Happy 4th Birthday, Jacob!

My Little Man turned 4!  We celebrated on his birthdate with just the 5 of us.  We made homemade pepperoni pizza and then had fresh homemade chocolate chip cookies and ice-cream for dessert.  We followed up with opening a couple gifts and then finished off the night by watching Tangled.

Jacob surprised us all when he joined our family on April 1st at only 34 weeks weighing in at 6lbs and 20.5 inches long.  That day started our second 3-week long journey in the NICU.  We were much more calm with Jacob's stay in the NICU as we had just been there with Lexi 21 months earlier.  His first room was actually just on the other side of the wall from where Lexi's room was.  I was really glad that he didn't have the same room as I was having enough recalled emotions from her stay.  I actually had to keep reminding myself the first couple days that it wasn't Lexi laying in that isolet because they looked very much alike.  A few of the NICU nurses actually remembered Lexi when she was in there and commented on how calm and "easy" we were with the whole process.  I was comforted by the fact that they remembered my baby girl from almost 2 years prior and knowing that they did a wonderful job caring for her and knew Jacob would get that same care.  He stayed in the NICU for 22 days.  I went to the hospital at least once a day, every day to visit him.  Hailey was able to come with us a few times to see her brother, but Lexi was too young and not potty trained so she wasn't able to.  She first met her brother when we brought him home from the hospital.  That was a good day...our family finally together!

Jacob at 4 days old

April 23, 2007 - The day we got to bring our baby boy home!

Our 1st Family Photo

Hailey 3 yrs 21m  *  Lexi 21months  *  Jacob 22 days

An interesting note about the kids' birthdates:  they all share their birthdays with either a relatives birthday or anniversary.  Hailey was born on Grandma Doc's 75th birthday (July 2nd).  Lexi shares her birthday with my Uncle Red's heart & double lung transplant anniversary (July 8th), and Jacob shares his birthday with Aaron's Aunt Ramona's birthday (April 1st).  We had been commenting that it would have been fun to have Jacob share Uncle Red's birthday and Jason & Robyn's wedding anniversary (May 5th), but we were doubtful he'd stay inside that long (his due date was May 13th).