Kaylen's Baptism- July 26, 2009

CLEARLY, I have to figure out how to get on to update this more often! It's been so long! Kaylen has grown so much already! I had to save a newborn size diaper! I want to hold on to all her 'tiny-ness' while welcoming the fun new changes! We can tell that she's thinking about starting to smile, but hasn't really gotten there yet. She's having quite the time on her new play mat and LOVES to be outside! She loves the trees, walks and any time you can give her in the great outdoors!

We had Kaylen Baptized on Sunday, July 26th at our church. My parents flew in from Minnesota (my brother wasn't able to make it due to his work not giving him the day off and my sister was working), Gregg's family all came from Wyoming and his cousin, Andrew flew for just a few hours as that's all he had off of his Air Force training! We were VERY blessed to have all the family and friends at our baby's big event! Below is a picture of Pastor John and Kaylen as she is being Baptized.
We chose Gregg's cousin, Andrew, to be Kaylen's godfather and Leslie, Gregg's sister, to be Kaylen's godmother. We have all the faith and confidence in them to be positive influences over Kaylen's life and to do what's in her best interest should something happen to us. We are grateful to have them accept such a responsibility.

Kaylen got spoiled with all the family around, especially by her grandparents! They were so helpful this weekend, it was wonderful to have them here!

Kaylen wore the same Baptism dress that I wore for my Baptism! It fit her wonderfully and it was so nice to have something sentimental as part of the ceremony. It was such a gift that my mom held onto the dress all these years, it made of a wonderful memory!

We had a yummy bbq in the park after the service! Thanks to ALL our family and friends for helping out, bringing food and just being part of our wonderful day! We are grateful Kaylen was so loved on her big day!

Kaylen Lorraine Jones- June 4th, 2009

So, I'm a little late! Our beautiful baby girl was born over a week ago on June 4th, 2009! She was born at 10:23 PM via c-section! It was a long little adventure! May parents flew in and Leslie came from Wyoming the evening before. They were there in the hospital with us the whole time. It was nice to have extra support and they were very helpful while they were here. We went in to the hospital June 4th at 1 AM (expecting to go in the evening before around 7!), I was given cervix drugs at 3AM and the Pitocin at 9 AM. I labored for 12 hours. Around 9 PM was when the Dr said it was time to push. I went through 4 or 5 rounds of pushing when the Dr said her heartbeat was dropping each time and it was reason to be concerned. The Dr. recommended a c-section at that time. We knew all along that we wanted our baby to get here safely no matter how that had to take place, but I was still pretty disappointed. It all happened pretty fast at that point. They brought me into the OR. I had already had some "labor shakes", but what went from labor shakes earlier on turned into what seemed like a full blown seizure for the rest of the procedure. That was pretty miserable. Gregg sat up by me the whole time until Kaylen was born. After they got her all cleaned up and did all their checks, he was able to bring her over by me. I had now idea how I would react going into this, but the minute I saw her the first time, I bawled! Seeing our baby for the first time was very emotional. After Gregg was able to bring her over to me, it was hard because I was so uncomfortable and in pain, I could hardly turn my head. He tried to show me pictures and let me see her as much as he could. I recovered in the L& D room for 2 hours, but because of how bad I was shaking, I wasn't able to hold her until we got up to the recovery room. It was a very long day, but we couldn't have been more ready and excited to meet her! She is absolutely PERFECT!

Here is the proud Daddy!! He struggled a bit in trying to be with me and the baby all at once, but he could not have been more amazing the entire day! He did everything he could to support me while I was in labor and in the OR and he was the happiest Daddy in the world the minute he saw her.

Here is me, the also very proud new Mommy. We were amazing at the little miracle we brought into the world. It's hard to see it all become a reality, but we enjoyed every minute of it! Being that we had a c-section, the nurses at the hospital gave her formula right off the bat. We're still not sure that had to be the situation, but at the time, they told me she was starving to death, so we didn't feel like we had much choice. I tried to do what I could to feed her in the hospital, but we're still struggling with breast feeding, but doing the best we can at this point. But we're happy to say she's only getting breast milk one way or another, she is not eating formula.

