Jack's 1st Year Video

This video is maybe a little long, but it has my whole heart attached to it so bear with me. 

Words can't express the love I have for my sweet boy.

Happy Birthday Jack!

11 Months

Holy smokes how is my baby already 11 months old?! It's so hard to wrap my head around the fact that he is already older than the amount of time I was pregnant with him. These months have sure gone by a lot faster. Jack is seriously the BEST baby! I can't say it enough. I know that I am completely biased but even with all of the facts laid out, he really is such a good baby.

So here's all about the past 11 months..

Jack has been an amazing eater from day 1. I know it is a blessing straight from heaven that he has always been so good at nursing and I definitely don't take it for granted. He loves to eat real food too. We started him eating rice and oatmeal cereal at 5 months old. He loved it! So right when he turned 6 months we gave him sweet potatoes for his first "real food" and he loved it even more! He eats 3 jars of baby food a day, a bowl of oatmeal, and tons of cut up fruit, and could eat more if I would let him. His favorite thing to eat right now cut up pears. He is in 18 month clothes right now and at his 9 month appointment he was 24 lbs and 30 inches so I'm excited to see where he is at his one year appointment.

Jack has 6 teeth now. He got his first two teeth when he was 5 months old, and didn't really get too bothered by them coming in. The second two teeth he got at 7 months and those gave him a bit of a struggle with a fever for a few days but once the fever broke his teeth popped right through. His upper laterals just came in a few weeks ago and those were no problem as well. He loves to chew on anything and everything so we have cute little teeth marks on a bunch of random stuff throughout our house.

Jack's sleep schedule is very consistent now. We struggled for almost 9 months to get him to sleep through the night but he finally is and he is a champ! His naps are amazing during the day. He goes down around 10 and sleeps till 11:30, and then again at around 2 until 4. At night he goes to bed around 8 and will sleep until 7 ish in the morning.

His first word was "ba-ba" which is hilarious because he had only had maybe 4 "ba-ba"'s in his life at that point. The first time he said mama, he kind of screamed it at me because he was trying to get my attention. So cute. He LOVES to say dada. That is his favorite word at the moment.

Jack started crawling at 7 months and has been cruising around like crazy ever since. He just started walking a week ago and we are having so much fun with him! He feels so proud of himself when he walks around. He climbs in his crib, chairs, tables, couches, on top of us, you name it. If it could be turned into some kind of obstacle course for him, he takes the challenge. He is definitely all-boy in that way. Veryyyy busy. But I love it.

His favorite toys right now are his rocking horse, our piano and his car that he can sit on and push around. He mostly just loves to be outside exploring. He LOVES the park and cries any time we have to leave. He really loves to go on "adventures" at the park, looking at all the different plants and rocks and.. dirt (yuck). He is such a tough boy. He has had quite a few falls/accidents recently, especially now that he has learned to walk. But he never even acts like it hurts and hardly ever cries. So whenever he does cry, I know that it has to be something really bad. At his last doctor appointment, he didn't even flinch when they gave him his shots. I don't even think he noticed he was getting a shot.

He is the smiliest baby. I love how happy he always is. He has been smiling since day one of his life and I have pictures to prove it. He is very very rarely fussy, usually just if he has been sleep deprived or is really hungry. He loves to talk to people and get random strangers attention, but doesn't like to be held by anyone but mom or dad, unless you spend a lot of time around him. I can guarantee that every single time we take him out in public, at least one person will stop us so they can talk to Jack and say "Oh my, he looks just like the Gerber baby!" Haha we get it every time. He loves to be tickled, and chased around the room. He giggles like crazy. He is our daily joy and we love him to pieces. He makes life brighter and I am grateful every second that he is mine. I love you, Jack!

12/17/13 video

Jack's video

Jack's Newborn Pictures

So blessed to be his mom

Jack's Birth

Our precious son, Jack Trevor White, was born on December 17, 2013. It will forever be one of my most cherished memories. Everything about his birth and the whole experience was amazing, I feel so blessed. It could not have gone more perfect. Here's the story:

Trevor and I decided a few months back that we wanted to try to deliver Jack in Utah if the timing worked out okay because we love our OB in Utah so much and we wanted as much family to be there as possible. So we started making plans for this in about August. To be totally honest, the closer it got and the more pregnant I got, I didn't think it was going to happen. Trevor and I went home to Utah for Thanksgiving and at that point I was 35 1/2 weeks. I got checked by my OB and was dilated to a 2. Our plan before we left for thanksgiving break was to come to Utah for thanksgiving, go back home to California, then return to Utah after Trevor's last final two weeks later (December 14). After finding out that I was already dilated, I thought for sure our plan wasn't going to work. We left Utah after thanksgiving and it was a LONG drive back home. I was uncomfortable and nervous and there was also horrific traffic. I was so grateful we made it home. 

