To Colorado and back

We're home! We had a fabulous time in Colorado. I was shocked Jonathon got leave, and everything just fell right into place. Our doctor said it was perfectly fine to travel, so off we went!

Jackson did amazing on our flights. The first plane to Atlanta worked out really nicely because the flight attendants let us take our car seat with us, so we didn't have to hold him the entire flight. The Atlanta crew also let us on the way home. Jackson pretty much slept through the actual travel on the way to Colorado, and was wide awake for the Dusdal's to spoil him with attention. Aunt Jennifer bought him a very cute outfit and adorable onesies. Thanks Aunt Jen!

We also got to see the Denver crew. My Aunt Laurie had us all over to introduce the first baby in our family in about 10 years. She even made my favorite - - tacos! Nothing says welcome home like yummy Mexican food. Jackson was a bit fussy by the end of the night - luckily there were hands willing to help.

My mom was wonderful while we were there. We got a bit of a false sense of reality since we got to take naps while we were there since she would take Jackson. We obviously manage without them, but they sure were nice! Plus, my dad's cooking made the trip that much better. He and Jonathon can talk about cooking forever now. I always told Jonathon his idea of an omlet isn't correct, since my dad is such an amazing cook I grew up with these beautiful omlets. Jon got my dad to show him how to make one, and now that he knows how, he's pretty proud of his omlet creations. They got to do a lot of "man" stuff during this trip. They got some drinks a few times, went shopping where Jonathon got new hunting boots for his hunting trip in November. They also have tenative plans to go elk hunting next year in Colorado. My dad may even meet up with Jonathon and his buddies in Michigan this year to shoot some deer.

Jackson is sleeping in large chunks at night. I'm so glad for that now that Jonathon is going back to work on the 5th. I got so spoiled having him around for 3 weeks! Truth be told, I think he'll have a harder time going back to work. We've had so much fun, and he just loves hanging out with Jackson. My own dad aside, I don't think I've seen a dad as loving, caring, and as involved as Jonathon. I catch him a lot of times just staring at our boy, and Jonathon just smiles. He is an amazing dad.

Now that we're home, we've decided (if we hadn't already before...) that we are just too far away from family. We certainly don't want to live 1700 miles away forever. Jonathon is going to put in for a transfer this coming week. We're hoping for the midwest. He gets to choose 5 bases for his dream sheet. Among those are, I believe, Arizona, 3 bases in CO, South Dakota and another one I can't seem to remember. I know I said 5 - but maybe he switched Arizona and Nebraska around. We just need to be closer to family and friends. We feel so out of the loop and detached sometimes.

Here are a few pictures. Have a happy week!!

Baby Jackson

Our boy is here! The pictures seem to have uploaded the newest at the bottom, so if you scroll up you can see the time line.

My mom got into town on September 9 which was a true blessing since Jonathon had a long work week. She and I shopped, got our nails done and went out for Mexican food 3 times. We did anything to take our mind off Jackson not wanting to make an appearance.

We were scheduled for a 41 week appointment and induction on Monday, September 14 at 8am. Since Jonathon works nights, he got Sunday night off so that he could get some sleep and go with me in the morning. Lucky he got the night off! My mom kept saying that if I had to be induced, labor could be a lot harder than normal. We just prayed that wouldn't need to happen. Jonathon sent me to bed around 10pm, I woke up around 1am with some bizarre pain. I went and laid with Jonathon in the spare room, and while we watched tv, I realized that my bizarre pain was exactly 8 minutes apart. Once Jackson decided to come, he skipped all the pre-labor and things went really fast. By 2:30am, I woke my mom up and she and Jonathon started to write down the times I was getting contractions. I got the overwhelming feeling I wanted to just sit in the shower, and that helped the pain tremendously. By 4:30am, my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart.

We drove to the hospital, and when they checked me I was only 2cm dilated. The (male) doctor didn't want to admit me until I was 4cm - in the meantime I was needing something for pain since the contrctions were lasting a full minute and coming so often. We only had to wait about 45 minutes in the trioge room until the day time doctor was on, and she did want to admit me and bless her soul she ordered me a shot of some sort of drug that helped take the horrible edge off of the pain.

Once I got my room, and I was only in the hospital for about an hour - I had dilated 3 full centimeters. They didn't want to give me another shot because they were worried I'd progress too rapidly again and I would miss the window to get my epidural before pushing. So, I had a lapse of time where I had nothing - let's not do that again! I kept hearing that the epidural was so painful and the needle was so large - but I honestly felt like getting an IV was worse. After that, I didn't feel one contraction. They said they'd check me at noon and then see if we could start pushing. We thought Jonathon had time to go home and shower - well, they checked me at 11 and said we should push right then! We called Jonathon, and he drove the 1/2 mile back to the hospital.

After an hour of intense pushing - most likely the worst pressure of my life - we got our boy. His head is so perfectly round that it made pushing a lot harder! No cone head baby here. He ended up being 8lbs 4oz (which NO one predicted, even the doctors were shocked he fit in my belly!) and 20 inches long. He has Jonathon's coloring, ears and chin. He has intense blue eyes - now we know most babies have blue eyes and they can change - but they are so intense that we are thinking he may just get my baby blues!

He is a champ when it comes to sleeping, and he already is up to eating about 4oz every few hours. The doctor wanted him to eat 15ml every 3 hours - he ate 100ml in three hours! They were quite happy that he caught on so quick.

