Update

We are doing great and growing so fast. Jaren is so big he looks older everyday.


Mommy, Cheeks and I decided to read some of the books from my showers today. I got SOOOO many books - my new bookshelf in my room is actually overflowing - Mommy is pretty pumped to she keeps talking about all my cool new books.



Don't hate me because I'm handsome.



This is the cake that mommy's friend Kelsey made for my shower this weekend. Isn't it great.



One of my many adorable faces.


I had another shower this Sunday and it went really well. THANKS ladies. We had tons of good sweets and Jaren and I got some really cute gifts. My best friend Kelsey came down for the shower this weekend and we got to hang out which was really nice. She was a good helper too. She pulled the night shift on Friday night while mommy and daddy slept. Then on Sat. we went shopping and daddy and Jaren came along and were troopers.

Carolyn, the PT that works in my classroom, brought over spaghetti and meatballs today, with bread and cookies. It was so yummy. I ate WAY to much - thanks.

Other than that we are just hanging out and enjoying each other. Jaren is just such a sweet good baby. The only times he is upset is if he wants his diaper changed, wants to eat and or has some gas, which Mylacon drops fix like magic.

We are getting very excited for his baptism which is this Sunday. We have been waiting for this day for a long time and it is so close :)

Two week checkup

Jaren did great at his appointment today and they told us what we already knew. We have a wonderful baby.

He is healthy!!! The doctor said they like to make sure that the babies are back to their birth weight by the two week appointment - well that was NOT a problem for us.

AT BIRTH: Weight - 8 pounds 6 ounces
Height - 20 inches
Head circ. - didn't do, but it would have been high with is cone head :)

NOW: Weight - 9 pounds 6 ounces (chunker) 67th percentile
Height - 21 inches 64th percentile
Head circ. - 37 50th percentile

Overall doing great and is very healthy. No concerns and we will go back at 2 months.

Doing great

Mark and I are doing really great. We are enjoying our time with Jaren, every last min. It is just such a surreal feeling to want something so bad for 5 years and then to finally have it. Words can't really express how we are feeling.

I do know we are full people. The food that everyone is bringing us is so great. Last night Marks parents and sister brought over chicken, fresh okra, new potatoes, corn and a cookie cake. It was SOOOO good and we were all very full. THANKS. Then tonight Christa (the Occupational Therapist I work with during the school year) is bringing over McAllisters for us. Yummy :)

Thanks again for everything we are truly grateful.

PICTURES

When I'm out, I'm out, but man I'm peaceful. Mommy and Daddy watch me sleep a lot.



Here is me showing off my muscles and holding my own bottle at just 8 days old.



Here is me with all my aunts and my mommy at the shower. (Aunt Brandi is not pictured as she is back in Texas meeting with doctors. She has a spinal tap tomorrow morning and we will be praying for a safe procedure and answers.)




Aunt Beth made my cake for the baby shower this weekend and it was So good. The shower was a lot of fun and I got some cool stuff. THANKS to everyone who was able to help us celebrate my joining the McFadden family! :)



Everyone is always talking about how BIG my hands are so here they are. My mom and dad think they are pretty perfect!



I'm just cute, that's all :)



Me and Mommy!!! (Sorry it is sideways)

Well, I gotta go now, ya know important stuff to do. I had a busy day today. Mommy and me took daddy out to lunch as he had to return to work today and was NOT happy about it. They introduced me to Taco Tico. When mommy and I got home I decided to fill my diaper so mom could see that I had lost my platybell!!! Mom was really excited and keeps telling me that now I need to loose the umbilical cord. It makes her nervous. I am really glad I lost the plastybell too because that means I get a real bath tonight and I love my baths.

Thanks for all the prayers and remember to keep praying for us that we can make it through Aug. 20th without any speed bumps. I better go, I've got a lot to do you know, eat, sleep, and be cute!!!

