My Boys

I'm ready for Jackson to no longer need oxygen.  All the tubes get tangled, the monitors beep a LOT, and I feel like I can only see half of little Jack's face.  The quote from Hook when the little boy is pushing on Robin Williams face and says, "Oh there you are Peter!" keeps popping into my mind.  I feel like I'm looking at my little Jackson, but his real face is somewhere beyond all the tender grips and tubes!

Then there's my Joe.  He's up at 5 every morning these days, which means he's tired all morning long.  We have LOTS of tantrums until nap time.  To appease some of these tantrums, I'll ask him if he wants to cuddle with me on the rocking chair, which he usually happily agrees to.  One morning, he was sound asleep within just a few minutes.  Oh why oh why won't you sleep until you are no longer tired?

It's probably because he doesn't want to miss out on anything having to do with Jackson.  Joe always wants to hold him, and insists on feeding him a bottle all by himself.

He even got all the clean blankets and burp clothes out of the drawer so that baby Jackson wouldn't be cold!  At least he avoided covering Jack's face!

And then there is my Clara.  I know she isn't one of my boys, but boy am I loving who she is becoming.  She is seriously turned into such an amazing helper.  I didn't get any pictures of her this week, but she has definitely been present!  If I'm busy doing something and Jack starts to cry, Clara is the first person to run to him.  She can usually get him to stop crying all by herself too.  She is quick to do anything I ask her to do.  I definitely would be worse off without her HUGE help.  Thanks for being so amazing, Clara, even if everyone thinks your younger brothers are so cute that they don't pay much attention to you!

Raptor Laptor

Clara's school's yearly fundraiser was on Friday, March 20.  It's called the Raptor Laptor.  They ask friends and family to donate money either per lap, or a flat donation.  I was so proud of her.  She ran 2.4 miles in a 45 minute period!  I was able to run with her last  year, but this year it was out of the question.  She was sad, but I promised her that I would be there to watch her.  So Jeremy and I brought some camping chairs so that I could sit, and we were able to cheer her on. 

Thanks Clara for being so understanding as I recover and try to adjust to being a Mom of 3 instead of a mom of 2!

Welcome Baby Jackson

Jackson was born on Saturday, March 14, 2015 at 7:57 am. (That also happened to be Pi Day of the century!) He was 5 lbs 14 oz and was 17 in long.

Here's his birth story:

Our doctor told us from the beginning that he wanted our baby to be born in his 38th week due to my age and the risk of a still birth increasing the longer the baby is invitro.  So as it came time to pick a date for my c-section, I was looking at the dates in my 38th week.  Pi day was in that date range, and even towards the end of it so that baby could stay in as long as possible.  The only problem was that Pi day was a Saturday.  So I asked Jeremy what he thought about picking that date, if it was even possible.  He was all for it, so I called the person who schedules c-sections for my Dr and asked her about the possibility of having a scheduled c-section on a Saturday.  She had to get in touch with the hospital and get back to me.  When she did get back to me, she said that they only do one planned c-sections on Saturdays and that it was for 7:30 am.  When I asked her if Sat March 14 was still available, she said it was.  So we excited picked that date and waited for it to arrive.

The first two weeks of March went by so very slowly as we anticipated Jack's arrival.  I've never known when a baby was coming before, so it was very nice in some aspects, but made time go more slowly in others.

The night before we had him, I took my last pregnancy photo.  Here I am at 38 weeks:

 The next morning we got up at 5 so we could be at the hospital by 6:15.  The next hour and a half went by surprisingly fast as they checked me in, asked A LOT of questions, prepped me for my c-section, etc. 
I loved my anesthesiologist.  He gave my a play by play of what was happening behind the curtain.  I knew exactly when Jackson had been born, when the placenta was delivered, etc.  It was actually really comforting to know what was going on.  Since Jeremy's stomach doesn't do well around blood, he's always right by my head, behind the curtain as well.  So this was the first time I knew what was going on.
Little Jackson was gurgling during his first few cries, which had me worried, but I could hear the nurses suctioning him out, and within a few seconds, his cry was normal!  Since I can't see much during a c-section, that normal cry made me extremely happy. Jeremy was able to bring little Jackson over to me before they took him to the nursery.

Jeremy followed Jack and was able to keep in touch with me through texting.  While I was still in recovery, I found out that little Jack would be headed to level 2 nursery, which is that particular hospital's NICU unit.  His blood sugar levels were extremely low, which is a common problem since I had gestational diabetes.  I was just grateful he didn't have to be transferred to a different hospital!  They wheeled my bed into the nursery before they wheeled me into my room so that I could hold him for as long as I wanted to.

It took me a while before I was able to get back to the nursery to see him again.  The nurses wheeled me in to see him once that first day, and would have more often if I had asked, but it was too painful for me.  By the second day, with the catheter out and my IV gone, I got to go see him a lot more, which was oh so nice.  By day 3 his blood sugars were doing well enough they released him from Level 2 and he was in my room for a total of about 2 hours.  That was long enough for Aunt Emily and Aunt Tricia to come and hold him.  With him in Level 2, only Mom Dad, Grandma and Grandpa could hold him....  Not even Clara or Joe could be with him, but the nurses were kind enough to let us hold Jack up by a window so that Clara and Joe could at least see him.

However, after those two short hours in my room, his blood sugars dipped too low again, so he was back in Level 2 AND on bilirubin lights.  So I was back to not getting to hold him very often.  By day 4, I could head home, but since Jack's blood sugars were getting better, I decided to stay an extra day at the hospital so that hopefully we could all go home the next day together. 

