Letter to Jayne

Dear Jayne,

Yesterday you turned 3 weeks old! I can’t believe it’s already been 3 weeks since you came to our family. It has gone by fast, but it also feels like you have been here for forever! Your dad and I can’t imagine life without you! You make us so happy! We never can seem to kiss you enough. We love you so much! Your dad and I smile at every noise you make. You sneeze lots, and it is the cutest! It’s usually 3 tiny sneezes in a row. You love to smile in your sleep. Who knows what you’re dreaming about… But it must be good! We love just holding you and looking at you. Your dad is so sweet with you. It is my favorite thing to see you and him together. I love talking to you. You love when people give you attention. You are already a social butterfly! I love saying "Mommy loves you sweetheart!" to you, because I love to call me your mom. It makes me so happy! I just love taking care of you. I love feeding you (you are the cutest when you eat!), watching you sleep, cuddling with you, and just being with a sweet little girl all day. It's crazy thinking that you were in heaven just a few weeks ago. You bring such a sweet spirit into our home. It feels different now that you're here. Our home seems more perfect and peaceful. I love that you bring that feeling into our home. Your dad and I love your long fingers! Everyone comments on your "piano player hands". I'm sure you'll be a piano player one day, because your daddy will definitely teach you to play!  
 I love dressing you in all your cute outfits! This watermelon onesie is adorable on you. I can't wait for more clothes to fit you... You are still so tiny! Even the newborn stuff is kinda baggy on you. You are just a skinny little girl :)

 I love when daddy is watching you while I'm getting ready or doing the dishes, and I come in and find you both asleep. It is the cutest.

 I love seeing other people hold you (except sometimes it's hard for me to let someone haha) and watch you socialize with people. You love to look at people and try and talk back to them!

 I love your cinnamon roll belly button!!

 I love your profile. You are such a beautiful girl :) You have the cutest little nose and lips. Daddy says you have momm's ears and lips.

 I love watching you during tummy time. You love being on your tummy!

 I love watching you suck on your pacifier. You are pretty good at keeping it in! Sometimes you even hold it in with your hands. It is adorable!

 I love all the faces you make! you love to scrunch your forehead. Silly girl

 I love when you smile in your sleep :)

 I love all the positions you sleep in! It always makes us laugh.

 I love this huge bow on your head. Haha it's awesome.

 I love these pj's on you. You look like a burrito!

I love when I tickle your feet and it makes you point your toes. You are gunna be a dancer like mommy :)

Your daddy and I love you so much Jayne! We have loved you since we knew you were coming into our family, but we didn't even know we would love you this much. You are our world. We can't wait to watch you grow up, but we are also wishing you could stay little for forever! We love you sweetheart!

Love,
Mom

Jayne's First Bath!

About a week ago, Jayne's umbilical cord came off, so we could finally give her a bath! She (mostly) loved it! She was pretty chill the whole time. She cried only for a second. We are seriously obsessed with this little girl... She is the cutest!   

 She cracks us up with her faces she makes and how she always has her hands in such funny positions by her face! 

 Her DIMPLES!!! Love love love love.... 

 I just want to kiss her all day!  

Thomas took this picture last week. It's nice having a husband who is learning about photography and who has a super nice camera :) 

We just love our little Jayne-y girl. She is such a good baby. We have had some rough nights recently because she decided she likes to be wide awake in the night haha. But overall she has been a good little sleeper. We love being parents :) 

I'm a Mom??!!

Sometimes I look at Jayne and just freak out (in a good way!) that I'm her mom. It gets me so excited! I am obsessed with our little girl. To me, she is everything, and is the most beautiful girl! Thomas and I are loving getting to know her. Every little noise she makes or a cute face she does, we are loving it all. Being a mom is even better than I thought it would be. I have more energy than I thought (thank you Jayne for being a good sleeper! please keep it up... haha), and I love just cuddling with her and spending time with her. Feeding is going great. She is a good little eater! It was a little struggle at first getting her to latch on correctly, but we figured it out and it has been great since.

 Thomas was trying to changer her diaper... but I don't think he even finished... the nurse took over haha 

 Thomas is the best dad. He loves to hold Jayne. Seeing them together melts my heart... I love these two more than anything! 

