Visitors, visitors & more visitors

Since the little man was born we have been fortunate enough to have our parents & my sister visit.  Thankfully they weren't all at the same time...that would have been a little much.  And next week our friend Megan is visiting! Since I have had some pretty word heavy posts thought I would share some pictures from when my Mom, Josiah's parents and my Dad & Nicki were all here....it might be photo overload!

 my Mom & Jackson

 my Mom bought Jackson a pig that you tickle and it sings and his ears wiggle....its pretty funny!

Josiah's parents & Jackson 

my Dad & Jackson

reenacting The Lion King

Josiah & my Mom on our first ever Metro ride

At the Smithsonian National Space & Air Museum

Notice the baby not in the stroller...he preferred to be carried whenever he wasn't sleeping :(

At the capital

Josiah's Dad & Jackson

Just meeting for the first time!

First time using my new ring sling, shielding baby from the sun with the "tail" part

my Dad touching the top of the Washington Monument

Nicki at the World War II Memorial

Getting some last minute snuggles before leaving

Not sure what exactly happened but not all the pictures are in the right order but you get the picture.  Lots of fun stuff happening here!! 

Godparents

Because the Man and I decided to raise Jackson Catholic, which is what I am, we had the big task of choosing who we wanted to Jackson's godparents.  The Man doesn't have godparents and didn't really know what the purpose was for having them.  So like normal we Googled it...I have my own definition as to the purpose of godparents but we thought we should find the "official" reasoning.

Here is what the all truth telling Wikipedia told us: Traditionally, godparents were informally responsible for ensuring the child's religious education was carried out, and for caring for the child should he/she be orphaned. Today, the word godparent might not have explicitly religious overtones. The modern view of a godparent tends to be an individual chosen by the parents to take an interest in the child's upbringing and personal development.

Now here is my thoughts on godparents...it's similar to Wikipedia's: I think parents should choose people that they feel will help their child grow in ways that they might not be able to fulfill.  I do believe that they should help with the religious aspect.  I also think that godparents are their to help teach your child life lessons and to help them grow and become knowledgeable adults.  

With this in mind there immediately were a few people that came to mind who would be amazing godparents.  Traditionally and religiously you only have 2 godparents, a godmother & a godfather.  Sorry if everybody knows this stuff!  The Man and I debated for probably a good 6 months whether or not to have 2 or 4 godparents.  In the end we decided on 4 :)

The 4 people we choose are my sister Nicki, our friend Megan, my cousin Andy and our friend Kyle.  All 4 of these people bring something different to the table. None of these people are perfect...sorry guys!  But they all have had different experiences, attitudes and thoughts.  The Man and I our sure they will help Jackson grow into a very well-rounded adult.    

Thanks to Nicki, Megan, Andy & Kyle for agreeing to be such a big part of Jackson's life!  We can't wait to have his baptism when we are back in Wisconsin in August.

We are very lucky to have so many amazing people in our lives that will help us raise Jackson...even if its from miles and miles away!      

Balancing

If you haven't figured it out yet I am still figuring out how to balance all the things I need & want to do everyday.  I LOVE life with a baby but it does make it hard to do other tasks.  So bare with me as I figure out a way to balance life with a baby, a husband, a job, household chores, sleep, eating, blogging & time for myself.

Etsy Loves & Wants

Since the little man is asleep I was able to do a little online shopping :)  I just had to share the new hat that I just ordered for Jackson to hopefully wear this fall the kid has a big head so who knows! There are also a few other things that I am debating ordering.

Skull on Stripes Hat by craftnikki

I can't wait to get this and see how cute he is going to look in it!!!

This Is My Kegstand Shirt by ShopTheIttyBitty

I think this shirt would be perfect for almost any Halopka event...It might be the next thing ordered!

Wooden Teether Wisconsin by littlesaplingtoys

This will most likely be ordered once the little man starts teething...we will always have a love for WI!!

1 Month Old!!!

Oh my I can't believe it but a few days ago Jackson became a month old!!!  I swear we just left the hospital a couple days ago.  The last month has gone way to fast and kind of scares me for how fast the rest of his life is going to go...please slow down sweet baby boy!!!

