Keeping Up with the Joneses

A glimpse into the busy and very blessed life of the Jones Family!







Wednesday, July 28, 2010

What's up Wednesday...

It's hard to believe Emily Blair will be 4 weeks on Friday. The time has gone by so quickly, not that I didn't already know that it would. She had an awesome night last night and slept from 10 pm to 6:00 this morning. Yippee! She has been getting up around 3:30-4 each night to eat and then goes right back to sleep without any trouble. After her 6:00 feeding this morning she dozed right back off and I had to wake her around 8:00.

Hunter has some kind of viral sore throat so we had a visit to the pediatrician this morning- all of us! I had planned to possibly leave Blake with my sister so I could take Hunter and of course, Emily. The doctor's office called and asked if I could come an hour earlier instead and gave me a 15 minute warning, so we all loaded up and I am happy to say, survived our visit there.

My sweet grandfather passed away on Tuesday morning after a long battle with Parkinsons. He's in a much better place now and for that I am so thankful. We are going to miss Dee Dee though! He was a special person and the only grandfather I had living during my lifetime.

Emily is still sleeping most of the day away. I took her for a weight check last week at 3 weeks and she was 7 lbs 13 oz, so I am sure she has finally tipped the scales at 8 lbs this week. I can tell she is starting to fill out more and more, yet find it so hard to believe that Blake was BORN at 8 lbs 13 oz, over a pound and a half bigger than Emily at birth. She still is not as big as he was yet and she's almost a month old. That's incredible!

Blake and Hunter continue to be the best big brothers. There is nothing but sweetness towards Miss Em and lots of hugs and kisses from her big bros.

On our first trip to Waco, Emily was 3 weeks old. She did great in the car and slept the entire way. This is Em in her sunbubble outside at Din and Dinny's house (great-grandparents) while the boys were swimming.

This is Emily in her newest dress from her future Aunt Kate. Thanks Kate! Yellow is a good color on her.

Looking at the lights and colors on her playmat. I realized that I had the boys down on this playmat long before she got a chance. I can't forget to do the things I did with them just because life is more hectic these days. She seemed to enjoy watching the lights, listening to the music and seeing all of the colors.

Emily all dressed up in one of her tutus. It's fun to play dress up and take pictures. I am trying to figure out this camera that I got last fall and play around with the settings. She is of course a very fun and captive subject. One day soon she'll be running just like the boys do when the camera comes out!

Another attempt at playing with the camera. This Feltman bubble is one that my mom saved that me and my sister wore. So sweet!

A week ago I had a small surgery done and so Chris, Emily and I headed to the surgical center that morning. I had her all dolled up in her bow. Since I am still using the baby blue toile carseat cover I used with the boys, we sometimes get the observation that we have another boy- doesn't matter if there is a pink blanket draped over her, it still happens. So, we had to stock up on some more bows to make it OBVIOUS! It makes me laugh that my boys got mistaken as girls even in their blue outfits- I mean blue seeksucker with sailboats? Seriously? Now, I have a girl that has pink on every outfit and she gets mistaken for a boy. Ha!

The kids in Waco... Hunter loves having Em close by and Blake is always eager to be a part.

Look who has rediscovered the swing! He sits in it, makes it go side to side and says, "Wee, wee, wee!" Glad he likes it now since he was never a huge fan as a baby.

Emily is offically without her umbilical cord at 2 weeks and 1 day old. She has had a couple of tub baths since and she loves them. Like mother, like daughter. Actually, all three of mine have loved the bath since day one and even love the sound of it. I guess the many baths I took during my pregnancies fostered their love for the tub.

Well, the rest of our week will be spent with family and honoring my grandfather at his memorial service. We are going to spend the weekend at the lake and I am excited- not about getting in a suit, but about being at the lake. It's been a long time!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

The first two weeks...

....have been great with Emily Blair at home with us. We are so blessed and thankful for our healthy and happy little one. She is really easy-going (so far) and fits right into the daily swing around here. It's loud and crazy most of the time and she doesn't even flinch. So far, she is eating every 2-3 hours during the day, sleeps a lot and is having periods of wakefulness more and more every day.

At night, she wakes up to eat every 3-4 hours usually by squirming in her bassinet. She rarely cries and makes the sweetest little sounds when she needs something. At this point, Emily spends a lot of time in Mommy's arms, being held by her big brother, Hunter, in the bouncy seat and swaddled up in the bassinet. Life is good!

I have had way too much fun with each outfit change and take as many pictures as I can in each thing. It's been such fun seeing her in pink and ruffles!

Emily had her 2 week visit early at 10 days old. She had regained her birth weight and was 7 lbs 4 oz, so that is great progress from the 6 lb 10 oz that she came home from the hospital at. She is 25% in weight, 50% in height at 20 inches now and 50% in head measurement. Emily is doing great with head control and even pulled up from laying flat on her Mimi's lap. We were stunned that she could pull up so much!

