Grover Family Reunion

On July 17-19 we had the Jess and Afton Grover family reunion in Blanding hosted by my Uncle Clark's family. My brother Ryan timed his summer visit from Texas to make it to the reunion and it was good to celebrate his birthday with him while he was here (we did it early and he's holding his cake in the picture). I debated for a loong time if I should go as it was 5 hrs away and I was only a month away from having Aaron. After praying and talking to family members in particular my cousin Kristi who had done the same thing I decided to try and it was pretty fun.

At Kristi's in-laws cabin they had a ton of fun things to do and play on for the kids. Miriam loved the merry-go-round the best I think. She was well loved by the younger cousins in particular my cousin Jayna's son Aaron and Kristi's 2 boys Justin and Ian. They played with her and wanted to be wherever she was.

Aaron and Miriam, he was so cute with her. When he left to go home he had to make sure and say goodbye with a big hug. Then Miriam and the other kids had a great time with Eric playing all day, in particular on the trampoline (Eric invited me to join but I thought that was a great way to have my baby early!).

They also had 2 tournaments on Sat- horse shoes and pool. Eric didn't do very good at the horse shoes, his games took a long time because nobody could get enough points. He did very well at pool though, coming in second. My mom even got involved with both tournaments even though she never did anything with pool before. Miriam thought the pool game looked pretty fun and liked helping.

As mentioned before we got to help celebrate Ryan's birthday. Miriam has been working at blowing out candles since her birthday. She couldn't manage it then nor at mine or Jennifer's but she accomplished it with Ryan's cake! She'll be all set to conquer the 2 candles on her next birthday.

Thanks Kristi and Darrin for all your work to make it a great reunion!! The food was incredible (afterall isn't that the main part of a reunion)!

Missionaries

Forgive me but I have several posts still to do from July. These are most of the Sister missionaries from my family-both sides. On my dad's side his mom served a couple mission so she sort of counts. Then on my mom's side there is another cousin who served before me. The occasion of the picture is my cousin Colleen (far left) mission farewell. It was pretty cool to hear her calling as it is the same mission as my sister-Tampa Florida! I told Miriam she could be in the picture because she was also going to serve a mission just like her mommy and daddy. I have always had distinct views on sister missionaries. First of all there aren't enough of us out there. We never had many at one time in my mission and besides visitor centers no other mission that I have heard ever has a ton. Though secondly I recognize we sisters are not required to serve in the same way that the guys are. I always tell girls that are thinking of it to pray and let Heavenly Father tell them if that's whats best for them.

Missions are incredible experiences and I'm looking forward to the day Eric and I will be able to serve together. I suppose in the meanwhile we need to get up the ompf to be better neighbors and teach our children to prepare them. I have some troubles making my mouth work- in my head I think go talk to so and so but my mouth doesn't work. It was the hardest part of my mission and when I actually got my mouth to work I always had great conversations

Aaron's 2 week checkup

In the midst of attending the funeral for one of my cousins Aaron got to visit the doctor again. Dr Later said he looked the picture of health. He also warned us that the medical community is quite concerned about how the swine flu will "blossom" now that school is back in session and I should consider keeping Aaron home mostly. We don't go very far most the time any way but I guess we need to decide how to handle church. Oh side note on that we will be blessing him on September 27 in our ward which currently meets at 8:30. Back to the Dr, I was a little worried because he wasn't eating for very long but I guess I didn't need to as he weighs 9lb 1 oz up from 8 lbs 3 oz in 10 days! That puts him in the 60%. Head is 14.6 in (49%) and he is 21 3/4 in long (85%) so he is definitely growing! Mom isn't convinced they do a very accurate job measuring how long they are but there is the official record.
He is so sweet and sleepy. I hardly know what to do with him after Miriam doesn't sleep much. It is wonderful having a little bit of heaven in our home.

Gratitude

I've thought a lot recently about how hard it would be doing the parenting thing alone. My heart truly goes out to the single mamas and I don't know why anyone would choose to do it alone. I'm extremely grateful to my mom and my sister Jennifer for their support in getting Aaron here.

Mom helped me get labor started. We thought I was going to start labor on Sat as I had contractions off and on all day, but no can do. Mon when I went to my Dr checkup he stripped my membranes and said if it was going to work that labor would start in a couple of hours. It didn't really seem to do anything, but we decided to try and get it over with. I did a cycle of soaking in the bath and walking. We had about decided nothing was going to happen when bam the contractions hit and hit hard at 11:40 pm. It was a pretty excruciating labor as it was all in my back being posterior. It was almost 1/2 as long as Miriam's, but seemed twice as long some how. Mom stuck with me while Eric was sleeping till we decided to head to the hospital at 1:30 AM. I am grateful beyond anything I can say for the tender loving care both Eric and my mom gave me through all those hours. I would have been highly tramatized without them. I was also very grateful to know Miriam was in good hands with Jennifer and mom (once Aaron came that is). I had worried what to do with her most of the pregnancy because by accident I hardly asked anyone else but mom to babysit her making it harder for her to be without me. Jennifer had stayed with us for a month by then and knew the routines and Miriam was very comfortable with her. Besides Jennifer didn't have any other responsibilities for me to feel like I was inconveniencing her. They brought her down to the hospital 3 times for us to see her and her to see Aaron. Thanks again Mom and Jennifer!

