Giving this a try.

Okay, so I'm going to try and write a blog again. I tried this once before, in college, and I found it fun (although most of my entries were super lame haha), I'm hoping family and friends will read this to keep up to date on the happenings of the Miner family, now one member bigger than a year ago! Christine started one while she was preggo, and has inspired me to start one. Hopefully I can post at least once and while, giving everyone updates on what's going on in our crazy and busy lives (you'd think that with a baby, you'd be less busy and enjoy quiet time at home...totally not the case!). Here we go...

On Thursday, July 14th, Jack Martin Miner was born at 4:50pm, weighing in at 7lbs 2oz and 18.5inches long. He was 3 and a half weeks early, but a perfect and healthy little guy. I went to the doctor for a follow up appointment from 2 days prior, when my fluid was measuring slightly low after doing an ultrasound to measure everything. Baby was moving and looked good, so the doctor ordered a follow up for 2 days later, to check again, and to monitor my bloodpressure which had been up for the previous 6ish weeks. Thursday, the doctor checked me (OUCH!), said I was 2cm dialated and that my fluid had looked like it had dropped more. That, combined with my high BP, concerned him and he instructed me to go to the hospital for further testing. I, without hospital bags packed yet, figured that was was going to be "THE day". So, I left the doctor, went home and packed everything, and somehow found myself in an oddly calm frame of mind. I was alone (I had been off of work for 2 weeks, dr ordered & light bed rest was suggested), Matt was at work, and I was calm, and ready to do this. Had Matt been there, I'm sure he would've been a crazy person, so I'm kind of glad I had those last few moments to myself haha. I got in the car, put on my Adele playlist, and headed to the hospital. Upon arriving, they hooked me up and I waited for the ultrasound tech to come do her thing. At that point, I was fairly certain I was having contractions every 4-5mins, lasting about a minute each time. I asked the nurse if this was normal (I had no idea!), she said some people start early and that the doctor would probably want to hold off on delivering for awhile yet, since I wasn't 37 weeks along just yet. She was wrong! The U.S. tech couldn't find what she was looking for, baby wasn't moving as much as they like to see (he scored a 6/8 on this "test"), so a few mintues after my very long ultrasound (I got to see him for a half hour while she was poking around! Although, it definitely hurt since I was having contractions), the doctor came in and said since he wasn't moving, nothing seemed wrong though, if it was ok, they'd go head and schedule an "emergency" c-section (we had been scheduled for one on Aug 2nd). I said YEP! I'm ready (just waiting on Matt at that point), let's do this! Matt got there just as they were prepping me. It was all so surreal, people running in and out of the room, craziness all over, and within 20 minutes of the doctor telling me we were going to do this, I was in the surgery room getting my spinal block. Matt got there around 3:15, I got into the surgery room at 3:28 where I got my spinal block and all hooked up and prepped, and by 4:50, Jack was safe in daddys arms. He was the most beautiful baby. It was rough not being able to hold him, but Matt sat right next to me with him while they got me all put back together. Our families were excitedly waiting out in the waiting room at this point, but it wasn't until 7:45ish when they finally got to meet him. They could only stay until about 830 (though visiting hours were over at 8), at which time Matt & I tried to get a little bit of rest. The rest of the hospital stay was nice, with family and friends visiting often. We checked out of there around 1pm on Sunday July 17th and it was really weird going home with our little man!

In the weeks following, we saw lots of our families and got to know our baby boy. Jack will probably be up from his nap soon, so I won't go into detail about everything that happened, but to sum it up: we left him with Gma and Gpa Martin for the first time so Matt and I could attend my 10yr highschool reunion, we went to my brother and Lindsey's wedding (he was awesome during the whole thing!), and we've had a few get togethers with the extended Miner clan and Jack's cousin Rylie, who's 5 weeks older than he is. His first few months were difficult due to his fussiness. We tried a few different formulas (altough the dr said it's probably just something he'll outgrow), which didn't work, and smelled horrible! He's just over 3 months old now, and is growing out of it. He's smiling a lot now, copying coos and smiles, and even laughed a small little giggle at daddy last night. He's been rolling over from tummy to back since he was about 2 days old, he's a strong little guy. And, he's sleeping through the night now, usually 10pm until 7/730am. I  miss those middle of the night feedings, but it's nice to finally not feel like a zombie anymore! Even though I know it'll hopefully be a year and a half before we try for another, I do have thoughts creep into my head about being pregnant and having another baby. I miss being pregnant. It was by no means an easy pregnancy, but luckily there were never any complications with him, and every day I'm thankful for our precious miracle.

Now that he's getting easier to keep from screaming, I don't feel so bad about leaving him with Matt for a few hours while I have a mom's night out. Thanks to Christine (Matt's cousins wife, and Rylie's mommy), I've joined a mommy group, met some really nice moms, and have been to 2 fun moms night out events, and one play date (although Jack was just 5 weeks old and not really "playing" haha). It's nice to talk with other moms about what's going on, and know they have the same fears/concerns/experiences, and can offer advice or suggestions. It's also nice to vent sometimes, since I'm no longer working, I don't have the girls at work to do that with anymore!


Now I'm off to wash bottles and clean up a bit before he wakes up. I'm having dinner with a friend from work tonight, she's bringing her little guy who's 10mo's old. Fingers crossed Jack's a good boy!

 3mo's old