 Sometimes she sucks her thumb in interesting ways... haha

 Her hands are pretty much always by her face

She's getting pretty good at sucking on her paci! 

Thomas and I put together this video of Jayne :) 

Jayne's Birth Story

Jayne Manning

Born on July 30, 2013

12:03 AM

7 lbs. 5 oz.

20 in. 

Here is the long story of how our sweet girl, Jayne, came into the world :)

Let's start with Sunday night... July 28th.

It was pretty much exactly 11 pm when I started feeling contractions. They weren't consistantly a certain time apart from each other, it varied from like 10 minutes or less apart, but they were consistantly coming. I tried to go to sleep, but I knew there was no way I would be getting sleep that night. I tried not to wake up Thomas and tell him, but I was too excited haha. They weren't very painful, but I knew they would start getting painful pretty soon. I stayed up on facebook and read my book. I did try to sleep, but yeah by then they were starting to be too painful to try and sleep though. They were definitely still bareable though. Around 5 or 6 Monday morning, Thomas and I were talking about whether he should go to work that day. I wasn't sure how long of a day it would be... The contractions weren't super painful (yet), but were getting closer together. We decided it would be better if he stayed home. I wanted him with me through these contractions! I definitely needed him. We went on a walk at like 6 around the neighborhood to maybe help things progress more. We came home and watched The Office, then I was going crazy laying in bed while these contractions kept coming. I wanted to do something about it! Time needed to go faster! So I told Thomas that I wanted to walk around Target. We got there a little after 9. We walked around for a while until we got bored... then I was hungry so we went to Wendy's and I got chicken nuggets. Haha good stuff. By now the contractions were like 5-10 minutes apart, but I was able to walk and talk through them. I knew it was still early to go to the hospital. I didn't want to go home though, so we went to Walmart. We walked around there for a while, then came home. We started watching The Avenger's while I layed there and tried to rest/get through the contractions. They started getting pretty painful. I had to squeeze Thomas' hand to get through them. (He was amazing through all this by the way... I definitely needed him) They were getting to be around 3 to 5 minutes apart, and I was sick of being home, so we decided it was time to head to the hospital. I kept in mind that I might be turned away... I had no clue... We got to the hospital probably around noon or 1. They took me up to triage, where you wait and they check you to see how the contractions are going, how far dilated you are, etc. The nurse checked me and I was at a 4, so she told me to lay there for a little bit, and then walk around the hospital for an hour. The contractions were definitely getting worse by this point. I was still able to walk through them though. We ate in the cafeteria because we were both so hungry again and I knew if I got admitted this would be the last time I could eat for a while. After walking around for an hour, we headed back up to triage. The contractions were consistantly getting more frequent and intense. I was in quite a bit of pain at this point. The nurse checked me, and told me I was still at a 4!! I was like are you kidding me?? These contractions are doing nothing apparently?? I was devastated. I almost cried. She told me that I was in very early labor and this could go on for days even. She said either I could go home and she could send me with pain pills, or I could wait there a little longer. I said YES I want to wait here longer! I was convinced by now that I needed to stay. These contractions were super painful at this point. I cried through them and felt so helpless pretty much. After laying there for maybe 30 minutes to an hour, the nurse checked me again.... and I was at a 5!! YAY!!! She said I would be admitted and asked if I wanted an epidural right away. I said YES PLEASE! They did blood work and gave me an IV. I was waiting there for forever until finally they took me into the hospital room and gave me the epidural. I was so nervous. I heard it was a huge needle.  (I never saw it actually...) The doctor that put it in was awesome. He reassured me that nothing would go wrong. He told me I would feel some pressure. I was like umm... what pressure?? It didn't even hurt! When they put the IV in it hurt way worse! The hard thing though was getting through a contraction while having to sit there so still. Thomas was holding my legs and trying to help me through it. It was so hard. After a couple minutes once the epidural was in, the nurse told me I was having a contraction and asked if I could feel it. I was like seriously?? No way! I couldn't feel it at all. Epidurals are great. They really are. 