Our family picture the day we took her home. Gregg picked out his favorite sleeper for her to wear home. It was VERY big on here! It's amazing that we were so nervous she would be a huge baby and now she hardly fits into most of her newborn clothes! Gregg had to go buy a few more newborn onesies so she had things to wear! :-)

We had a few pictures taken at Sears on June 12th at 9 days old. It was quite the day! We tried to feed her right before we left the apartment, but by the time we got there, she was fussy and cried for the first 10 pictures. She I ended up feeding her in this small closet in the photo shoot room for 30 minutes! Right after we were done feeding, she threw up all over her clothes and the backdrop at Sears! Ha ha... what other way could things have gone down, right! We got some great pictures out of the day though and this is one of our favorites. She is so beautiful! We are truly very blessed parents and hope that God continues to give us the knowledge we need to get through all the days ahead! We had both our families visit in the days that followed her birth. Hopefully soon, I'll be able to get up a few of those!

It's Official! June 4th

So, not exactly what we had in mind, but I will be getting induced on Thursday! We had a feeling it was coming at our doctor's appointment last Friday. My blood pressure was high that day and our Dr. told us that having tested positive for the blood clot stuff, she didn't want me to go past my due date. Basically, she said if my blood pressure was still high today, she wanted us to go on the 4th. If it wasn't high, she said it would be a judgment call.

Well, needless to say... my blood pressure was high and she says I'd gained weight since Friday, SO! She even talked for a minute of being induced before the 4th! The look on Gregg's face when she said that was priceless! He has been very excited, but it hit him that there aren't many days between today and Thursday! Ha ha... he is adorable!

She eventually decided the 4th would work okay and that it would be soon enough. I am 1 cm dilated and 60% effaced, but that's not quite where I need to be. So, I will have to go in Wednesday night to get some kind of cervix drug to get things going better. I'll have to spend the night on Wednesday night and the show will kick off Thursday morning! We really just pray that all goes well from start to finish. We want our baby girl to come into this world as safely and easily as possible! I also hope that the labor will go as well as it can with no complications! It should be a very crazy week! I'm very glad she will not be showing up on Gregg's birthday, June 6th, but this will be one heck of a birthday present for him!

37 Weeks! She's full term!

Well, our world is getting a little crazier! Today, I'm officially 37 weeks, the baby is full term! Our due date is 3 weeks from yesterday! Eek!! We have been doing all we can to get ready for our baby girl's arrival! Above is one of the pictures we had taken when we went to Sears in April, I was almost 33 weeks at the time. The pictures we had done turned out really nice, but Gregg gets all the credit for coming up with the above pose and it turned out to be our favorite! My Mom came out to visit this last week for a few days and she and Gregg were machines getting ready for baby! They did crazy amounts of laundry, put lots of things together, went shopping, my Mom made food for us to freeze when baby comes and she brought two more sheets she made for our custom bassinet mattress. We were also able to take my Mom out for a Mother's Day dinner while she was here, which was nice!

There are my work-a-holics! They took care of so much, it helped relieve a great amount of stress! You guys were rock stars! Thank you so much! We had a Childbirth Prep class Friday night and Saturday. My Mom was able to come to the class with us Friday night before she had to leave Saturday morning. We got a lot out of this class. They covered the natural, epidural, c-section births, labor positions, when to go to the hospital, plus lots of other good info and we got lots of chances to see the cute babies in the nursery during our breaks! It was a lot of information to take in, so we still have to soak up all that we learned. We have one class left this Thurs and next Thurs. Originally, I was going to have to go by myself because Gregg works Thursday nights, but his boss was nice enough to let him make up the hours with comp time and he'll be coming with me! :-)

Gregg and his friend, Jason (pictured far left), decided they were going to throw each other diaper parties. Jason's wife, Ali, is pregnant, too! I'm convinced they made such a party up. They decided it's a "guy's shower" where all the guys bring diapers instead of presents. Gregg threw Jason one a few weeks back and Jason threw one for Gregg this last Saturday evening. Gregg had a great time just playing a little softball with friends. It was a gorgeous evening for a little guy time!

