More from christmas

Here are some photos from Christmas day. 

Max in his cute pjs

Hadley enjoying her gifts, too

Cute cousins (that's Cordelia if you don't know who she is- she is  James' brother's step daughter)

TOO CUTE

Merry Christmas

Things have been CRAZY the last few days. We got delayed in leaving for our new house but we are finally here! We pulled into town last Wednesday around 10 am and had family coming into town that night. We had movers here two days later and more family come in also. The house has been a mess but my family scrambled to put it to a presentable state for James' family to see. I could not be more appreciative for all the help with the house and baby girl Hadley. We will continue to have family in town until the new year so blogging will be minimal. The boys have done many house projects already and work has started with Hadley's nursery (on top of putting away our regular house hold items). It's been an adjustment for to this new small town, too. There is hardly ANY shopping/eateries like we're used to. I guess that will save us money :). I will leave you with some pictures from what we've been up to. I hope you and your families had a great Christmas. 

Making cookies

Santa came
max and hadley really racked up

no words

On Friday, the most horrific crime was committed against innocent children and faculty at a Connecticut elementary school. This hits hard to home for anyone who has kids, or anyone who is a decent human being. I know first hand what it's like work and be in an elementary school as I am/was a 2nd grade  (and other grades) teacher for 6 years. I am taking time off to raise my precious baby girl Hadley but once a teacher, always a teacher. We did many lock down drills over the course of the year. I would always go the extra mile and talk to them about what if they were stuck in the hallway (like if they went to the bathroom) or if we were on the playground. It was all business when we were in the actual drill but you always knew that it wasn't real and the likelihood of it being real didn't seem possible. We would all line up against the cabinets and wall by the door. It was always a tight squeeze but they did such a great job. Our principal would come around and check to be sure our doors were locked and that they couldn't see us if they peaked in the door window. I also remember when we had a couple classes out on a playground during one drill and they weren't sure what to do. Later after finding out, they were supposed to all lay as flat as they could on the ground.

Over the years security has been tightened due to many reasons. We had two entrances that were open at all times only and had to wear our ID badges. We required guests to always have a visitor's pass and sign in at the office. The school in CT had more security than this and it still occurred. My view on this is if somebody wants to do something, I don't think anything could have kept him out. Those teachers and staff acted with great heroism just like I know my fellow teachers would have. It's a sad tragedy and I just hope that we can live in a better place.

That being said, I think I'll keep Hadley in a bubble in my home forever. I will leave you with a picture of her because I love her so much.

Hadley's newborn photos

I am just giving you a little look at a couple of her photos. I'm saving most of them for her announcements so I don't want to spoil it just yet. Once those go out I'll update the blog with more. These were taken when she was 8 days old and much much more sleepy than she is now. 

She's just so beautiful!

Hadley's bedding has arrived!

Here's a sneak peek of Hadley's crib bedding! We are moving this week and will get the crib put up in the next couple weeks. So until then, here's a look at what it is! I forgot what I even ordered, but I love it.

Hadley 3 week/ month update

Hadley had a 3 week check up because she was SLIGHTLY under weight at her 2 week appointment (refer back to that blog post about it). She was 6 pounds 13 ounces at that appointment (her birth weight was 6 pounds 15 ounces).  I am HAPPY to report at her 3 week check up, she was at 7 pounds 8 ounces!! That's 10 ounces! in a week, you go Hadley (and me). I really didn't do anything different so I think their scale was off that 2 week day. She is incredibly LONG. I don't know where she gets it. I believe at the 3 week, she was in the 67 percentile for height. She is tiny in weight and especially considering her unusual length. I can't remember the percentages for the 3 week because I thought they were going to write it down (oops).

She is in size newborn diapers and newborn clothing fits the best but are about to be on the way out. They're getting snug. She does wear 0-3 months but they are a bit baggy. She started out for the first 2ish weeks being a REALLY sleepy baby. I mean slept non-stop and we were having to wake her at night for every feeding.... Fast forward to week 2.5-3+ weeks and we have a different story. She is a happy baby during the day. She usually naps for 2 hours and then is ready to eat. She'll stay awake maybe 15 minutes then she'll get upset but goes down for a nap super easy. She loves being swaddled, she loves our bathroom apartment fan (it's excessively loud), and is no problem.  She mostly sleeps in her bassinet and the occasional mamaroo swing.

