Happy Halloween!

Our little pumpkin wishes you a safe and happy Halloween!

Big Sister

When she's not trying to pry Jillian out of our arms or squeeze her a bit too tight when giving her a hug, Beth is the sweetest and proudest big sister!

Jillian's Birth Story

For those that want to know about the labor, delivery, etc...Here you go: My prayer request with Jillian's birth was simple - I did not want to have a story. Let me explain...Adam was an emergency c-section, Jason was 21 hours of labor and 3 hours of pushing because he was face up, and Beth came too quickly (thanks to pitocin) and involved 2 hours of me screaming in pain and other problems I don't need to discuss here. Now I know many people have much more elaborate stories but just as many people have very simple, "I went into labor, went to the hospital, delivered my baby, end of story." I wanted that. I really, really wanted a VBAC (I hated having a c-section even though many people told me the second c-section was easier than the first). And I really, really wanted to labor on my own, without pitocin (never did that before). All this to say - my prayers were answered. Here's my non-story...I had lots of false labor type contractions for days, especially at night. I'd time them and they'd be mildly uncomfortable and anywhere from 7-20 minutes apart. On Friday night they were 7-8 minutes apart consistently but not too uncomfortable so I went to bed. I woke up at 5:45 and the contractions were more uncomfortable and 5 minutes apart. After timing 3 to be sure, I woke up Andrew who started calling church friends to come be with the kids. I got in the shower. I highly recommend this to all laboring mommies. The contractions got stronger but it was a very calm and comfortable setting. I get why some women deliver in a tub. An elder from our church showed up and we headed to the hospital (it was around 7 am now). The elder likes to say we were calm, Andrew was eating breakfast and I was still smiling. That's not how we remember it but it's nice to now that's the image we portrayed (or at least the one he was sharing). Andrew says I was in increasing pain (3 minutes apart now) and he was scarfing cereal and trying to be sure we remembered everything.
At the hospital the nurse was very amazed to find that I was so calm and coherent because I was 8 1/2 cm dilated (I was shocked, too). Yea, I did it! I went into real labor all by myself (note: because of the previous c-section I wasn't going to get any pitocin so either I went into labor and progressed by myself or I would have to have a c-section so being almost 10 cm dilated was fabulous news!) Jillian arrived at 8:48am. And one more thing: a delivery without pitocin is sooooo much easier for any of you mommies out there. I could talk and breathe and even smile between contractions. All in all, it was simple. I really have no story, just a few details, and God answered my prayers beyond my hopes. Praise Him!

loving the paci

All of our kids have had a serious pacifier addiction. Why should Jillian be any different?

Siblings

So how do Jason, Beth, and Adam feel about their new sister...

Jason will tell anyone quite honestly, he doesn't like babies. He never has. But he has stepped it up and been willing to hold Jillian on more than one occasion. He hates when she cries and plugs his ears but if we're all in one room and she's sleeping in another, he'll run and check on her all on his own so I'm not worried about their future.


Beth adores her sister. She thinks she's so cute and soft and she can't give her enough kisses and pets and squeezes. Today when she asked to hold Jill she said it's because, "Jill needs her big sister."

Adam is the opposite of Jason (on many, many levels) and LOVES babies. We've witnessed this extreme adoration with his cousin Eagan and now we get to see it regularly with Jillian. He wants to hold her and touch her and check on her all the time. He gets so excited just talking about her and will jump up and down chanting "baby Jill!" It's adorable to watch.

Pictures now, stories later...

Jillian Esther

10-11-2008 8:48am

8 pounds 10 ounces

21 inches long

Both mom and baby doing great!

...and dad, too!

Blue

I mentioned in my previous post, "Adam's 1st Haircut," that blue is his favorite color. I thought I'd share this picture to show you just how serious we are about this favorite color. Each week we have a letter of the week and the kids color a letter to kick it off. Jason and Beth have these colorful pictures full of detail, but Adam always colors his blue and only blue! I know they're older and I expect no more than scribbling from him at this stage but I just want you to understand that he is not taking ideas from his older siblings, he is creating his own style. (Sorry, didn't realize how bad the lighting was until I uploaded the picture but you get the idea)...

We occasionally get him to add some green or purple to his art but the dominant color is always blue. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised considering how obsessed Jason has always been with green (his favorite color since before he could talk). And then there's Beth and her pink obsession (her closet is scary as it overflows with only pink). But why? Why the obsessions? Do other people have similar experiences with their children or are we doing something to create these strong opinions? We give them different color cups (Adam cannot have blue everyday even though he insists). We buy varying colors of clothes (Adam and Jason will wear any color, Beth on the other hand...let's just say I stopped trying and now I buy only pink). Any ideas?

By the way, Adam is not writing his own name, that's his sister's handiwork :)

Adam's 1st Haircut

All of our kids were bald babies and even bald one year olds. And none of them had any real volume of hair until about age 2 but it's soooooo blonde that it still doesn't seem like there's much there. Result: no one's had a haircut before 2 years old (Beth was almost 3). Well, Adam turned 2 in May and in June I realized it was time for a haircut. I started calling him my little Einstein as it had a mind of its own many days...
But life was busy, and truthfully, I was scared to cut it. I cut all my kid's hair but they're all different. Jason has the straightest hair ever! Super easy to cut with the nice straight lines but just as easy to really mess up as it shows every bad cut. And then Beth is a girl so it's just about trimming long hair and bangs. I know how to do that from my own experience. But Adam has curly little boy hair and even though everyone kept telling me it's easy, I was nervous. It is actually very hard to cut but mistakes don't show. His hair is very forgiving but I'm getting ahead of myself...Here we are in October and I still hadn't cut his hair. I got used to the length and liked it. And I knew once I cut it he would look older and I wasn't ready but then one day at a Soccer game I was playing with it and...I realized it was time. So Adam got a blue lollipop (have I mentioned blue is his favorite color. If something, anything is blue, it belongs to him!) and I began cutting...

Doesn't he look like a cupie doll you could put on a shelf!

Ok, let's try again...

much better!He does look super different and older but I'm glad I finally cut it. It looks much better and thankfully doesn't show all the errors that I am sure are there. It took me a day or two to not keep asking everyone, doesn't Adam look so different? But now he looks like himself again and we both survived his first haircut!