Thanksgiving Day

I did it, I pulled off Thanksgiving Dinner with a newborn. It's a good thing he was born two weeks early because I don't think I could have swung this last weekend. Of course I had lots of help from Nana and Pa that freed me up to cook. I was going to add the recipes to the recipe blog, but I'm kind of sick of the subject :-) This was our menu:

- Turkey breast with herb butter and pan gravy
- Sausage and apple stuffing
- Three-veggie gratin (potatoes, yams, and butternut squash)
- Green beans with onions and pancetta
- Dinner rolls (a la Costco)
- Fresh cranberry sauce
- Asti Spumante and St. Clair Cab-Zin (NM wine)
- Chocolate bourbon pecan pie
- Apple pie
- Pumpkin ice cream torte

We don't really have any Thanksgiving traditions besides stuffing our face and watching the UT/Aggie football game. I tried to get Jordan to tell us what she's thankful for, and she just looked at me like "Wha?" I got the same look from Jamie. I tried to get Jo to watch the Macy's parade with me this morning and she thought it was boring. I got the family picture in front of the dining room table, and got a picture of Jacob eating his Thanksgiving dinner (which I won't share) since I have a similar picture from Jo's first Thanksgiving. And Jacob wore Jo's Turkey Day outfit from when she was a baby, so that was cute. Now we're watching the game with full bellies, tired feet, and hoping for some peace and quiet. Jordan is waving a 12th Man towel and cheering for the Aggies, so the game isn't off to the best start. But it's been a pretty good day.

Much to be Thankful For

Ah, Thanksgiving. What a perfect holiday....it's about food, family togetherness, reflection, and being lazy on the couch after cooking all day, stuffing your face, and enjoying the sounds of someone else doing the dishes while you eat dessert helping #3. Perfect.


I have a lot to be thankful for, as I do every year. This year was maybe my best yet. Here's my list of what I appreciate most in my life:


- A fun and loving daughter and beautiful, healthy baby boy. Jordan and Jacob couldn't be any more precious, and I'm so lucky to have such wonderful children. May we always be so fortunate. And may they always be so healthy.


- Supportive and loving family. I'm lucky to be able to spend these years at home with my kids while they're young while Jamie provides for us all. I'm lucky to have parents that spend so much time with us, helping us out whenever and wherever they can so we have even more opportunities to enjoy our children and take time for ourselves as well.


- Ability to host family and friends, especially at the holidays. I love a full house and company to cook for. I'm glad everyone is able to come to us while we're travel-restricted. I'm excited to spend our first Albuquerque Christmas at home with so many.


Now on a lighter, less sappy note:


- I'm thankful for cable TV.... I've spent the better part of November on the couch, nursing a newborn, watching HOURS and HOURS of television. I can't imagine the horror of doing it with only network programming available. Ugh.


- I'm thankful for the ability to make pie.

- I'm thankful for dishwashers, especially silent ones.

- I'd be really, really thankful for a 3 year old that could entertain herself while we watch the football game.

More Musings on Life as a Mother of Two

What, oh what, will I do when my parents go home next week?!? All I have time to do is feed Jacob, change his poopy pants, feed him again, change my clothes when his diaper leaks and he pees all over me, get him down for a nap, take a quick shower, and then feed him again!! As far as playing with Jordan, sometimes I feel like "Who's Jordan?" Not that she wants anything to do with me anyway with her Nana being here. Only Nana can read her naptime/bedtime books, tuck her in, snuggle her, and wipe her butt. Jordan gets sick of me asking her if I can do stuff, and she tries to clarify the situation by proclaiming "I want Nana all the time." I'm sure I'll figure it out when they leave. I did win over Jordan (briefly) last night when we both wore our matching owl PJs. She liked that, and was Mama's baby for 10 minutes or so in the rocking chair. It was nice :-)

Jacob is doing well; he's 3 weeks old today! He's my little eating machine, but I'm glad he's finally putting on good weight and chubbin' up. I'm having the same milk supply issues I had with Jordan, but much worse. We had been going to the pediatrician pretty regularly for weigh-ins, and at one point he'd only gained an ounce in a whole week! So the doctor said FEED THAT KID (formula). Jacob is much happier now that his Mama has stopped starving him.... But it is a bummer not to be able to just rely on breastfeeding :-(

I have been able to do some of my normal activities (only because my parents are here to help with everything else). I've been cooking most of the dinners this past week, I've run a few errands, and Mom and I finished most of our Christmas shopping for the kids yesterday. But the picture taking has slacked off and I haven't been keeping up with the blog, emails, or phone calls. All in good time...

They're only babies once and it's sinking in that this is my last show. So despite the sleepless nights, dusty house, and unopened mail, I am enjoying these precious weeks. Really, how could I not?

Jordan's Halloween

Halloween is my favorite holiday, and it's rubbed off on Jordan as well. With Jacob's arrival, I never got to blog Jo's festivities, but she had too much fun to not write it all down. Here's how we did Halloween:

- After nap we did pumpkin carving and decorating. Jamie and Pa gutted the two bog pumpkins we got at McCalls and Pa and I carved them. Jordan and Nana decorated Jordan's pumpkin with markers and construction paper. Check out the cool troll feet.
- I made a lasagna for dinner. Since then, Jordan has referred to pasta dinners as "Halloween food".

