Jonathan meeting the family...

 Grandpa Dave with the 3rd generation of "Slade Boys"

 Cousin Johanna with little Jonathan

 Auntie Billa and Jonathan 

 Cousin Dagbjort and Jonathan 

 Connie brought Josh his ornaments from growing up.  Very nostalgic and fun for Josh to open all of them and for us to have them on our tree now.  Great motivation to do the same for our boys now! 

 Uncle Jeremy and Jonathan.. he looks so tiny here! 

 Jack and Papa... continue to be attached at the hip!  

Gaga and Jonathan catching a few quiet minutes together.

Pictures from Jonathan's Arrival

 Before...

 After!  Never thought I would have a baby this small!  

 Proud Daddy!  His third boy!  

 Thrilled Gaga!  She made it to the hospital about 2 minutes before his birth!

 Proud Grammy!  She knows all too well what it's like to have 3 boys!  :-)

 Auntie Jill was sweet enough to put this together for us.  James, Jack, and Jonathan in the hospital.  So cute to see the similarities and differences between the 3 boys! 

 Jack loved baby Jon-a once he was willing to get close to me!  

 Jonathan's first bath 

 Not a happy face... but oh so cute! 

 My little Christmas baby!  

 Love this picture of Jack visiting.

 "Oh no, put me back in!" 

 Two very proud big brothers and one darling Birth Announcement/Christmas card! 

My precious little sweetie pie! 

Welcome Jonathan Robert!

