The rest of January

Cute grin

Showing off the shirt Aunt Steph gave him

6 week pictures

Jenn did a great job with the pictures!

Hey cutie

Sporting a mohawk for crazy hair day at school

Cool hair dude

Brotherly love

Isaac practicing his photography

34 years young

Mmm, cake

Big sister

How does time move so fast?  I've meant to update the blog multiple times, but finding a quiet moment is hard these days!  Stephen is 11 weeks old today.  And to celebrate he slept 7 hours straight last night!  I fed him at 10 pm and he woke up at 6:15 am.  Let's hope he continues this pattern.  Stephen will drink formula now which is great.  It's nice to have a little more flexibility.  He follows us with his eyes and moves around excitedly when we talk to him.  His baby smiles and laughs are adorable.  He's losing a little hair, but not much.  Everyone comments on how much hair he has.  He had his 2 month checkup and is doing well.  He is 13 lbs which puts him in the 75th percentile.  His height fell into the 25th percentile which is surprising.  However, I think he was measured too long at birth because none of the nurses came up with 21 inches at his follow-up visits. 

I celebrated my birthday on the 17th.  Nate took me out to dinner a couple days beforehand.  We went to Boatwerks which is right on the water.  I'm sure it's busy in the summer, but not in the winter.  Nate had to work nights on my birthday, but he made supper before he left- very sweet.  I made my favorite strawberry angel food cake.  I don't feel any different at 34, maybe more tired! 

We finally have snow and in came in force.  We've had 3 snow days in the last 2 weeks.  The snow is piled up into a hill in our cul de sac which the kids think is awesome.  Last week the snow was melting so the city came and took our snow hill away before the next big snowstorm.  Isaac and Julia watched the trucks despairingly.  "Why are they taking our snowhill away?!"  Thankfully it snowed the next day so all was well.  Nate took the kids sledding at Zeeland Christian School.  It has a good size hill that is still easy for the kids to walk up.  Nate took the boys snowskiing a couple weeks ago.  Caleb does great on his own.  Isaac was off the harness, but Nate still skiied close to him.  Isaac has a tendency to point his skis straight down the hill and see how fast he can go.

Caleb was very helpful last week.  I had to feed Stephen during the kids normal breakfast time.  Caleb got all of the cereal stuff out and fed his siblings breakfast.  He even made Julia's toast with nutella.  I was impressed and thankful!  I should start a weekly piece called "Julia's quotes from the pulpit."  The pastor does a kids sermon in front of church every week.  Julia now has to sit next to the pastor, even if that means squeezing in where there is no spot.  She has also discovered that the whole congregation laughs at everything she says- "ooh, I have an audience now!"  She can't help but answer every question the pastor asks and interject comments whether they are relevant or not.  One week the pastor asked what nicknames parents called the kids.  Julia said, "My Dad calls me Daughter."  Which Nate usually says in his "I mean business" voice.  The next week the pastor said "what would we do without families?"  He wasn't really asking the question but Julia piped up and said, "Get a babysitter!"  This week the pastor was showing the kids sign language for a Bible verse.  Julia interjected and told him how he could do the motion differently.  The pastor was then talking about Jesus dying on the cross and I was holding my breath.  Julia is fascinated by blood these days and often says, "Jesus died on the cross and there was blood. And did you know there was blood?"  I was just waiting for her to make a blood comment, but thankfully none came.  One other comment from Julia happened during Stephen's doctor appointment.  The Dr. was asking Julia questions about the baby and asked, "what makes Stephen cry?"  Without skipping a beat Julia said, "when I punch him."  I couldn't believe it.  I maintained a calm face, re-asked the question and she gave an appropriate response- "when he is tired, hungry, etc."  The Dr. glanced at me during this exchange, but thankfully she has interacted with our family enough to not be concerned.  Nate was joking that protective services is going to show up at our door now.  Never a dull moment around here. 

Jongsma Christmas

Nate, the dog whisperer.  All 3 of them were waiting for his commands, ha!

Tim and Jenny with Stephen

Love my Dad

My cougar Mom- such a funny joke!

Raise your hand if you love your big brother!

