Janie's Newborns

When Janie was just a week old we had newborn photos taken of her.  A huge thank you to Ashby Hatch for taking such beautiful portraits :)  We love them!!  I grew up in the same ward as Ashby, so I knew we were in good hands.  Thank you Ashby!!

I had her take a few at the beginning with Aiden in them :)  It's amazing how huge Aiden looks to us now that we have Janie!

If you want to see any of them closer, just click on them.

Comparing Aiden and Janie

I thought I'd put up some pictures of Aiden and Janie and see if you all think they look alike as newborns.  We've only had 3 people tell us who they definitively think Janie looks like.  One has said she sees Trent and two have said she looks just like me, which cracks me up because I totally don't see it.  I'm never very good at putting a finger on who a kid looks like, but I just think Janie looks a lot like Aiden when he was a newborn..haha.  Tanis and Trent both actually see my dad in her.  What do you think??

I always post Aiden first, then Janie.  Aiden definitely had a little more hair and in the pics of him in the hospital he looks a little more smushed, from delivery I guess..haha.

First picture, just born.

Yawning with Mommy and Daddy.

First family photo :)  

In these next 2 Aiden is very red compared to Janie. I don't know if it's b/c he was a little jaundiced as a newborn.

I wish I had turned Janie out more.

Kiss on the cheek :)

On the way home.

I posed the next 2 of Janie on purpose since I knew I had pictures of Aiden like them.  Aiden was a few days younger.  It's amazing what a difference a few days will make in a newborn.  Also I'm bummed I didn't take them from the same distance.

I couldn't get Janie to relax her arms by her sides..haha.

In the bouncer.

That's all for now :)

Aiden Meets Janie :)

Here's the video of Aiden meeting Janie :)  I was a little bummed because Trent and Aiden showed up while the hospital pediatrician was finishing up her check on Janie, so it was a tad awkward at first.  Luckily she was just headed out, so after about a minute I started recording.  It goes out of focus a few times for some reason and it's a little dark at some parts because we hadn't pulled up all the blinds yet.

Introducing...

Janie Lynn Knuckles

arrived Monday, April 28, 2014 at 12:44 a.m.

weighing 7 pounds 2 ounces and measuring 20.5 inches

Just like with Aiden, we narrowed our names down to two.  I like to have 2 names just in case the baby comes out and doesn't seem to match the name picked out.  For a while we thought we were set on Lexi, until I came up with Janie.  Then we struggled.  Trent was really leaning toward Janie, but because we had been kind of set on Lexi I was having a hard time officially switching over.  Probably around 35 weeks I decided to start asking Aiden if he liked Lexi or Janie and kept a tally.  Well for the first like 8 days he said Janie and then he suddenly switched to Lexi for 8 days.  Then I decided to stop asking..haha.  Although my family continued to randomly ask him and he continued to say Lexi.  I was feeling a little panicked because now I was starting to lean toward Janie too.  Anyway, when she came, she honestly looked more like a Janie to me than a Lexi, but I was so worried Aiden would come in and we'd say "Aiden, this is Janie" and that he'd respond with "No, it's Lexi" (he had told us very definitively a few times in the weeks prior "It's Lexi", nodding his head when we asked him).  Thankfully when we introduced Aiden to Janie, he had no problem with it!  He is so great!

We chose Lynn for her middle name because we like to use a family name and Tanis's middle name is Lynn :)  My mom doesn't have a middle name (well now it's her maiden name - Whitmore), so she was out of the running ;)

Now for the labor story.  This'll probably be long ;)

First off, apparently little Miss Janie was waiting for her grandparents Christensen to make it back from Utah before she made her debut.  They had been up there during the week from Wednesday to Sunday for Amy's graduation from BYU and for Jen and Jill to go through the Draper temple.  Yay to all!!  Can't believe I had to miss such big events, but I guess I had a pretty good reason for it :/  So my parents got back Sunday afternoon and I went into labor later that evening!