As I'm sure you have all heard by now... Jonathan Robert was born December 15th at 3:47pm... he weighed 7lbs. 8oz. and was 19 inches long... a precious little peanut!!! We feel so lucky and blessed to have Jonathan be so healthy and here in time to celebrate the holidays with us! He is a wonderful baby and I can't wait to watch him grow and learn and discover!!! He is already so alert... he loves to listen to all of us around the house and even turned to listen to Daddy in the hospital. We feel so blessed to have him join our family and so happy to have our family be complete! Jonathan's birth story... (This will probably be longer than you all want but this is my reminder too!)... It was Saturday, December 14th... Mom and Dad were visiting for the weekend to watch Mikayla while Josh, Gary, and Douglas took the carpet out of our master bathroom and installed tile. Mom found a great new bedroom set for Jack that morning while out for a morning jog... so there was also a new bedroom set that needed to be cleaned and moved up to Jack's room. Which also meant that Jack's furniture needed to be moved to the nursery and extra nursery furniture moved to the garage... always something to do! I spent the day making cookies and being on my feet (trying to get this labor going!), then went for a little walk around the neighborhood from 5-6 pm to deliver Christmas cookies. The walk induced some Braxton-Hicks contractions (as walking had for months). We had some lasagna for dinner then continued with bath time and getting the boys ready for bed. My contractions continued of course because I was still being active, nothing hurt, I could just feel my stomach contracting. Mom caught me touching my stomach throughout the night and asked if I was having contractions... yep! She proceeded to fink on me to Josh who came running into the bathroom (I was giving baths) and demanded to know how far apart they were... I had no idea because they didn't hurt! Mom and Josh started monitoring the contractions and we learned that they were 7 minutes apart. At that point, Mom and I were supposed to take Mikayla back to Roseville so Michelle could nurse her and put her to bed when she got home from work. Josh had a kinipshin fit about me leaving but finally agreed when I told him that I would let him know if ANYTHING happened! Mom, Mikayla, and I headed out to Roseville and I assumed the contractions would stop during the drive as they had for the past 2 months. They didn't this time and I even got a few uncomfortable ones at Michelle's house. Considering we were in Roseville, it was 8:30pm, and I was worried about not getting to the hospital in time, I decided to "swing" by the hospital on the way home for them to monitor me quickly and send me home... a.k.a. "shut up Mom and Josh!" I called Josh to meet us at the hospital at 9pm... he was at Michelle's in about 20 minutes it seemed which was amazing considering it's a 25 minute drive! :-) Mom, Josh, and I headed over to the hospital and when Josh went to grab the suitcase to bring in, I firmly told him that we were only here to get sent home and to leave the suitcase in the car! When we got in, my contractions were still 7 minutes apart, slightly uncomfortable, and I was dilated to 2-3cm I think. The plan was to monitor me and baby for 20 minutes, have me walk around for an hour, then re-evaluate. Well, when the nurse checked me, it caused my contractions to go to every 2-3 minutes and become slightly more uncomfortable. When I called the nurse to ask her to start my antibiotics (GBS positive again), she informed me that I was going to be admitted and that she was almost done with my paperwork. I guess I was the one who got shut up, not Josh and Mom like was my plan! Once I was admitted, IV started, etc, I decided to lay down and rest for a while. The contractions basically slowed down throughout the night and by 7am they were essentially gone. Maybe I was right! But considering how quickly my previous labors moved and the fact that I was GBS positive, I'm still really glad that they admitted me. My OB came in at 8am to break my water and really get things moving... nothing! At 10am, they started me on pitocin... now we are talking! The contractions got started again and I walked through them until about noon when I asked for my epidural. I got my epidural around 12:30... relief! I told the anesthesiologist that the previous epidurals were so strong that I couldn't feel ANYTHING so he made this one a little less thankfully. Unfortunately, the epidural caused me to shake uncontrollably and my blood pressure to drop to mid-80's over mid-40's. (I would have been freaked out by all of this but De Ette, my best friend, had the same thing during her labor and she was just fine!) So instead I was only mildly freaked out as they were giving me epinephrine intravenously to bring up my blood pressure. Thankfully everything calmed down and I was able to get a little nap in before the real fun started! Around 3ish, I started feeling pressure like I needed to go #2. I kept ignoring it until the nurse came in and I apologized to her that I would probably "go" when I had the baby. (Remember, this was the first time the epidural was light enough for me to feel anything!) She mentioned that it would be a sign that I was ready to push... she lifted up my blanket to check me and said, "Wow, we have a baby that's almost crowning. One push and this baby is out!" She proceeded to call my OB and get everything ready then asked if I wanted to do a practice push as we were waiting for my OB to get there. Uhhh... you said that this baby would be born in one push, there was no way I was going to do a "practice push" until my OB got there! Everything was ready to go in about 15 minutes and I pushed a few times during one contractions before I met Jonathan!!! It was amazing to see how tiny Jonathan was when he was born... not at all what I had expected but completely wonderful, precious, and perfect! I was so worried throughout my pregnancy and labor about Jonathan's health that I was so extremely relieved to have such a healthy baby in my arms! All the hard work with my diet had been completely worth it! A few other cute stories from my labor experience... - Josh and I had decided to name the baby Jonathan if it was a boy but we hadn't talked about spelling so I asked the nurse to write down several spellings of Jonathan on the white board in the room while I was in labor so we could decide. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! - My OB was very sweet to come in on her weekend off to deliver me. I guess she labeled my chart as a special delivery and told the nurses to call her even though she wasn't on call. I was relieved to have her there but scared that she considered my delivery special. - After Jonathan was born, Mommy was very sweet to reward me with Zebra Popcornopolis Popcorn... delicious popcorn with chocolate drizzled on it... lots of carbs and sugar! I had been told that I could eat anything I wanted after the baby was born. When I got to recovery 2 hours later, the nurse said she was going to check my vitals and I asked her to check my blood sugar too. She reminded me that we didn't have to do that anymore since I had delivered. I mentioned that I didn't feel well... my blood sugar was 221! Oops!! I guess I had a little too much popcorn a little too soon after delivery! My OB prescribed 6 units of insulin and a high protein dinner. Thankfully that brought it right back down! :-) - Michelle brought James and Jack into the hospital on Sunday evening after we had gotten to recovery but she didn't tell them if baby was a boy or girl. When they got in the room, James asked and I told him baby was a boy and he was estatic! It was so cute to see his awesome reaction of yelling yeah and pumping his fist in the air! Jack on the other had was quite upset that we had left him and refused to get anywhere near Josh or I for quite some time. Very surprising considering he is such a Momma and Dadda boy but he eventually came around! :-) That's about all I can remember for now. It's amazing how much you forget so quickly! I will add pictures in the next post...

