spring

I love watching Jack grow! He is such a gem and full of smiles and giggles (especially for his dad.)

Way too early this morning Jack was awake, loving life and I just couldn't seem to keep my eyes open. A woman can only get up some many times in one night!

John's back was facing me, but I knew he could hear Jack's babble just as well as I could. :) Then, in the midst of my slumber I heard Jack say, "dada" I like to THINK that's what he said, (or John does mostly) but either way, John turned around and got up with Jack, delighted to hear what sounded just like "dada."

Two more hours of blissful sleep for me. Can you do that tomorrow, Jackboy?

Who thought Jack would have so much red hair?

tummy time often means spitting up all over my face time

i just love this kid.

rachel and richard came for a quick, but sweet unexpected visit!! they got to meet jack too!

we also got to see john's parents for a couple days

he is such a stud.

I should be napping...

but i can't. for a few reasons.

1. it is SNOWING like crazy outside! it is incredible!

2. LOST starts in a week and a half. feb 2. i can't wait. the anticipation is killing me.

3. jack is sleeping soundly next to me and suddenly i have a burst of energy.

Jack is growing like a weed. He weighed in at 14.3lbs on Wednesday and 25 inches long! The boy has been growing. He's still not a real regular pooper, so we're trying to get a handle on that. Who knew that I would be PRAYING my little guy would poop?

I'm thinking of trying out wordpress.com. Anyone tried it before?

I wish I could have seen what 3 months would do. My mom kept telling me that at 3 months life will begin to feel normal again. I wasn't sure if normal existed anymore. Now, three months into this mothering thing I have begun to see what she was talking about. For one, Jack has begun to smile and baby coo. It's been delightful! He's also started sleeping longer at night (10:30pm-5:00am! Full nights rest for me!) And I wasn't sure if that would EVER happen. But is has and boy is it great! At the same time I can hardly believe how fast it has gone. I already miss his real baby face.

In three short months our son has grown from this...

to THIS!





and during this time we three traveled to michigan to see john's family...
tried to catch up on some lost sleep...
met up with good friends for a couple of hours...
and spent Christmas with my family too...


overall, the months have flown and our little jack is such a joy.

speaking of...he is currently stirring and making all sorts of noises and movements. i think he's hungry.

...i'll leave with this one.

john absolutely HATES the flash.

Welcome to the world!

John "JACK" Stephen Dickerson Jr.
joined the world on October 29, 2009 at 8:17pm

Contractions started around 4:00am and continued for 16 hours.
He weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces and 21 inches long
We went through delivery without any pain medication, plenty of good, relaxing music and lots of warm showers.

It was truly magnificent.

Painful, yes, but worth every second the minute they handed him to us.

He is a gem and such a gift.
Praise God for a healthy and safe delivery!

Snow is falling in Prescott and it's a chilly 37 degrees outside.

I am loving it.

I can't help but pray that today would be a wonderful day for our little boy to come. Wouldn't it be great to be able to tell him he came on a freezing cold October day with snow flurries and cloudy skies? I sat in the waiting room at my doctors appointment and just watched the snow dance around like teeny tiny marshmallows.

Last night I woke up at about 3am and couldn't fall back asleep. I went to my usual "second bed" ie the lazy boy and tried to fall back asleep. I couldn't, however, because I heard rustling above me. Squeaking in fact. My eyes nearly shot out of my head. The scratches came and went, but all I could imagine was the movie An American Tail. Hundreds of families of mice in the space above me and I couldn't bring myself to want to kill them, I just didn't want them there. I could imagine them talking and planning on how they would investigate the house and eat all of our food. They were so cute.

Then, my dear John insists on us having a space heater. A Lasko. Which he loves. I mean, loves. He loves the remote, the oscillating feature, the automatic shut off, the whole bit. But I am still 9 months pregnant and that thing makes me wake up in sweats (or is that those hot flashes....I'm not quite sure.) Either way, I spent a lot of the night fiddling with the dear Lasko to shut it off. ....Then turn it on again.

Needless to say, when it was light outside I realized the squeaking wasn't hoards of mice families, but only a tree branch gently scraping against the window.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day and maybe it will bring with it a little boy.

Last Minute Purchase Before Jack Comes

Although I've had this CD for a few years, it takes on a whole new meaning listening to it as a soon-to-be mom.

These songs are precious and sung by one of my favorite artists. One song has been spinning in my head again and again...

"When you reach the proper age
I will teach you to read and you can turn the pages.
How to dress and tie your shoes
Your one plus ones, and your two times two's


And you'll teach me
Of hearts and dreams
And all the most important things
And all that i have lost along the way
And I can't wait

As you grow, I'll show you things
How to ride your bike and kick your legs out on the swings
To fold your hands and bow your head
How to say your prayers before you go to bed
And you'll teach me
Of hearts and dreams
And all the most important things
And all that I have lost along the way
And I can't wait...."

Fall keeps tricking me. It's like it can't make up it's mind. Do I stay or do I go? I guess I need to remember that we do live in Arizona.

Thankfully, I do believe it's finally cooling off for good. And Prescott falls are simply beautiful.

We went to a pumpkin patch a couple weeks ago...and it was hot. The lovely Arizona sun was adamant on showing it's face that day and what else can you do, but try to enjoy it?

