Then there were four

Goodness, I am terrible at being faithful with writing. Here is another attempt, cross your fingers I stick it out this time 'round.

About a month after my last post I became dreadfully ill with bronchitis. After being on hardcore antibiotics for a few days and feeling worse, I headed back to my doctor. It was then she suggested a pregnancy test. I laughed, there was no way. Fast forward. Yep, there was a way. I remember the moment she told me the news, I froze, broke and tumbled all in one fraction of a second. All I could think about was that I was going to have another miscarriage since I required progesterone supplements to carry Lauralie. Thankfully God had other plans. This pregnancy was pretty uneventful, until the end. At Lauralie's first birthday party we announced the sex of our little baby. Lauralie was going to have a BROTHER. We were thrilled. Chad and I always said it would be awesome to have one of each. My due date was October 1st. By the middle of August I was already having contractions. The contractions weren't consistent but worrisome none-the-less. I started progressing around this same time. The week leading up to Labor Day I was put on restrictions, bed rest. I was eager to meet our little guy, but fears of him coming to early kept me in bed. Thankfully, bed rest worked and was able to delay further progression and labor. I had a check up on Wednesday, September 15th. I had been contracting off and on that morning but didn't think much of it, I was too busy getting Lauralie and myself ready to get out the door. It was while driving LL to a friend's house I realized that the contractions weren't that far apart, but they never really hurt. I went to my appointment and found out that I was at a 5 and pretty much "in labor". I had the option of going home and waiting it out (and having the on-call doctor deliver) or being admitted and starting pitocin. I opted for the semi-induction. I called Chad and he met me at the hospital. I was already in my room, and in bed when he got there around 11:45. Labor progressed nicely, and when my doctor was called in a little after 5 things were rolling! I had already reached a 10, but we were taking a breather before pushing time. The nurse had me do a "pre-push" and yelled at me half way through to stop. Dr. Emmet had just arrived, she comes in and checks things out and watches my contractions... which magically stopped. For reals. The contractions STOPPED. We waited and waited for the next contraction so I could push through it, but nothing. At this point I'm cracking up because who has their contractions stop at game time? ME! That's who. Emmett finally decides to see what happens if I just push, so I did. Once, twice, third time there was our baby boy. Completely perfect. Jensen Jamis 7lbs even. Four ounces lighter than his sister. Lauralie was very excited to meet her baby brother even though she had no idea what was going on. Lauralie was barely 16 months old, she really didn't have a grasp on baby or brother yet. She loved him from the first moment she saw him. I remember after we got home she wanted desperately to hold this little sweet baby, and so we let her. She was so gentle, she would hold him tight and lean over to kiss his head. She was the perfect big sister.

Jensen is now 10 months old and Lauralie turned 2 a couple of months ago. Jensen was a little baby for a VERY short time. He has always worn a size or two larger than his age bracket. Right now he wears very few 12-18months, and mainly 18-24months. We tease that he is our little linebacker. Jensen is one of the sweetest and happiest babies I've ever seen. He coos' and smiles at everyone. He is cruising around holding onto the furniture and thinking about standing on his own. He has never done the "true crawl", he prefers to army crawl so that he can carry and/or push toys around with him on the go. He is definitely a boy. He has mastered climbing onto both the couch and ottoman. He has always been caught climbing the stairs! Jensen is going to be our little daredevil!

Lauralie is still enjoying being a big sister. She loves playing with JJ, they have a blast crawling around and climbing on top of each other. Lauralie has always been a great help with handing mommy things or throwing away trash/dirty diapers. She is finally starting to talk more and surprises us every day with a new word, she might not say it consistently but they are there.

This is a quick summary of the past 18 months. Life is moving so fast, hopefully I'll do a better job of writing about the kids and our daily life.