One Month-a-Birthday!

Dear Baby Boy,

You are one month old today! There are so many things that have happened and that you have done in the last month that I don't want to forget and maybe you will be interested in reading these one day.

• You weigh 10 pounds according to our scale. Your last length measurement was 21 inches but, judging by the amount of room left in your sleepers, I think the doctor will tell us you've grown!
• You take mealtimes so seriously! You are nursing every 2 1/2 to 3 hours and do not let it take any longer, thank you very much. 
• You are sleeping 2-3 hours at a time. Two nights you slept for 6 hours straight, which made your mommy very hopeful, but you're hanging onto those shorter intervals.
• You are starting to focus on objects. You followed me across the room with your eyes a couple of nights ago.
• You don't mind tummy time! You are lifting your head and even briefly got on your knees today! 
• Swaddling helps you sleep at night but you hate it! I lie in bed and listen to you straining to get those little arms out of the blanket. 
• Your hair is beautiful and still a mystery to us. Will it stay brown, turn red, or turn blond? 
• You have held those tiny little hands up to your mouth since you were born and this hasn't changed! Chewing on your fists helps you feel better and I'm so sad to take them away when you are swaddled.
• Those hands make me smile-really I could take 100 photos of those hands and never capture their sweetness.
• We are starting to see your beautiful little grins, first in your sleep, and now you'll occasionally grin at us. 
• You are enjoying your baths more. You just lie there looking at me while I bathe you. Baby lotion, however, is a different story. From your screams, it seems you have decided it's your mortal enemy!
• You are just about the noisiest creature I've ever heard-sneezes, grunts, coos, and "toots"... lots of "toots". :)
• You are beginning to be able to soothe yourself when you are upset. Usually, though, it still takes some snuggling and love. and rocking. and bouncing.
• You love the bear mobile on your pak n' play. You will stare at it for as long as it runs. Oh how we wish it were battery-operated.:)
• All it takes is that little lower lip starting to tremble to melt the heart of anyone around you and we are at your side right away.

We love you little guy!

saturday

saturday.

daddy takes baby while mommy gets a couple hours of sleep.

sunshine and buttercups.

clean little bath babies.

hanging out with my favorite boys.

grilled cheese with colby jack and swiss and diet dr. pepper.

kettlecorn.

giada on tv.

nascar (naptime) on tv.

target run.

typing with one hand so sweet-smelling boy can be held in my lap.

My Littlest Valentine and a Photo Shoot

Clearly my little valentine is over the pictures today! We took another shot at getting some good newborn pics of Mr. Jackson. I don't know how newborn photographers do it! Anyway, here are some of my favorites...

(plus a few random ones)

Lots of fun going on in the Hughes' household! I had the best Valentine Date last night with the best husband in the world! We are celebrating our 8th Valentine's Day together! That is hard to believe. It was so nice to be able to go to dinner, knowing our little guy was safe at home with Grandmother. And I only texted home one time!

We Are in Love

All we can do is stare at our little miracle and discover more about him every day. That's what's going on around here. :)

Frustrated

I am frustrated. I went to the doctor again. 3 cm, 70% effaced, just no active labor. This is ok, though, because the induction day is Friday, right Regena? Well, it is unless the labor and delivery floor at the hospital is FULL, meaning if a room doesn't open up before Friday morning, we will have to be rescheduled. I know, go ahead and tell me that it's ok, you've waited this long, what's a couple more days? I'm impatient for this baby boy to come. Plain and simple. I know he could come on his own, in fact I'm praying for that and trying to be at peace. I'll just say it one more time, I promise. I don't want to wait three more days (the next scheduled day would be Monday). That's it. 

Now I will try to give you a break from my whining and distract myself by showing you some before and after project pictures. Chris and I undertook a lot of involved projects to get Jackson's room the way we wanted it, with lots of love and without spending tons of money. I think we did pretty well.:)

Remember the old dresser Chris' grandparents gave us?

 Chris did an amazing job stripping, sanding, and fixing what was broken.

The finished product: beautiful changing table and dresser that will be used for several years!

 Last thing we are working on is the bookshelf that will go in this space. Chris' mom made the awesome curtains!

It's come a long way!

