seems like i have a lot of these kinds of posts....

So this blog post is going to be one massive catch up as i didn't get around to blogging all summer... shame on me... anyways.. heres some photos to keep you up to date on our summer happenings :)

We got some family photos done, they turned out pretty good considering how terrible Ryker was that day.

 Auntie Becky got to hold Jaron for the first time

                                                              Grandma Marie and Papa Woody came to visit

went to grandmas family reunion and rode the waterslide with dad

 Todd and Becky got a new puppy named Tucker

 WEnt to my first parade

 and got mommy and daddy lots of candy

 participated in the magrath days activities

 Jaron was Blessed. i was so excited for their matching ties

 We bought a house! (hooray!) and its really close to a waterpark 

 Jaron and little Abby holding hands. Melissa and I were due 1 day apart and they ended up being 2 and a half months apart... but roughly the same size haha

 Played in grandma and grandpas yard in the sprinkler

 Went to Calaway the day i found out my cancer results ( which were negative THANKGOODNESS)

 Went to the butterfly house where a butterfly just landed on jarons sleeping head as well as landed on my head

 celebrated Wyatts 1st birthday!

 Ryker learned a new "trick" where he stands on top of things and claps his hands like he did such a good job... stresses me out!

just 2 of the cutest boys out there...

 Ryker learned to open the fridge... needless to say the chocolate syrup is now on a higher shelf

 Jaron has a sweet curly mullet going on these days..

 Ryker developed a terrible rash and had me FREAKING out... but no other symptoms... we think it was hand foot and mouth but the rash spread to his back.. so we don't know... luckily Jaron never caught anything

 he is growing up too fast!

We had thanksgiving at out house this year. it was fun, my mom came and taught me how to cook a turkey and we had todd and becky as well. Blake was able to find todd a job here, but he doesn't know if it will become permanent or if they will lay him off for the winter so Becky is still in magrath and
Todd is living in our basement. Its nice to have family here... we have never been so close to family, its fun, we selfishly hope they move here, maybe family will come visit us more ;)

2 months!

I can't believe how fast this past month having Jaron at home with us has flown by. The month before that when he was in the NICU seemed to drag on an on and I would find myself saying its only Monday ??? We are glad to be past that point in our lives but we still have tt make weekly trips to pediatritians, nutritionist , orthopaedic surgeons ,urologists along with other specialists.. .the list goes on but having him sleep in the bassinet next to me is worth it.

Ryker is slowly starting to adjust to Jaron being home . he has become a mamas boy and everything is "mama mama" but he loves to rub jarons head and say "baba" it's really the cutest thing I love having 2 boys .

Jaron got his 2 month shots today , it was heart breaking but we made it through! He is now 18 1/2 inches long and 6 pounds 9 ounces he has nearly doubled his birth weight. He is such a well behaved baby. We had an appointment with the eye specialist and ended up waiting for 3 hours and he was so good ! He is a good sleeper. He has gone 6 hours  at night...but don't tell the nutritionist. he usually gets up only twice and eats and goes right back to sleep! lol being a preemie they tell you not to go longer then 4 hours without feeding him but if he is sleeping I'm going to let him sleep !

He is so unlike ryker , he will only take a soother when he is hungry unlike ryker who wanted it all the time. He enjoys tummy time and rolling on his side which ryker hated. Ryker loved the car seat where as Jaron isn't a fan, maybe it's because he is so tiny we will wait and see if that changes. The one thing they do have in common is their muscousy noses ! I have two snorers on either side of me at night .
He is still on added calories where I add neosure to his bottles twice a day. I will be glad when that is done so I don't have topump every day. He has bad reflux and is still on rranitidine to help him feel better when that happens. ( its like zantac for babies)

Today we signed the papers at the lawyers . in 2 days we will be home owners. I am so excited for this stage in our lives. I am looking forward to being able to decorate and make it feel like home.
I never understood postpartum depression until now..even though it still shocks me but I never knew how you could be sad with a brand new baby. Its tough to say the least but am getting better now that Jaron is home. Still difficult to talk about.

