OK, how did that happen? It seems like May flew by and that time is moving so fast yet it's hard to remember what life was like without Jasper.

I took a photo of Gavin every day during his first year, something I knew I couldn't even attempt with Jasper when there is a toddler in the house, so his first year photo project are the "frog photos." I'll be taking his picture on the green chair with this new frog stuffed animal wearing the same light blue onesie (I bought it in all first year sizes) on the 30th of every month. It should be fun to watch his progression during his first year!

The photo below was the first frog photo taken at five days old. Jasper seems signficantly bigger in today's photo already or he's at least awake and not slouching so much!

Jasper went to church for the first time today (Mommy and Gavin's first time since Jasper was born, too). It was a family effort: Jeff runs the sound booth, Gmummy took Gavin exploring in the preschool wing after he grew restless during the service, and Mommy actually enjoyed the entire hour with Jasper sitting in his car seat carrier on the pew. He started to fuss a few times but a combination of the pacifier and rocking calmed him down every time. Seeing that Jasper was asleep after the service, the pastor joked that he "has that effect on kids" and that we should just play one of his sermons whenever he needs to sleep (his sermons are really very good)!

Not much has changed in Jasper's life since the three week update just over a week ago. He's more alert, wants to eat constantly, and is growing bigger every day, although we won't have an exact update on his size until his one-month wellness exam on Friday.

Note: The two photos above were taken yesterday and Gavin selected the shirt, as if that should be a surprise!

Jasper is giving us one good 4-5 hour sleep period each day. It usually occurs in the evening until sometime after midnight. For the rest of the day, he sleeps for 2-3 hours at a time.

Jasper is beginning to show hints of a smile. He'll usually try to smile when I stretch his arms and legs. He likes having his arms stretched very gently over his head and then I stretch one arm and the opposite leg at the same time, then switch. It must feel good to stretch those muscles after being curled up for so long!

We went on our first hike as a family of four this morning at Umstead Park. Daddy carried the big kid...

... while Mommy carried the little kid.

Jasper was awake for the first part of the hike, but the constant rocking quickly lulled him to sleep as usual.

Towards the end of the hike, Gavin explored a bit on the ground.

We wait until the end of the hike to let him out of the carrier because if we had let him walk the entire way, we'd still be on the trail until Tuesday.

First off, I know I have a problem. Unfortunately, there is no twelve step program for flashaholics, so until y'all can set one up and muster an intervention, you'll just have to indulge me.

Jasper's nighttime bottle schedule usually runs something like 10pm, 1am, 4am, 7am. We don't decide ahead of time who will take which feeding, lack of sleep usually dictates who will sleep through Jasper's hungry whimpers. We give the little feller his bottle in our bed, and like to keep the room lights off to keep the sleepy mood going so everyone goes right back to sleep. To make sure we spot any spit-ups, as well as put the bottle in his mouth instead of his ear, we use a small flashlight to provide the least amount of light necessary to do the job. We started out sharing my old Streamlight Sidewinder, which has many different modes, most importantly a very soft red light (red is good because it preserves night vision, so we don't trip over stuff as soon as the light goes out). It was nearly the perfect light, but I tired of settling in with Jasper on my side of the bed only to realize the flashlight was over on Traci's night stand. Not wanting to lay out that much dough for another Sidewinder, especially knowing that I'd only use one of its settings, I set about searching for a different suitably dim (or at least highly adjustable) red flashlight. After much googling and polling my coworkers at REI, I found that there was no perfect flashlight that fit my needs (red, dimmable, and cheap). Plenty of red lights to be had, but the only lights that were dim enough had switching setups that caused the bright white modes to come on first, blinding me. No worries, though, I started googling for circuit diagrams instead of finished products, and turned up a forum with this gem:

I raided my parts cabinets, and a long nap's worth of soldering and fabricating later, I have this:

A large LED, a power switch, and a potentiometer (knob, if you will) to adjust the brightness level. The nine volt battery and the circuit board are inside the case. My nightstand is already at the right height, so it doesn't need adjustable legs. For me, it is the perfect baby feeding flashlight. And yes, I know, the only thing dorkier than an extensive flashlight collection is a homemade flashlight.

