It’s a Boy!

Hello, everyone!

As you all probably know by now, our baby was born on January 10 at 9:29am at Saint Alphonsus hospital.  Dylan Jack Jenkins was 7lb 14oz & 20.5 inches long at birth. 

And what an experience it was…David took me to the hospital close to midnight on the 9th after I noticed a trickle of amniotic fluid, and then my water broke at the hospital at 1:00am just when we thought they were going to send us back home.  Of course, after that, the on-call doctor announced we wouldn’t be leaving the hospital without a baby! :)

So the natural child labor began…and once again, I had no epidural option since my platelet count was so low.  After 8 hours of breathing through contractions (five hours that were particularly intense), the doctor announced that I would not be able to deliver Dylan naturally as planned but that I would need a cesarean since he was in the Frank Breech position.  Later, she announced that our son has “buns of steel” since he fooled two doctors & a nurse into believing he was head down! 

I had to have a platelet transfusion & later antibiotics from the cesarean incision, and I was in the hospital for four nights.  But we made it through, and now we have a beautiful baby boy! 

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Ariel was so delighted to see her new baby brother.  Her face just lit up when Grama & Grampa brought her into the hospital room to see us.  She’s been such a great big sister—helping throw diapers away, burping the baby, getting clothing & blankets & showing lots of love to her new brother.

So far Dylan is much calmer than Ariel was as a baby.  He is feeding & sleeping like a champ.  We are quite pleased, though we’re still adjusting to life with two kids.  It’s a big change!

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We’re so lucky to have so much help from the grandparents  & other family members, as well as lots of friends. 

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In other news, Ariel has mastered potty-training during the day!  She figured it out just in the nick of time before Dylan was born, and she’s been keeping up with it despite the major change to her life.  We’re still working on night time accidents, but that will come in time.  We’re so proud of her!

That’s about all our news for now.  We’ll continue to update the blog with major milestones as we find time---which is a bit more difficult these days. 

Love to you all!

Tammy, David, Ariel & Dylan

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Video of Dylan available here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqOMCIUPsM4

Holidays & Celebrations

Hi, everyone!

I wrote this blog about 3 weeks ago, and David has finally had a chance to add the photos…so even though it’s old news, we’re going to go ahead & post it to catch you all up with what’s been happening.  We’ll get a newer blog out as soon as we can regarding news of the new baby!

Here’s the old news as written three weeks ago:  I am now 36 weeks pregnant!  Only 4 more weeks to go—though we all know that ultimately the baby will decide his or her birthday, so it could be sooner…or even later than that.  Let’s hope for sooner because I don’t think I can carry this weight around for much longer!

Ariel is doing great!  Her vocabulary is growing every day, and she asks a lot of questions.  She’s working on potty-training, but we still have a ways to go with that milestone. 

David is officially out of the Army.  We had a surprise party for him to celebrate at the beginning of November at his grandparents’ house in Mountain Home.  It was a lot of fun!

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We had three Thanksgiving celebrations this year—one with my family, one very casual one at our house with Janeen, and one with David’s family in Mountain Home.  I made apple pies again, though it was tough this year as I didn’t have David’s help since he was busy at work & I had to do it all sitting down, as this baby is taking all my energy!  Ariel had a good time helping to “cook,” setting up the Christmas tree at Grama & Grampa’s house, & she also enjoyed playing with her cousins, Chantal & Jordan.  Here are a few photos from the various Turkey Days:

 

I had my baby shower the first weekend in December, and that was great!  It was nice having family & friends together to focus on this new baby since I’ve been so busy with Ariel & the holidays.  Ariel spent the afternoon with Daddy, but she got a few presents later for her new upcoming role as big sister.   Here are some photos from the shower:

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We mentioned in the last blog that we got a new tree for the baby like we did for Ariel.  Here is the first photo in the “tree series” representing the new baby:

We took Ariel to the mall to see Santa, and she was still skeptical to sit on his lap alone, so we did another family shot this year.  She had more fun running around looking at the Christmas decorations. 

We got our Christmas tree the first week of December, and Ariel liked helping with that quite a bit.  She thought the nativity set was a new toy for her & continuously moved the characters around the house for the whole month!  Here are some photos:

I completed my second newsletter for the Idaho Moms’ Network in December as well, and we also attended the Christmas party with the network.  Spouses were included, so David was able to meet some of the members & their families too.  The kids had a ton of fun wrestling with him—so much that his sweater got torn!  And Ariel loved seeing Santa since this one gave out gifts!  She actually sat on his lap alone!  And to think this photo was free!

We had our IMN playgroup Christmas party a week later, and Ariel loved playing with all the kids in our group & they got to exchange gifts from the dollar store too.  She was happy to get a big coloring book.

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I turned the big 3-0 on December 18, and David took me out to one of my favorite restaurants, Flatbread Pizza, and to the Boise Contemporary Theatre, where we saw “Tru,” a one-man play about Truman Capote.  The actor was exceptional!  We had a great evening, while Ariel stayed at Grama & Grampa’s house working on art projects & playing with her toys.

The next day, we had my family over for another birthday celebration.  Since David & my birthdays are only 10 days apart, we celebrated David’s b-day too.  Here are some photos:

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We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve with my family.  It was nice having the family together.  Ariel enjoyed helping to bake the pumpkin bread…and of course—presents!

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We had our little family Christmas the next day, and then Sunday, we went to Laurice & John’s in Mountain Home (David’s grandparents).  Ariel loved playing with Jordan & opening more presents.  Here are a few photos:

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Both sets of my parents (Ginny & Alan, Jim & Bert) celebrated their wedding anniversaries in December too.  It was the 25th anniversary for Moma & Alan, and they went to Las Vegas to celebrate. 

David turned 29 on December 28—one more year in his 20’s!  We had a pretty casual celebration since no babysitter was available on a Tuesday.  Here’s a photo:

New Years Eve wasn’t too eventful for us considering how far along I am, but it was nice just relaxing at home.  David had New Years Day off for the first time in three years, so it was great to be able to stay up late to ring in the new year. 

Then we did another birthday combination for David & I with his family at his mom’s house Jan 2.  Here are some photos:

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Hope everyone had happy holidays & a wonderful new year!  Happy New Year to everyone!  We are excited to welcome our new baby into our family this month, so we’ll keep you all posted on whether it’s a boy or a girl & all the other details in the next blog! 

Love to you all!

Tammy, David, & Ariel

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