Tayton Bryant

Warning: LOADS of pictures ahead.
So I finally went into labor on my own. Third times the charm so they say. :O) I am so greatful to have gone into labor on my own, it was a much nicer experience all together, however the two weeks on intense contractions were not the funnest but they were still better then induction contractions.

Anyway heres the story: Wednesday night Noah has a ball game so I made sure I walked all around with the boys, I was just at 37 weeks and figured I better really work on getting him out now. I was having contractions for a few weeks so I figured there was no harm in trying to help them along. Tuesday at my doctors appointment she told me I was a good 3 and very soft and that really it could be anyday, so I knew something might happen. All night Wed. night I could not sleep I was so uncomfortable. All morning on Thursday I felt sick to my stomach and had been throwing up most the morning, by the time Noah left for work on Thursday I was really uncomfortable, but having never gone into labor on my own I had no idea thats what was happening. When I woke up from nap around 4 I was feeling a lot of pressure and tightness. About 30 minutes later I started bleeding and freaked out a bit and called the doctor who said all was fine and to just relax and if I was still bleeding the next day to call back. I called Noah to see if he could come home early because I felt really bad. He got home around 5 and by then I was moving around just to try to relieve some of the pressure. We ate dinner (or they did, I was nausuas and not hungery) and then we decided to go on a walk. I about died, I was huffing and puffing and in so much pain. When we got home I called the doctor back (labor and delivery this time) and when I told them about the pain and bleeding they told me to come in immediately. We loaded up the boys and took them to our wonderful friends The Stewarts house and in my mind I was so hoping this was it but I figured it probably was not just because I had never gone on my own.


We get to the hospital and they take one look at my face walking in the door and said "Thats the look, she has the face of a woman in labor." (seriously I look that much in pain?) So they hook me up and come in about 30 minutes later and say "You said you thought you were having contractions?" I said "Yeah they are pretty intense, alot of pressure so I think thats them, nothing like induction contractions but Im pretty sure they are contractions." The sweet nurse Angie looks at me and says "We are not picking up any on the monitor." I thought I was going to cry....seriously, and right then I felt another one coming and told her as much so she felt me belly and sure enough was shoked that I was having one because it still was not on the monitor. She moved the monitor around and after 10 minutes came back and said "Yep you have 3 in the last 10 minutes." She then checked me and said "Your a 5 we are having a baby." YEAH!!!!

Then we talked about pain managment. I decided its a first time for everything so Im going natural. The doc Dr. Torres comes in and tells me my water is bulging and that it will go faster if they break it, I tell her to go for it and instantly go to a 6 almost 7. All well and good and Im making it through the pain (as they said like a champ) by walking around and watching tv while bouncing on a ball until after 3 hours (about midnight) all contractions stop. Really???? So then I get the option of an epidural to try and get some sleep and see if that helps me progress. I did not want one (its my least favorite part of labor and by this point Im not having contractions so really no pain) but after Noahs coxing I finally get one. It took them an hour and a half to get the dang thing in. After 4 tries they finally get it in and I start shaking uncontrollably and so obviously get no sleep, the nurse checks me and Im at an 8. After about 3 hours so roughly 4:30 am (still no sleep) the nurse comes into check me again and Im still at an 8 and no progress for Tayton moving lower either. I look at Noah and through my massively chattering teeth and tears tell him how discouraged I am and how tired I am. Right then we loss Tayton on the monitors and so Angie is trying to get him back on the monitor, another nurse comes in to help and after about 5 minutes (4:35) they tell me they are going to have to hook him up to the internal monitor. They go to put hook it up and tell me to not move because "OMG his head is literally right here, he has black hair too. Dont breath or move we need to get the doctor." So in 5 minutes I go from that 8 to a 10 and he is here waiting. I kept telling her while she was trying to fix the monitor that something felt different.... so I guess I was right.

So Dr. Torres comes in and laughs because he is so close to coming out. She tells me to push and I give her my Landon and Braddoc push and she yells "STOP, not so hard, I should have known you are a pro at this, I just need to to like cough because his head is almost out." Seriously? NO pushing at all? So I cough about twice and out he comes. HOLY COW!!!!! so thats what all those woman talk about when they say they did not have to push, I never thought I would be one of them but I guess I was wrong.

So needless to say it went fast once it happened. :O) My discouragement quickly faded to pure joy (it lasted only 5 minutes before I was told he was on his way) and the joy has yet to stop.

Here I am 37 weeks on the dot getting ready to get checked out to see if its the real deal.Tayton Bryant Jenkins
6 pounds 8.4 ounces
20 inches
6/11/10
4:47 amThe rest are in no particular order.
My sweet little angel. He is such a good baby. He hardly makes a peep (he however is an occasionally noisy sleeper)
All my babies with their hats that their adopted Grandma Waite made them (she is my Visting Teacher and they love her)
What a sweet angel!!!

First simi real bath. :O)
Braddocs kisses look more like bites.... but Im glad he loves his baby brother so much. (look at my face, I look horrid.)
They both want to hold him all the time and fight over who gets to hold him first. I am glad they love him so much. They are both being such big helpers and great big brothers.
His coming home from the hospital outfit. The shorts literally fell off, he is so tiny.
My super cheesie boy!!!