Now, the nighttime. I think someone comes in and switches my baby around 10 pm. We are trying to do a feeding around 6 and then 9 pm with a bath around 8:30 but she's been very fussy in that time that the times are fluctuating and the bath isn't a regular, YET. She wants nothing to do with going down for bed either. She may settle down, but the second you set her in her bed or even her swing, she screams. That cycle continues for a LONG time. We tried letting her cry for about 3 minutes before we go in to paci it up or pick her up. All of these soothing techniques work during the day but at night, forget it. She wants nothing to do with the paci and she'll calm down a TINY bit if you hold her. I would hold her all night long if she was quiet, but really that doesn't work half the time either. It seems I can't even go 1.5-2 hours without breaking down to feed her. It's the only thing that calms her down. Then after that good feed session, we repeat with the screaming/crying.

Then magically around 2am, someone returns my baby. She takes the paci again and she settles down. I have no idea what happens or why but I really hope this is a fussy stage/growth spurt possibly and that it will resolve itself quickly! We are moving to our new house at the end of this week and I bet our apartment neighbors are THRILLED. I would be, They probably think we are harming our baby based on the noise that comes from the apartment from 10-2am.

She's starting to smile a bit (during the day of course) and I'm loving it. She's so cute that you forget about her fussy period but it is rough on the sleep department. I mean really, how do these young teen moms take care of babies on their own? I am really thankful James can calm Hadley and is so helpful because it can get overwhelming. One other interesting fact, SHE PEES ON US every time you change her. She pees like a fountain. Just when you think oh she just went she won't go again, SHE DOES. On the changing table, with or without a diaper on, in the bath, in the towel after the bath. What can I say, she likes fresh air :). Hadley's bedding arrived Friday and I could not be more thrilled with how it turned out. I will post a sneak peek next blog post. Also, her newborn photos came in! Lots of exciting blog posts coming up.

look how long she is

She was cooing and happy here

Nursery ideas

As we're getting ready to move (really soon!) I've been looking more at nursery ideas. I put together a little collage of photos. The dresser is a mirrored one. I am thinking about adding in some grey as shown below. What do you think? The room is still a yellow on the walls with a white chair rail at the bottom. I think I'd like white curtains with a pink chevron border on the bottom (I need to be a sewer). I'm thinking about mixing a lot of different patterns because that's "in" right now. Hadley's bedding is coming in the mail very soon! I can't wait to start buying accessories once I have the actual pink color in my hands. What do you think? Don't forget it'll be yellow walls.

New house!

Well I have been meaning to post about this but the arrival of Hadley has occupied my time and also we were waiting on the long list of inspections etc. We are actually closing TODAY! (via fedex since we can't be there in person). We aren't moving until a week or 2 though. We may get the house cleaned/painted before we move in though. It's in a nice neighborhood with trees! I know you think, why is trees a big thing. Well coming from Abilene and a fairly newer neighborhood we had NO trees. This is an aging neighborhood and our house was built in the early 80s. Which is also different for us. We chose a house that had a good mix of move in ready and fixer upperness. We really don't have to do anything but we definitely are going to. We are buying it from another military couple that has 2 kids and love the house. It's been an interesting process buying from the owners instead of realtors. I think we got lucky because they are so nice/accommodating, but could also be the military camaraderie.

The house is 2000 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths. It has a formal dining room (which is pictured as the office- which we will probably do as well). It also has a screened in patio which was a must have for me! (and Bella our cat). There's also a very nice yard for Maddie and Hadley. We can't wait to move in soon! The previous owners did a LOT of painting and adding of crown molding. Most of the paint is staying but they did a great job updating the house.

