My Dear, Sweet 6 Year Old!

Jacob turned six today, so I would like to pay tribute to my wonderful boy.

Jacob's pregnancy was planned down to the month from the beginning. We wanted to have him and Alex be somewhat close in age so they could be great friends growing up. I found out that we were pregnant when Alex was 10 months old. I actually knew that night that he was conceived. Over the previous three months, I had developed quite an allergy to latex, but didn't know WHAT was going on with my skin, so I made an appointment with my doctor to check it out. While I was there, I asked if I could take a pregnancy test to see if my theory was correct. I knew I was about a week along, so I wasn't positive if the test would come back with a yes or a no answer, but it was good to check anyway. Dr. Wade came in not three minutes after testing me and said that this was the quickest test he had seen confirm a pregnancy. Right off the bat, Jacob was showing his strength of spirit.

I told Brian that day (it was August 28th, two days after his birthday) by having Alex give him a belated birthday card with the news that he was going to be a big brother as his gift to his daddy. Brian was so excited! However, I would not suggest telling people THIS early that you are pregnant. This pregnancy lasted FOREVER!

I did have some spotting early on that worried me, so we ended up changing to an OB instead of using my family doctor, which had us delivering at Lakeview Hospital up in Bountiful, instead of LDS Hospital in Salt Lake, but we were okay with the change. We loved having more frequent ultrasounds, and didn't mind the drive to Bountiful each month.

When the time came for delivery, we had a much different experience than our first time with Alex. Alex's labor was 30 hours from start to finish. Jacob came the day after Easter. We spent the day at Brian's brother's house, where Alex wanted me to jump on the trampoline with him. I was holding him and doing soft bounces (my feet didn't leave the trampoline), and he loved every minute of it. I had my 37 week checkup on Monday morning at 10:30. My doctor informed me that I was dilated to a 4 and was 90% effaced and asked if I would like him to strip my membranes and move things along. I declined, saying that we had tickets to see Miss Saigon on Friday, and that I really would be okay waiting another week before our little guy came into the world. After leaving the office, I called Brian to tell him how the appointment went, and what Dr. Farley said about moving things along. He said, "Are you crazy? Get back to the office! Let's have this baby today!" I laughed and said, "No, I'm really okay to wait." Well, at 1:15 that afternoon, I started having some pain in my abdomen. At first, I thought that this was just because he had been down there checking things out and I was a little sore. But when I kept having the pain every 15 minutes, I knew that he was ready to come into the world.

The thing that bugged me, though, was the fact that we had these tickets to see Miss Saigon on Friday that we had paid a lot of money for that we would miss. So I called the box office to see if we could switch the tickets. I explained that I was in labor and it didn't seem feasible to be able to make it to the show if I was having a baby that day. They agreed to switch the tickets, but only if I was the one to pick them up. I agreed, then called Brian to tell him I needed him to come home.

By the time he got home, I could no longer stand or sit. I had used a giant exercise ball to alleviate the pain with Alex's contractions, and it had worked quite well, so I used it again with Jacob's contractions. By the time Brian got home (15 minutes later), the ball was not doing a bit of good. I told Brian it was time to go. He didn't believe me. "We have plenty of time, why don't we go walk around the mall, or go out for dinner first?" He was remembering how it took me 24 hours to get dilated to a 1 with Alex, so I couldn't possibly be ready to go at this point! Funny man, I dragged him to the car and we were on our way to Bountiful...but not without stopping downtown in Salt Lake to pick up our tickets! I was worried that we wouldn't get our tickets in time if we didn't stop then. We were probably at the office for 20 minutes waiting for them to process all the paperwork! When all was said and done, they finally asked me if I was sure that I wouldn't be able to make it to the show on Friday. I explained that I was in labor RIGHT NOW and was headed to the hospital. They finally believed me!

