Growing Up Before Our Eyes

Our daughter is growing up WAY to fast for me. She hit 2 years old and I'm not sure what happened... she's growing and evolving at such a rapid rate. She's a fast learner too. She tends to watch what we're doing and then turns around and does it! She had trouble getting her bike to go for a couple days and then one day while I'm outside I see this...

The second video isn't too interesting. I was taping from the window in our bedroom and I thought it gave good perspective on her speed. At the very end you can hear her say "help, help" because she got stuck where the hose was. A few seconds later she made it over and was on her way around again.

She knows her ABC's. Let me translate for you. A B C D E eh chay H I J gay N O P Q R S e to me douvle X Y knee Z, yay! The best part I think are the lovely little circles she's drawing on her magnadoodle.

Before I started taping, Shyla was just chattering away to me. The funny part is, she wasn't looking at me while she chatted. She was facing me but her eyes were on the TV. At one point she was talking, shaking her head, and talking with her hands, but her eyes would look to the sides... it was pretty comical. This video doesn't fully capture the essense of the conversation but it'll do. Oh, and at the end you can hear her tell daddy "just a minute"... which is a new favorite saying.

Last video I promise. This one I like because of how Shyla is holding her other fingers down in order to put up 2 fingers.

What a doll my baby is!

The Pedi Cure

What better way to recover from a stressful day than with a pediCURE? The cure-all for any problem. Shyla has been such a trooper with this whole new "having a baby brother" thing that I wanted to do something nice for/with her, something special. I gave her a pedicure!

It started out that I was just going to paint her toenails (Or as she likes to call them "fingatails". To her fingernails and toenails are the same thing) and it turned into a whole "session". We went into the bathroom where I clipped her toenails and filed them where needed. Then I washed her feet with yummy smelling soap. After drying them off I massaged in yummy smelling lotion. She went into "mommy's cabinet" and picked out a color of polish. We went back downstairs and I painted her toes. While the polish was drying I put on Shrek (one of her favorite movies at the moment) and had her laying back on a cushy beanbag chair with her feet up.

What a hard life this girl has, huh?

Father's Day

I would like to say that we did something super fun and exciting for Father's Day, however, having just had a baby a couple weeks ago, coupled with the fact that we're all sick... not much was able to be done.

Jake had a class to teach in Primary but none of us were well enough to go to church. I don't think anyone would want to hear us hacking, coughing, and sneezing, even if we were sitting in the back. I had to go to the store to pick up some cough drops, cough medicine, and more cold medicine. While there I bought a little gift for Jake (a fogfree mirror to install in the shower), a little something to make for dinner, and brownies (that I made) and ice cream to put on top for dessert... Y U M!

While it wasn't the ideal way to celebrate, it was all we could do and that's ok. Hopefully next year no one will be sick.

Jacob's First Bath

There isn't much to tell about Jacob's first bath. It went as well as any baby's first bath. We had to wait until both his bellybutton stubby and his circumcision ring thingy fell off before he could have a bath. Today was the day! He screamed when we took his diaper off, he screamed when we put him in the bath, he screamed when we washed him, and he screamed when we dried him off. Pretty typical I'd say. While Jacob was having his bath, we wanted to kill 2 birds with 1 stone so we gave Shyla a bath in the big bath tub at the same time.

When we dried off Jacob we were also drying off Shyla. She wanted to be in the pictures I was taking, however she wouldn't put any clothes on for the occasion.

When she eventually went in her room to get dressed, I got a couple shots of Jacob in his bathrobe.

Isn't he just precious?!

2 Week Checkup

Jacob had his 2 week checkup today, even though he'll be 3 weeks old on Monday. We took him to a new doctor that I was referred to from a friend. Shyla doesn't have to go back until she's 3, but I'm going to change her to this doctor. He's MUCH more people friendly than the other doctor and that is a trait I look for in my doctor choices. This new doctor takes time to answer your questions and doesn't rush through the appointment.

He now weighs 6lbs, 8.6oz and is 19 1/2" long. I don't completely trust the way the nurses measure a baby's length. She has me lay Jacob on the table, she puts a mark on the paper by his head and then has me stretch him out and then she puts a mark on the paper by his foot. She measures the 2 marks. Problem is I had to point out that he moved while she was marking the paper. Her response? "Oh, oops." And then she puts another mark. I'd rather just measure him at home and tell the doctor how long he is.

