Daddys 1st Post

Daddy Matt here making my first post. I wanted to upload a couple of photos that I've taken of my little man and tell my perspective on this adventure. This whole "being a dad thing" is the absolute best thing in the world. Words can not even explain the feeling that overwhelms me when he looks me in the eyes. The dirty diapers, the lack of sleep, and the constant attention this little man brings are just small prices to pay for the love I have for Jett.

Out of the bath, getting dried off. He's a pretty chill baby. I think he gets that from me.

I love this one too.. I call this one the "I want the BOOB" face.

He is definitely daddy's little buddy. :)

He can sleep anywhere, anytime. This is in the midst of us getting ready, TV on, shower on, hair dryer on, dogs barking... He's OUT.

More proof to my statement earlier. J can sleep anywhere, this is us cuddled up on the couch.

This is my favorite. He's a very sloppy (milk) drunk.

Unexpected Visit!

Over the last few weeks our family has had great additions (Jetton Hunter) but we have also had some sad news. My Memaw (mom's mom) had to go to the hospital with what we thought were gall stones. Well after a couple of days in the hospital we found out she actually had Pancreatic Cancer... This news was horrible, but on a good note, the doctors said that it was caught early. She immediately had to start talking about surgery though. Well my mom has two sisters who we don't get to see that often, one lives in Los Angeles and the other in St. Louis. Since this all was happening SO fast, they both flew in to be with her. The reasoning for why they had to come in was HORRIBLE, but at the same time, they got to meet Jetton. So a little good did indeed come out of this horrible situation. My Memaw has since had her surgery and is already talking with her doctor about the chemo and what treatment she will need. She is doing great and is staying SO positive and strong. She has a long road ahead of her, but with all the positive thoughts and prayers I know she can and will do just great. She is such a strong person!

My Memaw and Aunt Angela with Jetton! 

This was his first time to meet Angela

Memaw and Papaw with their two great grandkids- Jetton and Olivia

Aunt Pam meeting Jett for the first time! What special memories :)

The whole group- I'm so sad for the circumstances but so glad we all got together..

3 Weeks Old

I can not believe this much time has passed. Our little man is 3. WEEKS. OLD. :( It makes me sad because he is growing up so fast... He has already changed so much. He stays awake a lot more and we have figured out that he loves noise. He sleeps so much better if there is some type of music or soft noise playing.. (glad we figured this out now instead of later) He still is in newborn clothes. He is so long and SKINNY! Everyone says he has long hands and feet which I find so funny, because the very first thing I said about him was that he had long fingers! :) Maybe he will be tall! Today, Jetton got to meet his "best friend". A couple we are friends with, Luke and Sarah Martin, had their little girl today!! Baby Addison made her grand appearance around 2:45 today and we ventured out to the hospital tonight so that they could meet!! :) What a happy day! I also decided to venture out on my own for the first time with Jetton. We ran a few errands and it wasn't to hard! It is definitely a lot easier when daddy goes along with us though. :)

3 Weeks Old! He already looks so BIG in this picture! haha

Bath Time!! Jett actually really likes baths. He pees every time but doesn't get upset. I think the warm water just relaxes him...

Tummy Time- He really enjoys this when he doesn't fall asleep. I hope he continues to love tummy time. I've read that lots of babies end up hating it! :O

Here Jetton is with his new friend, Addison, Daddy and Uncle Luke! :)

--Newborn Pictures

On Valentines day, Jett was 1 week and 4 days old. We scheduled to get our newborn pictures made. :) This was the best decision ever. They really captured his newborn-ness. I will love and cherish these pictures forever. We had them made at Soho Photography downtown. She was so great and accommodating. She even had a little space heater we carried around and put on Jetton so he didn't get to cold! :) 

I love this Outfit- haha

Family Photo

There are no words to describe this picture. I just love it.

I saw this idea on Pinterest and it was just so fitting since it was Valentine's day- It just makes my heart smile

L.O.V.E.

His little expression is just so stinking cute.. 

Ahh I just can't get enough of him! I loved this and am SO happy with the way they turned out.. This pictures will forever be some of my favorites! 