1 month old!

day & hours before the little man

Now that the little man has been introduced I will enlighten/explain the events leading up to his arrival....I promise not to go into any gross details that no one really wants to hear about.  I will also apologize for the amount of wordiness there is.  There really is no short way to explain the events leading up to giving birth.  I promise to do some picture heavy posts to counter balance ALL of these words!!

Thursday - 4/5/2012

I had a doctors appointment that morning and the dr. checked my progress, the week before I was 1-2 cm and 50%, and I was 2-3 cm and 90%.  I happened to mention to her that it would work out best for the Man and I if we happened to have this baby either that night or sometime on Friday.  She asked if I wanted my membranes scrapped....I said sure not really knowing what that would do but she said that it would increase the chances of contractions starting and going into labor...again my goal was to have a baby before Easter so I was all for it.  Well after my appt. I wasn't feeling the best so I decided to just work from home and take it easy.  The Man and I had made plans earlier in the week to go to a movie for our anniversary since we didn't get to do anything on our actual anniversary.  Well instead of going to the movie we decided we should clean up our house and try to get a little more prepared for the baby since we were in the single digits.  After a couple hours of cleaning we went to bed, which didn't last very long for me...a whole 30 min to be exact.

Friday - 4/6/2012

Its now around midnight or 12:30.  Seeing as I only read the first 6 chapters of the pregnancy book (which only got me through the 2nd trimester) I really had no idea as to how to know when I was actually in labor or even having contractions.  Since I couldn't sleep because of the pains I was experiencing I spent the next 2 hours googling how to know if your in labor and what contractions feel like before I finally decided that I thought I was having contractions and should wake Josiah up.  He got up and we spent the next 2 hours still googling and timing contractions.  Still not really sure as to when we should go to the hospital...this made us google more.  If you haven't figured it out we really had NO idea as to what we were doing!  After googling and still being unsure we had a brilliant idea to call labor & delivery.  Thankfully they told us to come on into the hospital.  By the time we got dressed and gathered everything we needed we made it to the hospital around 5 a.m. At this time I was at 4...so progress was made from my doctors appointment a little over 12 hours earlier!!!  They decided that I could stay :)  By the time I got to the room I would deliver the baby in it was about 6:00 - 6:30.  At about 8 a.m. I decided that I wanted to get my epidural, .not really sure why I decided not to get it right away at 6:30 when they asked me the first time but better late than never. The epidural was amazing...it turned me into a happy person that was excited about having a baby instead of the person that just wanted to get this baby out of me that very second!

Around this time the nurse came in and told me that I had to lay on my side because the baby's heart rate kept going lower than they wanted and that this should bring it back up.  Which it did for awhile, then it would go low again and the nurse would come in and rotate me to my other side.  If I didn't feel like a beached whale before I did at those times,  it took 2 people to turn me since I no longer had feeling in my legs.  After a few hours of watching the game show network and many times being rotated the baby's heart rate went really low and wasn't coming back up.  Within a very short amount of time there were what seemed to be 100 people in my room, it was probably closer to 10.  They decided that they were going to do an emergency c-section.  So all the machines were unhooked and I was wheeled down the hall where about 10 more people waited for me.  Mind you all of this happened in about 5 minutes, so I really don't know what was going through my mind.  Josiah on the other hand was FREAKING OUT!  Once they hooked up the machines again they found that the baby's heart rate went back up.  So they checked me again and I was at 9...so close to being able to push!!  The doctors decided to give me & the baby a second chance to do this the "natural" way but if the baby's heart rate went down again they were going to have to do a c-section. When I got back into the room Josiah told me that this baby was already giving him grey hair!  

A couple of hours later, I think!  Keeping track of time wasn't my main priority, I just know it was around 5 p.m. I was talking to Josiah and told him that I felt like it was time to push and literally within 5 minutes the doctor and nurse came in to tell me it was time.  So they got everything ready to have the baby.  6 pushes and about 15 minutes later our sweet baby boy was welcomed into the world!!


I know I left out a lot of details because it has taken me about 3 weeks to finish writing this but a good majority of the events made it in this post.