Nathan Michael King SIDS Foundation

About Bradley and Laura King

Bradley King was born and raised in Cameron, MO.  After graduating from Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, MO with a B.S. in Construction Engineering Technologies, Brad moved to Texas to start a career in the utility industry.  He currently works for Underground Solutions, Inc., a water technology company located in Poway, CA and is based at his home-office here in Bryan.  Brad has two daughters, Kennady and Alleea, who live with their mother in Missouri.  Brad enjoys visiting his girls often and anything that involves being around family and friends.

Laura (Kristynik) King has spent her entire life in Bryan, TX.  After graduating from Texas A&M University, Class '07, with a degree in Health, she began her teaching career with Bryan ISD.  She has taught at Bryan High School, Sam Rayburn Middle School and Davilla Middle School.  She is currently teaching at Bryan Collegiate High School and coaching the junior varsity volleyball team for Bryan High School.  Family and friends are very important to her and she enjoys any activities that involve spending time with them.

Bradley and Laura are active members of Faith Bible Church.

About Nathan

Our family’s story began on August 1, 2008. That morning, at 2:09 AM, Nathan Michael King was born. He was perfect in every way. In the days following Nathan’s birth, we quickly adjusted to the new addition to our household and I fell in love with motherhood.

I took eight weeks off from my job as a teacher after Nate was born. Since our school year didn’t start until Nate was 2 weeks old, I was able to stay home with him for ten weeks. I thank God for the opportunity to stay home with him as long as I did. Brad’s job often took him away from home during the week, so I was able to spend most of my time one on one with my perfect little man.

As Nathan got older, he grew up like we couldn’t believe. He was rarely tired, and used every waking moment to soak in the World like he didn’t want to miss a thing. He smiled (a real smile) at 3 weeks and began laughing less than a month later. Laughing and smiling…that was Nate’s personality. At his two month check-up, he was in the 85^th percentile for height and weight and was doing things his doctor said he wouldn’t normally do for a couple of months. He was truly gifted. When he turned 3 months old, he decided that laying down when he was awake wasn’t fun anymore. From that point on, if he was awake and not eating, he was standing in his jumper or sitting in his bumbo chair (or my lap of course). I enjoyed every single moment with him…we were practically inseparable.

As his mother, I was very protective of Nathan and SIDS was the one thing I feared the most with him. I knew I could prevent many other things that could harm him, but I knew that SIDS was not 100% preventable. Statistics of SIDS deaths ran through my mind often, and I could not wait until Nathan turned 6 months old (when the risk decreases drastically). I was able to ease my mind a little by following the recommendations from the “Back to Sleep” campaign. We always put Nate to bed on his back, his mattress was firm with tightly fitted sheets, I gave him breast milk exclusively, no one was allowed to smoke around him or our house, and his room was always kept at 72 degrees. To help ease my mind a little more, we even purchased an Angel Care sleep monitor that sounded an alarm if it didn’t sense any movement for more than 15 seconds. I’m not sure why God placed that fear in my heart so strongly. I like to think that he may have been preparing me for the things I would do someday with the information I gained through my fear. He may have been starting the Nathan Michael King SIDS Foundation in my heart long before it entered our minds.