First trip to the beach!

Jack's first trip to the beach was when he was about 2 weeks old! We waste no time doing anything around here. We are NOT one of those parents who shelter our kids until they are 8 weeks old! That's a whole different post in itself!

I am lucky to have a great best friend that flew down here from Colorado after Jack was born! Ashley and David stayed at the house with us and spent a week here getting to know Alana more and meeting Mr. Jack! It was so nice to have them here! I missed them before they even left!

What's cool is that they were there for Alana's first trip to the beach as well. Now only if I could get them to move their butts back out here and they could be by the beach all the time!!! 



Ashley and David where their heart belongs... to the beach!

 Big sister playing in the sand

While we were down in Laguna, we took Jack for a
visit at Dad's hotel so everyone could meet our new little man!

Some QT with the kids

Aunt Ashley snuggling with Jack.

Mr. J-Dub

 Tuesday morning January 8th I woke up telling myself today is going to be the day! I had an OB appt and since I had been having contractions since Thursday last week I had hoped something would give. I dropped Alana off at Victor's moms house so I could go to my appt. I only ate breakfast because I wanted to be ready for my "no eating 8 hours before surgery". That day Grandma made her home made tortillas so when I arrived I had to stop myself from eating them up. I saw my OB and told her about our trip to Labor & Delivery last week and how I had been having contractions since then. She stuck to her no C-section rule before 39 weeks and I did everything I could to try to change her mind. Nothing worked. Then I asked her to check me before I left and see if I had dilated at all. She did, and I had gone to a 1!!! That meant my body was starting labor and she was going to call L&D and tell them we were on our way!
Victor texted me on the way down the elevator and said, How did your appt go? I texted him back. You should head home from work :) He called right away. I told him he needed to start heading home so we could go have this baby! I drove back to Grandma's house to drop Alana's overnight bag off and to tell them the news! Gave my baby girl hugs and kisses and told her I was going to have Jack tonight and we were on our way to the hospital, which she responded "Can I please stay at Grandmas?" Haha. She's such a Grandma's girl!

I headed home, called the few important people I needed to and sat and waited for Victor to get home so we could head to the hospital. That was seriously the longest wait of my life. Laguna Beach never seemed so far away!!! I was somewhat calm but more excited then anything.

We got to the hospital and waited to be taken into surgery for my C-section. Finally around 8 or so they took me over to the OR. This C-section was a LOT different from my first! With Alana I had already been in labor for 21 hours, with a lot of meds in me, they rolled me over to the OR and I barely remember any of it. This time around I walked my own two feet into the OR and got up on the table and ready for my spinal. I sat on the table and looked around the operating room. There was a board there ready for Jack's info to be written on there and a little heated table ready for him to lay. It made me tear up every time I looked at it. While the doctor's prepared I sat there and thought about how in less then 30 minutes or so I would finally get to meet my little man! I thought about how much I missed my mom. I know my mom already know about Jack before I did, but I was so sad she wasn't there to share this with me. She was such a BIG part of my pregnancy and delivery with Alana, I was sad she was missing this. I know she was there watching over us, but it's never the same.

Finally they gave me the spinal and promptly laid me down on the table, setting up all kinds of stuff around me. I remember I could see my stomach in the reflection in the light above me. I freaked out for a second as I thought I was going to be able to see everything they were doing as they cut into me. I asked the dr and they said they would be moving the lights and also the drape will be so high I wouldn't be able to see it anyway. I was happy about that one! After they draped me, it was time to go get the hubby. It seemed like a life time from the time I left him, to the time they let him in the room. I remember from last time I thought they were forgetting to let him in. He came and sat by me and held my hand and we both looked at each other in a nervous look! It was finally time! Then we heard Jack cry and they said he was a boy and it brought tears to my eyes! Next thing I knew I had Jack up to my check to say hi before they were going to send Victor and Jack out while they sewed me up.

