James Birthday Party at Kangarooz

James 3rd birthday party was this past Saturday at a place in Spanish Fort called Kangarooz. We have never been to a party at Pump it Up but from what I have heard Kangarooz in similar but with more of what James calls the "jump jumps". This was James' first "friend" party. 15 of his "friends" came and to say he had a blast is almost an understatement. We invited everyone is his pre k2 class and a few friends that live in Fairhope. We were so pleased with the turnout! Meme and Papop, KK and Pop, and his great grandparents, Nanny and Paw also made the trip down for the party. Some may say I was crazy to plan a party with a 3 week old but I felt James need a little something to feel special and even though I stressed a little over it to see the smile on his face for 2 hours straight made it all worth it! 

Party Invite

Party Room Door

Life size cardboard cut out of the birthday boy to go with the Toy Story theme of course! (such a great idea KK)

Birthday Cake

The one picture I got of James climbing up the jump jump. This is only about 8 ft in the air which made me a little nervous.

Little brother in attendance dreaming of the days he too can climb on the jump jumps

The reason why I do not have very many pictures of the birthday boy he was never still enough for a picture!

Singing Happy Birthday! James' bashful face. His friend Nick from school in the picture. They are best buds. The 2 of them laughed, ran, fell, and laughed again. It was hilarious. Anna Kate also tagged along with them trying to keep up. Do you see his sweaty hair? The reason for the curl on the side.

James thought the cake was his piece and decided to take a bite out of the side before we cut it for others. Ha! Needless to say he claimed his piece :) 

The party was a huge success and I am so glad we did it for James but to be completely honest I am also glad it is over :). 

Happy 3rd Birthday James!

I can't believe James is 3. It is crazy how fast time goes by and each seems to go by so much faster than the last. James has turned into such a sweet little boy. Believe me he has his moments. He is very particular about certain things, he is a creature of habit, he tends to be a little dramatic but he has so much love to give and has brought so much joy to our lives. He will die laughing over the silliest things  and he also says the funniest things. I am so grateful that he is our child and he has brought so much meaning to my life. 

We celebrated his birthday with donuts for breakfast, a cookie after lunch, candy for an afternoon snack and a cupcake after his favorite dinner, spaghetti. What were we thinking?? He enjoyed every minute. We are not having his birthday party until this Saturday the 26th at Kangarooz with a Toy Story theme of course. Since he has PLENTY of Toy Story items Chad picked up a set of child size real golf clubs for his birthday. They are working on his swing and it may require both of them to dig deep for patience. James was very excited about his very own golf clubs and if anything it makes for a super cute picture. Maybe they will let Luke and I join them one afternoon so I can snap a few pictures on an actual golf course :) 

Happy Birthday James!! We love you so very much!

Our first week at Home

We have now been at home for a little over a week and this Thursday Luke will be 2 weeks old. Things are going great so far. So much so that I hate to even write that things are going so good in fear I may be jinxing us. He is sleeping 2-4 hours during the night, he is nursing well, he lays content for long periods of time without being held, and if he does cry he is easily consolable. With James as a newborn we struggled the first several weeks. He turned out to be a very happy baby but initially it was HARD to console him, he didn't nurse well, and he didn't sleep much. I wonder if it is his personality or maybe it has something to do with us. We are more relaxed this time and feel more confident. Some things we have noted about Luke over the last week:
1) he is a squirter. I fear every time I open his diaper he is going to peepee on me and require another outfit change
2) he doesn't like to have his diaper changed and that is mainly when he screams.
3) he doesn't like a bath however requires one every other day because he hair gets greasy way too fast for me to the point his hair color looks much lighter after a bath
4) James "wuvs" him however does not care for him when he cries and demands that I make him happy
5) James has noticed that Luke nurses and does not like that Luke appears to be "biting" me because he says that is not nice
6) James at one point asked if he could scare him while he was sleeping
7) James also thinks Luke has a big peepee. This one made Chad and I die laughing.

Here are some pics of our first week.

Luke's Birthday

I want to make sure I document certain details of the day so we can all remember before we forget the little things. It all started on Wednesday March 2nd. We took James to lunch to see the man that makes the fire (Stix) and then headed back to the house to wait on Meme and Papop to arrive. Once they arrived Chad and I said our goodbyes to James and headed to Mobile Infirmary. One last picture before leaving...

We of course were a little early so we drove by our first house to check it out and we talked about the day we brought James home from the hospital. Once we arrived at the hospital we began the check in process and were taken to a labor and delivery room, number 9. We were hoping to have the same room James was born in well because we are both creatures of habit so we asked if it was available and it was! Once we got settled in our room, the poking and prodding began. First came the IV which I fear every time and of course she hit a valve and had to start over...more pain. Then blood was drawn my second fear. Then the computer that monitors the baby's heart and my contractions was not working properly and we were told we would need to move to a different room. Great! So we went back to number where we began. I am thinking room 5 had bad karma.

