Week in review

But first here's some pictures from a few weeks ago
Jackson and Gavin--Gavin 1 week old...







I have been horrible about blogging. I thought that it would be easy to blog while Jackson takes his afternoon nap. The key is getting Jackson down for his afternoon nap. I have never been a naptaker and I think that it must be hereditary--my mom doesn't take naps, my dad doesn't take naps, and Jackson does not take naps. On Monday Jackson is starting a preschool that is Monday/Wednesday 9am-12pm and we have been attending storytime at the library 10:30-11:30 Tues/Thurs and he's about to start gymnastics on Friday 10:30-11:30 so I'm hoping with all of this planned he'll be ready for a nap around 12:30 everyday. I'll keep you posted on how that's working out.

This has been a busy week. Last Monday (MLK Day) Matt took Jackson to the driving range for the first time. Jackson loved it. (That afternoon he did take a nap--he was worn out.) Jackson has his own set of clubs and Matt said that he did great. I sent him with the camera, but I think that there might have been sunscreen on the lens because the pictures are a little blurry--maybe that is the aura of the next big thing in golf. :) Move over Tiger Woods.






On Sunday my dad and step-mom, Cyndi came to visit and stayed through Friday. We had a great time with them watching reruns of their favorite show House, catching up, and eating, eating and more eating. On Monday afternoon Matt watched the boys and my dad and Cyndi took me to the movies to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It was a good movie and it was good to get out of the house, too. (Especially the last hour when Brad Pitt was getting younger and hotter.) On Sunday night we celebrated my dad's 60th birthday (actually December 27th) with pizza, cake, and gifts.




Monday evening we also had our friends Russell and Mimi and their 3 beautiful girls, Adyson, Macie, and Kylie come for dinner and had a great time. I really have to get better at taking pictures for my blog. But I did get one of Mimi, Jackson, and Gavin. (Jackson has to sit in the high chair when we have guests because we are limited on chairs and space--but in the last few weeks we've had lots of guests and we don't even have to tell him he just goes and sits in it.)


Jackson is still attending his computer class at his old school on Thursday afternoons (it's an extra thing that his school offers and he had been attending since September and we chose to keep him in) so we went and visited his old friends in his old class before Ms. Kristin picked up the computer kids and Jackson got to show off his baby brother. As they all started coming around Jackson's face got really serious and he said, "But don't touch him." Jackson is really protective of Gavin and Gavin's lucky to have such a great big brother.



Gavin is now 1 month old. I can't believe it!! This has been the fastest 4 weeks of my life so far. Here are some updated shots of our little guy. We had a little photo shoot today. (Technically he is 1 month 2 days :)







As I have been writing Matt was able to accomplish the task and just called me in to see this adorable sleeping pose. Check out the kool-aid mustache. :)

I have finally made the decision to start a blog. I think that this will be a great way for us to share with our family what is going on with us; as well as a way for us to document what the boys are doing on a regular basis so that we can have something to share with them when they get older.

Be warned the following contains some graphic descriptions that may not be suitable for some young children...or men. :)

