Our new "Little Man"

Jack Henry Hanson

March 18

at 11:43pm

7 pounds

18.5 inches

Happy St. Patrick's Day

He's finally here!

Meet the newest member of our family and my nephew...

Lucas Wyatt Power

7 pounds and 12 ounces

19 inches

Baby Luke and his Mom are doing well after an exhausting day. I will put more pictures up as I get some.

Finally some new pictures

The boys playing at the park today...

Baby Jack's Nursery

Jack's room is all ready for him. Everything is washed and put away. What a relief to get it all done ahead of time and to hopefully be able to relax a little over the next couple of weeks. Nesting has kicked in though so I will probably be finding things to do around the house to keep me busy.

Ben's furniture should be arriving in the next couple of weeks and once it's here, I will post pictures of his new room. It's going to be such a big boy room and he's going to love it

This is your eviction notice...

Dear Baby Luke (my soon to be nephew),

This is your final warning that your eviction day is soon approaching. It was agreed that your due date is March 8 and we all expect you to be out by then. Your mother has given up her body for the last nine months and I am pretty sure she is ready to get it back. She has endured pounds and pounds of weight gain, extreme swelling, night after night of heartburn, sleepless nights (I am thinking she'll still have those after you arrive) and pain and discomfort all over. Throughout your tenancy, you have caused nausea, food cravings and kicked her from within, over and over again. She's been a trooper through it all though, knowing that in the end, she would be meeting her beautiful baby boy. In fact, you have a lot of people very anxious to meet you. It would be very much appreciated if you would leave the premises by your eviction date so no additional measures will be required to get you out of there.

This gives you four days to get moving. We'll see you soon Baby Luke.

Love,

Your Aunt Stacey

Please keep my sister, Sarah in your thoughts. She has been tough this whole pregnancy and now that it's down to the end, she can only take so much more. Hopefully we will be welcoming the new addition to our family very soon and of course, as soon as we do I will post an update and pictures of the little guy. This is my first time being an aunt and I am so excited!

By the numbers...

23 days until Baby Jack arrives

27 months is how old Ben will be when he becomes a brother.

3:1 is how much I will be outnumbered (4:1 if you include the dog)

11 hours is how long Drew is gone every day while at work (and driving there and back).

8 is about how many times a day I get hit in the face with a ball.

16 is how many diapers we will be going through a day between Ben and Jack.

4 is the number of years Drew and I will be married come May

10 loads of laundry a week is the norm in this house.

100 times a day is probably how many times we hear Ben say football or sha sha ball (soccer ball).

2026 is the year Ben will graduate high school. 2028 is when Jack will graduate.

3-4 hours is how much sleep a night we will probably be getting once the baby is here.

68 is the average temperature we keep the thermostat set at in the house.

3 is the highest number Ben can count to (he can count backwards also).

1/3 of our bed is taken by the dog, 1/2 by Drew and the rest for me. When Ben ends up in our bed, I am left with about 1/8 of the bed and my head on the nightstand.

15 times a day is how often Ben tries to sneak food out of the pantry (or the fridge).

Countless is how often I look at Ben and think about how much I love him.

5:30am is the time that Ben came running into our room this morning yelling "football, football."

30 minutes is how much time I wasted tonight, sadly watching the Bachelor. Thank goodness it was recorded and I fast forwarded through most of it.

We're getting into that phase...

You know, the one where little kids like to make funny, awkward faces every time you pull out the camera. Therefore, it is getting very hard to get good shots of Ben. Here are a few from the past few days.

Ben trying out baby Jack's carseat

You can tell how wild he is just by looking at this picture.

Sometimes he just keeps running and running.

"Jack" Update

We are into the final month and it's starting to feel a lot more real. At my appointment yesterday, I found out that my c-section got pushed back a day so we are looking at Thursday, March 25. Since I will be almost 39 weeks by then, my doctor reminded me that there is still a good chance I could go into labor before then. Let's just plan on him coming sometime in March.

It was an exciting appointment compared to my normal weekly appointment. The doctor did a quick ultrasound to see what position the baby is in. The last time I had an ultrasound was 15 weeks ago so it was fun to see our little guy and just get some reassurance that he is doing ok in there. His head is down and the rest of his body is folded in half. His body is towards my right side and his legs and feet are on the left side which doesn't surprise me since that is where I feel him kicking. I will be getting another ultrasound next Wednesday so that they can check the amount of amniotic fluid (not because the doctor is concerned that it is low, she just wants to make sure the levels are good) and we will be getting an estimated weight of baby Jack. At my appointment, I was also hooked up to the fetal heart rate monitor for about 25 minutes and Jack's heart rate sounded great.