He's in the 4% for weight so we have to go back in a week and a half for a weight check just to make sure he's growing properly. We had to go to several weight checks for Shyla so I know the routine. He's in the 8% for length, though we know how I feel about that.

The doctor said everything was looking good but he does have a little congestion in his chest. Shyla got sick last week and still has a cough and runny nose. After she first got sick, I got sick, then Jacob started to sneeze a lot, and this morning Jake said he's not feeling well either. I'm not used to having everyone in the house sick at the same time, though I know with kids we have to get used to it.

I'm not sure when, but he mentioned he wanted to have his birthmark checked out. Nothing to worry about, he just wants to make a note of it and that way they can monitor it in case it ever starts to change size/shape/color/etc.

No shots until his 2 month appointment!

4 Year Anniversary

Today was our 4 year anniversary! We've accomplished so much and gone though some really drastic highs and lows in the last 4 years. We've bought our first house, bought our second house, added 2 dogs to our family, had 2 children, Jake became a sworn officer for Concord Police Department, we started our own business, and everything in between!

For our anniversary my parents watched the kids and Jake and I went out to eat dinner at El Torito at the San Leandro marina. I love it out there. The scenery is so peaceful. You can walk around and watch the sunset and you can see the planes at the Oakland airport taking off and landing. After dinner we caught the tailend of the sun setting. It was too cold to talk a walk and we forgot jackets so we stayed in the car for a bit and watched the planes at the airport.

We want to go back soon and take Shyla to the park there and also take some pictures of the water, birds, and planes. It'll make for some nice pictures.

I love my husband so much and I wouldn't change any of the craziness we've gone through these past few years. I look forward to many more crazy years!

Happy "Birthday" Jacob

Today was Jacob's due date. These past couple weeks he's been growing and gaining back his birth weight. He has his first official checkup with the pediatrician on Friday, so he will tell us if he's gained his birth weight back.

No big milestones to report other than his bellybutton stubby finally fell off today. Now we can give him his first bath!

Jacob is a really good sleeper and doesn't complain unless he's being changed. He wakes at night every couple hours to eat and then goes back to sleep. During the day I have to wake him usually to eat since he always wants to sleep. I love that he sleeps a lot, but when you have to wake him up all the time it's a little challenging.

Shyla continues to enjoy his company. When Jacob is getting a diaper change Shyla likes to get her dolly and give her a diaper change too. She's a really big helper!

Jacob Daniel Bess

Warning: We had a long day, so this is a long post, but totally worth the read!

Here's how our day started off: Jake had been super busy last week (and for a couple weeks prior) so he decided to take Monday off to spend with the family. We were going to go cherry picking out in Brentwood and then Jake was going to BBQ dinner. So off to Brentwood we go a-cherry-pickin'.

We went with the intention of just picking cherries, but decided to throw in some berries along the way. We picked Olalaberries, Loganberries, and Blackberries. Then we moved on to the cherry orchard.

The first type of tree we stopped at turned out to be our favorite one. I thought I was going to like Bing cherries the best, but it turns out I like jubilee cherries much better. The fun part about picking cherries is you get to eat them as you pick them!

We had lots of fun spending time together. Shyla was a wonderful help! (I don't look like I'm going to deliver a baby later on, do I?)

After this we decided to head home for some lunch and naps. I was feeling tired, but nothing more than usual. Before laying down we took some 38 week pregnancy pictures. I wanted to take them "just in case" and I'm GLAD we did. A few hours after taking the pictures... we got to meet our son.

After taking pictures, we ate some lunch and layed down for a nap. A little later Jake went downstairs but I stayed in bed sleeping. When I woke up, here's how it all went down:

6:00pm I woke up and was feeling contractions. They weren't too strong and since I had Braxton Hicks contractions since I was 4 months pregnant I figured it was just those getting stronger, which is what happens as the pregnancy gets closer to the end.

7:00pm I went downstairs and told Jake that I wasn't feeling too well and that the contractions we getting stronger and that it's possible I was in labor. Jake got out the paper and started writing down the time of each contration.

7:20ish Called Labor and Delivery and asked what we should do. At this point the contrations were 6-12 minutes apart. Actually, they were only 12 minutes apart once and after that they were averaging about 4-7 minutes apart. I was instructed to drink water and rest and if the contractions don't let up to call them back and go to the hospital. Since I didn't think it was actually labor, I took their advice and drank the water.

