Jack's First Pictures

Jack Thomas Nelson was born on November 26th, 2009. He gave us a lot to be thankful for, being born on Thanksgiving. I was still over 3 weeks away from my due date, but after 2 days of contractions, I finally woke Derek up about 4 AM on Thanksgiving morning and told him we needed to go to the hospital. Jack's labor was very different from Cooper's. It was painful, but didn't come on as a fast. When we got to the elevators in the hospital, I almost turned around and came home. I didn't want to be sent home. Because we were already there, we decided to head up to Labor and Delivery. When they checked me, she immediately said "you are going to have your baby today, and soon!" Had we gone home, my water would have broken within the hour. My labor continued without much of a hitch and Jack was born at 9:15 AM, just as the Thanksgiving Day Parade was starting. I doubt I will ever watch that parade again and not think about the day I was blessed with my sweet baby. Jack did however, have a few problems after he was born. They allowed me to hold him for a minute, but then had to rush him to the NICU. We then had another reason to be thankful because he only had to stay there for a few hours. Because he came so early, he had a difficult time breathing at first. My hospital stay went well. The nurses and staff were all wonderful. I was even lucky enough to have the same nurses both days I was there. The only sad part of the experience was having to introduce Jack to his big brother through the window of my room. Derek and Cooper stood outside while I held Jack up to the window. I think I will always feel like a small part of the experience was taken away from me because Cooper wasn't allowed in the hospital. I was able to visit Cooper in the lobby and couldn't help but just cry as soon as I hugged him. He is am amazing big brother to Jack. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and 2 incredible little boys. I really don't know what I did to deserve such a wonderful family. Jack is now 3 months old and I'll post more pictures, but I've been terrible at writing about his arrival. Thanks to everyone who has been so helpful and supportive as I have tried to figure out how to handle 2 kids. So far so good!