Our house! We are going to paint the green shutters a different color (any suggestions?) and the garage doors because they are green as well. It has a nice front porch for our rocking chairs, too

Living room with fireplace. There are built ins on both sides of the TV and the door goes out to the screened in patio

Kitchen! The majority of where our renovations will happen. We need new appliances and we'd like to knock down the upper cabinets on the right to open up the kitchen (those are some immediate needs). We'd also like to reface the cabinets to make them a cream antiqued look perhaps and change out the sink for a farm type sink. The counter tops are not granite but it may be too much of an upgrade for the area so that may or may not be updated.

Eat in area of the kitchen. It has a great bay window (with a window seat!) and I love the yellow wall color. I want a circle table that seats at least 6 (any suggestions of where to get one?)

formal dining room/office
I love the wall color and the molding and wood floors

Guest room
although it's decorated girly, this will be the guest room. it has great closets though

Hadley's nursery! I want it for her room because of the nice molding it has already! It's also right across from our bedroom so easy access. We'll be painting this room yellow to go with her nursery theme (stay tuned for the next blog post of an update on her room).

Master bedroom
the walls are a DARK navy blue and unfortunately that will not be staying. We will be painting this room a grey color
It should fit our king bed set nicely (and have I mentioned I can't wait to get my bed back). We love the nice bay windows and Hadley's bassinet will fit nicely in that nook area (while we transition her to her crib). The master bathroom is past the dresser to the left. It has a nice sized closet but the master shower/tub area itself does need some "mastering" up. So we plan to do some updating there, too. It does have tiles but just doesn't feel glamorous.

back yard

Screened in patio

So what do you all think?! We can't wait to get back into a house and not have to worry about being loud or having loud neighbors (not to mention the taking the dog out part). Feel free to leave a comment about what color you think the outside shutters/garage door should be.

Hadley's 2 week check up

Hadley had her two week check up on Monday and we were excited because she was going to be checked to see if she gained her birth weight back. It's always tough when you breast feed to know exactly how much baby is getting. I was fairly confident she was getting enough to gain her weight back because she was having the "right amount" of diapers. I didn't think she would sky rocket past her number but I thought we'd hit it. She was born at 6 pounds 15 ounces and left the hospital at 6 pounds 8 ounces (which is in the ok range).

Unfortunately, she did not make her goal weight! I was soooo disappointed. I felt very defeated because that's pretty much a main job of mine is to feed her and it didn't go as expected. It actually wasn't that bad, but at first my sister and I were confused. They weigh her in kilograms (which wasn't the issue) but it's still weird. Then they wrote it down in pounds. They wrote down 6.83 pounds. I interpreted that as 6 pounds 8 ounces (which is NOT correct). I did that because below it, it had her birth weight listed as 6 pounds 15 ounces. I just wish they would be more consistent! So the whole time the doctor is talking he's not freaking out. I'm freaking because she was (what I thought) was the same weight as it was 2 weeks prior. He was all like "it probably was the difference between a poop". I was thinking to myself A 7 OUNCE POOP?!?! haha

Needless to say the doctor wasn't that concerned because it turns out she was just about 1.7ish OUNCES off where she needed to be. I still think she should have gained her weight back but I will have to keep at it and keep waking her up at night (which is very unfortunate). She is very tall at the 50 percent mark. I'm not sure where she gets that from but we'll see what happens! She is a VERY good sleeper. We had to wake her for every feeding up until today. She seems to have grown very fussy and is hard to put down for sleepy time. She usually is easy to console though so that's a plus. We'll see how this develops, hopefully this has been a fluke and she'll continue being a calm baby.

