Benjamin's First Days Home

This little boy is loved on more than any other baby that ever existed I am sure of it!

Here he is hanging out in the car... some peace and quiet for him!

This is the absolute best!

Bath time... at this point he really doesn't care one way or another for his baths

I'm watching you ...

Jardon Boys!

It's hard not to snuggle up and fall asleep with this little guy

Joshie just can't get enough of him!

L. O. V.  E. 

Another one suckered into his sleepy snuggly temptation

Hmmm? These are the two fingers Joseph sucks too!

Cozied up in the moby wrap

So peaceful

Biggest sister

In the boys room

In preparation for another boy in the boy's room, Josh conveniently broke his bed and Joseph conveniently began to crawl out of his crib and refused to go back in, so... here are Josh and Jo's new bed spots and the crib is in the corner!

Benjamin Augustus Jardon

Benjamin Augustus Jardon

11/11/2016

6 lbs 12 oz 19 inches

The smallest baby so far : ) Yipee!

Getting ready!

Um yeah... I'm so ready for this little sucker to be born. We decided on an induction day 10 days before his due date because of the need to continue increasing my diabetes medication and just because I was ready for him to come. It seems my body doesn't know how to go into labor naturally so my history says I'd go late and have to be induced anyways so we talked to the dr and she said since everything looked good with baby it would be safe to induce early... yippee! We just had to wait for my mom to come then we headed to the hospital the next day!

Let's just get one last memory of this belly!

And let's do a little comparison of that almost 10 pounder Jo... I can definitely see a difference in the belly size!

I was certain this baby would come out quick and simply... never the case. My deliveries are not terrible but they are definitely not quick and easy. We went in around 7 in the morning and they started Pitocin pretty quick. After about 2 hrs and them increasing the rate every 15 mins. I was still not contracting on my own. The dr came and broke my water and increased the Pitocin a little more around 10 and I started having a few contractions. A couple of hours more of this and they finally started picking up. I got my epidural which was interesting... they put it in the wrong place the first time and tested it by putting the medicine in, she told me if it was in the wrong place I'd feel my heart start racing but that it would only last a few seconds... well, it was in the wrong place and I could for the first time relate to my cardiac patients when they go into a funky heart rhythm! They took it out and replaced it then we were ready to continue on from there. Baby's face was turned to the side (they never like to come out crown up like they're supposed to) so it was causing quite a bit of back labor (very reminiscent of my labor with Amelia who was entirely face up). They had me lay side to side to see if his head would straighten itself out but he never really did. My contractions really started intensifying around 2:00 and the pain was terrible. I began wondering if the epidural was even working. They were afraid to give me the full pain medicine dose because my BP was low but my BP normally runs low and I wasn't too worried but they were. They gave me some IV fluids then agreed to increase the pain medicine amount. Shortly after I started feeling really dizzy and light headed so I had them check my blood sugar (keeping in mind I only had eggs for breakfast before I had come in and it was the middle of the afternoon and I hadn't eaten anything)... my blood sugar was 53!!! (It should be 80-120 at that point) so I guzzled down some juice and finally got a little surge of energy. Well a little after 3 I knew it was time and we started pushing. I could feel the pain of the pushes and contractions more than my other 3 normal deliveries. It was terrible but I tell you what, if anyone needed any motivation to keep pushing it definitely gave me motivation, I remember thinking to myself this would be my last push because I could not handle the painful contractions in my back any more and that last push I pushed him out!!! It's a boy!!! Healthy baby boy!!!

I love love love this moment!

Hi mom : )

I'm so glad you're here!

I feel like the most blessed person in the whole world to have experienced this 5 times!!!

Don't cry... do you know how loved you are?!?!

Hmmm... I don't know about all these lights and this air... I was pretty happy in my previous home!

Well, ready or not here they come!!!.... the siblings!

Amelia and Benjamin

Joshua absolutely adores his little brother, I expected that from Amelia but not as much from Josh

He would've sat like this for hours if we let them!

Besties!

And oh boy Joseph... it was love at first sight for him too!

Just look at that proud smile!

And Lydia too! She's so happy to be another big sister!

Oh and Meema's turn : )

Very randomly my friends from the valley were up visiting and they were able to stop by to meet Benjamin and say hello... what a blessing!!

Look at that handsome man!

Outfit for home! Meema had to go buy a new one because I bought 0-3 mo clothes for him since none of our other babies were able to fit into NB clothes so we were unprepared... the 0-3 were way too big so Meema spoiled Benjamin and got him this adorable NB outfit!

So long hospital!

Easter + A Special Surprise ! ! ! ! !

We had a fun Easter this year. So many years Adam was gone for golf so it has been nice to start some new traditions for our family and have him be home with us! 

Here we are the day before decorating some eggs

For the last few years we have been making resurrection rolls... I saw this online awhile back and thought it was such a neat idea and yummy! You dip a large marshmallow in melted butter then cinnamon and sugar and put it inside a crescent roll, then roll it up and bake it. When it comes out the marshmallow is all melted and there's an empty hole inside the crescent roll. So Jesus is the marshmallow : ) and it represents when they wrapped up his body in clothes with the burial scents and he goes into the tomb (the crescent roll) and in 3 days (or 8-12 minutes at 375 F) the tomb is empty!! He rose!

Joe could not wait to eat his ooey gooey resurrection roll!

We also have been doing a fun tradition where the night before Easter you collect rocks from outside and write some sins on them then you put them in your Easter basket. After the kids go to bed I set out a different basket and move all the sins into them and replace their baskets with all their Easter goodies and cover it with red cloth. The idea to teach them in the morning is that Jesus took our sins and put them in his own basket and gave us good things instead and it is because of His blood that this is possible! This was the first year it seemed like they really started picking up on the lesson and it was neat to hear them tell us what their "sins" are. They always started out by a story... "remember that one time..."

 New Easter bonnet!

 Sucker mask!

We went to church and came home to have an Easter egg hunt in the snow... snow boots with pretty spring Easter dresses!

 I thought these 2 shirts were so handsome for the boys!

The eggs!

We snagged this picture on the way home from church!

And the Jardon family got a lovely Easter surprise!!

 Baby #5 is due around Thanksgiving!!!

We feel so blessed that God has chosen to give us another life : )