Welcome welcome welcome!

Well, as all of you know... or should know by now, Nathaniel is here! Nate was born two weeks ago today on April 27th around 1:45 pm. We do not actually know the exact time because our nursery nurse, my aunt Carol, was so excited when Nathaniel was born, that she forgot to look at the clock... opps! Everything with labor and delivery went really well... actually, exceedingly well. I suppose that I will do the traditional new mother thing and share the story... now... Ahem...

Once upon a dream, in a foreign state, far far away for normal people (Utah) there was a very pregnant women named Queen Stephanie. It was late at night in the castle (aunt Carol's house), but two of the princeses (AJ and friends) and the King and Queen (Dan and Stephanie) were still awake and enjoying some lively games on the computer. The Queen started having some contractions around mindnight, but said nothing to the King because the King had plenty of work to do in the upcoming week to finish his schooling and she did not want to worry the King. Queen Stephanie had braxton hicks contractions in the past and that her current circumstance was similar to those in the past. However, after about 2 hours of pretty consist contractions, the Queen began to wonder if this could be the real thing, but still said nothing to the King and Princeses. Queen Stephanie thought that perhaps if she got up and walked around that she would be able to figure out if these contractions were the "real thing" or not, she walk she did, well, pace she did. Around the hour of three, the Princeses went to bed and the Queen was finishing up an online puzzle, while the King played around on another computer in the same chamber as the Quenn. Soon after the Princeses went to bed, the King and Queen decided that they too should retire to bed. As the King and Queen left their current chamber and entered the informal dining hall, the King turned to the Queen and said, "You are not going into labor, are you?", to which the Queen responded, "I don't know". The King and Queen were watching a baby from outside their Kingdom (Sean) that evening and they gathered him in swaddles and continued to retire to their royal chambers. Sean had been asleep until this point, but he decided that he could not miss out on anything and arose around half past the hour of three. The King and Queen tried to get the adorable child to retire, meanwhile, Queen Stephanie's pain was getting more intense. Sean refused to sleep and continued to cry as there was nothing that King Daniel could do to calm the outsider. Queen Stephanie was no longer able to hold the child as it made her contractions worse and the contractions were coming every 4 minutes apart at this point. By the fifth hour, the Queen demanded that the King take the child upstairs to the help (Carol... hum... interesting that Carol is the help, since the castle is Carol's house... but it works better for later in the story) and that he fetch the help to come downstairs to see the Queen. The King was very reluctent to do so, since he did not want to wake the help at five am, but the Queen insisted and ineviablitly, the King fetched the help. The help came down and asked what was going on and the Queen told her that she thought that she might be in labor. The help asked how long the contractions were lasting, how far apart they were, and how long she had been having the contractions. The Queen had already done all of the things which she knew the help would tell her to do (take a warm bath, take some Tylenol and lay on her left side). The help told the Queen that the Queen was indeed having contractions and that she had two choices, go to the local medical chambers (Salt Lake Regional Hospital... where Carol works) now or wait an hour and see if the contractions go away and then go. So the King and Queen decided to try to get some sleep and then go to the hospital in an hour if the Queen was still having contractions. The King laid his head upon his royal throw and began to snore. The Queen laid beside her caring King, listening to her music trying to relax and fall asleep. After about twenty minutes of no sleep, the Queen arose and figured that she since she was not feeling any better, she should pack her medical chamber baggage, which she had planned on doing earlier in the day. After packing her bags, she awoke the King, who was grumpy because he only got 45 minutes of sleep, and she told him that it was time to go to the hospital. After several minutes of the King dragging his feet, the Queen and King left for the medical chamber in their horse drawn carriage. Around thirty after six am the King and Queen arrived at the medical chamber where they told her that she was indeed in labor and that they would break her water after giving her some IV antibiotics since her Strep B came back positive. The Queen called and let her royal family know what was going on. Soon Carol came into the medical chamber and officially became the Queen's labor nurse. Stephanie was 3 centimeters and 95% effaced when she entered the medical chamber. Around half after ten or eleven oclock the Dr. and Carol broke Stephanie's water...

To be continued... the young Prince Nathaniel needs to eat!