About twice a week, I let Gavin have a go at the iPad. He's got his own page of apps, to which he has quickly learned to navigate. His favorite is Old MacDonald's Farm, but he also likes the Lorax eBook, whether I do the reading or the app reads to him. He holds utter contempt for silly gag apps, like the piano that plays cat meows for the different notes. His biggest problem with the touchscreen interface is that he has perennially sticky fingers, due to his propensity to jam them into his nose and mouth with reckless abandon.

I haven't attempted many photos of Gavin and Jasper together, probably since the first shoot went so well, but knew we are long overdue for a good photo of the brothers together. So, yesterday afternoon's mission was a good photo of the boys together to place in a "brothers" picture frame (a Mother's Day gift from Aunt Kristen) that will sit on the mantle in the living room. I think we succeeded and thensome.

Tickle, tickle!

It wasn't all smiles. Jasper needed some coaxing from time to time...

Smoochies!

I love everything about this picture...

I handed the camera over to Jeff so I'll have proof years from now that Mommy did, in fact, exist and wasn't behind the camera ALL of the time!

Jasper's umbilical cord stump fell off last week and is now healed. His tummy is just another part of him that gets cuter every day!

Jasper is already beginning to look more like an infant than a newborn. His eyes are lighter every day, slowly turning a beautiful blue. His dark brown hair is lightening a bit. His face is fuller, his thighs are noticeably chunkier, and he's filling out a little bit all over.

Perhaps the most significant milestone that indicates he's leaving newborn-dom behind is that his umbilical stump fell off yesterday!

He now weighs ten pounds - two pounds more than his birth weight!

Jasper spends more time awake during the day now but still wakes up about every three hours at night to be fed. He's a very slow eater so some days it feels like he just eats all day long!

He's following objects with his eyes and is much more alert overall.

Jasper still loves being held and being walked around in his Ergo carrier. We went on our first mommy-and-son shopping trip alone to Target yesterday and he slept the entire time all warm and secure in his carrier.

This is the sweet face you see whenever holding him while he's sleeping... Jasper always sleeps with his mouth open in the exact same shape! I could just hold him and stare at this face all day long!

Today, Jeff had the great idea to return to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University. It would allow Gavin to run wild, Jasper to get fresh air, and all of us to enjoy the cool, cloudy morning (we love days like that!). This was our first family activity since welcoming Jasper and his first time leaving the county!

Jeff insisted they stop to enjoy the smell of cedar at the Japanese pavilion.

Gavin insisted on wearing his monkey hat and silver sunglasses, as usual. Lately, whenever we're preparing to leave the house, he pats his head and points to his eyes to tell us he needs them ... even when there's a 0% chance of the sun peeking through the clouds!

Stopping to smell the flowers...

We rounded just another ordinary bend in the path and saw this...

Oh, boy! Gavin met his first backhoe up close and personal!

He was just a little happy about it, can you tell?

Eventually, Mommy spoiled the boys' dirt-and-machinery party and insisted they visit the flower terrace. What a meanie!

Gavin loved sitting on this bench and listening to the bumblebees buzzing around all of the purple flowers. He wouldn't leave! So, Jasper and I walked around the terrace to take more flower photos.

Still on the bench...

He eventually got up when Daddy suggested they search for a dump truck. Not that we saw a dump truck. It seemed like the only thing at the time that would get his rear end off the bench!

You probably noticed that Jasper is missing from all of the photos above. He was strapped to the photographer the entire time and slept! He sure loves his warm, comfy carrier. So, here's a photo taken this morning before leaving for the park.

