Our Little Family

Saturday, November 1, 2014

October Instagrams

10.6.2014

This little sweetheart was such a champ today. She had her elbow pinned to fix the fracture from last week's chair jump. #clairebear #neveradullmoment

10.8.2014

Most adorable and enjoyable load of laundry I've ever done! #babyprep

10.17.2014

I really had no intention of posting my bathroom prego selfie, but Claire was just too cute sneaking into the pic. Hallelujah for only one more week of this BUMP!

#kissesforbabybrother

10.18.2014

Family date to an ISU football game. #gobengals

10.19.2014

So this happened today!! Baby boy didn't want to wait until Friday for my c-section, he wanted to come today!! We are in love!

10.21.2014

My new boyfriend Jack

10.23.2014

I have FOUR kids!!! :)

10.24.2014

Today is the day we were supposed to have our baby boy... Instead, we have been blessed with five extra days to love and cuddle this sweetheart! #babyjack

10.27.2014

This girl just adores her baby brother!

10.31.2014

Happy Halloween!!

Friday, October 31, 2014

It's a good thing I was so prepared for Halloween this year! The girls' costumes were picked out and ready in plenty of time, even with Jack coming early. The girls were able to go to the ward Trunk or Treat with James on Wednesday, and then he took them trick-or-treating Friday on Halloween. I joined them with Jack in the moby wrap around the neighborhood for a bit, and it was so nice to get out.

Our Princess Anna

Our cute cowgirl

Our "nice" pirate

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

We are sure loving our baby Jack.

He is such a cuddly sweetheart. If he's being held, he's happy!

He pulls the funniest faces, and mostly only cries when he needs to be changed, or is hungry.

He sleeps a lot during the day, which makes for some long nights for his Mommy and Daddy!

We teasingly call him "The One-Eyed Jack" because he will often only have one eye open when he's waking up.
We are dying to know what color his eyes will end up...they are looking grayish blue, so we'll see!!

He's just a tiny little peanut, wearing newborn diapers and clothes with room to grow. When we left the hospital he was down to 6 lbs. 5 oz., and at his appt the Friday after he was born he was only up to 6 lbs. 7 oz.

We have found out he loves music, especially church music, or instrumental.

He always escapes his arms from being swaddled.
Jack has two adorable little dimples in his cheeks. I hope they stay!!

He puts up with lots of noise and affection from his loving sisters.

He usually calms down to the sound of Mommy's voice.

We get lots of comments about his great head of hair and of course, about how much he looks JUST like his sisters!!

Nicknames already include: Jackers, Jack Jack, Baby Brother, Jackie Boy, and Jacks.

Here are some pictures from Jack's first week at home...

So deep in thought. :)

My wonderful counselor, Linda brought over some diapers for Jack, and a treat for the girls. I sent her this picture of the girls with their monster-mouth suckers. :)

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Sherry offered to take the girls for the weekend, which was such a great help for James and I. We loved spending time at home with just us and Jack. James also had a test Monday, so it was nice for him to be able to spend the time he needed studying.
Grandma Jones has not being doing well the past few months, so we felt it a priority to go see her and have Jack meet his amazing great-grandparents. We had a wonderful visit (and some amazing huckleberry-raspberry cheesecake) with Grandma & Grandpa before picking up the girls at Sherry's.
Grandma & Grandpa just loved Jack. It was so sweet to see them look at him so tenderly and with such great love.

We had dinner at Sherry's before coming home with the girls, and I realized I had forgotten to take a picture of her when she came to meet Jack on Wednesday.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Jack J.

It took us until Monday to decide on baby boy's name. We had a few we had been considering, but none we were in love with. When he was born, I felt like one name in particular was the one, but in the operating room as baby was being taken care of, James came over to me and reported, "He looks like a Jack!" Which was funny, because that was a name we had loved and talked about a lot, but kind of decided not to use. We still went back and forth, practicing calling him by the other names. Finally we both agreed and knew that he was Jack!! We already decided on the middle name of J. in honor of our brothers: Jason, Jon, Jacob, and Jess. So our sweet Jack J. officially had a name.
My hospital stay went surprisingly well, and I had some really great nurses. The girls came up for another visit on Monday afternoon, and we were able to come home on Tuesday evening. This recovery has been a bit rough as I try to keep myself from doing too much, and trying to get my pain under control, but in time I know I'll be feeling much better. My mom and James have been such great help taking care of the girls, the cleaning, the cooking, errands, and everything else while I rest and take care of Jack.
We have had many friends, ward members, and family come meet Jack, bring cookies and other gifts, and amazing friends who brought dinners. We have been so blessed and feel so grateful for the love and support we've received.