This past weekend the flood hit medicine hat.luckily it wasn't as big as they were anticipating but lots of people in the flats were evacuated and have some damage to their homes my heart breaks thinking about having to leave everything behind and not knowing what will survive. Blake was out all weekend helping sand bag . the city didn't seem very organized at the beginning but really pulled together and did a lot of damage control. Things could have been a lot worse glad we were able to prepare for the rising water.

Now for some pictures!!

this is the same build-a-bear outfit that Ryker wore when he was little.

except Ryker filled it out quite a bit more!

who knew so much could happen in 2 weeks!

flash back to 2 weeks ago. early sunday morning
ahem.. this might be a long post, fair warning


at around 4am sunday april 14th i woke up , kinda soaked. Being nearly 30 weeks along, this baby was getting rather rambunctious and i thought to myself, great this baby just made me pee my pants! i changed and went back to bed without telling Blake, due to embarrassment. at 8am i woke up and was wet again and thought it was rather odd, in the back of my mind i was thinking it was my water breaking, but i had imagined a huge gush not a little trickle, and besides it was way way to early. as i stood up a little more gushed out and i yelled to Blake to take me to ER. we grabbed Ryker out of his crib and rushed there.
it took the drs a while to realize it was my water that had broken and the weather was just terrible that day and they wanted it to calm down so they could fly me to Calgary. They gave me steroids to help develop the babies lungs and because we had ryker Blake couldn't' fly with me. he went home and packed a few things and drove to calgary. i was in such a rush that i hadn't even eaten breakfast that morning.
By the time i got to Calgary i had started to have contractions and boy did my water break, it was everywhere, my water never broke with Ryker so i didn't know what to expect. they got my contractions under control and i sat on the monitors all day until they finally put me in a room and let me eat at 1030 that night.
i sat for a week and finished my antibiotics, i hate ivs! during that week i had to have my temperature/blood pressure and baby heart monitored every 4 hours. it was a rough week, especially because Ryker was learning to walk, had a bad ear infection and had 4 molars coming in all at the same time.
On monday morning i was released to home care as the baby had been sitting sideways in my tummy and if i had gone into labor it could have been bad. he had finally moved head down so i went to my aunts house and was going to wait out the 4 weeks until they induced me. the home nurse came the next morning and upon examining my tummy told me my baby was no longer head down and i had to return to the hospital. i called blake and i just cried, i had kept it together pretty well the whole week but that was the last straw. i couldn't handle going back there, being away from my other baby who needed me, living in that hospital with the terrible food and being woken up all night, not being able to sleep next to my husband
i went back to foothills where the ultrasound told me he was indeed head down and that nurse was crazy. PHEW! freaked out over nothing haha
headed back to my aunts and went to bed.
again around 4am i wake up with a gush ( note i had been gushing fluid for the past 10 days) but this was different. i got up to use the bathroom and was bleeding. i immediately called Blake and told him to get in the car and come to Calgary. i called my aunt who was upstairs to wake her up and let her know i needed to go back to the hospital. we called 911 , they picked us up and i headed to rockyview as it was the closer hospital. i wasn't having any contractions and the bleeding wasnt anything significant at that point i wasn't worried. i got to rockyview and they put me in the back room and left me for 20 minutes, no one came to see me. i was FREAKING out i just wanted to hear my babies heart beat and i felt fine, it was the baby i  was worried about.
they came in and took all of my history again because i had been at foothills and these guys knew nothing of what my situation was ( after just explaining everything to the ambulance people) the OB came in and examined me. i hadn't dilated at all but my bleeding had picked up. babies heart beat was okay so they felt good with transfering me to foothills. as i stood up i looked back and noticed the bed completely covered in blood and dripping on the floor. it is very unatural to see that much of your own  blood.
