Adjusting at Home

Barbara was great to stay another week after Jada was born.  The first week is always a bit of an adjustment.  Everything went pretty well really, except for the fact that my milk took awhile to come in.  At 3 days, Jada had lost a pound, so we were a bit worried.  Then my milk came on day 4, and she was more than fine at her 2 week appt.

This is how I survived the daytime.  Water.

And just like my other kids, Jada loves to be held!

Truth be told, I hardly put her down.  She even sleeps on my arm at night.  It was so nice to have my mother in law and then my mom here because they took care of Hazel and Grayson and allowed me to nap for the first few weeks!

Jada had several visitors her first few weeks of life.  Everyone just adores her!

Hazel and Grayson are anxious to have her join in on their playtime.

This is how we spend a lot of our day.  It's her preferred position for a quick nap.

We're just loving this little lady at home!

Grayson is 3!

Grayson is the cutest, smartest, and sweetest little boy there ever was!  He even earns extra points for being potty trained and for sleeping in a big boy bed all prior to baby sister coming!  Grayson is so fun to have in our family.  He's a good playmate with Hazel (unless he feels like teasing her), he's cautious, he looves puzzles, he loves books and retells them on his own in his cute little voice, he likes most food (except avocado, tomato, and pickles), and he's a momma's boy for now, which I love!  On his actual birthday, James's parents brought the kids up to the hospital for some cupcakes, and then they took the kids to Stonebriar mall to play and to ride the carousel.  Later that day, we came home from the hospital and Grayson opened up some presents.  A few days later, we met Matt's family at Braum's for ice cream and more presents!  We'll see how we handle these birthdays one day apart in the future, but this year, Grayson was a great sport and loved all the mini celebrations we had for him.

The colors are off, but this is his big boy room.

Love this handsome 3 year old!

Jada Christine Palmer

We knew it was possible for baby girl to come on Grayson's birthday, so I chose to be induced the day before his special day.  My mother in law came to help me 2 whole weeks prior to baby coming because the doc said the baby could come any day.  Even though she didn't come, I sure didn't mind having Barbara here to help me with everything.  It was sooo nice.  The only bad thing that happened while she was here was the hail storm that totaled her car!

On April 12th, James and I left early in the morning to go to Allen Presbyterian Hospital.  It always feels strange to drive to the hospital, knowing you're coming home with a baby.  We got settled in our room and the nurses started the induction at 6:30 am.  Later they gave me my epidural and then broke my water afterward since I usually go pretty quickly after that.  The labor process was about as expected and easy enough until the end.  This was the first time my epidural didn't take well on one side, and by the time I knew it wasn't going to work really well, it was already too late.  Baby was coming!  I was surprised when Dr. Weise said she had lots of dark hair!  Once they put baby girl in my arms, I instantly loved her and cried as usual.  So sweet, perfect, and innocent.  She came at 10:37 am and was 8 lbs. 6 oz. (my biggest) and 20 in. long with the most hair of all three kids.  I guess she wanted to outdo her siblings.  They didn't even whisk baby away to bathe her or anything, so I got to just hold her and stare at her for a long time.  She had the same round face as her brother and sister with similar features - dark blue little eyes, pudgy nose, small chin, and dirty blonde hair.  After several hours, we finally decided on a name for our little angel...

Jada Christine Palmer

April 12, 2016

8 lbs. 6 oz.

Jada means "wise" or "knowing" and it's also a variation of the word/color "jade", which James and I always liked.  Christine is obviously similar to Christina, my dad has a sister Christine, and Chris and Christina are baby girl's uncle and aunt, so her middle name has a lot of family meaning.

Later that day, Gma and Gpa Palmer and Hazel and Grayson came to meet their little sister.  They thought she was pretty great and loved holding her.  

Then we took our first picture as a family of 5!

After one night in the hospital, we were ready to be back home, so gratefully baby and I were doing well enough to do so.  Here's Jada ready for her ride home with her cute blanket the hospital gave us!

We're so grateful to have this sweet, little, healthy angel in our lives.

Baby Celebrations

My friends arranged a night out at the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate baby girl and me, and it was perfect.  I love a good girls' night and cheesecake!  I got some adorable gifts as well, which got me really excited because even with a second girl, new stuff is always fun! 

Then the Young Women had a little baby shower for me at Mutual, and I left with more girly stuff and diapers, which was great since I hadn't bought any of those!

Then the last get together we had was a cookout with friends.  Good times and delicious smores.

Now baby girl can and will be joining us any day!!

Easters

The weekend before Easter, we had a great time at the big egg hunt in Plano.  The kids loved all of the activities, so even though it was crowded, it was worth it!  Petting zoo, pony rides, face painting, crafts, balloons, a train, bounce houses, the Easter bunny, and an egg hunt.

Then in the week leading up to Easter Sunday, we did a few fun activities to talk about the real meaning of Easter.

Palm Sunday

Their other favorite activity was our Passover meal.  Hazel wants to eat like this more often -- a dinner of all of her favorite snacks!

Easter Sunday was beautiful.  I'm so grateful I get to be with my sweet family forever!

Last Big Outings

I may find that I have more energy than expected in the last few weeks, but just to be safe, I planned a few outings a month or 2 before the baby.  One place I've been wanting to go is Canton.  A group of us girls hopped in the car and went one Saturday morning.  It was really fun to just walk around and look at all of the little shops in nice weather.  If I were going to go again, I would make sure to have a specific list of things I wanted since it's all kind of overwhelming!  I was very happy with my one purchase though -- metal angel wings for baby girl's room.  Great deal and unique!

Our friend Jackie invited us to the Arboretum one Friday, and it was gorgeous.  We had lunch and walked around, but the majority of the time, the kids played in the stream.  Jackie and I were more than happy to relax on the grass with baby Jackson.  I even got lucky and had extra shorts for Grayson (because of potty training) and Hazel dressed herself in 2 pairs of shorts that morning!

The next Friday we went to the Dallas zoo with Jackie and Zara.  It's always a hit with the kids, and again, beautiful weather.  

They had amazing lego animal art displayed all around the zoo.

We had to pose in front of the cougar.  Go Cougs!

Here was our cute zoo group, although most aren't looking.

We had a sad moment when we just missed the pony rides for the day, but the goats cheered us up.

We've been having lots of fun!  Hopefully the kids remember these times because I'm about to be down for awhile.  We're also grateful James's schedule is already slowing down, so we'll get to see him more around this time of year than we did the last.