Funny story: The biggest baby item we needed this time around was a carseat. We used ours with all three girls, but it had expired and seen better days, so we got rid of it awhile back. I couldn't bring myself to fork out the dough for a new one for our last child, so I kept putting it off. Finally, the Saturday before Jack was born, James and I ordered one on sale online, and it was expected to arrive Tues, Oct. 21. Well, we were at the hospital and not going to make a special trip home just for the carseat, so we borrowed one from the Ormonds to bring Jack home in. And as you can see it was a totally girly carseat. Poor Jack. With three older sisters, that probably won't be the last time he has to use something girly. :)

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Welcome Baby Boy!!

Our little mister was scheduled to come October 24. I was feeling pretty good about finishing up the last minute cleaning and organizing I had to do the days leading up to his birth, and Mom was coming Thursday to stay with the girls, and then help after baby came. This was the plan, and I do love a plan. However, the weekend before we were expecting baby I started to feel a lot of pressure and it was clear baby was head down and ready to come out...I was also having more contractions than I've had in any of my three previous pregnancies, and I was quite certain I was starting to leak amniotic fluid a couple days before baby ending up coming...
Sunday morning on October 19, I had gotten up early for ward council. As soon as I got up I felt like my water was breaking, and felt pressure and discomfort (down there). I didn't really think it was possible that I was actually going into labor at 37.5 weeks, and I was not ready for baby to come, so I tried to ignore the signs. As I continued to get ready, I kept feeling everything more intensely. I woke James up and asked him to Google all the signs I was experiencing. They all pointed toward labor, but I didn't feel like it was going to happen right away, so I waddled off to ward council and kept my legs closed tight. We went to church and all throughout I kept squeezing James' leg with every contraction or increase of pressure. I was truly determined NOT to have the baby that day! I wasn't ready, we didn't have a name, and I didn't have everything done that I was planning to do in those next few days leading up to Friday, when he was SUPPOSED to come.
After church I had some RS responsibilities, but could barely even walk without feeling like baby boy could slip right out, so I swallowed my pride and quit being so stubborn, realizing I better get to the hospital just in case he was really coming! I called my sweet 2nd counselor Kayla to go in my place, called Mom so she could drive down, and made arrangements for the girls to go to the Ormonds (until Mom got there) so James and I could head up to the hospital.
So we hurried and packed a bag, and headed to the hospital. Around 1:30 or 2 we got to labor & delivery, explained the situation, and they took me in and hooked me up to the monitors. All the while James and I just kept asking each other, "Can you believe this?!" "Can you believe we're actually at the hospital today?!" It was crazy. I was definitely contracting, and after a doctor checked me, we found out my water had indeed broken, and I was dilated to a 2 and 50% effaced. I couldn't believe I was actually in labor!! I had no signs of labor with Emery or Claire, who were both born at 39 weeks. Baby boy was coming that day!!
Now, I have to add another reason I didn't want to have the baby that day was because my doctor had been on a cruise the week before, and I wasn't sure if he was back yet, and I really, really wanted him there! I had even told him before he left that I had a feeling something was going to happen, and it better not happen before he got back!! (I had been telling James for quite awhile as well, that I just had a feeling that something weird was going to happen...that things weren't going to go as planned...) The doctor on call was my friend's doctor, and I had heard good things about him, but I was still adamant they at least try to get a hold of Dr. Jones. They did, and he said he was available to come at 6 if I was willing to wait. It was probably around 3:30, so I was happy to wait. So James and I waited it out texting our family and friends, talking about names, filling out paperwork, getting prepped for surgery, and still in disbelief that our little stinker was coming early!!
Everything went really well and our sweet baby boy was born at 6:22 p.m. on October 19. He weighed 6 lbs., 12 oz., and was 20 inches long. We were immediately in love and couldn't imagine life without our little mister!!