Once I got the epidural, Thomas and I just hung out there in the room waiting until I was at a 10 pretty much. Once they put the epidural in I was about at a 6. Thomas and I watched Spiderman. I tried to rest, because I knew it might be a very long night... Who knew how fast I would get to a 10? By around 7 or 8 PM (I wish I knew the time better... I was clueless) they checked me and I was at a 7.5. It took me like an hour or 2 to get to an 8, so they decided to give me a low dose of pitocin to help speed up things up. Oh, and I remember telling the nurse that I felt pressure, and kind of felt like I needed to push, but I guess Jayne was just moving more down because I was only at an 8. After a couple hours, I started feeling pressure again. It felt like my body was trying to push. I waited a while, but then called the nurse to have her check me again. She was like oh wow yep you're at a 10! (Who knew how long I was at a 10?? But it's ok because I wasn't in pain at least) Thomas was asleep by the way, and had been for the last like hour. He woke when he heard the nurse say I was at a 10 and ready to push. Haha it was awesome. He was so excited! We both were. I was scared though, too of course. I didn't know what it would be like! They got me a mirror so I could see Jayne coming out. I am SO glad I asked. It was seriously amazing. For a while it was just me, Thomas, and the nurse in there. Thomas held one leg and the nurse held the other. Thomas counted to 10 while I pushed. We did 3 sets of 10 during each contraction. Sometimes I had to wait though because Jayne's heartrate was a little low. I had an oxygen mask on. I started pushing a little after 11:30. I was starting to get frustrated, because I felt so exhausted and that I was pushing my hardest, but I could see because of the mirror, and I could only see the very top of Jayne's head. I felt like she wasn't even moving at all. After more pushing, I was able to get her head out a little more, and the nurse went to get the doctor. Before I started pushing, the nurse told me that once she got the doctor, it would be about 10 minutes before the baby was out. I was excited, because I knew I was almost done! The doctor came in, and I pushed more, and she told me that I would tear pretty bad if she didn't cut me. Jayne's head was just not gunna fit through there... So she cut me, and then pretty easily after that, Jayne finally entered the world :) Watching her come out was AMAZING. I loved it. They pretty quickly layed her right on my chest. It was love at first sight. Cheesy, but true. I cried just looking at this perfect baby girl. She was so precious! Even covered in yucky stuff, I thought she was beautiful. They let me hold her for a couple minutes and then took her to weigh her and clean her off. The doctor had to sew me up... 

We had an awesome birth photographer, Hillarie Laver, come in right after Jayne was born to take pictures. My parents and Courtney also came pretty quickly after.

We love our little girl so much. She is perfect in every way. Thomas and I are obsessed with the cute little faces she does and the noises she makes. Pictures soon to come!!  

38 Weeks

Welp folks, I'm 38 weeks pregnant! No baby yet. I have a feeling she isn't going to come early haha. Maybe I'm just trying to convince myself that that is true so that if she does come early, then I will be pleasantly surprised. But she will probably come in 2 weeks I'm thinking. Again, we'll see how stubborn she is! 

I had an appointment at the doctor's on Monday... 2 days ago. I had ANOTHER ultrasound. My 7th one! Crazy, I know. They are just curious about her size and development because of the diabetes. Everything looked good though! She is in the 21st percentile and around 6 pounds. I'm totally cool with that. Sounds like a good size baby to me! I would rather not have to push out a 10 pounder... I was a little sad, though, because they didn't check to see if I'm dilated more. But oh well. I bet I'm not even dilated more so it's probably a good thing I didn't get checked or I would have been sad haha. I have learned it doesn't matter how dilated you are though. Someone could be at 6 cm for weeks. Or another person could not be dilated at all and then all of a sudden start having crazy contractions and go from nothing to a 10 fairly quickly. Everyone is different. The other day I found out a lady due a couple days after me had already had her baby. I was so jealous. That was hard to hear! But I quickly got over it. I want a healthy baby, and that means she will come when she is supposed to come. 

I have loved going on my early morning walks. Thomas leaves for work around 6, so I leave right after he does. I walk around the neighborhood for like 45 minutes. It isn't too hot yet, and sometimes it has even been cloudy. It's nice :) I'm trying to walk this baby out of me... Sometimes Thomas and I go on walks at night, too.

