His Life is a Disney Movie

Up until a few months ago, Porter had never seen a movie and certainly couldn't last through one. Around his birthday we introduced him to Cars and he loved it, well the first part anyways, once they got to Radiator Springs we usually lost him. His love for hats led Tom's dad to bring home a Monster's Inc hard hat and Tom introduced Porter to that show which he loves. This past week my poor sad boy has been sick and the only thing he wanted was to was watch movies. With his incredible memory, I have realized Porter is basically living life pretending he is in a Disney movie. Like his dad, he can see a show once and remember almost every part, character and song. When he is in the tub he is "Going Down the Bayou" with Princess and the Frog. Every room and closet he goes into he then informs us, "no monsters in here!" from Monsters Inc. I was cleaning the house yesterday and he offered to help by bringing the fluffy duster in to me. As he brushed it along the baseboards he started singing, "Almost There!" from Princess and the Frog when she is cleaning the restaurant. All cookies are just like Kanga makes. All fish are friends with Nemo. And every person is now labeled as a mean guy or a nice guy. Now don't get me wrong, I don't just plop my child down in front of the tv all day. Usually movies are reserved for special time with daddy when we get to eat popcorn, but being sick allows for a little indulgence, right? It just cracks me up to see how this little guys brain works. I could listen to him play with his guys for hours, he has such an imagination. But the thing that amazes me is his memory skills. I love being a mom and I love my little guy!

Jackson's 3rd Week

I'm a bit late in posting week three, but better late than never for the journaling. The picture above demonstrates exactly how I feel. Crazy how the time flies. Jackson is becoming quite the eater, thinking he needs to eat closer and closer together, which makes for fun nights! He is definitely filling out his clothes and he is awake a lot more. (even if that is at 2am when I fing him staring wide eyed at the cieling. I love his facial expressions; he is quite the smiler especially when he enters his milk coma after he eats. And unfortunately, he is a spit up baby which I am not use to and I constantly find myself forgetting which leaves me changing my clothes quite a bit. He is also becoming quite famous for the mid diaper change poop and sometimes pee which is not so fun at 3 am! But its all part of the package. I had forgotten how much I love to snuggle new babies and he has already decided he would prefer to be held so it works out great, except when Porter is throwing a fit or doing something naighty. That proves challenging. Surprisingly, Porter is quite careful with him. Either he wants to hold him on his lap and panics when he cries, or he is totally oblivious to his existence. However we did go to the Zoo and Porter insisted that I just leave Jack there. I was worried this stage would be difficult adjusting to two but so far we are faring well. (I'm sure once jack is mobile it will be quite a different story) And I must say this week hasn't been fun so far when your two year old is running a fever of 104 and you are trying to keep the newborn away from it. (especially when your living quarters are limited from a flood:) But I think we are in the clear and everyone has made it through alive and well! We are loving every bit of having a new baby and feel blessed to have him in our lives.

2 WEEKS

Well, we've crossed the two week mark without too much difficulty but a little exhaustion. We had some minor set backs and a couple more visits to both our doctors and the pharmacy, but I think both Jackson and I are finally on the mend. It is crazy to me how fast he is growing! I guess you just forget. He is such a sweet little thing that sleeps most of the time. We had some rough nights at first, but now he is doing 3 hour stretches which give me some decent sleep. I feel like a terrible mom lately because with being so sick and wanting to snuggle a brand new baby all day long, I find I may possibly be neglecting my other child. I think that is the most challenging thing for me right now is figuring out the balance and making sure Porter still feels loved and gets enough attention.

Porter is adjusting surprisingly well to having his whole world changed. When Jack cries, he tries to be helpful, sometimes to my dismay, by looking for things to make him happy: binkies, bottles, toys, etc. He doesn't quite understand that it is going to be quite sometime before Jack can actually play with him. The other night for FHE, we were coloring pictures of Jesus, and Porter ran into the room and said, "It's color time Jack Jack!" (Oh, to clarify, Jackson has earned the nickname of Jack Jack from Porter. There is a Pixar Short on the Incredibles called "Jack Jack Attack" where the baby sitter calls the mom about Jack Jack. Porter loves to reinact this scene but sadly for now Jackson is known in our house as Jack Jack) He also got his Mack truck and Lightening McQueen cars and brought them in asking Jackson if he wanted to play cars. There is a little jealousy when I am holding Jack and Porter feels that I should hold him as well. And like clock work, Porter turns into a naughty hellion at 5:00 on the button every night. Can't explain it but he goes into destruction mode at this time.
Now, you tell me, do you think my children look alike? These pictures are not the best comparisons but still, tell me they don't look alike!

