Jess & Zach

The Smiths! Caroline is 11 weeks old sporting her cute bunny outfit from Grandpa Smith and Judi.

Caroline the Bunny

We had a busy and great weekend of visitors!

Zach’s dad and his wife Judi came to meet Caroline for the first time.  It was so great to have them visit for the weekend! Caroline loved doing her tricks (singing, push ups and smiling).

My cousin-in-law Marissa and Aubree came to visit on Sunday for Chicken Parmesan lunch.  Aubree (3 years old) was so cute with Caroline.  She sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to her and colored a picture for the fridge. Sooo cute! We can’t wait for Caroline to meet the rest of the Lundbergs and my grandparents too.  Say an extra prayer for my Grandpa Pat.  He has been struggling to get over pneumonia and is in the hospital this week to help speed up his recovery.  Hopefully he will be healthy soon so Caroline can meet Great Grandpa Pat and Great Grandma Marianna!

Grandpa Smith

Judi & Caroline

C & Marissa & Aubree

So Zach and I have been cooking at home lately.  Lots of great recipes!  I am slowly adding them to the recipe page of this site- so check back soon and please send us your favorites!

Caroline has been enjoying chewing on her hand… here are a few of her best poses!

Right hand

Left hand 2 fingers

Whole fist!

Yesterday was a great day!

Zach came home from work early AND brought Sprinkles cupcakes AND the sun was shining AND we went for a walk AND grilled steak AND Caroline slept from 10pm to 4am straight and then went back to sleep until almost 8am!

Sunglasses! 10.5 weeks old

This is from a lady that Zach works with.  It is so sweet.  Thanks Jennifer.  We are very blessed.

MY BABY GIRL AND ME

(Author Unknown)

It’s three AM, they’re all asleep,

And no-one’s here to see.

As we rock slowly back and forth,

My baby girl and me.

Her little hand is feather light

Tucked up against my chin.

I hold her tiny hand in mine,

And stroke her baby skin.

The house about us creaks and groans,

The clock hands creep around.

She snuggles closer to me still,

And makes her baby sounds.

I love these quiet hours so much,

And cherish everyone.

Store memories up inside my heart,

For lonely nights to come.

All too soon she’ll be grown up,

Her need for mama gone.

But until then I still have time

For kisses and for song.

Time for quiet hours like this

With her cuddled in my arms,

Where I wish she’d always stay

Protected, safe and warm.

And yet I know the day will come

When her tiny little hand,

Will be as big as my own

She’ll grow to be a woman.

But until then she’s mine to love

With no one here to see.

As we rock slowly back and forth,

My baby girl and me.

I love you Caroline!

My Baby Girl and Me

We enjoyed a 4 day weekend together.

Highlights:

• Introducing Caroline to Jan and Gary Svidron (our neighbors from Minnesota)
• Saturday pajama’s until 4pm
• Date night at Agave Mexican in Flower Mound, TX then we saw When in Rome.
  • We wanted to see Sherlock Holmes, but couldn’t see from the front row so we exchanged our tickets!
  • (Thanks to Nana, Grand-Daddy-O, Jan and Gary for hanging out with Caroline)
• Caroline has been getting more active.  She loves smiling and singing too!
• Non-Valentine’s Day.  We don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day because it sooooooo commercial.
  • We just relaxed and watched the Olympics.
• Celebrating my mom’s birthday.  We made Apple Pork Chops in the Crock Pot
  • Check out http://jessandzach.shutterfly.com/recipes

What are you thankful for?  We are thankful for family, new recipes and the fact that we don’t need a commercial holiday to celebrate our love.

Our Sleepy Yawning Valentine

It has been SNOWING all day!  They predicted 1-2 inches and so far it has already snowed 8!  It’s been pretty to watch from the warm couch inside We ventured out for a couple of pictures.  I bundled Caroline up in a cute pink bunting that was mine when I was little. We took a couple of quick pics on the back porch. (She was outside for less than a minute because it was so cold!)

Then when she was napping Zach and I went out to measure!  8 inches! Wow!  Zach has a 4 day weekend, so luckily we don’t have to go out tomorrow!

I am thankful for heat and hot chocolate What are you thankful for?

SNOW & C

8+ Inches!

Caroline has a pretty good life.

Play hard and then nap!