- Jordan and I got dressed up in our costumes and we took pictures. Jordan was super cute as a flying monkey, and I'm really thankful for these pics because they were taken less than a day before Jacob's birth.


- I had to sit out Tricks or Treats this year, but I did walk to two houses in the cul-de-sac with her. Then Daddy and Pa took over, and Nana and I handed out candy and watched the Horns whoop up on Mizzou.

- Jordan pooped out early this year compared to last. Jamie thinks her wings slowed her down. When she got home, she had a great time helping Nana hand out candy and see all of the kids in costume.

- Ever since Halloween, and until she runs out of the candy, Jordan has wanted to play Trick or Treat several times a day. She gets her candy bowl and hands out candy to a trick or treating grandparent wearing a witch hat, and then they trade roles. Jordan likes to request x number pieces of candy from the bowl. I hope she realizes she can't do that when she goes out next year.

First Week Home

We've all had a wonderful first week home with Jacob. Nana, Pa, and Grandma are here, and Jamie is off of work for two weeks. Jacob is an easy going baby, he likes to snuggle and he even naps in his bassinet. Jordan is the proud big sister, and eating up her time with grandparents. She's got some new games she's made up: Trick or Treat, Pa Troll, and Birdie Nest. Family and friends have been calling to check up with us and hear about Jacob. And Dad bought us a computer camera and installed Skype so we'll be able to video conference when they go home.

Jacob is doing so well. He was having a problem with jaundice, and we had to go to the lab several mornings in a row for bili tests. By the third morning, he just gave up crying while they bled his heel and calmly waited for the tech to finish. He's super chill :-) Anyway, he's fine now, and we have a week off before his 2-week checkup. Which is good because it's stressful taking such a small baby out in public, especially to hospitals and doctor's offices.

Tomorrow Jacob will be a week old, and I'll be thinking that time is flying by. It already feels like he's always been here, he's so easy to take care of and love. We're so thankful to have him with us.

Jacob Xavier

Baby is here! And baby is a BOY!!! Jacob Xavier was born November 1st at 10:18 a.m., weighing in at 6 lb 13 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. He is perfect :-) And everything went wonderfully. I'm so thankful for many things, specifically that he is healthy, he is content, he waited for his Dad to get back from a business trip, he waited for his Nana and Pa to arrive to watch his big sister, he waited for his Mama to enjoy Halloween, and what a cool Birth Date he has!

Sunday morning I woke up relaxed from a (rare) restful night's sleep, but feeling a little funny. Jamie was dressed to go run, and I told him to wait. I thought something might be going on, and given my experience with Jordan, I thought there would be no question of whether I was in labor or not. But after 30 minutes of hemming and hawing, I couldn't tell, and was too afraid to stay home, so we packed up and went to the hospital. I was afraid they'd send us back home, but there are worse things that could happen.

Everything went so smoothly compared to my hospital arrival with Jordan. I was processed through triage, determined to be 7 cm and 100% effaced, and admitted. By the time we were in a delivery room, I started having "real" contractions that weren't bad. I requested, and received, an epidural. Oh My!! SO much better than the alternative! Despite the epidural, I could feel Jacob kick me the whole way out. He's always been a kicker.

Jacob was a surprise. The doctor asked Jamie if he wanted to announce the sex, and when he said that, I looked up and saw our son for the first time. My first thought was he was tiny like Jordan. But Jamie thought he had a chubby tummy, and sure enough, he weighed a pound more. It was a while before they weighed him, and Jamie was waiting to call family and friends until we knew the details. It was so much fun to hear announce "It's a Boy!" and share the name (we always keep the names a secret).

Due to H1N1, the hospital was completely shut down to children, so Jordan could not visit and someone always had to stay home with her. We didn't have the stream of visitors we had in Austin, nor could we since we had to be such germophobes this time. Because of that, and because we were doing so well, we were happy to go home as soon as we could be released. Jacob did pretty well that first night, but it's still not like being home with Grandma's to help out and cook you good food to eat.

When we arrived at home, we waited for Jordan to come outside and meet her baby brother. Her reaction was priceless. First she saw me. I pointed to my belly and asked Where did the baby go?? That may have been a mistake. Jordan got this totally freaked out look on her face and I thought she was going to cry. So we steered her over to the car so she could look in. Her first comments were "Oh, a baby! He's so cute!" and "My baby brother Jacob". She was really excited to meet him. Her Pa had shown her videos he'd taken in the hospital, so she'd already learned of baby brother Jacob, and commented on the fact that he "Doesn't go Whaa Whaa Whaa??" and that he "Can't walk". Once we got him inside, she sat right by him and started to pet his hands and watch him. Her attention wasn't without bounds of course. Within a few hours she was telling her Grandma to "put him in his bed and play with me".

It's been a great first night at home. I even got in a catnap before dinner, despite Jordan's squeals and ruckus downstairs. We're so excited to have this new addition, and so thankful that all has gone wonderfully.