Thomas Willard Martin

Born on the 14th of July 2008 at 16:51, at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Oakland, California.
Weight 9lbs 6oz or 4.265kg


Our new family of four in the traditional stoop shot


Inside... (taken on the 11th)


and out!


Mommy and Tommy in the hospital, feeling relieved!


Big sister Martha comes to the hospital to see her little brother


Thomas Willard Martin, in the flesh (and what a lot of flesh there is!)

Baby was due on July 15th, but because so many people had told me that the second one would likely be early, and after my prenatal visit on June 30th when the resident told me I could give birth any time, I was feeling it (as we referred to Thomas until recently) was long overdue. I caught myself in this several times, looking forward to the relief of having had the baby, only to recall that that would entail actually having a *baby* to take care of. My anticipation was of course largely due in part to desire to get rid of my really quite enormous belly and in part due to anxiety to have the pain of labor over with, once and for all. But as the days passed and there was no sign of number two, I found myself confronting two rather absurd feelings: 1) I wasn't feeling much fear of the birth pain because I was just so impatient and 2) It seemed increasingly unlikely to me that I was actually going to give birth at all. Twenty-eight hours after the fact, I think the first feeling was the more outrageous. Really, labor is AWFUL. It is hard for me to believe that we have not evolved something better. Really.

And yet I could not have hoped for an easier or quicker birth experience. Given how straightforward number one was, I was trying hard not to hope this one would be much easier. In the end, to my relief, it was. Adrian went to work in the morning; my parents took Martha to the park; I went to my prenatal appointment and then began to feel contractions at around 11:15. Called A at work; called Kaiser; we walked over to the hospital around 2:30, were admitted, and the baby was out by 5:00, almost before our nurse (excellent, just as last time) had time to finish our paperwork! Yet godawful just the same. And we have the audio recording to prove it. As I remarked at some stage during the pushing (facilitated by a rather neat bed which allowed a squatting/throne stance and a bar to hold on to when heaving), it's a good thing I'm not a scientologist!

In the end it was really fun to find out the sex of our child just as he was born--I can recommend waiting, especially if you don't mind one way or the other. Soon as he was out, he was on top of me, blood and slime and all, and Daddy cut the cord, as he'd done for Martha; the phone rang several times and we made some calls ourselves, first off to Grandma and Grandad in the UK.

My parents brought Martha to meet Thomas about an hour after his birth, and she seemed quite pleased with him. It was a huge help to know she was home with Grammy and Walter and thus not only safe, but pretty much oblivious to our absence.
After a night in the hospital and a morning of paperwork, we came home in the early afternoon, and are happily esconced as a family of four.

Carrie