I love my boys!

I just can't get enought of this sweet boy! He is so sweet and the best baby!
The blanket he is laying on in some of these pictures was one of mine when I was little that I used to keep and my Grandma and Grandpa's house and they gave back to me at one of my showers.

I LOVE this one!

And my boys! Jack is the BEST Daddy ever and he loves Holden so much.

I love them so much!

No playing in the snow for this sweet Boy

What's that you say? It's snowing?? I want to go out and play in it!

Holden it is too cold we are not going to play in the snow.
Please Mommy I promise I'll be a good boy...

Maybe if I just act cute Mommy and Daddy will let me go play in the snow...

Or maybe I'll just take a nap!

We got about an inch of snow here at our house and lots of ice so we have been cooped up in our house since Thursday. But we did go to my follow up with my doctor and his neurologist appt before the snow rolled in. My appt went great and my blood pressure was wonderful so I am down to one dose a day for one more week! YEA! Then Thursday afternoon we went to his neurologist appt where everything went great also. They said he looks great and they are going to do a repeat EEG in the next two weeks and if everything comes back normal he will be off meds also! So we are very happy about that!

Look who's here!!

Our sweet Baby boy is finally here! Holden Michael was born December 16th at 5:29. He weighed 7 lbs 7 oz (my doctors were off a bit thinking he was so big) and was 20.5 inches long. He is the sweetest thing ever and is the best baby!

Here he was New Year's Day and here is our crazy story of all that happened to both of us!

Tuesday, Dec. 15th: My Mom and I headed to my weekly doctors appt expecting to go in for them to say everything is fine with Holden and I and we would be on our way back home soon. Well things didn't go that way. I saw the doctor and she said everything was fine and ten the nurse came in to take my blood pressure and it was thru the roof. So they had me lay on my side and relax for awhile and came back in about 20 min later to find it still high. The doctor said I had PIH(pregnancy induced hypertension) and I was was being admitted to the hospital for induction. Jack was at work so he finished what he was doing and headed down to the hospital and Mom headed home for the night. The plan was to wait until the next morning for pitocin and for me to get cervidil that night. So I got the cervidil and a sleeping pill and Jack and I settled into our Labor and Delivery room for the night.

Wednesday, Dec. 16th: We woke up and at 9am the cervidil was removed, pitocin was started and my water was broken. We were so excited that today was going to be the day that we were going to meet this sweet baby boy that we had been waiting for for so long. About an hour later my contractions were very strong and every 2-3 mi apart.... can we say epidural time! Ha! I was a little worried about it since I hate needles but it was the best thing ever. The rest of my labor went great. I had a room full of about 15 family and friends all waiting. About 3 I was 10cm and Holden wasn't coming down but we decided to go ahead and start pushing. An hour and a half later still no baby and I am done. I am so tired of pushing and my doctor gave me the option to wait longer and see if he is going to come down or C-Section. I told him C-Section with out thinking twice. I just knew that I couldn't do it anymore and we all just thought he was too big to fit. At 5:10 we went in to surgery and at 5:29 Holden was born. This is where things started to go bad. When the doctor made the incision, my uterus tore a lot and they couldn't find the end of where it ended. And I started to feel a lot more than I should and I started crying for more medicine. The doctor started yelling to get other doctors in the room and finally the anesthesiologist made he best decision ever for me and put me to sleep. It turns out that I lost a lot of blood and had to have 3 pints of it given to me on the table. I had not seen Holden at all except for the top of a piece of his head and luckily Jack and our wonderful neighbor Colleen, who works at the office that delivered Holden, were able to be in the delivery room. So at this point Jack was taken out of the delivery room fast and didn't know exactly what was going on so he sees everyone in the waiting room and he is a mess so they think something really bad has happened. This is where it was so wonderful to have someone on the inside able to fill in everyone about what is going on. I made it out of surgery and was taken to recovery and Jack and Holden were taken to a family room so everyone could see and hold him. The next thing I remember is waking up in recovery about 9:00 that night. I was then taken to ICU and Holden was taken to the nursery. I still have not seen him yet.

Thursday, Dec. 17th: I am doing ok, still in the ICU, still have not seen my baby. Some how I talk on of the nurses into calling the nursery and talking them into bringing him to see me. And around 11 he finally made it to my room... with a nurse and security escort since he was under lo-jack.

My sweet boy is doing great and is the so beautiful. I am so excited to finally get to hold him and see him. As you can see I have gained weight after having a baby. I had been so thirsty from not being able to drink anything since Tuesday night and was happy also to get some water and to be able to brush my teeth. At this point in the day I have about 6 bags of fluids running thru two pumps and right now one IV. I got another one later when I got two more bags of blood.

Friday, Dec. 18th: I was so excited cause they were moving me out of ICU to HRP (High-risk perinatal) and this meant that Holden would be able to spend the rest of our hospital stay in the room with me! I ended up going here instead of a regular postpartum room cause my blood pressure is still very high. I get into my room and have my nurse go call for Holden to come to my room. As soon as she leaves the phone in my room rings. It a doctor from the NICU calling to say that Holden had been moved to the NICU from the regular nursery. He had had a seizure and they wanted him to stay with them for awhile. I jumped back in a wheelchair and went straight up to see him. This picture is from I think Saturday night. He was also jaundice so he was under the light and had just had a MRI so he was out of it so they gave him a feeding tube for the night. He is also having a second EEG at the same time so he is hooked up to a lot in this picture. After all the test the doctors ran they think a blood clot formed when they cut his umbilical cord and traveled to his brain and made him have the seizures and a stroke. They said they MRI also showed some signs of scar tissue that formed from this but only time will tell how and if it will effect him at all.

