Happy Birthday Jake!

Jake was pretty excited about his birthday today! He got to have his big cast taken off this morning and is now sporting a new shorter cast! He's pretty thrilled that he can straighten his arm, however, his elbow is pretty tender. You can see how irritated his skin is at the elbow, it started bleeding when the cast came off :(


This day nine years ago my precious Avery Jacob entered the world! It was a little stressful, we showed up at the hospital for our scheduled C-Section at 10 and we were told to go to the waiting room and maybe someone would come and get us! Scott is so funny he turned to me and said "Well I was hoping for something a little more than "maybe"!" I was prepped in the recovery room for the surgery! Surgery went well, Avery came out peeing and screaming! I couldn't believe how little he was! The nurse said "He's good size, at least eight pounds." Cooper was 9lbs and 7oz so my little 8lb 6oz baby definitely looked tiny! The little stink nursed quickly after birth and would have nothing to do with eating for 9 hours! The nurse had to give him a bottle at that point, but two hours later he decided mom was okay! The day of discharge the nurse came and told me we couldn't bring him home because his bilirubin was 19.6 and he most likely needed a blood transfusion (I was told that usually happens if the levels hit 20). Fortunately the pediatrician (ironically the same one that let Addy's formula and weight issues go to the wayside) told us to go ahead and take him home, quit nursing, supplement with formula and put him in the sun. We did just that and went to Springfield every two days for a heel stick. His level consistently dropped and he had no problems with his jaundice! My dad always told me don't have more than two kids, you'll be outnumbered. He also HATED the name Avery since there was a punk kid in town named Avery! I LOVED his name, unfortunately he doesn't feel the same and goes by Jake now for the past several months, but that's okay, he's still my Avery! This child of mine is definitely my challenging child, he's strong willed, argumentative, onery, stubborn, ALL BOY and the most intelligent, loving and sensitive child I have ever met! God knew that his brother needed him to get through some of his challenges and he would have a baby sister that would adore him. Happy Birthday Avery Jacob we love you!