...I surely would!

Madeleine - Early October, 2008

2 more pounds & inches to love!

Madeleine had her one-month check-up on Monday, September 29th, and she weighed in at 8 pounds, 10 ounces - exactly 2 pounds more than her birth weight. She had also grown exactly 2 inches, measuring 21 1/2 inches. She is growing great, eating like a champ and cutter than ever. She has recently been discovering her voice and makes all kinds of new squeals and screeches. An improvement on just crying, in our opinions. It is so fun for us to watch her grow and change. What a joy she is! She's even starting to look a little chunky and is unfortunately loosing all her adorable hair on top - she now looks a little like a monk - an adorable monk that is.

Newborn shots by Amanda Prince...

As promised, here is a sneak peek at the newborn shots we had done at our home last Wednesday by the amazing Amanda Prince - http://www.amandaprince.com/

We had so much fun with Amanda... she has such a talent for capturing the sweetest moments, we just love the memories she has created for us.

Here's a shot Jon took of the process. It was really difficult to get Madeleine to sleep through all of the poses and re-positioning, but it was well worth it.

Some more cute shots...

Here are a few new shots of Madeleine. My mom pointed out that all of the pictures so far on our blog are of her with her eyes closed. She is actually a very alert and active little babe. So here are some shots with her eyes open. More to come...

Madeleine's modeling debut

Photos by Jon (with a little help from Aunt Jean, cousin Amber and mommy) ...and yes, Madeleine did pee on daddy during the photo shoot.

Madeleine comes home - Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

Madeleine Josephine Hammer has arrived!

Madeleine Jospehine Hammer ("Maddie")

Born: Sunday, August 31st, 2008 at 2:09p.m.

Weight: 6 pounds, 10 ounces

Length: 19 1/2 inches long

How we chose her name. Jon and I have no real special reason for having chosen the name Madeleine. It was just a name we both fell for. It means "high minded" which doesn't really make a lot of sense --- but the name's cute. We plan on calling her "Maddie" for short (we changed the spelling).


















Her middle name was more of a dilema, as many of you know. From the time I found out I was pregnant, the name Josephine was one of my top names. Jon didn't really care for it much, so we put it aside, though I always brought it up while talking about names.

The name has had very special meaning to me, virtually my entire life. Let me explain... When I was 3 years old and my sister was 6, we were both given "strong Southern names" by some very dear friends of our family - surroget grandparents, of sorts, who lived on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. My sister was "Geraldine" and I was "Jospehine." We grew up vacationing on Hilton Head every year until I was in college. From the time when they gave us our Southern names, to this day, I have never been called Julie by those friends. The nickname also followed me in circles of close friends. (Photo: Geraldine - left, Josephine, right. Sea Pines Plantation, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina - 1982)

Well, Jon was never sold on the name, so we had kind of settled on the name "Jane" as a middle name. However, it lacked meaning for me. That meant we had two names without any real significance, but I was ok with them because they were cute names.

It wasn't until we were prepraing to leave the hospital on Tuesday, September 2nd, that Jon and I filled out the birth certificate information. Jon filled it out and told me he wanted to name her Josephine. I think sometime while we were going through the tough hours of labor, his heart changed towards the name without us even discussing it. I was so honored and excited that he wanted to choose that name. So that became her name.

Jon asked me in the car ride on the way home from the hospital what the name meant. I had forgotten it's meaning, since I had looked it up months prior. When we got home I looked it up in one of our baby name books... It means "blessed" - which instantly brought tears to my eyes. You see just 5 days before while leaving my last pre-natal appointment, a stranger was talking as I was leaving the building. As we parted, he turned one last time, pointed at me and with a huge smile wished me well and said "have a blessed baby." His wording caught me off guard and made me smile all the way home.

We believe that her name was just meant to be Josphine. And we truly have been blessed!

So it begins...

