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My heart has been so heavy since I checked in on sweet Kate’s blog a few days ago and learned that she has relapsed again with brain cancer. Devastating to say the least. I can’t even imagine. She is having brain surgery this morning. Will you join me in praying for Kate and her family today? To read Kate’s story and for updated prayer requests visit www.prayforkate.com I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for Jake’s monthly pictures…I just wanted to do something different this time. I came across these monthly pics and decided to give it a try. Joel is thrilled that he gets to take our picture every month again. 😉 I wish I had started with a newborn pic…but I forgot. So this is Jake at one month. I decided I’d better post this before he was two months already!
Jake, You have officially made me feel surrounded by boys. But I love it so much. Your brothers are thrilled you are here and are already planning your future boy nights. You three are going to have so much fun together…I am sure there is going to be lots of wrestling involved…and lots of times when I might want to pull my hair out. 😉 Your first month you were….well…pretty perfect. You were up almost all night the first night we brought you home (I thought I was going to die!) but after that you have been a super sleeper. You are pretty predictable, waking up two or three times a night usually. You sleep in the bassinet in our room. You hardly cry (don’t get too jealous…that has changed!) and are pretty content. My family nicknamed you Perfect Jake. All I want to do is sit around and hold you. You are such a cuddler. As you can see by your one month photo, you are a chunk. At 3 1/2 weeks you weighed 10 lbs already. The first thing people say when they see you is “well, he doesn’t miss a meal” or “looks like he is a good eater” or “look at those cheeks!”. Needless to say you are gaining weight like a pro and eating is one of your best skills. And just a few more things I want to remember about this first month. You wore newborn clothes and newborn diapers for about one week. Yep, that’s it! Now you are in size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes…and I am thinking this won’t last very much longer either. You spit up just like your brothers and sister. You have started half smiling at us and I can’t wait to see your big cheeky grin. Jake, you are one very loved and smothered (by your brothers) boy! While the adjustment to three boys has been a little rough at times, you have made it pretty easy on us. I can’t imagine our family without you. I love you to the moon, Jakers. Love, Mama
One of my favorites. Levi & Griffin, October 2011
Levi & Jake, August 2014
So Jake is officially one month old…actually six weeks old today. I’m sure the other two boys had several blog posts by now documenting all the excitement the first month with a baby brings. Poor Jake is going to have to be satisfied with one post summarizing the whole month because I just can’t keep up. Fourth child problems. This post is very random so lets just start here…
Jake’s first visitors at the hospital were my sister and Joel’s brother and sister-in-law (who happened to be here from China…yay!). Since Jake was born at 11:30 at night, everyone else waited until the next day to come. But these three were hard core and waited up to greet their new nephew at 1am. Everything happened so fast that I didn’t even think to take pictures of Jake’s visitors…so these happened later…obviously.
James and Liz cleaned our house for us while we were in the hospital. I was SO thankful. If you remember, Joel wouldn’t let me stay and clean the house. For some reason he thought I needed to get to the hospital to have the baby. Haha. The house was a mess, so it was such a great surprise to come home and find it clean. And Liz left this awesome sign to greet us. I love it.
My in-laws watched the boys while we were in the hospital. They are pretty great! The boys were excited about their baby being born but I think they were even more excited to spend the night at Bammy and Papa’s house. I of course didn’t take a picture of them with Jake in the hospital either.
My mom booked her flight to come see the babies ahead of time. I thought there was no way I would go more than a week ahead of my due date. I was wrong. She was so sad not to be here when Jake was born. He was born on Wednesday and she got here late Saturday night. We were so glad to see her! She spoiled the boys and I was so, so thankful for the extra help. Come back soon mom!
I don’t know if I ever said anything on the blog, but my sister and I were due two days apart. She was due first. So she was a little mad at me when I had Jake so early and she had to wait. It was worth the wait though. Eight days after Jake was born, his cousin Lizzy arrived. My mom didn’t miss that one!
My dad flew in for the weekend after Lizzy came too. Here they are with all the grandkids.