Check out THAT pumpkin! I'm nearly as big as the ones on the ground!

Yesterday we had our 38 week appointment! How incredible to think he could be arriving any day now! The doc says I'm 2 cm and 75% effaced. Praise God!

Our little Jack is doing great and getting ready to make his way into this world. The only bummer is our doctor.

She's always been a nice lady. It's a typical wait-in-the-lobby-for-30-minutes and see-her-for-5 kind of scenario, but she's never been really sassy.

Until yesterday.

We took our birth plan to her, knowing it might not go as well as we hoped, but still hoping.
She proceeded to go through every single detail and respond to them with statements such as, "Well, that doesn't make sense." "Did your doula write this for you?" "Why would that even matter?" "Let me tell you why I don't like birth plans..." "I don't care what you do after the birth, that's the pediatricians job." and so on.
It was insane.
But we stood our ground. And prayed for grace because somewhere along the way she decided she did not like birth plans.

Not only was she reacting to simple requests (not demands, but requests) in a completely emotional way, but she was acting as if we hadn't paid her a nickle for her service. To top it off, she decided to try to "mix things up" when doing an exam and attempting to strip the membranes, after we had spent 20 minutes discussing how we wanted a natural delivery and onset of labor.

When she was finished with the exam John asked her, "Did you just strip the membranes?" In which she stuttered to reply, "Well, kind of, but I couldn't quite reach it. I find that a lot of girls get to their due date and nothing has happened, so I like to help it along a bit." Such a procedure was not one she asked permission to do, nor did I want it done.

We went to Subway after that and I got to finally eat a bag of Cheetos. That helped.

But thankfully, I'm not feeling any more contractions than normal. A friend of mine had her membranes stripped (without permission, by the same doctor) and she was in labor the next morning. Thankfully, God knows what's best for little Jack and he's not quite finished cooking yet...though I have to be honest when I say that I can't wait to meet him.

We're having a doula aid us through the labor and I couldn't be more thankful. She'll be there during the early stages at our home and through until the end. We're also doing a type of birthing called Hypnobirthing which I'm really looking forward to. It's all about techniques to aiding your body to relax and go deeper into relaxation as the birth progresses. We're praying for a healthy and safe delivery!
...hurry up, Jack! We can hardly wait!

That Time Again

Autumn.

Although it's still about 80 degrees here in Prescott it's beginning to get cold at night! Sometimes I feel like the weather is playing tricks on me.
I have to admit, a couple nights ago we took a late night trip to Walgreens to pick up the first bag of candy corn....and they were on sale 3 for $4!

Some fun facts about candy corn...

• Candy corn has been made with the same recipe by the Jelly Belly Candy Company since around 1900.
• What's in that recipe, exactly? Sugar, corn syrup, and marshmallow.
• One serving (about 30 pieces) has 140 calories, the equivalent of three miniature Hershey bars.
• The National Confectioners Association reports that more than 35 million pounds were manufactured in 2005, amounting to almost 9 billion kernels.

Welcome, Fall. I've missed you.

Two Things I am a little Embarrassed To Admit:

1. I had another dream about the Jonas Brothers last night. I don't even listen to their music (very often) or watch their TV show (.....very often)! I keep having this dream where I will meet them and just want to be their friends. So weird.

2. I finished New Moon in one week. Which, for anyone who has read the Twilight series knows that's not big deal, but John kept saying, "Mel, you have to pace yourself. Once it's over it's over." But I couldn't help myself, it was that good.

//
Last night was the first night of our birthing classes. It was great. We had a wide variety of character in the room and it was so nice to be around pregnant women and not feel like the only whale in the room. A friend of mine told me the other day I need to be around other pregnant women and I won't feel so large. "Yeah right." I thought to myself, but as soon as I walked into that room with all those other pregnant bellies and swollen feet I realized she was right. I did feel normal.
Anyway, they opened the class with this clip from my favorite, Bill Cosby. I think John and I were the only ones laughing out loud, but I couldn't contain myself.

Why can't stand up be this funny anymore? (Though there IS plenty of funny stand up comedy out there.)

//
My dear, dear crony and her dear husband came for a visit a couple of weeks ago. It was a great reunion full of laughter and great quality conversations. One night I realized that she and I share a gift of being able to hold a conversation pretty much 24/7 if we wanted to. There's rarely a silence, dull moment or a speechless reply. There is always an opinion to be shared, a thought to be discussed, questions to be mulled over and plenty of jokes to fill the room. It was a grand visit.




Even Jack came!



The beauty of the Grand Canyon


//

Monday we went for our 3D ultrasound. It was awesome/weird to see these distorted images of our soon to be arriving son. I tried to be optimistic, but John couldn't help but say what he was really thinking.
"He looks like a walrus without husks!"
"He looks like a pig."
But what I kept saying over and over was...
"He looks like an old black man."
The technician tried to calm our fears by reminding us that the parts that seemed to stand out were just the closest things to the camera and the way he was positioned.
It was so surreal to see him. It's really happening.

Those are so John's lips...

That's his hand/cord in front of his face

He's rubbin' his little eye..

Those are John's toes! But I think he has my big toe. (Sorry, kid.)

All I could think of was Bill Cosby when I saw this picture.