While the boys played, myself, Ginny (Colby's wife, left) and Ali (Jason's wife, right) went out to dinner and had some girl time! It was a yummy and fun night out for us, too!

It's still just so crazy that in a matter of a few weeks, we're going to have a daughter here with us! We can't wait to meet her! It's wild to think about what she'll look like and the process I'll go through to get her here! The blog always freaks me out a little when I log on as the countdown gets so close! But we just hope and pray that all goes well these last few weeks and that she comes into this world safely and healthy!

Jay Graduated!

So, I said this blog update was coming and I finally got a second this weekend to put up some pictures! Last weekend, we headed to Laramie, Wyoming to the University of Wyoming where our beautiful JJ (Leslie) was going to be graduating that Saturday! It was a pretty long (6 hours), very BORING drive getting there, but a GREAT weekend once we got there! We left on Friday, the 8th of May. Waz and Chez were nice enough to get us a hotel room which we shared with our cute Kates! We checked in to the hotel and had a big family dinner including Kali (cousin who was sweet enough to fly in from Arizona for the graduation) and Abbie and Tony (2 of Jay's bffs!). It was a great night out to pre-celebrate the big day to come!

Waz put together a photo album of many of Jay's greatest moments and some great pictures of our very bright girl!

We were very proud of her! Gregg and I have a tendency to forget we now own a video camera, but we were sure to get a portion of her graduation on video! She graduated with a degree in Secondary Education- English! She is going to be an AMAZING teacher! Her only goal and worry of her life, currently, is finding the right job. We continue to pray the right job with find her.

The proud family with the graduate!! It was a long ceremony, but well worth the wait!

Saturday, after graduation, Jay threw a BBQ at her house in Laramie with lots of yummy food! Cherie made lots of delish dishes and I brought the spinach dip! Gregg, as you can see from above, was the sexy, grilling chef! And turned out some excellent burgers! Most of my burger managed to make it onto my sweatshirt... that giant preggo belly I have doesn't work so great as a table!

It was such a good weekend! We wish we would've made it out to Laramie to visit Jay sooner, but we were very happy to make it to the big event! We're also very glad that Kaylen cooperated with our plan to go and didn't try to come into the world early! We had the car seat and diaper bag in the car just in case, but were very happy to not have to use them! Congratulations, JJ! We are so very proud of you! This is only the beginning of wonderful new adventures to come!

Busy Month!

The month of April brought the last of our baby showers! Above is a picture of my wonderful work friends that threw my work shower. Judy, Kim, Kris, Me, and Ruth. They did a wonderful job and I although I always knew I worked with a lot of great people, all the people that showed up, the wonderful gifts they spoiled us with, made me realize just how lucky I am. There was great company, yummy food and I came home with a car FULL of gifts; Judy came home with me just to help me get them all in the apartment!

You can see above just a tad of my being spoiled! Really, it's baby who's spoiled, but again, it helps us out so much. We could just never imagine if we had to have bought all these wonderful things for the baby all by ourselves. I really do work with some amazing people! Thank you!

Speaking of working with some amazing people, the VA ER threw Gregg a little shindig as well. His friend, Mark, is about to move to South Carolina to finally be with his wife: He finally got a job! One of the nurses, Toni (pictured on the left above) is also pregnant, about 2 weeks ahead of us. So, the ER threw them a "triple" party for the pregnancy and Mark's going away. It was a really good time! Gregg finally got to open some presents himself! I was happy to let him basque in the limelight! He is a more entertaining than I am, so I think the people watching definitely got a better show! His friends and coworkers were also very generous to us. We are both very lucky to work with such wonderful people! Toni will probably end up being induced here in the next week or two and Mark is leaving us shortly, so we wish them both the BEST of luck! :-)

