to the bathroom for a little while and then came back in my bedroom to a sleeping husband.

"David" I shook him harder than before, "my water broke, call the hospital."

"Grooooooannnn. Zzzz."

Back to the bathroom. And then back to a sleeping husband...again.
I went and got the phone. I placed it next to his snoring body and said, "DAVID. My. Water. Broke. Call. The Hospital. And Ask. What We. Are Su-ppos-ed. To. Do."

I returned to the bathroom.

My husband walked in and leaned on the frame of the door.

"They said take a shower, eat something and then come on in." His head hung low.

"Well, what did you think they were going to say?"

"I was hoping they'd say 'Go back to sleep and come in first thing in the morning.'"