Spending time with Cardale

I love how he scrunches on my chest and sucks his fist

We had an uneventful New Year's Eve this year.  Nate worked the night shift and I stayed home with the kids.  I didn't have the kids stay up late because Stephen is fussy in the evening, needing more attention and I didn't want to deal with tired, crabby kids the next day!  I finished feeding Stephen at 11:40 pm and crawled into bed.  Shows how motivated I was to see midnight!

The following weekend we celebrated Christmas with my family.  Steph couldn't come home this time since she was just home at Thanksgiving.  We spent a nice day at my parent's house with Tim and Jenny.  My parents have a dog, Tim and Jenny have a dog, plus a dog they were watching.  So there were 3 little dogs running around the house, it was a little nuts!  I am thankful Caleb isn't terrified of dogs like he used to be.  Cardale spent the afternoon with us which is always nice.  Jenn took Stephen's 6 week pictures.  He was alert the whole time and looking cute.  A funny story from Christmas with my family- my Mom received leopard print hat and gloves.  She put them on and I made a joke about look out for my cougar Mom, she's on the prowl.  She took the joke well and we all had a good laugh.  She looks very fashionable in her new hat/gloves.  Tim and Jenny are providing respite care for 2 weeks for an 11 year old girl, Danielle.  It's interesting because we provided respite care for her last year.  I'm proud of Tim and Jenny for saying yes to the hard work of caring for foster kids.

Julia's favorite joke right now is, "knock knock? Who's there?  Boo. Boo who?  Why are you crying it's just a joke?!"  And she asks it over and over again.  She is learning about rhyming at school and she is all over it.  Her mastery of language is amazing.  Isaac is doing an enrichment class every Tuesday afternoon so he brings a lunch to school and spends the whole day.  He is enjoying being big like Caleb and eating lunch at school.  Isaac's best friend, Ryan, is spending 3 months in Florida which made Isaac sad because he has to find someone else to play with at recess.  It sounds like Isaac has found another boy to play with though.  Isaac definitely prefers playing one on one instead of with a group of kids.  Caleb is glad that his teacher is back from maternity leave.  He doesn't share much about school, but he is doing really well and enjoys going.  Caleb plays with Jason alot at school.  We're still hoping to find some boys in our neighborhood his age.

Last Sunday we went back to Hope Reformed Church so we could introduce Stephen.  We all enjoyed catching up with old friends.  We miss our friends, but we're also thankful for the new church we are attending, Faith CRC.  People are incredibly hospitable and we appreciate a more diverse congregation.  

Christmas

6 weeks old

Isaac's Dutch costume for the church Christmas program

Stephen as baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph

Who has a phone out?

That's where you'll find Julia!

Caleb made a great calendar for us at school

Caleb went to a craft night at church and made cool gifts for all of us

Julia's new baby doll- it has a pacifier, bottle and diaper

Merry 1st Christmas Stephen!

The kids looking angelic

And then Stephen filled his diaper noisily which was hilarious

Christmas with the DeMaster family

Grandma got a kindle. Technology just draws Julia in...

We gave Grandpa a new cheesehead

First things first, Stephen is 6 weeks old now!  He's travelled to Chicago and Tennessee in the last week and did great!  He started smiling at us the past couple of days, it is so cute and rewarding.  Hopefully we can catch a smile on camera soon.  We have given him one bottle a week so far with some breastmilk and then I would finish feeding him.  He was doing fine with the bottle, but I wondered if he could take a bottle for a feeding without me feeding him too.  Jenny babysat today and gave him a bottle.  He did great and was fine until the next feeding time.  I felt like yelling, "freedom!"  Now I just need to keep pumping so we can do this more often. Stephen is eating every 3 hours during the day and about every 2 in the evening until his last feeding at 10:30 pm.  He then sleeps til 3 am and then gets up between 6:30/7 am.  He is still sleeping in his carseat at night because of his refluxy issues.  I am trying to have him take naps in his crib during the day.  

The kids participated in the Christmas program at the church we're attending, Faith CRC.  The kids sang Away in a Manger and Stephen was cast as baby Jesus.  I fed him before he went onstage and he slept angelically.  They asked  Nate and I to be Mary and Joseph, but Nate had to work a night shift.  At the end of the program all of the kids wore costumes from around the world.  The boys were in Dutch costumes and Julia wore her hanbok.  Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture of the kids before they took their costumes off. 