Oh, and the steak kabobs must have been good last night because those people ate for a long time and from what I could see there wasn't much food left on the table. Then they were all making yummy sounds as they ate some reece's peanut butter cup brownies. (Thanks Matt and Kristy it was YUMMY) Now we get some chicken from Grandma and Grandpa Mac tomorrow night.

Hello

We are still here just tired.

Casey brought over a delicious dinner last night, one of my personal favorites, smoked meat. He smoked some pork butt, pork ribs, and beef ribs. It was delicious. And tonight our friends the Conaways are coming over with Steak kabobs. I can't wait - they may rival the smoked meat. Actually I'm just a meat lover so I'm sure it will be fantastic.

I have some Really cute pictures to post after I can finally get our home computer up to running order. I got a really good one of Jaren holding his own bottle. He ALWAYS has his hands up by his face especially when eating and it is So darn cute.

More later.

Pictures/Prayers

Ok, I need to explain my lack of picture postings. I have been taking pictures I promise. Our home computer got affected by lightening a couple of months ago and since then it hasn't worked right. Every other time I go in to use it it won't work and I have to turn it on and off 3 - 4 times to get it to come on. Well, honestly, I don't want to mess with it right now because I want to spend more time with Jaren. I have been posting from Marks work computer and I can't download all of my pictures onto it. So until I take the time to mess with our home computer (I promise it will be soon) You'll just have to wait.

Prayers - Mark and I received our papers about our final hearing for Jaren's adoption yesterday in the mail. Our hearing date is set for August 20th at 10:00 a.m. Please pray that everything leading up to this date goes smoothly and that that day itself goes without glitches. Mommy can't wait for this day to be over (Although, she is NOT wishing away one single moment of time).

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and prayers.

Also, thanks for the continued good food. We had a some wonderful enchiladas last night and a subway sandwich for me. (Darn picky eaters) And tonight our Friend Casey is smoking some meat for us and bringing it over - I LOVE smoked meat!

Baptism/Godparents

We wanted to share with everyone that Jaren will be baptised on Sunday, August 2nd. Father Michael Linnebur will be baptising Jaren. Mark and I attended High School with Father Linnebur and are honored he as agreed to do this for us. We are not sure of the time yet as we are waiting to hear back from Father, but will let those of you that it applies to know when we hear back from him. It looks like it will be around 3:00 p.m. that day.

Now as for Godparents - after a LOT of conversation and consideration we have decided that Jarens Godmother will be my twin sister Amy, and his Godfather will be our brother in law Mike. We have asked both of them and they have agreed so there is no getting out of it now :)

We can't wait for his baptism as it is such a special day in his life.

I will try and post some more pictures tomorrow - he is just getting so cute.

He is smiling a LOT more and tonight he even laughed at me when I was telling a story about something dumb I had done. It was perfect timing. He is growing up so much each and every day.

Water/Circumcision

I know weird title, but I wanted to share both things.

1) We have come to realize that Jaren really likes the sound of water. When we are running warm water to warm the bottle he seems to really enjoy that. Then yesterday morning before we went in for his little boy appointment we gave him a bath and he absolutely loved it. He was wide awake through the whole thing and just looked around with his big blue eyes. Daddy did a good job giving him his bath.

2) His little boy appointment went REALLY WELL!!! Dr. Chavez gave him a sugar coated pacifier before he gave him the deadening shots and that was all she wrote. We re dipped his pacifier a couple of times, but other than that Jaren just laid there and took it like a man.

Mark and I both watched the procedure. Jaren got the plastybell. We both agreed it was NOT what we had pictured. There was a lot more cutting and blood than I thought there was going to be. There was nurse in training that came in to watch the procedure as well. HE and Mark both had sympathetic/painful faces as they watched. We are so proud of him and how good he did.

I didn't mention anything in the title about his Jaundice or Billirubin levels because the doctor was so happy with his weight and appearance that he didn't make them draw his blood!!!! :) :) Which made mommy and daddy REALLY happy.