*Love at first sight*

Jack and Daddy waiting for me to get out of surgery.

Apparently while I was still in surgery they noticed Jack's blood sugar was low for his birth weight. They decided they needed to feed him so they gave him some formula which I was not too happy about, what it was what was best for him.

 

When I was out of surgery they gave him to me and all I could do was kiss his little head and love on him!!

 

Meet Mr. Jack Wyatt. 8 pounds 14 oz. 21 inches long.



 

 

Jack was born around 8:45 on Tuesday night. The next few days were full of visitors from nurses, doctor's, specialist, friends and family. We were anxious to get home though, in the comfort of my own house and bed. Thursday was the day we were going home, less then 48 hours in the hospital was great for me! The hospital has a photographer they use to take new born pictures. We dressed him up in his tie to take a few pictures. My sister would be taking his newborn pics so I didn't make too much of this photo shoot. But we did dress him up!

The night Jack was born it was pretty late, close to 11 by the time Alana or anyone else was allowed in to see us. She was very tired and not up for any pictures, she came in, kissed us all and then wanted to go back to Grandma's to sleep. I don't blame her! So the next day she came in rested ready to hold her new baby brother!



 

 

We got home Thursday late afternoon and introduced Jack to the house and his room. He laid in his crib for a few minutes. I got the same picture of Alana when she came home in her crib and 4 years later is still is amazing to me that she was that tiny teeny in her crib.

 

We were so happy to be home and ready for everyone to come over to visit Little Jack. Big sister Alana wants to hold him 24/7 and is loving helping so much with him already!

 

Big shout out to Kaiser! Honestly I've never been in a better hospital. I thought St. Joe's was amazing with Alana but the brand new Kaiser they built was even more amazing! The service I received there was pretty awesome, from the random nurses in the hall, to the Anesthesiologist. They were all super friendly and pretty amazing!

False alarm

Thursday nights we have our bible study and this week I happen to mention I would like prayer for patience until this little man decides he going to come out. I have been off of work for 2 weeks now and my ear infection wouldn't go away until my sinus infection cleared up. My sinus infection wouldn't clear up until I had the baby says the doctor.... So I needed prayer! Thursday night about 11:30 I had some horrible feelings in my stomach and then pains... I got out of bed and called Labor & Delivery and they told me to come on in so they could check me in person. So it was time to go. I walked in the bedroom and told Victor we need to get ready to go to the hospital! He called his mom and it would take her about 20 minutes to get over here to stay here with Alana. After all, it was the middle of the night.
We loaded everything in the car and headed to the hospital which was only 4 minutes away. Walked down the longest hall in the world to L&D and checked in. The ended up monitoring us for 7 hours, watching the heartbeat and all of my contractions. The rule with Kaiser and most hospitals is that they won't take you into a C-section before 39 weeks unless your body is actually going into labor. They checked me every few hours and my body was not going into labor. I didn't dilated at all! Nothing. The doctor that was there was awesome! She just kept telling me that she didn't want to send me home, she just needed me to dilated before she could take me into surgery. Apparently my body wasn't ready and after 7 hours of laying in a really uncomfortable bed with contractions and Victor sitting by my side in a chair, they sent us home.... It just wasn't our time yet. I would have to be patient.

Home Stretch!

