He's Here!!

Baby Jackson has finally arrived and we are totally in love with him! We checked into the hospital yesterday at 5am, got an IV w/ pitocin around 6:30am, broke my water at 8:30am, endured labor pains long enough to say I did it and got my epidural around 10am. Of course only 1 side of me got numb so they gave me more medicine and fixed the epidural and before I knew it I could not move me legs, which was completely awesome when it came to pain, but a bit troublesome when the pushing came. Unlike my other 2 who came out with a max of 3 pushes, it took about 30 min of pushing to get him out because he was "sunny side up" - which means he came out with his face upward instead of facing downward which is why I was having so much trouble. But my doctor said if he did not come out with one last push, the forceps were coming and if I remember correctly, Katie said that was pretty uncomfortable for all parties involved, so I just pushed and luckily he came out at 12:28pm. He weighed 7 lbs 12 ounces, which was a nice surprise. Of course he is a week early so he probably would have been over 8 lbs had I not been induced. I am very sore b/c I tore pretty badly so I am all stitched up and the cramping has been almost as painful as the contractions, but I have some pretty cool drugs so it is tolerable.

He is so quiet and calm (knock on wood). He cried for just a minute after he was born, but has had shots, blood drawn, circumsicion done and just does not really cry. Of course when it comes to the diaper changes and the doctor messing with him - he lets them know he is unhappy. He sleeps about 4 hrs at a time, drinks his bottle and goes right back to sleep. I know it is too early to tell, but I would not be disappointed if that trend continued. He looks just like his dad and has the trademark Lassey smirk already. I have pics on the camera, but I brought the wrong USB cord to the hospital so I will have to download this weekend after we get out of the hospital. The civilian hospital experience has been great. I have this huge private corner room that looks more like a hotel suite than a hospital room. The nurses have taken care of every need and then some, the food has actually been pretty good too. They bring a dinner for Donnie as well as me for each meal and even brought us thanksgiving dinner on a white tableclothed table with flowers and sparkling cider. Donnie had 2 ribeye steaks and I had turkey with all the trimmings. Definately cant complain about it. Vanna is spending the night with me in the hospital tonight. The nurses gave her a blanket and pillows and she is chilling on the couch watching Home Alone while i mess on the computer.

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving today. We will be doing Thanksgiving dinner this weekend at the house with some friends, but I don't think anything can top this.

Just thought I would share that a name has been decided on-as of right now that is :-) We have decided to call the baby Jackson Walter. Walter is Donnie's great grandfather and Donnie's dad came up with Jackson a while back which I liked back then, but like it even more now since Jackson is one of my favorite characters on Sons of Anarchy (which in case you have never seen it, is a bad ass show on FX about a motocycle gang, if you like that kind of thing). Anyway at least the little guy has a name now and is not just baby. Hopefully it will fit his personality. And apparently I like to have some kind of rhyme or reason to my kids because all of them will be exactly 6 years, 2 weeks apart, all born on a Wed and depending on how you look at it all named after cities: Tyler, Savannah and Jackson.

Time has certainly flown. I did not realize I haven't updated this since Sept (not that I am very good at updating it). Anyway lots to report. First of all, the baby is doing well and will be here on November 25 if he does not show up before then. So that means only 23 days left to go! Seems like just yesterday I found out we were having a baby and now he is almost here. With that said, these last few weeks are DRAGGING by! I do go to the doctor tomorrow so maybe we will see if there is any hope of an earlier arrival, but I doubt it....Lassey kids tend to hang around as long as possible. If all goes as planned I will get out of the hospital the Friday after Thanksgiving so we are having Thanksgiving that weekend and hopefully will have a full house. We have some friends down at Ft. Rucker for school with no where to go for the holiday so we have invited them to join us with their families. Nothing like a house full of friends, good food and football!

Thursday was Tyler's bday. Hard to believe he is 12 already. We had a football game Thurs. night so we celebrated on Friday instead. Vanna's bday is in 10 days so of course she is asking everyday if it is her bday yet. She will be 6! It is kind of cool because all of the kids will be exactly 6 years and 2 weeks apart and all of them born on a Wednesday - did not plan it that way but its pretty neat how it worked out.

Halloween was great. Donnie is out of town so I took Savannah, who was batgirl, and we went for over an hour and I can't believe how much candy she got. Tyler went with one of his friends and he loaded up a pillowcase full! The neighborhood was packed with trick or treaters, which is something I have not seen in a long time. It reminded me of when I was a kid and everybody was out and about. There was even a house tailgating halloween style. They had a grill, hotdogs, drinks, candy and a surround system set up playing halloween music. They were handing out food to all the trick or treaters for free. It was pretty cool. I do have pics and one day I will get them posted but you know how good I am at that :) -