Karly's first year of Dance

I loved dancing when I was a child. In fact one of my regrets in life is that I didn't stick with it after Jr. High. We moved to Texas and I had to give it up. I always wanted to keep doing it but my highschool didn't have a dance team. I'm hoping that Karly will like it as much as I did. We found an excellent company. The teachers are strict but that's how I think dance should be. It shouldn't be a social meeting. If I'm paying I want my daughter to learn. Everyone's different but that's how I feel. This was her first recital. She was so excited to be able to wear makeup for the first time. She did such a great job. She was super nervous and I was afraid that she would get stage fright but she didn't she got right up there and performed perfectly.

 Her dance required a loud growl. I think that was her favorite part.

1 Month Old

Jolee was 1 month old on May 8, she is starting to hold her head. She turns her head toward noise and is starting to track things with her eyes. She is starting to become aware of who her family is. Her big sister loves her but I think Jolee is starting to sense when sister is around and starts to cry. 

Jolee Newborn Pictures

I had Jolee's newborn pictures taken. I signed up to have them taken while I was still pregnant. During the session Jolee pooped all over everything. I was so embarrassed but what do you do? Jolee also got the opportunity to be a baby model for a photographer that has taken our pictures before. She was teaching a class to other photographers and I got to have some free shots. So Jolee got to have two different newborn shots. Here are a few of them. 

Easter

Easter Sunday, wow it's hard to get three kids ready and try to get all of them happy in one picture. Here are our out takes of Easter. I don't think there is one picture that I love because someone looks goofy in all the pictures.

Jolee Jade

Well we're totally in love. Jolee Jade was born on April 8th at 11:39 p.m. She weighed 7lbs 14 oz. It was quite a night. My c-section was scheduled for April 10th. So I wasn't planning on going in. I had went to work and came home from work and started having contractions. Which was no big deal because I had started having them basically every night and then they would go away during the day. I got the kids homework done and got my kids in bed. But I noticed that the contractions were getting closer together. I started having Jared time them and they were exactly 6 minutes apart. We timed them for about an hour and then called Jared's mom to come and sit with the kids. Jared and I headed up to the hospital and on the way some of the contractions were two minutes apart. By the time we arrived at the hospital they started to become painful. I went in thinking oh they're going to just send me home. They took me to a room and monitored my contractions for about a half hour. The nurse tried to see how far I was dilated but she said my cervix was way too high up and she couldn't reach it. So she said she was going to call my doctor and find out what she wanted to do. She left the room for a couple of minutes then came back with a huge pile of forms and stared having me sign my life away. I had no idea what I was signing because she was in a huge hurry. She said we're going to have this baby within the next half hour. I told Jared to call my mom and his because I didn't even know if they would make it in time to see us when we came out.  We headed into the c-section room and started prepping. I was a basket case. I always get so worked up when I have surgery and my heart was beating so fast. I kept asking the anesthesiologist what was wrong and he said oh you're just nervous. When Jolee came out she was wide awake. She surprised the doctor because she was looking at her when she cut me open. She said her big eyes were just staring at her. I didn't get to see Jolee right away because they took her away to clean her. After I couldn't even hold her because I couldn't get myself under control I was shaking uncontrollably and I felt like if I held her I would drop her. She had jaundice but the jaundice has luckily went away. She so far is such a good baby. She hardly ever cries and is pretty easy going. We're so lucky to have her in our family. Karly is in love and thinks that this is a real life baby doll for her. She even told me I could trade dolls with her. That I could take care of her Ariel doll and she would take Jolee as her baby. It's been an adjustment having three but we wouldn't trade her for the world. 

Coming Home from the Hospital

38 Weeks

Well I've made it to 38 weeks. I had the cerclage taken out at 37 weeks and thought for sure I would go into labor. It was very painful to have taken out. My doctor had to keep trying and trying to get it out. Thankfully she was able to cut the stich and now it's out. I think the most painful part was her feeling to make sure she had gotten it all out. I went home that night and started having contractions about every 5 minutes but about the time I was ready to go to bed they stopped. I went to work the next day and contracted that whole day. I didn't think I would make it through the weekend but now it's Thursday and still no baby. Next week I'm scheduled to have a c-section on the 10th so as of right now I feel like that is when I'll be having this baby.