Monday, May 25, 2009

Blessings

I am so proud to introduce you to my new nephew...Vander!!  His name comes from my mother's maiden name Vanderburg.

Jessica and Heith are still working on a middle name for him.  He is the first grandson/great-grandson with the Guilbert name.  I know that has to make my granddaddy proud to have lived to see that.  A little history...my daddy is one of five.  He has a brother and three sisters.  My Uncle Fred has four girls who are married to wonderful men but have obviously taken on their husbands last names.  I have two brothers...Heith and Brennan.  Brennan is only 17 so he has no kids yet...thank goodness!  LOL.  They are the only two male grandkids with the Guilbert name. Heith's first child is Harper...a precious little feisty 15 month old girl who is walking and talking and FULL of energy.  :-)  Her favorite word is "NO!"  Ha.  Harper will meet her baby brother today.  She liked to play with her mommy's belly button when she was pregnant and knows sign language for baby...well, her own version of it anyway.  She keeps one arm straight and crossed the other over and moves back and forth after she has said the actual word "baby."  She learned it from one of her Baby Einstein videos.  I haven't actually seen her do this but that's the way Jessica describes it.  We are curious as to what she will think of her baby brother because she's so young.  I was three when Heith was born.  I didn't know to be gentle with him yet.  What I thought was a gentle love "pat" on his head turned out to be way too rough. It reminds me of a friend of mine, Lori, who had her little girl a few years after her son Austin was born and before going home from the hospital he was sitting on the bed with her trying to shove candy into her mouth.  He also gave her some very important advice.  "Beans make you toot!"  Kids are so sweet and innocent.  To him he was just being a good big brother and wanting her to enjoy some of the sweeter things in life.  I can't wait to hear how Harper reacts to Vander.  She's so young and probably won't do too well at first with the fact that she will have to share her mommy with the baby but she will eventually adjust to the new normal.  Who knows...she may surprise us all.


I can't wait to see that little thing and kiss his face off!  


When Vander was born he was having some trouble breathing and with movement but those
things have cleared although he is still in the nicu until they get the tests back to see if he has any infection.  They are giving him antibiotics to be safe.  Jessica and Heith got to hold him today for the first time.  Jessica said he was wiggling around trying to nurse but they are holding him off on food for a while longer.  Poor baby...I'm sure he is hungry.  He doesn't look like Harper really.  He just looks like himself.  I see a little of her in him but they change so much in the first few days and weeks that we will just have to wait and see.  

Jessica's labor was very fast once things started progressing. My mom told me that the nurses said they wished she could come back in 9 months and do this all again so they could film her labor and delivery.  They used the word "AMAZING!"  But as amazing as it was I can say with almost 100% certainty that Jessica does not want to have to do that again for quite a while. She has an enormous amount of control over her body during labor.  It's nuts.  Oh...and I forgot to mention she does this ALL without drugs.  Yeah...nature people.  She's a machine.  I mean, just look below at the picture of her with Heith and Vander below...this was literally just a few hours after having him.  


Anyway...without further ado....here he is, Vander ????? Guilbert,  7lbs 14ozs.  
I think she said he was 21 inches but I may have to correct that.  He's much more filled out than Harper was.  She was only 6lbs 11ozs.  

5 comments:

Michawn said...

None of my kids have shown even the slightest bit of jealousy...ever. I think it actually helps to have them so close together...they don't know any different. Hope little Harper adjusts easily. And I continue to pray for little Vander's health...so that that poor baby can get some ninny. ;) And that's awesome about Jessica...I was going to comment on that pic on FB yesterday...how she looked so great in that pic. They seem so cool. Would love to hang out with your whole family again someday. :)

hannah said...

i'm so glad that vander is here! and i will continue to pray for him. you know that i know the whole "he has a little bit of trouble breathing" thing....too well. and i know how hard it is to try to nurse with all those wires on him from the nicu. breathing stuff, heartrate stuff, etc.

my prayers are with your brother and sister :)

they sure make pretty babies! no surprise there!

Sheila Stephens said...

my prayers are with you friend. I love you.

Anonymous said...

Very cool, Ashley. BTW, has Heith moved out of T-town? I would run into him every so often, but I haven't seen him in quite a while.

Anyway, a similar situation (family name) is in our family: my brother, Jeff, and I are the only Murphy boys dating back to our great-grandfather's children to pass on the Murphy name. I've got two boys now, so, God willing, they will have the opportunity to pass on the John Julius Murphy line...

I hope things are going well with you.

Karen Guilbert said...

I'm so blessed!!!