Emily in her going home outfit at one week old

Emily looks like a baby doll in this picture

I laid her in Blake's crib last Friday (July 9) while we were playing in his room. I ran into the kitchen to check the time and it was exactly 11:39 am (her exact time of arrival one week before) and snapped this one week old picture right then.

Pretty girl in her sun bubble.

Accessorizing at a young age- this is VERY intimidating to me!

Sweet Daddy got us the stork again- this time it was pink. Many neighbors who saw this were very excited for her arrival!

The boys love holding Emily and Hunter asks to have her every chance he gets.

Blake reaches his hands out eagerly for baby sister (he calls her Bobby- which is ironic because that is the boy name we would have named the baby had it been a boy).

So cute all curled up


Overall, the first two weeks have flown by. We have ventured out a couple of times and Emily has done great each time. The boys are doing well with a new little one in the house. They love her and the only issue we have is between the two of them- lots of squabbles over toys, who had what, etc. I think we can manage though!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

It's a....

GIRL! We are so excited to announce the arrival of Emily Blair Jones.
Emily arrived Friday, July 2nd at 11:39 am.
She weighed 7 lbs 2 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long.
Emily has blonde hair, long fingers and toes, skinny little legs and arms and is perfect from head to toe.

After my last OB visit on June 30 (Wednesday) it was decided that I would have to come in on Thursday night to get the induction process started. For those of you who know me, my labors have been completely backwards by typical standards. Hunter, our first, came quick- within 2 hours of arriving at the hospital he was here. Blake was induced for that very reason so that I would be in a hospital setting for his arrival. He arrived within 4 hours of being induced. Now this third baby had a mind of it's own and since I was not progressing as I had with the first two, we needed to check in on Thursday night.

We were so excited! On Thursday, I took my last pregnant picture. Ever. :-(
Here are my last belly shots...



Chris' mom came in town with my sister-in-law, Summer, and her three boys. We visited and the boys played over at our house that afternoon, we took them to the toy store for a little treat and ate at Order Up. It was so humid that night, so the picture is a little blurry. It's our last shot as a family of 4.


After dinner, we brought the boys home with my sister, Kristin. Chris packed his bag, I finished up with my things and we got the boys situated. Around 7:40 we pulled out of the driveway, only to return 3 days later as a family of 5!

Around 8, we pulled up to the hospital and checked in downstairs. They sent us up to Labor and Delivery and assigned us to room 8. We had about 30 minutes to settle in and organize our things before my nurse, Yari, came in to get things started. Here is our room.



Yari got the IV in and monitors hooked up. Around 9:30 Dr. Vanover came in and got me started on the cytotek, which is like cervadil. She said that they would watch the monitors and if I needed more they would come in in about 3-4 hours to up the dosage. Chris and I tried to entertain ourselves by watching TV. Of course being hooked up to the saline drip made it for some frequent bathroom trips. That was a nightmare seeing as I was hooked to the IV pole on one side and hooked to the monitors on the other side. It was a long night of watching the monitors, getting up and having to unhook things and hook things back up, listening to Chris snore, and just being anxious for things that were about to happen. Apparently I had already been having contractions already when they first hooked me up to the monitors and I hadn't even noticed.

Around 5:15, they started pitocin and at 6:15 they broke my bag of water. About 7:30 my parents arrived and shortly after, Chris' parents arrived. Kristin came with the boys and my brother, Blake, got there to join in the fun too. Here is mama and her boys.

Blakey was especially loving on his mama that morning. I'm not sure he knew what to think.


My labor was very non-eventful. I was definitely feeling the contractions when the boys arrived, but was able to mask the pain. They came in around 8:45 for the epidural, so that made it easier for sure. After the epidural, I was at 5.

Around 11:15, I started to feel some pain in my lower abdomen and so my nurse, Ashley, checked and found that I was 8-9. Not much longer now~ The pain intensified with each contraction and before we knew it, it was time. Dr. V rolled in at the perfect moment and we got things rolling. Only about 5 pushes and Emily was here. Dr. Vanover said, "You have a little girl!" and we both just burst into tears. It was such an incredible moment to see Emily and to have her placed into my arms. Chris and I were both in disbelief. We have a little girl!

Apologies for these blurry pictures. Chris had a lot on his mind trying to get still pictures, video of her first moments and take her in. Here we go!

The ugly cry. We were just blown away that we had a girl!

Here she is!

Thank you God for this blessing!


I don't know why this didn't rotate, but this is how Chris announced to the family and friends in the waiting room what we had. Pink balloons or blue balloons given to the boys to tell them they had a brother or sister. As you can see, they have a sister!

Miss Emily Blair

Our family of 5

Daddy, Mommy and our little angel girl

Showing her off

More to come..... gotta run!