What can I say about the last few weeks that will do either part justice??? Life is such a precious, beautiful thing that is SO amazing to witness for the first time!! It's so comforting to have the ones you love most around you to partake in that joy and share the memory of it also... And death is such a sudden goodbye to everything that was brought to life. When that part of life is gone you feel, at least momentarily, lost, alone, and grief stricken. Yearning for that part of life to share with you again.
On January 3, 2012 we were SOOOOO blessed to have the life of our baby boy given to us!! ...What a blessing after 13 hours of grueling labor!! Six of them stuck, dilated to a 9. Feeling pain, but not your normal labor pain. I was grateful to have the help of Justin, who I KNOW was freaking out just a little ;), for Wendy and Marleigh who were in it for the long haul, for my mom who dropped everything to massage my belly to try to encourage our stubborn baby to come see us, and for all the friends and family who came in and out of the room to wish good luck and visit only to listen to me cry, probably scream, and puke!! :(
The Pitocin definitely got the labor going and before you knew it I was at 4 and got an epidural. Within the next hour I had dilated to a 7. Once I was at the 7 I felt relieved knowing that within another hour or two my brand new baby who I was soooooo excited to meet and finally find out what it was, would be here!! But being a STUBBORN baby, it decided it might be funny to scare everyone by letting it's heart rate start to drop during contractions, SOOOO off came the Pit and the contractions came to a SCREECHING halt!! I had at least by then dilated to a 9... While I was "stuck" I asked my dad to give me a blessing. So he, Joe, and Kenny gave me a wonderful blessing that basically told me that the baby was healthy and would be here in "due time" (stubborn baby!!!) After all was said and done I finally delivered J.T. Arnold at 8:04 p.m. January 3rd. He weighed 7 lb 8 oz and was 19 in long. AND just so happens to be one of the prettiest babies ever!!! And even tho Marleigh was standing in the hall crossing every finger saying "Please be a girl! Please be a girl!" over and over and over, when Justin brought him out to the huge crowd in the hall and uncovered his head to show the blue beanie, everyone (including Mar) was VERY excited to meet him!!
So on with the story right ???... Thank you EVERYONE who came to visit over the next couple of days! Grandma Taylor had nicknamed him "slowpoke" and would cry every time she'd come by because Grandpa was kidnapping her to Quartzsite, AZ to spend the rest of winter. Grandpa also held J.T. and we saw right way that heaven had taken so long because they had forgot to pack his "angry eyes" and he was going to need them so we could have them around when Grandpa was gone. We got home and Grandma and Grandpa came up to say her goodbyes. They got to see him a total of 3 days before they left us missing them in Utah. I sent text messages with pictures of Baby J so they could know what they were missing out on and let them know how stinking cute he was!!
On January 20th at 1:00 a.m. my oldest brother Cory called to let me know my dad was gone... I didn't then and still don't know if I now have wrapped my head around life without my dad. I kept thinking that I just needed to pick up my phone and call him. I just needed a quick chat! All he needed to do was tell me what his plan was and he'd be fine and I'd see him in "due time"... That's all I needed. Anyhow... It's still not easy for me to think of him REALLY as being gone. I breakdown when I think that my little J.T. won't get to see and know Grandpa the way that Alex, Weston, and Marleigh did. He won't get to see his sweet, gentle side when he chose or the gruff, and grumpy side either! Both of which I can say I honestly loved!! And then Justin's sister said something to me one night while she was here visiting and it all made sense... Heaven said OK we'll give you one, but we've got to take home another! It was just an exchange. ;) If they we're losing J.T. they were going to need Grandpa back to fill his shoes in heaven .............At least that's how I am and will view it.
So in exchange for a beautiful gift of life, I experienced the heartbreaking call of death also... I am sooooooo thankful for my WONDERFUL husband, who was there for every tear of both the good and bad and for my AMAZING children, who have so much strength in their souls. I couldn't have done it without either of them.
When I looked back over the texts that my dad, mom and I sent each other over the 2 weeks they were gone I couldn't help but notice that the last text sent between my dad and I was going to mean more to me than anything I could have imagined because the words rang so true... Here's a pic of the text.
You WERE a great grandpa Dad!! We LOVE the new baby and can't wait to get to know him, but we are going to miss you too!!! XOXOOOXX
Here's some pics to enjoy... BABY J OVERLOAD!!! And more to come ;) All the pictures were rotated the right way when I uploaded them but blogspot is flipping them... >:(
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| Daddy and Baby's first nap together |
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| Justin bought me flowers when we got home from the hospital. They used burp rags as part of the decoration. SOOOO CUTE!! |
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| J.T. and Grandma Janet |
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| Auntie KaeCee, Uncle Joey and Daddy hovering over Baby J |
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| First Tubby Time... He LOVED it!! |
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| But HATES towel time!! |
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| 2 days of baby laundry |
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| Nap time again |
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| Hims "Angry Eyes" |
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| Big Brother love him |
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| Mad Cow??? |
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| We're pretty sure he's talking to the angles... AKA Grandpa |
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Auntie KaeCee is awesome!! :) ...so are the rest BUT she bought the shirt ;)
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| Snugglebum |
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| Gramma Leen |
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| Pops... |