1 Week Old

Quick Update! On 2/9 Jetton was ONE WEEK OLD. Time is already flying.. I just want to push a pause button. He lost some weight in the hospital and still hadn't gotten back up to his birth weight. He weighed 6 lbs. 10 oz. He sleeps pretty good. Normally for 3 sometimes 4 hours at a time. He is starting to eat a lot better! He has already gone over to Zach and Taylor Castleberry's to watch the super bowl and on this night we went out to dinner for the first time to Logan's! He slept the entire time. He is SUCH a great baby. :) We are SO blessed. 

Coming Home

After two nights in the hospital we were ready to go home! Jetton wasn't nursing great so they kept us for two nights at the hospital. We got discharged on Saturday the 4th, and were more than ready. This made it way more real that we were a mom and dad now. We loaded up, it took 3 cars to get all our stuff along with us and the baby home. Ha! My mom, Diana, Mama and Phil all helped. Yes we needed ALL of this help! I was so excited to get home and to introduce Jetton to his "sisters", Millie and Charlie. :)

First time in the carseat!!

He is so little and he has such LONG feet. :)

Daddy loading him up to go home!

(I think this is the best Matthew has EVER driven)

She wasn't 100% sure what to think. She wanted to smoother him with kisses.....

Yay! We are HOME!!

The first time cousin Olivia got to meet Jetton. :) I love this picture. She decided to "pet" him all on her own.. I LOVE this little girl and can't wait for Jett to get a little bigger so they can play. 

Millie decided she did like him and would not leave his side..

Just snoozing.. And you can see Millie's nose on the side trying to give him some more kisses..

Ready or Not.. Here I Come!!

Where should I start.. It was officially February. Wednesday the 1st FINALLY came.. 20 more days and we knew we would be meeting our little man. I kept telling people I was "more than ready" for him to just come already. BOY was I WRONG. It was just like every other Wednesday, I was exhausted.. We had picked up our niece Olivia from daycare and kept her for the afternoon and Matthew went to play basketball. He asked me if I wanted to go walk while he played and I told him I was just to tired today. I had done all our laundry that day and just couldn't figure out why I was SO tired. Matthew got home and we were laying in bed watching tv. Matt decided he wanted to turn the tv off and go to sleep. I remember saying I needed to go to the bathroom really quick and looked at the clock- it was 11:50 pm. I stood up and said "Matthew I think I just PEED MY PANTS!" :O Ohhhh was I soo wrong! I went to the bathroom and kept "peeing" I asked Matt to come and look and to see what he thought. After some debating we decided to just go into the hospital to get "checked". After wondering if I should put makeup on or not, Matthew put our bag in the car "just in case" and I DIDN'T put makeup on and we went to the hospital. As I was walking into the hospital, it was no longer a question. My water had definitely broke. It was the weirdest feeling ever. I could  not stop it! I panicked. In the middle of the parking lot and all Matthew could get out was "WELL DON'T STOP WALKING!!!!" We got up to labor and delivery and the nurses finished my sentence when I went to tell them I had thought my water broke. They didn't even make me go to triage, they just immediately sent me to a room. At this point it was around 12:15 on the 2nd. This is a VERY special date because it is Lanny's (Matthew's Fathers) Birthday. He would have been 50 on this exact day and we were about to welcome our little boy into the world. God works in AMAZING ways. Diana and Phil met us at the hospital and we got checked in and I got hooked up to all kinds of machines and the nurses were asking all kinds of questions. The main one was, "are you having any contractions?" I told them no, because I didn't think I was. As soon as they got the machines going, they informed me I was contracting every 2 to 2 1/2 minutes. Oops.. At this point we decided to try to sleep.. Around 4:30 am I was 5 cm. dilated and chose to get the epidural. That was the best decision of my entire LIFE. I finally got it around 5:30 and by 8:30 the nurses said it was almost go time. They got the room all ready and my nurse Sally and her scrub tech Amber came in. They were seriously awesome. I could not have asked for better people to help me. I LOVED them. I started pushing at 9:06 and an hour or so later our little man was here! He was born at 10:11 am on 2/2/12. He weighed 6 pounds 12 oz. and was 19 inches long. He was Perfect. The love was overwhelming. I never thought I could automatically love someone as much as I did the instant I saw him. In the room during the time was Matthew my mom and his mom. I wouldn't change any of it. The moment was so special and life changing. I remember looking over and all I could see was his little hand sticking out of the bassinet and saying He has such LONG fingers! Then they brought him to me and I couldn't contain my emotions.. I balled like a baby. I think I cried more than Jetton did.. Haha A lot of people came to see him. It was such a special day. Jetton got to meet a lot of our friends, so much of his family. He met grandparents, great grandparents cousins, aunts, uncles, and so many more... So enough with the story.. I'll post some pictures now! :)

