The Baby had arrived!!!

At 1:11pm on Friday, February 18th, 2011, Nathan Jeremiah Ryder was born.

We're so happy to finally have him here. He's a cute little gaffer too.

The actual labour wasn't too long, about 8 hours, though my wife's water had broke the day previous with no contractions.

The only scary part was that during the final delivery, as he came out, the cord was wrapped around his neck and he was a little blue. I guess sometime after the water broke the cord had fallen and encirlced itself around him. Little guy had his hand clenched around the cord almost as if he was pulling on it.

It was fortunate that we were in the hospital for his delivery (I'm no advocate of home birth, never was, even less so now) because he would have surely been dead had we been anywhere else.

Apart from having to stay in the hospital to take antibiotics for an infection create by swallowing mucus he is healthy and happy. Sleeps almost all the time and puts up a fight when you change his diapers and clothes. We're hoping to have him home in three days.