Gmummy found two new Cars cars for Gavin while yardsaling over the weekend - Luigi and Snotrod. Today, Gavin was reading his interactive e-book, The Lorax, on the iPod when he suddenly jumped off the couch to retrieve Luigi and Snotrod from the windowsill (where all cars live). He brought them back to the couch and held them over the iPod to show them the book as it was read!

During today's photo shoot with Jasper, I caught him smiling (well, passing gas).

Jasper is already almost too old to be taking these sleeping baby pictures. He's too alert now and doesn't want to stay curled up on his own. Today's photo shoot only lasted a few minutes until he decided to wake up for good and demand his belly be filled again!

Baby feet are the cutest!

This afternoon, nearly two weeks of interrupted nighttime sleep caught up with me and I simply had to take a nap. Gavin went to sleep as usual for his 1:00ish-4:00ish nap but Jasper decided there was too much to see to be bothered with sleep during that time period. So, we had a little impromptu photo session since I don't have many photos of Jasper awake yet and wanted him to show off his impressive head-holding strength. :)

It didn't take long for the tummy time and head holding to wear him out and soon we were both fast asleep. When I woke up, this is what I saw laying next to me...

In the morning, the four of us visited a local baby boutique to try on an Ergo baby carrier. Gavin never liked slings and carriers much, and they were uncomfortable for me as well since he was always such a hot baby and most carriers hurt my back. I knew we had to find a baby-wearing solution for Jasper, though, and the Ergo looked to be most comfortable with the baby's weight distributed evenly between the shoulders and hips, and made of super soft organic cotton. We left the store with a navy blue carrier and silver infant insert that he'll use until he can fully support his head. Eventually, Jasper will be able to be carried in back so we won't need to buy a separate carrier when we start hiking again in the fall. 

We took our first post-baby stroll around the neighborhood this evening and Jasper loved his luxurious ride - he slept the entire time!

It's only been four days since the last blog entry and I already feel like a slacker! Here's a recap of what the Highsmiths have been up to for the past few days...

Saturday was Aunt Kristen's birthday. We had dinner and cake at Gmummy and Grandpa's house in the evening. The cake that Kristen made for herself was dee-lish! Gavin couldn't get enough! We were out of candles, so Gmummy lit a wooden skewer. It went out three times before we could finish singing, but hopefully Kristen's wish will still come true!

Mother's Day was Sunday. Gavin colored with Gmummy in the morning.

I took Jasper to meet his great-grandparents in the afternoon. He stayed awake during the entire two-hour visit - chatting, playing Bananagrams, and munching on strawberry shortcake. He didn't want to miss a thing! GGma sure was happy to hold a little newborn. GGma and GGpa didn't meet Gavin until he was three months old.

After months of reading to Gavin side-by-side with my huge belly, I'm so happy to be able to read while he sits in my lap again!

Jasper spends much more of the day awake now. It was like his little "awake switch" turned on when he reached ten days old. So, on Monday morning, we pulled out the bin of newborn toys to entertain him. Gavin was more interested in the toys, though!

Ten days old! Have you ever seen a newborn with a more flawless complexion?

Gavin has been such a great big brother. He helps wash bottles, fetches new shirts when Jasper's diaper is changed, tries to put Jasper's pacifier back in his mouth when it falls out, and gently pats his back when Jasper is being burped. So far, there are no signs of jealousy and he truly loves his little brother. We're doing our best to keep the relationship that way!

My favorite way to end the day...

We've enjoyed every minute of the past week getting to know little Jasper. Here are a few things we've learned about him...

Jasper wants to be held all the time! Gavin was never really a cuddler so it's sweet to spend every afternoon rocking in the recliner with a baby laying on my chest.

He sleeps with his arms over his head. The recommendation at the hospital was to swaddle with arms free and that's exactly how Jasper prefers to sleep.

He is an excellent photography model! When his tummy is full, Jasper falls fast asleep and I'm easily able to move and mold him without waking him up.

Jasper is a very slow eater and usually dozes off after the first half dozen sips from his bottle. His feedings are every 2-3 hours around the clock.