This was right after he was born. Matthew got to cut the umbilical cord. Such a sweet moment. 

He was PERFECT. The little blood pressure cuff is SO tiny..

The first time I got to see and hold him. (Note the red face from crying :P)

Exhausted little boy.. 

All the Boys. We are so blessed to have such a great group of friends. 

Granddad with his first Grandson. :)

This is the wreath that I made for our hospital door so we could have something different than the norm. Thankfully I finished it just before my water broke!

Our FIRST EVER family Photo. :D This melts my heart. 

Grammy and Papa

Dr. Ward.. He is seriously the best. He checked on us everyday we were in the hospital. I LOVE him and recommend him to anyone who needs a doctor. :)

And the little tag in the Hospital Bassinet. 

We have SO many pictures from our stay in the hospital. I know I left out so many but there is just WAY to many to add them all.. over time I'm sure I'll put some up and share them but for the time being this is it.. :) 

It's a... BOY!

Well- we knew we wanted to tell everybody in a special way if we were going to have a boy or a girl.. Everyone knew Matt wanted a boy. No questions asked, I honestly wanted a boy too, but I was afraid to really say either way because I didn't want anybody to think I was disappointed. Because no matter what I would love and be SO excited about the baby! We went to get our "gender reveal" ultrasound on September 19th! We closed our eyes and our Doctor put the ultrasound picture in an envelope so that Matt and I wouldn't even know! The waiting started... This was on a Friday and we had a party planned for Saturday afternoon. We immediately took the envelope to Cakes by Catie downtown and had her bake a cake. She was going to make the vanilla part either pink or blue so when we cut into the cake it would be revealed! The waiting seriously KILLED me. But it was nice since I couldn't even be tempted since the bakery had the ultrasound picture with what the sex was on it... All of our friends and family came to the house for our party and we had pink and blue snakes. Everyone picked either a pink or blue onesie to pin onto their shirt to determine what "team" they were on. We also played a game to say if we were having a boy or girl. The game was based off a lot of old wives tales- for the record it said we were having a girl....

This is the group of friends that came to find out what we were having! We are so lucky to have such a great group of friends!

Here we are about to cut it!.. The anticipation was ridiculous! 

IT'S A BOY! :):)

Here is the ultrasound picture that the bakery had! I am SO happy we did it the way we did.. It was so fun to find out with all our family and friends. We couldn't have done it a better way!

Impatiently Waiting....

Well... the waiting game was NO fun.. We took baby classes, and read books and did everything we possibly could think of to try and help pass the time. We figured we could "prepare" ourselves for when our little man made his big arrival.. boy were we wrong. No matter what we read or did nothing could or would prepare for the amazing feeling of welcoming our little guy into the world. We talked about baby names, and nursery themes... It was crazy. We came up with 3 boy names and 3 girl names. Only to change our mind a million times - Ha

Ha.. This was taken during the baby class. We got to dress in scrubs and go into the O.R. so we would know what to expect in case we had to have a c-section. Luckily we didn't need this information but it was still a fun experience. 

This is the FIRST picture of our little man. We didn't even know if he was a boy or girl yet. He was measuring about the size of a bean in this ultrasound picture. To hear his heartbeat and see his little body was an unreal experience. I wouldn't trade that feeling for anything. 

At 31 weeks, we went and had a 4-D ultrasound done. This was AWESOME! If you can get this done, I highly recommend it. We took my dad, Matthew's mom and Phil, Bailey and Allison. Just to see and get an "idea" of what Jetton would look like was amazing. We got to see all his little body parts and saw that he LOVES to keep his hands on his face. It was so cool.