Zach was at work so I took a quick video of her napping. We love our Miracle Blanket- it’s super easy to swaddle and she stays in it. http://www.miracleblanket.com/ I’d highly recommend it to anyone with a new baby!

Mirror- Is that me?

I feel like we are getting the hang of being parents.  Looking back at the past weeks makes me realize how CRAZY labor, delivery, adjusting to a newborn, not sleeping and just figuring things out really was!

Life is good… great actually!

Caroline is growing and learning so many new things. On 1-26-2010 she was 10 pounds 2 ounces.  Happy Birthday to me!  My hubby got me some beautiful flowers and we are going out for an overnight date night as my present. Fabulous!

Caroline is also learning how to sleep.  Funny that you have to learn how to sleep!  I’ve been reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and have learned a lot. So far I have learned that naps are important and baby should get in bed before being over tired and ultra sleepy.  For the past 3 nights Caroline has only woken up once in the night to eat.  Pretty fantastic.

We’ve had several dinners with friends and family and had several small outings.  Nice to get out in the world again!

I uploaded more pictures to our gallery and added captions too. Enjoy!

What are you thankful for?  I am thankful for new baby smiles

Saturday our friends with babies got together for “Parent’s Game Night”  We had a blast!

Thanks for the early Funfetti birthday cake too!

Dads and Babies

Funfetti Birthday Cake!

Caroline had her 1 month check up this week.  She is 9lbs 10 ounces- she’s almost gained a pound since birth.  The doctor said she is doing great and thriving. We have been doing well and getting into more a routine.  Last night she slept better so I got to take 3 hour naps- improving!

We had a mom’s date on Friday. We hung out with Jorja/James and Sarah/Hayden. It was fun to get together and get out of the house too! Can’t wait for more outings.

Today is a lazy, rainy Saturday. What are you thankful for?

We are thankful for good doctor’s appointments.

Caroline was starving! The boys were staring at her!

Recap of December 22, 2009- Happy Birthday Caroline!

Note- everyone is happy and healthy.

December 22, 2009

6:30am- Arrive at Baylor Regional Medical Center in Grapevine

I was scheduled to be induced because my doctor (Dr. Katrina Allen (AMAZING)) thought that Caroline was getting to big.  The nurses started the Pitocin as I was starting to have some mild irregular contractions.  I guess Caroline decided she wanted to be born soon too.

The nurses at Baylor were amazing.  I was in labor for a LONG 12+ hours.  A few hours into labor I decided to have an epidural.  It worked some of the time and then would completely stop working. I don’t know how women have children without medication- props to you. Finally around 8:30pm I was completely dilated and started pushing.  Well 2.5 hours later not much progress had been made.  I started feeling very sick and running a fever.  Dr. Allen decided that a c-section was the best option.

Well… I was taken to the operating room and given another dose of the epidural medication.  The doctors scrubbed and prepared and then touched my belly to make sure the medication was working.  “Can you feel this?” I replied, “YES!”  They tried again, but the epidural was not working so I had to be given general anesthesia. I kept asking where Zach was, but he wasn’t allowed in the operating room.  I found out later that he was finally able to come in right after Caroline was born.

Everything happens for a reason- Caroline was born at 11:50pm on 12/22/2009 and Zach got to meet her minutes later.  She was healthy and doing well.  8 pounds, 11 ounces and 20.5 inches long.  She was a big girl- even bigger that Dr. Allen thought! During the c-section Dr. Allen discovered that my ovarian cyst had ruptured.  That is probably why I had the fever and was feeling so terrible. I knew that I had a cyst, but didn’t know that it was the size of a GRAPEFRUIT.  It had burst from the pressure during labor.  After 2 hours of surgery to remove the cysts and my left ovary I was in recovery. Thank goodness I had a c-section after all because otherwise I probably would have had emergency surgery shortly after she was born.

As I started to wake up, I remember Zach coming in with the camera and showing me some pictures of Caroline.  I kept asking is she was ok.  She was doing great and off getting her first bath! I finally was taken to my postpartum room around 3:30am and got to meet Caroline for the first time.  She had on a cute Santa hat. It was truly amazing. She was able to breastfeed and the we were able to take a quick nap after a long but amazing day.

Happy Birthday Caroline! We are very blessed.

Caroline is 4 weeks old today.  Wow!  Time flies.