This was my first attempt at a brother picture. No one looked at the camera, but they are still cute. And look how tiny Jake was!
I won’t tell you when we finally got around to giving Jake his first bath. I’m pretty sure we gave Cora baths every night religiously. Jake, not so much. Sorry, buddy. I don’t get a shower in very often either if it makes you feel better. 😉
Everyone helped. We always have a lot of helpers around here.
Before and after. All squeaky clean.
This past month Jake has done a lot of sleeping. And we all watch him and talk about how cute he is.
The boys want to hold Jake all the time. They talk about how cute he is and tell Jake that he is their best buddy. I hope the three of them are always best buddies.
The boys are always driving their cars on Jake or bringing him toys. They take good care of their baby brother.
Hi Jakey. Your cheeks get bigger everyday.
I could hold this sweet boy all day long. Too bad their are other things to do like dishes and laundry. Such a bummer.
And lastly, in this very long and random post, a few pics from Instagram. I am @jessmcclenahan if you want to follow along our everyday. It is pretty crazy around here with three boys but pretty awesome too. I wouldn’t change a thing! And that was our first month with Jake.
I was a little nervous about how my big boys would react to bringing a new baby home. When we brought Griffin home Levi didn’t talk to me for about two weeks. He didn’t really want anything to do with me. Change is hard for that sweet boy. And Griffin, well, let’s just say he is a major mama’s boy and strong willed too. I wasn’t sure how that combination would play out when he realized he wasn’t the baby anymore.
Jake was born at 11:30 at night so it wasn’t until the next day that the boys came to the hospital.
We told Joel’s parents not to tell them if the baby was a boy or girl, so all they knew was that their baby was here. Joel met them in the hallway and waited for a few minutes so we could get the cameras ready. He said Griffin was so impatient and kept pulling his arm and saying, “I see my baby now.”
Griffin jumped right up on the hospital bed. He was so excited.
He was all about holding his baby. He had told me all throughout the pregnancy that he was getting a boy baby. He was right.
Levi went straight for his daddy and wasn’t so sure about the whole hospital thing.
He wanted to hold Jake when Joel brought him over to the couch but he stayed very close to his daddy the whole time.
Levi finally warmed up a little and came over to my bed when we unwrapped Jake. He was checking to see if his hand was bigger than Jake’s hand.
While Levi and Daddy were discussing who was the biggest brother, Griffin was asking me a million questions. He was so curious about everything.
There is something so special about seeing all your babies together for the first time as your family grows. I so wish Cora could have been standing at the end of that bed meeting Jake for the first time too. But these three boys of mine…what a precious gift they are. I’ve got a big job ahead of me and I am so thankful that the Lord is going to be walking right beside me every step of the way.
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Michelle from Australia - Jess, it was you who ‘introduced’ me to Kate many years ago. And I’ve been praying for her and her family ever since. When I read her Mum’s relapse post I just sat down and cried. May God Bless Kate, all who love her and her medical team today. xx
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Diane Taylor - Thank you Jess – I too have followed Kate thru this incredible journey and saw the update on the seizures that Kate was having. My heart dropped and I hoped upon all hopes that this wasn’t a return of her cancer. I know we serve a powerful God – he will be with Kate and her family once again. Praying for healing !
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Kathy Apple - I read a post of your introducing this family and I just got done reading all of their entries. I was so sad to get to the most recent to see she has again relapsed. I am too praying for this sweet girl and her family. Keeping them in my thoughts today as she goes in for surgery.
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Cristin - I, too, learned of Kate through your blog many years ago, and I have followed this sweet girl ever since. My heart broke the other day when Holly posted of the relapses. I have been praying so hard over this sweet family, and especially Kate.
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Mary Ann - Yes, prayers for Kate and her family for sure.
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amanda - oh my heart. this family has our prayers.
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Sue - I have followed Kate’s blog for as long as I’ve followed yours and she is so in my thoughts, as are her mum and dad…
Sue x
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EricaG - Prayers for this beautiful family.
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