The Holidays Are Here!!!

I just wanted to say to everyone how stoked I am about Holiday season! I can't believe that Thanksgiving is next week! I love when family gets together-- this is my favorite time of the year! I got really good news today, too....
I thought I was going to be without my boys for both Thanksgiving and Christmas morning (it's their Dad's year-- I was only supposed to have them Xmas Eve) BUT I spoke to him today to confirm plans and he says he has to work on Thanksgiving... so YEA for me, I get the boys!!! AND his fam usually does Christmas Eve-- so I get to open presents with them Christmas morning! I'm so happy about it all!! Everything is falling into place!

Our little monkey!

As most of you know, we couldn't wait to have this little sucker so we scheduled an amnio for last Monday. As long as the results came back with mature lungs we were going to check in to the hospital that night. Only when we got to the appointment, I didn't have enough amniotic fluid to do the amnio. Go figure that something else goes wrong.... but a blessing in disguise, cause if we hadn't gone in we would have never known the fluid was low. At that point it was a case of dehydration or just low fluid and we would have to induce. After 15 hours hooked up to an IV, my amniotic fluid was actually lower than before, so we started the induction. About an hour later I got my epidural. I felt no labor pain at all until he started to crown. Four hours after the epidural we welcomed little Jeremiah Johnson Taylor II (Jer really wanted his name that way!!) into the world. He was a squished and puffy perfect 6lbs. 7 oz and 18.5 inches long. We can't get enough of his face! He's such a good baby! He barely ever cries, but let me tell you, when he does, he definitely has his daddy's big mouth and loud nature. He wakes up at night only to eat, which is still hard to get used to. The sleep interruptions kill me!

Oh, and I don't care what anyone says-- babies smile.... it's not just gas.

My last couple weeks!

So... I've been given the okay to stop taking my medication as of Sunday. That would put me at 36 weeks and make it okay to let the baby come IF that's what would happen. Jer and I talked it over and ran it past my doc and we decided that we would continue with the meds until 37 weeks to be safe. We want this little guy to be healthy and we've been fighting to keep him in there this long.. another week won't matter. Except, it will torture me, but who cares about that-- I'm just mom. One more week will put at least another 1/2 pound of weight on him and give him that much more time to cook up his lungs. So I will stop taking the meds between Oct. 24 and 26th. Couldn't tell you what's going to happen from there. I can tell you that I'm dialated to 2 (through the medication), I've been having more contractions already, I have a 30% chance of delivering within the first 24 hrs. otherwise, I could go full term. So, family--- be ready for my phone call to either take me to the hospital or help with the boys!! Love you guys!!

My doctor's appointment today!

For the first time in this pregnancy I went to the doctor and got all good news!!! No contractions, strong fetal heartbeat, no weight gain in 2 whole weeks (YEA!), barely any further dialation (I'm at a good 1 cm), and I don't have to wake up in the middle of the night to take my medication anymore (I'm trying for the first time tonight to see if will be okay without). I'm stoked! It is unexplainably awesome to feel good about this pregnancy for once! I've been excited and anxious all day instead of paranoid and scared!
I can't get too excited that I let things go... I have to make sure not to over do it... keep doing what I have been and keep this little sucker in there for as long as possible still.

We're going to give it a shot!!

We decided to start this blog so that our family and friends that are far away from us can stay posted on the news! It's hard to make that many phone calls to stay in touch with my growing litter of children.

So, here it is, our first of many...
We'll start with the baby news. I'm getting scared & anxious and Jer couldn't be more excited! He can't wait to be a Daddy! The nursery is almost done!!! I really want to paint the walls, but it's just not worth it when you're renting... plus, I'm not going to want to paint it back.
Things have been going really great with the medication to stop the contractions. The plan is to stop taking it once I hit 36 weeks, which will be October 20th. So any day after that, we could be meeting our new JerBear!! I'm betting that it doesn't go past October... November 1st at the latest. Anyone want to start a pool??
Nicole and Elise are throwing us a baby shower on October 4th!! Thank you so much, girlies! And thanks ahead of time for all of you that are coming!

Collin has been doing outstanding in first grade! He says he doesn't like it and has finally stopped giving me so much crap about doing his homework... but as much as he fights it, he's succeeding! We couldn't be more proud of him. He got 100% on his very first spelling test, then came home with his 2nd progress report of the year. It was all straight A's, of course-- he's my son. All but one subject was 100% and the other had increased from a 92% to a 94%-- so nothing but improvement. Then he comes home with an award that named him a "Super Eagle." (That's his school mascot.) It's for the student in the class that is showing excellence. He got to go to the first principal's luncheon!! The teacher had to choose one boy and one girl from the class.... so it was Collin and his Kindergarten girlfriend, Aubree. She's so damn cute and a brain, too. My baby has good taste!!

Austin is my little sweetheart. He helps me all day long and just cannot wait to be a big brother! He's always hugging and kissing the baby in my stomach and talking to him! He asked me a couple of weeks ago to take him to his school.... my little guy wants to go to pre-school. It's so dang cute. He does his homework everyday when Collin is doing his. So if anyone knows of a good pre-school, let me know!!

We got together at the Taylor's last night for Jer's Dad's 50th birthday! It's so nice to get everyone together and have family come in from out of town for the occasion. I adore the Taylor family!! I couldn't ask for better in-laws. It really makes me miss the rest of my family that I never get to see!!!
It was a special night. Everyone got through it with absolutely no arguments or frustration! Jer's Mom even told him that she liked his new tattoo--- she hates tattoos, but the artwork looked really good! It was awesome, really! Such a huge step!
Nicole and I somehow brought up Christmas... which is right around the corner!!!! I can't wait! I love the spirit of Christmas and how it brings the fam together.

That should catch everyone up.... I love you all and miss you tons!