2012 in Review

Wow! I can't believe this is the last day of 2012! It has gone by so, so fast. We had a pretty tame beginning of the year with lots of outdoor time thanks to a really mild winter. One of Mommy's bestest friends, Ugochi, moved back home after many years away. Mommy is so super happy to have her so close again. We did have a big scare with an uncle of mommy's and spent many long days hanging out with family at the hospital. God was definitely on his side those months and he has had a great recovery. I also announced to the world, Facebook world that is, that I was going to be a big sister. I really didn't know what that meant, but I talked to and kissed Mommy's belly because that's what the crazy lady told me to do.

Mommy turned the big 3-0 in March, and Daddy surprised her by gathering her closest friends for a dinner celebration! We took a quick trip to Kansas to celebrate Great Grandma Betty's 80th birthday in April. Then came the party of the year, which honored my 2nd year of life. There were lots of animals, family, and friends in attendance, and a great time was had by all at my barnyard bash. I took a week long trip to Galveston with Welita and Welito in May. We had a blast! Daddy became an old man and turned 30 in May also. We had a nice dinner at home with homemade ice cream cake. Mommy surprised him with a weekend getaway to Lake Travis before we became a family of four. They ate, relaxed by the pool, and had some good alone time. Blah, blah, blah.

It was a good thing Mommy got in one last hurrah, because soon after she was placed on bed rest. That little stinker brother of mine made Mommy's blood pressure do some crazy things. Thank goodness that was the only complication. Mommy had to spend her last week of pregnancy in the hospital. Mommy and Daddy were a little worried because some of the monitoring on my baby brother didn't look so great. Mommy is now convinced that it was because of his small size, his position, and the fact that his placenta was taking up the front of her belly, that they never got good reads for him. Jonah Michael was born a week and a half early, after a super fast and ridiculously easy labor on July 25th.

Jonah was a very mellow and easy baby. I was NOT a very mellow or easy brand new big sister! That first month was ROUGH! Mommy and Daddy tried extra hard to have Sophia Time to show me that they still love me as much as they always have. After a few weeks of giving them a hard time, I eased up and realized my little brother is really cool. I started sleeping through the night again, taking naps, and the devil escaped my body! ;) We also owe a big thanks to stickers charts, rewards, popsicles, prayers, and a really nifty Door Monkey!

Daddy started a new job 2 weeks after Jonah was born. He struggled with this decision for a while. After much prayer and discussions with Mommy, he chose to leave his firm. It was a great decision, and everything fell into place perfectly. The good Lord knew what he was doing! Daddy is home for dinner just about every night, we get to play, and he reads me a book before tucking me in for the night.

The fall started with some classes at MyGym. It was a great way to exert some energy during the transition phase. I learned tumbles, jumped all over the place, mastered the balance beam, and hung like a monkey. It was so.much.fun! Classes ended just in time for Halloween festivities. This year we attended our Mom's Group Halloween bash as Toy Story characters. We went as Buzz, Jessie, Woody, and a Pizza Planet Alien in costumes that Mommy made. We won the award for best family costume, and I took home the best girl costume award for the second year in a row! Mommy and Daddy celebrated their Five Year Anniversary at the beginning of November. Daddy had a whole night planned for them at the W Hotel with massages and a really fancy dinner at Perry's with no kids. Jonah had his first sleepover at Memaw's and Ampa's house with me. What a great guy, I didn't let that happen until I was much older! November flew by, and Welita and Welito hosted Thanksgiving at their house. We had lots of family over and I got to spend time with my cousins!

That brings us to December and Christmas. There are lots of events in the DFW area to pick and choose from for the holidays. This year we did the Polar Express, Frisco Safety Town, Northpark Center, and Candlelight at Old City Park. Fun, fun, fun!! We spent the days before Christmas reading stories about Baby Jesus and the reason we celebrate Christmas. Christmas Eve was shared with lots of family on both my sides of my family. We had a White Christmas and stayed and extra night with my Welitos and Tio. When we finally made it home, Santa had stopped by to eat some cookies and leave some presents for me and Jonah. We got some really cool gifts and had some birthday cake for Jesus! I also gave Mommy the best gift a 2.5 year old can give... I decided I was done with diapers!

Even though it went by super fast, 2012 was a fantastic year for us. Jonah has been such a fun addition to our family and I can hardly remember the wonderful times before him! I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for us! I DID ask Santa for a baby sister, so we'll see...

From my family to yours, Happy New Year!

Jonah's Birth Story

Warning: Guys, you may want to skip this post.

Mama here, again.  Let's see if I can remember this...

The night before Jonah was evicted!

Jonah's birth was a completely different experience than Sophia's birth.  Since I was being induced a week and a half early and no progress had been made, I was given cytotec at 10:00 the night before induction.  Within 15 minutes I was already having contractions.  I don't consider myself a weenie, but these contractions were pretty strong right from the beginning.  After four hours of the first dose the nurse came to check me and I was maybe half a centimeter dilated.  Are you kidding me??  Needless to say, a second dose of cytotec was administered.  My monitor wasn't in a good spot all night and my nurse couldn't see just how big these contractions were.  So you could imagine how annoyed I was every time she came in and said, "Are you feeling anything?," as if my moans of pain weren't answer enough! That cytoec is no joke.  Contractions were longer than they were apart!  I was checked again at 6:00 AM, and was relieved to find out I was finally in active labor at four centimeters. 

