4 Months Ago

It's been a while.  I CANNOT believe Joe Bear will be 4 months on Monday.  Wasn't he born last week?  We are head-over-heels for him, although he can be a temperamental little guy.  He goes through phases and some I'm sad he doesn't do anymore, and others I don't mind to see them go.

I have here photos of the first three months, with narration:

Taking him home: SWEETEST BABY.  I felt bad for other 

moms with babies who cried.  A week later I was in their boat.

 

I loved his little newborn grunts, squeaks, and faces.  

Trying to gain control of your body is hard!

His cord fell off a week after he was born.  We were excited to give 

him his first real bath.  As you can see he sure wasn't.  Poor thing!

 

 However, he warmed up to them: here's the next bath time.  One stoic dude.

We needed to do a newborn photo shoot before, well, he wasn't

 a newborn anymore.  Jenny did one the day after he was born,

 but it was so fun, I had to do one myself!

 

 

"Oh, oh, oh, oh."

Tummy time is hard business.

 

This pic is the winner!

 

 

What an angel!

 

 

B+W (excuse the poor photoshop job of making Sam's legs into a blanket).

 

 

 May 4th: Ryker was born.  They were so little!

ONE MONTH: No way.  Still so little, though!

 This is one of the phases I miss.  He gave "his first look" 

all the time and it was presh.  Future model?

 We decided to bless the little man at Sam's parents' home.   

Beautiful blessing, I know he will be a great man some day.

 Spending the night at my parents' house when Sam was gone for a month.

 

Cousins.  Need a pic of Beau and Joseph, too!

This little guy went international.  We spent a good few days in Mexico.  

 Beach babe.

 TWO MONTHS: Daddy has been gone half my life by now (and boy have I changed!)

It's great having Sam back!  

Sweet seeing him with Joey.

 I play with toys now!

 3 MONTHS: Out of his screaming for no reason phase (mostly).

Like a good friend said about her little girl, I want to freeze him where he is, yet when he is in a new phase, I change my mind and want to freeze him then!  I'll have to take his 4 month pictures soon.  Packing the newborn and 0-3 month clothing was sad, but hopefully Joey will have a brother one day who will use them, right?

Happy Anniversary!

For those of you who don't know, I am currently attending the Officer Training School, learning how to be an officer in the United States Air Force. I am required to be away from my family for five weeks, and even though the time has gone by quickly, the hardest part is being apart from the ones I love! I am grateful for the love Kiley and I share, and though it is hard to be apart (especially on our anniversary - June 24th), the pain of being apart is just a reminder of how wonderful our life together is.

The past two years have been the absolute best of my life! I am looking forward to an eternity with my sweetheart. I love you Kiley! I'll see you on Friday night at the airport! :)

Happy Belated Father's Day

I just wanted to give a shout out to those awesome men in my life.  I'm a little late due to the fact that I was traveling all day yesterday (more to come...maybe).  I especially wanted to wish a special Father's Day to my favorite person in the world.

Sam is such a wonderful person and I still have to pinch myself to believe he chose me to be with for eternity.  Just in the few weeks he has had with our little man shows what a wonderful man he truly is.

First of all, he was able to be a part of bringing Joseph into the world by being there to catch him.  I know he will always be there for our son.

He is SO sweet with the little man, and the most tender moments I have seen is sitting in our arm chair reading stories to him.

There was no one better for the job of being the mouth piece for our son's blessing.  The words were so awe-some.

Happy 1st (official) Father's Day Sam!  The little man and I love you soooooo much!

Baby Announcement Poll

Hey Everyone!

Kiley and I are enjoying life more than ever with our little Joey, even though he has finally found his voice! We call him our little "cat": his little cry is just too cute.

I am finishing up my last week as an undergraduate student at the University of New Mexico, and I am looking forward to spending some time with my new son before I leave for COT (Commissioned Officer Training) and start Med School. I am going to three different graduation ceremonies and skipping out of the big one! It should be great. :)

Kiley and I just finished making drafts of three different Baby Announcement ideas that we thought were cute, and we want to know what you think! Please leave a comment telling us which you like the best. We are not yet sold on the photo or the exact layout, but we would love some feedback. Thanks!

Joseph's Birth Story

Life is pretty amazing right now.  One look at our little man and I melt.  He's so perfect and I couldn't imagine a better baby.  I feel super blessed: good pregnancy, fast labor, and a beautiful son (with lots of hair!)