The Saturday before Christmas we drove to Wheaton for the extended Jongsma family Christmas.  It was good to see my cousin Renee and her new son, Gavin.  My cousin Becky was in from Spain too.  We always have alot of fun at the Jongsma gatherings, always too short but they are fun!

We celebrated Christmas with the kids on Christmas Eve.  Julia's favorite gift was probably the baby doll.  The boys really like the hotwheels race track we gave them.  We attended a Christmas Eve service at a local church and just spent the day relaxing.  Nate had to work Christmas Day.  I took the kids to church in the morning.  It's slightly stressful when there is no children's worship so all of the kids stayed in the service!  My Dad came over for the afternoon because Mom was working too.  It was nice to spend the day with him and of course very helpful having another adult around!

The day after Christmas we started driving to the DeMaster family Christmas in Tennessee.  We drove halfway to Louisville, KY and spent the night in a hotel.  We drove through a horrible snowstorm that day, lots of cars sliding off the road.  The next day we finished the drive to Crossville, TN.  The GPS took us on a Kentucky Scenic Byway which was 40 miles of torture.  I have never been on such a curvy, twisty road.  All of us felt carsick, but Julia especially.  We stopped the car to let her walk around and she threw up.  Thankfully it was outside!

We stayed at the timeshare condos Nate's parents had lined up.  We had a 2 bedroom unit to ourselves which was nice!  Colleen's family shared with Mom and Dad and Reuben's family had a huge unit to themselves- which they needed!  Unfortunately Pete wasn't able to join us this year.  We opened presents together as a family and sang some Christmas songs.  There are some talented singers in the family.  We spent time catching up, swimming in the pool, playing games, playing with cousins, and doing crafts with Grandma.  We made the drive back in one day.  Julia got carsick again, unfortunately it was in the car.  That was fun to clean up.  The kids did great though on the long drive.

We're going to celebrate Christmas with my family this coming weekend.  We thank God for our wonderful families!

Life with Stephen

Last day of pregnancy

Kids sporting their big brother/sister shirts

Grandpa J stopped by the hospital

First night home, spending quality time with sick Daddy

Isaac wanted a picture with his brother

Aunt Steph showing the love

Tomorrow Stephen will be one week old!  Tonight I am reminiscing about what I was doing last Sunday night.  Last Saturday night I had contractions during the night, but they never got closer than 10 minutes apart.  Nate went to work on Sunday and I sent the kids to church with Tim and Jenny.  I didn't want to risk having contractions in church.  I called Nate around 3 pm and asked him to come home.  The contractions weren't consistent, but they were painful enough that I had a hard time caring for the kids.  We called my Mom and asked if she would rather spend the night at our house and have nothing happen or get a call in the middle of the night and have to drive out.  She opted to spend the night at our house and we're all glad she did!  I went to bed, but didn't sleep that night.  The contractions were painful, but weren't getting closer together.  Finally I had two contractions 5 minutes apart and woke Nate up.  We got to the hospital at 3 am.  I was really nervous they were going to say I was only 2 cm and send me home.  But, I was 7 cm already!  The nurse was just as surprised as I was.  She told me I must have a high pain tolerance to progress that far before coming in.  The contractions finally started coming regularly.  I kept the pain medication option on the table, but wanted to see how far I could get without it.  I mostly didn't want the drugs because the side effects scare me.  I don't like the idea of catheters and IV's and I've heard the epidural horror stories.  Although at 9 cm I was begging to get an epidural!  I was just nervous I would be pushing for 2 hours or something.  Thankfully I only pushed for about 20 minutes.  Stephen was born at 9:03 am.  It was neat that my Mom was able to see him enter the world too.  I was floored at his weight, how did he fit inside of me?!

Stephen picked up on nursing right away.  He did great the first night and I was feeling pretty good.  We decided that I wouldn't stay a second night at the hospital.  It sounded like a good idea at the time.  We got home that night and Nate was super sick.  He was out that night and of course Stephen was awake almost the whole night.  I kept thinking, "why did I leave the nurses who could help me during the night?!"  We spent Wednesday recovering at home.  For Thanksgiving we went to my parent's house.  My sister flew in that afternoon and has been helping us since then.  She leaves this Wednesday and it will be hard to see her go!

