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.