Little baby boy, I am excited that you have a warm, comfortable room to come home to, but if we lived in a cardboard box and we kept you in a shoebox I would be just as happy. As impatient as I am, stay in there and come out when the time is right.

Two. More. Weeks.

I have to admit, I was more than just a little hopeful that yesterday my doctor would magically say, "Oh, this boy needs to come out today!". Last week Jackson was measuring 41 weeks so she wanted an ultrasound to make sure the fluid was good and that everything else was going well. I was so nervous before the ultrasound that I took my little cup into the restroom to get the urine sample and forgot to pee IN the cup. Oh well, evidently I wasn't the first person to ever do that. Ha! Anyway, the ultrasound showed everything is good and that J weighs approximately 7lb, 9oz. Yeah, he's a big boy, but the 68th percentile is not bad. Some other great news about this appt. is that my progress is now to 1 cm and we have an induction date! I know, I know, whoopty doo-da about 1 cm. You don't understand, I have had absolutely zero progress-it felt like negative progress-until now. This was amazing news!

An actual induction date is amazing news as well. I was starting to have nightmares about being at work, two weeks late, waddling around the unit. Nope, unless he comes earlier, Mr. Jackson will be evicted induced on January 27th, only one day after my due date! My doctor will be on call that weekend, my family will be able to be in town, and we have time to get that dang beautiful nursery done!:)

There is just one problem with the 27th, however. It's still two weeks away. You see, I haven't been the most radiant expectant mother ever. Don't get me wrong, I have never forgotten, even for a second, this blessing in my belly. However, I haven't loved the heartburn, getting up every two hours to pee or take TUMS, swollen fingers, or marshmallow feet. Nor will I miss the backaches, waddling, or having to figure out how to roll over in bed to actually get OUT of the bed to go pee. 

Haha. All of that has been true for me. I would do it again, though, in a heartbeat, because I know what's coming. Chris and I can't wait to meet this little boy, find out what he's like, and discover his personality. We can't wait to hold him, love him, and teach him about things. Chris has already been coaching him on the ways of the world by way of my belly button. It's almost unimaginable to think that we are responsible for teaching him, this little human thing, about God's love. See, don't you think we need to go ahead and get started! We have so much to do!:) I could even resign myself to the fact that the nursery wouldn't be completely done, which is something I couldn't have accepted even a week ago! 

That's the story right now. Two. More. Weeks. We can do this, right?

We don't have Jackson's room done but we're close! Here are some pictures for those who are curious:

 See, Jackson's friends are waiting on him!

If you can't tell, the top two in the green are pages from Guess How Much I Love You. The bottom one is a Norman Rockwell painting of two little boys fishing with their pup on a raft.

These letters we are hanging above his crib. I LOVE them! Yay for Hobby Lobby!

Two Christmases

Well, it was a different kind of Christmas this year. I felt so different about it this year and all I can think is it was because of our little baby boy coming in January. Gifts didn't seem important. I had to work on Christmas Day. In fact, I read the Christmas story in Luke in my car the morning I had to work and it impacted me more than ever. I'm so glad our time with family was well spent and we kept the important things in the forefront. Our festivities started out Christmas Eve, during which we got together with Chris' family. Lots of food and good family time! I wish I had taken some pictures but that didn't happen much this holiday. My family came from middle Tennessee Christmas night. It's funny because we had some miscommunication about dinner and we needed to find something for Christmas dinner. Someone suggested ordering pizza which sounded good to everyone else. Do you know how many pizza places are open Christmas night? You guessed it...zero. In fact there were only 2 restaurants that we could find open-Waffle House and McDonald's. Well, we got some hamburgers and chicken nuggets and sat around the table to our Christmas dinner. It was classic! I did get some pictures of that night. 

 Tess, the Christmas Wonder-pup

 Emily's new apron.

We had some great family time and definitely had a Christmas that we will remember!

On a totally different note, We are almost finished with the nursery! Photos will follow, of course. Here is a photo of our next project, the dresser which will be Jackson's changing table. It's a piece from the 1950's and belonged to Chris' grandparents and they gave it to us free! Yes, it's seen better days, but with a little sandpaper, paint, hardware, and TLC, it's going to look beautiful!