We have just been trying to be patient waiting for Jayne to arrive... but it's hard! I didn't know it would be this hard! You know the feeling of the night before Christmas when you can't sleep? It's like that, but waaaay worse. It's mostly hard because we never know when she could be coming! Thomas is so cute- almost every day he will put his head by my belly and talk to Jayne and tell her that she needs to come out already. Yesterday he said to me "By the way, right after Jayne is born, I get to hold her for 1 hour straight." I was like "no way! Maybe I will share for a little bit..." and then he said "You have had time with her in your stomach this whole time so I need to have time with her!" Hahaha I thought it was hilarious and adorable. One of the things I am most excited for is seeing his relationship with her. I think it is precious when a daddy is holding his little girl. 

Each day I try and find new things to do... I am so bored! Also, the A/C broke in my car. $300 later and it's still not fixed... SO FRUSTRATING!!! We are having a guy come fix it tomorrow, so hopefully this time this guy will actually know how to fix it. It's definitely hard being 8 1/2 months pregnant, going to the grocery store, with no A/C. I basically try and stay indoors all day because of it. I'm thinking I'll go to the library later today or tomorrow and get a good book to read to give me something to do. Just trying to help the time go faster...    

Isn't this the cutest outfit?? I LOVE it!! I can't wait to dress up Jayne.  

 I decided to be productive yesterday since I didn't want to leave the house, so I organized our shelves in our bathroom! I threw away tons of stuff, organized it, and put Jayne's bathtub and bath stuff in there :) The top picture is before, and the bottom picture is after. It doesn't look a whole lot different in the pictures, but it is definitely more organized. I love it! 

My friend, Heidi, is awesome and came to my house last night and gave me a pedicure! It was so fun to catch up on things with her since I hadn't talked to her  in forever. And now I have cute toes for the hospital! 

 So on the Manning side there are FOUR of us pregnant! It's so fun! I am due first, then Maria is due 3 weeks after me, Julie is due the end of October, and Andrea is due the beginning of December! Andrea is also having a girl which is exciting :) Maria is having a boy, and Julie doesn't want to find out what she's having. I'm excited to have all these new babies in the family!! 

37 Weeks

I am officially FULL TERM! Woo hoo! That basically means that Jayne wouldn't be considered a preemie if she came now, but it doesn't necessarily mean that she is done "cooking in the oven". I have to remind myself this... Automatically I think "Hey! I'm full term so that means she can come today and be perfectly ok!" While that may be the case for most babies, it might not be for some. I need to remember that she will come when she is ready. Each day she is still in there she is growing and developing. All I want is a healthy baby! (Although I will do all I can to try and get her here sooner... because I'm starting to go crazy, and she will come when she's supposed to anyways... haha)

I had another doctor's appointment this morning. I made a little progress! I'm now 2 cm dilated! Not much... but hey at least it was a tiny bit of progress :) Jayne is still head down and everything looks good. I am excited because I am having ANOTHER ultrasound on Monday! Because of the gestational diabetes they want to check her measurements again. I wasn't expecting this, so I was excited to find that out :) I am curious to see how much she's grown in the last 3 weeks and find out her approximate weight. According to pregnancy apps, she should be 6.5 lbs right now... But last ultrasound she was pretty small for how far along I was. I mentioned to the doctor about getting my membranes stripped next week to help things speed up a little, but she reminded me that because of my diabetes, sometimes the baby's lungs need a little longer to be developed. She said it's probably best for her health to keep her in as long as possible. I just really hope things look good in the ultrasound and maybe she will be ready to come sooner than August 7th... haha but we'll see how stubborn she is!