In the wee hours Friday morning, August 29th, I began having more consistent contractions, (though I didn't realize it at the time). My contractions became full blown around 6p.m on Friday evening after about 16 hours of early labor. They were coming 5 or less minutes apart and were all lasting 1 to 2 minutes, each. This was it! Jon and I were excited. Over the next 44 hours, I labored hard to bring little Madeleine Josephine into the world. It was exhausting but so truly rewarding. God gave me strength and peace I never expected and our desires were acheived through a 60 hour labor. I was able to labor and give birth without pain killers. My desire was to have a natural delivery and God's hand was in every little detail to allow us to acheive that goal. The experience has been amazing for our marriage. Jon and I labored so hard together for so many tiring hours - his support was essential! Without him I would have caved in the first few hours. We also had the amazing support of our "doula" (labor coach), Niki, an awesome woman of God whose expertise helped us through many complications the hospital would not have been patient with. She was such a servant to us both and we are so grateful. (Pictured here).

August 28th, 2008 - Madeleine's Due Date

Well, Thursday, August 28th came and went with no clear sign of Madeleine's near arrival... Needless to say, I was a little disappointed. However, a few hours later, in the middle of the night, I woke up and was experiencing early labor, (though I didn't know it at the time). I thought I was just laying and sitting in a way that was uncomfortable. Yeah, they turned out to be contractions.

Jon and Julie - August 2008 - Encinitas, California (9 months pregnant)

Photography done by the very talented, Amanda Prince - http://www.amandaprince.com/
Newborn shots, by Amanda, pending Madeleine's arrival...

Happy 31st Birthday, Jon!

Celebrating Jon's 31st birthday, July 18th with friends, (Ryan and Andrea, left, and Steve and Laura, right) in Palm Desert.

Celebrating 4 years! (8 months pregnant)

July 10th, 2008, Jon and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary! I was 8 months pregnant. We celebrated by dining at our favorite restaurant, C Level, on the San Diego bay. (Many of you have eaten there with us at some point, I am sure - we're crazy about it).

7 months pregnant - June 2008

Two big bellies!



Julie and good friend, Tara who was also pregnant with a little girl, due a month before Julie. She had her baby girl, Isabella Karis, in late July - seriously one of the cutest little bundles ever! She's such a little tiny thing, really fun to hold.

Mother's Day - May 2008 (6 months pregnant)

Jon surprised me bright and early on Mother's Day this year by purchasing the baby stroller/car seat that we had picked out and wheeling it in while I was still in bed. He even picked out a little newborn outfit for her, jeans and an embroidered tanktop. So cute!

I was not expecting anything this year, since technically I am not a mom, yet. However, Jon felt differently and that was so special to me.

We spent the day in L.A. with his family, all the moms were celebrated including his cousin, Rachel, and I - the two pregnant "moms." I was so honored.

We did also celebrate Jon's first Father's Day in June, yet somehow, sadly, we forgot to take any pictures.

5 months pregnant - April 2008

One thing I should point out about the second trimester is that no one ever told me how awkward those middle stages of pregnancy really are.

At four months I was still too small to wear maternity clothes, but getting to the point where my regular clothes were not going to work too much longer. Then I went through the stage where I held my pants closed with hair ties. A true joy, let me tell you. I was glad to move past those days.

At around six months, I started wearing maternity clothes and if I did wear my old clothes, it was mostly the stretchy things. My resounding question through these few awkward months... why don't they make in-between pregnant clothes? Life would be so much more pleasant.

The good news about this point is that my daily morning sickness began to subside.

4 months pregnant - March 2008

3 months pregnant - February 2008

Just when I thought I had squeeked by through my first trimester without having morning sickness... it began. I started getting sick literally the week I reached 3 months. However, on a positive note, I could still fit into all of my clothes without much discomfort. My belly was just starting to show.

This is also the point at which we told all of our extended family, friends and co-workers that we were expecting. The baby had made it through the toughest weeks of developement so this was truly a happy point for us as our excitement began to grow --- along with my belly!

Jon and Julie in Joshua Tree - January 2008 (2 months pregnant)

Well, I cannot remember the exact dates of this picture, but I know I was around 2 months pregnant when we climbed Ryan Mountain in Joshua Tree National Park.

We were there with several friends. Jon made me take it easy on this hike since I was in the very early stages of pregnancy. We cleverly used our friend, Jenny, as the excuse to go slow since she was six months pregnant with twins. (Though, we really were concerned for her well-being, two babies is a lot to hike with). It was a tough hike and she was a champ, we were really proud of her! When we finally arrived at the top, all of the rest of our friends were waiting for us --- the view was amazing!

