Good Times!

Last week Nathan’s sister Whitney and her daughter Naomi were able to come and visit for the whole week! It was really warm while they were here so we were able to spend quite a bit of time outside. We walked to the park a couple of times and the kids LOVED it! We don’t have a double stroller so Whit let me borrow her wrap to carry Jayden in on our walks and he did really well. (I kinda felt like I was pregnant again…)

Whit and I have been working on quiet books for the kids and we got quite a bit done while she was here… they are more work than I expected but they are going to be awesome when we are done! Here are a few pictures from our week!
Thanks for coming Whit and Naomi… we loved having you!

ABC's!

Lately Conner has been OBSESSED with the alphabet and loves to sing it. Whenever we get in the car he says “ABC song!” So we listen to the alphabet song over and over again wherever we go. It is a fast version of the song but he loves to sing along and does a pretty good job of keeping up! He also has to point out all of the letters that he sees… on license plates, t-shirts, etc.… and says “ABC’s, ABC’s!” He recognizes almost all of the letters now and even knows what sounds some of them make!

Here he is singing his favorite song!

We are proud of Jayden’s skills too… the obvious one is being super cute! :) He has been smiling while he is awake for a couple of weeks now but he is usually looking past me. Recently I was able to tickle him and get him to smile AT me! I can’t get enough of his cute little grins!

Easter and Other Randomness...

The Easter bunny was very generous this year… Conner woke up to lots of presents and hidden Easter eggs. He had a ton of fun running around and finding all of the eggs. He kept saying "More eggs!" Afterwards he opened all of his eggs and helped sort the candy into Ziploc baggies.

Here he is checking out his PILE of presents:

He got this cool John Deere lawn mower so that he could help Dad mow the lawn. Conner still asks every few mornings “Easter bunny, eggs, presents?” Although Jayden didn’t participate in the egg hunt he got some cute P.J’s and toys in his Easter basket…

Other random pictures...
Conner wanted Jayden to sit next to him in his beanbag...


Yes, Conner is wearing my nursing cover...
Conner trying on his aunt's old dance costume... his Dad was not home to save him. :)

Jayden wearing the same bear outfit that Conner wore home from the hospital!

Conner:

Nathan's sister Whitney was nice enough to drive all the way up here to take pictures of Jayden and I think that they are going to be so cute! I will post them when I get them... thanks Whit!

Jayden Dell

He’s here! Jayden Dell Gilbert joined our family on Friday April 15th. Our sweet little boy is already 11 days old… It has taken me a while to post because life is lots busier with two kids. I love my two boys!

Birth Story:

At my appointment on Wednesday the 13th I was dilated between a 3 and a 4 and the doctor said that I would most likely have my baby within 24 – 48 hours. Of course I was super excited but didn’t want to get my hopes up. I started having contractions Wednesday night and all day Thursday but they weren’t regular. The contractions started getting more regular during the night but were still far apart. Early in the morning they started getting more painful and it would wake me up every time I would have one. I finally woke Nathan up at 5:00 and said that it might be time. We didn’t get to the hospital until about 7:30 because we had to find a babysitter for Conner. By then the contractions were really painful and I just about left Nathan and went to the hospital myself. When we got there I was dilated to a 6. The doctor said I may not be able to get an epidural in time because all of the anesthesiologists were in surgery. I informed them that I would NOT be having the baby without my epidural! Haha. Luckily an anesthesiologist was able to come in from home in time. The doctor thought that the baby would be out in just a few pushes but Jayden decided to come out face up so I pushed for an hour and a half. At 10:45 Jayden was finally born. He weighed 7 pounds 14 ounces and was 21 inches long. He had a little bit of light brown hair and had a little cone head from being stuck in the birth canal for so long. Of course we thought that he was perfect!

The nurses thought that he looked a little pale so they took him to the NICU for an hour for observation. He pinked up so they were able to bring him back to us. We forgot how much newborns sleep! We didn’t see Jayden’s eyes until about 8 hours after he was born. It was hard for him to open them because they were swollen from coming out face up.

