Welcome Jeffrey!

Baby Jeff made his big debut on January 8th, 2012 at 11:16 am. He was 6 pounds 12 ounces and 19 inches long. 

(And completely adorable and perfect in every way, if I do say so myself)

Here are the details of his arrival.  We were called at 1 am to come in to start the induction. So we hurried our little buns to Labor and Delivery. 

By the time we got there and checked in and hooked up to the med's it was 2 am.  Tom immediately went to sleep on the couch and I started waiting.  I was pretty calm (surprisingly) and things moved along! I got a little sleep here and there but it was pretty hard because of contractions and anxiety.  Tom and I didn't realize how much anxiety we help onto from Marilyn's delivery.  She had so many complications and we didn't know how to sort out what was part of laboring and delivering a baby and what was specific to Marilyn's birth.  Everything was progressing normally (or so the nurses were telling us).  They checked me at 5 and said they wanted to break my water but for my comfort didn't want to until I had my epidural (I made it VERY clear I would have an epidural) because my cervix was SO SO high. Obviously, I said "Send the anesthesiologist down immediately" because I have no need for horrific pain for no reason.  So everything went great with my pain med's so they broke my water and we were on our way!

(Notice the amazing water bottle?? I looked forward to getting that bottle again! Its like an amazing reward for giving birth...weird or amazing?) I am totally serious, the moment they brought it in, I was ready to start laboring. 

My nurse was the same nurse that helped us with Marilyn.  She remembered us instantly, funny right? She was great! I got checked at about 10:30 and I was dilated to a 7.  Tom left to grab some breakfast and the doctor told me he was going to run an errand.  I was fine alone, I figured we had at least 2

hours or so before anything happened.  Tom got back in 20 minutes and its a good thing he did! The nurse came in 10 minutes later and said "Are you ready to have a baby??" I thought "Sure, in another 4 hours or so".  I had to push for Marilyn for 4 and a half hours so I had no idea that wasn't normal.  All of the sudden everyone was in a hurry, there were more nurses and people around.  In came the little bassinet for the baby, I started hysterically crying.  I couldn't believe it was time! We were doing it! I was scared that it would turn out like Marilyn's delivery and the baby would be whisked away to NICU and we wouldn't see him right away. 

The nurse wanted me to do a practice push as the doctor was getting ready, but I started to push and she said "STOP! This baby is coming now, I will go grab the doctor." I couldn't believe it! She told me not to laugh or the baby would fall out.  I thought it was so weird.  But here we were.  The doctor came in, I pushed 3 times and there he was.  Perfect and so so so small. 

I couldn't believe he was ours! He was so small and so quiet and perfect! We felt so blessed and grateful that he was in our family and we felt such a great responsibility.  It is our job to give this little baby a good life and teach him to be a good person.  The moment we saw his little face we knew it was going to be worth every second of work.  We loved him the first moment we saw him. 

Shortly after we got moved to recovery Marilyn and my mom came to meet the baby.  Marilyn LOVED him so much from the second she came in the room.  She wanted to see every part of him, his fingers and toes and his nose and his hair.  She said "Hi Baby Jeff, I waited for you" and "I do love you Baby Jeff, I do love you".  I was so relieved when she reacted so well to the baby.  She couldn't get enough of him. 

My friend who lives down the street (shout out to Brittney Fairborn, who had a rockstar natural labor and delivery) had her darling baby girl 24 hours before me. Jeffrey and Adiana met in the hospital, they will obviously were instant best friends. It was fun to have a friendly face in the hospital. 

We were pretty lucky that Man Jeff (my brother) happened to be driving back up to Salt Lake City and the timing worked out perfectly for him to come and meet Baby Jeff.  They share a special connection considering they are both named Jeffrey Peter.  I am SO SO SO happy Man Jeff got to come and meet his new nephew...it was a special moment for sure. 

 I look pretty horrific in this picture but here is a shout out to my AMAZING hospital jammies...they are pretty amazing right?!

This is Jeff's little outfit he came home in.  It was so adorable to see him in real clothes, it almost made him a real baby.  We were so excited to take him home.  You can also see his little dimple on his cheek, I love him. 

39 Weeks

My last doctors appointment...I can't really believe that I finally made it to the end! I felt a little weird knowing that I wouldn't be back with a bigger belly, even more uncomfortable then the last time! Things we learned from this last visit...

1- Baby is coming

2- Doctor guessed between 7 and 7.5 pounds

3- On the midnight call list for induction

4- I had 24 hours of having only 1 kid at home left

When I left the office the doctor said to me "See you tomorrow!" I walked out almost completely freaked out but so so so excited to meet this little dude.  My Mom arrived later this day and we were left to just wait for the hospital to call!

