Louis Wilcox Mitchell, III (Trip)

Satcha Faith Gwyn

Nathan Ryan Mitchell

June 6, 2005	September 13, 2004
Nathan November 2004	September 2, 2004
July 4, 2004	June 28, 2004 - Sleeping Beauty
Nathan April 5, 2004 - I contrived this shot for the invitation to his 1st birthday party. Trip thought it was sickeningly cute.	April 11, 2004
August 17, 2003	7 months old
April 28, 2003	May 26, 2003

 

• Birthdate: April 27, 2003 2:08am - 2 years old
• Sign: Taurus
• Current Weight 21lbs
• Birth Weight 7 lbs 10 oz Length 20 1/2"
• Looks like: To me he looks like "The Missing Link" between Elliot & Alex. Close to Alex's coloring, but similar to Elliot's face.
• Favorite foods: Nathan is a good eater! He loves to eat whatever we are eating - but especially pretzels. He just points to it and says, "Ooh, ooh" Interesting fact: He's never had a jar of baby food! Still nursing several times a day.
• Tricks: July 2005 -When Nathan meets someone he wants to know better, he starts to jump, or maybe pretend to be a cat or dog or frog. I've watched him do this many times, almost like a peculiar meeting ritual, where he seems to be saying, "Look at me and my tricks - don't you want to play?" He also loves roughhousing. His dinner table trick is actually eating all of the food we serve him, in contrast to his picky brothers who turn their noses up at nearly everything out side of their pre-selected 10 edible foods. I guess I would say he's fully talking. He often echos the boys throughout the day. He enjoys playing with cars and trains. He also loves Playdough and coloring with markers (eek!).

Name: Nathan Ryan Mitchell. We chose the name Nathan because we just like it. It is derived from the Hebrew Nathan which means gift. Nathaniel also happens to be a family name from way back in Sasha's family, but that wasn't really a big factor. Ryan is Sasha's mother's maiden name. It is derived from the Irish surname O’Riain (descendant of Rian) Rian is an ancient Irish name believed to be a diminutive form of rí (king): hence, “little king”

Birth Journal: This was surely my fastest labor yet! Tuesday, I had a long labor that started at night and went into the morning and then stopped, which was a huge disappointment to me. I had gotten it into my head that this baby was coming early and was especially hopeful that he would come while Trip had his time off. So after being all bummed about that, I tried to stay busy - which is pretty easy for me to do. Yesterday, (Saturday) I had one of those busy hormonal spurts of energy which I put to work dusting and vacuuming and bustling around the house for several hours. I was wiped out by 9:00 and to Trip's surprise went right to bed. I could feel that the baby had moved really low, and I had such a back ache! But I was happy, because I knew that back ache at this point of my pregnancy was probably a sign that labor was near. I slept till about midnight as well as I could with persistent back ache and having to get up for unproductive bathroom trips. I began having contractions at about 1:00, but they were strange ones. Unlike Tuesday where the contractions were easy to note with a start and stop and very gentle, these contractions seemed to just go on and on and very quickly got pretty painful. I woke Trip up slightly before 1:00 and we called Gee Gee soon after. While I was on the phone with Gee Gee, Trip started filling my birthing tub. I was hesitant about calling everyone, because I was afraid that labor would stop again. While I was on the phone with Gee Gee I had a contraction that lasted almost 5 minutes. Then one right after that was seriously painful and I said I thought she should come right away. Then I called my mom and Stephanie. Luckily, Stephanie was already up and dressed. She was there in under 10 minutes, and Gee Gee walked in about 5 minutes later. My contractions quickly escalated in pain and intensity. The tub was only half full and we were waiting for the water to heat up again before filling it more, but I thought I really needed the water. We had the birth tub set up in our guest room and the only lights in the room were my candle and a 25 watt bulb, so it was very dim and quiet in the room. I was very nervous because the tub didn't seem to help all that much with the pain, as my first contraction in the tub was still rather painful. I didn't realize I was probably in transition already. On my next contraction, I felt the urge to push! I was scared because it was all happening to so quickly. I told Gee Gee I was scared but she said to just do what I needed to do. I pushed twice and Nathan's head came out, and his body was out on the next two pushes! It was so fast and furious! I sat in the tub for a while and relaxed with him resting on my chest and then we moved into the bedroom after I delivered the placenta. He started nursing right away and wouldn't let up for about an hour! Alex was awake with us for the entire labor and birth. He calmly watched and seemed interested and not scared at all, except when I said I was scared and when I made some pretty loud sounds during the pushing, but Elliot slept through it all. When we came to settle down in the bed, Alex wanted to watch Dumbo, and as we got ourselves situated, he patted Nathan and said, "I've got you." and held him. We are all doing fine and resting at home. (See Labor Pictures!)