Fun at June and Andrew's school

After Jacob's baptism weekend, Gigi stayed in town for a couple of days to go to June's Thanksgiving program and grandparents' lunch at Andrew's school. 

June and Mrs. Brown's class were cute little turkeys and despite the look on June's face, she did great in her performance.  She is so funny!  She always makes this face whenever she is at school and I come for something...I don't know if she's nervous or just kind of proud/embarrassed.    I can't figure it out! 

 

 Then we headed over to lunch at Andrew's school. 

 

We had a great couple of days with Gigi and then headed up to Hartselle on Wednesday for Thanksgiving. 

Jacob's Baptism

To be continued...

Trip to Starkville

We made a trip over to Starkville in November to check on the house and let the guys go hunting. June, Dana, and I spent the day together on Saturday.  We started the day by watching the bulldogs play Alabama at the Grill and then went to a craft fair in Ackerman. Juney got a great face painting! 

The boys meanwhile were hunting and Will shot his first deer. He was so proud(as were Dan and Jabo)!     

Sunday, we had lunch with the Andersons and even got to see some neighbors while we were packing up on Sunday afternoon.  It was such a fun weekend and so nice to catch up with some of our friends! 

3 months

 Jacob is getting so big and changing daily. He still has lots of dark hair and it appears his eyes are going to be a darker color.  He coos and cackles and smiles all the time. He loves to talk to anyone who looks at him and is quite the little charmer. He eats really well and nursing has been SO much easier with him. He will take a bottle even from me with no resistance.  He still hasn't taken to the pacifier but we aren't giving up hope yet. 

He sleeps pretty well at night too. He only wakes up a couple of times to eat during the night and then goes right back to sleep. He doesn't nap as well during the day but that's probably because we are always on the go and he doesn't want to miss out on a thing.  I kept saying that I was going to get this baby on a better schedule than his older sister but I've found that's next to impossible with older siblings who have a busy social calendar. He likes the Boba baby carrier and will sleep in there and that makes life easier. 

He absolutely despises his car seat! On long car rides, I have to sit by him and distract him to keep him from crying. And carpool is really no fun unless he is asleep before he goes into his car seat.  

He hasn't rolled over yet but shows signs of wanting to move when he's lying on the bed or the floor. 

We just love our little guy and it's a pleasure getting to know him more and more each day. 

Halloween

Halloween was a lot different this year for us than in years past. Being in a new place, we really didn't know of all the "happenings" going on.  So where as in Starkville, we would have gone to 10 events before Halloween night ever arrived, here in Auburn, we just made it out to trick or treating on campus and downtown on Halloween night, which was kind of a nice change of pace.  The kids collected more candy than we will eat in a year and got to dress up and that's a wrap on Halloween 2016!     

Friends come to visit

Auburn is great and we are all adjusting well to school, work, and church but the biggest thing we are all missing is our friends!  Well, lucky for us, we have amazing friends who drove all the way here to Auburn to visit us.  The Andersons came and spent all day Saturday with us. We showed them our favorite park, ate lunch at Tacoritas, walked campus, caught part of an Auburn baseball scrimmage, and then ended with dinner at Niffer's Place.  It was a fun filled day but the best part was having our friends here to share in the fun! 

 

   

2 months

 

Jacob went for a checkup this month and got lots of shots! Poor buddy!  He handled it pretty well though. He cried upon receiving the shots but quickly got over it and did not have any side effects thankfully. He's really getting bigger and changing so much every day. 

Adventures in Auburn

The day finally came for our family to pack up and move to Auburn.  The movers came and packed us up in a flash of 2 days.  Then on the night before we left town, all of our neighbors came over for an impromptu get together.  It was spontaneous, fun, and such the perfect way to end our time in Starkville.  

The actual drive to Auburn was really slow and a little hard because of the young baby. It was this day that we learned that our newest little guy does NOT love his car seat! It took us roughly 6 1/2 hours to make the trip. But we did it! 

