As you can imagine, life over the past few weeks has been a little crazy with two little ones under the age of two. However, I wouldn't have traded the past four weeks for anything.

Obviously it's been a while since I have been able to post and its been because of several reasons, mostly that I don't have much time these days and the little bit of time that I have in the evenings is spent trying to enjoy a little bit of peace and quiet, at least until Jackson wakes up again. :) Things have been a little more complicated this time around with Jackson as I have been struggling with Postpartum Depression at the same time. For now, I'm going to leave that for another post and for when I am ready to talk more about that part of our first month with Jackson in our lives.

I am sure that I will be forgetting to include lots of things that have happened over the past month, mostly because I am exhausted and it's late at night and as I sit here and try to think about the past four weeks, it's a bit of a blur!

Here is a quick recap though of our new little addition:

• First and foremost, Jackson is a snuggle-bug! He sleeps the best when snuggled up on someone, especially when he is laying on his belly, head on your shoulder, snuggled up under your chin. He could stay there for hours.
• Jackson already has a few nicknames, but so far the most prevalent one is "Squishy". Haha. It's actually from a line in Finding Nemo, but it fits perfectly for our little man.
• Jackson is very different then Emma already. At this point with Emma, she had been sleeping through the night randomly and was right around the corner of it being consistent. Jackson consistently gets up every 3 hours at night.
• Squishy is an eater. At 3 weeks old, he was already able to eat 4 ounces every 3 hours which we found out was too much food based on his age and weight, so we now have to stop feeding him after he hits 3 - 3.5 ounces.
• He really is a pretty good baby and is already starting to smile (on purpose now haha).
• Luckily, he rarely spits up but boy is he a loud eater!! He is really a loud baby in general!! He is constantly letting out this manly grunts and groans to which Emma looks up and says "Hear it! Sheep!"
• Although his first few baths were filled with screaming...he now loves bath time and usually doesn't scream until its time to get out!

Some of these pictures were taken over the past couple of weeks, but since I have some catching up to do on the blog, I figured I would post these as well.

Jackson has been to the pediatrician's twice now for his regular appointments. The doctor was really impressed with how he was doing so we were able to skip the one month appointment (which doesn't include any shots, just a random checkup) and give us another two weeks before we head back where he will get some shots. Jackson was back up to his birth weight within the first week, and within the second week he had gained 6 ounces. So at his second appointment he was 7 lbs and 8 ounces.

Emma and Her Baby

Emma is doing really well with all of the changes that she has been through over the past month. At first, she really didn't pay much attention to Jackson, as if she was just hoping that he was only going to be around for a few days haha. But she soon got it that he isn't going anywhere, and decided that the role of big sister was a good idea. Ha.

Once and a while we will see the big "J" (jealousy) rear its ugly head but overall she has been really good with everything. I think some of her acting out is just plain being a toddler!

She loves to rub Jackson's little bald head and say "Good Boy".

She also loves to give him hugs and kisses, even when he isn't expecting it (check out the expression on his face here hahaha).

And a lot of the time she is back to being a toddler, like in this picture where she is emptying out Jackson's diaper bag, including Mommy's wallet and everything in it.

She is still working on wanting to hold him, but once and a while she will get brave and tell Mommy or Daddy "Hold It". :)

Since it's just about 11:00PM and almost time for Squishy's next bottle (and I am completely exhausted), I'm going to wrap it up here with a few updated pictures that I took today, one day shy of Jackson turning one month old.



No Words Can Explain This....

So Emma's hair is in this "in between" stage....meaning, it's in between ridiculous and ludicrous. :)

Certain pieces are getting longer, some pieces have not grown since she was born, some is curly, some is straight, and top it all off with multiple textures and her new found ability to "smile", and you get a little something like this...

All of which makes for one sweet hairdo after naptime.

The New Man In My Life...

Jackson Douglas Odom!

Born on Saturday, March 19th, at 12:53AM, 7 lbs 0.2 ozs, 20.5"

On Friday, March 18th, Wes and I headed to the hospital for a scheduled induction at about 10:45AM in the morning. Although we were originally told to be at the hospital at noon that day, luckily, I checked our voice mails at home that morning and heard a message from the hospital asking us to arrive at 11:00AM. For some reason, losing that one hour sent me into a total panic, but we managed to enjoy the morning despite my nerves!

We actually had a fantastic morning, filled with lots of cuddles and snuggles with Emma. We took our time getting ready and we took Emma to breakfast before dropping her off at daycare. Since she is full-fledged toddler mode, we never know what it's going to be like in a restaurant...it could go either way haha, but she was fantastic and adorable and chatting it up with everyone in Panera Bread. After a very relaxing but fun breakfast, both Wes and I dropped Emma off at daycare where she gladly ran in to tell her teachers all about her bagel that she had for breakfast! I teared up a little as we were leaving because I knew I wasn't going to get to see her that much over the next few days and it was almost like we were saying goodbye to our family as we knew it. Emma had no idea what was about to happen, and neither did Mommy!

