The Thumb:

A friend that sticks closer than a pacifier. We are all about learning to self-soothe in this house.

Destin Pictures

My brother-in-law was kind enough to uplaod all the pictures they took of the boys on to Shutterfly for me. So if you are so inclined, you may scroll down the side bar to the link to our Shutterfly site and browse through them at your leisure.

The family ones aren't too cute because Kris and I were not planning on being photographed. It was morning and we just got the boys dressed and headed down to the beach. And I had just taken my sunglasses off so I'm all squinty. And did I mention I just had a baby. Yeah. That's when you want to take a lot a lot of pictures of yourself :(

But enjoy the little boy cuteness. It is readily available.

Just in Time for Reformation Day

I made these onesies last year for Asher and his buddy, Josiah. I had several people afterwards tell me that they would like one and with Reformation Day approaching, I have decided to make a few more up. Here is the design since the picture above is a little blurry.



I can make them as a onesie or a t-shirt, so if you are interested, email me at jamierives at hotmail dot com. If you are local, we can arrange a pick-up and if not, I can mail it to you.

I really would like the price to be $15.17 but that seems a bit exorbitant for a t-shirt. So let's say $8 (tee or onesie.)

I'll take orders until October 17.

Judelicious

I'm not sure if you can tell how awesome his hair is, but trust me, he has got some verticalness happening. And it is really light on top and dark along the sides. Quite the 'do!

He will be 2 months old on Sunday! I should really think about getting his birth announcemetns completed and mailed.



I hesitate to even write this, but he is actually sleeping really well now. He takes about a 1-2 hour nap after each feeding and he goes to bed around 7:30, I give him a "dream-feed" about 10:30 and then he sleeps til around 4:15. I feed him again and then he sleeps til around 7:45. This has happened several days in a row so I am praying he keeps it up! I think the main reason is that I put him on his tummy and he turns his head to the side and sucks on his fist all night. If he wakes up, he just sucks for a while and is right back to sleep. He has been taking a paci but is finding his fist much more convenient these days.

I love this boy--so Judelicious!

Never leave your kid unattended in the laundry room

We had a stern talk about how dryers are not toys...after I took a picture, of course.

A Few Pictures

To begin, a sweet smile from the little man. They are more and more frequent, I am pleased to report. I attribute it to his new-found love of his fist which makes getting to sleep and staying that way oh so easy. Rested Jude=Happy Jude.

The really great beach pictures are still on my sister-in-law's memory card, so you'll have to wait on those, but here are a few that I took over the past few weeks.

This was Asher's first time on the beach. He loves sandboxes so you can only imagine his delight with a whole beach!




He loved the water, too. The waves were really big our first day there. I think there was a hurricane or something in the Gulf... Anyway, he would have run headlong into the ocean if we would have let him. Fearless, that little one is.



Jude and his cute daddy as we were out shopping.



Thankfully, Asher will still fall asleep anywhere. He had his fill of shopping.




Asher riding a shark at the play area at the shopping center.



He enjoyed the splashpad, too. He would stand over the jets in the ground that shoot up water and call out, "Waa-waa! Waa-waa!" as if he was calling the water forth. Then he would jump back and grin when the water came out, as if he caused it to happen.



Asher's favorite thing to do was to sit in the water and feel the tide draw the water backk all around him.



This is our "manny." Actually, it's my brother who we allowed to ride home with us on the condition that we would take care of the kids for me. That lasted about 30 minutes.



More pictures to come!

My Day

1. I started back on the South Beach Diet. Evacu-cation is over so I must resume operation "No More Elastic Waistbands."

2. Asher went to bed early tonight because one of us would not have survived the evening had that not occurred. It wasn't looking too good for me so off he went. He's mad.

3. I tried to clean but things kept getting uncleaned somehow. Two steps forward, one step back. I did get a stain out of the carpet though.

4. Jude vascilated between sweet smiles and forceful crying all day. Now he is chilled out on the playmat looking at his blinking star. Bless that star.

5. Kris went to help out his fam as they clean up the Ike trash. He's a good boy.

6. I am about to go hardboil a dozen eggs for my snacks this week. You eat a heck of a lot of eggs on Phase I.

Ok, now you're caught up :)

We're Baaaa-ack

It was sad to leave the beautiful beach and sand, but very nice to be home. Thanks to my in-laws (aka Grandpa and Grandmommy), we enjoyed a full week in Destin and we had such a great time with our families.

We came home to power, no damage, and even a working dish and internet access. Even my little Southern Living front door basket thing was still there. The primary reason is the providence of God, but the means He used was the fact that our house is in the very center of the neighborhood. So the bigger houses on the perimeter took the hit for the other ones in the center.

So any friends nearby that read this and need to wash some clothes or check some email, feel free to stop by.