Before I forget...

It has been WAY, WAY too long and there are lots of milestones and cute things that I need to write down before I forget. Let's see... Jonathan: Talk about an adorable, sweet, wonderful, little baby! I can't believe Jonathan is almost 4 months old! Time flies! Jonathan loves to smile, giggle, "talk", and just be all around sweet as can be. He loves to lay on the ground to watch his brothers and play with toys and has even started moving around a little. At 12 weeks, he started scooting forward a few inches and spinning when laying on his belly. On Sunday (April 6th) he even rolled over stomach to back! Unfortunately none of us saw it because I was making breakfast but I put him down on his belly and came back to find him on his back! :-) Way to go buddy! Jonathan still loves to visit with Mommy for a little milk every 3-4 hours (even all night!) but it sure beats the 2-2.5 hours we were doing. I am definitely looking forward to sleeping through the night someday but for now I will enjoy the snuggle time with my littlest one! I think one of my favorite things about Jonathan is getting to rock him to sleep. James and Jack were not the rock to sleep type of babies so I love getting to snuggle up with Jonathan, sing to him, and rock him to sleep... absolutely precious! Even though Jonathan is growing like crazy... he is still a little squirt compared to his older brothers. At 2.5 months old, Jonathan was 10lbs 4oz and at 3.75 months he was 12lbs 2oz. Definitely on the smaller side (especially for our family) but growing like a champ for him! Especially considering how much he spits up... must have learned that from Cousin Mikayla! Jack: What a sweet, lovable, energetic kiddo Jack is! My little Jack Jack moved to a big boy bed in November and has been wandering the halls at night since then! Between his sleeping walking, his getting out of bed to visit Mommy, and his new found love for sleeping on the floor, I don't think that kiddo is ever in his bed! Yesterday morning we woke up to find Jack sleeping on the floor in our doorway and last night we found him sleeping in the hallway. At this point, we don't really care where he decides to sleep as long as he is sleeping and it's not in our bed! We have tried letting him sleep with James several times but Jack seems to think the best way to fall asleep in James' room is to tackle James... it doesn't work! (Cute side story... James falls asleep by sucking his thumb and Jack falls asleep by talking to himself. When they try to sleep together, James continues to answer Jack which keeps everyone awake. I told James this in hopes that they could actually fall asleep in the same room. The next time the little sneak ran into James' room during nap time, James came to the banister and told me, "Mommy, Jack came into my room to sleep. It's okay. Don't worry, I'll teach him to suck his thumb just like me!" My inner response... "NNNNOOOOOO!!!!!!") More about Jack... Jack loves to keep up with James! I forget that Jack just turned 2 because he is so independent. If he can't reach something in the kitchen, he simply pulls a kitchen chair over to get whatever he wants. He has even mastered the art of scaling the back of the chair to stand on the counter! Oh joy (insert sarcasm there!) One of our current favorites in the kitchen is Jack getting the peanut butter out of the pantry and a spoon out of the drawer and coming to me asking, "Scoop peanut butter?!?!" This stems from him just licking the peanut butter off the toast and me deciding to stop wasting the bread! Jack LOVES riding his scooter and his new balance bike. He does an amazing job on his balance bike and is getting faster by the day! Jack is also an amazing snow skier... I'll post more later but let's just say that he left us speechless with his downhill skiing! Jack is talking up a storm! He now puts at least 4-5 words together and is able to say anything he wants. It is so cute to hear Jack answer for himself when people ask what his name is and hear what he has to say! (Most of the time!) Jack loves James like crazy and is a total mimic of him! And Jack LOVES Baby Jon-a (sometimes a little too much!) too! I love seeing the amazing relationships develop between all of them at such a young age! James: My active, outgoing, kind, and helpful big boy! I can't believe that my first little baby is going to be 4 years old next week. Where has the time gone? When people say this goes quickly, they aren't kidding! James is growing like a little weed... Josh and I have started realizing how many things James can reach without a stool now! When did that happen? James is my little chatter box... and when he doesn't have something to say, he will