Welcome, Jameson Kane!

On July 11, 2014 my sweet nephew, Jameson Kane, made his debut in the world. I was blessed to be able to go spend several days with my family by myself so I got lots of good baby snuggles and loving. (Eli was supposed to go with me, but Josh decided to keep him home so they could have some Daddy/Son bonding time. Eli had a blast doing just boy stuff with his Daddy!)

Andrea was scheduled to be induced Friday, July 11th, so I got in town the night before and went to their house to see Andrea, Josh, and Tinsley before they went to bed. I took one last picture of them as a family of three. Less than 2 years ago, we did this same picture when we were waiting for Tinsley to be born :) We were all so excited and couldn't wait to meet the newest member of the family. 

She is the cutest thing in the world!

Mom, Dad, and I left their house, went to eat, and then went to their house. The plan was to wake up in the morning and get up to the hospital around 9 o'clock and wait until Jameson made his grand entrance. Josh and Andrea were going in really early so she could get checked in and hooked up to the pitocin. 

I woke up around 7 o'clock and was fixing my coffee when my Mom got several texts in a row from my brother. He said that her water had just broken, she'd made it to 5 cm, and they were about to get the epidural. He told us that we should probably get to the hospital around 10 o'clock because the doctor thought Andrea would deliver sometime around noon. We all got ready but didn't really rush. By about 8:45 we were in the card headed to the hospital. 

We weren't in the car 5 minutes before Josh sent another text saying that Andrea was progressing quickly. She was fully dilated and the nurses had already called for the doctor to come. My mom kind of freaked out a little thinking she was going to miss Jameson being born, so my Dad stepped on the gas and did some great driving :) Mom texted Josh all the way to the hospital to stay up to date on Andrea's progress. We were about 5 minutes from the hospital when she got the text saying that the doctor had arrived. Dad pulled into the hospital drive, let Mom and me out at the doors, and then went to park. At 9 AM, Mom and I walked through the doors to the hospital when she got another text from Josh. This time it just said two words, "He's here." and had a picture of Jameson. Mom and I couldn't believe how fast Andrea's labor had been. We were thankful at the same time though because her labor with Tinsley was a lot longer and harder on her. We went to the waiting room and then waited for the nurse to give us the go ahead to go back to the room to see the baby. I used the time to write in Jameson's birth stats on the door hanger I'd made so that it'd be ready to go when they got to their final room. 

It wasn't long before they called from the room to let us know that it was okay to go back and see Josh, Andrea, and Jameson. We got back there and realized it was just our family at the hospital so far. Andrea's labor had gone so quickly that none of the family had made it to the hospital in time, so it ended up just being her and my brother in the room when Jameson was born. 

Andrea was gorgeous as ever and didn't even look like she'd just had a baby. She and Jameson were doing some "kangaroo time" on her chest when we walked in. He was absolutely perfect and such a little peanut. He was 7 lbs. 15 oz. and 21 in. long and arrived at exactly 9:00 am that morning. We were all thrilled to see that he had a head full of hair (our family wouldn't know what to do with a baby that didn't have hair!). I grabbed my camera and started doing what I love best-capturing every sweet moment that I could.

Since Mom and I were the only ones in the room we got to get some good baby snuggles with Jameson. We were so happy he was here!

We sent my dad a text to come to the room so he could meet his newest grandson. He was a very proud Pop.

Love this picture of my Mom and Dad. They LOVE their grand babies!

They brought Andrea a bottle so she could start feeding Jameson but once her epidural started to wear off she got the shakes really bad. It was so bad that she couldn't hold the bottle still for Jameson to drink out of so my brother stepped in to help. I love how he's looking at Jameson, holding the bottle, and texting people on the phone all at once. What a good Daddy!

Andrea's shaking kept getting worse and she started feeling really cold. The nurses brought her some warm blankets and wrapped them all around her to start warming her up. It took a long time but her body temperature finally regulated and she started feeling like herself again.

While she was warming up, we kept passing Jameson from one person to the other.

Andrea's parents, grandmother, and aunt were not at the hospital when Jameson arrived, but about an hour later they all arrived. They had Tinsley with them so we were all anxiously waiting for the moment she would see her baby brother. She kept saying "Jameson, you're so cute!" over and over. It was precious! Also, look at the scrubs Andrea ordered for Tinsley to wear on the big day. They monogrammed her name on the front and "Big Sister" on the back. Everyone that saw her at the hospital that day mentioned how cute they were on her. 

Andrea's mom, dad, grandmother and aunt all got their hands on Jameson and it was love at first sight just like it had been for us. 

Shortly after Andrea's family arrived, the nurse came in to clean Jameson up and give him his bath. Tinsley watched everything she did.

Once he was all cleaned up, they passed him back to Andrea and I snapped their first picture as a family of four. You can't really see Jameson though because he's all wrapped up and Andrea still had tons of blankets on her. They were very happy though as you can tell!

They moved Andrea to her new room and we hung up Jameson's birth announcement door hanger. 

We attempted another picture of the four of them and this was as good as it was going to get. Tinsley was hungry and wasn't letting these goldfish out of her sight. 

While Andrea rested the rest of us got to love on sweet, little Jameson. 

One of my favorite pictures of Jameson :)

Andrea was starving and was very, very happy when they brought her some food to finally eat. Tinsley was happy about this arrangement as well.

Up until this point Tinsley had not really wanted to do anything with Jameson other than look at him. Mom was holding him in her arms and pretended that she needed help with Jameson in order to get up. Tinsley came over to "help" Grammy hold the baby. It was pretty cute to see her trying to hold him. 

Andrea had gestational diabetes with Jameson and she managed it very well by avoiding sweets during her pregnancy with him. That didn't stop her from making plans to have a sweet celebration once he was born complete with cake. We all sang "Happy Birthday" to Jameson and all ate some very yummy cake. I think Andrea was most happy because she finally was able to eat something sweet. 

One of the pediatricians on call came by to check on Jameson and give my brother the Newborn Instruction Manual. I thought that was kind of funny that they give you a handbook now. 

When it was time for Jameson's next feeding, Tinsley wanted to help give him his bottle. I think once she gets used to him she's going to be a great big sister. 

We left for lunch, took Tinsley to walk around the hospital, and went back to my parent's house so she could take a nap. (All the adults may or may not have taken a nap as well.) We spruced up a bit and then went back to the hospital because my other brother Caleb and his girlfriend were driving in to see the baby. They weren't going to be able to stay the night so it would be a quick trip for them. 

We all visited in the room passing Jameson back and forth until it was time to leave for the night. It had been such a wonderful day welcoming the newest member of our family. We were all feeling so thankful to God for this incredible blessing that he gave to Josh, Andrea, and Tinsley. We left Andrea, Josh, and Jameson to rest for the night but we were already looking forward to seeing them again the next day. Thank you, God, for this precious blessing from heaven!