Jack's First Week

Proud Aunt Megan popped up for a visit one evening.

We've been fortunate to have a lot of help from my mom and other extended family this week. Jack pretty much sleeps all the time except when feeding and he is starting to have an hour in the morning of wakefulness.

We have gotten out of the house a fair amount already which is completely different than when Sasha was born. We all went out for frozen yogurt one night, out for a walk in the plaza another night, and drove up into the mountains for a picnic and short hike on Jack's one week birthday on Sunday.

Jack Philip Smucker is here!

Jack decided to make his grand entrance 12 days early. My water broke at 5:15 am after a fitful night of discomfort and little sleep. I actually had prayed in earnest for the first time that this baby would come NOW before I went to sleep that night. My prayers were answered and above is just before we left for the hospital that morning as we were waiting for my parents to arrive from Albuquerque to stay with Sasha.

After about 15 hours of labor and much harder pushing than I ever expected for a second labor (it turns out he was sunny-side up) he "popped out" as Sasha says. We were so thrilled to discover that we had a boy! He arrived at 9:23 p.m. weighing 6 lbs. 5 oz. and is 18 1/2 inches.

Once again Phil was a super star labor coach and has easily jumped back into the newborn parenting phase.

Going on day 3 and Sasha has been so good with this huge change in her life. She is very gentle with little Jack and tries, most of the time successfully, to be very helpful with all the baby care. Phil is off this week and we are really enjoying finding our balance as a family of 4. For some reason it has been so much easier for me to bounce back physically and emotionally this time which I am grateful for. I attribute some of that to the lovely weather right now vs. the cold, dark grey Indiana weather Sasha was born into. I know though that the true test will be when I'm on my own in a few weeks with Phil back to work and mom and dad not here as often.

Babymoon and other happenings

Labor Day has come and gone without any labor around here. Now Phil is on call for the week so we're kind of hoping that nothing happens until next week. He could rearrange things if he or she decides to come now but it would be a hassle. In the meantime, I'm cherishing these last days with Sasha alone and feeling a little bit of guilt/sadness when I think about how our relationship is going to change once the baby is here.

A couple of weekends ago my parents generously took Sasha for a couple of days while Phil and I got away to Pagosa Springs, CO about a 2.5 hour drive away. We stayed at the Springs Resort which has 25 different natural hot tubs all at various temperatures situated along a refreshingly cold river. We spent the days and evenings tub hopping and lounging around reading books. It was so nice to have quality time and conversations together over long dinners especially knowing that there will be a drought of "us" time this next year.

Sasha loves making smores on our firepit for a treat in the evening. Funny quote from last week: We were eating breakfast and she said "Excuse me, Mommy" Me: "Why, Sasha?" Sasha: "I was tooting while I was sleeping last night". Me: "How do you know you were tooting if you were asleep?" Sasha: " Because I'm a tooting machine."

Michigan cont.

Sasha loves to lie in the sun and cares not if she is plastered in sand.

Lake Michigan was so warm this year and there was a wide beach too which was nice.

Running down the big sand dune was fun in the evenings before bed.

Annual Michigan Vacation

We spent 2 weeks this summer up on Lake Michigan at Phil's family's lake house and had a lovely time. The first week Phil, Sasha, and I were by ourselves and we were joined by the whole Smucker gang for the second week. It was so nice to relax on the beach (the term beached whale comes to mind!) in my 3rd trimester state and Sasha was easily entertained with the water, sand, and her Daddy. I'll post more favorite pictures shortly, but here are a few group shots to get started.

Sasha (2), T.J. (1), Anna (1), Mary (3), and Jacob (3). The cousins all had a lot of fun together this year. On a more current note, I'm 37 weeks pregnant now and having more and more contractions as of yesterday. Stay tuned for pending baby news....we're pretty excited around here!