I also turned 28 on the 28th of April! My Golden Birthday! Apparently, this is a Minnesota thing because nobody in Utah seemed to know what the heck I was talking about! But hey, it was a once in a lifetime thing (turning the age of your birthday), so I enjoyed it while it lasted! Tuesday, the day of my birthday, wasn't super exciting, but Gregg did come home after his late softball game so we could have a little time together on my actual day. I opened all my presents. We (for Gregg and my birthday) got a Wii from my parents! We had been wanting one for a while, so it will be nice for Gregg and I to have something fun to do when we can catch a spare minute... which might not be too often here soon! Gregg bought me a Wii Fit along with a workout game. So, hopefully, I can get back into some kind of shape after the baby comes... you know... again, when I have a spare minute! I got other wonderful gifts from my siblings, friends, as well as Gregg's Grandparents in Australia... but I don't want to brag :-) Needless to say, I was spoiled, as seems to be a common theme these days. Gregg planned a dinner out with friends and baked me the super yummy cake you see above! And it was VERY good! Talented man I have! My friends Ryan and Judy also took me out for a birthday dinner! Again, spoiled, spoiled, spoiled!

With the money that Gregg's parents gave me for my birthday, I bought the Shawn White Snowboarding game and above is a picture of Gregg showing off while Colby and Ginny came over to play!

We had a wonderful month! Our biggest event in May was JJ's Graduation on May 9th!! It was a wonderful road trip which will be my next post! I'm a little behind, but I have to head out the door to go pick up my Mom from the airport for her visit! So, JJ's Graduation pictures coming soon!

Baby Update and Easter Weekend

From these pictures, it's obvious that we had another ultrasound! Because I tested positive for a blood clot dealy, my Dr. had me go to a 32 week ultrasound today. We're nearing the end of the 32nd week, Monday will be the start of our 33rd. We got ALL GOOD news! She is definitely a GIRL! For whatever reason, my brain just wanted one more confirmation as the nursery is all green and pink, all her clothes are pink and her name is stenciled on the closet door! One of the first things we got to see was a little white line past the exterior of her cranium and they told us that it's hair! Our little baby girl already has a little hair! That was fun to learn! Her heartbeat is perfect and she's 4.5 lbs. They're predicting her to be 7-8 lbs and even if 8 is on the big side, I'll take is as long as she doesn't come out the 10.8 lbs that Gregg did!

The above pictures are of her face. The one of the top was the last one they took with the 3D camera. It looks like she has lots of bumps on her face, but we were told that it's all umbilical cord, so no worries! You can see where her little eyes, nose and mouth are! Gregg said he's happy it looks like she got my chin... we'll see about that! :-)

The above pictures here aren't as clear. The top picture is of her foot (heel on the right). You can really only see her big toe on the left and her second one is almost hidden. We're just hoping the other 3 are also hidden! :-) The bottom picture is the hardest to see and even I can't really tell now that it's printed out. It seemed a lot clearer when we were there. Her head is on the left and she's holding up her hand. It's kind of hard to tell how her hand is configured, so I would say that's the hardest picture. So, it was LOTS of fun! The only other thing she told us is that I'll have to stop taking the Aspirin at 37 weeks so that I am able to get an epidural. Other than that, everything looks really good! :-)

We went home to Wyoming over Easter weekend and a friend had a Baby Shower for me. There was a great turnout and LOTS of generosity. We feel so lucky for all of the extra help! It's so fun to get to share this with all our friends and family!

That's a picture of all of us on Easter! We had a great Easter with the Joneses getting our Easter bag of goodies and going on the Easter Egg Hunt! Gregg played the Easter Bunny (on Chez's dime) and hid all the eggs filled with chocolate! It was a great weekend. The family even had a little jam session. Gregg's been into playing the guitar lately. He has an old guitar of his Dad's and has been learning to play a few of his favorite Christian songs. He says he's getting ready to play them for Kaylen! Awww!

Well, that's it for the updates! We're going to Sears tomorrow to get a few pictures taken of Baby still in the womb! I have our last Baby Shower on Monday with all the ladies from the Court. Sounds like it's going to be a great turnout! Should be lots of fun! Other than that, we're still just doing all we can to get ready!