I swear I was going to have a baby before my due date, but it came and passed.  For those who passed their due date know how discouraging that is.  I went walking walking walking all the time and even did things I didn't try to do all during the pregnancy (like jogging or Just Dance).  Thursday night on the 18th Sam and I didn't feel the baby wasn't going to come any time soon, so we stayed up until midnight watching a movie and playing a little Just Dance.  No contractions, nothing out of the ordinary.  Ironically Sam asked if I wanted my picture taken that night and I said we could wait until we know the baby's on his way (which didn't happen).  So my last picture was at 37 weeks:

That night around 3:30am I wake up and feel a little cramping.  I've had cramping before and these ones didn't seem to sync with the contractions I was feeling.  I told Sam that and he told me to get more rest.  But I couldn't sleep!  I got up and went to the computer to listen to Harry Potter on audiotape and play meaningless computer games to pass the time.  That's when I noticed that the cramping hurt worse when contractions came on.  I thought "This might be it..." and woke up Sam and texted my mom that I might be in labor.  She called back right away and asked what it felt like and I told her.  I was expecting it to last for a long time so I wasn't in any rush.  She told me to start timing the contractions.  Sam got out the timer and started timing how long they lasted as well as the time in between.  They came 2 1/2 to three minutes apart, but they only lasted 30-45 seconds.  The rule to go to the hospital was five minutes apart lasting for one minute for one hour.  Sam thought it could be false labor, but he set up a bath for me.  It helped the pain and the contractions slowed down a little bit, but they didn't stop.  My mom called back to check progress after a little bit and I told her about the contractions.  She told me I better get to the hospital.  The pain escalated at that point and I felt like throwing up, which I did!  My legs shook so bad and Sam kept telling me to relax, but I wasn't getting a lot of time in between the pain.  Our goal was to stay at home for as long as possible, since it was easier to relax there than the hospital, but we packed our bags and headed down around 5:50am.  I told Sam as we got into the car that I wanted an epidural right away.  The pain was so bad and I thought I had quite a bit more time before the baby would appear.

My mom beat us to the hospital and while Sam parked the car she helped me check into Triage.  I could barely hear what the nurse was trying to ask me as I just wanted to either lie down or sit on the toilet (that sort of helped).  My mom answered some of the questions (but forgot what year I was born) and then without warning I rushed to find the nearest bathroom to sit on the toilet.  The nurse gave me a gown, but it took me a long time in the bathroom just sitting there before I emerged.  He asked me to rate my pain.  Thinking I only really started laboring and the pain would get worse, I tried to make room for more pain.  I said a 6 at first, but quickly kept upping it because it really was painful.  Sam appeared and I told the nurse I wanted an epidural.  He told me he had to check me and see what he could do.  I was 7-8cm and getting an epidural was iffy at that point due to how far I was.  He left, maybe to check on other patients when a minute or two later my mom asked if I felt the need to push after a particularly terrible contraction and I nodded.  She ran to get the nurse, and he checked me again and told me I was complete!  I wasn't getting that epidural, but I realized I got through most of the laboring already and that this baby was coming and coming fast!

Some nurses came down, wheeled my bed out of the room and rushed me into a delivery room.  I was the last one entering Triage out of the patients but the first one out!  Everything was such a blur at that point.  All the nurses there are faceless to me, except the doctor.  She was incredibly nice and her name happened to be Kiley (and spelled that way, too).  They tried to stick an IV in me but it was a little too late.  Sam asked Dr. Kiley if he could deliver the baby and the doctor happily agreed and directed him through it.  I asked if I could push and she told me to go for it.  So with one nurse holding my leg and my mom holding the other, I grabbed my legs and bore down as hard as I could.  I quickly became tired, but I wasn't in too much pain.  After 20 minutes of pushing Sam caught Joseph Samuel at 6:58am.  He cried for a few seconds then promptly fell asleep on my chest.  I fell in love.

The labor and delivery couldn't have gone any better in my opinion (although I did tear a little bit).  And I went natural (not by choice, but still)!  My mom told me she was super surprised how well I handled it all, and out of all her daughters she couldn't see me doing it.  I know each labor is different with each child, but this one made me realize I could do it!  Sam and I were pro-epidural before attending birthing classes.  I mean, if you could be spared all that pain, why not?  I still wasn't planning on going natural, but I wanted to try some of the techniques shared in our class that I couldn't do once I got an epidural, so we wanted to wait as long as I could stand it.  We'll see how I handle the next one, but for now I'm going to enjoy this little miracle of mine.

Joseph Samuel Hobbs

Born April 19, 2013 at 6:58am

7lbs 4oz, 20.5 inches long, 13 inch head circumference

Maternity Photos