Introducing Henry Oliver Hammer
Happy New Year 2010
2010 is going to be a busy year for our family. Jon's resolution is to gain enough weight to be on The Biggest Loser, Julie plans on gaining 25-35 pounds...then losing it between June 2nd and the end of the year. Madeleine is dating, but hopes this year he will take it to the next step. Jasper (the cat) resolves to get out more. As for the extended family, they are all hoping to give more money to us....which is very generous.
Madeleine's first flight - San Diego to Atlanta - November 2008
Madeleine's first flight! We went to visit my grandparents in Atlanta, Georgia.
She did great on the plane, on a train, in the airport... she slept through just about everything!
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
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...
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