Jasper doesn't really see the point of a pacifier. Gavin was addicted by the end of his first week so perhaps Jasper just isn't a pacifier baby! Singing to him calms Jasper down more than sucking on a piece of plastic.

He has very good head control already. We noticed on his first day that he lifts his head quite steadily and can lay it down again without the typical newborn slam.

Jasper hates getting his diaper changed, although I suspect most newborns do!

Yesterday, Mommy and Daddy took Gavin to Tiny Tumblers. We wanted to give him some undivided parental attention and Mommy wanted to take advantage of her time off to participate in Gavin's weekday activities that she usually misses while working! Gmummy requested some solo time with Jasper so they stayed home to cuddle for an hour while we took Gavin to the gym. It was a winning situation for all involved! Mommy, of course, can't go anywhere without toting the camera along so here are more photos of Gavin in action at the gym.

He slid...

He rode the pommel horse ...

He balanced on the low beam ...

He braved the high beam ...

He got a piggy-back ride (because even in a toddler's paradise of climbing equipment, nothing beats a piggy-back ride) ...

He soared on the rings ... almost ...

He did the hula ... sort of ...

And he jumped ...

... and jumped ...

... and jumped some more ...

... and would still be jumping if we didn't have to leave when the 45-minute session was over!

I was so excited to post new photos of Jasper after returning home that I never finished documenting our hospital stay and sharing photos of Jasper's first visitors!

Following Jasper's birth, we stayed in labor and delivery for an hour. Our check-in was completed (ha!) and the nurse examined Jasper and gave him his first bath. Jeff and I called the grandmothers so they could start spreading the news. Gmummy was quite surprised to hear, "he's here!" only an hour after we left the house!

Around 2:00 AM, we moved to the recovery wing and spent some time alone with our new baby. We were both exhausted, though, and decided to send him to the nursery at 4:00 AM so we could both get a few hours of sleep!

Gmummy, Grandpa, and Gavin came to visit us in the morning. We were so happy to see that Gavin really enjoyed his new baby brother.

Grandpa didn't get to meet Gavin until he was four weeks old, but met Jasper at less than 12 hours old.

In the afternoon, the three of us watched the newest episode of MythBusters together on the iPad (you gotta love MythBusters if you're gonna survive in this family!). Jeff had watched it the night before when I was writhing in pain on the couch at home yet insisting I was fine, that a Tylenol would help, and he didn't need to worry about me. Ironically, the myths being tested were about pain tolerance including whether or not women tolerate pain better than men (they do). Aunt Kristen then came to visit in the afternoon after work.

We decided to send Jasper to the nursery again for a few hours on the second night since we both only slept for about three hours the night before. In the nursery, he was given his hearing test, jaundice test, oxygen saturation test, and several others. The nurse always returned to us with news that every test was passed with flying colors.

A standard 48-hour post-delivery hospital stay would have sent us home on Sunday but we were able to skip out early on Saturday morning. Both the obstetrician and pediatrician surprised us by stopping by our room just before 8:00 AM to give both me and Jasper clean bills of health and the approval for discharge from the hospital.

Gmummy and Gavin headed back to the hospital to depart with us. We thought it was important for Gavin to leave the hospital with the new baby to help with the transition. By 11:00 AM, we were packed up and check-out procedures were complete. Jasper and I were wheeled to the entrance but Gavin was very upset and wanted to ride along, too. Fortunately, he fit right next to me in the wide wheelchair!

We drove home in much heavier traffic than when we arrived at the hospital 36 hours earlier, but were much less stressed! Jasper slept the entire drive home. I can tell he's going to be a very mellow second child already!

Jasper visited the pediatrician today for his first check-up. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 15 ½ ounces - a half ounce more than his hospital discharge weight. We were able to ask a few questions and the nurse and doctor gave him a thorough examination. He's a perfectly healthy little boy!

