Baby Jack's Story

Jack Brannon Crane joined our little family, the afternoon of January 12, 2011, at 2:45PM weighing in at 7lbs 7oz and 20 inches long. This is the story of his journey.

Late in the evening Sunday, January 9th, Chattanooga received the most snow it has seen since the 1993 Blizzard. Of course, Dusty and I went into panic mode. Our due date was two weeks out, but I had gone to the doctor the previous Wednesday and was almost 4 cm. We had scheduled an appointment for the following Wednesday at the office, but the doctor told me to pack my bags and bring Dusty because if I was 4.5 - 5cm, she wasn't letting me go home. With all of that said, we felt like we were just a ticking time bomb, waiting for Jack to start his arrival. When he woke up late that night and saw the condition of the roads, Dusty became sick to his stomach, literally, and could not sleep. The next morning, we worked and played and tried to take it easy, in fear of helping Jack along. Our neighborhood roads were impassable for the ol' swagger wagon and CRV. Dusty scouted some neighbors with 4x4s, so that made us feel a bit better.

Needless to say, we made it to Wednesday with no labor drama. The office was delayed in opening 2 hours, which worried us. We were supposed to get in right at 830. Now we weren't sure if our appointment was still scheduled. We kissed our sweet Emma goodbye and made it through the ice up our hill to get out of the neighborhood. Off to the doctors. Both of us just knew that it was going to be the day. If it ended up not to be, we weren't sure what to do! We were as mentally prepared as you can be at that point.

At the doctor's she confirmed that we were 5cm and said we're going to have this baby today, very excitedly. She immediately sent us over to Women's East and ordered everything. This being my 2nd experience with labor, I had already decided epidural was the way to go. What's the point not to, right? We got to the hospital and they immediately got us to our room, got fluids going with me and some pitocin. By 11:45am I had my epidural. I felt bad, the anesthesiologist kept saying, this will make you feel better, but I wasn't feeling a thing!! At 12:30pm my doctor showed up to break my water. I was at 7cm at this point, and still no contractions. This is when I count that labor really started.

She broke my water and it all seems quite quick and blurry from here! I started having contractions, but could not feel them with the epidural. Dusty and I kept watching the screen to see where they peaked, how long they were, and how far apart. They went from inconsistent to really close together in no time flat. Around 1:45pm the nurse said she'd be back around 2:30pm to check me. I laughed and told Dusty I was aiming for 2:51pm jokingly, since that is when Em was born. Around 2:00pm I started feeling some intense pressure and realized it was coming with each contraction. I debated on calling the nurse and finally I had an intense NEED to push and we called her. She checked and immediately called the doctor. Then she looked at me and told me to cross my legs. I chuckled, was she serious? She looked at me and said I'm serious. From 2:25pm to about 2:35pm, with my legs crossed, I fought the urge to push - which was very intense by this point. I think I about pushed apart the bed. Just before my doctor had left at 12:30pm she told me not to make her run across the parking lot because of all the ice...oh well.

So the doctor arrived at 2:35pm and by 2:45pm I was holding our brand new baby boy, Jack. That was a grand total of 2 hours and 15 minutes of labor, with 10 minutes of pushing. I was so thankful for the speediness of labor and delivery. I had worried because my first labor with Emma had not been terribly difficult, so I just knew this one was going to be bad.

Jack is amazing. As a 2nd time mommy, you wonder and worry how you will ever love another individual as much as you love your first born. It's amazing how God gives us the ability to continue our love, just as strong as you had for the first.

God has blessed me with my sweet and precious family and continues to bless us. I am humbled beyond words.

Welcoming Jack Brannon

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Christmas with the Cranes

It's so magical to experience the spirit of the season with a two-year old. We've had such a wonderful few weeks preparing for Christmas in our house.

