Hayley Mae's dramatic entrance

I can't believe it's been a week since it all started! Everything has gone by so quickly. I just wanted to jot down Hayley's birth story so I don't forget any details.

Last Saturday evening, I decided I better go get checked out because I had felt like I might be leaking amniotic fluid for a couple days. I set up a babysitter for the boys, thinking it would probably turn out to be nothing and I would be home in a few hours. Boy was I wrong!
My doctor was out of town but the doctor on call had delivered Jackson so I knew I would be in good hands if something ended up happening.
I went to the hospital and they did a few tests to check for amniotic fluid. The first ones came back negative, but I had started having contractions every 2-3 minutes so the doctor said to sit tight until they went away. A couple hours later they were still going strong so he gave me some medication to stop them and told me I would probably be spending the night. I called Jackson's amazing sunbeam teacher and asked if she could spend the night with the boys since Weston was working the night shift.
The next morning, when I was still contracting, the doctor did another test for amniotic fluid that came back positive and he decided to admit me and told me I wouldn't be leaving the hospital without my baby. Seeing as I wasn't dilated or effaced at all an only 35 weeks, I could potentially be in the hospital for weeks. He told me at that point they weren't going to induce labor but they wouldn't stop it either.
I did A LOT of walking around the labor and delivery ward that day to try to get labor started. Weston sleepily showed up after coming home from work, getting the boys ready, and sending them to church with our amazing friends. Around 2:00 tht afternoon the doctor told me that if I wanted, he would start pitocin. I til him yes please since I had no clue how my children were going to be taken care of for days. At 2:30 the nurse started pitocin and told me I had to wait until I dilated to a 2 for my epidural. I spent two pretty uncomfortable hours contracting until I asked her to check me. When she did, I was at a 2 and told her to please call the anesthesiologist. By 5:00 I was resting comfortably through my contractions.
Everything went smoothly through the rest of the evening. The doctor must have really liked us because in between deliveries, he would come hang out in my room and talk medicine with Weston. When I was dilated to about an 8, things started to go downhill. Hayley's heart rate started dropping with every contraction no matter what position I was laying in. The doctor wasn't too worried at first, but as time went on and I wasn't dilating fast enough, I could tell he was getting more and more concerned. He told me I give a couple good pushes and then he started yelling for more nurses and the NICU team to get in the room. The nurses told me I really needed to fucus and push hard to get the baby out. After a couple contractions, the doctor asked for the forceps and I felt him start to yank on my poor baby's head. She finally came out after a couple more pushes--face up and blue because she had a nuchal cord. I didn't hear her cry and they rushed her out of the room to be stabilized. At this point I jut started bawling because I had no idea how she was doing. Finally, the NICU doctor came in and told me she was doing just fine. They just wanted to monitor her for 48 hours. Weston was able to go see her and bring her back to me for a couple minutes after that. She was able to come home with me on Wednesday.
I am so thankful that everything worked out the way it did! I am thankful that my doctor didn't jump the gun and go for an emergency c section. I am thankful that he kept me because who knows what would have happened if I would have been sent home. Hayley is such a goo little baby. The boys and her daddy adore her and we feel so blessed that she is part of our family!

Interview with a 2 year old

How old are you? I two

What is your name? Jackson Caywood

What is your favorite food?  Dinner

What is your favorite thing to drink? Lemonade

Who is your favorite person? Jackson

Who is your best friend? Addie

Where is your favorite place to go? the park

What is your favorite song? twinkle twinkle little star

What is your favorite show? monster truck show

What is your favorite toy? my big monster truck

What is your favorite game? the truck game (on my iPhone)

What is your favorite color? my green crayon

What is your favorite letter? J

What is your favorite shape? a circle

What is your favorite animal? a cow

Out of the mouth of Jackson

I have so many things I need to blog about (monster truck show, rodeo, etc.) but I'm lazy and don't want to upload pictures right now, so instead I'm going to write down a few things that Jackson has said lately just so I don't forget:

Sometimes, when we put him to bed, he will knock on his door and ask to come out a few times before he actually goes to sleep. One night, Weston and I both called back to him to get in bed while he was knocking. After we had both told him to go to sleep, Jackson said, "Hey! Don't you be mean!" He likes to tell me this every time I tell him he can't do or have something. Apparently I'm really mean.

Every Sunday after nursery I ask him what he did and what he learned and what songs he sang. He usually tells me he played with cars and learned about Jesus. One Sunday I asked him what song he sang and he said, "The jumping song!" I asked him, "Oh, how does the jumping song go?" He proceeded to jump up and down and yell, "Jumping song! JUUUUUMPING SOOONG!" He now does this with pretty much every word i.e. "Daddy song! DAAAADDDY SOOONG!" etc.