I'll put up some pictures soon from our evacu-cation. 2 boys + 2 matching shirts + gorgeous beach = adorable pictures!

Guess what else! Jude slept 6 hours in a row for the second night! Please join me in a very joyful "WOO-HOO!" Keep it up, little buddy!

Evacu-cation

This is the term my husband has coined to describe what we are currently doing. With Ike looming in the Gulf, we decided to take my in-laws up on their offer to evacuate with them to Destin. So here we are--enjoying the beach and time with family. I now know what it is like to have a nanny! All this family makes caring for the little guys so much easier. Kris and I even went out on a date last night. That hasn't happened in many, many moons. So even though the circumstances are less than desirable, it has been a very nice "surprise vacation." Asher LOVES the beach and having both sets of grandparents here to dote on him. Jude is just hanging out--he can do his thing anywhere.

Kris' school district is out until Thursday so we will mosey our way back to Houston sometime between now and then. My parent's are here with us and they are facing several weeks without power (they live further east of Houston where the hit was much more direct) so their plans are still up in the air.

We are pretty sure that no major damage was done to any of our homes, but we won't be sure until we get back to inspect from the inside. Until then, we will continue to rough it here at the condo and figure out what our plans are. Hey--if ya gotta evacuate, might as well go somewhere pretty.

And in case you were wondering (and I'm sure you are,) an evacu-cation triggers an automatic suspension of all South Beach Diet activity. There are crabcakes here, people. What was I supposed to do?

Long Time, No Blog

Blogging seems to be a little harder to do these days...anyone know why?

Oh, yeah--maybe it's those two little boys pictured above. Asher loves to hold Jude. Jude does not enjoy being held by Asher.

They are both doing good. Asher turned 19 months on Sunday and Jude turned 6 weeks on Monday. Asher has started putting together 2-3 word sentences. He is quite talkative these days. He has started saying "2" and "10" when we count instead of just "1." He loves the letter "W" because he and Kris practice saying letters while Kris is bathing him and he calls it "double-buh." He now says "me-me, Mama" which means "hold me, Mama," especially at moments when he knows I can't.

Jude is holding up his head more while he is on his tummy. He weighs 12 lb. 11 oz. as of yesterday. He is having some feeding issues so we have switched to the milk-free/soy-free crazy expensive formula and that seems to be helping him so much. He goes down around 9 or 10 and then wakes around 2 or 3 to eat and then wakes again around 6 or 7. I'm SO ready for that sleeping through the night thing to kick in!

In other news, week 1 of Phase I of the South Beach Diet is over. I'm down 5.5 lbs. I hate how slow weight loss has to be, but at least I'm making progress. One more week of the really restrictive phase and then the plan gets much easier.

Here's a few pictures from our week...

Asher is obsessed with taking a picture with someone and then looking at it immediately in the camera.



Asher loves listening to music. He's listening to Fiona Apple here because I didn't realize Elizabeth Mitchell was over. Hope he's not too messed up now.



I know, I know...not supposed to put them on their tummy! But he picks up his head really well so I feel fine with it. And he sleeps just like I do. I only put him on our bed for naps when I am right there. He sleeps in this pack-n-play at night and for most naps.

So It Begins

Ugh. It's that time again, kids. Time to take off baby weight. This is not my favorite thing to do, but I'm really tired of wearing the same 3 maternity shirts mixed and matched with the same 2 maternity pants. It's just not cute.

So I kick of Phase I of the South Beach Diet tomorrow. I had a lot of success with it when I had to lose the weight from Asher so I know it will work. And I am highly motivated because, let me say it again, all that fits is maternity clothing!

I look forward to reporting about my amazing progress and astounding weight loss results in the weeks and months to come.

Hey Jude!

You're one month old today!








Jude is wearing an outfit that Asher wore in his 3 month photos. I put him in it today and I'm glad I did because he will not be in it much longer!

We had a rough day yesterday...lots of screaming, very little sleeping. But thankfully I have an awesome husband who could tell I was spent. He let me go to bed early and he took over. Love that man!

But today is much better. I need to remember that bad days are almost always followed by good ones. You can't avoid the bad days, but they make the ones where everyone eats good and sleeps good so much sweeter.

Two Sleeping Boys

That's what I've got at my house right now. We laid down for a nap at 2 and everyone but me is still zonked out. Love that!

So I thought I'd take this moment to, of course, blog. Laundry and floors...they can wait.

So...life with 2 under 2. It's actually not as scary as it sounds. There are moments of pure insanity, to be sure, but overall, it has been reall good. As my friend Susanna just pointed out on her blog, when you go from none to one, you also have to go through the reality of losing your freedom and ability to just pick up and go when you please. That was a hard transistion for me because I am s-e-l-f-i-s-h! But now, having already dealt with that and knowing what to expect, things are much easier.