Emma was very excited to decorate the Christmas trees. She helped with all three. We have one in the living room - our "grown up" tree that has coordinating ornaments, etc. Emma carefully placed the snowflakes and berry twigs. Another tree can be found in the playroom/den - this one is a Nutcracker themed tree. Emma had great fun decorating the tree, placing each of the characters from the ballet, making sure that they all had chocolates hanging nearby. The final tree is in Emma's room. We were going with snowflake ornaments, then Emma located some huge plastic Christmas balls and a Blues Clue ornament to hang on the branchnes. It is quite the tree!!

This season has been full of firsts for Emma, even though this is her third Christmas. We enjoyed baking and decorating cookies together. She made sure to put on her apron from Auntie Rel and pick out just the right cookie cutters. She also picked out blue icing (very festive) and decorated each cookie herself.

Watching the cookies bake.

Mmmm...icing.

The finished product.

Emma had her first Christmas Program at Preschool and sang lots of songs. Her favorite was Jingle Bells. Of course, being the proud parents we are, filmed it all. Emma even hit a note on her own at the end of one of her songs. Too funny. Maybe she'll be a performer like her mommy and daddy.

As Christmas grew closer, we talked about many things about the day. First and foremost, we talked about how this was the birthday of Jesus. She is quick to point out any Baby Jesus that she sees in mangers as we drive. We also bought a Little People nativity set in which she has let all the animals in the house join in on. She has also been asking quite frequently, as she did to GiGi one day at her house when looking at tree, "Where's Baby Jesus!?" At the Christmas Eve service, she made sure to bring in her little people Baby Jesus so she could hold him through the service since we were celebrating his birthday.

We also talked about Santa Claus. Emma hasn't been too sure of this guy (just like her mommy was). Any time we talked about going to see him and sitting on his lap, she would say, "No ho ho." When we'd ask her if Santa was going to bring her toys, she would say, "No ho ho. Baby Jack and Mommy and Daddy bring toys." As we got closer to Christmas, she started to talk more about Santa, even calling him Santa instead of Ho Ho. She decided that she wanted him to bring her a Jessie doll from Toy Story 3. On Christmas Eve, she was so excited to track him across the globe. We made food for the reindeer and filled it with magic sprinkles to help them fly. After church we sprinkled it through the yard. That night, she made sure to set out cookies for him (as well as milk and ice water). In addition, she wanted to make sure the reindeer were refreshed. We had to put a bowl of water on the porch.

Tracking Santa Claus

Making Reindeer Food

Reindeer Food!!!!

Ready for church.

Excited for Christmas!

Spreading reindeer food in the yard.

Christmas Eve with cousins Audrey and Natalie.

Cookies for santa.

Being very careful with the milk for santa.

Also needs ice water.

Making sure reindeer are satisfied too.

Christmas morning came and we had SNOW!! I think Dusty and I were more excited than Emma, this being our first white Christmas in Chattanooga. Emma came downstairs, just taking it all in. First she checked to see if Santa ate the cookies. She was quick to note he didn't finish them all. Then she remembered the reindeer and ran out to see the bowl. They had drunk all of the water and left some of their food in the bowl with their messy snouts! Then we said, check your stocking. So she slowly went back over to the fireplace and saw none other than Jessie sticking out! The look on her face was just priceless. It melted my heart!

Jessie doll! Of course we had to go get our Jessie hat that Gigi and Pop brought back from FL.

We opened the rest of our presents and enjoyed a nice breakfast with family. Then it was off to build snowmen in the yard. We got about 4 inches of snow! How wonderful!

View from the front porch

Emma's snowman

Yes, for those of you that know our house, we're not standing in front of it. Used the neighbor's snow!

This was absolutely an amazingly beautiful Christmas for so many reasons. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful family, with such an amazing daughter and husband who never cease to amaze me in all ways possible.

Oh Toodles!

Alrighty, it has been a long time since my last post. I promise to catch up soon - and there is so much to catch up on! I just had to blog about something my little Emma said today. For this to make sense, you have to watch Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse. Mickey and all of his friends are Emma's favorite right now. Her birthday party was all about Mickey as were a lot of her gifts. She loves Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Daisy, and Donald among others. So on Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse, they are always trying to solve problems and Toodles helps the gang out. He's a little flying mouse ears that has tools to use for solve the problems.

