The Snook Crew

The Snook Crew

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

INTRODUCING......

Jameson Thomas Snook
Born: April 11th, 2008 at 1:02 a.m.

Weight: 7 lbs 8 ounces
Length: 20 inches

With our last few babies coming to us a few weeks early, we were pretty sure that this little guy would come earlier than he did. After not showing up in the first week of April, we resigned to wait out through all the birthdays. Jim and my birthday is April 7 and Daniel's is April 9, so I told baby if he could just hold on until after April 10th I would be happy.

Well, April 10th came and I had been having contractions all day long. They were very mild and only about 1 to 2 an hour at the most. Nothing I had not been having for the last few weeks anyway. In addition to all the birthdays, it was Family week for the University Villages, so we had lots of activities to do every night for our community. The activity that night was the Carrousel, so we hung out down there for a few hours. All of the kids had a great time. I will try and blog about that later on, we have some great pics of that night. Daniel had a blast with his first horsie rides with Daddy and Abby just adored all the horses of course.

Anyway, Jim was on call that night so he had to head over to the Community Center after the Carrousel night, so the kids and I headed home. I got the all tucked into bed, except for Daniel of course. He stays up late to let Abby fall asleep and then he can go to bed. About 9:30 my contractions started coming a bit more regular about 10 mins apart or so. I was not convinced at this time that it was labor, as I had been having these episodes of contractions for a couple of weeks now. They would just go away after a while so I was just waiting for them to go away. Jim came home and we got Daniel in bed. About 10:30 I decided to time the contractions and they were about 6 to 7 minutes apart. Still not convinced it was real, we decided to go to bed and see if they would go away. At 11:30 p.m. I had a very hard and painful contraction and we decided it was time to go. I am so glad we did not waste any more time. We got someone to take the phone for Jim and then got someone to come over and sleep with the kids, then we headed to the hospital. The contractions were still not too close, but they were starting to get more painful. We got to the hospital at about midnight or a few minutes afterwards and checked in. The nurse checked my progress and I was 5 cm dilated at about 12:10 a.m. I was very surprised, as I was only 2 cm that morning at my checkup and I had been 2 cm for the last 2 weeks.

Well, things got fast and crazy from that point on. They asked if I wanted the epidural and I hemmed and hawed for a few minutes, but finally said yes. they went to call the doc to let him know I was there and call the anesthesiologist. We got all the admission questions out of the way and started getting things prepared for a night of labor. About 12:40 a.m. during a rather hard and painful contraction my water burst and Jim went and got the nurse. She came in and checked me again and I was 9.5 cm with just a tiny little anterior lip. The anesthesiologist had just gotten there. He thought he could still get an epi in so we sat up and tried to get things going and the nurse went to give a call to my doc to hurry him along. Baby was obviously coming faster than anticipated. Well, after 2 contractions while sitting up, I realized that an epi was out of the question. I had the urge to push and had to lay back down. There happened to be a doctor in the halls waiting for his laboring mother to get to a pushing point, so he was brought in to help with us as baby was crowning and coming now. Jameson was born at 1:02 a.m. on April 11th after just 2 pushes with an all natural delivery, not my first choice, but I am glad for the experience.

Birth was a rather traumatic experience for poor Jameson and also for mother. I was in a bit of a shock about how fast it all went. I cant really even remember Jim announcing it was a boy, it all happened to fast. He was not breathing very well and had to be bagged for a bit. He had a lot of fluid on his lungs from coming so fast, so it was just hard for him to move air. After NICU worked on him for a bit, he pinked up and is doing well. He is a ferocious eater and got the hang of that right away.

All in all, he is the spitting image of his siblings. Another "cookie cutter Snook." He is a cutie and we are enjoying the new addition to our family. Abigail was certain it was a baby sisser and Jim was very scared to have to tell her she got a brother. She took it very well and says that she loves her baby now. She calls him "Your baby" and always asks me "Wheres your baby mom?" She wants to hold him all the time and is a big help with diapers and stuff. Daniel enjoys him as well and is fascinated with something so small. He is having some mommy holding time issues and wants me to hold him quite often, which is a switch cause he usually wants Jim. We can handle that though. The boys all think he is cute and say "he will do." We pretty much have 5 little faces in his face at all times. Jameson will definitely be used to crowds when he grows up.

Anyway, the Snook family is doing great. We are all enjoying our new addition and thank the good Lord for this wonderful blessing. We look forward to many years of fun times ahead of us raising these 6 beautiful children. We are truly blessed.

Here are a few pics of the kids all holding him when they came to the hospital. Also, a few more pics of our newest little man.


Here is Tyler holding Jameson. He is so proud.


Jacob is so loving and caring when he holds him.


Noah is all grins with his new baby brother.


Abby is amazed by how little he really is.


Daniel is just so interested in everything he does.


Here is Jameson in his going home outfit.


Daddy holding his new little guy just before discharge from the hospital.


Ultrasound pose. If you scroll down to the ultrasound pic we have on the blog, you will see Jameson in this same position. Obviously one of the more comfortable positions.

Well, there it is. Our new family has started. We are excited for what lies ahead for the Snooks. We will see where life takes us and look forward to the new chapters life has for us.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUNSHINE!!

Daniel turned 2 years old on April 9th. He has very much enjoyed Elmo, so we decided to do Elmo cupcakes for him this year. He loved them, and I think they turned out pretty darn cute myself.


He got some blocks with the alphabet on them, which him and Abby decided were better suited to build towers and knock down. Oh well, they had a great time doing it.


Daniel is a funny little man and has many expressions, one of which is featured in this next picture. He gets genuinely excited about everything and shows such excitement and surprise on his face. It is so great to see his silly personality.



After dinner of course, we have to blow out the candles and eat the cupcakes. They were well received by all of the kids. Daniel enjoyed attacking his cupcake, tentatively at first...


But then, full on attack.

It is always fun to celebrate each of the kids birthdays and is a special time for mom and dad to remember the last year or so of the child's life. This last year Daniel has grown so much. To think that 1 year ago, he was not walking, talking, or showing near as many emotions. He has learned to walk, run, and climb on everything. He amazes us every day with the words he picks up, sometimes surprising us with what he repeats. He has grown such a wonderful little personality it is so fun to see. His favorite things at this point in his life are his big brother Tyler, cars, playing with sister, Elmo, and cars. He is a little cutie patootie that we have enjoyed. It will be fun to see his personality blossom even more and see what kind of child he grows into. For now, we enjoy his fun loving, energetic, monkey-like personality.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Lesson learned

Never leave a 2 year old unattended downstairs with 2 open boxes of cereal.