I don't want to make it sound like it is a breeze because it isn't. I'm working pretty hard these days and on way less sleep. But I love those little boys!

Asher is doing great with his baby brother. We have to remind him to be gentle, but he is only 18 months old. I have to remind myself of that so my expectations of him stay real. I don't have to use the baby monitor because the second Asher hears a little whimper from Jude, he looks at me and says, "Baby! Baby!" He still is very into kissing him on the head and yesterday, as Jude was laying on his playmat, Asher brought him a bunch of books and put them all around him--just in case Jude wanted to do a little reading.

Jude is doing great, too. He is about 11 pounds now! The boy likes to eat! He is going through that unfortuante baby acne phase, but is still just adorable. He is a little heater and his head is always sweaty. He is also a little bit of a goofball--twice we have heard him start to scream that "I'm in serious pain!" scream only to discover that he had a fistful of his own hair and would not let go. Bless his heart. We have caught a few little smiles, but mostly just really intent stares. Oh, did I mention he likes to eat? I nurse him, but cannot keep up with his appetite so I supplement with formula. It's kind of a hassle to do both, but I want him to have all the immunities that he can get from me, but also have a full tummy. So meal time takes a while, but it is worth it.

We have been out and about quite a bit. It's funny how much sooner Jude has been out of the house. At just short of 2 weeks, he was already running the roads with us. I just leave him in his carrier and cover it with a blanket. I went out by myself a few days ago with both the boys to the new Target that opened up about a mile from our house (how awesome is that!) No one melted down so I felt that the trip was a success.

And now for the pictures...just some random shots for your enjoyment.

Sunglasses, a guitar shirt, and alligator house shoes. The boy's got style!


Asher and Jude (in matching outfits!) with their great-grandmother, Mimi.



Tummy time (of course he hates it.)



That's better!



Flaky skin and baby acne, but still so cute!


Adventures in learning to feed one's self.

Asher's Favorite Song

Asher is absolutely in love with this song! We listen to it every day as many times as our sanity allows. So I thought I'd post it here so you can enjoy it, too.

So Here's How It Went Down

I was having contractions all day on Sunday, but they were not consistent. Up until about 1 am the next morning, I would have a few that were about 8-10 minutes apart and then the next one would be 15 minutes later. I fell asleep around then and woke up at 4 am to a strange "popping" sensation. With Asher, I never felt my water break, but this time, I did. I got up and walked into the bathroom and started calling Kris out of the depths of sleep. I didn't want to scare him, so I tried my gentle voice, but had to switch to my loud, panic voice because he was not even stirring.

When he finally came to, I told him my water broke and that we could officially go to the hospital without worrying about looking stupid and being sent home. This relieved me greatly. Within a few minutes, we were on our way. We live about 40 minutes from the hospital where my doctor delivers so thankfully it was early enough in the morning that we avoided any traffic. We even made a quick stop at CVS to buy batteries for our camera because I really wanted to have lots of pictures this time of the birth. Kris was nice enough to let me wait in the car while he ran in--a prince I tell you.

We made it to the hospital and my contractions were getting stronger and were about 5 minutes apart at this point. We got up to the L & D floor and got settled in a room. My nurse began hooking Jude and I up to the monitor. We both had normal vital signs and everything looked good to proceed with the plan for a VBAC. I started filling out forms (in between contractions) and the nurse left the room for a few minutes. She came back and said something to the effect of the doctor on call said I could wait for the next doctor to come on because he wasn't dealing with a VBAC this late in the shift. Those weren't the exact words, but the nurse was pretty clear that I was a problem he did not want to deal with. Issue #1.

Next, the nurse tries to start an I.V. in my hand. I told her that I have really bad veins and that last time, the nurse anesthetist had to come get it started. She assured me she could get it so she sticks me and then proceeds to chase the vein around in my hand for a good minute. It hurt! I was just looking away praying that she would hit the vein quickly. She finally gave up and my hand had this huge swollen lump on it. Issue #2.

She decides to go get another nurse to try. While she is gone, I start to feel really nauseated and light-headed. The nurses come back in my room and Kris tells them how I am feeling. One nurse lays me back and puts ice packs on me while the other one tries her luck at finding a vein in my arm. She digs around too and is also unsuccessful. At this point, I feel like I am 2 seconds away from passing out which causes Jude's heartrate to drop from the 130's to the 80's. This causes about 6 other nurses to rush in, along with the nurse anesthetist who sticks me and has the I.V. going in about 4 seconds. Issue #3.