We also wanted to thank Kameron for her delicious food. We were so full and it was really yummy. We are looking forward to dinner tonight as well. Marks sister Beth and her family are coming in from KC and bringing Fazzoli's. (Garlic bread sticks here I come)

proud mommy

Ok, so I know it is a fluke, but still he did it.

Last night while Jaren and I were bonding. (he is still a little confused about night time and day time:) )

I decided that he could use some tummy time so I laid him on his tummy and laid in front of him so when he would lift his head up he could see me. Well, he wasn't mad, but I can't say he loved being on his tummy so he was really moving. And I don't think I've posted yet, but Jaren is strong.

He ROLLED OVER all by himself. Like I said I know fluke, but he still did it.

Also Kameron brought us over dinner last night and oh my goodness I need to go back to Jazzersice soon. Mark loves lasagna and hers was no different. Plus I got to spend some time with Avery - which was my favorite part.

Finally pictures!!!

I've meant to do this for a while now, but have been so busy loving on Jaren and visiting with company - I didn't want to come and sit back here in the computer room, but here it is. It is kinda long, but once I got started I couldn't not pick any of the pics. He is just so darn cute.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

spoiled

I don't mean Jaren either.

Mark and I have been so spoiled by everyones help. We have been so blessed to have our families here to help us and give us advice. NOT TO MENTION FOOD.

My mom and dad brought us over food the first night we were home from the hospital and man oh man was it ever delicious. They brought chicken noodle soup and pork chops and fried potatoes. Yum, my two favorite meals.

My sister Nikki and her family brought us over pizza the next night.

Geri Beatty and her family brought us over a tortilla soup the other night that Mark is now in love with. He tells me it WILL be a regular at our house now.

Tonight on of my students parents is bringing over Lasagna and Mark is really excited about that too.

It has all been so good and it a very nice gesture. THANKS a million to Brandi for setting up the care calender for us - it has been fantastic.

Bath/Today

I will start with the bath last night. It went well. He actually didn't seem to mind it. By that I mean he wasn't mad, but wasn't quite sure what to think. All in all it went really well.

Today we took another trip to the doctor to have our blood drawn to check our bilirubin levels. (Jaundice) He was at a 6.6 in the hospital and we needed it to go down. Well, they just called and he is at an 11. We were instructed to keep feeding him at a min. of every three hours and to up his feedings. He will also get to spend more time in the sun today. He is still doing really well, just worrying mom and dad. We will also have to go back on Thursday to have his levels drawn again :( That about broke our hearts this a.m. so we are not looking forward to having it happen yet again.

We did take a walk with him in the stroller this morning and he wasn't sure what to think of at the beginning, but ended up thinking it was pretty cool. We have had another nice relaxing day so far.

FUNNY STORY -

AMY - "Did you ever think you would worry about someone so much?"
Mark - "No, and I never thought I'd be excited to get up from 12:30 - 2:30 in the morning either, but I loved my time with him!"

I know I'm biased, but Mark has to be one of the cutest dads ever.

First full day at home.

Well last night went ok and he slept really Well. He slept in 3 hour intervals. We are BLESSED!!!

We went on our first outing to see Dr. Chavez and it went well. He is having us come back tomorrow to draw our levels for the jaundice. Then we scheduled Jaren's little boy appointment for this Thursday.

We had a steady flow of visitors today - never to many at once, but a good amount. Jaren got to meet his Great Grandma Ginia which was fun. She counted his toes and fingers to make sure he has 10 of each. (her little tradition)

We are getting ready to do our first bath and then head to bed.

WE ARE HOME!!!

Hello all,

Well we got to leave the hospital at about 1:30 today. Our best friends Marshal and Kelsey drove in from KC today and visited with us at the hospital and helped us carry everything out to the car. Jaren loved the car ride too, which is great because I have a feeling his daddy would have went crazy if he were crying. Mark is absolutly the cutest dad I have ever seen. At 4:47 a.m. Sat. the 11th of July he became a man who worries about germs ( I love it ) The way he interacts with Jaren and looks at him makes my heart mealt. I knew he would be great, but he is surpassing my expectations!!!