Once we settled again in room 9, KK and Pop and Anna came by for a visit. We all chatted until the nurse, Sydney, came in to ask them to leave. She wanted to make sure I got enough rest before tomorrow. I was given my first dose of Cytotech at 9:30, a medicine to help things progress a little in preparation for the next day since I still was completely closed. I would take a dose of this medicine every hour throughout the night depending on how my body reacted. And then at 5am Sydney would wake me for a shower and we would start the pitocin at 6am. At 10pm I was given an Ambien to help me sleep through the night. At 11:30 I was given my 3rd dose of the Cytotech and at midnight my water broke. I had called Sydney to walk me to the bathroom and as soon as I got out of the bed my water broke. So much so it woke up Chad and I felt so embarrassed because I thought I had peed on myself. Sydney informed me that my water broke and we would discontinue the medicine. I was in complete denial until I started having pretty consistent and strong contractions. She asked if I wanted to go ahead and get my epidural at 1:00 am and I said no it was way too early in my mind that would come later in the morning. Once I experienced 6 or so contractions I decided maybe it would be best so I could get some sleep. I did ask several times if I was still going to be able to get a shower at 5am. Chad and Sydney laughed. Sydney explained that I could no longer get out the bed. Apparently the ambien made me question her knowledge because Chad said I asked 4 or 5 times about getting a shower. Around 3:30 am I was 4 to 5 cm and our nurse said we may want to go ahead and call my sister and see if she can make it to the hospital around 5 if she wanted to be in the room with us. We had previously decided that we wanted Anna to be in the room with us when the baby was born. Anna arrived around 5am and I was 8 cm. At that point we thought it might be best to call the rest of the family to let them know they may want to be at the hospital a little earlier than planned. Even though in my mind I thought it was not necessary because I was thinking the baby may not arrive until noon or so. Several people had mentioned the labor for your second child progresses alot faster but to me not this fast :). I was in and out of sleep and at 7:15 Dr. Helen arrived to check on me and I was 10 cm. At 7:45 our new nurse (there was a shift change at 7), Dee asked if I wanted to start pushing. I thought sure why not again I was so lackadaisical due to the ambien. After about 30 min of pushing at 8:13am our precious baby arrived and it was so exciting to hear It's a Boy! And to finally call this little one by its name, William Luke. Again we were in love.

He arrived looking very similar to his big brother with the exception of having lots more hair...which explains the heartburn with this pregnancy I guess. He was perfect. He weighed 8lbs 4 oz and was 21 in long. It was the most amazing day. We are so grateful. I was so glad Anna was in the room for several reasons. One because she got to share the experience with us and she was just as excited as we were and two because captured the moments so well with my camera. She took tons of pictures. I have include several below documenting the day and it was so hard to pick just a few...

Very early in the morning just waiting...

Everyone's predictions...looks like KK guessed correctly! 

Such an emotional moment

William Luke

Proud Daddy!

Proud Aunt Anna

Our wonderful doctor. She also delivered James and I could not have made it without her. I will truly miss seeing her on a regular basis. 

Dee, our nurse, during delivery. 

My 3 favorite boys!

William Luke

Its a Boy! William "Luke" arrived March 3, 2011 at 8:13 am weighing 8lbs 4oz and 21 in long. He is absolutely perfect and we could not be happier. We are home and enjoying our family of four. James loves his baby brother already. Hope to be back soon with details of the day.

I can't sleep

It is early and this post may be all over the place. Our bags are packed and we check into the hospital tonight to prepare to meet this precious life growing inside me tomorrow morning, March 3rd 2011. I can't believe the day is almost here. Over the last few days I have had so many different thoughts and emotions but right now the main reason I can't sleep is not because I am so uncomfortable or the heartburn is just so unbearable but because I am so so excited to meet this new member of our family. The day James was born was probably the best day of mine and Chad's life and I feel so fortunate that we get to experience it all over again tomorrow. And even though we have done it before tomorrow it will still be different. We will enter a new chapter in our life as parents of 2.  It will be challenging and sometimes we may feel defeated but God would not have given us this gift if He didn't think we could handle it. There are way too many positives to think about the negatives. This is a whole new person to love and I cannot wait to fall in love all over again. I have heard some moms feel concerned before they have their second child whether or not they will love the second child as much as the first because honestly it is hard to imagine loving someone just as much. I am not worried.

And tomorrow we finally find out the gender. Will I be completely outnumbered? Or will this one make it even? I honestly and truly mean it, I do not care. But for the record last night while I was sleeping I had a pretty vivid dream about the birth and it was a boy!

I mentioned before this post would be all over the place. So I just want to thank Chad for being so supportive, comforting, and understanding during this pregnancy. I honestly could not have done it without him even though maybe at times my emotions expressed something different :). I have seem him bite his tongue on numerous occasions and when my brain has been complete mush and I couldn't make a decision I could ask him and he would make it for me. He has been great with James and completely taken over when he saw I may lose it. We were thinking the other night how when we met we were 18 in high school and now we are 31, married, and about to bring a second child into the world. We have come a long way and we have had our fair share of bumps in the road but there is no other person in this world I want to share my life with and I am so lucky I get to share it with him. Usually I do not write much about our relationship but I wanted to give him some props because sometimes during this experience the pregnant mom gets a lot of credit but the dad needs some credit too!

Tomorrow is it!