My blood sugar levels continue to stay where they need to be and it looks like I will be getting through the next few weeks without needing insulin to control the diabetes. I am looking forward to after Jack's arrival for the diabetes to go away. As soon as the placenta is removed from my body, my insulin production should go right back to normal. It will be so nice to not have to test my levels throughout the day and stress over every meal trying to make sure I don't eat something that will cause my blood sugar to spike. It has been nice to keep my weight gain down though. Since starting the diet 6 and a half weeks ago, I have only gained about 2 pounds. If I was still on my old diet, I probably would have gained about 10 or 15 pounds.

I am so happy that it is Friday and looking forward to a fun weekend with Drew and Ben. Drew had his duty weekend last weekend so we haven't seen much of him over the last 2 weeks. Tomorrow we will be busy with our to-do list which includes furniture shopping for Ben's room and setting up the last of the baby gear. Sunday we are going to relax. I'll get some pictures this weekend. I know I haven't been putting that many on the blog lately but I'll work on it.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Only 27 more days to go...

Some fun before Ben's nap...

These were taken after lunch (you will notice the peanut butter still on his face in the first one). I can't believe how much he looks like a little boy and not a baby anymore. He has now been sleeping for over two hours and I am very much enjoying some rest for myself.

After 8 months...

I am finally putting up a picture of myself so you all can see how big I've gotten. Just remember that there is about an 18 inch, 5 pound baby in there.

"Jack" Update

Not much to report for this week. My doctor's appointment went well yesterday. I have reached 34 week which feels like a big accomplishment to me. I know that a lot of people were worried when they found out that I was pregnant again that I would have another premature baby. Even I was a little worried. It is nice to be close to proving that I am capable of delivering a healthy, full-term baby. It is very likely that nothing will happen in the next month that will force me to deliver early. We are still set for March 24, bright and early in the morning.

With less than 5 weeks to go now, we are actually pretty stress free. We have almost everything done that needs to be done before Jack arrives (besides installing the carseat, packing my hospital bag and a few other little tasks). I think we are just going to try to enjoy the next month and make the most of the time we have with Ben before our family of three becomes four.

We have finally decided on a middle name for Jack. You'll all find out what it is after he is born.

Only 33 more days to go!

Lunch time...

Ben's favorite meal of the day has become lunch. He likes to eat the same thing every day: peanut butter sandwich, banana and cheese slices. Most days, he will eat everything on his plate which is a big improvement for him.

A date for three...

Valentine's Day was spent with my two favorite boys (not too much longer until I have my 3 favorite boys). We made a picnic lunch to eat at the park and then Ben got to play a bit. We finished it all off with a trip to the frozen yogurt place. As soon as I went to take my first picture, I realized that my camera battery was dead. Therefore, the only pictures I could get that day where ones I took on Drew's phone. Not the best quality.

There was some low parts where you had to duck your head but Drew didn't see it.

By the time we left, he had ice cream all over his pants but nothing on his shirt. He finished his ice cream by himself and was on a sugar high for the next 8 hours.

"Jack" Update

Well, it's Thursday again and I had my weekly doctor's appointment today. This is the first week where I have felt very uncomfortable and I'm just not really enjoying pregnancy much. My belly continues to grow which is making it harder to find positions that are comfortable. My back hurts. It's becoming harder and harder to go up the stairs. I'm extra tired lately. Sugar deprived. I have to sit down to shave my legs. I pee about 15 times a day. I'm pretty much just missing feeling normal. Despite all of the complaining I may do, I really am grateful that I am still pregnant and that Jack is continuing to grow and be healthy. I am almost 4 weeks past where I was when I had Ben and I'll take everything that comes along with being pregnant if it means that I can make it to the end.

The doctor continues to be impressed with how far I've come along. She says that my blood sugar levels are looking good and that I should be able to continue to control them with diet only right now. I'm going on a month now since I started my new diabetes diet and I'm pretty used to it now. I have a good idea of what I can and cannot eat to make sure my blood sugar levels stay on the lower side. My breakfast usually consist of eggs, toast and milk. My lunch favorite lately is peanut butter and banana sandwich with a side of string cheese and carrot sticks. Dinner is the hardest meal because I get tired of eating the same things over and over again. I'm not a big meat eater and with this diet, I have to eat a lot of meat each day to get enough protein. A couple times a week, I splurge and have sugar free ice cream with banana slices for my bedtime snack (we're talking a tiny scoop and maybe 6 little banana slices but I enjoy every bite of it).

Every week, the doctor measures my uterus from the top to the bottom and the number of centimeters it measures is how many weeks you are measuring. It's not an exact science but close enough where it gives them a good idea of how the baby is measuring. Today I was measuring 33 weeks which is right where I should be measuring. With gestational diabetes, it is common to have a baby on the bigger side, especially if it's not controlled so it is reassuring to hear that the baby is measuring right where he should be. I had a zero weight gain in the last week which is one good thing that is coming out of the new diet.

Only 41 more days to go...