The next morning, all his levels were above the cutoff, but all were just barely above the cutoff.  With what happened on Monday (Day 3,) the Dr didn't want to send him home quite yet.  So I headed home by myself on Wednesday.  As I would go visit Jack that day, his oxygen levels kept dropping while he was eating.  That is somewhat normal due to not breathing as deeply while he eats.  Since his oxygen levels would come up quickly, they weren't too worried.  But I got a phone call at 11 pm Wednesday night from the pediatrician.  Jack's oxygen levels had dropped during a feeding, but never came back up.  So they put him on oxygen, did an x-ray of his lungs, ran some tests, and put a feeding tube in him so that his little body could take a break from eating and hopefully get his oxygen levels back up.  So the next time I saw my little guy, he looked like this:

The only problem was that the test results were going to take 2 days to get back, and Jack would have to stay in the hospital until those results could come in.  He either had a bacterial infection or his lungs weren't quite as developed as a normal 38 week old.  They said that when mom's have gestational diabetes, a common problem is lungs that aren't quite developed as they should be.  So after two days, we found out that he didn't have an infection, so it must have been underdeveloped lungs. 
He was finally released from the hospital on Saturday, when he was one week old! When we brought him home, I noticed that Clara was keeping her distance a little.  I asked her if she wanted to hold him.  Her eyes light up and she said, "Can I?"  She was one happy big sister.

Little Joe is in love with Jack as well.  He wants to hold him more that Clara does. 

He even wants to help feed Jack "by myself!"

Cute sayings of Clara: "Mom, do you think Jack is made of puppies and rainbows?"  When I gave her a questioning look she said, "Oh people just say that when they think a baby boy is extra cute.  So Mom, do you think he's made of puppies and rainbows?" - Yes Clara, I do!

Cute sayings of Joe: "Baby Jack is soooooo cute!"  "Want to pet Baby Jackson."

Busy Week

With the baby coming this week, we tried to cram a lot in to last week.

The first thing that needed to be done was to get this little baby's bed set up.  So Jeremy was kind enough to do all the heavy labor as I kindly told him how to do it.  :)  But the end result is a crib in a nice neat bedroom.

I also got the kids some new Pajamas.  Joe really needed some as he's growing quickly out of the ones he currently has.  Clara just loves PJ's, so I splurged and got her a Cinderella pair.

Next came the cutting of my hair.  I was about ready to get a haircut and donate my hair to Locks of Love right as we found out we were expecting.  Since I knew this would be my chance to grow my hair long, I decided to wait the 9 months before I cut it.  So here are the before and after of my hair cut.  And please don't mind the greasy looking short hair from the back.  The lady wanted to spray in some leave in conditioner.  I told her I didn't mind, until I realized she intended to spray the entire bottle in my hair, but by then it was too late...

 Jeremy's work provided a showing of Big Hero 6 in the Theater that is in the Conference Center on Temple Square.  Joe is obsessed with Baymax, and couldn't wait to touch him.  However, Joe refused to pose for a picture.  He really doesn't like getting his picture taken for some reason.  So here is our little Joe admiring Baymax, not knowing Dad was sneaking a picture in.

Clara happily posed with Honey Lemon and Baymax though.  She was super excited to get to go!

And lastly, Jeremy and I knew that it would be a while before I would have the pleasure of attending a temple session together for quite some time.  So we did a temple session at the temple Jeremy and I were married in.  Since this is also where Jeremy proposed, we reminisced about the night we got engaged and the session we were able to do the night we got engaged as well.  Oh how I love the Jordan River Temple.

My Kids

With less than two weeks until my scheduled c-section, I've been taking things pretty easy, which means I haven't taken any pictures in a long time.  But since I missed posting last week, I didn't want to miss again.  So sorry for the picture-less post!

Clara has become little miss helpful the last few weeks.  I was secretly hoping this child would be a girl so Clara would have to share a room, and perhaps learn to be less selfish.  However, she has blossomed into such a thoughtful person these last few weeks.  I have loved seeing her selfless side come out.  She not only does everything I ask her with a smile, but she also has started to observe and do things I don't even have to ask.  She almost always clears my plate after dinner so that I don't have to.  She is constantly bringing me a pillow so I can rest my head, or a blanket so that I'm not cold.  I love my amazing, beautiful Clara!

Joe has started to say and do the funniest things.  We went to a cousin's basketball game the other night, and anytime either team would miss the basket, he would grunt as if extremely frustrated.  He loves to do everything by himself.  He insists on taking his coat off by himself, opening and closing doors by himself, getting buckled by himself, putting his own shoes on, etc.  Some of those things he can't quite do by himself yet and when he tries and fails, says, "Uhhh!  Can't do it!"
He's started to use the word 'actually' correctly.  Clara was trying to get him to trade toys with her, and he kept saying no.  When she finally stopped bugging him about it he said, "Actually, yes!" Or when I'll ask him what he wants to eat for a snack and he tells me something.  I'll start to get it out and he'll say, "Actually I want ....." and change his mind.  I love it.
He also says "What the heck" all the time.  I'm not sure where he picked that up because no one in our family says that on a regular basis, but it sure is funny to hear such a little guy say that frequently.
He is obsessed with vehicles in general.  Anytime he sees what he thinks is a cool truck out the car window, he'll say, "Mom! See that truck!"  We also have a lot of planes that fly over our house.  If he hears one he stops what he's doing, searches the sky until he sees it, and then stands there and watches it until it flies out of sight.  There is no distracting him from watching it no matter how hard I try to get him to keep walking, or get in the car, etc. 
Joe is still my super shy boy though.  He is such a huge chatterbox at home, but as soon as someone comes over, or we leave the house, it's pretty rare he will even make a sound.  He even knows when we are talking about him and gets obviously embarrassed.