Loving Life With my Two Guys

Mike caught these pictures of Jonathan sleeping the other night. There weren't even posed...he was just sleeping like this on the couch with his daddy.

I have to tell you that Mike has been so great with the little guy. One night earlier this week he sent me to bed and took care of Jonathan all night long so that I could catch up on sleep. It was blissful. He comes home from work and is quick to want to spend time with us and take care of our little man. He has done a great job with him and with taking care of me during this time. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful husband who is also a great daddy.

More Pics of Jonathan David

Aunt Barb and Mommy and I - my cousin Allan took this picture and everyone told him to aim for the baby. Don't Mommy and Aunt Barb look funny with no tops on their heads? :)

Daddy and my cousin Michael and I

Uncle Brian and I

I like to sleep in my car seat.

My cousins and I.

What Else - Of Course - More Pictures of the Little Guy!

Here I am chilling out in my bouncy seat - just trying it out so Mommy could take a picture of me with my eyes wide open.

This is a great picture of me in my swing. I could sleep for hours in it if they would let me. I'm still too little to fit totally, so Mommy swaddles me all up so that I can't move while I'm in it, but I still love it.
Here is our first family photo since I came along. It is kind of fitting that it was in a gymnasium because I think I'll be spending lots of time in gyms over the course of my life.

Another family photo - unfortunately I put my hand up at the last moment so you can't see how handsome I am in this one - but at least you can see that my Mommy and Daddy are totally happy to have me.

Stay tuned for more...they are always taking pictures it seems, so I'm sure you'll see lots more of me in the days to come...

Doing Great!

Well after our first 24 hours at home with the little guy, I have to say he is doing great. He hardly ever fusses. We are so thankful for the sacrifice of love his mother chose when she chose to make an adoption plan. Unfortunately, there are so many out there who would rather choose to do a quick abortion than to give their babies a chance to live. This birthmom knew that she wasn't at a point in life to have another baby and instead of aborting gave us the chance to love this little guy.

I'm sitting on the couch typing this while Mike and Jonathan are sacked out together on the other couch. They looked so cute. Of course, he opened his eyes just as I took the picture. The more I see them together, the more thankful I am. He is an awesome dad already (and I totally knew he would be).

He's Home!

Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us. As of this evening, our little guy is home. He is doing very well. Things went smoothly at the hospital today and we actually were out earlier than we expected. We look forward to the next days and weeks of experience life with a newborn.

I'm sure you'll get to see tons of pictures as time goes on. By the way, for those who have questions on how we came up with the name:

Jonathan means "God has given"
David means "Beloved"

The combination of the meaning of the names and their Biblical background, and a little of the fact that we just liked the names together were all a part in our choosing his name. He isn't named after anyone specifically in our lives.

Anyway, off to change a diaper - which I'll be doing much of in the days to come...

More Pictures from First Holding/Feeding/Etc...

More Pictures of Our Little Guy

Holding our little guy for the first time
Seriously, isn't that so cute?
Mike holding him for the first time.
Awww...he is going to be an awesome dad!
Yeah...I love him already. So precious!

Today we came to the hospital and were able to hold him for the first time and I fed him and changed his diaper. Then Mike helped me get his shirt changed. Yeah - that was the funniest part...I was so afraid of breaking him that it took us forever. I joked that it will take me 45 minutes to change his clothes.

We will be here throughout the day (hanging out in the general waiting room - yay for free wireless network) and going up every 3-4 hours to feed him. He is eating so well right now that the nurses have put him on a four hour feeding schedule right now, but that could change is one of his feedings is smaller.

YAY! He is beautiful and words cannot do justice to this entire experience and how we've seen God's hand at work. Watch for more pictures...they will be coming like crazy. :)

And Then There Were Three - Announcing...Jonathan David Herriage

He wasn't supposed to be arriving until October 27th, but God had other plans. We got the phone call this afternoon around 4:30 p.m. that the birthmom had gone into the hospital, but thought that it was just early contractions and that they would send her home. We planned to meet in Brandon this evening to register for baby items we'll need. Mike called around 5:30 p.m. to say that we needed to go to the hospital because they were prepping her for her C-section. WOW!

This evening at 6:16 p.m., our little guy was born. He weighed 5 pounds 12 ounces and was 17.5 inches long. The birthmom's mom called us and said "This is Grandma. You have a beautiful baby boy."