(Adding this a couple days later.)
Stephen had his first bath on the 23rd.  He didn't seem to mind it.  We noticed his umbilical cord was starting to smell.  He had a weight check on Saturday and the Dr. tugged the rest of the cord off.  Thankfully the smell has gone away.  He is gaining his weight back and nursing well.  He had a couple good nights of going 3-4 hours between feedings and one night he went 5 hours!  Of course last night he was eating every 2 hours and not sleeping well, growth spurt perhaps?  I love the baby sounds he makes, the grunts and motor noises.  We've had people from Faith CRC bringing us meals which is a huge help.  Tomorrow morning I have to get the kids off to school by myself, should be interesting!

Happy Birthday

(Mom wasn't quite up to posting quite yet, but I wanted to get something out for Stephen on his birthday - Dad)

This morning we welcomed Stephen Matthew into the world.  He came in at a healthy 9 lbs 3 oz, 21 inches, and two weeks early at that! Is that the face of a newborn or a 1 month old? 

After Julia and Isaac were let out of school, Dad took the three kids over to meet their new brother.  Caleb even got to miss some school.  Stephen clearly has three siblings who are excited about his arrival and love him already.  Everyone got the chance to hold him and he wasn't dropped once!

 

Grandma J gets to see a lot of babies delivered at her job in the hospital, but this is the first grandchild she got to be there for.  After getting the three older kids off to school, she made it just in time!  What a super-Grandma!

Here's the happy family, now a full complement of six.  We're so excited about Stephen's arrival and look forward to many new adventures. 

 

Family Visits

Painting the baby's room- his writing is looking good!

Caleb and Isaac enjoying our huge leaf pile

Carving with Grandma J- can you tell Isaac was sick that weekend?

Caleb is in the bunny ears stage

Cool pumpkin innards

Sisters

Colleen, Ashley, Abby and myself climbing steps at Mt. Pisgah in Holland

Julia and Ashley

Uncle Mike could wrestle for hours

Halloween with Morrison and Gross families

October has been a fun month!  I had asked Nate for some time at the house without the kids before the baby came. He took the kids to my parent's house for two nights and it was great!  I had some friends over one evening.  We had appetizers and desserts and just enjoyed chatting.  Everyone left by 9:30 pm- we are party animals!  The kids had a good time with my parents.  They went to a pumpkin farm where they did a corn maze, saw some animals and picked out pumpkins which they carved with my parents.  It was odd to have such a quiet house.  I enjoyed it and I had the chance to miss my kids which is good- I don't often have that opportunity!

Stephanie visited which was a treat!  She got a new job in Denver so she used up her vacation time from her old job.  The kids were off from school so we went to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum.  Caleb is almost too old for it now, but it was still fun.  The next day Steph took the kids to Crazy Bounce which they love.  I think she was pretty sore after bouncing.  I enjoyed just spending time with my sister for a couple days.

Last week Colleen and her kids visited.  Mike was taking the Professional Engineer test in Grand Rapids and came down once that was done.  The kids had alot of fun with their cousins.  It was a good kind of crazy having an 8, 5,4,3,2 year old and 5 month old in the house.  While our kids were in school one morning Nate and I went on a walk with Colleen and her kids.  The weather was amazing- 70 degrees!  We climbed the steps of a sand dune called Mt. Pisgah which has a beautiful view of Lake MI- especially with the fall colors.  We didn't go many other places because someone was always napping.  They did watch Caleb's last soccer game with us- it was cold!  The kids love playing with Uncle Mike, he can chase and wrestle non-stop.  It is always nice when family visits!

For Halloween we went down to South Haven and trick-or-treated with friends.  It was cold and rainy so we didn't last long.  We then went to our old church, Hope Reformed, for some indoor games.  We're all thankful for chances to spend time with our old friends again.  Caleb was a ninja, Isaac a pirate and Julia a bunny this year.  Isaac looked like the hulk because he had his winter jacket on under his costume.  Julia loved trick-or-treating.  She is my child that loves chocolate and she was so excited that people were just giving her candy.  She also used her cuteness to her advantage.  They would give her one piece than she would kind of look at the candy bowl and look up at them with a questioning look.  And they usually gave her another piece.  Of course this all happened before I could catch up to her at the door!  We had such a fun evening that Isaac passed out during the car ride home and Caleb must have been on a sugar buzz because he couldn't stop singing the "move it, move it" song from Madagascar.  Good times.