Time is flying by so fast these days. Christmas came and went. We are heading into New Years and into the home stretch with this pregnancy! It's crazy how completely difference this pregnancy is. I know he is a boy this time, but man, complete 360. Jan 16th seems like FOREVERRRRR away but it's just a little over 2 weeks away now. That's the day my C-section is scheduled. If Jack comes earlier then that I will be so happy, but at this point it's just a waiting game.
Over the last two weeks I came down with a pretty nasty head cold. Not to mention a really bad ear infection. I've never had an ear infection before and it's not fun. Not only am I 9 months pregnant but not being able to hear out of my ear has made life a lot harder to deal with in the last two weeks. I'm pretty sure I told Victor the other night that I would take another 9 months of pregnancy over another ear infection! That says a LOT! Losing complete hearing out of one ear has been a big pain. If you were to whisper in my ear I couldn't hear you, but every noise in the house echo's loudly in it at the same time. Makes no sense to me what so ever! But sitting in a restaurant with all the people talking or just in the house with the TV on, people talking and dogs barking. It all echo's in my ear a million times louder than normal. Super fun!
Last week when I saw my OB I was a wreck. Physically, emotionally. I was still working and training a temp under so much stress at work. My ankles and hands were unbelievably swollen. I was hacking up a lung and my nose was running out of control! One look at me last week and she told me I was to be off of work that day and on bed rest. I'm pretty sure I broke down crying in her office because I was so relived to be done with it all! Physically I was so tired and hurting. Emotionally I was going crazy. It's amazing to me what these hormones do to you.
This week I went into my OB and she was amazed at how much better I looked, felt and I wasn't crying. Haha. She's got to put up with pregnant women all day, I'm sure she is used to it. The week has been a lot of sitting on the couch, laying in bed, resting. Just what the doctor ordered. I still have the ear infection this week, but apparently with some more antibiotics it should go away soon. I'm not nearly as  congested as I was. My cough has mostly gone away but not completely yet. I'm still trying to rest. I get so bored though! I'm crazy, I know, I just can't sit and watch TV all day and lay on the couch. It just doesn't work well for me. I want to pull my hair out by 5pm. Out walking around doesn't work so well these days. I can't go for more then 10 minutes without needing to sit down. Even standing in the kitchen making dinner is so hard on my back! SOOO ready for Jack to just get out of me already!! Come on little "big" guy. Bust out already!

Christmas

Over Christmas we had so much going on and we were able to come out with lots of great pictures. Spite how horrible I feel and how bloated pregnant I look. We meet up with my sister who has the best camera ever, in Riverside to take some family pictures! 

 These girls love each other so much and always have so much fun together!

Despite one of my cousins passing away right before our Harp Christmas get together it was nice to see everyone. It was a tough week for everyone and a hard day to get through, but we did. This is the first year without my Aunt Jan too, which I know was weighing on everyone's mind. Gotta love my big crazy family though.

Some perks of Victor working at a fancy hotel this year were there Christmas parties they had! The first night Victor and I got dressed up and hang out at the hotel playing black jack, open bar, dance floor, nice dinner. Can't wait to take full advantage of that next year. Then on Sunday morning they had a pancake breakfast with Santa! It was pretty cool and Alana got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him everything she wanted for Christmas!

Christmas Eve morning we spent with my family. It's been several years since my sister was in town for Christmas so that was nice. Since my mom has died, they escape for every holiday they can. It was nice to spend time with everyone that morning and have breakfast. That night we went over to Victor's mom's house and had some awesome tamales and opened presents with them. I have to say, it was a great day full of family and love! 

Our house got decorated with all the trimmings, well at least the inside did. I didn't have the drive this year to do any of it, so at least some of it got done. Every one of our neighbors had lights up on the outside of their house and so Alana was really sad we didn't decorate with lights on the outside this year. But I told her next year we would. Christmas eve we left the tree lights on and it was amazing the memories it brought back for me. I was in bed looking down the hall at the shadow of the lights and it just reminded me of when I was little. I could always see the shadow of the lights in our room down the hall as we laid awake waiting to hear Santa come. Every year my sisters and I would sneak out to see what santa brought us and at a decent hour... 6am too early? We would send my little sister into my parents room to wake them and tell them what she got from Santa. Those were the days!

Catching up

It's been awhile, I've got lots to catch up on, so I'm sorry for the photo dump and short stories, some of these deserve their own blogs but as of right now aren't getting them. The last few months have been so busy and full of parties and things to get done!

My sweet little Lexie turned 4!



Alana and I went to Krispy Cremes and I showed her how donuts are made! She had a great time and loved her hat! I remember taking my mom to the first to open many many moons ago!

