A VERY Long Family Update...

I have gotten SO much grief about not blogging that I thought I should take some time out to update everyone this weekend. I've gotten emails and phone calls both, so all of you "complainers" better leave lots of comments!

On January 20th, 2009 at 12:42PM, we welcomed Jilian Cate Rogers into the "J-Rogers" family. She came into this world at 6lbs. 6oz. and she was 19.6 inches long. Just two weeks prior, the sonogram showed her to weigh 6lbs. 5oz., so obviously that was not right! (The picture above is the most recent as of a few days ago.) Jilian weighed exactly what her brother Jacoby weighed. Jacoby was 15 days early, and she was only 5 days early.
With this being my 3rd baby, it took Dr. Spurdon a bit longer to get her out because of the scar tissue. There was a lot of tugging & pulling, and I remember telling her during this time that "My insurance approved lipo!" which got a roar of laughter from everyone in the operating room. After a few minutes, Jilian was out and of course, a loud cry followed. This brought tears to my eyes, and my husband's lips to mine. He was very excited as was I! He immediately got up - already knowing the drill - and went over to her to watch them weigh her, cut her umbilical cord, etc. Then they brought her over to me, and I kissed her a million times. After making sure that she was alright, Dr. Spurdon asked me 54 times if I was sure I wanted a tubal...tough decision, but it was time. Three kiddos is plenty! So 20 minutes later, my baby-making factory shut down. I had mixed feelings about this at the time, but after being home for a week, it was a GREAT decision!

Jilian has changed daily since we arrived home on Thursday, the 22nd. (Yes, even after a c-section I was able to leave after only 2 nights at the hospital. They call me "Supergirl" and all of the nurses loved me and remembered me from my last delivery.) She is developing a cute little face, and no longer looks like the swollen newborn alien. Clothes that didn't fit her last week already fit her this week. She is doing really well at home. The only weird part about having a girl has been the diaper changing. You know, all of the "front to back" action as not to irritate her. ...and let me tell ya she HATES to be changed! She bawls until that fresh diaper is on. She wakes up the second #2 touches her backside. I've got a hoity-doity one on my hands already. Neither brother EVER cared that #2 was on their backsides!

As of yesterday, she is drinking 4 oz. of formula with no problem. She's chugging away which is great. My dad rented a breast pump for us for a week, and that didn't work out. I pumped and pumped, latched her on every once in a while, and no milk. My breasts got quite swollen and I leaked through a shirt one day, but that was the extent of my milk production. I tried for days to pump and couldn't get a thing out. It figures that I want to breast feed (well, bottle feed with breast milk) my child this time, and I don't succeed. I didn't try nearly this hard with the other two, but that's okay. Like I've told everyone, if the only thing that goes wrong with my pregnancies is that, I cannot complain. I only gain 12 lbs. I never get morning sickness or get sick, I heal quickly, and my babies are healthy, so not giving them breast milk is nothing to complain about, right? Thank God we never went and bought a pump. $$$!

Her umbilical cord fell off late last night, so we'll be burying that today. Now I feel more comfortable about the diaper changing because you don't have to be as careful.
Last night, she got fed at 10:45, she woke up at 1:15 because she had gone #2. We took advantage of her being awake and went ahead and fed her again. She fell back asleep at 2:00, then she slept until 7:30! Five and a half hours is NOT bad for a 10-day old baby, huh? Of course her older brothers, Jaydon and Jacoby, woke up at 6:15 and 6:45 respectively, but that's okay...just the joys of parenting!

Jeremy and I are taking things day-by-day. My 78-year old grandparents have been here all week, and they have been lifesavers. Basically, their being here allows me to nap during the day which is MUCH needed as to prevent sleep deprivation and bad moods! Jeremy is an angel. You don't have to ask that man to do a thing. He wakes up at night when he sees that I am taking a long time to get up, he comes home and knows that he has to bathe Jacoby since I can't lift him for another few weeks. He vacuumed for me, he has put laundry away, mopped, and is just being the A-1 greatest Daddy ever! My grandma also took it upon herself to do a load of laundry daily this week so we have no dirty laundry at the moment. She cleaned all of the blinds in the house, and fixes dinner every night. I'm spoiled I tell ya! Jeremy is currently napping since he did all of the feeding last night.

I ended up bruising VERY badly just above my incision because of all the tugging and pulling to get Jilian out. Some of you saw pictures but for those of you who didn't, it was NOT (still isn't!) a pretty sight. I went to the doctor twice last week to make sure that it was JUST bruising and nothing else. Thank God that's all it was. No infection, iron was fine, so I can't complain. Thank God there will be no "hanky-panky" for a few more weeks so Jeremy doesn't have to look at it. It will take a good month for all of the bruising to completely go away. I was VERY swollen too, but that has started to go down a lot. In fact, I had gained 12 lbs. with this pregnancy, and I'm down 6 lbs. LESS than where I was at before I got pregnant, so I can't complain! Now I just need to lose 25 more pounds, and I will be completely happy. (I will NOT be losing weight this next week with my grandparents still being here, and my grandma cooking nightly!)

Jacoby is doing okay. The poor baby got his 5th ear infection this past week. He was on antibiotics all week long and here at home with us. Usually, he would go to my mom's, but I couldn't send him there like that. He's better today, but this 5th infection made our minds up that tubes are in his very near future. We cannot spend the next year with another baby worrying about ear infections. Jaydon had tubes and as scary as the whole 3-minute process is for parents, it is WELL worth it at the end when you know that your child isn't in pain any longer.