First time holding Tayton!
First time holding his baby, and being introduced as a big brother. It was a big day for Braddoc.

Just a few hours after he was born.
First kiss!!!

Tayton is now 6 pounds 5 ounces. Poor guy has acid reflux and cant keep anything down, but he is such a good sport and does not cry at all, even when I have to change him 10 times a day because he spits up all over. He sleeps for 4 hour stretchs except at night when I have to wake him after 6 hours. About 10-4. One night he went down at 9 and I woke up at 5 thinking oh my gosh I need to feed him and he was still sound asleep. I am so happy and feel so lucky to have three amazing sons. Life is good!!!

I will post later about how we got the name Tayton Bryant because of course there is a story behind all our kids names. :O)

Belly pictures!!!

So here are the long awaited belly pictures. :O) Well for those of you who have stuck with me during my blogging slump. Noah has been virtually none existant this whole pregnancy because they have been working him like crazy at work and then when he gets home he has hours of homework so life has been insane lately and I barely have time to get on the computer to check email.
The baby is good and the pregnancy itself has been great my kidneys have been giving me some major problems and I find myself spending at least a day a month in the hospital first the ER then Labor and delivery. Anyway I am hoping that sometime in the next few days I can get on here and update our life. :O)

Anyway for some reason the pictures are loading weird and wont let me move them to the right order or even see them for that matter. So the first picture is just of me and my sweet sleepy babies. Then its the most recent belly picture taken about a week ago monday and then the next was taken on March 5th and then Im not sure the dates but the very last picture was taken about 16 weeks I think and Im 28 as of tommorow so you do the math. :O) Anyway hope you enjoy, sorry its taken me so long to post anything. :O)

Surprise!!!!!!!!!!!

We are expecting baby #3 July 1st 2010 and......



It wont let me upload the pictures from the ultrasound right now but when I cant I will post some pictures of him.

We knew right away as soon as she started scanning over the baby that it was a boy. We were SOOOOO sure it was a girl that we both looked at each other, laughed and said. "did you just see what I saw?" (one of those jinx type moments) Yep sure enough there is something extra between the legs. :O) No denying he is a boy, he wanted to make us very certain that he was NOT a girl as we were so sure he was but that he was our baby boy.

We are very thrilled, it took a bit to get over the shock since this pregnancy has been night and day from what Landon and Braddoc were (who were both identical in pregnancy) and my cravings were so different, I am barely sick at all, just really tired and we had a girls name all picked out and ready to go, we have never had a girls name before so this was a first for us. We are now frantically trying to come up with a boys name, for those of you who know me really well, you know that this is a source of major stress for me, I dont want to name my baby something different then what there name should be so I have been a little stressed about this. :O)

I have wanted to do a pirates room for the boys for a long time but we have so much vintage sports stuff that Ihave never felt like I should spend money to redo their rooms. Now I think we will put the baby with Landon combine up all the sports stuff into there room and give Braddoc a pirate room (which will be the babies as soon as Braddoc turns 3 and I put him in with Landon) Landon has also been begging for bunk beds so I think we can finally go buy a bunk bed, there are some really cool ones out there so I have been enjoying looking for one.

I watch my boys and feel this overwhelming love for them , I am so excited to have yet another future priesthood holder be born into my home, I feel truly blessed that Heavenly Father trusts me enjoy to bless me with a few of his precious sons, looking at them and watching them grow helps me better understand the sacrafice that our father in heaven went through when he sent his son to earth knowing that he would suffer pain beyond any of our comprehension and death beyond anything we could ever imagine. I can not begin to explain the overwhelming since of importance that I feel being a mother to boys, trying to prepare them to be husbands and fathers and priesthood holders. I feel so blessed to be able to bring another righteous spirit into my home and I hope that one day heavenly father will bless me with a daughter but if thats not in the plan for me I will rejoyce in having amazing loving sons who will bless me with wonderful daugher in laws.

Warning LOTS And LOTS of Braddoc ahead!!!

So as far as bad mom bloggers go I feel like the worst at the moment. I woke up at 4 this morning and could not stop thinking about how much I loved my family and how I could not imagine life with out them. I thought about the little things that made me love each of them and how different my sweet sleeping angel boys were. When I started thinking about Braddoc I realized that I have not postedd many pictures or things about him in a LONG time and so I figured my goal for today would be to post about him and why we love him so much

* He loves to dance and anytime any kind of music or rythm (such as Landon jumping on the bed) comes on or he hears it he immediately goes into jamming mode. Arms up, bouncing up and down lips pursed in a kissing mode. It does not matter where we are or what it is the rythm always takes him over.

* He idolizes his big brother, he thinks that every thing he does is sooooo cool and will just watch him for hours he always says "Woooooowwww" of "Whhhooooaaaa" when Landon does anything.

* He can now walk after 17 months he is finally walking and he is an old pro at it.

* He is a perfectionist, he does not like to do something till he has perfected it. He will sit forever trying to figure something out and is so patient when it comes to learning he does not get frustrated quickly like Landon does, he will take his time until he has perfected it or figured it out.

