Welcome Baby Jude!

Early on the morning of January 26, 2015, Tyler and I drove to the Women's and Children's Hospital at Centennial Medical Center to deliver Jude. I remember the ride there and we were much less anxious than when Max was born; mostly we were just very excited to meet our new baby boy. 

I loved every bit of our experience at Centennial because all my friends and coworkers took care of us. Kristen was my CRNA and gave me a fabulous spinal. Carmen was my L&D nurse. Both of them  took such good care of me and made the OR experience so much fun and not scary at all! 

I was a 7:30 scheduled c-section and Dr. Bellardo delivered Jude at 7:48am. He weighed 6 lbs and 12 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. I remember when they wrapped Jude up and I held him for the first time on the OR table. For some reason, I just assumed he would look just like Max, but he didn't. Such a sweet baby and I love that Tyler captured this moment of me holding him for the first time.

My sweet friend, Ashlee, was Jude's nurse and she took such good care of him! I loved that all my friends took care of us!

Daddy checking Jude out

Tyler holding Jude for the first time.

First family photo together

Taking a snooze after all the excitement of being born

Ten little fingers...

...ten little toes

Snuggle time

Tyler, Jude, and I had some alone time for the first 4 hours after he was born. We knew it would get a little crazy after that, so we made sure we had some sweet bonding time with him first.

We wanted to make sure Max didn't feel left out or sad, so we sent the baby to the nursery right before he arrived. When Max entered the room, he crawled in my lap and we snuggled for a few minutes. He brought his new "big brother bear" with him...

...Then we had Jude brought to the room and we introduced Max to him. He was very sweet to him and I could tell he was trying to figure out what in the world was going on. 

We had gifts wrapped for both boys so they could exchange them at the hospital. Jude got Max a big brother book, some candy, and a BayMax costume. 

Max got Jude a frog wub-a-nub. This was the perfect gift from Max because Max loved his paci so much for the first 2 years of his life. 

Family of Four!

Max absolutely loved the BayMax costume and insisted upon wearing it the rest of the afternoon. He even showed the nurses.

Mimi and Jude

Pal and Jude

Grandchild #3!

Dede, Pop and Jude

Grandchild #8!

Uncle Eric and Jude

Chelsea, Tressa Kate, Uncle Eric, and Jude

Having a little fun while Jude gets his first bath

Ashlee bathed him in the room with us so Tyler could take some pictures.

All clean!

Michelle and Annette

I had a constant flow of friends, nurses, physicians, and administrators coming to visit while we were there. They definitely took amazing care of both of us and I honestly could not have asked for better care. They made our "baby story" a dream experience and we are so thankful for that. 

I miss my work friends so much!

Philip and Nick came to visit and hang out for a while.

After everybody went home, we just snuggled and bonded and I loved every minute of it.

Allison also visited us during our stay and we introduced Miller to baby Jude. We hope they will be great friends just like Walker and Max.

Meg came to visit too and brought us lunch.

Our last night in the hospital, Tyler went home to hang out with Max and put him to bed. He took him to school the next morning and then came to pick me up and take us home. Since Jude and I were all alone the night before we left, we decided to have a little impromptu photo session...

You're my who?

We couldn't have been more thankful that my friends took care of us during our stay! It was an amazing experience and I miss these girls so much!

All ready to go home and begin our life together as a family of four

Ready for his first car ride

Getting Ready for Baby Jude

Baby Jude's 20 week ultrasound

This pregnancy has been so different from my pregnancy with Max. So much so, that I swore I was having a girl. I was really sick the whole first trimester, but with Max I never felt nauseated. I also had terrible heartburn almost everyday. Between the nausea and heartburn, meals were a challenge. I craved lemonade, chicken broth, ensure protein shakes, ice cream, and Zaxby's chicken and french fries.

Jude was extremely active in my belly just like Max, and I was always so thankful for that. I absolutely loved being pregnant and I tried to enjoy every minute as much as possible. It's such a special and short period of time in your life. So much to celebrate before the baby is even born!

The first thing I ever monogrammed for Jude was his Christmas stocking

Having our weekly echocardiogram at Vandy to make sure Jude's heart is healthy.

The week before Christmas we completed our last echo when I was 34 weeks pregnant and Dr. Kavanaugh officially cleared Jude from needing more monitoring and determined he is heart healthy. No heart block for Jude!!! We have been doing weekly echoes since I was 16 weeks pregnant, so it felt so good to get to this point and be cleared of any problems with his heart. What a wonderful feeling and something to celebrate!!! Dr. Kavanaugh was one of the doctors that took great care of Max when he had his surgery in August. We love that she was able to take care of both our boys. 

Our sweet friends threw us a baby shower a few weeks before Jude was born. We had lunch at Puffy Muffin and then visited and opened gifts. It was perfect!

 These cookies that Rebecca had made were adorable and absolutely delicious!

Here are the adorable gifts we received. It made me so excited for Jude to get here!

39 week baby bump

Tyler's friends at Region's Bank threw us a shower a few days before Jude arrived. We had lunch, cake, and visited with friends. They gave us gift cards to buy some things that Jude might need. We are so thankful for this group of people that Tyler works with. 

Dede and Pop came in town the Saturday before Jude was born to watch Max so Tyler and I could attend the AHA Heart Gala. It worked out great because they stayed for a few days to meet baby Jude and to help keep Max while we were in the hospital.

On Sunday January 25th, the day before we delivered, we took Max to Build-A-Bear so he could make a "Big Brother Bear." He picked out his own bear, his clothes, and his character traits. It was a really fun family thing to do and Max loved it. 

Here he is selecting which character traits he wants his bear to have. He chose smart, funny, kind, sporty, sensitive, loving, etc. He also got to pick out the bear's heart and put it in the bear. 

Adding more characteristics to the bear. He also added sound recordings to each hand. When you press one hand, the bear says, "I love you," and the other hand giggles. 

Stuffing his bear

Giving him a bath. Afterward, we gave him a birth certificate and officially named him "Paddington Bear," per Max's request. (he had just seen the movie with Tyler).

Max loved the process of making his bear and we told him to make sure he brings Paddington Bear to the hospital to introduce him to baby Jude. We loved doing this as a family the night before we welcomed a new member to our family. It was a sweet memory and helped Max feel special when so much of the attention is on the new baby.