Big brother Gavin, who hates doctor visits, was an excellent companion and the doctor gave him a sticker for his excellent behavior.

I didn't take any photos of Jasper today (gasp!) so the photo above was taken yesterday.

Yesterday, I tried to get a photo of the boys together for the header photo of this blog. Obviously, you see two separate pictures above so I wasn't successful. The outtakes are rather entertaining though...

I'm going to take a photo of you and your brother together. OK, Jasper?

I don't know, Ma. He's a little crazy...

OK, Darling. I kinda see what you mean...

I'm not liking this, Mommy!

Don't mess with me, big Brother!

Aw, I'm harmless, little Jasper!

Gavin really does like his new little buddy...

Not to be overshadowed by his new baby brother, Gavin is 2 years and 4 months old today. Here is his monthly update...

Gavin likes us to kiss his boo-boos to make them all better. If he bumps an arm or a knee and his bottom lip starts quivering, we ask him if he wants us to kiss his boo-boo so it will feel better and he tearily replies, "yeah." So, we kiss him and he transforms into a tough guy who doesn't want to talk about the injury anymore - he wants to forget about it and move on. He even stumbled and fell recently, not hurting any particular body part, but startling himself and hurting his pride. So, I just asked if he wanted a hug. He came for one and was all better after that.

Play-doh is a new favorite toy. Mostly, Gavin enjoys asking us to open one container and then he'll dump the blob of Play-doh on the table, pick it up and examine it curiously, put it back in the container, and try to snap the lid back on. He repeats these steps a dozen times with the remaining containers. We have a few shape cutters so we roll out the dough for him and he presses the shapes in the dough. When he has enough, he shreds the shapes into little pieces and makes Play-doh confetti. His favorite Play-doh color is blue.

While I was uncomfortably large and moody, Gavin was a doll and did my grocery shopping for me...

He now mixes sets of cars and trucks on the windowsill and his focus is adding cargo. His mostly enjoys loading up his trucks with Lincoln Logs, LEGO bricks, smaller cars, etc. He must have realized that all of the trucks in his books are working and that his trucks were being lazy.

Gavin is a jumping bean. He jumps ALL. THE. TIME. He's getting good height and distance on his jumps these days! We have "6:30 crazy time" around our house. He seems to need to vent a lot of pent-up energy around 6:30 every evening after dinner and will jump and run in circles around the living room, fall down, laugh, just act like a crazy little thing. We usually just sit on the sofa, stare at him in amazement, and feel even more secure in our decision to cancel cable several months ago. Who needs television when we have this sort of entertainment right in our living room?

Gavin doesn't tolerate disappointment well, but doesn't react in a loud dramatic way like we expected when repremanding a toddler. When we tell him "no" or to not do something, he has an introverted meltdown where he drops to the floor face down and quietly sniffs his tears away. This happened recently when he was jumping on the stairs so I told him to not jump on the stairs, to jump in the room instead. Stop, drop, and sniff.

One of Gavin's favorite books is the "John Deere Big Book of Construction Machines." It's a big DK picture book with all sorts of photos and facts about construction vehicles. We read it every night before he goes to bed which never fails to leave me cracking up inside that this is a favorite bedtime story. There's nothing sweet, tranquil, or sleep-inducing about this book as you would expect from a bedtime story - it's a non-fiction book of facts!

Drawing on the iPad

Most birth stories begin with the onset of labor. Not this one! I'm not quite sure exactly when labor began (how embarrassing is that?). It may have been as long as 30 hours although I wasn't certain until the final hour. You'd think that someone who's already experienced childbirth would know when she's in labor, but no!

On Wednesday, April 28th, I had a regular weekly prenatal checkup. Nothing was progressing much and I appeared destined to have a May baby. For weeks, I'd been having painless Braxton-Hicks contractions just like the weeks leading up to Gavin's birth. On Wednesday evening, some of those contractions were becoming painful. They were still very erratic and localized to a small area on the underside of my belly. They woke me up from sleep about a dozen times that night but never got any worse, never spread to other areas, and didn't seem to be getting closer together. I didn't have false labor with Gavin but assumed that was what I was experiencing. In the morning, I Googled "false labor" and every result described exactly what I was experiencing.