*When he really wants love he will either lay his head on your lap or on some piece of furniture or lay down on the floor and be so quiet, he will do this for a few seconds and then look up to see if you are watching and if you are he will do it again until you give him love.

*He loves to do something over and over again once he has learned it. Like going up and down the stairs once he mastered it (two times of trying) he started to go up and come back down over and over for about an hour.

* He does not like messes if he spills his snacks he will sit and maticulously put them all back in his bowl, sticking his tongue out the whole time in consentration. Its very precious to watch.

*He loves baths and LOVES bubbles.

* If he is trying to be silly or is throwing a pretend fit to get your attention he will look straight at you but then move his eyes till he is looking out the corners of them and then get this sly grin and if its a fit then he will do it look back at you and do it again with this fake pout.

*He LOVES to eat and is the last one at the table, he always finishes off Landons left overs (because Landon likes to share) and then as soon as he gets down he is under the table looking for more.

* We found out he is allergic to milk and he has been very good about not getting jealous of what Landon can have and what he cant.

* He loves to play in the toliet and put whole rolls of toliet paper in there and on one very lovely occassion he figured out how to flush is down the toliet along with a bunch of Landons poo, yes that was lovely to stick my hand in and try to pull out so the toliet would not be backed up.... and he always thinks its the greatest to play in the toliets Landon has not flushed..... oh Braddoc why must you do such naughty things. :O)

* He is not a dare devil, he waits to have something down before he tries but once he learns to climb something he is climbing everything. He likes to move the stool around the house and climb on it to reach things and pull food off the counter because obviously my millions of meals and snacks are not enough.

* He loves to talk and will jabber constantly. He will also look at you very seriously point his finger up and tell you something very seriously then nod his head and say "Ahhhh?" He has said many words perfectly like: Juice, Sleep, More, Eat, Snack, bad boy, Play, Go, Milk, binkie, and Sorry, but then has NEVER EVER said them again. The only words we get on a constant basis are: Mommy, Aurie, Landi, Braddy (braddoc), baby, Hi, bye, yeah, and Occasionally Daddy (noah is usually mommy and I am Aurie).

He idolizes his big brother
He loves to rearrange the pantry, its funny to see where he moves things too.
Oh Landon you are soooo cool.

Mom listen to me!!!!!

He LOVES Corn and will bring me cans of corn to eat.

When Landons not around and he can just lounge watch a Baby Einstein and drink juice he is in heaven.

He loves to entertain. When he was first learning to walk he would walk a few steps and then purposely throw himself flat on the floor and lay down and then see if you were watching, standing up take a few more steps and do it again, laughing the whole time.

He loves to be mobile and to run away from you as fast as he can.

Sometimes he loves to cuddle and so at least two or three times a day he will come to cuddle and will cuddle for a long time giving lots of hugs and kisses and just lay on your shoulder but when he is done he is done and you better let him move on to his next "mission".

He LOVES pasta of any kind. He does not like to leave any noodle untouched. I know if I am making pasta to make a ton for left overs because he will eat them like crazy.

He pointing and telling us about something very important im sure.

Dancing and getting down with his dad, Im sure you can see exactly where he gets his moves from.

Just hanging out with the brother. Like how each one has a sock, he will find random socks and bring them to us to put on him.

My handsome loving boys before church. Braddoc loves to give hugs to everyone especially Landon and babies.

He loves to hide in the cabinets, under bins, behind doors anywhere he thinks is funny.

Learning how to work out at a very young age. He is so much more a daddies boy then Landon every was.

Again Landon is just super cool.

He loves trains just as much as his big brother.

He loves to play dress up and always has something crazy and silly on. The front of his shirt is soaking wet because he loves to drink from big boy cups and then when he is done slip it so he can play in it.

Always happy and smiling with those big beautiful eyes.

Discovering a new toy....not mommies favorite might I add.

This one is one in a million and we are so blessed to have him in out life. He was at kind of a developmental road block so to speak until Noah got home when he is 14 months and in the last 3 months he has grown so fast, learning to talk, walk, crawl, run, climb, eat on his own, explore and become such an amazing child with this huge personality. I am so blessed to have such an amazing child and am greatful every day that my Father in Heaven has intrusted me with such an amazing spirit.

May we all remember the true spirit of christmas!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

I cried when I read this. I think its pretty amazing and would love to start this kind of tradition in our house as well.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

THE SIMPLE WHITE ENVELOPE

It's just a small white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas --oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it -- the overspending, the
frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma --the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't
think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties, and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The
inspiration came in an unusual way. Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended.

Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against another team
sponsored by an inner-city church.

These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and
sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without
headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford.

Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn't
acknowledge defeat.

Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, "I wish just one of them could have won," he said. "They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them." Mike loved kids -- all kids -- and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball, and lacrosse.

That's when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree,the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition
--one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on. The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas . It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning, and
our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.

As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn't end there. You see, we lost
Mike last year due to cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning it was joined by three more. Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the
tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing
around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope.

Mike's spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us.