I get asked several times a day if he can "do dishes." He mostly just likes to play with the water in the sink and make a huge mess.

Whenever he says "no" to me it sounds more like "NO-AH!" I wonder where he got that from...

(Warning: potty humor ahead) Every time he poops, he looks in the potty and says, "what's that?!" We have also been playing with play-dough a lot lately, and he likes making snakes (can you see where this is going?) The other day, he pooped in the potty, turned around and looked at it, and said, "I made a snake! I made a snake in the potty!"

Whenever Weston sings, Jackson puts his hands over his ears and says, "Daddy hurt my ears." haha Maybe he should be an American Idol judge.

Post Edit: Oh, I almost forgot. The other day, I had Jackson on my lap, putting on his shoes. He decided it would be a good idea to swing his head back and hit me right in the eye. I now have a nice shiner on my right eye. So, if you see me, don't worry I am not a victim of spousal abuse, it's just my two-year-old beating me up.

4 months!

Carter turned 4 months old last week! What the heck? Where did my little newborn baby go??

He is still such a calm, easy-going baby. I am so grateful for his sweet demeanor. I think he knows that I might go crazy if he was too high-maintenance :)

He has started to eat "real" food! He loves everything I put in his mouth. He eats like I haven't fed him in weeks!

He really likes putting anything and everything he can get his hand on into his mouth.

He loves his big brother so much! He just lights up whenever Jackson gives him attention. It is stinkin adorable!

Rise and Shout

3 Months!

Yesterday, Carter turned 3 months old! What a big boy :)

He is becoming more alert and active every day

He is starting to bat at toys

He rolls over every time I put him on his tummy!

We love him more and more every day.

2 Months

Carter is 2 months old today!

We went to the doctor yesterday and he is doing great! He weighs 9 lbs 10 oz (a little on the small side), he is 23 inches long (about average), and his head is 15 inches.

Carter is still such a good little baby! He is so easy going and still hardly ever cries (only when he's gassy or hungry).
At 2 months Carter is:
-smiling so much! I love, love, love it! he has the cutest little personality :)
-starting to make cute little cooing noises
-sleeping for a six hour stretch then another 4 hours
-starting to roll over! He has done it from his tummy to his back 1.5 times (I had to help him when he got stuck on his side one time)
-recovering from his first cold. It was so sad, but he was such a trooper!

I can't believe how fast the time is flying. I love this little boy so much, and I love seeing his little personality come out.

Christmas Vacation Part II

Weston's birthday was on the 27th, so we were able to celebrate it in Vegas. My cousin's wife has hook ups at the Stratosphere so we got to go up and ride all the rides for free! Even my mom (who is deathly afraid of heights) went.

Later that night, Weston and I got to leave the kids with Nana and Papa and go on a date! My parents got us tickets to go see Phantom of the Opera at the Venitian. It was SO GOOD and it was super nice to have a night out just the two of us. We also got some greasy pizza and deliciously overpriced gelato. Yum!

Weston snuck a picture of the theater at Phantom. It was incredible!

Sadly, we had to come home yesterday :( and Jackson has been super whiney ever since. Every now and then he will say, "Go back Nana Papa's house!" He always misses the attention he gets when we leave grandma and grandpa's.

I apologize for the crappy phone pictures. It's just so much more conveniant to use the phones now instead of carrying a camera!

Christmas Vacation

Merry Christmas! We are in Vegas celebrating with my parents, and we have been having a blast. The first night we were here, we went to a live nativity that a super hard-core stake here in Vegas puts on. They did a fantastic job! The costumes and set were amazing!

Jackson loved petting the sheep, goats, and donkey before and seeing Baby Jesus afterwards.
My brother drives a huge semi truck, and Jackson got to sit in it and honk the horn. I'm pretty sure that was the best moment of his life.

We took Jackson to the mall to see Santa because he has been wanting to "ask Santa Francesco" for weeks now. After waiting in line for about 40 minutes, he refused to sit on Santa's lap, but he struck a deal with him from the comfort of Mama's arms :)

Jackson is a lover of water so I thought he would think the Bellagio fountains were the coolest thing ever. Boy was I wrong! He was scared to death of the loud boom they make. This is pretty much how he felt about the whole experience...