These got a little out of order.... this is my first time seeing him again with my Mom.

Here Holden and I are with our wonderful Colleen who we could have NEVER gone thru all this with out her. She was beyond amazing and helped us out so much. And we love her soooo much!

Saturday, Dec 19- Tuesday, Dec. 22: All these day kinda run together from here on. I stay in HRP and Holden is still in NICU. We have been told be his doctor that he has had a few more seizures and a stroke but has been given some meds for it and has been fine ever since. On these days I would wake up and wait for the doctor to come in and see how I was and then head up to the NICU to spend time with Holden. I hated every minute that I had to leave him up there but I knew that he was much better off than any other baby in there and was going to be just fine. Then came Monday. I was supposed to be discharged on Monday and I had been dreading it cause I knew that I would be leaving him behind. But my doctor came in and since my blood pressure was still high they decided to keep me another day. I was so ready to go home but didn't want to leave the hospital without Holden. So I was very happy to stay another day! On Tuesday they kicked me out and I was discharged and sent home without my baby. That is the worst feeling in the world having to leave him behind. We had begged for him to be able to come home since he wasn't even hooked up to anything they were just watching him and then they said he could tomorrow. So I went home and ate and took a shower and went straight to bed. I couldn't wait to wake up in the morning and go bring my baby home!

This is from when he first was sent to the NICU on Friday.

Wednesday, Dec. 23rd: Holden came home! We were so happy to bring him home and have him home for Christmas. He was sent home on the anti-seizure medicine phenobarbital and I also came home on medicine for my high blood pressure and potassium which was low the whole time I was at the hospital.

And here is our sweet boy now. He is doing great and gaining weight and sleeping almost thru the night. And he is also showing no signs of any kind of seizure or stroke. He is such a wonderful baby and he just makes us so happy.

This is on our way home from the hospital.

Just home

Holden was the best Christmas present that I could ever ask for!

How can you not LOVE this face!

This morning I opened my e-mail to find these sweet pictures of our sweet niece Sophia! She is so stinkin cute and we wish so much that we all lived closer so that we could see her and everyone else more often.

We can not wait for her to get here on the 26th with her Mommy and Daddy and Uncle James and Aunts Katie and Monica! Hopefully Holden will make his appearance before they get here so we can all spend lots of time together! Sophia Uncle Jack, Aunt Emily and Cousin Holden can't wait for you to get here so we can see you! We love you and will see you soon!!

Love you Holden but time to go...

Holden Michael, consider this your eviction notice. Your Daddy and I love you so much and we are so ready to meet you and I am more than ready to have you here. I have had the best pregnancy that anyone could ever ask for. I didn't ever get sick or have any problems what so ever. It has been wonderful and I have LOVED being pregnant. But I'm kinda done. I am ready to be able to walk again and not have to go to the bathroom ever hour. And even though I know that I won't get any sleep when you get here I am ready for some sleep being more comfortable. Over the past week or so, Jack and I have been busy getting all of our Christmas things out and getting everything out and ready for Holden to get here. So now all the his clothes have been washed, diapers are out, swing is up, cradle and crib are ready, car seat is in the car and his bag is packed. Now all we need is our sweet baby boy.... And maybe I should pack a bag for me. : )

It's been four years....

Four years ago today, I woke up to the worst news of my life. Michael and Kyle's band, Any Given Moment, had been in a car crash outside of Macon on their way home from a concert in Savannah. Michael was gone. I had been up really late the night before at a party at one of my friends houses and saw that Kyle was calling around 3:30 and I didn't answer. I went to bed not thinking much of it and when I woke up in the morning I had many missed calls and my Mom was calling from Kansas saying Michael had died. Mom and Billy had just left and arrived in Kansas to visit my Aunt Susan, who was going through chemo for breast cancer, less than 8 hours before. Lucky for me, I was with one of my best friends and she drove me home and friends started coming over as soon as they heard the news.

Michael was the coolest guy that anyone could ever meet. He had a love for life that just lit up the room and he could make anyone laugh. He had a love for music that was so incredible and he and Kyle had an awesome band.

I love this picture because it just shows how much fun he was to be around.

The band

Michael and Kyle

This is a picture of the tattoo that right after he died. He had gotten the same on about two weeks before. After he died, I called the guy who did his and went and had him do mine also. The bruise is from my car accident in April. I know Michael was in my car that day and kept my safe and this bruise was from my seat belt, which actually broke in the accident. Michael wasn't wearing on in his accident. I also had just found out I was pregnant with Holden four days before.

I can't wait for my sweet baby Boy Holden Michael to get here so not only can I give him Michael's name as his middle name, but I can also tell him about how awesome he really was. I also have been buying any clothes that have guitars on them for Holden to wear. He has quite a few now and I can't wait to put them on him.

Michael we love you and miss you every day! I can't wait for the day I get to see you again and I know that you are looking down on us from Heaven.

Michael Evans Jones

5/7/87- 11/19/05

32 down, 8 to go!

Dear my sweet baby boy Holden,

This is a picture of you when you were still a bun in my oven cooking and getting bigger and stronger everyday. You Daddy and I am sooo excited for you to get here and to meet you! I can't wait to see who you look like and what your personality is like. I think we are mostly ready for you to be here and only have a few more "must-haves" to get before you get here. The cats are really starting to wonder what is going on around the house as your due date gets closer and closer. Right now we have 8 weeks left until your due date but it is fine with Daddy and I if you come a few weeks early so you can be here for Christmas and to see all of your aunts and uncles and your cousin Sophia. But you are only allowed to come early if you promise that you will be healthy and we can wake up Christmas morning at our house. I love you so much my sweet boy and can't wait for you to get here!