The baby has arrived + snow!

I know it has been a few weeks since the last post but we have been very busy here. First a picture I snapped on my way out the door ...

GOOSE and DUCK CROSSING...

Yup, that's what you see. It is one of the things about where we live that cracks me up. We have to stop, often for the animals to cross the road. Sometimes they take their time doing it too. I was able to snap a photo of them crossing at the beginning of January because they were taking their time. It made me laugh, so I thought I'd share it with you all.

Most exciting:

Announcing JASPER MICHAEL MCFADDEN (We call him Jas {like Jazz} for short)

Jasper was born on January 28th at 12:24 pm. He was 7 lbs 10 oz and 20.2 inches long.

We are so excited to have him here. Of course, the humor of it all... this entire pregnancy I've joked that I'd go into labor and have the baby the one time that it snows here... and low and behold we drove to the hospital in flurries of snow... and then watched out the window as inch upon inch fell. On the first day at the hospital there was 4 to 5 inches that dropped. Jasper didn't arrive that day as we'd thought but they kept us in the hospital because of the weather. The next morning the Dr's decided to break my water (9:10am) and as you can see from his arrival time, it didn't take much after that for him to arrive.

(video of the kids meeting Jasper for the first time.)

My mother was able to come out and help with the kids. (THANKS SO MUCH !!) It was so great to have her here and a huge relief... especially since the children were put on a snow day for both the 27th and 28th. I'm glad that she was here for them. Jeramis brought them all up to the hospital on Thursday to see me and Jasper. They were so funny. They just loved looking at him and touching him. Jade kept giggling about the noises that he made and she and Jordan were immediately smitten with him. We are so lucky to have such loving children!

They kept us in the hospital until mid-day on Friday. The recovery went a little slower this round but having my mother and Jeramis both here after the arrival made things so much easier. We enjoy having time with the baby while the kids are off at school and when they came home all the want to do is hold Jas. It is really nice to have so many hands! Jeramis takes him whenever he can. The support is so great. I don't have to ask for help as there are eager arms here to hold him and cuddle him!

With Jas's arrival so late in January, February feels like a blur. We spent a lot of time around the house just adjusting to having a new baby and his needs. Jeramis also spent time studying for a test he had to take.

At his 2 week check up Jas was already 8 lbs 4 oz. and 21.5 inches long. He's growing well and eating well.

At 3 weeks his eyes have finally started to clear a bit and it looks like he's going to have blue eyes, like the other two. We're still not 100% sure but they look like they are going to stick. As for his hair... that's another debate. Right now it is still brown and has a slight curl but it is starting to thin out and we aren't sure if it will fall out like Jordan and Jade's hair did.

At 4 weeks we've noticed a change in him. He's definitely chunking up some. He's also loosing his hair. We call it his premature balding :) HAH. He's more alert during the day but he still isn't sleeping well at night. He likes to be held and so he fights sleep at night mostly, we think, because he isn't in some one's arms. (Yes, he is already spoiled) We've decided to get a swing to help our sanity some.

A few amusing things. Before birth Jas always got the hiccups at night, around 7 or 8pm and they'd usually last until 9 or 10. He still gets them pretty much every night. Of course now we can hear them and not just feel them. The kids think that's pretty funny, especially since I use to let them feel him hiccuping inside me and now they get to hold him while he hiccups. He was also usually most active around 10 am and 8-10 pm and those seem to be his most active and awake times now too. He also likes to hold on to fingers. He will grip on with his "death" grip to anyone that cares to share a finger and sometimes you have to pry his little hands off you in order to get up. This typically brings about some serious laughter on the part of the kids. Jas is also starting to give little smiles when you talk to him. He doesn't always look at people but when he recognizes your face and voice he'll stare intently and crack a grin now and then. We're looking forward to him smiling more. He is also a very noisy little eater and sleeper. He makes little squeaks and grunts and even little snores. Eating is extremely loud and filled with smacks and sucking noises and content little grunts.

We could share a bunch of fun little stories but they probably seem more amusing to us so we'll keep this simple.

Another fun event that has happened is that we've had our 2nd big snow storm. Yesterday afternoon the snow started falling around 3pm. By evening we had maybe an inch or two on the ground and we woke up this morning to close to 9 inches. It's been snowing off and on during the day but I don't think we've added much more to the measurement. The kids have just loved it. We went out and made a snow man and some snow angels. We also walked down to the beach and checked out the water. The sun is out now but the temp's are still in the 20's and with the wind it feels like the teens, if not lower. We're suppose to be cold all through tomorrow as well. The kids got another snow day today and we're waiting to find out if they'll go in tomorrow or not. (Jeramis was off too.)

We look forward to a lovely March and will be back soon to share our adventures and more photos.

XO

Kristi