There is a free carousel at one of the outdoor shopping malls here which he liked a little more :)

This was such a fun Christmas because Jackson was SO excited about everything. When he woke up this morning Weston asked what day it was and the first thing Jackson said was, "open presents!" haha what a funny kid :)

He was so excited when he opened one of his presents this morning and found that Santa had kept his end of the bargain and brought him a Francesco!
This is how Carter spent most of the morning...

More fun to come so stay tuned!!

Jackson-isms

Jackson is a talkin' machine lately. He pretty much never stops from the time he wakes up in the morning to the time he goes to bed at night. As you can imagine, there are some pretty funny things that come out of that kid's mouth!

- Whenever Weston goes into the bathroom, Jackson runs back to the door shouting, "WESTON!" Apparently, I have yelled at Weston to get out of the shower one too many times :)

-Whenever Carter starts crying Jackson runs over to him and says, "Ohhh baby brother! Baby needs plug!" and he tries to put his binkie in his mouth

- When Jackson feels like he needs some attention and I'm holding the baby he says, "Put baby swing!" One day I think he got a little frustrated and he said "Put baby trash!" If he didn't love his brother so much this would have worried me a little bit

-Yesterday we went to get Weston from school and the whole way there he kept saying this like, "I see the moon baby!" "We're going to get Daddy baby brother!" "Look its a truck baby!" These two boys are going to be such good friends :)

- When Weston is watching tv Jackson will sit next to him and say, "I want to watch football daddy!" Atta boy!

- A phrase I hear frequently throughout my day is, "What happened?!"

- When Jackson doesn't want to go to bed, he lays by his door and yells, "Snuggle mama!" or "Snuggle dada!" Little manipulator :)

-If you ask Jackson "What does mama say?" he will answer, "Mama says no whining!" haha yes I do say that quite often.

He is at such a fun age! I love hearing the things that come out of his little mouth :)

1 Month!

How on earth did this happen? Carter is already 1 month old! I can't believe how fast this month has gone. I swear we just brought him home from the hospital.

Carter is seriously the best baby on this planet. The only time he all-out cries is when he has a bubble in his tummy and needs a burp. Other than that, we hardly hear a peep. Even at night, he doesn't cry when he wakes up. He just wimpers and grunts to let me know he's hungry. He is only waking up twice a night and he goes right back down after I feed and change him. How in the world did I get so lucky?? At his two week appointment he weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 19.5 inches long. He is now weighing in at 8.4 lbs on our scale so he's definitely a growing boy.

We love our little Carter Bug and we already can't imagine life with out him. He is the perfect little addition to our family.

P.S. I "unprivatized" my blog in hopes that it will help me be more motivated to post more often.

Carter Weston Caywood

I want to write down Carter's birth story before I forget all the details :)
It kind of all started in the few days before he was born. I was SO crampy and while I was at my appointment on Thursday I almost passed out (story of my pregnancy) and then just felt yucky for the rest of the day. On Friday I actually did pass out at home (seriously don't know what's wrong with me) so when I started having contractions that night around 8:30 and they lasted a couple hours I called my doctor and he told me to come to the hospital so they could monitor the baby. I really didn't want them to send me home so I asked if I could wait until the contractions got more intense, but he told me he wanted me to come in right away.
I left by myself so we wouldn't have to call a babysitter for Jackson until we knew for sure that I was staying. I got to the hospital around 11:00 and the nurse checked my cervix at 11:30 and I was dilated to a 3. I was a 2 at my appointment the day before so my doctor told me I was staying and having the baby! The nurse said I could have my epidural whenever I wanted and I told her the sooner the better (I don't have a very high threshhold for pain). I called Weston while I was waiting for the epidural and he called our aweseom friends over to watch Jackson and came to the hospital.
I think my doctor was super tired and didn't want to come in until the morning because he told the nurse not to give me Pitocin or break my water. Which was fine because my epidural did it's job and I slept for about 3 hours until the nurse checked me again at 3 am. I was dilated to a 6 at this point, which was great!
My doctor came in around 5:30 and when he checked me I was at a 9.5. He said he had a couple other patients to check in on but he would be back in 15 minutes. Well, 15 minutes turned into an hour and let me tell you if I hadn't had my epidural I would have been cursing his name! I could feel a lot of pressure down there and I knew if I wasn't all numbed up it would have been really hard not to push.
When he came back I was at a 10 but my water still hadn't broke. He broke my water and we did a practice push. I guess when I pushed the baby started crowning because he said, "ok stop stop!" and told the nurse to call all the other "helpers" in. I ended up pushing through three contractions and baby Carter was here!
They layed him on my stomach to clean him up and Weston cut the cord. They took him to weigh him and do his Apgar test then brought him back and we got to keep him for about a half hour until they took him to the nursery.
It was, seriously, such a great experience. I have the best doctor and I had great labor and delivery nurses. The hospital I delivered (both kids) at is the only one in the state where the nurses only have one patient so they are there with you the entire time giving you 100% of their attention. It's fantastic! I almost want to stay in Houston so I can have all my kids there!
Anyway, my recovery this time around has been super speedy. I was pretty much feeling back to normal before I even left the hospital. Being home has been fantastic. Carter is such an easy baby. He hardly ever cries and he is sleeping great. Jackson has been adjusting very well. He loves his "baby bwudow." Last night he came and sat by me on the couch while I was holding Carter and was giving him kisses and holding his hand. When the baby sneezed, Jackson thought it was the funniest thing ever. It was the cutest thing ever to see Jackson loving his brother so much!