While my parents were gone I had made up my mind to "ignore" baby girl and just continue to live my life until her due date May 7th.  I'm sure many of you saw my Facebook statuses over the final weeks, but I was confused and getting very frustrated by the progress I seemed to be making with absolutely no contractions to show for it. At my 36 week appt. I was 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced.  A few days later I lost my mucus plug, or so I thought.  Over the next few weeks I learned there's A LOT of that stuff..haha.  At my 37 week appt. I was 3.5 cm dilated and 80% effaced.  And at my 38 week appt. I was 4 cm dilated and still 80% effaced (maybe that should've been a sign).  The problem was that I was comparing my progress to when I had Aiden, so now I know, every pregnancy it totally different!!  With Aiden I was only 3 cm dilated when I went into labor.  Although it is interesting that I had Janie at about the same point in my pregnancy that I had Aiden.  Janie was 38 weeks 5 days and Aiden was 38 weeks 6 days!  So yes, like I said, I had decided to "ignore" her because it was too frustrating to wake up every morning and think "today's the day!" and prepare myself mentally and physically and then go to bed and wake up thinking the same thing again the next morning..haha.

So anyway, Sunday evening, the 27th, we had our cute neighbors, the Moon's, over for dinner.  Trent made homemade pizzas (his specialty ;)) and we were having great conversation.  Probably around 7 though I started to have some crazy pelvic pressure, but I kind of just passed it off as gas, so I had to excuse myself a few times to let it out - you get every detail of the story..haha.  Passing the gas helped a tad, but after about half an hour I started to think maybe this is the real deal.  The Moon's headed out around 7:30 and I told Trent I was going to finish packing my bag and get Aiden's packed.  I decided to start timing with an app I downloaded because I was pretty confident now that this pressure was actually contractions.  And it turns out they were only like 2 to 3 minutes apart.  This freaked me out!  Trent called his mom (8:12 p.m.) and she hurried over (luckily they live like 5 minutes away) and I was so anxious to just GO!  I was SO worried I would miss my opportunity to get an epidural.  I am ALL for them!!  That ride to the hospital was so uncomfortable and I was officially having to stop what I was doing during contractions.  They were coming fast!!  

We got to the hospital (probably around 8:45) and a couple walked in like 2 seconds before us, so we had to wait for them to get checked in before we could, and that felt like an eternity.  Finally we get into the office to check in and the old lady's like making jokes filling in all of our information (thankfully we pre-registered b/c it would've taken longer) and in my mind I was totally freaking out, about ready to bite her head off..haha.  They got me into triage to check my progress and could tell I was in pain, so thankfully they kept things moving quickly.  I was about in tears, actually Trent just reminded me I did cry a little..haha.  Turns out I was dilated to a SIX!  I was so scared! Like I said I was so worried we'd run out of time for an epidural and then I was also worried about actually getting the epidural..haha! Thankfully, right then our labor nurse, Rachel, asked if I'd like one so they got the IV going (I was so nervous about that too) and before I knew it I was being wheeled to our delivery room and the anesthesiologist was in within a few minutes.  Everything was just happening so FAST!  I was officially panicking with every contraction and Rachel and Trent were having to help me breathe through them. I was even grabbing both of their hands..haha.  It took a few minutes for the anesthesiologist to get everything ready and I just kept telling Rachel and Trent how scared I was.  My contractions were coming like 1 to 2 minutes apart and I was so worried I wouldn't be able to stay still through them while the epidural was being placed.  But of course everything was totally fine and within a few minutes I was feeling SO much better!  Oh I am so grateful for those things!!

We finally had a chance to call my parents at 10 p.m. and let them know we were in labor and admitted with the epidural.  That was probably a little shocking for my mom..haha.  Rachel checked my cervix again and I was at a 7.  With rushing out the door, we had forgotten some things at home, including my glasses, so Trent actually headed back to grab them!  Looking back, I can't believe I let him go!  Rachel told me to just rest and call her in if I felt any kind of pressure and need to push.  A little before midnight I felt this pressure and like I could probably push 3 different times so I called her in, and sure enough, I was dilated to a 9.5!  My water still hadn't broken though so Rachel called my OB to have him head over and get things going.  I called my mom (12:04 a.m.) and she headed over as well.  My mom rushed in around 12:30 and Dr. Huish followed right behind her.  He immediately broke my water and I started pushing and Janie Lynn made her debut at 12:44 a.m.  I didn't even push for 10 minutes. I'm still shocked by how fast everything went!!