 

We arrived on Saturday and camped out in our new house until the movers arrived on Monday with our things.  It's funny because this all occurred less than 2 months ago, but it's already such a foggy memory...I think we were maybe a little more stressed than I felt at the time. After all, we did have a 5 week old baby and just moved our family of 6 to a new town where we knew no one! But st the same time it was stressful it was also super fun and adventurous. 

The first few weeks in Auburn started off really fun and exciting! Dan did not start work until October 3rd so we had a couple of weeks to get adjusted to life in our new town and our new place.  The kids started their new school on Wednesday of our first week. 

 

We were all thrilled with their new schools! 

We also visited the park a couple of times and even got Will started playing lacrosse. Ha! We don't waste anytime! 

  

And the boys even went to an Auburn football game. 

 

 

June started school at St. Michael's on the sane day Dan started work at Auburn University.   

 

And just like that, the Whatleys were now residents of Auburn and taking it by storm. 

Gigi's visit

Gigi came to stay with us for a week after the baby was born and Dan was back at work. It was such a great week and Gigi was such a HUGE help! She cooked delicious dinners each night.  We all enjoyed the meals but June especially did! She ate better and enjoyed food more that week than she ever has in her life.  Gigi also ran carpool, made afternoon snacks for the kids(and me 😊), and even introduced the kids to cassette tapes when they listened to Lost On The Mountain in Maine every night before bedtime. It was truly wonderful having her spend the week with us and it certainly helped with our transition to kid number 4! 

Goodbye Starkville

Dan had his last week of work at Mississippi State on the week of Labor Day. The wonderful people he worked with coordinated a really nice lunch and invited me, the little kiddies, and Gigi(who was there with us helping out that week) to come. It was such a sweet day and I know Dan felt so loved and appreciated. It was a tough decision to leave this job where not only did he love the people he worked with but he also has such a love for State.  A few tears were shed...but I'm not naming names. ;) 

The weekend before we loaded up and left town, our friend, Alison Buehler, organized a going away party for our Starkville friends. Alison was one of the first friends I met in Starkville and has always been so wonderful and special to our family. 

It was such fun to see everyone and let most of them meet Jacob for the first time but also really sad to say goodbye. It was the saddest and yet most heartwarming party.  I will always LOVE each and every one of these people. 

 

True blue mommy friends are hard to come by and I feel fortunate to have met many while living in Starkville. Mandi and Carmen are two of those moms that have been there since my early parenthood days with little bitty toddlers and days spent at the park and the sacred ladies' nights out.  They really are a huge part of this chapter in my life and I am thankful for their friendship. 

 

1 Month

2 Weeks Old

Nonnie to the Rescue

Nonnie came back to stay with us for a week after Dan had to return to work.  It was FABULOUS having her with us as she helped with carpool and all the other busyness that is caring for our kiddos. 

1 Week Old

Our Hospital Stay

We stayed in the hospital for 2 days after Jacob was born. 

Gigi and Jabo arrived on Friday night and got to meet their newest grandchild. 

And on Saturday, Katie and Patrick and family made a day trip to come and meet Jacob.  It really meant so much to us to have them make such a long trip just for the day! 

 Our family of 6!!!!!

We were discharged on Sunday afternoon.  Jacob was slightly jaundiced but at his follow up appointment at 5 days, he had already past his birth weight and was no longer jaundiced. Yay!

All the extended family headed home and we started to adjust to the new normal...at least our temporary normal.  ;)

Welcome to the world, Jacob Todd

From the very beginning of Jacob's sweet little life, he has come into a crazy, busy world of go, go, go! We found out we were expecting him just a few weeks before our long planned Disney trip over Christmas break. So, he got to enjoy his first trip to Disney from the comfort of the womb and I got to enjoy Disney 6 weeks pregnant. 😝

After that, we had two baseball seasons, an all star summer season, and oh yeah...we decided to move.  The move was going to happen either before his arrival or after depending on how quickly we could get things set with Auburn.  After lots of not knowing and plans up in the air, we finally figured out that we would move in September for Dan to start work in October.  And this ended up being the most perfect plan, but I'll get to that later.

Let's get back to the day that Jacob entered this world. 