Emma and I were sitting on the couch tonight looking at her new Thomas Look and Find book. She accessorized the book yesterday with stickers she got from the doctor. We were able to safely remove two of the stickers, but two were pretty well stuck. I told her we'd have to leave the stickers in the book because they would tear the page. They were stuck. She looked at me and said, "Noodles help" very matter of factly. She calls her Magna Doodle Noodles, so I was confused at first. Then after she said it again, I realized she was saying, "toodles help". I asked her, can Toodles help us, and she said very excitedly, "yes!" and of course we had to proceed in saying "Oh Toodles!!!!"

Emma's Language

Emma talks non-stop (wonder where she got that from - ha).

Here are some of her words that need translation:

Bah - Bath
vrrooom vrroom - Car (yes car would be much easier to say but what fun would that be)
Guck Guck - Duck
Paark or Paarka Paarka - Park
Beets - Beach
Nanana - Banana
Nack - Snack
Coast - Roller Coaster
Mere - Come here
There Go - there you go
Sah-ey Mommy - Sorry Mommy
Bawnee - Barney (the guy who has been staining our soon to be installed stairs)
Uh-wnee - Ernie (from Sesame Street and Papa)
Dipe - Diaper
Tuuwbo - turbo
Turto - Turtle
Nette - Miss Jeanette at PlayGym
Nat - Cousin Natalie
Augsh -Cousin Audrey
saux - Sauce - and everything must have this (ketchup, bbq, ranch, whatever it is good)
rockeen chair - rocking chair
fffog - frog
sop - Shop (and anytime she says she's going to "sop" I ask her what she's going to buy. The immediate reply is "shoes". That's my girl!)
Eggie - Egg

I can't list all the ones that she says clearly. She will pretty much repeat anything you ask her to say, and some days she downright surprises me in what comes clearly out of her mouth (in a good way)!

It's amazing the things she remembers, too. She gets so excited when we pass Chik-fil-a. "Moos Cows! Cows Moos!" And usually, the cow isn't around, so we have to tell her the cow is in the barn. We are Tuesday Night - Kids Eat Free - regulars. I know that sounds bad, but the kid loves the nuggets and fruit. She knows exactly where her grandparents live as well as where we buy groceries. She knows as soon as we get near a Cracker Barrell that we're going to sit on the rocking chairs and can this kid spot a park!! She gets excited when we get to 4-corners in Collegedale, just knowing she's going to the Parka Parka. Last weekend, we visited Dusty's Mamaw for Easter lunch. Her apartments have a putting green. Emma and her Uncle Pete played "ball". This weekend, any time we had the Masters on, Emma was searching for "Peeet".

What a wonderful kid! She is full of such energy. I love her so much! I'll post pictures soon!

Spring is Coming!

The sun has been shining. The weather is getting warm. We are ready for spring! We have been playing outside, going to the zoo, and to the "parka parka" every chance we get!

Year End Review

I have found that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find time to write. A three day weekend sure does help!

Here's a little photo catch up on the past few months.

Emma walked in her 2nd Race for the Cure.

One of Emma's favorite things to do when the weather was nice was riding in her wagon. She always insisted on bringing along a few extras. On this day, it was her new lawn mower.

In October, we took a trip to Sanibel Island. It is one of our favorite places to go for a relaxing vacation. My family took Dusty along to Sanibel years ago on a family vacation, and he fell in love. This was Emma's second trip, and I think she is in love. We couldn't spend enough time on the beach, gathering shells and playing in the waves.

Emma was our little monkey for Halloween. We went with the McKennas to Boo in the Zoo. Emma and Owen had fun riding together in the wagon.

Burt's Farm for some pumpkin picking.

Out with our cousins!

We got to enjoy snow in early December. Emma was a little timid at first, but loved it once she started playing!