Dear Jackson,

Today, you are two years old! We really can't believe that you are no longer our little baby. You are growing up so fast!

You are learning new things every day, and we are always amazed at how much how understand. You are such a vivacious and fun little boy with such a happy disposition. There is never a dull moment with you, and you find a new way to make us laugh everyday. Your smile is contagious. At times, you can be pretty stubborn, and you have so much energy that it's hard to keep up with you, but we really are loving this stage of your life.

Some things about you at 2 years old:
You love cars and trucks. Oh man, do you LOVE toy cars and trucks! It's bordering on obsession, really :)
You are really good at playing by yourself and keeping yourself entertained. Mommy really appreciates this
You do not like riding in carts at the stores. You would rather be walking by the cart (or running around the store). Mommy does not appreciate this so much.
"Cars" is your favorite movie (also bordering on obsession) and you would watch it 10 times a day if we would let you!
Sharing isn't your strong suit, but you are very social and love being around other kids
You love being outside and we really wish we had a backyard for you to run around in
You are so smart and catch onto things so fast. Right now we are working on counting (so far you can count to three...sometimes five), shapes, letters, and colors. Your memory is amazing! I will sometimes find you in your room "reading" books to yourself and you know the stories!

We are so grateful to be your parents. You have brought such joy into our lives and we really can't imagine our family with out you in it. We hope that you will always be so happy and fun!

We love you so much little man! Happy 2nd birthday :)

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

San Antonio: 2011

Yeah yeah, four months later and I'm finally posting on this blog. I have been a lot better at posting on my other blog, so if you need to know I'm alive just check there :o)

Anyway, we just went on a fun family weekend getaway to San Antonio and I wanted to put some pictures up here.

We got to San Antonio around 3:00 on Friday afternoon. Jackson was SO good for the 3.5 hour drive there (and back today). We headed to the Riverwalk for some dinner about an hour later. We ate at Rita's on the River, a delicious Tex Mex place. It was so pretty and had such a fun atmosphere. We got to sit right by the river--and I mean RIGHT BY THE RIVER! We even made some new friends!

Jackson had a blast watching the boats and feeding the fish and ducks

Happy camper eating his chips, salsa, and rice.

Ater dinner we walked around for a bit. I just love the Riverwalk. It's so pretty! I just wish it wasn't so hot and I wasn't so pregnant on this day so we could have stayed longer.

Typical Texas

We remembered the Alamo.

Jackson loved to help push the stroller.

On Saturday, we spent a marathon 12-hour day at SeaWorld! On the way in, Jackson thew a fit because he couldn't wait to get to the water I had been telling him about. There was a fountain just inside the entrance that he thought he was going to get to play in , and when we walked by it he freaked out. He finally calmed down when he saw what we were really going to play in. We didn't really get any pictures, but they had this Sesame Street themed play area with water shooting everywhere. It was super fun and Jackson thoroughly enjoyed himself.
We spent the rest of the day watching shows, looking at animals, and eating yummy food!

Jackson didn't quite know what to think of this guy. He did give him a high-five though.

He did so well waiting for the shows to start. He was so enthralled with all the animals!

If this isn't a look of pure joy, I don't know what is.

What a great weekend! Now, we get to look forward to going to Utah in about 6 more weeks :o) Yay for vacations!

Easter

We had a great Easter this year. Jackson woke up and we gave him his basket full of goodies, and a Buzz Lightyear t-shirt. He got so excited about it that I almost thought he understood what was going on, but I think he was just excited because I was excited. Well, he was pretty excited about the shirt. I had to put it on over his pj's. It was cute :o)

We had a yummy Easter dinner with friends. Then, we dyed eggs and played a game of "egg wars." Basically, you kneel across the room from another person and you each roll your egg at each other. After the eggs hit, whoever's is cracked the least wins. Pretty fun. Jackson's favorite part was the sheet that we laid down to roll the eggs on.