Then when we got home they again sparred me the trauma of learning right away how to take care of 2 children by myself. We had been up early to check out of the hospital and I don't think I could have handled Miriam on my own. Fri Miriam was really cranky and if it had just been me she probably would have spent a lot of time in her bed screaming her head off. Also the next week Miriam had some sort of stomach bug and once again I was immeasurably thankful for extra help as she turned very needy. I'm also thankful that Aaron has been very mellow and sleeps a lot- its sooo nice! Miriam says thanks for playing with me and taking care of me!!!

Jaundice

On Aaron's 2nd day of life the nurses got concerned with his color so they tested his billiruben levels. It came back not so very high, but he was in the high risk category because he was only 2 days old. So he got to spend the next 2-3 days under the lights.

It felt very odd to just hang out in the hospital without him except every 3 hours or so to feed him. Lucky most of our visitors that came (all on Wed night) managed to see him and hold him a little bit. We then had a bit of a to do about checking out of the hospital. Insurance only allows 48 hours unless somethings wrong with momma which put us about 5:30 Thur morning. My Dr suggested to check out after dinner but for the jaundice it was better for Aaron to stick with the more powerful hospital lights. We opted to stay the night and check out that early. Then the other problem was that Aaron couldn't check out till his Dr came to view test results around 7:30-8. So we checked out, they let us hang out in a little breastfeeding room to nurse him then we went and had breakfast at the cafeteria (cheap good bagel breakfast sandwiches!) and talked with nurse. The new test result were about the same level but because he was now 3 days old it put him in the med risk category. To be on the safe side we agreed to take home some lights.

Within a couple of hours we were delivered a light 'suitcase' and a paddle of sorts. I don't think Aaron was very excited about the process. He kept crying out all day and would be ok with a pacifier but he couldn't keep that in very long. We ended up going in and out a lot or just sitting by him. It also made sleeping really interesting that night because we had it in his co-sleeper by our bed, it was a bright night to say the least. Also to help with the jaundice and the fact he lost a lb (10% of his body weight) they wanted me to nurse as much as could- that ended up being about 10 min every hour on the hour practically. I had no problems getting my milk in with that kind of nursing. We got to go back to hospital and his Dr's to check the levels and see how he was doing. Once again levels were similar but because he was 4 days old he now was in low risk category. He also gained apx 3 oz in one day! We had to check his levels on Sun but everything looks good now and I wasn't sad to see the lights go!
He also got so he hated his goggles. For one thing they kept sliding all around. Overall he was pretty patient considering things with the whole process.

Announcing Aaron Thomas Jones

This morning our son was born (5:40) at 8 pounds, 9.7 ounces, and 19.5". Both baby and Mommy are doing fine.
Jessica started labor last night and we left for the hospital about 1:30 AM. Jessica had a fairly difficult delivery, but still managed to do it naturally, so she is one tough cookie! We're really proud of her.

Aaron is a bit more vocal than Miriam was the first day, but not as awake and alert. Miriam had her eyes open and watching the world, but was content and quiet. Aaron makes a few cute little noises as he sleeps. He is more prone to let his voice be heard, but rarely opens his eyes. It is interesting to see the differences in them, even at this very early age.

When we checked in, the nurse who admited us was Britney (Maiden name Johnson, Sorry Britney, I don't remember your married name), from Delta High class of 2000. My Aunt Julie Jones was the nurse who checked him out when he first arrived at the nursery after delivery. Then one of our first nurses to watch over us during recovery was Anita Pittman, who is the mother of Daniel Pittman, also from DHS class of 2000 and fellow swim team member. So once again, Delta proves that it is a small world after all.

Miriam came for a visit in the afternoon, although sadly the pictures are a little blurry. She was so excited to see her little brother! She crawled right up next to Mommy, and held up her arms asking to hold little Aaron! I'm amazed that she even knew the gesture of how to ask, especially since she has never asked to hold another baby before. The next image, although blurry, shows one of the many times she was asking to hold him.



She was so happy to see him, that he held her attention for a good 20 minutes or so (which for Miriam, that's eternity!). She kept patting his head, and giving him kisses. It was so great to see her so excited for her little brother. She seemed to understand exactly what had happened, and that she had been awaiting his arrival. After her time with Aaron, she then discovered that she could open the doors in the hospital and then commenced opening and closing as many doors as she could get to, as many as she could get away with...



She also came for another visit in the evening. This time she was more preoccupied with the doors, than with Aaron, although she did continue to show interest in him and in holding him.

15 Month check up

Well the actually checkup ended up being closer to 15 1/2 due to our trip to ID. We were accompanied by Jennifer who helps a lot when I can't carry Miriam any more and so forth. One of the best news is that her iron levels were finally good, I'm not sure why but both of us have had low iron lately. She weighed in at 21.21 lbs putting her in the 24.91%. It doesn't make sense to me because she looks normal and not scrawny to me. She was highest % at 6 months- right before she got mobile. Miriam is 31 in tall putting her in the 69.15% which is up from last time. she grew about 2 inches in about 3 months. Funny thing is she is back to about the same percentile that she was last year. Last but not least her head circumference s 18.25 in putting her in the 64.85%- the highest yet. It grew 1/2 an in in the last 3 months.

We also visited with Dr Lator about our new baby and it is nice to already have a Dr in place instead of another unknown.
This picture is actually from the 3rd of July in our festive clothes because of course she has about a weeks worth of red/white/blue clothes. Also if you look close you will see her destruction on my left sleeve from eating.