We weren't able to get up to the nursery until about 8:45 due to recovery time for the birthmom required before she could sign the paper allowing us to see him in the nursery. She spent some time with him and then sent him to the nursery. We scrubbed down and then went to see this handsome little guy. His temperature hadn't stabilized yet, so we couldn't hold him, but we could touch him. After spending a little time with him and getting some suggestions from the nurses on going home to sleep at night and coming back in the daytime to spend time with him, we decided to take their advice. This hospital doesn't provide a room for adoptive parents, so we would have been spending 3-4 hours in the main downstairs waiting room between each feeding. They said that we don't need to be exhausted when we take him home in a few days, so they recommended going home to sleep. We'll be up there bright and shining in the morning though as we wait out the next 48 hours and pray that the birthmom doesn't change her mind.

We can't wait for all of you to meet him. On a side note, we do think he has really long feet. :)

Bragging For My Baby (Sandra, that is)

Well, I am somewhat surprised that Sandra did not say anything in her blog last night about the game last night.

This season has once again proved to be a hair-pulling experience for her. She has a great team, the girls have raw talent that she struggles to get them to believe. It has been a struggle to get them to register in their mind that when they do what she teaches them that they actually do a great job. They score, which makes them happy, they then have happy going through them which causes them to focus and do better.

Well, apparently, last night was one of those nights. They played Community. This was the team that went all of last year without losing one game in the regular season. They then made it all the way to the championship game where they met up with us. We had only lost two games (to Community). They came to the game so confident that they were going to clean house. Our girls played their hearts out and were rewarded with winning.

This season was one where Community was definitely ready for some revenge. The first time we played them was in their gym and they took us to town. They played a great game. They only thing that was not good that night was their attitude. You could see on their faces that they were ready, willing and able to cause us as much embarrassment as possible. Well,they did a good job of winning.

Then they came to our gym. I did not show up as I was not feeling all that well, but did meet up with Sandra and two of her college friends for dinner. She had not told me that they won so I asked. I was not sure if she was joking with me when she said that they beat Community. I was so excited.

I guess that this is going to be a game to attend when we make it to the Championship game (if the girls win the rest of the games to get them there). They are definitely going to be out for blood. They do not want to lose the championship again to us. The only better scenario would be for them to lose in the playoffs.

I just am so proud of Sandra and all that she has been able to do with the girls these last two seasons. Some have said that she got lucky the first season. But she has proved them all wrong by bringing these girls so far once again.

Oh, and I am excited about the baby coming soon too. I look forward to seeing Sandra being able to walk around the house with that little one in her arms and know that she does not have to give the baby back to their mommy. She is going to be a great mom and once she realizes that she is doing a good job maybe she will stop stressing and sleep. =)

Thank you all for your encouraging notes. We have actually started receiving things for the baby. So thank you all who have given.

14 Days and Counting

Birthdate. Well, at this point, we think that since we have heard nothing to the contrary that the C-section will be October 27th. I find it crazy to believe that in 14 days we could be parents. EEK! So much to do...so little time. I'm not sure what nesting is supposed to look like, but my desire to get completely organized and the house ready is certainly in overdrive.

Sleep. I think my body clock is also preparing for the upcoming changes in sleep times because for probably the 5th night in about a week, I'm wide awake and it is 12:51 a.m. This is actually on the early side of when I've been crashing lately. It isn't caffeine induced, either. I can go to bed with Mike early, but then I just lie there thinking. After awhile I figure that I might as well get up rather than do nothing. Then I'm up for hours. Mike still has to get up at 5 each morning, so he is sound asleep in bed and I'm wide awake in the office.

Names. We haven't picked them yet. We've got a list going of potentials, but nothing finalized. I think about that quite a bit each day.

Volleyball. Heading into the last two regular season games to be followed with playoffs starting the week the baby is born. JV is still on the bubble as to whether or not they will make it into playoffs. Varsity will definitely be in playoffs, but what remains to be seen is exactly which seed they will be going into it.

Basketball. Starts the next practice day after volleyball ends and goes through February.

There you have it. A quick rundown on the latest with us. One of my college friends, Kimmie, is in town until Wednesday and we've been enjoying catching up. With that, I'll probably spend a few minutes checking up on other blogs and try to get some sleep. Maybe I can fall asleep by 1:30...

She's Having A Boy

We met with the birthmom tonight. Thank you to everyone who prayed for us. I (Sandra) was stressed and nervous all day, so by the time we got to the restaurant, I wasn't really hungry and was feeling continued stress/nervousness. However, we made it through the evening and I think all in all it was a good meeting.

We did find out that she knows for sure that the baby is a boy. This is awesome because Mike has always wanted our first child to be a boy so that he could learn to be a gentleman and hopefully someday have a younger sister to practice his manners on. Plus, that way the sister can know how it feels to have a gentleman treat you right and that will hopefully prepare her for picking a guy with manners as well. So it is definitely exciting that we will have a boy.

Thanks again for all your prayers. We are supposed to find out the planned C-section date tomorrow.