On the evening of December 21st, after a wonderful Christmas party at Jackson's friend's house, we came home and were hanging out thinking about the week ahead. I was due January 12th with Gavin, and since we had his room ready, his clothes ready, Matt had just put the stroller together that day, and I had put the car seat in the car the day before, we thought that all we had to do now is wait for Gavin to arrive. Matt had that week off of work because the University was closed for Christmas so we were really just looking forward to relaxing. Gavin, however, had different plans for us. That evening I was giving Jackson a bath and let's just say had evidence that I thought may be indicative of the labor process. I told Matt to take over for me so I could google it and call my doctor. My doctor said that it may still be a couple of weeks before he is born but that you just never know. I continued to get Jackson ready for bed and read him a story as I could feel contractions every few minutes. I called my mom after I got Jackson to bed since I was supposed to be going over to her house to spend the night because I was going to be taking her to the airport early in the morning to fly to New Orleans. I called and told her what was going on and she suggested that I call my doctor again. I called my doctor again and she said, "Why don't you go on to the hospital since you've called me twice. It will make you feel better--I'll call and tell them that you are on your way." I told Matt what my doctor said and he said that I made her say that since I kept calling her. I was on the phone with my mom and Matt and I went back and forth about if I was really in labor--bottom line he didn't believe me--later on my doctor told me that she didn't believe me because I sounded so calm. My mom asked me to ask Matt if it would be okay if she took me to the hospital. He said that's fine and went to sleep. I packed my bag and my mom showed up about 15 minutes later. I left my sleeping family and headed to the hospital. I joked on the way to the hospital that I hoped that I would have the baby so that I could tell Matt, "I told you so." We got to the hospital and I actually left my bag that I had packed in the car because I was embarrassed that they would tell me that I wasn't in labor. I did grab my camera out and told my mom, "Just in case." We laughed and she went and parked the car. We went up to Labor and Delivery and the nurse checked me out--she also told me later that she didn't believe me when I came in because I was too calm. She found that my water had broken and that I was 2 cm dialated and that I would be having Gavin within 24 hours. I turned to my mom and said, "Call Matt." She called and told him that I was checking into a room, that she would go and pick up Jackson, so that he could come up to the hospital. She called my sister, Brooke, to let her know that she wasn't going to be going to New Orleans--they were also going to be going, but driving, and changed their plans as not to go as well. I hurried my mom to leave because I thought I certainly didn't want to have the baby all alone--she left sometime between 1 and 2 am and Matt got up there sometime between 2 and 3 am. By then I was in lots of pain--I had opted to go completely drug free and without an epidural. The contractions were becoming unbearable and I thought maybe I do want an epidural. I asked the nurse and she sent for the anesthesiologist. I was at 3 cm and 90 percent efface. It was going to take the anesthesiologist about 15 minutes to get there and those next 15 minutes were painful!! I could tell that those contractions were definitely productive so I asked the nurse to check me again because I thought that it may not be a good idea to get the epidural after all. She checked and I was at 6 cm and she said, "I don't trust you, I'm getting my gloves and we're getting ready for this." She called for back up and she delivered Gavin at 3:54 am. My doctor made it about 15 minutes after he was born--they had called her when I was at 6 cm. Gavin weighed 4 lbs 13 oz and 17.75 inches long. It scared me to see how small he was when he was born, I just prayed that he was okay. I could tell that he was smaller than Jackson but I didn't know how much smaller--he was 3/4 of a lb and 3/4 of an inch smaller than Jackson. That made me feel better. My recovery was pretty easy since I didn't have the drugs that they had given me when I had Jackson. (I didn't have an epidural with Jackson but had some horrible drugs that made me soooo very tired.)



My mom brought Jackson to the hospital that afternoon and he brought a cute balloon that sings, Baby Face--you've got the cutest little baby face. Jackson immediately took to Gavin. Right away he told Gavin, "I love you baby brother." It brought tears to our eyes. Jackson is so affectionate with Gavin and he is so proud to be a big brother. Brooke, Ronnie, and Evan came to visit us at the hospital and brought cute hats for the boys. And Janice came that evening and brought me the Willow Tree with the mom with two boys--I love it!!!

Over the next several days and weeks we've had lots of family and friends come to visit and send well wishes. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends.

By the way...Matt did apologize for not believing me and was so wonderful with the delivery and the days and weeks following. We are so happy that his job allowed him to have the time off and it worked out as it did. When we had Jackson, Matt had only been able to take off the day that we had him and had to go back to work the next day.


I promise that all my posts won't be this long...but I do have a bad habit of giving all the details when I talk...so be warned. I hope that I can find the time to keep this updated because I do love reading what's going on in my friends' and family's lives through their blogs and I hope that I can provide the same connection.

We are so blessed with our boys, Jackson and Gavin.