We are doing fabulously.

Highlights since Caroline’s birthday:

- We are home, happy, healthy and of course sleepy

- Caroline was back to her birth weight 8 lbs 11 ounces on 1/7/2010 (we go back Thursday- she’s grown even more!)

- Had multiple Christmas celebrations and celebrated my birthday early

-Lots of great food and visits from friends and family

-Photo shoot!  Check out http://www.poeticexposure.com/carolinemarie/ (We highly recommend Steve!)

-Eating, growing, being curious and sleeping (except between 11pm-3am… hmmm)

- Check out the new pics in our gallery!

I found a nifty birthday calculator online… Caroline is 288 hours old :0)

It has been a busy, fabulous and sleepy last 11 days.

Thank you to our friends and family for the many visits, meals and gifts for Caroline.  We are so excited that she is finally here!

Her latest tricks include:

Sticking her whole hand in her mouth and then eventually finding her thumb

Making crazy animal like noises

Eating, eating and then eating again

Sleeping and being cute

Entertaining us

We are so blessed.

This week will be busy with doctor’s appointments and newborn pictures!

Caroline finally got to meet my dad! He was on a trip to Asia for 2 weeks.  She loves her Grand-Daddy-O!

Check out the new pictures in our gallery.

J, Z & C

Mix proud parents and a camera and you get tons of pictures We updated our gallery again.

Caroline Marie Smith was born December 22, 2009 at 11:50pm. She weighed 8lbs 11 ounces and is 20.5 inches long.  She is absolutely beautiful.
Check out her pictures http://jessandzach.shutterfly.com/

We will add more details sometime in between feeding, napping and loving our precious baby girl!!  We are all doing very well and celebrating our Christmas miracle.

We probably get to go home tomorrow (Saturday, December 26). We will keep you posted! Check back soon.
Thanks again for your love and prayers.

Jess, Zach and Caroline

p.s. I HAVE THE MOST AMAZING HUBBY!  Thank you for EVERYTHING.

Our beautiful baby girl was born at 11:50 PM on December 22, 2009. She weighed 8 lbs 11 oz and was 20.5 inches long. You can see more photos at our Gallery!

2009 Letter from Santa…

Dear Jess, Zach and Baby Caroline,

Merry Christmas!  Mrs. Claus and I have been keeping an eye on the Smith’s this year, checking to see who has been naughty and who has been nice.  You’ve had another busy and blessed year.  Glad to hear that Jessica recovered well from her liver resection surgery.  Mrs. Claus and I wanted to join your ski and snow-shoeing trip to Copper Mountain, maybe next time!  Christmas is just around the corner an all of us at the North Pole are very busy trying to get everything ready.  Glad you got to have a mini-vacation before Jess’ conference for Westwood College Career Services. Did you see any of my elves on your train trip to Winter Park, Colorado? The elves snuck off for a vacation before finishing up the Christmas gifts. My suit is nearly done and the sleigh is washed and polished; we added an Aggie bumper sticker to look a little more like the Aggie bus!

Great job throwing a SURPRISE 60^th birthday party for Jess’ mom!  Also, we heard about your big mother’s day announcement… congratulations on the soon-to-be arrival of Baby Caroline!  I enjoyed the video documenting the progress of the nursery!  Baby Smith already has a lot of love in her life!

You’ve had lots of other excitement with weddings, birthdays, friends with new babies, exploring local tourist attractions, work trips to San Fran and Estes Park (no reindeer, but I heard you saw moose!) Glad you had the chance to visit Fredericksburg, Houston and to celebrate Thanksgiving twice! Family is such a blessing.

2010 looks to be another great year.  I heard that BNSF is in the process of being purchased by Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway. Can’t wait to hear more details! Your bundle of joy will bring lots of smiles and memories too.

All of us at the North Pole wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Remember to take a moment to remember the real reason for the season: Luke 1:35 The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy–the Son of God.”

See you soon! I’m looking forward to the cookies and milk.

Merry Christmas,

Santa and the Elves

p.s. Can’t wait to meet Baby Caroline! It might be her first Christmas!

The nursery is finished! Enjoy! Caroline’s Nursery!

Howdy-

We changed our gallery and added new pictures… check it out http://jessandzach.shutterfly.com/

More pictures to come…

Counting down the days until Caroline arrives!