Happy Memorial Day

This is the first time that we've been home on Memorial Day weekend. We wanted to get out of the house, so we decided to check out the Walker Memorial Day parade.


Hannah dressed in her red, white, and blue.

Hannah and Daddy watching the parade go by.

It was a really nice parade. Not too long, not too short, and tons of great loot to be collected.

Although the temperature was only in the 70's, it was muggy! I didn't realize how hot and sticky it would be. I spent all of the parade keeping Jack in the shade and fanned off. He slept the entire time, even when the fire trucks sounded their horns. (Yes, he had a hearing test in the hospital and passed.)

We watched the parade with our friends Brian, Sara, and their son Jacob. Hannah is all about Jacob. A potential future boyfriend???

All 3 kiddos after the parade.

Happy Memorial Day!

Welcome home!

We were so happy that Jack and I were able to go home on Friday morning. Hannah and Jason came to get us on yet another beautiful, sunny, hot day. I had sent Jack to the nursery while I got myself ready to leave. When Jason and Hannah walked into the room, immediately Hannah asked "Where baby at? Where Jack at?" I was so relieved that she seemed to be loving her brother already.

Jack, Hannah, and I got the valet service and wheeled down to the door to be picked up.

Jack's first ride in the carseat. Since we'd been cooped up in the hospital for the past couple of beautiful days, we took a ride over to East Grand Rapids to cruise past Reed's Lake before making the trip home. Hannah was very happy to be sharing the back seat. Jack slept the whole ride home.

We were surprised by a cute sign in our yard from Grandma and Grandpa Davis, welcoming Jack home.

The beautiful flowers and gifts from our family.

After the excitement of the day, Jack was out, so we laid him down in his crib. He looked so tiny!

Later in the day, we tried out the bouncer. He seemed to like it, as he fell asleep almost immediately.

We've now been home for 3 days, and each day is getting better and better. He is still a great eater, which has been so nice. The first night was very short on sleep, as Jack adjusted to his new home. He's getting better and better at sleep. We've discovered the swaddle is essential. It's amazing that he can be crying, and as soon as we swaddle him and lay him down, he's instantly out. Wish I could fall asleep that easily! Last night, he slept much better, and today his naps have been great. It's so easy to forget how much we all have to learn in the beginning. It definitely helps having been through this before.

We're also so proud of Hannah. She has really taken to the big sister role. Every day when we get her up, the first thing she asks is "Where baby Jack?" She can't wait to see her little brother. She loves giving him hugs and kisses and has actually been a tremendous helper. I'm amazed at how much she understands and does. We're so happy and relieved that she's so in love with her brother. I hope it lasts :-)

Baby story

Labor progressed fairly slowly the rest of the morning. The only "excitement" of the morning was the horrible burning sensation I kept getting in my arm from the penicilin that I had to have in my IV due to being Group B Strep positive. Since there wasn't much going on, my parents brought Hannah up to the hospital to visit in the early afternoon. We were really happy to see her!


She wanted to sit up with Mama.


Swinging with Daddy.

I didn't end up needing a stronger dosage of pitocin. A midwife finally broke my water around 2:00. I was going to try to go for awhile longer without an epidual, since with Hannah I didn't deliver for another 5 hours after my water was broken. However, almost immediately the strength of my contractions dramatically increased. Just a couple of minutes after my nurse left the room, I called her to order the epidural. By the time I finally got it all in, it was about 2:45, and I was in extereme pain. I kept asking the nurse when it was supposed to kick in, and she kept telling me the pain should get less and less with each contraction until it was gone. However, the pain never subsided, so she checked my progress only to discover that I'd gone from almost 4 cm before my water broke to 9 1/2 cm in a matter of an hour! Plus, he was facing the side, giving me intense back pain. My doctor arrived around 3:00 and immediately had the nurse get me ready for delivery. As I started pushing, his heart rate started to drop b/c his cord was along side of his body, getting squeezed with each contraction and push. They then called in the neonatal doctor and had one of my doctor's colleagues on stand-by for an emergency c-section. At that point, Jason and I both began to get a bit scared. My doctor told me I had to push really hard and get him out right away. By that time, the epi had kicked in, so pushing was hard to do. I did my best, and thankfully he came out. I only ended up pushing for 9 minutes, but it was a scary 9 minutes!


Jack arrived at 3:30 p.m.


7 lbs. 12 oz., 19" long.

Proud Daddy. Jack was so alert for quite awhile, and he's a great eater!

Daddy admiring his new son.

Making all of the phone calls.

My parents were waiting for the news at our house with Hannah. The brought her up shortly after. She wasn't so sure what to think of the baby in Daddy's arms.

Once they were formally introduced, Hannah warmed right up to him.

Proud Grandma and Grandpa Cramer.

Our new bigger family.

Grandma and Grandpa Davis came out later that night to meet our newest family member and take over for my parents.

We just couldn't be happier to welcome Jack into our family. We are totally in love. Jack really is a precious gift from God.

He's here!

Only have 1 hand to type right now, as my other hand is occupied with our sweet little guy, but wanted to post an update. Jack Owen made his entrance into the world at 3:30 p.m. yesterday (5/26/10), weighing 7 lbs. 12 oz. and 19" long. So far, he is a very content, happy baby and a GREAT eater! We're both now doing really, really well. Will post more details, and pictures, later.

