Sad little people...

Well Doug headed back to NJ last night and got there bright and early this morning. So I've got a bunch of sad little ones on my hands. I think this time was a lot harder than the last time Doug left. But hopefully we'll be hearing something really soon about a job (keep your fingers crossed for us!) We are hoping that Doug will be back here for good by September/October. So basically we are just waiting around for jobs to get posted so that he can apply for them. He met with a couple people while he was here and it sounded really promising. I know that we all are going to miss him alot while he's gone. Poor Ryann was pretty sad last night at bed time after he had gone and this morning I think she expected Doug to walk through the door. But luckily with kids it goes in spurts since they do get distracted doing other things for a while.

Otherwise, we are all doing well. We celebrated Doogie's birthday this past weekend since Doug wouldn't be here for his actual birthday next week. The kids had bunch of fun swimming at Papa's pool and playing with Doug. Then yesterday before Doug left we took the kids to Chuckee Cheese for the afternoon. They had a blast! So anyways, just keep us in your thoughts and prayers that Doug will be getting a job here soon and we'll have him back with us.

Here are some pictures I took of the kids this past weekend...sometimes it is still hard to believe that I have 5 kids! LOL! It helps that CJ is a very good baby and hardly ever cries. The kids all adore him, and I love watching them all interact with eachother!

10 Days Old!

I can't believe the little guy is already 10 days old! We went in to the doctor's today for his newborn check up. He weighed in at 8lbs 4oz, so he is already back up to his birth weight and was 21 1/4 inches so he's stretched out a bit more! Both his weight, height and head circumpherence put him in the 50th percentile. The doctor thought he was looking great, he is a little bit jaundiced but not enough that the doctor was worried about him. He didn't have to have any shots since he had gotten his first shot in the hospital, so they won't have to see him in again until he is 2 months old. We did have to go over to the lab and do his final PKU though, which he didn't like one bit! But he is such a good baby (knock on wood) that he got over it pretty quickly. We also had to take Jayde in to be seen as well (she weighed in at 52lbs), since she had been complaining about her ear bugging her and we noticed some drainage from her right ear. So she is now on antibiotics and ear drops and he wants to see her back in 10 days to see how it is looking and decide if she needs to go and see the ENT here. She was really good too (especially considering we had to wait over an hour to see the doctor!) she is just so used to having her ears looked at that it didn't bug her at all for her to poke at her ear and get some of the fluid cleared out.

So anyways, things are going well here. Just trying to get everyone adjusted and get on some sort of routine! The kids all love baby CJ and love to "help" out! :) Calvin so far has been a really good baby. He hardly ever cries and even when he does he is able to be comforted very easily, so hopefully that will continue! So here are some more pictures of him, these were taken a few days ago. I just love the one of him and Jaxon together, Jaxon is just facinated by him and loves to touch him and look at him. And for the most part he is really gentle with him, I think he likes being a big brother! :) And the second to last picture I caught him smiling in his sleep!

Oh and we also want to wish Jenni a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! And we are looking forward to seeing you this weekend! :)

Calvin Jamison

Calvin is finally here! The first picture you see is of him on Monday when we got home from the hospital and the other two are from when we were still at the hospital, the very last picture of him is when he is just minutes old.

So lets see here, where to start.... We got to the hospital at 7:00 in the morning on Saturday the 14th of July to be induced. So we spent the first hour or so just getting situated and hooked up to monitors and what not. Around 9:30 am my OB came in to break my water and see if that would get anything going. It didn't! I wasn't having much of anything happening. So finally around 1:30pm they decided to give me some pitocin to see if that would get things moving. The reason the waited so long to do anything was because of my previous c-section they wanted to move slow and see if things would move along on it's own without any help. They didn't want to risk things going too fast and then having my old scar rupture and what not. So after they gave me the pitocin things started happening alot faster! I told Doug that if they had given me the pitocin that morning we would of had a kid alot earlier! LOL! So the contractions started hitting me pretty hard after a while, so I got my epidural, and was able to get a bit of a cat nap in! Towards the end of my labor I had to shift around a bit because every time I had a contraction the baby's heartbeat would drop. The good news was that it did go back up after the contraction was over, so we tried lying on different way to see if the baby would like that better....but he didn't! So my OB came in to take a look and see what was going on. He said it looked like the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck so out came the ultrasound machine to check and sure enough... He said depending on how much longer I labored a bunch of different things could happen. If it looked like I was going to be going for alot longer I would of probably be rushed in for an emergency c-section. But it looked like Calvin was going to cooperate and be born soon. So they kept a very close eye on his heartbeat during the delivery if it looked like he was in distress they would get him out quick with forceps or the vaccum. Luckily though we didn't have to do any of that and I was able to get him out on my own within 10-15 minutes of pushing. Probably would of had him out sooner if he hadn't been sunny-side up! So Calvin Jamison was born Saturday, July 14th weighing in at 8lbs 3.7oz and 20 1/2 inches long! He is doing great and as you can see has a ton of hair! The kids are loving him and are always coming over and touching his head and checking up on him! I was a bit worried about Jaxon being jealous of him. But so far he seems to be doing really well with him and it is so cute to watch him come over and touch him on his stomach and look at him. The only times we seem to have a problem is when Jaxon is tired and he wants his mommy snuggle time and I'm feeding the baby. But it's not that he is jealous of Calvin he just wants me to hold him too!

