James Jeffrey Kerrigan

At 12:22 am on Saturday, February 5th, 2005 James Jeffrey Kerrigan was born to extraordinarily proud parents, Jeffrey and Mary. He weighed 6 lbs. 5 oz. and was 18 3/4 inches long.

Mary is doing great, James is doing great, as am I.

For those that want the more detailed account, here it is...

Mary began feeling labor coming on Thursday evening, after a visit to the nurse midwife indicated that she was headed in that direction, though it was still "latent" labor, so she was able to get a good night's sleep on Thursday night. By 2 pm on Friday afternoon, her contractions were more regular and it were getting more intense. Another visit to the midwife confirmed that she was progressing and should consider going to the hospital later that afternoon.

Determined to be able to tell the baby "I walked to the hospital in the middle of winter to give birth to you!" later in life, Mary began the trek to the hospital on foot. We got about halfway before it was time to get a ride from Mary's mom the rest of the way. We checked into the hospital around 6 pm.

By 8 pm, she was 7 cm dilated, then her water broke around 8:20 pm, which picked up the pace considerably. She began pushing around 11 pm and baby James came along just past midnight (apparently, 2-5-5 is preferable as a birthday to 2-4-5!). His arrival on Saturday instead of Friday also means that he and mom can stay at the hospital and be pampered until Monday morning, rather than Sunday afternoon.

I had the great fortune of being able to assist in James's delivery, helping him come into the world and placing him in his mother's arms. (I look forward to telling a teenage James "I brought you into this world and I can take you right back out!")

I couldn't be more proud of Mary and James. Mary stuck through some tough times during labor and ultimately remained all-natural (pain meds AFTER delivery is another story). It was also a true blessing to know that we had a ton of family and friends, both at the hospital and elsewhere, thinking about and praying for us. It sure helped to know that we had lots of love around us.

We can't wait for everyone to meet our little boy.