He's here! He's FINALLY here!

Brooks Wesley Jansen

Born December 17, 2011

12:05 p.m.

"From the fullness of His grace we have received one blessing after another."

John 1:16

8 pounds 7 ounces

21 inches

Friday, December 16th was my due date. And Brooks seemed to be quite content right where he was, warm and toasty inside of me! I had my 40 week appointment with my nurse practitioner midwife, Diana, and she said I was 5 cm. dilated and basically ready to go! I had been having lots of contractions, but nothing regular. So she said we could head right over to the hospital and induce me, I was that ready. But I wanted to be able to have 1 last night with my boys, pack my bags, and hopefully wait for my mom who was flying in the next morning. So we scheduled an induction for early the next morning. Diana then told me that she wouldn't be surprised if I ended up in full labor that night on my own. So I went home and got crackin' packing up a few things.

I snuggled with my boys and gave them LOTS of kisses! It's always a weird feeling for me thinking about completely changing the dynamics of our family by adding a new member. I just felt like I wanted to be sure to tell the boys just how much I love them and that I will always have enough room in my heart to love them fully and for exactly who God created them to be! We watched Curious George's Christmas as a family, put the boys to bed, and then Mark got us take out from Panera and we rented a movie. It was such a nice night!

We woke up early, showered, put the boys in the car to go to Oma & Opa's house, and headed to the hospital. It is a strange feeling, waking up and knowing you are going to have a baby that day! I didn't have that with my other 2 pregnancies and it was so nice to be fully prepared. We hugged and kissed the boys goodbye and off we went.

We checked into the hospital and I was already 8 cm. dilated and having contractions every 10 minutes! They broke my water, gave me a little pitocin, the contractions became 5 minutes apart, and I got my beloved epidural.

The whole family headed over to the hospital and my Mom made it in on time! Everyone was ready for this baby to be born! It took a while for the epidural to start working so I was fully feeling each contraction. It kicked it right about when I was ready to start pushing! But by then, it was almost too strong and I couldn't feel any urge to push. But after about 40 minutes of pushing my BIG boy decided it was FINALLY time to come on out!

We couldn't believe just how big he was! But I guess this was the longest I had been pregnant so I should have known he would be even bigger than my boys were! (Who I thought were big at 8 lbs. and 7 lbs. 9 oz.- 1 and 2 weeks early.)

It really was an easy pregnancy and delivery. My doctor has told me that I am made for birthing babies! I don't swell, I don't get stretch marks, and I have fast births. Ha! Too bad, I won't be doing this EVER again! Our family is complete at 5 and I am meant to be the mom of BOYS! I wouldn't want it any other way!

As soon as Brooks was cleaned up and checked over Mark went out to the waiting room to announce the name of our new boy! Everyone thought his name was going to be Connor. We had given them the clue that his name had an O in it and that it didn't end with an N. They also counted 6 nail holes in the wall of his nursery. So they were shocked when we told them it was Brooks! And his middle name is Wesley after his Uncle Wes. Each of the boys is named after one of their 3 uncles. A pretty cool way to honor the amazing men that they have to look up to in life!

Mark got Nolan and Heath and brought them into the room to be the first ones to meet little Brooks!

They both smiled shyly at their new brother and were happy to see me!

It was a special moment for our new family of FIVE!

Brooks is just perfect! He has LONG fingers, feet, and toes!

He is a SOLID dude, but doesn't really have any rolls on him!

Mark was, as always, my calm and solid encourager during the delivery.

He is such a great Dad!

After introducing the boys, the rest of our family came in to meet Brooks- more on that in a future post. It was wonderful to be surrounded by so much love!

The boys went back to Oma's house for a nap but came back to the hospital later in the day. I made them special gift bags with a book, puzzle, playdough, and little toy in them to keep them busy while they were at the hospital. When Nolan opened up his new Cars 2 Double Decker Bus he said, "This is just what I was wishing for!" It was a BIG hit and they LOVED having something that was all about them!

Nolan and Heath have both had their moments of being emotional or crabby since Brooks was born. But overall, they are both doing a fabulous job with all of the changes that have happened in just a few short days. They were able to sleep at home since my Mom is in town so that was a nice way to keep things consistent for them.

We hunkered down and settled into life at the hospital for 2 days. It was nice to be able to send him to the nursery at night so we could get some uninterrupted sleep.

Brooks ate, slept and pooped well!

We think he looks JUST like Heath! He has dark hair...for now!

We had the perfect balance of rest and visitors while there.

Nolan enjoyed watching his new brother and checking out all his little parts.

He always says, "He's so cute." and "I love him." Too bad he also keeps calling him "Jack". Our good friends just had a baby named Jack 2 days before Brooks was born so Nolan keeps calling him the wrong name. Ha!

Nolan also wanted me to be in the hospital bed the whole time. He said, "Mommy, if the nurse comes back in you better get back in the bed!"

And he like pushing the bed's buttons and making Dr. glove creations with Opa as well. They spent a lot of time running the halls and eating kitchenette snacks. Heath really was not that into Brooks while at the hospital. He just wanted his Mommy! But slowly his affection has grown for his new bro, which is just about the sweetest thing. I'll blog more on that as well in the coming days.

The second night Mark went home to play with the boys and help my mom out. So Brooks and I had some major cuddle time and did what he does best...SLEEP!

the view from our hospital room

On Monday morning I woke up bright and early anxious to head home and start our new life together! The weather made quite the change from when we checked in to when we checked out of the hospital. It was almost 60 degrees over the weekend, but Monday morning ushered in snow and 20 degree temperatures! Crazy Colorado!

Mark came back just in time to go with Brooks to his circumcision. I was also treated to a massage from the hospital. A nice new perk they added in the past 2 years since I had Heath.

After we got all of that and all of the paperwork taken care of, we were finally ready to head home!

We could not have had a better experience at Littleton Hospital. I absolutely adore my midwife. And we loved all of our nurses. Brooks and I had wonderful care. But as we walked out those doors Mark and I both said to each other, "We are so glad to never have to come back again!" Ha!

We are just completely confident that God has formed our family and completed it with this new and perfect addition of Brooks! We love him so much already and we are enjoying figuring out life at home now!

I'm going to try my best to keep the updates coming...I can't believe it took me 5 days just to blog that he was born! But hey, that's kind of a true picture of life with 3 children, ages 4 and under! And add to that family staying with us and Christmas fun and we are pretty much busy, busy, busy!

Good thing Brooks seems to be a very content and easy going baby! He just takes it all in and watches the crazy world around him, barely making a peep! We didn't plan on this little miracle, he fought his way into this world and made us fall in love with him, and now we are left just amazed at God's perfect plan! We couldn't imagine our life without him!

"Before I was born the Lord called me; from my birth He has made mention of my name."

Isaiah 49:1