The First Post

Before Jacoby was born, the idea of a blog seemed very unnecessary because we get to visit and talk to our family so much. However, I quickly realized why so many people said, "Enjoy it! They grow up SO fast!" Oh my goodness, they really do, don't they?!? My baby is almost 6 weeks old and changes so much from week to week. Guess I should have started this 5 weeks ago when my maternity leave started instead of 1 1/2 weeks before I go back to school!

Our little guy was born on March 9th at 11:41 pm after a LONG day of dealing with contractions at home with the company of my wonderful family plus Grandma Jo. Honestly, it was so exciting that I didn't mind the pain until the last hour or so before we were admitted to the hospital that night, which was around 7pm. Once there, I got an epidural pretty quickly and the rest of the night was an AMAZING experience. I really enjoyed the whole experience and we had a nurse that we loved, who coincidentally was my age and also named Amanda. We loved that our families were there into the early morning, despite a lot of waiting around. (Jacoby is sorry!) I try to replay the events that night in my head, but it was such a blur that I'm afraid I don't remember as many details as I would have liked!

A few memorable moments that stick out in our minds...

Amanda:

• feeling like I might fall asleep between contractions while I was pushing...I had felt like he was going to come the night before, so I couldn't fall asleep until after midnight and then my contractions woke me up at 2:45 and there was no point in trying to sleep after that...so it had been a long day!
• the moment Jacoby was laid on my chest...and just saying, "Oh my gosh!" repeatedly
• feeling bad that Jacoby was probably laying on some puke, and then realizing that he wasn't exactly clean anyway and that was the last thing I should be thinking about.
• my Grandma kissing me and telling me how happy she was that Jacoby had such a special name...and fighting back those tears from wishing my PaPa was there to enjoy his beautiful great-grandson (and give me a hard time about anything he could think of) :)
• waking up in the middle of the second night at the hospital to see jacoby just looking at me from his little cart. What an amazing feeling! (Who knows if he could actually see me...but it sure looked like it so I didn't care!)
• sobbing as Zach laid Jacoby's car seat down on the floor when we arrived home from the hospital. What a surreal feeling. That was soon followed by rocking him in his room and thinking of all the times in the last few months before he arrived that I sat in that same chair and just imagined what he would be like and how much I would love him.

Zach

• One of my biggest mistakes as a husband occured at 4:30 p.m. the day of Jacoby's birth. I had gone to school to make lesson plans for the next several days because we didn't know how soon the little man was going to join us. When I returned home, Tammy and Jo Anne told me Amanda was asleep in our room. I didn't want to wake her because she'd been up since 2:45 a.m., so I went downstairs and played Top Spin Tennis on PS2 with Uncle Brett. We played for about an hour when Amanda appeared and said she'd been in our room in pain from contractions and listening to us laughing and having a good time while playing video games. Needless to say, I probably should have checked on her when I got home rather than going downstairs to play video games. All was not lost, however, as I did manage to defeat Brett in Top Spin Tennis.
• Everything in the hospital was a total blur until the actual delivery. Amanda was throwing up between contractions, so the nurses and doctor were attending to that minor problem. In mid-puke, Jacoby started to shoot out, so the doctor had to go from tending to puke to catching Jacoby. It was a champion-like performance by everyone involved.
• The hospital was a tiring experience, but it was nice to get to see all of our visitors.
• Gena Lindsay brought me one of the best Georgia Mud Fudge blizzards from DQ I've had in awhile.
• The second night Jacoby started crying and I held him and he stopped.
• I started to feel bad for Jacoby by the time we left the hospital because the swelling in his face had gone down and it became evident he looked like me.