(All the while Jake had been BBQing chicken for dinner, yum! He wanted to eat dinner and see how I felt after that. During one contraction I looked at him and said we weren't going to be eating dinner and should probably just go to the hospital.)

7:50pm Called Labor and Delivery back and said we're coming in. We called ours friends who were going to be watching Shyla while we were in the hospital and said we were bringing her over. We had just notified them a short while before that I might be in labor so stand by. Jake and I had only enough time to make sure we had all that we needed, pack up Shyla's stuff, make sure the dogs had food, closed up the house, and left. We dropped off Shyla and headed to the hospital.

9:00pm We arrive at the hospital and park in Stork parking. We never received our stork pass since our doctor appointment was the next day. We didn't know how long it would be until Jake could move our car so we looked for paper to put in the window. No paper, but we did have a MAG-NA-DOO-DLE! We put a note in the windshield and took off. As we're walking up to the hospital Jake says he's going to get a wheelchair. Me, being me, said I didn't need one. CONTRACTION! Yeah, I needed one. Off we go. Whoever designed the hospital didn't do a good job. They put Labor & Delivery on the 3rd floor ALLLL the way at the other end of the floor from where the elevators are... hello? Pregnant women in labor can't walk that far!

9:10pm We are checked into Triage and I'm already at 8cm! Here I am being wheeled into the delivery room, 8cm dilated and smiling???

9:37pm The doctor breaks my water. This part is important. When I was in labor with Shyla I didn't wake up until my water broke. Then everything got really painful. However, her head was wedged in my cervix so the water didn't actually come out right away. When it did finally come out... the rest went by VERY fast (and PAINful!). Back to this labor, I was told that once my water was broken I could push with the next contraction and the baby was going to come fast. And he did... 6 minutes later to be exact. Had my water broken any other time other than in the hospital, there would've been a SLIM chance we'd have made it there in time.

9:38pm Pushing begins and 6 minutes later...

9:44pm Jacob Daniel Bess Jr. arrives! He weighed in at 6lbs, 4.7oz. His length was 19 1/4".

While I was holding Jacob immediately after delivery there were lots of things I was feeling: pain, lidocane shots, a cold IV, blood pressure cuff, and the little guy peeing on my arm twice! I know it won't be the last time it happens.

Interesting story about the next picture. You're probably wondering why I have included a picture of the bathroom in my room. With in an hour after delivery I wanted to take a shower. I asked when it was OK and the nurse told me I could take one at that time. I took my shower and as I got out I started to get lightheaded. There are 2 cords in the bathroom that you can pull when you need someone but I couldn't see straight at the time to pull one of them. I knew I was going to pass out so I reached for my towel but it was happening so fast that as I passed out I hit my face on the partition between the shower and the sink. (It's been a week now and my brow bone and cheek bone still hurt, though the black eye is better.) As I hit the floor I hit the garbage can under the sink and that made a loud noise that signaled everyone still in the room to come in to see what happened. Everyone that was there for the delivery came rushing in to help me. Leave it to me to "go out with a bang".

My blood count had to be done to make sure I hadn't lost too much blood during delivery and the nurse that did it left me with a HUGE bruise on my arm. I'll spare you the picture but 7 days later there is still a 4" long bruise on my arm! I don't bruise when blood is drawn but I guess this nurse was "talented" enough to make it happen. Jake cutting the cord.

Tipping the scales at 6lb, 4.7oz.

All cleaned up.

My parents had been put on alert when I woke up from my nap so they had an idea of what was going to happen that night. They came out to meet little Jacob.

Shyla meeting her new baby brother. She can say his name really well. She's a proud big sister and I know she will be a great help at home.

Our celebration dinner the hospital gives to the parents for new arrivals.

First family photo.

Ready to go home!

And with that our day was over as fast as it began. It's funny to think back to 6 days ago and how everything happened. I don't think we could've had better timing getting to the hospital.

I'm excited for this next phase of our family. I enjoy getting to see how loving Shyla is towards her brother. She loves to hug and kiss him all the time and always wants to hold him. We include Shyla in everything we have to do with Jacob and she loves getting to be a part of it.

Welcome to the family Jacob!