Jackson Cade

The day we had been waiting for had finally arrived... it was time to prepare for the birth of our baby boy! Jack and I spent the day getting prepared. We cleaned the entire house, did last minute touches to his nursery, packed our bags, picked out his going home outfit, and put his things in his diaper bag.



I checked in the hospital on November 20th at 8 p.m. to begin my induction. Although his due date was just 5 days away, my doctor wanted to go ahead and begin the process due to my high blood pressure. My contractions began at 8 o'clock the next morning. At first they just felt like menstrual cramps, but the pain slowly got worse so I asked for an epidural. Before I explain anything else, let me just say that my body is very sensitive to any pain medicine so I was very nervous about getting an epidural. The anesthesiologist was supposed to give me 10 cc and he accidentally gave me 100 cc which they didn't realize until I was nauseous and numb from the shoulders down! About 2 hours later, I was feeling much better.



Once I was dilated enough, I was able to begin pushing. I pushed for over an hour and we weren't making any progress. His head was faced up and it needed to be faced down. My doctor decided we needed to do a c-section. This was very scary for me because I was not expecting to do that. Jack and my mom had to get scrubs on and they rolled me into a very bright operating room.



So after a long day of labor, my handsome baby was finally here at 8:45 p.m. on November 21, 2011 weighing 7.12 pounds and 20 inches long. I have never felt the kind of love I feel for him! He is absolutely perfect from head to toe and I could literally spend my day just staring at him.

7 Months!

I'm entering into my 3rd trimester now! My belly seems to get bigger by the day and little Jackson seems to being having a blast in there because he is always moving around! It is crazy how much you can already love someone that you haven't met. I can't wait for him to make his debut :)

Blessing in Disguise

New year. New school. New grade.

Unfortunately, I was a part of the DISD budget cut MESS because I was the last one hired at my school. I thought my life was over when I received a phone call that I was being "let go" from my current position. All I could think of was "BABY ON THE WAY.. HOUSE BEING BUILT!" We can not afford all of this on one salary. But thankfully.. God was definitely looking down on me because I received another job a few hours after being let go. Talk about an emotional roller coaster! I now look at my lay off as a blessing in disguise. I am teaching a grade I have always been interested in, 2nd Grade, and I am teaching my favorite subject, Language Arts! Although I am going to miss seeing my old kiddos and co-workers at Peabody, I am very eager and excited about working at Botello Elementary! My classroom is still a work in progess, but here are some pictures of what I've done so far!


This is my bulletin board in the hallway. I am going to write the student's names on the stars once I get them.


This is the view looking in from my door.


This is the front of my room where I will do my whole group.


Here is my calendar board.


Here are my lockers.


This is my computer area. I plan to put up student work on the bulletin board.


This is the view from the computers.


This is my Daily 5 board.


This is my literacy/reading area.

And thats all I have for now! :)

6 Months

The baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts him at just over a pound. Since he's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), he cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but his body is filling out proportionally and he'll soon start to plump up. His brain is also growing quickly now, and his taste buds are continuing to develop. His lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help his air sacs inflate once he hits the outside world. His skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.

Our little firefighter

I am in love with all the cute firefighter onesies we have gotten so far! I just have to share them! My mom bought us these two...




and Jon and Brit bought us this one when they went to New York...



Jackson will definitely be decked out in firefighter gear! Can't wait to start on his firefighter nursery :)

Our house...

Our house is coming together so quickly! I'm glad it is only an exit away from where we live now because Jack and I are obsessed with driving by almost every night!! We met our neighbors the other day too and they were the sweetest family. They already invited us over for one of their barbecues! Jack and I can't wait to move in and start our little family of 3, well 6 if you include our pets! I apologize to my friends and family if all you hear out of our mouths is house and baby talk... we are just SO excited that it's hard not to talk about it! Even through all the excitement, there is still a part of us that is nervous because it is a huge investment to purchase a home. But Jack and I have always tried to make the best decisions for our life and we believe that God would not give us anything that we could not handle. I have to trust that my fortune cookie I got last night is true...



For awhile all we saw were huge piles of dirt, but this past week they have really gotten a lot done! Here is a sneak peak of our house...

It's a BOY!!!

Today was the big day!!! Jack and I found out at 10am that we were having a baby BOY! We were BEYOND excited! We told our family immediately, but had to wait until 7pm to tell all of our friends because we threw an Announcement Party at Main Event. We couldn't wait to share the news with everyone. We asked everyone to wear blue if they thought it was a boy or pink if they thought it was a girl. The majority wore blue and only two people wore pink! Once everyone got there, we passed out the cupcakes. We made cupcakes that had white icing and blue cake so once everyone bit into it they could see that it was BLUE for a BOY!





Here is a picture of our handsome son, Jackson Cade Burns :)