simply make up words, noises, whatever it may be just to continue to hear his voice! It used to drive me crazy and I thought it was just a stage thing until I noticed Josh doing it (still drives me crazy at that age too!), then I just realized I was doomed! :-) I reminded myself that I better enjoy all the talking now before he becomes a quiet teenager though! James is becoming quite the big kid, he clears his plate at the table himself, can get himself dressed, cleans up his room and his toys, and is an all around great helper for Mommy. James has started reading with us, his special words to read are "I", "a", "and", and "the". We have started adding a few others words but those continue to be our best. James continues to be day potty trained and starting last night is night potty training. He woke up dry for the first time this morning and is excited to do it again! I am so proud of him! He is also working on not sucking his thumb any more. Yesterday the dentist mentioned that his thumb sucking is started to affect his teeth and he needed to stop. He is doing a great job during the day but I knew night time would be hard. He is motivated and when I went in his room shortly after he fell asleep tonight, his thumb as not near his mouth! There is hope! James loves having Jack to play with though he also loves torturing him... his newest manner of torture is telling Jack that we are going to leave without him, this results in Jack crying and screaming until he is securely fastened in his car seat! Thanks for that James! James and Jonathan have a wonderful little relationship blossoming... James sits next to Jonathan in the car and is Jonathan's little helper with his pacifier when he is tired. It is wonderful to see Jonathan stare up at James in the car and giggle in response to James' funny faces. James loves to have Jonathan lay down with him at nap time and have little conversations. (And it melts my little heart!) Josh: Josh continues to work his behind off at work and at home! He is an amazing father and husband! Josh and I have been making a point of enjoying more date nights lately (thanks to Gaga/Papa and Reesha) and loving the time together. The boys absolutely love spending time with Josh, especially James who has even been requesting time home alone with Daddy. (Jack loves his Daddy time but continues to be a little bit of a Momma's boy.) Josh continues to excel at work where he is now the sales manager for the Sacramento/Stockton region. Me: I am loving my time home with my 3 boys and, though I know I will enjoy the adult time back at work, I know I am going to miss my boys even more! I am so thankful that I only work 3 days a week and get to stay home with them 4 days a week. As always, I am constantly looking for more hours in the day (please send them my way if you find any) and trying to find the right balance in life. In the meantime, I am trying to enjoy each day to it's fullest and enjoy the little moments in life! There are about 100 pictures I want to upload and 100 stories/memories I want to share but for now I need to find my pillow. My little Jonathan is going to be missing me before I know it, Jack is going to start his nightly wanderings soon after that, and James still needs a half-asleep potty trip before we head to bed. I promise that I will try to find the time to do a little catch up soon! Love to all!!! :-)

Crazy Catch-Up

I told Josh that I have this crazy dream that I would love to catch up on the blog... he laughed at me! I didn't realize exactly how far behind I really was... I never wrote a post welcoming Jonathan to the world!!! I guess having a new baby 10 days before Christmas with a 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 year old keeps a Mommy a little busy! So... fingers get ready because I have 3 fun, crazy, eventful months to catch up on (then the secret will be to try to keep caught up!)

No way!

A few weeks ago, James asked me how babies get in mommy's bellies. I decided that an appropriate answer for now was that Mommy and Daddy asked God to put one there. So tonight, as we were cleaning up Matchbox cars all over the garage floor, James asks for another baby! I promptly informed him that there would not be another baby! So he replied that he wanted one and he was going to ask God to put another one in my belly tonight! Ummm, no thank you... I guess I better talk to God a little louder than James tonight!!! :-)

Marry me!

Quick cute story... James was playing with Jonathan today and Jonathan grabbed onto James' fingers on each hand. James loved it and I told him that Jonathan did that because he loves James. James smiled and said, "You'll get married with me someday!" So cute! :-)