We showed up at the hospital at 5:30, and found that I was dilated to a 7. I had failed the strep test, so they hooked me up to the anti-biotics, but I only got through one bag before Jacob decided to come into the world. This experience was so much better than my first birth! I only pushed for a few minutes, didn't tear, and my placenta delivered itself without any help this time (thank heaven!). Jacob was born on Monday, April 21, 2003 at 7:48pm. He was 7 pounds, 3 ounces (almost a full pound bigger than Alex) and had slight traces of blond hair. He was so beautiful! Brian finally believed me when I told him that hurrying this time around was a good idea. The fact that we had two hours to spare when we got there floored him.

The next morning, the doctor informed me that Jacob was showing a LOT of jaundice. Typically, this doesn't show up in babies until 2-3 days later, so they put him on a bili bed to help flush things out. The good news for me was that I got to stay at the hospital for 2 extra days just for Jake. It was so peaceful! I certainly felt rested upon leaving that place.

I have to explain how we came up with Jacob's name. I was rooting for Jacob, but Brian wanted: Jaden, Brayden, Caden, and any other possible derivative of said names, but I didn't like them at all. Working in a child care, I had more than my share of kids with those names and didn't want him to join the "aden" craze. We were down to Jacob or Jaden at the hospital. We knew for sure that we wanted his middle name to be Taylor, after our first child who miscarried. We named that one Taylor because it could fit a boy or a girl. Plus, Jacob has a cousin named Jordan Taylor, so we thought that J.T. was a great fit. That is what we called him that whole first day. J.T. We were still debating the next morning, and were both quite stubborn about our name choices, so Brian bought a deck of cards to help determine who our winner would be. We played Go Fish, and decided that whoever won 2 out of 3 hands would get to name him. Well, Brian won the first hand. Then he won the second hand, too. UGH! I consigned myself to calling him Jaden that whole day. I hated it, but had to give in, because Brian won our deal. He brought Alex to visit later that day. When Alex came in, he said, "Who's that?" Brian said, "That's your brother, Jacob." WHAT? Wait a minute. He didn't say Jaden! So I asked him if he realized what he had just said. He said that he did, and as long as it was BRIAN that got to choose Jacob's name, then he would be happy to call him Jacob. Of course, I was ecstatic! Even now that he's six, I can't picture him being named Jaden at all. He is certainly a Jacob for sure!

Jacob had to stay on the bili bed with a bili blanket for the first three weeks of his life. It was so hard to not be able to hug him and hold him all the time while he went through his treatment! He soon recovered, and with spring in full swing, we went outside a lot. This helped his body break down the bilirubins a lot more quickly.

Jacob followed his big brother everywhere growing up. Alex loved to make him laugh! Jacob had adoration written all over his face whenever he saw Alex. He cried a lot, too. Alex picked on him a lot, but Jacob has always been such a forgiving kid.

We used to call him the Giant Baby when he and Alex would build with their blocks. Alex would build, then Jacob would come along and annihilate it.

Jacob loved to spin. At the child care, he would sit in the exersaucer and spin and spin until his eyes were rolling around in the sockets. He would laugh, wait for it to stop, then do it all over again. He loved his bouncer, too. He could jump all afternoon if I would give in and let him stay in the bouncer swing.

He has always loved making faces. He could sit and entertain himself forever just by making faces...he doesn't even need a mirror!

When he was 10 months old, he was standing at our entertainment center. At that stage, he liked to rear his head back and slam it forward. Well, one of those times, he caught his front tooth on one of the drawer pulls. His teeth were PERPENDICULAR to each other! It was so gross and scary! Luckily, the dentist was able to realign it, but the tooth never grew in. This was the first tooth that Jacob lost just a couple of months ago. His whole life, people have asked him, "Wow! Did you lose a tooth?", even when he was two years old.

Jacob has so much love for life. He is one of the sweetest people I know. He is a born leader and makes friends quite easily. He is a positive kid. And so kind. He loves to be active, and loves to please people. I don't know how I am so blessed to have the opportunity to raise him on the earth. Heavenly Father must certainly love me to send such a sweet spirit to my home. I don't think that I deserve him, but if Heavenly Father thinks I do, then I will not fight him on this matter. He is such a great and loyal brother to Alex and Cameron. He completes our family. I love this kid.

Happy sixth birthday, Jacob. I love you so much.