Waiting is weird.  I feel like it is weird to wait for someone to call you to say "Come on over to the hospital so you can have a baby!" But alas, that's what happens! I remember feeling so overwhelmed when the call came for Marilyn's delivery, I knew it would be the same for little Jeff's.  And it was, I felt surprised that they actually called, scared to death that we were going to go through a delivery again, and so so so excited to be done being pregnant, but mostly grateful that we made it and it was finally time to add a real person to our family.  He was coming...so we left for the hospital!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I can't believe that we were good enough to have Santa Claus come to our house!! It was the first year Marilyn noticed that something new was going on.  She was pretty funny when she woke up...she came into our room and said "Mama? Is it Christmas??" I smiled and said "Do you think Santa came?" She turned around and said "Maybe! Lets see Mama and Daddy and Maggie" We hurried and got to the kitchen and Marilyn was pretty surprised to see the sheet up.  This is a darling family tradition in Tom's family.  Santa doesn't wrap the presents he gives so to keep the surprise there is a sheet put up and everyone walks in one at a time youngest to oldest and the surprises begin.  She didn't quite know what to think...but she was excited!

This is Missy walking through the sheet...we couldn't even get her to wait one extra second to get a cute picture...but whatever!

"Santa" made this in our garage...it is pretty amazing! We are pretty excited about how it turned out!

Maggie was a little confused too...

Marilyn's cousin Anna gave these make your own sugar cookies to her for the cousin gift exchange!

The engineering Barbie?? ...defiantly a necessity for every engineer (especially Professionally Engineer's) daughter...Thanks Grammie and Far Far!

Mar didn't waste anytime getting into the fun! We put all her food and pots and pans in the kitchen and away she went!

The other fantastic thing about Christmas this year is that the NBA started up again!! Booyah, it has been a LONG LONG off season with the ridiculous labor dispute, but we felt like it was a little Christmas miracle that we got to watch games ALL DAY LONG...excessive?? Perhaps...

It was pretty neat that Christmas was on a Sunday this year, we felt lucky that we got to spend the whole morning as a little family and then we got to go to church and think about the Savior.  We are grateful for the Savior in our lives and are grateful he was born and we can celebrate His birth on Christmas. 

Christmas Eve

This was the first year we didn't go to one of our parents house for Christmas.  We knew we had to fill up the time with fun Christmas activities that would remind us about the real meaning of Christmas and help us feel the love.  We went to the live Nativity at Tuchacan, which was awesome.  Marilyn told Baby Jeff (who is still in my belly) all about the donkey that Jesus Mommy rode and that is was cold outside.  She told him about the angels and their beautiful music and the camels that came by Jesus.  She told him how beautiful Baby Jesus is.  It was a sweet moment to witness, she got it!

Some other things we did, we made snow globes and went caroling with our buddies the Records.  My family goes caroling every year when we are in California so it was pretty cool to keep that tradition alive despite not being there.  We had my parents come from California and in true Nielsen fashion opened a bunch of Christmas presents early (Tom got AppleTV and I got a 14 cup Cuisenart, which is AMAZING, Marilyn got a horse riding Barbie and the horse actually walks!).   We did a bunch of art projects and made ALOT of "Holiday Treats".  A treat qualifies as a holiday treat when it has butter and sugar in it.  I have a sweet tooth...it's not my fault!! We tried to do about 3-4 things a week that kept us moving and feeling the Christmasness. 

One of my favorite things we did was have a giant Christmas Eve dinner with a bunch of friends who were also staying home for the holiday.  We had the Records, the Penroses and the Byingtons over for a turkey dinner.  It was super fun! I got to use all the leaves for our table and it was fun to prepare all day for a big meal at my house.  It was my first meal of this caliber...everyone brought something so it was not stressful just fun.  We played BINGO and did a little gift exchange, it was really really fun playing and laughing together on Christmas Eve. 

Here is everyone, I have no idea why I decided I needed to be front and center of the entire picture...oops!

Marilyn and her darling friends Haven and Diesl...they played all evening! So fun to have friends to play with...I loved watching it and listening to it!

When it was over and all our friends went home, we knew Santa would be coming soon so we hurried and got a few things ready for him and went to sleep as fast as we could!

We opened our Christmas Pajamas (I made them this year...they are a little goofy, but perfectly fabulous for the occasion)

Marilyn will NOT let anyone help her put on clothes anymore...so it took FOREVER, but she got them on! We hurried to sleep cause we knew it was a big day starting the moment we woke up!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Belvin, The Elf

We were pretty lucky this year because Santa sent an Elf to live at our house on December 1st. 

Santa sent him to watch Marilyn to make sure she was being a good girl.  This is our first big Santa experience so I am sure he wanted to check up on Missy before he unleashed his booyah on her. 

Belvin comes in the morning and then watches all day and sometime in the afternoon or evening (we never got to catch him leave but sometimes we hear his jingle bells) he would go back to Santa and report what he saw for the day. 

Marilyn was pretty interested in what was happening, she looked everywhere for our new friend, Belvin. 

Then BOOM, she found him...he brought her a note

We loved having Belvin it reminded us to be nice and listen to Mommy and Daddy.  Marilyn said a few times "Mommy, Belvin is watching..." I guess he was watching me and Tom too! Every morning we would find Belvin in the weirdest places! Here are a few of our favorites...

Still a week after Belvin left to go back to Santa Marilyn tells me that he is watching us.  She loves to remember where he was in the mornings and on some sad mornings we have to remind her that he doesn't live with us anymore.  She always comes back with "Mommy, I'not sad.  He come back next year!" We miss you Belvin! We will be good, and next year you will have another little dude to watch!