I went in for my 39 week checkup with Dr. Fyke and all things looked to good but holding steady.  We talked about plans for my 40 week appointment and the possibility of going past due date.  We were on a pretty tight schedule with the move pending so I was a little stressed leaving the appointment knowing that it could be more than another week before we met our baby.  But, at the same time I was also convicted in waiting until he or she was ready to make his or her debut(we still didn't know if we were having a boy or girl st this point.). 

So I went home to a business as usual evening. Funnily enough I had 3 friends text me that evening asking how things were going and checking to see if there were any signs of impending baby arrival. I said "no" of course and joked about going two weeks late or having the moving truck here while I was still in the hospital.  

We went to bed and I was having some very, very mild contractions that I attributed to the doctor appointment and drifted off to sleep around 10:30.  Dan jokingly said to make sure I woke him when I was in labor because he had picked August 12th as his birthday guess and just knew he was going to be right.  I chuckled and said "wishful thinking." Around 12:15, I woke up to some stronger contractions but again I wrote it off as nothing, and tried everything I could to get them to stop.  I couldn't go back to sleep and they continued intensifying as I watched the wedding episode of The Office on Netflix. I decided to wake up Dan around 1:00 to see if he had any ideas.  He started by saying "Again! You waited to wake me up again?!" Apparently I have a track record of this from my pregnancy with June. So we timed contractions and Dan became more and more sure that I was in true labor but I still had my doubts.  4th baby and I still couldn't tell when I was in labor...crazy! Dan finally convinced me to call my mom since she was our "plan" for our other kids.  Mom got on the road between 2 and 2:30, which would put her in Starkville around 4:15 or so.  Dan then started scheming who we could call to sit with the sleeping children until then, because we were going to the hospital. I said, "let's just wait a little while to see if mom can get here in time." He then went on to say he had no intentions of delivering our baby at home and called our wonderful neighbor, Kelli.  I felt so bad for calling her at 2:30 in the morning but she was nothing but happy to help and hurried right over.  We left for the hospital around 2:45 and I had 1 contraction in the carport, 1 in the 5 car ride to the hospital, and then 1 in the parking lot of the emergency room. I think it was at this point that I became convinced that I was in labor and wasn't going to be sent back home.  We got checked in quickly and whisked up to l&d.  

The sweet nurse who met us there asked "and what do we have going on tonight?"  I looked at her and said "pretty sure I'm in labor." She checked and sure enough I was about 4-5 cm along and so we got all set up.  Labor was progressing soooo quickly and was getting stronger by the minute. I texted my doctor on our way in, but I figured she wouldn't get it until the morning.  But, lucky enough for us, she was on call so she would be headed our way soon anyway! Yay!! My water still had not broken and I had some really rough back labor going on.  Dan was so encouraging and told me how tough I was but all the while I was wondering if it was too late for an epidural and deciding that I didn't want to do this while natural thing again.  Ha! Dan in his nicest way said "I respect your decision no matter what you do, but I'm almost certain we've missed the epidural boat.  We are about to have a baby!" The nurse came and checked me again and said I was about "8 or so" and she was going to check to make sure Dr. Fyke was already driving our way.  Dan says that he could tell by the look on her face that I was probably more than 8 and she was getting a little worried that the doctor wasn't there yet.  

Dr. Fyke walked in, asked if I wanted my water broken and I said yes because my back was hurting sooo bad.  She broke my water and I immediately started to say that I needed to push because the baby was coming.  Everyone was a little frantic trying to get everything ready for birth and the nurse was practically holding the baby in.  On the next contraction, I had to push and out came baby's head into the nurse's hands.  Dr. Fyke came over and delivered the rest of the baby and Dan proclaimed that he was a boy! Here he was at 4:19 am on August 12th!  I was so shocked at all of it!  How quickly labor had gone...that he was a boy...that it was over! He was a perfect 7 lb 2 oz and 19.25 inches long and looked just like every other one of our kids.  We named him Jacob Todd and were immediately in love with our newest addition. He started nursing almost right away and was just absolutely perfect! 

Oh and my mom arrived into town at 4:22 so Dan was right. He would have more certainly delivered our baby in the bathtub if we would have waited. 😉