After we got home today we unpacked our bags and the company started rolling in. It was so nice to share Jaren with everyone and let him meet the family. Mark did take the time to give him a tour of our house. Showed him his nursery and our bedroom. (cute) My mom and dad brought over dinner and man oh man was it tasty. I had chicken noodle soup and Mark got Pork chops, and fried potatoes. Ok, so we each had a little bit of both.

Our company is all gone for the evening and we are looking forward to some good bonding time with our son. Which I'm sure we will get as he slept through everything all day today and is starting to wake up right now.

We will be going to see the doctor tomorrow as Jarens PKU levels were in the low end of the average range and the on call doctor said she would like us to come in and get it double checked tomorrow. So we will have our first outing already! That should be fun!

Now it is time to try and start a sleeping rotation. Good Night!

MORE PICTURES

My sister just sent me these and I had to post them.

BUT please see post below as well.

Jaren John McFadden

Our FAMILY photo!!! (that is so nice to say/type) Aren't we cute, and no I'm not biased I'm just stating the facts. Ok, so you have to take into consideration that this picture was taken after sitting in a waiting room for 18 hours and then waiting over an hour to meet our son after he was born - talk about time moving s l o w.




Here he is all by himself. He has lots of dark hair. He is just so Darn handsome. You can't tell here, but for now he has dark blue eyes. They just reweighed him too and he currently weighs 8 pounds 1 ounce. I actually would have guessed lower as many times as he has went to the bathroom.

Jaren is such a GREAT baby. We have been truly blessed by a miracle and will be forever grateful to his birth mother. She choose to give her son the ultimate gift of love and God led her to us. Words can't express the respect we have for her and the gratitude we feel.


Mark and I want to say thank you to EVERYONE who has prayed for us and for our baby. This whole process has been one that you can't really prepair yourself for, at least I couldn't, the emotions so unique and new and I know all of your prayers for everyone involved in this process has helped immensely. THANKS and please keep them coming while we wait for all of this to become final in the courts. That is when we will get his new birth certificate.

Oh and I'm going to need to know who all cheated on the voting poll and voted after Jaren was born :)

It's official

Well, as of 6:00 this evening Jaren John is officially ours. The two lawyers came to the hospital and met with the birth mother and got all the necessary paperwork done.

The birth mother is doing extremely well and is wanting to go home now so her nurses are working with her on this endeavor. I say give her whatever she wants.

We have to stay here with Jaren until his PKU test is done which means at least 24 hours - so tomorrow morning some time.

It is not officially official until we go to court which is going to be a min. of 30 days from now and a max of 60. So prayers please for that, and prayers for sleep :)

More about our delivery day.

We had a L O N G day yesterday. Mark and I sat in a little waiting room at Wesley hospital for 18 hours yesterday.

We arrived at Wesley at 12:30. The birth mothers family was in and out throughout the day which provided wonderful company and distractions. Her family is just as beautiful as she is. We are SO blessed.

Jaren was born at 4:47 a.m. Mark and I got to go back and meet our son at approx 6:00. He was and is doing great. All his checkups have went fantastic and he has pretty much just slept and ate. No poop yet!!! (Even though Mark gets to change the first diaper)

At approx. 7:30 they began trying to move us to a room. Floor five was booked up solid so we are still in the same room as the birth mother. That is the reason we have asked to hold off a bit for visitors. They say they will be looking for a room for us. We are going to check after lunch how it is looking and if they don't think we will be getting one soon we will allow visitors, but go to the meeting room the nurse showed us while you visit.

The pediatrician on call for Dr. Chavez just visited and Jaren is checking out great. She will be back tomorrow to make sure we are good to go and hopefully release us.

Please continue to pray all goes well. Our lawyer should be coming by around 5:00 ish to get the papers signed (fingers crossed, although I am not worried at all).

HE's here!!!!