i went to foothills and sat in triage all day on the monitors, still not being able to eat anything. they put me in an emergency delivery room where Blake and i tried to sleep on the very awkwardly shaped birthing bed, my contractions came and went, blood pressure went up and down but babies heart beat stayed strong. So they said they would leave me until the baby showed signs of stress. i hated that idea. i didn't want to wait around until something was hurting my baby, but i didn't want to have him yet. i was only 30 weeks along.
 Thursday morning rolled around and after 36 hours they finally let me eat. best toast ever. my bleeding had slowed down and i was no longer having contractions. Blake decided he would go back to my aunts house and see ryker, have a shower eat some lunch and maybe have a nap. nothing was going on and i was just going to try to sleep some more.little did i know that was the calm before the storm. after blake left i started to get some cramping, the contractions got worse when i had a full bladder so i got up to use the bathroom and the bleeding came back worse then ever. i suddenly had the worst pain in my stomach, it felt like someone was ripping it out through mybelly button and i could feel constant pain through the contractions. the Dr came in and said they were taking the baby. i screamed WHERE IS MY HUSBAND?! i called him amoungst all the kayos and told him to promptly return to the hospital as his son was about to be born. ( ill have to admit those were not the exact words used)
They gave me this terrible drink that was supposed to calm my stomach as i had just eaten and wheeled me into the OR where they had me lie on my side to get a spinal, its a cruel punishment, he kept asking me to lie still, as im in the most pain in my life. yeah right buddy.
they got everything all set up and the sheet up under my chin and finally Blake walked in.suddenly things got real and i could no longer feel the pain as the spinal had kicked in and i realized they were taking my baby. its too early i kept saying its too early! the dr reassured me that they could no longer wait any longer and he would be born in a few short minutes. i just held blakes hand and closed my eyes. praying the the Lord wouldn't take my sweet baby from me. every trial i have ever been through in my whole life felt tiny and insignificant. all i could think about was this tiny little body that was about to be prematurely cut from my body. after some pressure and tugging i hear this tiny little cry, my heart skipped a beat. if anything i got to hear him, and suddenly my fear disappeared, i knew Heavenly Father was looking over me and that things were going to be okay. i told Blake to go take a picture so i could see what he looked like. they rushed him to the nicu and Blake followed along with. As the drs closed me up they told me that i had a huge blood clot in my uterus that had caused the placenta to start pulling away. had we waited it could have been very bad for me and the baby. they sewed me up and wheeled me to recovery. i was anxious to go see my baby. Blake and mom met me in the recovery room and my mom fed me ice chunks. they then wheeled me to post partum and waited for my spinal to ware off. 3 very long hours passed and i finally got into a wheel chair and went to the nicu to meet my baby for the first time.
Jaron Blake Smith born april 25th at 1:01pm weighing a whopping 3 pounds 12 ounces and 16.5 inches long.
nothing can prepare you to have a baby in the NICU. the hardest thing for me is having to ask to hold my baby, and when i do to see all the cords and wires that come along with it are heart breaking.

Jaron is a fighter and is doing so good. he has been breathing room air all along and is eating breastmilk through his feeding tube. he is only down 40 g from his birth weight. he has tons of blonde hair. He loves to cuddle and passes out everytime he hits blakes or my chest. Ryker is amused and wants to touch his feet and head.
he gets an ultrasound on his brain tomorrow to see how things are going.
we are blessed to have so much help, and that blake could get some time off work.
Jaron is tiny but strong and so far no infections or problems.
life is hectic but recovery is going very good, im already off my pain medications and able to get in and out of bed myself.

i can't believe my little boy is already 4 days old. these last 2 weeks have been the hardest days of my life. but i have grown and matured and have learned patience and faith. I am blessed to have an awesome husband and 2 beautiful boys ( not to mention all the family and friends who have helped out in so many ways)

this is only the beginning of Jarons long journey, but i am glad he is here, safe, being taken care of by some of the best drs in the country.