Happy Birthday Bubba!

Although I’m confident that anyone who reads this blog knows just how wonderful of an addition we think our little guy is, I can’t help but to start this huge milestone off with the fact that we are beyond thankful for him. He has been a constant source of smiles and laughter and there really aren’t enough words to express how lucky we feel to have him in our lives. He has added so much joy and happiness to each and every day and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead for our growing family.

His birthday party was an absolute blast and went off without a hitch. A big thanks to all the wonderful family and friends who helped make it such a memorable day for our monkey. I had originally planned an elaborate meal, but decided last minute that a menu of pizza, jello jigglers, chex mix, white chocolate popcorn, cupcakes, and a cake for Jaiden sounded not only better, but so much easier. Who doesn’t like pizza and cake?! Jaiden ate far too much jello, as his messy diapers matched the neon colors of the jello for days to come, but trust me, he enjoyed every last piece. We ate food, opened gifts, and then let him go to town on his cake. He was thrilled that he had the entire cake to himself and would take a glace at us between bites to make sure he was really being allowed to do this. After a few minutes of devouring the cake, you could tell that he had definitely had enough and that he'd hit his sugar limit. He was continuing to shovel cake in his mouth, but started spitting out every bit just as quickly as it was going in. Poor dude. I thought he'd be on a sugar high after the party, but instead he went into a sugar comatose and slept for a couple hours!


There were lots of people taking pictures there and I can’t wait to see what moments everyone else captured. Jaiden was beyond spoiled on his birthday and is thrilled to have so many new and exciting toys to play with. Thank you so much to everyone who came and helped us celebrate our baby turning ONE!

Check back next week for an update on Jaiden's SECOND Christmas, a new video we took of him yesterday, and a blog post from Daddy! We've decided that each birthday we're each going to write a letter to our kids and save them for something special down the road. I'm pretty sure we'll share parts of the first one with you all :) It's hard to believe this is already Christmas number 2 for him... although he was only 6 days old last time around, so I'm not sure if that really counts or not. As for the video, trust me when I say you're not going to want to miss it. Jaiden has three dance moves that we've finally captured on video... 1)the slow dance 2)the hip-hop dance 3)and lastly the romance dance. HA! Just wait :)

Halfway!

I guess I can technically say that I’m over the halfway point now. I’m 99% sure that I’m going to go for the planned C-Section route this time around, and that will be done right around 39 weeks (approximately April 20ish). I’m really hoping that the Dr who did my C-Section last time around will be able to do this one as well, even though I do realize that Makenna may have her own plans for her arrival date. All the Drs have done their part in telling me that I am a great candidate for a VBAC, but with everything I went through last time... being able to show up on a scheduled date, no awful laboring, getting prepped for surgery, and laying my eyes on our baby girl 10 minutes into surgery sounds pretty fabulous to me. I do have to admit I’m absolutely scared out of my mind that the epidural either a)won’t work or b)stops working in the middle of surgery... but all the Doctors are doing their absolute best to reassure me that the chances of that are slim to none. I’m excited to be able to meet this little one as she’s born, instead of waking up when she’s already 2-3 hours old! I still feel like I missed out on so much in Jaiden’s first couple hours. I don’t think I ever posted a picture of Kevin holding Jaiden up to me as I was out of it, but it still makes me a little sad. That being said, last delivery was so traumatic and scary, that I love the idea of it being “easy”. Yes, recovery is a little rougher with a c-section, but I’ll take it at this point.

We had our 20 week appointment today along with an ultrasound and I’m thrilled to be able to say that we have one healthy little buggy on our hands... AND my sister deserves an A+! She was right, it’s definitely a GIRL! Everything measured perfectly, all her organs are working hard and functioning great, and she’s super active! It still amazes me how much information Doctors walk away with about the little babes after an ultrasound. The way they can see all the chambers in heart, measure brain, rule out clef palate & lip, count fingers and toes, measure fluids, etc is baffling to me. Makenna was being a little modest in the beginning and not allowing us to really get a good look. The tech went on to start looking at all her anatomy, and said she’d come back to the gender. Makenna eventually came around and gave us a little show, just in time too I might add, because I was starting to mistake the cord for a penis. Don’t get me wrong, I swear I’d be happy either way, but I couldn’t help but think about the massive amount of stuff accumulating in the new nursery and how long it would take to do all the returns. We’re thrilled to be having a girl this time around. Not going to lie Kevin is a little scared, but still very happy none-the-less. After being around Jaiden and Kev for 5 minutes you can tell how much of a bond they have. I guarantee this little girl will be no different; completely wrapped around her Daddy’s finger from the minute he lays eyes on her.

One quick story and then I’m calling it a night. The other day I had absolutely the most awful photography idea. I thought it would be really cute to have Jaiden eating a massive holiday lollipop out in the snow for our Christmas card. Holy cow, was I wrong about this. Don’t try this. I promise you it will end badly. I even thought I would give it a shot inside... wrong again. Long story short—everything was sticky, we had newly colored carpet for a good couple days, and a little boy with a massive tantrum. The lollipop ended up stuck to the carpet so Jaiden decided that he'd just lay on top of it and continue to lick away. Needless to say, it was a mess. I’ve posted a few pictures I somehow managed to get before everything went downhill. It’s hard to imagine that my baby will be one soon! I’ll be sure to upload lots of pictures from his party. I can’t wait to see what he does with his cake... although I have a pretty good idea :) We are getting family pictures done this weekend so I'm sure I'll be bombarding you all with lots of pictures in the next few weeks :)





We didn't get very good pictures of Makenna during the ultrasound. She was cuddled up facing my back so profiles and pictures of her face just didn't happen. I posted a few just because they're still fun to look at. There's also a new belly picture. I'm carrying this little girl so differently then Jaiden. Jaiden was a little lower and throughout my belly, she is right out in front and center. I'm so much bigger at this point than I was with Jaid too. I'm get nervous thinking about how big I'll be a few months from now...