How far along? 37 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: Gained about 20 pounds
Stretch marks? Not on my stomach! But watch... I probably will get them like a day before I have her ha
Sleep: It's hit or miss... I haven't been sleeping very good the past week. And I usually have to get up and go pee at least one time in the night.
Best moment this week: Probably just organizing the baby's room more and making sure everything is ready for her to come!
Miss Anything? Being able to sit comfortably....
Movement: Of course. But it's slowed down since she is taking up lots of room now. It's now just jabs and rolls instead of kicks. And mostly she is just pushing out... or pushing on my bladder!
Food cravings: I crave everything I can't eat right now... seriously. I want carbs so bad!!!
Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope
Have you started to show yet: Stupid question. Of course. Yet I am proud to say that I am small for being 37 weeks :) (or at least people tell me all the time...) It may partly be because of my body type, but I think mostly it's because of my diet I'm on!
Gender: Girl! And we have had many ultrasounds to make sure
Wedding rings on or off? On! Yay! My fingers haven't swelled up at all. My ankles have a couple times though. But mostly no swelling.
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy! And excited!
Looking forward to: My ultrasound and appointment on Monday! I get to see my sweet girl and hopefully I will be dilated a little more...
Anything Else? I just can't believe the end is so near! It's been an awesome 37 weeks. I am so glad to experience this. I thank Heavenly Father every day that he has blessed me with this baby. Now I just want to hold her!!!!!!

Ok I had to post this because I thought it was the cutest thing... So Thomas came home from work and showed me this. He found this flat piece of stone, and he carved Jayne's name in it with a rock. He said he was thinking about her at work and he just can't wait for her to be here. How adorable is that? He is going to be such a good daddy. He is so sweet and thoughtful.
 

4th of July and Baby Update!

Thomas and I had a pretty chill 4th of July. We didn't have anything specific planned, so we kinda just did whatever we felt like that day. He had work, but he left super early so he could get home by lunch time :) We ate some yummy yummy steak for lunch and went swimming at the Moyer's for a while. I told him that I really wanted to go see fireworks somewhere, because that's just what you have to do for the 4th! Fireworks aren't even that exciting... but I knew I wanted to get out of the house and go somewhere! We decided to go with his parents to the Country Club in Scottsdale on the golf course to watch the fireworks. My mother-in-law grew up watching the fireworks there every year. It was awesome! We had fun going with them. 

The next day we went to my parents cabin in Heber for the weekend! We knew this would be the last weekend I should go anywhere since I'm getting closer to my due date (a week from yesterday!), and plus Heber was having fun 4th of July festivities, so we decided to go! I am so glad we did. The weather was awesome... Saturday night I had a jacket on! It got to the 60s at night. It was great. We had fun playing games, going to the parade, watching the rain and going on walks. My parents were there as well as my brothers Brooks and Preston, as well as Preston's wife and kids. It was a fun little vaca before baby girl comes :) 

The only picture I took from the weekend... Jett is such a cutie!! I love this boy! 

Alright, now for an update on our little bun in the oven! She is doing great! I will be 36 weeks on Wednesday. Today I had an appointment and got checked for the first time to see if I'm dilated. The doctor before she checked me had asked if I had had any contractions or anything, and I told her that I have felt a little bit of pain a couple times, but nothing crazy. Mostly just uncomfortable. She told me not to be surprised if I wasn't dilated at all yet. But, lo and behold, she said "Oh wow Tannis, I can feel her head!" I was like whaaaaat?? You're touching my baby's head right now?? (Ok sorry if this is gross or too personal.... haha) She told me I'm about 1.5 cm dilated and 25% effaced! Now I know that many ladies can be the same for weeks... so I'm not getting my hopes up that this means Jayne could be coming super soon or anything, but any progress is good! My body is definitely starting to get ready to give birth which is a great thing of course. Hopefully she'll be here sooner than later! My next appointment is next Wednesday. I am on weekly appointments now!    

My mom's good friend who lives across the street from her, Louise, gave me this sign for Jayne's room! She gave me the piece of wood and the vinyl lettering (she didn't know the exact color to do), so Thomas and I still had extra spray paint from painting the dresser knobs, so we painted the wood to match the room, put on the letters, and hung it up! I love it!

How cute is this picture?? Uncle Thomas and Jett :) 

Thomas' new baby. Haha but seriously... this is his new camera and camera rig thing. It's a shoulder mount and follow focus for videos. He also got 3 new lenses. He has quite a few videos coming up! Which is good because our bank account isn't too happy right now... haha. But this is a great business investment. He really needed this equipment to make high quality/professional videos. I am so dang proud of my husband. He rocks.