Jul 24, 2009

Announcing Jackson!!

We are happy to announce Jackson has arrived!! He was born July 23rd @ 7:51pm. He weighs 7 lbs 12 oz and is 20 inches long. Labor and delivery was smooth and both Mom and Baby are doing well!

The birth story: I was scheduled to be induced on July 23rd, which was only 3 days early. I was so nervous that I would go into labor early. Markham had been out of town A LOT. First to Minnesota for a client, then to Bear Lake for a work retreat. I was alone and really freaked out, especially at night. Every time I had to get up to pee, which was a ton of times, I was afraid my water would break and put me into immediate labor. I prayed and prayed that Jackson would wait until his Daddy was home. I am so grateful those prayers were answered.

I was supposed to report to the hospital at 6am on the 23rd. My mom had come up, as well as my sister, Lindsey. Mom was planning on being there for the birth, as well as my sis-in-law, Ashley. Lindsey was very nice to stay home with Kaitlyn- she'd seen it all before when I had Kaity.

Needless to say, I didn't get very much sleep the night before. I got up at 5am and took a shower. After I was dressed and ready to go I realized I had missed a call from the hospital. I was super bummed because I knew what that meant. I called and sure enough, the nurse said they didn't have any room right then and that they would call me later to let me know when I could come. WOW...that was tough. We all tried to go back to bed and get some sleep, and I think everyone was successful except me. I was just too excited!!

Finally at about 1:15pm, I received a call to report to the hospital. About an hour later, Markham and I were all checked in. I changed into one of those lovely, open in the back hospital gowns and was ready to endure whatever I had to for my baby boy to get here. They broke my water right away, which is a crazy sensation! I was dilated to a 3. I made sure everyone knew I wanted an epidural stat, I had absolutely zero interest in being a hero and going through child birth without meds....that is just nuts. It was about an hour later that I got one. My contractions were getting stronger and I had a killer headache. It was yucky. But after about 20 minutes, I was feeling pretty good. I was progressing quickly and before long, about 7:30pm, Dr. Hurst came in and I started to push. It only took pushing through 3 contractions and my sweet little boy was here. Only 6 hours from when we had checked in!! The doctor immediately put him on my chest and I was in love immediately. What a miracle!! Markham cut the cord and they took him to get him cleaned off and to check his vitals.

After all was well, they gave him back to me all swaddled up. I held him close and kissed his little head. There is nothing like holding your newborn baby for the first time. He nursed right away, he was hungry! I was relieved that he knew what he was doing, Kaity and I had NO clue what we were doing when she was a newborn.

My little boy was finally here! It was awesome.

Jul 14, 2009

Tea Time!

My mom, sisters and I had an absolutely wonderful time at a darling little Tea House in downtown Salt Lake - The Beehive Tea Room. It was a celebration before baby Jack arrives. Ashley organized the whole thing, and it was so so fun!! It was like we were in England having our "afternoon tea." They had a very nice list of herbal teas, as well as regular tea, coffee, hot chocolate and Italian sodas. They brought each of us our own tea pot with our selected tea, which we added cream and sugar to...so so yummy. Then we enjoyed gorgeous little hand crafted sandwiches - cucumber, artichoke and tomato - very British and very scrumptious! We also had delightful scones and a sinful dessert, all served on beautiful china. We sat and chatted, using our best British accents and just giggled.


The tea was so so yummy! We all had four cups!

The sandwiches were so so beautiful, we hated to eat them, until we tasted them, and then we had no problem.
We loved to ham it up!





Ashley made Jackson this adorable quilt and I LOVE it!! Thanks so much Aunt Ashley, it will be cherished!


Thanks everyone for treating me to a great time and thanks again to Ash for organizing it!!!

If you want to have a great time with your girlfriends/sisters, we highly recommend having tea!!

Jul 7, 2009

My HUGE perspective


Well, baby Jackson is growing quite nicely. I had an ultrasound today and they estimated him to be close to 7 pounds ALREADY. That is just fantastic news, since I still have almost 3 weeks left. I would just love to have an 8+ lb baby!! WOW, Kaitlyn was just under 7 and I thought that was plenty big. With any luck, they are VERY mistaken. But then again, just look at my belly, I wouldn't call it small.

July 4th!

We had a great time in Idaho for the 4th of July. Kaity and Parker played in the pool, and everyone else played in the river, except for me. They tend to discourage water sports at my stage of pregnancy
Kaitlyn was getting ridiculously brave. Those belly flops looked painful.
She looks a bit more graceful in this shot. Her technique improved a lot.