Aside from the infection, we finally realized what had been causing Jacoby's tummy to get upset...MILK! Yep, our little guy can't hold milk down which completely shocked the nurse since he was on a milk based formula. We switched him to soy milk yesterday and he LOVES it and he isn't spitting anything up. SUCCESS! So now we have to buy soy milk and yogurt for him, but it's well worth it if it means no more spitting up!

Jacoby is not adjusting very well to having Jilian here. Surprisingly, he is the one who wants attention more so than Jaydon. He throws himself on the ground and bangs both fists down when he doesn't get his way. Yes, at 12 months he's already throwing tantrums - something that Jaydon NEVER did! He is loving towards his sister, but doesn't really like it when we cuddle with her or take too long to feed/burp her. Hopefully this gets better with time. He is Jaydon's shadow though and wants to follow his big brother everywhere. He is walking everywhere and won't crawl anymore at all. He stands up on his own without holding on to anything anymore, so he's well on his way to "toddler hood". Overall though, it hasn't been bad. The hardest part will be making sure that I don't have to feed Jacoby & Jilian at the same time. We are going to have to get into a routine here soon.

Jaydon is adjusting well...but not as well as when Jacoby arrived. I think he's realizing that he's no longer an only child. He's had a few slight meltdowns, but nothing major. He's very emotional, and we just have to remember that when we get onto him for something. He's not jealous like Jacoby though.
We still haven't heard back as to whether or not they accepted him into the EXCEL program (accelerated learning program) at school. We are hoping to find out soon.
Last week while we were at the hospital, my dad took care of him. His spelling words come home on a small sheet of paper and my dad didn't notice them. He read to him nightly, and did everything except for help him study his spelling words. Well I freaked out when I found out that he hadn't studied them. We got the test back and of course, Jaydon got them all right. He's 5 for 5 on his spelling tests. Pure genius I tell ya! :) He is also doing well with all of his school work and has gotten a green dot every day for the past 6 weeks. He got an "E" for conduct this past six weeks and got a perfect report card too.
We are looking to start him back up in baseball this season. That should start in a couple of months. We are still debating whether or not we want to coach. Jeremy will coach, but I cannot do the mom thing...not with 2 babies. We just need to find someone that can play the role of assistant coach and/or team mom. We found violin lessons for him but financially, that will have to wait until fall. We WILL put him in lessons because he needs another activity to keep his little brain occupied.

Today, I have to go to Party City to buy decorations and paper products for Jacoby's birthday party next weekend. Then I'll go to Creative Memories - the BEST cake place ever - to order his birthday cake. (If I had $1 for every person I have referred here, I would be rich!) I have to tell you that my grandparents being here has been a God send. Wait, did I already say that? They are paying for his decorations and cake, and my mom and them are paying for the food. (Rice, beans, guacamole, chips, empanadas, barbecued meat, barbecued chicken, soda, and pizza for the kids.) This means that all we had to pay for were his invitations. What a blessing!!! They also spent $200 on groceries for us last weekend when they first arrived. They won't let us pay for ANYTHING!!!

Today, they are going shopping with my mom to buy her a new stove and refrigerator. We are ALL spoiled by them!
Jeremy and Jaydon will spend the day cleaning up the back yard. They are going to buy some flowers for the 2 flower pots out front and fix those up nicely as well. It's supposed to go up to 71º today, so I think this calls for our first walk outside with Jilian. She'll still get bundled up of course, but she hasn't left the house in 9 days, so it's about time for a breath of fresh air for her. The nursery is almost complete, and as soon as it is, I will post pictures.

We bought new 12'' letters - JCR - to hang up. Jeremy will spray paint those today, and we should have them hung tonight. Then, all we lack are the french memo boards. The Linder's have been VERY nice to me and they are going to cut the cork boards (well, Brian is going to cut them) sometime soon. Then Andi should be over to help me make them. We had all of our supplies ready to go, but come to find out yesterday, the cork boards we bought weren't sturdy enough, so our little project had to get postponed. Little does Andi know that I had bought cinnamon rolls, I had some yummy ice cream with caramel sauce, some freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, and I had frozen thin mints for us to snack on. Maybe THAT will get her over here! (LOL - kidding Andi - love ya!) We will make them soon enough, and I know that I can't wait for the yummy snacks too. It's nice to have "girl time" every once in a while!
Oh, and Aunt Pam came over to measure for the cornice board, and I finally decided on a fabric. That should be up in the next few weeks too. I can't wait to see my long awaited finished nursery! :)

We have gotten an outpouring of gifts all week long. Aside from the million gifts at my baby shower, I also got more stuff this week. Three sets of neighbors brought over outfits and blankets, then a couple of people at Jeremy's work got us gifts as well. It's so nice to feel loved!

My cousin Lyann (she's 21) arrives tomorrow. She will be here for a week. She & my grandparents will return to Miami on February 8th. I can't wait to see her as I haven't seen her in 4½ years!!! She's one of my fourteen girl cousins.

Have I given all of you enough information now to keep you off my back for a few days? :)

Have a GREAT weekend!

PS: There are no pictures of Jaydon because I take pictures during the day while he is at school. I will have to take some of him in the next few days. He's still our first born "best boy" and quite the spoiled one - no worries there! :)

She's finally here!

Look at those long feet!!!

Already lost in thought...

Brother chilling at home watching TV.

Snuggling with her Daddy...she LOVES to cuddle with him and won't do the same with anyone else!

Messing around with the camera at home some more...