We're Expecting!

The story of how we discovered we were going to have a baby...

Well, as many of you already know, the biggest news in our lives right now is the very near arrival of our daughter, Madeleine. In case you do not know the details of our journey, we wanted to take an opportunity to share with you our exciting story.

A very special Christmas morning...
Our journey begins during the Christmas holiday, 2007. Our pregnancy came as a huge surprise to us. In the days leading up to Christmas, I became suspicious that I might be pregnant. Jon and I wanted to start a family, but until this point had not had any success. As the days grew closer to Christmas, it became harder to ignore the fact that all was not as it should be.

Jon and I had plans to have a very special Christmas Eve together as we were to head up to L.A. in the morning to spend time with family Christmas Day. We had an amazing turkey dinner prepared with all of the trimings and we planned on opening our presents later that evening. Just before dinner, I decided to buy a pregnancy test to put all the suspicion to rest. I decided I would test the next morning.

I decided not to tell Jon that I had gotten a pregnancy test - after all it was destined to be negative anyways... or so I thought. Christmas does make an ideal time to find out this kind of news and the timing of it all was just too "fairy-tale-like" to be real in my mind. Of course it goes without saying (though I'll say it just the same) if it had been any other time in the year, I would have absolutely wanted him involved in the process.

Sometime in the wee hours of Christmas morning (I think around 4a.m.) I woke up to use the restroom and decided that it made as good of an opportunity as any to take the test. Well, to my disbelief the test showed up with a big blue positive plus sign. As soon as I saw that result, my mind completely forgot what it was I should be looking for. Surely a blue plus sign must mean you're not pregnant! I quickly pulled the instructions out of the trash convinced I had misread something or forgotten a step. After a quick review, I sat down on the edge of the tub staring in complete shock at that postive plus sign in my hand. I was pregnant!

It took me a couple of minutes to decide whether I should take the second test right there and then, or go into the bedroom and tell Jon. I finally resolved to do the latter. I walked into our dark room, Jon in bed, fast asleep. Through the darkness I said the only thing that came to mind, "Jon, I think I have another present for you..." To which Jon mumbled something indecipherable and I continued, "I think we have a positive pregnancy test."

Now let me pause here for a minute to set the sceen for you. Jon's immediate reaction can be best appreciated with a clear understanding of his frame of reference in that moment. One important fact to begin with is that Jon truly does not like to be awoken out of a deep sleep. Add to that the fact that he had no idea I was suspicious of even being pregnant and he was certainly unaware that I had purchased a test and taken it.

Well, with that being said, I could not have wished for a better reaction from him. Literally, the moment I uttered the words, "I think we have a positive pregnancy test," he jumped up onto his knees from an unconscious, horizontal position, and excalimed "no way" with so much enthusiasm, it even surprised me. How had his mind had time to even process the words yet, let alone grasp their meaning? He was so excited, he immediately turned on the light and wanted to see the test for himself. I was stunned that he could be so elated, when he had no clue what news was coming. That was, by far, the most fun and special reaction I could have wished for.

Even after taking that first test and seeing the positive results for myself, I still doubted that it could be true. Jon, on the other hand, needed no additional convincing. I, however, did not have as much faith in the over-the-counter pregnancy tests. All in all, I think it took five positive pregnancy tests to finally convince me, the last two of which were the blood tests at the doctor's office.

From there our excitement grew as we shared the news with our immediate families. Due to some very high risk factors with the pregnancy, we decided to wait to tell extended family and friends about our news. Our families supported us with prayer and plenty of encouragement during those early weeks. We finally told our joyful news to everyone else when I was 12 weeks along and my doctor said he really no longer had concerns for the survival of the baby.

What a fighter that little Madeleine is! She was given a less than 25% chance of survival to 12 weeks of gestation. Well the Lord truly is to be praised for this new little life set to arrive Thursday, August 28th, 2008. She was just meant to be ours, and we couldn't be more thrilled to meet her!

We look forward to sharing our new little girl with each and every one of you. Thank you for all of your love, support and prayers.