Jaren John McFadden was born at 4:47 this morning. He weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces and is 20 inches long.

He is very healthy and mom is doing good too.

Thanks for all the prayers and please keep them coming for recovery for mother and for some SLEEP.

We are not sure when we can leave, but are just happy to be here.

more waiting......

Well we have now been at the hospital for 12 hours sitting in the waiting room. The birth mother was checked a little bit ago and she is a solid 8. It took her almost 3 hours to go from 7 to 8 so we'll see how long our little baby can hold on to his/her comfortable environment.

Thanks for the prayers - keep them coming.

WAITING ......

We aren't not posting we are just waiting. Things are progressing s l o w l y. She is only at a 5 1/2 and that is with patosin. We are just waiting and praying.

We are at the hospital.

The birth mother called me at about 12:30, I thought to tell me how her doctors appointment went. Imagine my surprise when she said she was on her way to the hospital. When she got up this a.m. she said she thought her water broke, so then she went to her doctors appointment and had it confirmed. The doctor broke her water the rest of the way and checked her. She was dilated to a 4.

So we are here now and waiting.....

PRAYERS, PRAYERS, PRAYERS!

Thursday...

Well, there is not much to say. The days are passing just very slowly.

I did speak with the birth mother today and she is feeling the same as before. No contractions or anything new. She does go to the doctor tomorrow for her LAST appointment and has told me she will call me after the appointment. She didn't remember what time it was so I'm not sure when I will hear anything, but hopefully it is earlier than later because I will be at the Keith Urban concert tomorrow night. I will post about the appointment as soon as I can.

I'm SOOOO impressed with everyone 25 comments on the name guess post so far. Way more than I thought. THANKS - it has been a lot of fun.

I have added a poll for everyone to post their guess on if Baby Mac is a boy or a girl. You can vote until noon on Sun.

Thanks again and please continue to pray that the birth goes well and all the papers that need to be signed get signed. There are just so many extra steps when you create your family this way and we appreciate everyones support and prayers more than we can ever fully express. ONLY 4 MORE DAYS TILL WE WILL BE AT THE HOSPITAL!!!

Answer to question?

Is 'The' Name on the list yet?

Answer - NO, no one has guessed "the" name yet.

Time is dragging ...

So in the meantime we are trying to remain busy. We had a softball game tonight and we actually won!!! Our team is 1-6 :( We are actually a better team then that makes us sound. (I know excuses, excuses, but we have lost 4 of those games by only 1 run)

Now about the baby. I tried to call the birth mother today to see how she was doing, but got her voice mail. So basically we wait and pray.

Thanks again for all the names it is so much fun... Get excited for the upcoming poll to cast your vote on whether or not our little miracle is a girl or a boy.

Names/Project

I want to start by telling you all how much fun it is to hear your name guesses. Thank you to everyone who has participated. Saying that I know there are many more of you out there who have not commented yet. Mark has seven siblings and only 2 have given their guesses so far - so stay tuned there are more name guesses to come. Not to mention my mom said she was thinking about it and her guesses were to come too. We only have 13 comments so far, and I did some research and 19 has been our high number of comments.

Now for my project. I was going to go lay out at the YMCA today and read my book, but when I walked out of school it was cloudy and the breeze was even a bit chilly - so I decided to go to the fabric store and buy fabric to re-upholster the glider in the babies room.




This is the chair before I got my hands on it. I'm sure you will all agree it doesn't match with the baby room decor. We couldn't pass it up though, about a year ago, our neighbor was selling it for $10 at their garage sale.




This is the new chair after I upholstered it!!! I didn't know I was so handy ;)

Just in case you hadn't realized it this is Mark and I's last Tuesday night to be able to go to bed Not being parents!!!!!!!!!!

On a separate and sad note - I would like to request prayers for my best friend Kelsey as she lost her grandfather. The funeral was actually today. Please pray he may be in peace and that her family may be able to celebrate his life.

Baby names???