I am going next Monday (a week from this 2 week appointment) to check her weight. The doctor didn't really tell me to do anything different but he did tell me to feed shorter amounts. I was going a whole hour for feeding (well she falls asleep for a lot of it) but he said she's putting out a lot of energy that cancels out some of the feeding. I'm also pumping a little bit to top her off with some more breast milk from time to time. Hopefully this does the trick but we'll see. She's just a tiny, cute little love bug :)

Thanksgiving

We gave Hadley her first bath when her belly button thing fell off. It fell off when she was 13 days old. She really did not mind the bath at all and was very calm about it. This was in her really sleepy stages so we'll see how she does again.

all wrapped up and sleepy

We dressed up the kiddos the other day and went to Santa's Ranch. It was a light display with over 1 million lights ands over 100 displays and animations. Max really enjoyed himself, Hadley slept :)

Max and Jen

Hadley's birth story part 2

So off to the labor and delivery room we went. They waited to see how I was progressing and it wasn't very much on my own. I was given pitocin to speed things up and boy did that do the trick (for a while). They had to turn it down several times because my contractions were getting crazy. I was NOT feeling good to say the least. I asked for the epidural at 2:20 am. I felt like I lasted a while with out it but guess not. I don't even care because it was the best thing since sliced bread. Honestly, good for you if you decide not to get one, but seriously, I don't know how they do it. I don't know why you would either if you could feel as good as I did with the epidural. I guess to each his own.

Long story short, James rested while I just sat there freaking out that I was going to have a baby soon. Baby was having spouts of inactivity so they kept turning me on different sides and giving me sugar water. I then stopped progressing and there was a BRIEF talk about a c-section. I was at a military training hospital so I saw several different "doctors", luckily the nurses were highly knowledgable. It was a little uneasy that they always checked what the doctors said....

My epidural on the right side was not working after a while. I could feel everything and it did not feel good. My left side was completely numb and almost to the point where I did not like that feeling. I decided I'd rather have that feeling that the feeling I was having on the right side. I was almost ready to push so they didn't want to give me too much more epidural so that I could feel something. Hadley was head down but she was face up. They tried everything to get her to roll around but they said that's why I was feeling a ton of back labor (which was VERY painful). She did end up rotating herself thanks to all the change in positions I was doing. I was also on oxygen a lot of the time because it helped Hadley move around in there. It also made me feel better and not like I was going to pass out from pain :).

haha you gotta love this photo, James said "just one like this". This was at the peak of miserableness

I ended up having the anesthesiologist come back in and she gave me two new squirts as I laid on my right side. That did the trick. I mean it's like night and day. I was back to being my pleasant self, it got hairy in there for a while :). I want to give a shout out to James. He was the perfect husband. He would get me anything I needed and would always run out to the nurses if something was urgent (or if he felt like I was in too much pain). The nurse kept saying ok, the hard part is still to come (meaning the pushing). I already thought I was doing a hard part so I did not want to hear that. She kept saying "first time moms can push close to 3 hours". I think she was just trying to prepare me but still it wasn't fun to hear.

Lots of doctors came in to confirm that it was indeed time to push and it was around 12:45. The nurse was very encouraging and said I was doing great. I pushed for less than an hour and out came my pretty princess. With the substantial epidural I had, the pushing was a breeze. I couldn't feel anything (including if I was doing a good job). It all worked out though. I am so glad I didn't end up with a c-section because I was up and about less than an hour after giving birth.

We left the hospital two days later (well a couple hours short). A couple of my co-workers from Abilene came to visit us in the hospital! They were in town for a marathon and we were supposed to meet up for dinner the night I gave birth. My sister, mom, max, and david sent me chocolate covered strawberries and a balloon while I was in the hospital as well. We were glad to get home and have settled in nicely.

Stacia and Kerry with baby girl Hadley

I write this to you and she's just over 2 weeks old. I honestly don't know where the time has went (I always hear moms say that but seriously). We had our check up today and I'll post about that next time. A couple other things. We are wrapping up our time here in San Antonio and getting ready to move to Mississippi. We have pretty much finalized the house we are buying. I was waiting to post pictures once I knew it was a done deal and I'd say we're there. We've had the inspection and appraisal. Everything's turned out pretty well so far and I will post on it coming up. Hadley had her newborn photo session this past week. I can't wait for everyone to see them. She did absolutely perfect. She loves her beauty sleep.

We did little photo shoot on Thanksgiving when baby was 11 days old. Have a good day my blog readers!

Hadley Emilia has arrived! (birth story part 1)

Hey everyone! Happy Thanksgiving, we are very thankful our baby girl decided to come out in time for thanksgiving. We are very thankful for her and she was well worth the long wait.