I love Easter because it means springtime (unless you're in Houston, then it means hot, summer-like weather) and I love celebrating Christ's resurrection. What a wonderful holiday!

18 Months

Wow, I am just a tad bit behind on my blogging. I don't think I've ever gone two whole months with out writing anything! I guess being pregnant and feeling yucky is an ok excuse though, right?

Anyway, Jackson is the big 1-8 months now! He is officially a nursery kid and church is, once again, a place of spiritual learning instead of completely frustrating.
Well, Jackson has changed quite a bit in the last couple months.

- he can say a few words now: thank you (da doo), mama, dada, more (mah), truck (tuck-ahhh), juice (jzz), keys (kzz), cheese (chzz), go (doe), down (dow), bath (tha), hi, yes (sezz), hot (hah), brush (ushh), Addie (aa-ee)

- he is half deathly afraid half weirdly intrigued with bugs. Whenever we find a cockroach in our house (which happens way more often than I would like) he stands about 5 feet away from it, points at it, and giggles nervously. It's pretty entertaining.

- he RUNS everywhere. I swear this kid is either in high gear or sleeping--there is no in between

- he still LOVES his daddy. Weston can't study at home because Jackson will stand at the bedroom door knocking and saying "dada! dada!" Weston just can't resist.

- he can point out the letters "a," "o," "i," "j," and "z"

-he is obsessed with Buzz Lightyear. I honestly don't know why, but we went over to a friend's house who had a Buzz toy and he got really attached to it. Now, we have to watch Toy Story every single day. He wakes up and first thing in the morning he says, "bzzz" and points to the tv. My mom just sent him a Buzz stuffed toy for Easter and he is completely in love with it. I took it away to have him eat dinner and he had a complete melt down. He played with Buzz all night and is snuggling with him as he sleeps right now



- he has been really into giving loves and kisses lately

-he knows quite a few animal sounds: monkey, lion, cat, dog, horse, cow, sheep, dinosaur (pretty much anything that says "raar"), bee, elephant

I am loving this age. He is learning so much and he is pretty stinkin' hilarious.

16 months

My little boogie turned 16 months a couple days ago, and I don't want to forget to write down some of the amazingly cute things he's doing.

-his new favorite thing to do is to tell people hi. When we pick Weston up from school he usually sits in the back seat with Jackson. The entire ride home Jackson will look at his dad and say, "hiiiiiieeeee." And when Weston doesn't respond to him, he'll say, "DADA! DADA! HIEEEEEE!" It's pretty much the cutest thing ever.
- whenever he's about to do something naughty, he'll say "No no." It's nice that he gives me a warning because whenever I hear, "Uh oh" I know I'm too late.
- the thing that grates on my nerves the most is when he throws his food on the floor, but lately when he's done eating he'll just sit in his highchair and say, "dow!dow!" and hand me the food he doesn't want to eat
- we've started doing time outs because he is learning how to get into so many things that he shouldn't. I'll let ya know how that goes.
-he is climbing on EVERYTHING! We have to store our dining room chairs in our bedroom or he would be climbing up on the dining room table all day long. I just hope he doesn't figure out how to climb out of his crib any time soon. I'm just not ready for that yet.
- he's starting to learn colors...ok just one color. He can point out a blue block from a stack of multi-colored blocks
-speaking of blocks, he LOVES to stack them


I know I say this every time, but if you've ever met him you'll know how true it is....he makes me laugh EVERYDAY. He's pretty much the funniest person I know and I just love him so dang much!

For your viewing pleasure

Oh Yeah...

I also chopped 5 inches off my hair while we were in Vegas

Las Vegas

Jackson and I went to Vegas last week to visit my family. We had a ton of fun! My dad was able to get the entire week off, and Jackson had so much fun playing with him. I think grandpa kinda liked playing with Jackson too! ;o) One day, while my dad was folding laundry (I know, what a great husband, huh?) Jackson came and jumped right in the middle of the pile. My dad buried him in laundry, and Jackson came out of it with this shirt on:

By far, the best game they played was with the huge exercise ball. My dad would roll it at Jackson and knock him over. Jackson thought it was the best thing ever. I don't know why I didn't get a video of that.
We also got to meet my brothers little girl, Riley for the first time. She is only 2 months younger than Jackson, and boy did they have fun together!


Thanks for the fun time mom and dad! We can't wait to come out and see you again!