Regeneration: The second child....

Ya know, when I found out I was pregnant, and probably even before then I was DETERMINED that he would get just as much attention as Jake did.... well obviously I did an awful job at holding up that ideal. I've been going back through posts from when I found out I was pregnant with Jake, all through my pregnancy with him and his week by week posts. WOW... Poor Dawson. I think he got one lousy post while I was pregnant and that was, hey, I'm pregnant. Not even one pregnancy shot of my belly.
So here is Jake and I taken 3 days before Dawson was born.

I will say this second pregnancy was ROUGH to say the least. I just never really got over the nausea and extreme fatigue. Pregnancy does not agree with me. I thought about posting, but just never did. When Jake got to bed at night I was DONE. Gerald as with Jake's pregnancy was a GOD SEND. Not ONCE did he complain about the condition of the house, the lack of groceries in the house, the lack of dinner on the table, having to hear me whine and complain all day every day, the lack of ANYTHING getting done outside of keeping Jake alive and surviving myself. His heart to serve me was humbling. If I needed something, he got it. If I needed him home, he was there. If I needed a break, he took Jake. If I needed sleep, he made it happen. OHH.... and I haven't even mentioned the fact that we moved at the end of March (in my 3rd trimester) and he practically packed up the entire house by himself even though I was home all day.... STILL not ONE complaint. Thankfully he did have help from my parents and some friends when it came to actually moving. He still did the brunt of the labor though.... while I sat... and sat... and sat... and entertained Jake as much as I could. It was an emotional time to move... I wouldn't suggest it, ha! I still miss that home sometimes, but I think it's because we moved in my 3rd trimester and had Dawson right after, I just haven't had a chance to really make this house a home. I did (with the help of my friend Lucilynn) get the boys rooms done pretty quick after we moved, so that made me happy.

So back to Dawson... He is a sweet sweet baby. His smile melts my heart everyday. Ya know, I had a hard time, like most Mom's, thinking about loving another boy as much as I love Jake. Just as people told me though, you just grow another heart.

This was his first real smile and I caught it on camera!! (June 24, 2012)

Our hospital stay was pretty uneventful, which was a nice change from Jake's. First off, I've had several ask if Dawsone also has the Long QT Syndrome. The short answer is... we don't know yet. They did the blood draw for the genetic testing in the hospital, but somehow it was delayed getting sent off and we're still waiting to hear the results. He has had two EKG's and both were normal, so we're hoping that's a good sign. He's currently not on any meds.

I'm going to try and just focus on his first month during this post. So, we were welcomed home to a house full of cousins! We were SO BLESSED to have my sister and her family DRIVE all the way from Charlotte, NC to spend 9 days with us. If you're wondering where we put everyone, we put the three older cousins (Josh - 9, Caleb - 5 and Ella - 3) in the RV with Grammie and Granddad. Then Aunt Tonya, Uncle Donnie and Erin(18 months) stayed in Dawson's room. (I need to do an entirely different post just talking about the time that Grammie and Granddad spent with us before D was born) Anyway, the kids had a BLAST!! We were worried that they would get bored... and maybe they did at times, but for the most part I think everyone had a great time just being together. Jake ATE IT UP!! He still asks to have his cousins come back and play :-( Anyway, luckily they were here during fairly mild temps, so the kids were able to spend a lot of time outside playing in the pool, on the swing set and jumping on the trampoline. I can't even begin to list all the ways I was blessed while they were here. They helped with Jake, cooked ALL meals, did the grocery shopping, cleaned my house and took care of me while I took care of Dawson. His first month was rough when it came to sleep. He wanted NOTHING to do with a paci, yet couldn't get his hand/fist/thumb/finger in his mouth either. So it was tough to comfort him at times which broke my heart. He spent a lot of time nursing and wanted to nurse every two hours. The nights were REALLY rough because wanting to eat every two hours equaled Mommy sleeping about 45 min at a time between feedings. He wasn't speedy at eating. Now as I write this I wish I had kept up with the blog because this first month is now a blur in my rearview mirror. Of course I guess not much happens with a newborn, so there wouldn't be much to tell, just cute pictures to look at... so I guess that's what I'll let you see now...