We got to come home from the hospital Saturday evening. Jayden in his “coming home” clothes:

Since then…
Jayden has been such a good baby. He still sleeps the majority of the time but we love it when he is awake and is looking around. He has been great at nursing right from the start and I’m thankful for that! He always has his hands up by his face and is either sucking on them or his pacifier. He smiles in his sleep all the time and even laughs occasionally. He is a big time pooper… with most little boys you are worried about being peed on but with Jayden you have to be careful or you’ll be pooped on! Conner has been such a good big brother and gets concerned when Jayden cries. He says “Baby Jayden sad!” He loves giving his little brother lots of kisses. He also gets jealous from time to time and tells us “Baby Jayden in swing” and wants us to put him down.

I love our little family... even if I am outnumbered 3 to 1! :)

Birthdays and Kidney Stones

A lot of things have happened recently but I suppose I will start from the beginning… Conner and I went to Idaho Falls for my sister and niece’s birthday parties. We decided to make a vacation of it and stayed for almost a week to have some fun. I figured that it would be my last chance to get away for a while before we have little Jayden. We celebrated my sister Alissa's Bday: Conner LOVES to sing "Happy Birthday" and always thinks that he gets to blow out the candles...

After singing he always yells "cake!" (my favorite part too...)

Here is my niece Kynzee, aka the birthday girl. She LOVED being sang to so much that we did it all over again.

Conner helped blow out her candles AND open her presents.

After finding out that the presents were NOT his:

I have the cutest little nephew who LOVES smiling at everyone... love him!

We were also able to spend a day with both of Nathan's little sisters. Conner loved playing with all of his cousin Naomi's toys. He thanked her with a hug:

I was also able to go out to eat with one of my best friends. Conner and I had a ton of fun visiting everyone!

Now for the "not so fun" part:

The morning after I got back I started cramping and feeling sick to my stomach. Later that evening I felt like I had to use the bathroom REALLY bad but when I tried I could only go a little bit and still felt like I needed to go and it hurt. I started having contractions and feeling sick to my stomach. It was 1:00 in the morning when we finally decided to go into the hospital to find out what the heck was going on. When I got in there they tested for a bladder infection but that wasn’t it and found out that I was dilated between a 2 and a 3 and 80% effaced. When I got up to use the bathroom I started having the WORST pain on the right side of my back. The nurses said right away that it was my kidney and gave me some pain medication… demerol is great stuff… and they sent me to have an ultrasound on my kidneys. They found out that my right kidney was inflamed and wasn’t able to send any urine into the bladder. They couldn’t see any stones and wondered if maybe the baby was sitting on my ureter tube. They decided to send me to have a C.T. Scan and found out that there were small stones in both sides and that the baby was probably not allowing them to pass. They gave me two options A. To put stints in the tubes to allow the stones to pass but that there was a great possibility that it would put me into labor and they would have to remove the stints anyway. Or B. To take the pain for as long as possible (he really wanted me to reach 37 weeks… which was five days away) and then he would induce me and let the stones pass. I decided to last as long as I could but it hurt SO bad! The kidney pain was causing me to have contractions and was making me really nauseous. I was having a hard time eating or drinking anything and started throwing up Friday night so we called the doctor Saturday morning and he told us to come into the hospital to be induced. We called my Mom to start driving to Twin so she could be with Conner. While we waited for her to get here the pain in my back started to get better and the nausea went away and I was able to keep food down. We figured that the pain would be returning soon and still went into the hospital. They hooked me up to an I.V. to rehydrate me and told me that the baby must have moved and that the stones may have passed without me knowing, relieving the pressure on my kidneys. The only way to know for sure would be to do another C.T. Scan but didn’t want to do another one because it isn’t good for the baby. Since I was feeling better they didn’t feel good about inducing so early so we came home. (I was relieved and disappointed all at the same time.) They said if the pain came back that they would induce otherwise I’m going to carry this little guy until he is good and ready to come out on his own… and who knows when that will be!

Throughout all of this I learned a few things: I already love this little baby sooo much and was so concerned about him the entire time. I have an amazing husband who loves me so much and I know that he would do anything for me. And I have a sweet little two year old that loves me too. He was so sweet through all of this. He kept saying “mama sick” and would bring me things to help me feel better and was constantly giving me kisses. We are so lucky to have so many people that care about us! Thank you everyone for your prayers!