Ok, so in my state of needing to help pass time I want to start a little name guessing game. I know that you don't know if it is a boy or a girl, so you will need to guess a girl name and a boy name even if you are SURE it is one or the other.

You will have to leave you guesses in the comment section of the blog so all can enjoy and take part in the fun.

When I say ALL that is what I mean. There are many people who check this blog who never leave a comment which is perfectly fine, but for this game I am asking you to participate.

Let's see how many people we can get to take part in this blog post. I think our record is 16 comments.

Can't wait to see your guesses. Maybe I give a reward to anyone who guesses the right name.

Still here

I really have nothing to post - I just don't want you all thinking that we aren't posting because we are up at the hospital and not telling you. We aren't we are still here at home.

Much to my dismay - I will be returning to work this week (ESY -or- Summer School) and will do so for the whole week if our baby doesn't come first.

Well, that is really it for us.

BRANDI - has been here for a week now and is doing pretty good. She actually was symptom free for 8 hours yesterday which was amazing. She has an appointment with another neurologist at the end of this month. We just keep praying her symptoms will disappear.

It's official

We didn't have any fireworks today - our baby will not share its birthday with the Red, White, and Blue.

I shouldn't say we didn't have any fireworks we actually got to see some beautiful fireworks by our nieces, nephews, and the Conaways. We had a really good Fourth of July, which is good since it will be our last holiday as a family of two.

Still waiting for 'the phone call' - until then we are going to try to get some sleep. :)

baby quilt

Well, we are still waiting. There is not much going on other than cleaning and well, preparing. I think we are good to go. The only thing we really have left is to take our baptism class - which we will be doing on Tuesday night and to schedule the baptism, which I plan on doing on Monday.

I did go to my Grandma Ginia's house a couple to times to work on the baby quilt I made for our child. I am SOOOO excited to say it is done and I think it turned out really great. It is a warm blanket so it is not one we will use for a while, but I'm sure it will get good use later.

It is a raggedy quilt.


This is the raggedy side of the quilt - which is the front or right side.




This is the back side or the smooth side of the quilt. Mark likes this side better.


I hope you all like it because I got a blister on my finger from all the cutting.

doctors appointment

Hello,

Well she called me to let me know that she is now dialated to a 3 and 1/2!!! Not much more, but more none the less. She is doing well, but still no contractions :(

We also found out that they have set an inducement date. If she hasn't had this baby by the 14th we will be going in at 5 o'clock a.m. that morning to be induced. There was no openings on the 13th :( They did tell her that if there becomes an opening on the 13th she can move into it. We can still pray that she will go into natural labor before then, but if not we know by the 14th we will have out baby.

Please pray that she will be able to have this baby naturally and as soon as possible.

Thanks and have a good fourth!!!

(to sign up for meals go to the post called food/dinner - it was in June - thanks for asking Kim)

So excited

I am getting so excited and anxious to hear from the birth mother. I think her appointment was at 3:45, but can't remember for sure.

She still may not call till later this evening, hopefully I can wait for her to call me so I don't bother her by calling her.

I'll let you know.

Also, thanks to everyone who signed up to bring us meals. We are SOOOO excited they all sound delicious. Also, please know you are welcome to stay and eat the meal with us when you come.

Lunch

Lunch went really well!!! The birth mother texted me right before I was leaving and asked if we minded if her mother joined us. Of course I said that would be fine. It was nice getting to meet her as she will be up at the hospital on the big day as well. We did find out that she will be delivering at the hospital and not at the birthing center.

Probably the most exciting thing though is that she gave us sonogram pictures. I will share one with you now!!!





We also found out that due to the Fourth of July she will be going to the doctor tomorrow instead of Friday. The birth mother said she would contact me to let me know how it goes. Her appointment isn't until the late afternoon, but I will post after I hear from her.

We are still requesting prayers for:
1) The baby to be healthy
2) The birth mother
3) A quick and painless delivery
4) Patience
5) Peace

THANKS!!!