A baby story - Cabott Jones

6:00am

 

We brought the kids with us the morning of the induction. They had fun walking around and around the womens floor with us while we tried to get labor started. I had to have an IV right from the start to get antibiotics so I pushed that for awhile and then had to keep coming back to the room for the baby to be monitored.

10:00am

Nothing much changed in the first 4 hours so talk of pitocin began. I ended up getting pitocin to have more regular contractions. I cried because I really didn't want to have pitocin. I've heard it makes laboring a lot more difficult and painful. I wanted to try and go natural so more difficult and painful was not my ideal way of laboring.

I labored naturally for awhile and then when the nurse thought I was in transition (7cm 95%) she called my midwife. I labored for awhile after my midwife Christy was there and thought I had to be getting close because I started to feel more like I wanted to bare down. Christy checked me (closer to 6cm 80%.) I regressed? I don't really know if that is even possible but hearing that I wasn't in transition made my heart sink and I asked for an epidural at 7:20pm.

Cabott Robin Jones weight 7lbs 12.5oz and 19.5 inches long came into the world at 7:55pm. Basically my body needed to be relieved of the pain to relax enough and let the him come down to be born. It was better to have gotten the epidural too because I had some not so fun after birth things that would have been very painful (maybe worse than childbirth) to endure. The epidural was a blessing for many reasons. I'll spare everyone the details. 
7:55pm

 I have this same 'please don't put that purple gross thing on me' photo for all three of our children. The difference is with Cabott I only had a second of it because he wasn't breathing yet. He needed to be stimulated to get his lungs to cry out the first sound of life. I didn't worry about him being gross, I just wanted him to breath so I was rubbing all over him.
 This is not a peep show :)

 

11:30pm His first bath.

 

 

I kind of loved him a lot from the very beginning. I stayed up most of the night just looking at him. I'm smitten. And he needed a name so I was trying to get him to tell me what his name should be.

 

Our first visitor was my wonderful friend Melissa. You look good with a baby!

Then the family started to arrive. Cabott's uncle Ryan and aunt Kami are so adorable with children. They are expecting their 4th in March, yay for more babies!

 Cory's mom is a nurse at the hospital we delivered so we were really lucky to have her close by for everything.

 Winter is reminded to hold the baby's head. I think the only person more excited and more in love with the baby than me was Winter. She has loved Cabott since we first told her I was pregnant.

 
 I have taken lots of photos of Cabott, but have been keeping them to myself. It's easy to capture another person's child with my camera, but my children are another story. I see them a certain way. They show me a look I can't seem to get on 'film.' It's very frustrating.

Here are a couple from his first day home.

 This is how I see him...straight out of the camera (SOOC)

These are when he is 10 days old and more of what everyone expects. They are SOOC so I haven't edited anything. I want to remember all the little scratches and beginning of baby acne, I think it is beautiful.

 

 

Little Prince

Tomorrow you join our family and you will become a Jones. As we have no first name picked out for you, that is the most important part of your understanding what it means to be a part of a family. A name is not all defining, but that you will be a Jones and a part of a family that has been waiting for your arrival for 9.75 long months. Little Prince, as a Jones, you will be loved by many, you will be cared for, and you will be a valued member of our lives. A name does not tell you who to be, who to love, who loves you, which career to choose, or which direction to take in life. It does not decide if you will be kind, or handsome, or have the ability to do great things. You, Little Prince, you get to decide what the world holds for you. Know that mommy will be here to help every step of the way, even if I was not able to give you a name before you were born.

The cost of Kindergarten

Besides the $1,056.97 of my property taxes that went to the Davis School District here is what I have paid in addition...

$10 to join the PTO (Parent Teacher Organization)

$15 for the giving tree supplies (I was duped into buying additional supplies for the class because 'without the help of the parents, Kindergarten just doesn't happen') of foam hand soap, paper plates, and Clorox wipes

$20 PTO Fall Festival

$25 Entertaining Book Fund Raiser (and being asked to annoy all our family, friends, and neighbors to also purchase one,) so any of you that wants one, we are selling them until Sept. 28th

$35 Extra Snacks (extra being the key word because I already gave snacks for the whole class as a part of her "school supplies") for the whole class because they don't get one unless it's donated

That's a total of $105. IT'S ONLY SEPTEMBER 16th!! Today Winter's teacher sent out an email requesting donations for their fall field trip to the pumpkin patch. They need money so that everyone can get a pumpkin and rent a bus to transport them there and back. SERIOUSLY?! School is only 2.5 hours long each day so I am sure this is going to take up the whole class time. AND what parent doesn't already have plans to go get pumpkins? Why not just ask all the parents to bring their child to the pumpkin patch for school that day and buy a pumpkin? Seems like it would be easier to me and way more worth my money. 

ALSO, I was asked to volunteer for at least one job to help Winter's class. I volunteered for two! I have a little bit of time during the day so I figured since 'without the help of the parents, Kindergarten just doesn't happen' I should give it to my daughter's class. I am fine giving some of my time to help her and her class. There are 65 volunteer positions Winter's teacher is asking to be filled to help her class.

65! Wow, I am beginning to think Kindergarten isn't going to happen.

 

Winter's homework is a skill set book that she knows how to do everything in already. Letter, their sounds, numbers, her phone number, shapes, colors, etc. etc. I am supposed to help her with these things...teach them to her if she doesn't already know them. Then a volunteer checks them off in class. So what is the teacher doing? I got a lovely nursery rhymes book from the past three weeks of school. It had 5 songs in it and a 2x2 inch colored image at the bottom of each page. All that in only three weeks. Ahhh!!

Starting to wonder if I will always be this neurotic about her schooling or if I should just find something else to sacrifice in life so she can go to a private school.

I am glad Winter likes Kindergartern because I HATE IT! 

How much are you willing to pay for public schooling? Is it worth it?

Our dog Roman

Roman can be a bit of a naughty boy. Mostly he is aptly named because he loves to roam. He finds ways out of our fenced in backyard to meets the neighbors, pee on everything, and sometimes invites himself in an opened door. Now that he can't seem to find a whole in the fence I don't hate him. I actually remember why we love having him in our family. He is a good boy. Even though this is totally ruining our furniture to allow the dogs to sleep up there, I just don't have the heart to make them get off the couch. Look how he sleeps!