 


Alana was Jasmin for Halloween by day and Minnie Mouse by night.



FINALLY a Miguel's Jr. opened in Costa Mesa, not to far from my work, so of course I was there for both soft opening days and go about once a week now! AMAZING to have one this close. Although I don't get out to Corona as much now.

Halloween came and went! We took Alana to the pumpkin patch and she played some of the games.



 

Jack and I voted! And WON!



My beautiful God Daughter Kali turned 6 and had the coolest Girls Rock birthday party!

Chrissy always goes all out with decorations! She is pretty amazing!

Complete with tutu's she made. Wardrobe, hair, makeup and glitter tattoo's!



We got a box UPS with Jack's bedding in it from my aunt and Alana decided she was going to live in the box for the next week! She drew and colored on every inch of it! From practicing her ABC's to drawing pictures! Artist at heart!

I did my first load of Jack's laundry!



Alana helped me make meatballs for some yummy meatball sandwiches!! This girl is the BEST helper a mommy could ever, ever have! She helps me fold the laundry, clean everything, cook, you name it, she wants to help!

How I remember her.

The coolest mom ever.

When I was little my best friends mom was the coolest mom on the block. In the city maybe. She stocked the house with stuff I never got to eat like Pringles and licorice and junk food! We just never bought that kind of stuff. She would be the one to always drive us anywhere we wanted to go. To the movies, castle park or just to the mall. We would all pile into her station wagon and off we went.

Friday nights were the sleepover nights at Ashley’s house. Starting early in elementary school, the 5 of us best friends would head over after school to Ashley’s house and spend the night over there every Friday night. We would always have something good for dinner or maybe Jan would order pizza for us. We would always have enough gum or candy to last us through the night. We would stay up and watch movies, or MAKE movies! We played Barbie’s or babies. We listened to loud music and/or played Sonic the Hedgehog. A big chunk of me grew up in Ashley’s house as a kid. Her parents seemed like Ken and Barbie. They had a nice big house that was always clean and their fridge was always full. They always seemed like such a perfect happy family. Clearly I learned as I grew up that is never really the case. But regardless her parents always made me feel like part of the family! Ashley’s mom and I always had a close relationship. When they moved to Colorado in 7^th grade, I was devastated! Jan bought me a ticket to fly out and visit them. Through the years Ashley and I always stayed in contact with each other! As we got a little bit older the whole family would come out every summer and rent a beach house for a week! I would always be invited to hang with them and they still continued to treat me like I was another part of their family! Jan would always make sure there was room for me or pack me an extra sandwich. She always was so loving to me and treated me like another daughter! As we got older she would be the cool mom to hang out with us when we went out drinking at the beach. She would buy us shots and make us laugh. She always did things that I never thought moms did.

When we were young (2^nd grade) Jan gave me the nickname of Jamester which still sticks to this day. The whole Wiles family still calls me Jamester! Being Ashley’s best friend I always got to see the interaction between Jan and Ashley. They always had this funny inside language with each other that always made me laugh. Doo-doo. They always said that to each other and I don’t even know why but it always made me laugh.

I miss Janda’s smile and her tenderness! She always wanted to know what was going on with my family and remembered everything about everyone in my family. She was a mom ear when I needed to vent while sitting on the beach. She always did have good advice for me and I will always appreciate everything she was for me, and more importantly to her kids. My best girls. Amy, Ashley and Lisa were like my sisters growing up. We annoyed each other and probably still do. But I love that Wiles family like my own!

When I got a heartbreaking phone call from Ashley telling me her mom had died, all I could think about is how hard this was going to be on the girls. Going through it myself, I knew and still know what’s to come. I flew out to CO for a few days to be there for the funeral and it was beautiful. Nothing big or formal, but just perfect for Jan. Some of her ashes were spread on top of this beautiful mountain where her sister’s ashes had been spread 6 years before that. They kept some of her ashes to spread out here by the beach. Jan always loved the beach and was always that one thing that made her happy. That thing she looked forward to every single year. She would sit on the patio and read or just watch the ocean. That was her comfort place!