A pitocin drip was started within a few minutes.  After a shift change, my day nurse came in around 7:30 to check things out and was getting a magnesium drip ordered.  With high blood pressure patients, magnesium is given for 24 hours in order to help prevent seizures during and after delivery.  I was told it makes you feel pretty crappy, like you have the flu.  Around 8:00 my contractions were brining tears and I told Jon I didn't think I could make it to a 10 without an epidural.  I asked the nurse if I could go ahead and get the drugs.  She checked me right before the anesthesiologist came in and I was only at a 5, which made me feel like a total wimp.  My epidural was placed at 8:30 and the anesthesiologist told me that after a few minutes I would have some relief and after about 10 minutes I really shouldn't feel much.  She went to place an epidural next door and said she'd be back to check on me when she was finished.  

After the 10 minutes went by, the nurse could tell I was still continuing my labor breathing and asked if I could still feel pain.  I said yes, definitely not as intense, but still pretty strong.  She said "Let me check you again," followed by a "You're about to have a baby.  You're at a 10!"  WHAT?!?  She left to call my doctor, and my mom showed up at that point.  Thank goodness, since I had told her to take her time the night before!  Since everything had progressed so fast I still didn't have the magnesium drip or a catheter placed.  When the nurse came back in, I told her I thought I had to tinkle.  She got a tinkle bowl ready, opened my legs, closed them back up real quick, and mumbled, "That's just going to have to wait."  Shortly after she closed my legs I felt a small gush.  I said, "Did I just pee or did my water break?"  She checked once more and said, "That was your water."  Apparently, when she closed my legs she was able to see my bad of waters right there!  There was a little meconium in the water, so a NICU team was brought in just in case.  I began to worry and cried some, but was reassured that a great team was standing by.  

We did a practice push while we were waiting on my doctor, but was told to stop midway and that I'd do just fine.  After what felt like hours of waiting, my doctor arrived.  I think she was surprised to see just how ready I was.  A quick push and half later, little Jonah Michael arrived!  Crazy, huh?  He was breathing just fine and handed right to me for an hour of skin to skin time. Thank God!

Love at first site.

Our son.

Everything looks good.

Little fingers.

Little toes.

Clean boy.

Family of four.

I don't know about this...

Sweet little guy.

My new man.

My guys.

Ready to go home.

Jonah's Baby Shower

With all the drama going on at the end of my pregnancy, it was up in the air as to whether or not I could have a baby shower.  After approval from my doctor, my four fabulous hostesses put together the cutest little nautical themed shower for me and Jonah.  I was able to sit up in a recliner and was doted on by all the guests.  It was really nice to get out of the house, dress up, and chat with family and friends after being on bed rest for so long.  Thank you so much to everyone that came on such quick notice.  We are truly blessed to have such loving friends that were eager to help us get ready for our little man's arrival. My mom,  mother in law, and 2 best friends did such an awesome job.  Thank you ladies for all the time and hard work you put into the shower.  Everything looked great and the food was so tasty! I love you all!!

Jonah's Nautical Shower

These cupcakes were sooo delicious!

Sweet friends from my mom's group.

Bindu, Ugochi, Diana, Crystal

My Mommy

My MIL, Cathy

Love my BFFs!!

My Grandmother

Time fore cake!

My sweet girl.

The young ladies.

Big sister, Sophia!

Happy mama!

Meet my baby brother!

He's here, he's her, he's here! Jonah Michael arrived really fast at 9:11am. He's a sweet little guy weighing just 6lbs 13 oz and 19.5in long.

I'm not sure what I think about him just yet. But in my defense Mommy was hooked up to loud machines and there were cameras in my face. I was a little terrified of the whole situation! Anyway, here he is... He sure is a cutie!

Curse you high blood pressure!

I'm now 4cm dilated and in active labor. A pitocin drip has been started. I want to move around!! I can not.

Ready or not...

Here we go! I've been moved to a delivery room and the cytotec has been administered. The waiting game has begun.

One more day...

Well it looks like I'll be a resident of Baylor Hospital until we take home our sweet little boy. He'll make his grand entrance in this world tomorrow. As much as I wanted him to come on his own, I just really want him to be here now and get all of our family back together at HOME! I don't even care if everything isn't ready. We'll manage. It's not like he's going to need much anyway.

I miss my little girl. Hourly visits just aren't enough. I miss picking her up and squeezing her guts out, playing and running all over the house, driving around and listening to her explore the world around her! I feel just awful that we didn't get to have special mommy/daughter bonding time this last month before she's no longer the only child. I know she'll be great, but of course I have to worry some. Oh, I just love that little girl!

My doctor kept me here because my blood pressure has kind of been all over the place. I also had a headache on and off since yesterday morning. I think it's lack of sleep, but it could be BP related. She said she'd like to keep me here just in case anything were to turn for the worst. Apparently it can happen pretty fast. Our evening was kind of long last night. I had a couple really elevated BP reads and had a lingering headache. Then baby boy didn't perform very well for his monitoring even though he was moving like crazy for almost 3 hours. After talking to my doctor, they finally took me off and gave me some ambien to get some rest. I don't know if you've ever taken it, but I don't think it works very well for me. It gets me to sleep, but doesn't keep me asleep any better than falling asleep on my own. Hopefully, I can get some better rest tonight.

I can't believe we'll be holding a new baby sometime tomorrow. I don't think it has really sunk in just yet. We're suppose to get started sometime around 7:30am. My doctor will come in this afternoon to go over the details. Crazy! I'm hoping to get a last family of 3 picture today, and of course a new family of 4 picture tomorrow!!