My Cutie Pies

2 Weeks Old

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Daddy and his Wee's

Sleeping Beauties

Tickle, Tickle




Surgery Day

Watching a movie together

Finding Our New "Normal"

Our precious baby Jackson is now two weeks old. I can hardly believe it. He is such a sweet and easy-going little guy. He is such a joy to be around! I love his sweet cuddles, his little milky breath, and the fact that his intoxicating baby smell has not washed away in the bath water. Oh how I wish I could just press the pause button and enjoy this time with him a little longer.

Today is our first day at home by ourselves--a day I have been dreading for about a week now. Every time I see a pile of clutter, or crumbs on the floor, or when Tyler decides that he only needs to sleep 5 hours a night; I think to myself "There is no way I can do this!" But you know what, God promises I can do all things through Him. My house won't be spotless, my laundry will not always be caught up, nor will I serve gourmet meals every night. But God has given me bigger priorities-caring for and loving my family-and He will make a way for me to accomplish what is necessary.

Please pray for us as we find our new normal, and adjust to being a family of four. We are truly blessed!

Update on Tyler

Thank you all sooo much for praying!! It really does mean so much to have praying friends. Tyler's surgery went well and we are finally home. It has been a really long day! I will post more details later, I just wanted to let everyone know that we are home and my sweet baby is doing well.

Would You Pray?

If you think of it when you say your prayers, please lift up my sweet baby Tyler. Tomorrow morning is his surgery. We have to have him there at 6:15 and his surgery is at around 8:30. Please just pray that everything goes smoothly and that the Lord will protect him. I know this is a pretty minor outpatient surgery and that there are far worse things that we could be dealing with. And even if that were the case, God would still be good. I am just worried about my baby, as I think any mother would. Plus, my hormones have not been very kind to me here lately. So just remember our little family tomorrow if you would. I will post an update after we get home, which will likely be tomorrow evening.

I Didn't Want To, But I Did It

Today was the dreaded post-baby weigh in. I really don't know what I was expecting-a miracle maybe. I am only 10 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight, which isn't too bad considering I am only a week post partem. And now that the very thoughtful, but not very waist line friendly meals from friends are slowing down maybe it won't be too hard to lose the weight. Although they say the last 10 pounds are the hardest to lose. Time to trade in the Twinkies for something a little more nutritious. :D

One Week Old

Jackson is one week old today, and getting oh-so-cute if I do say so myself.

Brotherly Love

All my men

Proud Mommy Post

My precious blessings!

Tyler is really enjoying being a big brother. Not that we aren't having a few jealousy issues, because we are. But all in all, he is doing very well and enjoying learning all about "Jak".

A Little Announcement

We have settled on a name!!

Daniel Jackson

Cute, huh? We will call him Jackson.

I guess that throws the whole "er" thing out the window. And just for the record, we were going to name him Cooper.

Birth Story

For those of you interested in all the details. I totally understand if that's not your thing, though. Feel free to skip it.

From the beginning of my pregnancy my dates have been a little unclear. You can read more about that here. The office I was seen at determined my due date to be October 13th based on an ultrasound done in February. I have always felt that was about a week off, but really a week isn't a big deal...until you're in those last few miserable weeks. Anyway, the pregnancy progressed normally and there was never any reason to worry.

Fast forward to my 36 week appointment. For some reason I was losing weight and my belly was only measuring 32 weeks, so my midwife ordered another ultrasound to make sure baby was growing well. Everything looked good and they estimated his weight to be 6 pounds exactly. Right on track.

So yesterday (Oct 14th) I went in for my 40+ week appointment-basically ready to beg, plead, cry, or whatever it took to get this baby out. I was dilated to 5 cm, baby was very low, and ready to come any second. My midwife stripped my membranes to get the contractions started, and told me to go walk a while and then come in to Labor and Delivery when the contractions started.

I didn't go walk, but went home and got things ready and dropped Tyler off with a friend. By the time we got to their house I was definitely in active labor.

We got to the hospital right around 6:00 and got checked in, blood drawn, and papers signed. That took til 7:00. By then, my midwife was there and asked about pain management. I had wanted to try doing it naturally, but honestly was a little scared of the unknown. I told her I wanted to get in the whirlpool tub and pray about it for a few minutes before I decided. Keith, my mom, and I all prayed about it and decided not to get the epidural. I was in the tub, which was wonderful and relaxing, for about 30 minutes before I decided to get out and have her break my water. Since we had made up our minds, we might as well get the show on the road. I had been dilated to a 6 when I first got in the bath and when I got out 30 minutes later, imagine my surprise when I was dilated to a 9. She broke my water, gave me a dose of pain medicine through the IV, and about 30 minutes later I was ready to push. I pushed for a very intense 30 minutes, during which I was confident I would sooner die than push that baby out. But out he came. All 9 pounds 9 ounces and 22 inches of him. Wow!! No wonder I thought I was going to die. He was one ounce shy of weighing 2 pounds more than Tyler did. Having him out was such a relief.

After he was born, given his size and the fact that my placenta had already started to calcify, the midwife determined that he was more overdue than we thought. But he is here, healthy, and wonderful. We are so thankful for this wonderful blessing to our family.

So there you have it. The story of my big boy.

Some More Pictures

If you would like to see a picture of Tyler right after he was born for comparison, click here.

He's Here!!

Our sweet baby Daniel ??? was born at 9:00 exactly after being in labor only 4 hours total. He weighed a whopping 9 lbs 9 oz and was 22 inches long. He is beautiful and perfect and looks like his big brother. Here are a few pics for now. I have tons and will post more tomorrow. Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes.

Going to the Hospital

Well y'all, it seems today may just be the day. I just got back from my 40+ week appointment where, after a little whining and begging, I was told to come in tonight. Actually I guess it didn't take too much to convince her. She was going to schedule me to be induced tomorrow morning but when she checked me I was 5 cm dilated and contracting pretty regularly. She said that I would go tonight on my own more than likely, but said she anticipated a short birth (I sure hope she's right) so I should just go walk around for a while and then go check into the hospital. Soooooo... I will have the laptop with me and will hopefully be posting little updates along the way. If not, I'll post pictures soon.

'Cause You Know You're Wondering

No, still no baby yet. I was told by my midwife on Tuesday that it "couldn't be more than a couple more days." Well, that was 5 days ago. My mom is here now, so we are all just sitting around waiting on something to happen. I am thinking (hoping, praying) that today might be the day. If it is, you'll be the 1st to know. Okay, so not the first, but I'll let you know. Our hospital has WiFi so I am planning on taking the laptop and camera. Hopefully my next post will be a birth announcement.

Birthday Boy

At 10:38 (Central Time) tonight, my sweet baby boy will be 2 years old. I cannot believe it. Where did the time go? I love being his momma so much!






Happy Birthday sweet man!