Just like Aiden, Miss Janie was pretty quiet at first, which had the nurses a little concerned, but once I got to do some skin-to-skin contact with her, she was just fine :)

I have to give a big shout-out to Dr. Huish.  I love him! Seriously, when I got to see him again when we got pregnant with Janie, it was like I was seeing an old friend!  He is almost reason enough for us to stay in AZ..haha. I would love it if he delivered all of my babies!  I give him full credit for the reason I didn't tear with either Aiden or Janie. All of my nurses seemed so surprised - I guess more women tear or need an episiotomy than I realized!

We probably headed to my postpartum room around 2 a.m., so of course we waited to have Aiden come meet Janie ;)  But I thought about him the rest of the night!  I was so anxious to see him!  We had wrapped up a gift for Aiden from "baby sister" (Spiderman action figure) and brought it with us, so when I had Trent go pick up Aiden from Tanis and Kent's, they quickly went out to get a little gift for Janie from Aiden.  He picked out a little dog that looks a little more boyish, but it was his choice ;)  I think that was really helpful for Aiden :)  He took everything so well!  I actually got video from their first meeting, so I'll post that in my next post (it'll take a while to download to YouTube).

And that's the story!  While I was writing this it stood out to me that I called my mom at 12:04 to tell her I was at a 9.5 and Miss Janie arrived at 12:44!  So crazy!!

Anyway, life is so good.  We are feeling so happy!  And I continue to tell Trent how precious I think Janie is :)  When she was discharged she was 6 pounds 10 ounces (babies always lose a little in the beginning) and we had her first appt. yesterday and she was up to 6 pounds 13.5 ounces.  By next week she should be back to her original weight.  I say this all because it's so funny for me when she pulls her knees in and I think, "Just last week this is how she looked curled up inside of me"..haha.  

Aiden is doing great.  Sometimes he seems a little sad to us because we can't give him our full attention anymore, but with each day he seems to do better.  Today we actually went out with just him, and my mom and Amber watched Janie, and I think he really liked that :)  He still hasn't wanted to try holding Janie, I think he's afraid, but he does like to check in on her throughout the day and peeks in on her in the morning while she's sleeping :)

And now for the pictures :)

Proud Daddy :)

Proud Grandma :)

Proud Mommy :)

My mom got Janie some teeny Toms - totally cracked me up when I opened them!

Aiden came to visit!!  Janie got Aiden Spiderman and he was loving it! Oh and I forgot to mention earlier that Aiden seems so huge to me now..haha.

Another proud Grandma :)

First family-of-four photo :)

Proud Grandpa :)

Oh I love newborn yawns!

Can't stop kissing those little cheeks!

More yawns :)

I actually keep forgetting about this, but Janie was born with a skin flap hanging from her left pinky finger. So she's officially had her first little "surgery."  They just snipped it right off.  It's kind of hard to notice, but you can see that bulgy skin flap just hanging there.

We got to head home Tuesday afternoon, and boy were we anxious to get out of there and be home with Aiden!!  I sat back with Janie to support her little head :)

Aiden helping Daddy "hold" Janie!  Love them!

Love this little nightgown of hers :)  Too bad the lighting's so bad.

It was so wonderful to have Trent off for the week!  I'm so grateful for paternity leave!!  I'm already feeling anxious about Monday when he heads back to work :/

Yesterday was Janie's first outing.  We went to the doctor's and then with Aiden to get a haircut.  I may just try to match Janie all the time ;)  I am having so much fun dressing her and putting accessories in her hair :)

Love to snuggle her!

Here's Aiden's labor story if anyone's interested in comparing ;)