After heading home and finishing up a few odds and ins (including taking a super long hot shower as I knew it would be a while before I got to take my time again haha) we were off to the hospital. After getting checked in and all set up in our labor and delivery room, I got my IV started at about 12:30PM that afternoon. We also found out at that point that I was actually having contractions on my own about every 3 - 4 minutes apart and I just didn't know it! I did a lot of walking since my doctor's appointment earlier that week so I was really hoping to head into the hospital at 2 - 3 centimeters dilated, but I was a little disappointed when I was first checked at 1:15PM and was still only 1 cm dilated. I had no idea that this would be a sign of things to come! A little after 2:00PM, I had a pretty good contraction, one of the first big ones that I could feel after checking into the hospital, but even before we started the Pitocin. Right about that time, I got my second IV bag of fluid and was started on Pitocin at about 2:40PM.

Although I was expecting an immediate change in my contractions from the Pitocin, it took a little while to start really kicking in but boy did it ever. At about 4:30PM that evening, and in some serious pain, I was checked again only to find out that despite my regular (and painful contractions), I was still only 1 centimeter dilated. A lot of Friday is a blur, but I am pretty sure that I burst into tears when I found this out. A few minutes later though, some pain relief came in the form of Stadol, which I had before with Emma. I'm pretty sure that I gave Wes and my mom a good scare though because about half way through the nurse giving me the Stadol, I passed out. I can remember feeling really sleepy and talking about how I couldn't keep my eyes open and then Wes yelling to me to stay awake but I didn't understand at that point (all I wanted to do was to go to sleep). A few seconds later I guess I woke up and the nurse decided to only give me half of the dose and I seemed to be fine after that. It definitely helped with the pain and out came the giggles!

Unfortunately, one thing I very much remember from Emma was that Stadol doesn't last very long, so it was only about 30 minutes or so before I was back in a lot of pain with each contraction. At about 6:30 (so 6 hours into labor) I was checked again, only to be at a whopping 2 centimeters dilated. Since I had to be at least 3 centimeters dilated to get the epidural, I was pretty much crushed because I was in an incredible amount of pain with each contraction and didn't know how much longer it was going to take. So along came another round of Stadol. Shew!

Finally, at around 8:00PM that night I was checked again and had made it to 3.5 centimeters dilated so by 8:30PM, I had the epidural and was really resting comfortably (finally!). The epidural was a little tougher this time around then with Emma. For one, they made Wes leave the room which didn't happen with her. I won't go into details but let's just say as I was getting the epidural, I started to feel a lot of pain where I wasn't supposed to (in my spine, versus getting pains in my legs which was expected). But, finally things were settled and I was able to rest for a little bit.

Then, at about 10:30PM my doctor came in and broke my water to get things moving, and I was 5 centimeter dilated and 90% effaced. I remember thinking at this point "OMG. 10 Hours into labor and I am only half way there." But the water breaking seemed to do the trick and at 12:05AM on Saturday morning, I was 9.5 centimeters and feeling pressure to push. I remember after I was checked that my doctor headed out of the room to go get ready and it seemed like it took him FOREVER to come back!! He came back around 12:17AM and I was BEGGING to be able to push! After about 45 minutes or so, Jackson was born at 12:53AM!!

It was a much tougher labor then with Emma, and I had a much tougher time pushing so as soon as Jackson was born I was exhausted. After Wes cut the cord, the nurses took him over to the side to take the measurements and check him out and unfortunately, his oxygen levels were lower then they would have liked, so they took him directly to the NICU for monitoring and said that they would test him again in about 4 hours and he would either be back in my room with me at that point, or admitted to the NICU. Even though I was worried, and completely exhausted, I was more crushed that I didn't even get to hold my new son before he was whisked away to the NICU. I got about a 15 second look at him when the nurse brought him over to me, but I didn't get to hold him.

After things settled down and my parents and Wes headed home to get some sleep, I actually got a second round of Pitocin at about 2:45AM because I was bleeding a little too much, but that seemed to do the trick. It was tough waiting for news about Jackson, and being so tired, but I still didn't even know how much he weighed at this point! Just about 4:00AM that morning, the nurse brought him back into the room and I finally got to hold my baby boy.

I am sure that there are a TON of details that I am forgetting and I know I have some catching up to do with how things have been going here at home since Jackson's arrival but all I can say is that our house feels incredibly different since his birth, but in the most amazing way. Emma is already a fantastic big sister, and falls more in love with her baby brother everyday, despite the occasional acts of jealousy. :) Our family is finally complete.