The next thing I know they are rushing me out of my room and I am begging for someone to tell me what the heck is going on. I am feeling better by now but am being wheeled down the hall to the O.R. for, as someone kindly bothers to clue me in, an emergency c-section. I really wanted to cry at this point, but decided to postpone my tears since I needed to focus on what was going on.

They put me on the table and the anesthesiologist begins to put in my epidural. He gives me the first lidocaine shot and then I have my second expereince of someone digging around trying to find what they are looking for. Your spine, I must say, is way worse than your hand. This docotr gets very frustrated and ends up having to stick me 3 times trying to get the needle in the right space. Not. fun. at. all.
(It should be noted that, by now, both mine and Jude's vitals are back to normal. So the "emergency" is over. But once you are in an O.R., you are getting a c-section whether you need it or not.)

This is the point where my memory ends. This is a huge blessing because what happens next is not for the faint of heart. Apparently, they never got the epidural working right when I was sitting up so they laid me down and tried to put it in again. At this point, a nurse was sent to go get Kris to come in to be with me. As they walked back in, I was lying on the table moaning and writhing in pain. They had begun the surgery, however, that epidural still wasn't working. So basically, my poor husband had to see me after they had just cut me while I still had sensation.

They rush Kris out and made the decision to put my under general anethesia. So I am intubated and completely knocked out. The communication between the nurses and the doctor was not the best because they went and got Kris again, only to have the doctor yell at them to get him out. No one has told him anything at this point so he is totally distressed by now. They take him to a waiting room and tell him that someone will be in to get him soon. Of course the worse-case scenarios are running through his head because he has still not been told that we are O.K.

After Jude is delivered, they come and get Kris and he is able to hold Jude for a few minute before they take him to the nursery. Then Kris is taken to recovery where I am. I'm pretty disoriented as I try to make sense of what happened. I'm thankful that Jude was delivered safely but very sad that, once again, I don't get to see my baby born or hold him right after.

The nurse that originally tried to put in my I.V. comes to the recovery room and begins to apologize for everything. I'm really in no mood to have a conversation at that point so I'm not sure what I said. I later found out I was the talk of the whole floor. Thankfully, it's not very often epidurals don't work and they begin cutting so I was a hot topic among the staff. In the middle of all the drama, my friend who is a nurse there came on for her shift and found out that it was me that all this was happening to. She ended up having to take the next day off because she was so emotionally drained from what went on. If she was that affected, you can only imagine who upset Kris was. And let's not even talk about my poor mother.

So at one day shy of 41 weeks, I delivered Judah Kristopher. It was not what I planned and I believe many errors were made that could have been avoided, but the most important thing is that I have a healthy little boy. And instead of not being able to hold him for 5 days like with Asher, Jude was brought to my room a few hours later. There is much to be thankful for regardless of what happened to us.

2 boys. 2 out of the ordinary birth stories. I think I'm taking a few years off from the having babies business because no telling what #3 may bring :)

A Few Pictures

Me and little Judah K.



Our family of four. (Kris was right--I am smokin' hot.)



Cutting off the tags.



Jude and his BIG brother.



First bath at home.



Jude in a milk coma.



Asher kisses Jude on the head about 40 times a day.



A real post where I actually write something is coming soon. But for now, enjoy the extreme cuteness and the stellar photography.

I'm still alive

Just popping in to say hi and thanks for all the sweet comments! I'm very much in the throws of "newborn-induced exhaustion" so as soon as I get a little more energy back, I will post the birth story. It's a doozie. (I hate that word, but I can't think of a better one. Pregnancy brain's friend, post-partum brain, is just as brutal.)

Check back soon--many more pictures to come of "the boys!"

More pictures of Jude

Thanks for praying for us. Jamie and Jude are recovering nicely. Asher is seems to enjoy his new role of big brother. Fear not, the exciting, lovingly crafted post that you have grown to love and expect from this blog shall soon return when my smoking hot brilliant wife settles back into life with 2 boys. With no further ado, here are some more pictures!

God has bestowed another blessing upon us.

Has this this thing gotten smaller, or am I not as small as I once was? ...

Little Jude!

Mamaw, Jude and big brother Asher.

Asher loves his baby brother.

Jude's Pictures!!!!!!

Here he is...

Judah Kristopher is here!

Yesterday morning Judah (Jude) Kristopher made a remarkable entry into this world. It was full of stress and uncertainty, but by God's grace, he and his momma are healthy and recovering well. Jude was 8 pounds & 9 ounces. he was 19-3/4 inches long. He was born at 6:32 via emergency C-section. The Psalmist reminds us in Psalm 139:13-16...

"For you formed my inward parts;you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret,intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your book were written, every one of them,the days that were formed for me,when as yet there were none of them."

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. Praise God for His graciousness and blessing.

kris

p.s. Pictures will be up ASAP