Hospital Pictures

So these are from a photoshoot they did in the hospital. Don't mind the giant writing across the pics, we haven't decided which ones we want yet:

Easter and Week One

Well, we have made it through week one after a couple of minor set backs. After a couple days on the bilibed,(and a few visits to the Hospital and the Pediatrician) we are in the clear zone for the jaundice. Jack is gaining back the pound he lost in the hospital and now is on medication for an infection in the diaper area. I won't go into detail but it looks painful. I've had a couple of minor setbacks this week as well with infections and such. I will also spare everyone the details of those but hopefully the worst is over. Porter is still slowly adjusting to the idea that now he is not the reigning spoiled child. Sometimes he loves Jack and asks him if he wants to play cars and other times he isn't so fond of him like when his place in bed next to dad in the mornings is now occupied by someone else. It's definitely an adjustment, but he's coming around.
We had a great Easter. Porter was thrilled to get to play with lots of cousins and family and was spoiled with treats from the Easter bunny.

The weekend has flown by and we are sad that Tommy has to be back at work again tomorrow and reality will set it for good.

Home and the BiliBed

So we are home and easing ourselves back into reality. This recovery seems a lot harder to me. Every part of my body hurts and I can't seem to find anywhere comfortable to sit. (gotta love stitches!) But I'm happy to be home and be with all my boys. This task of being a mommy to two seems a bit daunting and Porter terrifies me still, but here we go! Luckily Tommy gets to be home with us today and tomorrow. We left the hospital Sunday and were told Jack had jaundice and needed to be tested again today. We took him back to IMC to get his blood taken and then headed to the Pediatrician. Well, not such great news, he has lost quite a bit of weight, has elevated jaundice and a little heart murmur. We are now supplementing to help with the weight issue and have rented one of these lovely devices to help with the jaundice:
It is a bilibed and bili-blanket. Poor little guy is instructed to be on this thing 24/7 except for feedings when we get to take the blanket pad out and have him lay on it. Breaks my heart not to be able to just cuddle him since he is just this small for such a short time. Porter hates the machine and wanted the mean guy that brought it to leave. Hopefully it will be done in the next 48 hours, but until then, gotta love life! I am definitely not looking forward to tonight as I keep having to adjust the thing every 10 minutes as Jack tries to wriggle his way out.
Backing up, let me just evaluate my stay at IMC for you. I absolutely loved the labor and delivery portion of IMC. The nurse was fabulous and attentive and things went so well. I, however, didn't enjoy the rest of my stay at the hospital. We were taken to our room and then sat there for almost 2 hours before we saw a nurse to let us do the bath for Jack and give me some meds. And that is how I felt the whole time. It seemed like "the nurses were always in the middle of switching shifts" and anything I needed took almost an hour! But we are happy it is over and now our little family is home!

Jackson Reese LeBaron

We are thrilled to welcome Jackson Reese LeBaron to our little
family. He was born March 26th at 5:16 p.m. weighing 8lbs. 7oz.
and measuring 21" long. He and his mother are doing very well, Dad is extremely excited, and Porter still hasn't made up his mind. As of last night I think Porter likes him.



On Tuesday Jess went to the doctor and he told her that she would have to be induced later in the week. He said it would probably be on Saturday or Sunday but she begged him to do it earlier. He said the earliest it could be would have to be Friday but we would have to call on Thursday to set it up. Thursday night Jess called the hospital and the pretty much said you are third in line so we will get to you when we can. We called Friday morning and they told us we would have to wait still. Jess had given up hope but at about 10:30 a.m. the called and said we could come down. They got us into a room and started the pitocin and then we just waited. It was sort of an up and down run, but just before 5 my mom was going to go get me a drink when the nurse came in to see how Jess was feeling. My mom said she'd better stay here if the nurse was going to check her, so the nurse checked and said oh wow! you're ready to start pushing. The doctor came in and after about 5-6 rounds of pushing the baby came out. He did have the cord wrapped around his neck again, but fortunately not as tightly as Porter did. Everything went really well from there and we are so happy to have little Jack here at last.

I was telling a friend that when we just had Porter I could not imagine how I would be able to share that love or divide it with a second child, but as soon as I had this little boy in my arms it was so incredible to feel that same amount of love immediately include both of my children and not wax or wane for one or the other. Many thanks to family and friends for the love and support and thanks to the great staff at IMC.