so in love….
hi everyone!!!! i hope you have missed me as much as i have missed you. 
didn’t paul do a great job on the blog last week? i was really excited to have him post. anyway, hope you all enjoyed the hospital pics. we are adjusting well at home and very glad to be hibernating with our little man, jackson ray.
not sure if everyone knows the story behind his name…. so i thought i’d share…. paul and i had chosen this name a loooooong time ago and have never once questioned it or thought of using anything else. jackson is named after mine and paul’s grandfathers (his paternal and my maternal). both paul’s grandpa jack and my poppy are two of the most amazing men that have walked the earth. paul is so lucky to still have grandpa jack around. we lost poppy at the young age of 60. poppy’s middle name was raymond, and combined with grandpa jack… you get JACKSON RAY!!!! we know both grandfathers are so pleased. paul and i love our son’s name and are so proud that it represents two absolutely amazing men.
in other news….. jackson is doing very well. he is a ferocious eater, and like paul said, putting weight on already. he smiles already too, which i absolutely LOVE!!! as he begins to fall asleep, jackson will sigh and have a look on his face of complete relaxation. paul thinks that jackson has my smile, and i think that jackson has paul’s “serious” face. we are certainly enjoying learning about mr. magoo. so far we have learned that babies really do eat, sleep, and poop. paul and i are trying to figure out what sort of schedule/routine we would like to incorporate and right now eating, sleeping, and pooping are taking precedent over anything else. jackson’s power hour when he was in my belly was at 9 pm each night and as of now it seems to be around 9 am with him dancing like a maniac and practicing his ninja kicks for when we move to japan.
paul is doing well and taking excellent care of both jackson and myself. i am healing just fine and have a check up on tuesday with my doctor to check my incision. mobility for me is somewhat limited, so it is nice to have a break from cooking and laundry. paul is finding balance between taking care of me and making sure i’m not over doing it… taking care of jackson and helping out when he can (though i am the feeding machine)…. and remembering to take care of himself and get rest too…. he does it all with a smile on his face though, and i am so grateful. each morning he wakes up, sees jackson, and says “i missed you last night.” that’s when i melt…..
all in all, we are doing great. we have paul’s parents here this week, preparing for nate’s (my brother in law) graduation from univ. of florida this coming weekend. my parents will arrive this weekend to keep me company while paul goes to graduation, and then my mom will stay with us next week when paul heads back to work. we are so blessed to have both families so willing and able to help in any way possible. we are so blessed period….
enjoy the latest pics of the little man!!!! i don’t know which i love more…. the big cheeks or the big eyes.
Jackson Ray White
To all the avid blog readers I apologize for the delay. As you all know we have been a little busy with the arrival of our little man. Jackson Ray arrived at 8:42 AM on the 22nd of April, 2008. He weighed in at a respectable 9 pounds, 6 ounces and measured 21 and 1/4 inches long. Another in the long line of big White boys, no surprise to most of you. Nicole and the baby are doing wonderful. She is recovering very well from the c-section and he is already starting to put on weight. We are all back home and very glad to be in a place that is so comfortable and relaxing. Red is still not quite sure what to think of the new edition, but he likes all of the new smells. I will let Nicole fill you all in on the rest of the details if you haven’t already heard them. I know you have all been waiting for the pictures, so here they are.
here we go!!!
well tomorrow is the BIG day… the little man will be arriving in just about 24 hours from now. hard to imagine, but at the same time, we are so ready for him to be here and in our lives. our families are arriving to jacksonville today, and paul and i are so excited for that. it’ll be great knowing that they are here and seeing their excitement this afternoon.
the weekend was great for us. we laid low for the most part, just getting things wrapped up around the house. i think it was actually paul’s nesting that kinda kicked in. he was spring cleaning, more or less, with little projects that he had been meaning to work on. yesterday he mentioned that he thought it was the dad in him…. wanting to fix everything before the baby arrives.