We took Calvin in for his follow up at the hospital today and he is looking good. A little bit jaundiced but not anything to be concerned about. He weighed in at 7lbs 9oz, which is pretty good (he was 7lbs 11oz when we left the hospital on Monday). And the nurse thought that he had probably lost a bit more than that and is now gaining it back. He is a really good baby and hardly ever cries (knock on wood!) and he is a really good eater.

So anyways, that's about all that is new for over here! We are just working on getting everyone used to the new situation and getting on some sort of a routine! So I will keep you posted as things continue to happen!

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July! We sure did, not only did the kids enjoy the fireworks they were also pretty excited to go and pick up Daddy from the airport that evening! It was so cute to watch them as they ran down the sidewalk towards Doug yelling "Daddy, Daddy!" as they ran and then jumped into his arms! So needless to say we are all happy to have him here with us.

I had my OB appointment this morning and everything is still looking good. I was up to 3 1/2 cm dialated and the baby's heartbeat sounded great. He's still kind of floating up there, so hopefully he'll drop down alot by Saturday when they induce me. I go in bright and early Thursday morning to have my amnio done (unless he decides to come on his own before than). My OB is on call tonight and than not on again until Saturday when I'm supposed to be induced. He told us to go and eat lots of Mexican food since that can help bring on labor! So you can guess where we went to lunch...and I have been having some contractions, so who knows! LOL! So we'll see what happens.

Anyways, other than that we have just been trying to beat the heat and stay cool. Which means we've been doing lots of swimming and running through the sprinklers and what not. It's supposed to hit back up in the 100's by Wednesday. So that's about it for us over here. I will keep you posted as things happen! :) I've included some pictures of the kids that I took on the 4th of July in their "festive duds"!

My little man is 18 months!!

Wow! Where does the time go? Hard to believe that Jaxon is already 18 months old! He is really starting to talk more and he doesn't walk anymore....he runs! I think Doug is going to be shocked at how much he has changed since he last saw him...he definitely isn't a baby anymore but a toddler! Hopefully it won't take Jaxon long to warm back up to Doug when he gets here....I don't think he'll have a problem with the other 3 though. They are all pretty excited about Daddy coming back.

In other news, I had my doctor's appointment this afternoon. Everything is still looking good. I'm still hanging out at 3 cm and his head is pressing right against my bladder which is why I have to pee every 10 seconds! LOL! She told me that everytime I have a contraction to start walking around and see if that helps move his head down where it is supposed to be and off my bladder, so I might be doing a bunch of walking to help get things moving. So I go back in on Monday to see my usual OB (I saw the physician's assistant today, since my doctor was on vacation). So Doug will be able to go with me to my next doctor's appointment and then we'll do my amnio next Thursday, get the results back on Friday and get induced on Saturday (July 14th)! So D-Day is fast approaching!

So anyways, that's about it for now. We are just hanging out and trying to stay cool in this hot weather. And I'm still working on Ryann with the potty. I think she is finally starting to get the hang of it though and she finally filled up one of her sticker charts and got to go to the store and pick out a toy. She also stayed dry for me for a whole day so I let her have the black lab webkin that I had been bribing her with! LOL! So she is improving...I'm hoping she'll be completely potty trained by the time this little guy gets here. So keep your fingers crossed for us! I've included some pics of the kids cooling off in the sprinkler and also some pictures I took of Ryann for her 3 year...she wasn't being super cooperative so I'm going to try and get some more of her later this week. I also got to work on getting some good ones of Jaxon for his 18 month pictures.