Labor and Delivery

39 weeks and 3 days. I was hoping that I'd go into labor on my own, but looks like Baby Boy is going to be stubborn. We headed to Spectrum for my labor induction at 5:00 this morning.


All ready to have a baby!


All hooked up and waiting for labor to start.

When we got here this morning, the hospital was under a drill and was running on generators, including no a/c! With temps expected to once again be in the upper 80's today, the doctors did not seem happy to be without the it. Thankfully, full power finally came back on around 7:30. So far, not much action, so I'm passing the time by updating our blog, surfing the internet, and watching tv. Jason's already been down to the cafeteria for breakfast (since I wouldn't let him stop at McDonald's on the way!), and is now taking a walk. He missed this part of Hannah's labor, as I called him from the hospital when he was at work. My doctor has a couple of surgeries this morning, so she's keeping my pitocin dose low until she's available. I'm hoping that my body starts naturally responding to the low dose and this is all I need. I've had a few moderately strong contractions. Hopefully they'll pick up soon!

Hot Day

Once again we had another day in the mid-80's. Seeing the sun outside, the first thing Hannah asked was to play in her water table. She LOVES it! We had to go to MOPS in the morning, and on the way home she was literally singing about her water table. I told her that she could play in her water table after her nap, which may have been why she only slept for an hour!


Looking for JJ - "Where go JJ?"


Sidewalk chalk has been a big hit so far this spring.


Hannah decided that her baby and blanket needed a bath. No, I didn't necessarily approve this. She snuck them in while I was on the phone! Needless to say, baby spent the rest of the evening sunbathing on the deck to dry out.

Neigh Neigh Ride

I did our final big shopping trip in preparation for the baby's arrival earlier this week. I've learned that the best way to keep Hannah in check during trips to the store is to bribe her with snacks. She actually now asks for her snack as soon as she gets in the cart. Unfortunately, I didn't plan ahead very well and only had a few snacks to keep her busy during our trip. However, she caught a glimpse of the Meijer horse as we were entering the store, which of course she wanted to ride. I used this to my advantage and bribed her with the promise of a ride throughout the rest of our shopping trip. It totally paid off. She behaved very well, and I kept up my end of the bargain by giving her a ride on the "neigh neigh". She LOVED it. Definitely worth the penny!

39 weeks

May 23 and I'm now 39 weeks pregnant. One week away from my due date. I seriously thought that we were going to be on our way to labor and delivery early this morning. I was awakened by pretty strong contractions around 4:30. They were bad enough to get me up out of bed to walk around a bit. Unfortunately, after about an hour they had subsided. I think this was the first time that it really hit Jason that I could be heading to the hospital anytime.

Since I didn't head to the hospital, we decided the next best thing would be to do lots of walking. We spent all afternoon walking around Grand Haven. Still having contractions, just nothing regular. If labor doesn't start on its own, then I'll be going in to be induced on Wed. morning. The end is in sight!

39 weeks

Kite Festival

What a perfect day to head out to the lakeshore and enjoy the Kite Festival in Grand Haven! We got out there early enough that we got a pretty decent parking spot, which was a good thing b/c the traffic was literally lined up out of town by the time we left! I must admit that I was pretty proud of myself for all of the walking that I did. We walked from our spot near the coast guard station down to the beach to check out all of the kites. With temps in the mid-80's, we certainly weren't the only ones enjoying the cool lake breeze. The beach was packed with people and kites!

Watching some of the kite routines. Pretty amazing. How they don't get tangled is beyond me!

All kinds of HUGE character type kites. Very neat.

Hannah enjoying her drink while watching the kite show. Needless to say, her drink was pretty gritty with sand by the time we left.

Since we hadn't really planned on being at the beach that long, we didn't bring chairs. That was all right. Hannah and Jason just found a spot to sit near the beach.

We didn't think to bring any beach toys with us either, so Hannah improvised and filled her shoes with sand instead.

After we'd had our fill of kites, we walked back toward town and stopped for lunch at Snug Harbor. I was so hot from walking in the sun (remember, 85 degrees plus 39 weeks pregnant!) that we ate inside where it was air conditioned! This picture is evidence of why we rarely take Hannah out to eat with us at sit-down restaurants anymore! After lunch, we walked downtown to pick up a replacement part for Jason's kite and then all the way back to the car. These feet are now ready for a good rest!

Dare I say a perfect night?

The day started out pretty questionable with lots of clouds and threat of rain. However, by late in the afternoon, the clouds gave way to sunshine and nice, warm temps. Jason's been itching to get out in the boat, and I figured that maybe the rocking could get labor started :-) We headed over to Reed's Lake for an early evening cruise.

Our little captain blindly driving the boat


Much better!


The (soon-to-be) 3 of us! Side note: Yes, Hannah is unzipping her life jacket in this picture. No worries, though. We made sure to zip it up again right after this, along with the reminder that we always wear a life jacket when we're in the boat. A classic case of do as I say and not as I do. Hmmm.....

So this is where all of our diapers have been going...

We have been mysteriously missing diapers lately. I think we've found the source...


Her baby needed a clean diaper.


She's really quite particular about how she gets it done.


Such a good little mama. I think she's going to be a big helper when her brother arrives :-)

How to Wash Your Dog

Hannah helped Daddy give JJ his bath this morning.

Step 1: Thoroughly soak your dog.


Step 2: Select your soap.


Step 3: Lather him up.


Step 4: Final Rinse


Brought to you by H&J Dog Grooming. Please call ahead for an appointment :-)