Proud Big Brothers

Alex and Max are awfully proud of their baby sister!  Alex is old enough to help a bit, to hold her on his own (under supervision), and to BEG to hold her all day long!

Max loves to look at her, pat her head, and (unfortunately) poke his baby sister in the eye!  He head-butted Jensyn once on the day she came home, but since then, he’s been a lot calmer.

  

(Why, oh why, did I have Erica cut off these beautiful curls last week?  I should have just had her trim the front…Oh, how I miss those curls!)

Visitors…

Grandma & Grandpa S were the first ones to visit Jensyn.

 

Grandma & Papa P came up a little later with Alex and Max.

 

Alex had told me a few weeks earlier that he wanted to bring a balloon to his baby sister.  Grandma & Papa helped him pick a balloon in the gift shop, and Max brought up a pink teddy bear that says, “My Baby Sister”.

The boys meeting Jensyn…

 

I love the grin on Max’s face!

Grandma P with Alex and his balloon

 

The boys getting their big brother presents…

Alex got a Mack the Truck, which he’s been begging me to get him for months.  He’s played with it almost non-stop ever since!

Max got a little battery-operated dump truck.

 

Aunt Donna, Aunt Deb, and Emma came up later that evening.

Cousin Danny & Ali, with their little girl Cailin, came up the next night.  (Somewhere in there, our pastor visited, too, but I don’t have a picture…)

Nana, Kari, and Melissa came to visit us at home.

Kevin & Annie’s family came up on Sunday – when the weather was beautiful!

All 5 cousins on the P side

 

Uncle Dave & Aunt Janice’s family

 

Grandpa S came on Saturday night, and then he came back the following Saturday to “retrieve” Grandma S!

We also had a few other friend and family visits, but I got a little lazy with the camera! :)

We still have 2 uncles, 1 aunt, and 6 cousins who haven’t met Jensyn yet.  Most will get a chance to meet her on Easter, and we can’t wait!

Welcome, Jensyn!

Jensyn’s name means “Gracious Gift of God”, and she most certainly is!  We are so blessed to have this sweet baby girl in our family! 

I haven’t posted her birth story yet, so here goes…

After having two babies born a week after their due date, we really had no hopes for Jensyn to arrive early…or even on time.  We just assumed that, once again, we’d have a baby a week after the due date.  Jensyn had other ideas, and she almost arrived on her due date! 

It was a busy Sunday (as usual) – Keith headed up to church early to practice the drums, the boys and I came for nursery/Sunday School, I taught my kindergarten Sunday School class, then served in the church nursery, then we attended a wedding reception after our church service.  When we got home, the boys ran around in the yard while I watched them and Keith did a little yard work.  We all came in for naps – yes, even Mama & Daddy!  After that, I made dinner and we took a walk as a family.

I was starting to wonder throughout the day if Jensyn might decide to come in the next couple of days.  When we took our walk, I was pretty confident she would probably be coming in the next day or so.

We bathed the kids and got them to bed, then I took a nice, long shower.  And THEN I told Keith that he might as well not plan on going to work the next day.  (And then, I started a load of laundry, did some straightening around the house, and did anything else to stay on my feet and get things going…)

Through all of this, our usual “good-little-go-to-bedders” weren’t so good.  They were giggling and partying in their bedroom until 10 PM!

Keith called his parents to stay with the boys, and he and I left for the hospital at around 10:45 PM, I think.  I called the midwife on the way.  We got there, and Keith helped me into the ER…where I leaned against the counter and clung to it for dear life while waiting for the ER to argue with the nurse on the phone about whose responsibility it was to get me a wheelchair and bring me upstairs.  Um, hello?!  I’ll push myself up if you don’t make up your minds SOON!

Long story, much-shortened version:

I so much prefer having a midwife to having a doctor.  The whole experience is much more relaxed, more natural, just more mommy and baby friendly.  If only I’d had the courage to do that with Alex – because I much prefer the delivery and recovery stories for Max and Jensyn! 

It did make me nervous, though, when Cheri left *all* the decision-making to me.  She wouldn’t even share her opinion.  Towards the end, I was a little frantic for someone to just tell me what I needed to do! (Just ask Keith…)0.0 

We got upstairs, I got in a gown and spent a little time in bed.  They put in an IV for antibiotics – which is useless, as there’s not enough time to get in 2 bags before the baby’s born.  It means a 48 hour hospital stay, and I am definitely not a hospital-lover!

After a while, I tried the birthing ball and then had the amazing treat of using the jacuzzi tub in the room.  Oh, that makes such a big difference!  It dulls the pain and makes things much more manageable!

Eventually, I headed back to the bed, endured it as long as I could, and then Cheri offered to break my water if I wanted her to.  She did, and after about 2 minutes of NOTHING, suddenly there was no turning back…no chance of pain meds or epidural…and within about 10 minutes, we were meeting our baby girl! 

Those were the most agonizing ten minutes ever, and the thought that got me through was “I never, ever have to do this again. All I have to do is get this baby out and I’m done forever!”

Jensyn arrived at 3:28 AM, weighing 6 lbs, 14 oz, and 19 inches long.  She’s the biggest of our three babies, but only by one ounce. 

I had the privilege of cutting her cord.  It’s really nothing all that special, but it was kind of neat to say that I did it.

Keith got teary-eyed, as usual.  I just held that little baby close for a few minutes, enjoying our first snuggle.  I love getting to hold my babies before they’re cleaned up.  It’s so special being the first one to snuggle a new little one!

First thoughts are that she looked a lot like Alex, with Max’s hair.  She caught on to nursing really easily, although she was so sleepy that she didn’t nurse much in the first 24 hours.   She’s been a fairly easy baby so far, and we’re grateful!

Welcome, little Jensyn Kate!  We’re so glad that God has blessed our family with you!

Tot School – 39 Months (April Showers & Baby Sisters)

Tot School…almost non-existent this week!

Life School…lots of lessons about life with a new baby sister in the house!

We did spend a little time one day working on our April Showers tot pack.  (Click here if you’d like to see/download this pack of April activities.)

Alex put together a few of the 4-piece puzzles.

We played the flower game.

Alex circled the picture that was different.  It’s the first time we’ve tried this kind of activity, and he needed a little help to catch on.

Max tried out his sticker-peeling skills by taking our completed pages and covering them with stickers ;)

Stories were read…

        

Lots of love and attention for baby Jensyn…

And that’s it for us this week!  We hope to finish April Showers tot pack next week, and also do our Easter Mini-Pack.   (These were made for Alex, but are downloadable here for free, too…) That might be pushing it a bit with a new baby in the house, but we’ll see what we can do :)

Have a great week!