Jacob is Drawing

Jacob loves writing utensils. He has a tub that he dumps out several times a day with pens, crayons, colored pencils. He loves to take caps on and off. He also loves to sit at the big boy desks and practice doing his homework.

Jacob's First Birthday

Jacob's first birthday was awesome. It was a family party on Sunday, July 31st. As you can see he is taking the whole thing very seriously.

The cake and icecream was distributed. Aaron and Jacob have similar "frosting on the finger" methods.

This is the BEFORE picture:

And this is the AFTER:

And here he is congratulating himself on a job well done. He wasn't into eating the cake as much as spreading the frosting around on his tray, his face, and his body.

Jacob is WALKING!!!

A month ago Jacob took his first steps with the walker. Today he can walk anywhere he wants and has the bumps on the forehead to prove it. It has been so exciting to watch him learn to walk because he can't hold back his giddiness. I love the first picture on this post because he is laughing so hard it takes all he can just to concentrate and stay upright.

This little man has gone from being a sad, sad baby (0-4 mo) to a very happy toddler (he will turn one on Sunday) Every time he has learned a new skill or gained a little more independence, he has become a more content child. I love to see his big spirit find happiness in his little body.

Born to be a big brother

Aaron enjoys Jacob so much each day it makes my heart smile. Aaron will pick up Jacaob and take him on little tours of the house. "C'mon Jakee, come check this out." And he will swing him gently or put him in front of a mirror which sends Jacob into fits of laughter because he is thrilled to be hanging in mid air.

This is Jacob's favorite move "the backwards belly slide" where Aaron pulls Jakers by the feet.

Sweet hugs

(Please don't call child services on me but...) Jacob loved being Aaron's wheelbarrow.

Jacob in his church clothes.

Classic Father/Son Fun

My dad did this when we were babies. My husband now does this with all of our kids. The tradition of scaring mothers everywhere continues. But the kid loves it - what can I say?

Could he get any cuter?

Aaron loves baby Jacob more than anything. I am not exaggerating. He is so much more affectionate since Jacob was born and being around the baby makes him so happy.

Alex was playing a game with Chris last night where Alex would think of an object and give Chris one hint as to what it was. Chris would then guess what the object was. Alex's hint one time was "this is my favorite thing" after lots of guesses Chris said "Jacob?" and with a big smile Alex said "yes".

August Events

Jacob turned four weeks old yesterday. Here is a picture from each week. Some memorable events that happened in the month of August:

• Jacob was a little jaundice and had to see the doctor a lot
• 9th - We went blueberry picking as a family
• 13th - Went to the Impression 5 Carnival
• 23rd- Chris started his fall semester classes at Boise State
• 23rd - Aaron had his preschool orientation
• 26-28 - Chris went to Woodbadge
• The boys built the biggest fort ever and slept in overnight
• 27 - The boys and I went to the awesome Techsmith BBQ
• 28 - I did the Crim 10 mile race with a time of 1:08

The huge fort we built

Thats me in the blue shirt in the bottom right corner

Jacob's 2 week video

Jacob was doing is usual cute, wide eyed thing last night so I got some video of him.

Video Jacob 2 weeks

Here it is to view and download on my screencast.com page. I have never linked it to my blog before, so we will see if this works.

Jacob's Arrival was a Miracle

Baby Jacob has come to our home at last. We love him so much and we feel totally blessed and protected as we look back on how he came into this world.

Last Friday, the 3oth I talked to my doctor on the phone and he and I decided that between his scheduled vacation on Monday and the fact that Labor and Delivery was understaffed on Sunday, he coudn't be my delivery doctor for my 38 week induction. After I hung up the phone, with the name of my new doctor and an amniocentisis scheduled for Monday night I felt a little unsettled. There were so many more variables now. My doctor was so good. He had experience and knew more about paraplegics than any doctor I've ever worked with. Plus, my other deliveries were assissted with forcepts and he was the only one in the practice who was good at them.

So Friday evening we packed up the kids and went to a concert in the park, had a great time, everything was normal and when I got home I smelt some weird smelling fluid leaking out of me. Aha! My water must have broken! There was no other way to explain the weird fluid so I drove down to the hosptial at 10 pm and got admitted to Triage. They tested the fluid and the tests came up inconclusive, but I was dilated to a 3-4 and after watching my contractions for a couple hours, the on call doctor said that I was in labor.

I labored all night and at 6:00 am I got the best news ever. The on-call doctor said that she called my doctor and told him that I was there. He arrived in the next 30 minutes, Chris got there in the next 30 minutes and by 7 am, the show was on the road. He broke my water, they monitored me for a couple hours. They put me on Pitocin at 9 and by 11, I was dilated to a 10 and ready to push.

The amazing thing about this part was that even though I was having contractions from 7-11 am, they weren't making me dilate anywhere beyond a 6 or 7. Then at 11 two huge contractions happened, my legs went really spastic, Jacobs heart rate fell really low, and then I was to a 10 and ready to push. I pushed 5 or 6 times and within 5 minutes the baby was out.

Afterwards, the doctor said that the delivery couldn't have been done vaginally with a vacuum assisst. Things would have gotten very scary if we had gone through the same process, but with a doctor who didn't feel comfortable on forcepts.

Jacob is super healthy and has no sign of immature lungs now. He is tiny though. He weighed 6 lb. 6 oz and measured 19.5 inches long. He is so sweet, and expressive, and when he is awake - he looks every one right in the eyes.

This morning the boys took Jacob's 20 minutes of awake time and filled it with showing him how to use their favorite toys, playing him songs on their instruments, and whispering little messages in his ear. They love him so much and we can feel his love for us already.

After they broke my water

While they were weighing Jacob

Jacob getting ready to eat (this is my favorite picture of him)

Alex meeting Jacob for the first time

Aaron meeting Jacob for the first time

Jacob looking like the little angel he is

Ready for the drive home

Can you feel the excitment?

Ah, we are home

This is me a couple days ago...

a few minutes before I went in for my scheduled induction. I look ready to have a baby right? Well, I was admitted to Labor and Delivery, had my gown and monitors on, my doctor did an amniocentisis just to be absolutely sure the baby's lungs were developed and and hour later they sent me home. The test came back and said Jacob's lungs weren't ready. So the doctor said that he would give me a steriod shot to boost things a bit and he'd "see me back in a week". The tricky part is the doctor is going on vacation this weekend so I should find out Friday what the actual plan is.

Poor me. I have to join the ranks of every other woman on the planet and not know exactly when I am going to have my baby. It kind of stinks. Good thing is Jacob is getting the best chance at coming into this world a healthy kid. Yay for that.

Baby Shower

My sweet friends Molly and Andrea threw a joint baby shower for me and my two friends. The three of us work together in the church primary presidency and we were totally showered with love and gifts. It was amazing!