This was the top of the beautiful mountain where we had the service.

Ashley's dad and Jan's boyfriend spreading Jans' ashes on the mountain top.
 

Jeff spreading Ashes. Thought this was a beautiful picture!

 

Jan was an organ donor and they did take her eyes. Turns out her corneas were donated to one or two recipients that live in CA. Which, according to Amy, means she will see the ocean again. Warms my heart! I miss the lady and love the Wiles family like my own! I know it’s going to be a tough struggle with losing their mom. But now my mom and my Aunt Jan are in good company. Love you Janda Lee!

27 weeks

These weeks just keep on zooming by! 12 weeks to go!! Life seems to be skipping so fast these days, week by week it’s flying by. Life is sure getting harder the bigger and more tired I get! Jack is the size of a head of cauliflower this week! (feels like a watermelon).

 

If he is growing the way Alana grew, he surely is 2 weeks ahead of schedule. Sleeping is no fun still…. not looking forward to that not changing for a few years. I did find this “sleepytime” tea that helps me on random nights. It’s all natural stuff that is supposed to help. It knocks me out for sure, but I have a hard time staying asleep. Some random things about being 27 weeks:

Maternity clothes still suck, although I think I’m lasting a bit longer in the few bottoms I do have. I’m sure in a few weeks I’ll be crying about them again.

I learned traveling on an airplane while 6 ½ months pregnant sucks badly!

Jack is going to be a soccer player for sure! Alana NEVER kicked me so hard and moved around so much!

My sciatica is going to be the death of me – who knew this was so much pain.

Speaking of pain – My body is spreading and growing and my pelvic bones HURT. Doesn’t Jack know he’s not coming out that way and my body doesn’t need to grow or stretch that way? Wish I could tell him.

Sitting at a desk for a living is no fun while pregnant.

People who say “Holy cow, how much longer do you have to go?” annoy me.

I’m hot and haven’t felt cold in 6 ½ months!

I don’t feel like cooking, cleaning or doing anything when I get home from working all day. UH.

Alana hugs and kisses Jack every day and night and talks to him on occasion.

Alana thinks she will be changing him, feeding him and bathing him when he comes out. We’ll see how that goes.

My best friend from CO is going to fly out after he is born! YAY!

Jack’s room is almost done, just need to get creative with getting the name up on the wall.

I am ever so grateful that Alana will be 4 ½ when he arrives!

Miguel’s Jr. just opened by my work… that’s going to be a sure way to fatten him up before he comes out!

Changing insurances companies in my last trimester is scary.

 

Lots of other random things going on. Crazy to think that in 12 weeks he’ll finally be here! I can’t wait to meet the little guy and introduce him to Alana!

Apple Pickin

 We took the girls apple pickin this year! The last time we all went was 4 years ago when Lexie was just a month old! My mom was with us last time we went up so it was kind of sad, but something we plan to do every year with the girls. We went up to Oak Glen on a really beautiful day! The sun was out but it wasn't too hot! We got up there early so we could spend a few hours picking apples and then head home! Alana told everyone she knows about apple picking and how cool it was! We pretty much ate all the dozens of apples we picked right away. They were tasty!! Thanks for all the pics sis!




There were so many beautiful butterflies out and this one let Donovan get a really close picture of it!

My awesome family!

These three little girls were so happy to get their own bags to fill with their own apples!

These two were like two peas in a pod all day! They get along so well!

Daddy helping Alana reach a good one!

Smiling girs!

We visited their little pumpkin patch.

A loving Ellie!

Cheese-ers!

Group Shot

Me and my girls!

Sweet Lexie girl

Very intense game of checkers!

We had to taste some home made cider!

The Cadiente's!

Snack time