I am going to be pretty intermittent with the blogging. Our little girl arrived a tad early and surprised her mommy and daddy! I just felt like she wasn't coming out ever so I was quite surprised when my water ACTUALLY broke! My twin sister's water broke the day before she was 39 weeks, but we had such different pregnancies that I didn't think mine would. So I'll tell you a little bit of the birth story.

Saturday, November 10th, started out like any other day. We were going to James' training squadron's party that evening around 5. It was the first/last time they were going to get together as guys are finishing up their training here. I baked nice and delicious pumpkin bars that afternoon and just lounged around until it was time to go. They had a great spread of food from smoked brisket, pork, and any other side item/dessert you could ever want. I ate several rounds of food :). My back was hurting REALLY bad, but I just thought it was because I was standing most of the time. I normally lay down a bit because sitting hurts and standing isn't comfortable. I kept sitting down and I was like ok, I just can't take it anymore I'm going to ask James if we can go. We stayed a good couple hours until about 8:30 (I think). He agreed we could go and we said goodbye to everyone. We got in the car and I was telling him all about how my back just didn't feel right.

We got home and went about our nightly business. I fed the dog, got in my jammies, and I was about to brush my teeth. I bent over to pick up something and I heard a POP! Followed by GUSHING warm liquid. I looked at James and I said "OMG James my water just broke" (looking at him with deer in headlights look). He said "ok, well this is what we've been waiting for, it's ok, it's ok". He must have sensed my look of panic. I just couldn't believe it was happening! After 9 + months of waiting, Hadley was finally making her way out! We called labor and delivery and they told me to come on in even though I wasn't having contractions just yet.

My sister did warn me about what it was like to have your water break.... but you really can't prepare for it. We finished up getting things ready (having maddie (our dog) go to our neighbor's, light tidying, etc.) I couldn't really move because of the amount of GUSHING that was happening. I mean it was just plain GROSS. I sat on a towel and it wasn't cool. So around 9:30 we were on our way to the hospital. I wasn't feeling any contractions yet so I was in high spirits, just a tad nervous.... ok a lot nervous. We got me inside (had to take a wheel chair in because I didn't want to leak everywhere!).

We went up to labor and delivery and they checked me into the triage department. This is where you go to be monitored to be sure you are in labor. They wanted to be sure my water broke before they moved me into a labor room. The nurse came over with some swabs and said I have to do this to make sure it's really your water that broke. If it is, it would turn blue. I told her if it wasn't my water breaking then we have some serious issues. Before she even really got close to the area, the swab already turned blue (like we couldn't have guessed that). She said that we weren't going to waste time in the triage room and she admitted me into my labor and delivery room.

We were on our way to having our baby! Who knew we'd be there still 16 and a half hours later......

I will leave you with a photo of my 38 and 5 day belly shot. I took it the day my water broke before the party. My LAST pregnancy photo! happy and sad at the same time. I miss Hadley's kicks and movements in my tummy, BUT nothing beats holding my sweet girl. She is absolutely precious and perfect. More to come later on part 2 of the birth story.

total weight gain 33 pounds

My sweet baby

Sweet Hadley

Hi there, Jen here! I've hijacked michelle's blog to bring you an important announcement. I'm sure you've all heard by either reading my blog (of course you do, right?) or seen on facebook that baby girl Hadley has arrived! 

  She was born on 11/11/12 at 1:46pm (central) and weighed 6lb 15oz and was 20 1/4" tall. That is a great announcement, but the real announcement is how darn cute Hadley is.

 Mom, Hadley and James are all at home now trying to get used to things as a family of 5 (including Maddie and Bella of course).

I can not wait to get my hands on her and help them out as sleep is hard to come by these first few weeks. Hang in there guys, we'll be there soon! 

 Here is Maddie meeting Hadley for the first time! She is doing very well with baby girl. 

Precious baby.

Happy early Thanksgiving! Here is our lil' turkey, but don't worry we won't eat her for real. I will gobble her up though :)