Milestones, Memories, and Mayhem: Martin Crew, Party of Five

I am so excited to introduce our newest crew member!

Nikolai Darius Martin

September 24, 2019

8lbs 6oz

21.5in

Our first picture featuring both the boys

Almost looks like I have mama's boys doesn't it? Those close to us know that little Spiderman sure loves his mama, but is a Daddy's Little Dude all the way!

On Monday, I had an appointment and was 38 weeks 4 days. Because we live 40 minutes from the base hospital without traffic, and with Potatoes rushing into the world in a rapid 22 minutes, I opted for a membrane sweep and a room for the night at the base hotel.

After my mom and I said goodbye to Uncle Ryan, checked in and had a hotel nap, Daniel and Potatoes came to meet us. The Martin trio headed out for some bowling while my mom got her things together for the night.

We played disc golf hours before I was admitted to have Alexander, so I was hoping going bowling might help move things along.

After bowling, my contractions started getting stronger and more frequent to the point I felt it was time to give L&D a call. This meant Daniel wasn't yet going home to Zoey, and my mom and Potatoes posted up in the hotel room.

I progressed quickly at first, and they said they were going to keep me based mainly.on the fact that Alexander's delivery was so very fast. I opted for the epidural this time, since I was a bit traumatized by the experience of last time. Unfortunately, it made me itch like crazy- from the inside- which is apparently a side effect experienced by nearly.half of people to various degrees.

At 10pm I was nearly 7cm; by 2am I was still at 7cm and my contractions had slowed down. They kept.advising me to rest but the itching skin was too intense. Luckily, at 4:45 they opted to manually break my water.

It was a far different experience pushing with the epidural and required some coaching from the doc. Though it felt like the whole process took forever, Nikolai came into the world at 5:59am, just over an hour after my water broke.

This boy is strung like his brother! He lifted his head and tilted it towards the voice of both his daddy and his brother within 30 minutes of entering the world.

He looks a lot like his big brother!

Because of the timing, that night was the first night Zoey was ever left alone all night. We were so sure he would come by midnight and then Daniel could run home to snuggle her when baby and I fell asleep, but this guy had other plans.

When Gammie told Alexander his brother was here, big brother jumped out of bed, got dressed and brushed teeth in record time; racing to meet the new addition. Finally, Daniel was able to go see Zoey, who smelled the baby hat, ate her meal from the previous day (hunger strike!) and promptly passed out. She was probably up all night stressing- poor princess.

Gammie is in love already

Alexander is absolutely smitten. He has been so gentle and giving lots of kisses, but also keeping things true to Alexander style at the same time. Hopefully Nikolai has some spunk!

He wanted to sing songs to his little brother. We started with Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Wheels on the Bus. Then I told Potatoes that this day was his brother's birthday so he could sing him a special song, expecting Happy Birthday.

"I'm your big brother! You're my little baby! I will always protect you, but when you get big we will be able to FIGHT!!"

Big Brother is a perfect balance of sweet and salty!

We had the BEST team!!! I cannot begin to explain how much love everyone poured into our stay. We had so many laughs and hugs and just a beautiful experience. I didn't know if it was weird to ask for the phone numbers of my favorite nurses, but I absolutely would've loved to.