So, I went upstairs to work as usual on Thursday morning and the painful contractions even went away for most of the morning. They returned in the afternoon, about only one or two an hour. By the evening, they weren't getting any better but weren't changing in any way to make me believe it was anything other than false labor. Jeff went to work the evening-to-close shift and Mom came over to watch Gavin during the short time between his departure and the end of my work day. Seeing how I was feeling, she decided to stay and help with Gavin until his bedtime even though I told her I was fine (Mama really does know best!).

Around 8:00, after Gavin went to sleep and Mom left, the contractions were coming faster and I was becoming quite miserable. I laid on the couch watching a DVD and by the time Jeff came home around 10:00, the pain was so frequent that I could barely even articulate how I was feeling. At this point, looking back, I suppose it's silly that I still thought this wasn't real labor, but the pain was still only in one small area under my belly and seemed to be triggered many times by my movement which would indicate false labor rather than real labor. My water didn't break and I never had some other signs of impending labor that I'd experienced in the days leading up to Gavin's birth.

When I began to think that it was going to be impossible to sleep at all that night and that my condition wasn't getting any better, I finally told Jeff to call the doctor. The doctor on-call at the hospital was the same I had seen the day before at my checkup (there are five doctors in the practice that patients rotate through and this one happens to be my favorite). Knowing I hadn't shown much progress just the day before, she doubtfully told Jeff to bring me in to "check my progress." We called Mom to head back to our house to stay with Gavin overnight. During the last two contractions prior to leaving the house, I could feel the baby start to descend and finally knew for sure that I must really be in labor!

The drive to the hospital had been worrying me for months. In Florida, we lived a quick two-mile drive to HealthPark. Here in Raleigh, Rex is on the other side of town, requiring us to drive busy highways and several miles on the beltline. Depending on the time of day, the drive could take just twenty minutes or well over twice that. Fortunately, it was closing in on midnight so traffic was very light and almost every traffic light was green. Still, it seemed like a very long drive! I knew the baby was coming quickly but tried not to stress Jeff out any more since he was already driving as quickly as safely and legally possible! By the time we reached the hospital exit on the beltline, it was getting really hard to not push.

At the hospital, Jeff jumped out of the car at the door (literally, I'm sure!) and ran to get a wheelchair. We quickly checked in and rolled up to the labor and delivery floor where we met a nurse who started to prepare us for assessment in triage. However, she stopped herself mid-sentence when she realized we needed a delivery room immediately! Once in the room, I pushed three or four times and Jasper was born! It all happened so quickly, that there was never time to insert an IV or start any baby monitoring.

We had still been driving in the car when I noticed the clock had hit midnight, meaning that Jasper would be born on his due date - not what I was expecting! He was born at 12:19 AM so we were only at the hospital for about 15 minutes. Thank goodness we didn't hit any more red lights than we did!

Jasper Howard Highsmith

born Friday, April 30, 2010 (his due date!) at 12:19 AM

at Rex Hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina

8 pounds, 1 ounce

21 ½ inches

"Jasper" is just a name we both like that fits our naming criteria - it's not weird but also not very common, two simple syllables, doesn't exist in either of his parents' family trees (so, like his brother, he's the first in his family with this name), and goes well with "Gavin." ;)

"Howard" is Jeff's middle name and the middle name of his father and grandfather. Jasper is the fourth generation Highsmith man with the middle name "Howard." This also gives Jasper the same initials as his father and grandfather - JHH.

View the Video

It went better than we could have hoped. Gavin gave Jasper a very warm reception, and wasn't even daunted by the challenge of caring for him.

View the Video

 I'll give you a hint: it's not Gavin.