I have to say that Jonathon was absolutely perfect through the 11 hours of labor. He held my hand and was extremely encouraging. He even kept me calm when I wanted to kill the night nurse when she was too obnoxious to listen to anymore. He takes such great care of Jackson, he had him all night while he let me try and catch up on some sleep. Jon has caught on so quickly and just loves holding his son. When Jackson and I are laying with him, I don't think I've ever seen him happier.

It's also been amazing to have my mom here. After raising 6 kids, she is a wealth of knowlege and she has helped out so much! The extra hands around is really nice and it's good to have some company while Jonathon is asleep during the day. I am going to miss her so much when she has to go home.

We'll be in Colorado Sept 23-30 - so everyone should come say hello to our newest addition!!

Kitties and waiting....

My boys sleeping...
Yeah, Little Kitty really thinks we bought this for her.
I guess I was done on the computer?! Yes, he's on my key board.
Playing with the boxes that J's bed came in.
Yes, I kicked him out...


Little Kitty LOVES being tucked in.


Ok, now that I got all of those cute pictures out of the way - here's a tiny update.
At my last appointment, the doctor said I was already dilating! YAY. I have another appointment on September 1st - just a little past 39 weeks. Good grief, J may never come out! I haven't even had Braxton Hicks contractions. I recruited my friend, Mindy, to go on a long walk with me the other night. I felt tightness, but no real contractions. FYI - spicy food doesn't work for me either - maybe because I eat it so much anyway. The whole oregano and basil bit is also a fail. Lame. Anyway, I realized that my cat (Meiko) loves Jackson's bed a little too much. He jumped in it THREE times - he normally is a really good listener, but he's insistant on being in this co-sleeper! I had to explain to him that even though I call him Baby Kitty, he is not infact the baby that will be in there, and I don't want cat hair on J's sheets. Poor kitty.

Jonathon is now at the point where he jumps every time I move. He asks about 5 times a day is my water has broken. I was hounded to get my hospital bag ready. I was scolded for going to the grocery store alone, where my water could have broken and he wouldn't be with me. He's too cute. I'm glad he's so into this. He has lots of plans for this baby - Jackson is already a football, basketball and baseball star. He apparently will also be a master hunter and he and Jonathon will restore an old car for Jackson's first vehicle. J will have to be a meat eater and he'll also love country music. I hope this pans out for Jonathon's sake. :)

Mindy was such a doll and went crazy at Barnes and Noble. She brought me several children's books that she feels every child should have. I love her for that. It was so thoughtful, and such a great gift! I love reading, so I hope that I can pass that to Jackson. Thanks Mindy!!

Jonathon has his first football game on Tuesday - the first. I'll make sure to take pictures to post!

Baby Gear

Here are some pictures - we have just about 190 hangers in this closet, although you can't see the sides because of the doors. My mom made the comment, "Oh, you guys will have to get those dividers that say '0-3 months, 3-6 months..'". I said, "No mom, those are ALL 0-3 months!" They aren't hanging in his closet though, they are in the spare bedroom's, because Jonathon's friend is getting out of the military and asked if he could stay here until he is done out processing - so we moved all of Baby J's things to the extra room for now. There are also some pictures of Jonathon putting together J's travel system, courtesy of Eddie Bauer - WE LOVE IT!

28 days to go

Sometimes I wish we had some sort of an idea of when our little guy is going to greet us...like a specific induction date or a c-section date. Then, I snap back into reality and thank the Lord that there is no need for me to have a c-section. However, this waiting is killing me! It's not that I want him to come today, or tomorrow - but not knowing when it's going to happen is a little nerve wracking! Officially, we're 28 days to d day.

Jonathon and I are just about done with our baby shopping. We took a trip to Sam's Club where we can buy a little over 3lbs of baby formula at a time. My parents gifted the baby's play yard to us (which we still need to order this weekend) and we have more clothes than I know what to do with. Thank you to everyone who has been so generous - you all are such a blessing in our lives!

The doctor told me today that I'm still measuring small -so it's official...no 8lb babies here! She told me that in about 2 weeks if we're 1cm dilated then she'll strip the membranes making labor come easier...and may come sooner! Wow! It's a lot to wrap your head around. We're getting excited, but Jonathon has informed me that he won't be getting nervous until I go into labor. Jonathon works on my actual due date, and my mom comes into town 2 days after - I'm not sure when a good time will be - but I'm sure our little guy will figure it out!

Our cats are having a hard time already with the changes - Hope, our little kitty - likes to take naps in the baby's boucer and Meiko - our baby kitty - refuses to realize that I can't have a 10lb cat laying on my stomach. They are so spoiled I am hoping they do ok with having our Baby J around.

In other news, Jonathon has officially made his fantasy football picks. We went to his friends house for the draft and ate pizza - just hung out. He also has training coming up as well as keeping up with his own football practices. He's a very busy guy, which is great for him. He doesn't do well as a sitting duck. I'm actually worried about his 10 days of paternity leave - he won't know what to do with that much time off. I may send him back to work! Having an active spouce is great though - I know he'll always be on top of things! He has been feeling Baby J move more and he's excited to put the play yard togther. He's really coming into the world of fatherhood well, I'm so proud of him and extremely blessed to have him. I'm looking forward to seeing him with J and watching their bond grow.

That's about it on our end! We hope everyone is doing great and know that we miss all of you SO much!