The next two weeks were a blur. I called my mom everyday, sometimes multiple times a day because I could feel myself getting closer to being in labor. Once Trevor's last final was over we packed our bags and left the next morning. The night before we left, I didn't sleep at all. Even minutes before we left I kept thinking, "wow I really hope we make it home before I go into labor."  I knew it was coming soon. THANKFULLY we did make it home and the next couple of days flew by. Monday (12/16) night Trevor and I drove up to cedar (we had been spending the previous days in St. George), to celebrate Kyle's birthday. We had dinner in Cedar and then drove back to St. George to spend the night. Little did we know 12 hours later we would be driving back to Cedar to have our sweet baby! Monday night I didn't sleep well. I just had a lot of back pain and was just very uncomfortable. Still not thinking I was going into labor. That morning Trevor got a phone call from my dad making sure we were okay because they couldn't see our car parked in their driveway and thought we had left to go to the hospital! Trevor assured him we were fine and just parked in a different spot. We got up and out of bed and all of a sudden- MAJOR contraction. Up to this point I had been feeling tons and tons of Braxton hicks contractions. But this was nothing like I had ever felt before. I had to grab the bed post to stable myself. It was very painful. Trevor had a very concerned look on his face and I told him I was fine. We went on getting ready for the day and not 8 minutes later- another major contraction. Trevor was sold that this was the real deal but I just kept telling him let's wait and see. My worst fear was to rush to the hospital and have them tell me it was false labor. 5 minutes later, another contraction. This kept going on for the next hour- seriously painful contractions every five minutes. I told Trevor that if I had one more, then we could drive up to Cedar. Sure enough I did. I had Trevor give me a blessing before we left- I'm so grateful I did because I know that helped me so much with the delivery- and we took one last belly picture and rushed off to the hospital!

On the drive up my contractions kept getting closer together and stronger, so I was squeezing Trevor's hand. The first time I did, he squeezed my hand back just as hard. I told him he's not supposed to do the squeezing- he said he didn't know how it worked :)

Once we got to the hospital everything happened so quickly. We got there at about 10:30, I got checked right away and was dilated to a 4. Within ten minutes I was already hooked up to IV's and my anesthesiologist was on his way with the epidural. The anesthesiologist was amazing. I was a little worried about getting an epidural, but he did such a perfect job I didn't even feel a thing. I was worried the epidural would take away from the delivery, like I wouldn't be able to fully experience it. That was so not the case! If anything it let me experience it more. I could definitely feel when I was having a contraction/ needed to push- without the excruciating pain. It was so perfect.

After the epidural, everything started to happen so fast. Both mine and Trevor's parents were called and told to come because it was time. Trevor was so cute, he was the most excited I've ever seen him. He was just pacing back and forth, and had this constant giant smile on his face. I got checked again and found out Jack was posterior. That made me really nervous. After everything I've heard about posterior babies (Trevor and myself both were posterior) I was thinking it was going to be a very long, hard labor. My sweet nurse was so perfect though! She acted like it was no big deal and after a couple of pushes, she had him turned right around! It was no set back at all. At this point my OB said he was going to run some errands and would be back in about a half hour. After ten minutes, my nurse checked me again and said it was time to start pushing! I wanted to say "but shouldn't we wait for the doctor?" But my nurse seemed like she had it under control so I just did what she told me. Trevor was amazing in there with me, it was like he knew exactly what to do and always said exactly what I needed to hear. He was in charge of counting to 10 during pushes and was such a great motivator. He always makes me feel so safe and calm. I really can't even explain how perfect for me he is.

So glad my family could be with us for his birth. I have always wanted my family right outside the door for my children's births ever since I was a little girl. They are such a great support!

After a couple of minutes of pushing with my nurse, my doctor was back and 7 pushes later little Jack was born. I will never forget seeing him for the first time, and hearing his sweet little cry.

Right after he was born Trevor got to cut his umbilical cord and they laid him on my chest. It was the most amazing experience. It was like I had been running a 9 month long marathon and just got to the finish line. It was the most rewarding feeling seeing our beautiful son. I couldn't stop kissing him and crying and smiling- such a rush of emotions. I got to hold him without anyone taking him away for a whole hour. I got to just love on him and feed him. That hour was perfect- like my own little heaven. I felt a little guilty making my family wait to see him, but that hour was so amazing. One of the most peaceful experiences.

I'm so grateful Jack came 2 weeks early, for many reasons. But the biggest reason probably being that he already weighed 8 pounds 9 ounces, and if he would've had 2 more weeks in the womb, I don't think I would've been able to deliver him. He would've been huge!

We were only at the hospital for 24 hours when they told us we were free to go. We were so excited to take him home. I had the perfect experience at the hospital, everyone treated me so well and I loved all of my nurses, but there's nothing like being home.

Life just feels so perfect with him in it.

Baby Shower

I am so grateful to everyone who helped out with my baby shower at home this past weekend! It was so fun to be able to see family and friends and get to celebrate baby Jack!