i was a little anxious this weekend, knowing that it was another full moon. a while back i had a dream that i gave birth on the 20th, so that number had been stuck in my mind for quite some time, and then once i found out that the 20th was a full moon, i started to worry. there was no action last night, except for the baby moving that much lower in my pelvis, making me feel like those bones are going to snap in 1/2.
one more day…… one more day…… i keep telling myself.
paul is heading to work for a little bit this morning, just to make sure that everything is good to go for his 2 weeks of baby leave. he’ll be home later this morning to take me to my pre-op appointment. then we’ll be home for the rest of today, packing and greeting our families.
i have a feeling i won’t sleep a wink tonight…. don’t worry folks, we’re bringing the camera and laptop to the hospital to keep the blog as updated as possible. please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. the little man will be arriving very shortly!!!
here we go!!!!!
this time next week….
we will be snuggling with our little bundle!!! that was the very first thought in my head this morning when i woke up. “he will be here…. paul and i will be parents.” goodness, that thought just overwhelms me. i am sitting at my laptop right now and i don’t even know what to write because i’m so beside myself with…. everything…. joy (of course), anxiety, excitement, terror, giddyness, amazement…. WOW!!!!
i had my last regular doctor’s check up today, and the gate is still closed. no action, no dilation, no effacement, NUTHIN!!! hooray for that. i’m not even contracting. homeboy is just chillin in there and putting on some serious poundige until his birthday comes. i did however gain 3 lbs in the last week (ha!!!) which now puts me at 25 total lbs gained. my blood pressure was about as perfect as it can be at 122/70 and the baby’s heart rate was wonderful as well. all in all things are fabulous for the little man and i, with the exception of his insane size and the fact that i feel like he’s going to ninja kick his way out of my belly whenever he moves, which is constantly.
i am very VERY ready to have this child out of my body. of course i want to meet him and see him and hold him, etc etc…. selfishly, i want him out because he is so big and i am so uncomfortable. i have officially moved into the guest bedroom, which makes me so sad. paul and i have to sleep apart from each other enough, but to do that now, when he’s home just pains me. my heart burn and acid reflux is just horrible with the baby being so big and heavy, so i have to sleep practically up-right to have any sort of relief. the glider chair we have would be a perfect solution except again, the baby is so big and heavy, that i need to be supported (ok, flanked) by pillows on each side of me so that he doesn’t pull me from side to side when he leans. the numerous pillows i use of course would not fit in our glider chair…. thus, i am in the guest bedroom, in all my pregnant glory.
i’m not going too far these days, partially because i am slower than a tortoise on a good day, and partially because i’m a little scared of going out and something happening. i can’t drive anywhere in my car without mom saying “be careful,” so i know other people are thinking i shouldn’t be going far right now too. i made a big trip to the grocery store today, stocking up on essentials. afterwards i was on the couch for an hour until my doctor’s appointment. hopefully the rest of this week will go by quickly so i don’t go too stir crazy.
my pre-op appointment is on monday. 95% of that will be paperwork, signing off that i give consent for my doctor to perform surgery, etc, etc…. she’ll do a short check up on me and the baby, and that’ll be it. tuesday we will have a baby boy!!!!
please keep the thoughts and prayers coming…. especially that “the gate” remains closed.
why nic’s bottle’s up
i guess this is where i write about the “purpose” of this site… this blog… this journal. originally i started it as a way to communicate with family members, knowing we would be literally on the other side of the world, in japan, with our newly born precious son. so the blog began when i was pregnant in ’07. the sonogram pictures commenced, the expanding belly pictures, etc… webcams were bought in preparation for our around-the-world-communication, and we geared ourselves up to go… to japan. friggin japan.
and obviously if you’ve read this far, you’ve also read the challenges we faced once jackson was born, the challenges he faced upon being allergic to my breast milk… the impending reflux… the teaching oneself NOT to eat because of the pain and torture it provided him.
so, why is my bottle up? here’s how i see it… if jackson can refuse my boob, then his bottle, endure two hospitalizations, a feeding tube for 8 weeks, and then proceed to spend weeks vomiting on me profusely whenever he feels like it… would your wine bottle not be up too???
i rest my case. cheers!
Have a Sip
