Justin was getting Jackson out of bed in the morning when Scottie walked in.
Justin: “Look, it’s Scottie!”
Scottie meows.
Justin: “Is he saying good morning?”
Jackson: “No. He’s not saying good morning. He’s saying meow.”
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2020
December
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Doggy regression
Everyone keeps asking how Jackson is handling the adjustment with the new baby. He really seems to be doing just fine. He gets excited about seeing and playing with Beckham, helps me out if I need things for the baby and otherwise has fun playing with Justin all day.
The real problem child is Luc.
Luc, Luc, Luc.
The thought never even crossed my mind that he might react poorly. I guess I assumed he already adjusted to kids when we brought Jackson home, so what’s the difference now? But he has been terrible!!!!
I don’t know if it’s just my lack of sleep and lack of patience right now, but it seems like his barking has gotten worse, if that’s even possible. He is just barking non-stop. Plus old OCD habits that we had been making progress on have come back — barking at light reflections, barking before meals, etc. He’s chewing things more, grabbing toys, napkins and such. And he peed on the floor a few times.
Sometimes it seems like he just sniffs around the room looking for ways to cause trouble.
He’s also become more aggressive about food. He’ll bark at Justin when he brings me dinner on the couch. He gets into my (empty) ice cream bowl if I leave it on the end table. And all of a sudden, out of the blue he discovered how to jump up on the dining room chairs and steal food from the table. He never did this before! So the second Jackson steps down from his chair, Luc jumps up and grabs his food. It’s totally impossible to manage.
He’s driving me nuts. Helppppp!
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Holding hands
Jackson is really getting the hang of holding the baby. He asks to hold Beckham and then he’ll run to get a pillow, setting it all up under his arm on the couch.
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Ready for camping
Unfortunately Beckham can’t join his cousins on their camping trip this weekend, so we pretended from home. This sleeping bag was actually made by mom for one of my dolls when I was a kid! She found it last year and gave it to us to use for Jackson’s stuffed animal, Lamb, when we all went camping last summer. And now it fits Beckham perfectly!
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Oh, the memories
Jackson, on his way up the stairs for nap time:
“Daddy, remember when we saw Beckham?”
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High spin cycle
“I told him to pick out a story and he just keeps spinning.”
Justin, trying to put Jackson to bed.
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Extra protection
Jackson is not yet interested in his bike, but he sure does love the helmet.
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Good mileage
Ventured out for another doctor’s appointment, and I noticed my gas tank is half full. I haven’t filled my tank since March!
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Heavyweights
Beckham is officially past 8 pounds now. Meanwhile Jackson feels like he weighs over 100!!!
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Good enough
I swear the second I start picking up any of Jackson’s toys, he instantly wants to play with them again. Or if I do it while he’s sleeping, he’ll later notice what’s been put away and immediately dump everything back out. I finally gave up trying, and just started vacuuming around them.
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Happy Father’s Day!
This was an interesting Father’s Day, and not just because we had a new baby to celebrate with. Justin ended up in the emergency room.
He is healthy and well, but that morning he was feeling chest pains. When he called urgent care with questions, they sent him to the hospital.
He was there a few hours for monitoring, and everything came back OK. No heart attack or anything, which was definitely a relief. The doctor attributed it to stress. Basically his social anxiety disorder — which typically inhibits social interactions, such as talking to people, ordering food, driving a car, etc — manifested in a new way amid all the recent changes at home.
We joked later that he couldn’t last more than a week at home with the boys before winding up in the ER. That’s one way to celebrate Father’s Day!
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Photo tricks
Since the Suls could only visit from afar, we tried to alter the perception and make it look like Kelly was holding Beckham — just like those vacation photos where people pretend to be holding up monuments. It kinda worked! If only I could have hid out of sight.
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New delivery options
We just discovered 7-11 is now available on Grub-Hub. At first we were laughing — who in the world would get 7-11 delivered? I need Lunchables and beef jerky, pronto!!
But then the more we read through the menu, the more we realized it was kind of awesome.
You could get a gallon of milk at your door, ASAP! Or batteries! Or a carton of ice cream!
And of course, a Slurpee!
The more I think about it, this would have been pretty nice for all those random pregnancy cravings. It’s probably better that this didn’t exist back then, haha.
We haven’t actually ordered 7-11 (yet), but there was another intriguing new option that we did try: Potbelly groceries!
Instead of a pre-made sandwich, we got the ingredients — deli meat, bread and mayonnaise — from Potbelly’s to make our own lunches.
Now we’re basically having Potbelly’s every day. Pretty tasty!
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Sweet little hug
Note, my “nursing station” set-up: Water bottle, facial wipes and Oreos. The essentials!!
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Finally!
Beckham had another doctor’s appointment today, so I did a coffee run while I was out. A vanilla latte — at last!!
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Happy due date!
Beckham’s original due date was today, June 16. (Also Colleen’s birthday!!) It’s crazy to think if I hadn’t been induced early, I would most likely still be pregnant (and probably for another week still).
Beckham already feels like he’s been with our family for so long, and the hospital feels like ages ago. Funny how that works!
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Royal treatment
“Warm please!”
Jackson, while Justin was changing his diaper. Apparently when Grandma was here, she warmed up the wipes in her hands first.
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Beckham’s first piece of mail
An Amazon package, of course! So neat to see his name in print. Thanks, Aunt Tracy!
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And the winner is…
Thanks to everyone who sent in their baby predictions! It was fun to read through your submissions.
For most of the questions I gave one point for each correct answer, and then for time, weight and length, I awarded one point to whoever came closest in each category.
It was a close competition, and we ended up with a tie for first place. Each with an impressive 5 point total, the two people sharing the crown are…
Aunt Kristen and Lisa Fish!
Congratulations!!! Enjoy a vanilla latte as your prize! 🙂
Some notable responses:
- Kristen came within a mere 20 minutes of the correct date and time with her guess of 1:38 a.m. on June 10. Wow! SO crazy!
- Aunt Ginny was correct in her guess that the first name would start with a “B.” I can’t believe there was actually a winner here with so many possibilities! Made it easy for me. Not sure how else I would have done it — count the closest letter in the alphabet?
- I had the correct weight at 7 lbs 8 oz and nearly the right length with a guess of 21 inches. (I swear I never got any inside info from the doctors! Although I suppose I did carry him for 9 months… Either way, I’m not counting my answers in the contest.)
- Respondents were split almost 50/50 on the gender but were nearly unanimous in predicting hair. (There was no mustache, though…Sorry, Dylan! haha)
Answer Key
Gender: Boy
Date: 6/10/20
Time: 1:57 a.m.
Weight: 7 lbs 8 oz
Length: 20.75 in
Hair or no hair: Hair
Eye color: Blue
First name starts with: B
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Already?
Our first outing (to the pediatrician’s office) and somehow I managed to lose a pacifier.
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Gifts from Beckham
Jackson got a whole backpack full of cool toys “from Beckham” when we came home from the hospital. It was a “things that go” backpack filled with things that go: a sea plane, two new cars for his racetrack (including a British bus for his England obsession!), a wooden train and monster tuck that you can paint, and a search and find book about different vehicles. I don’t think he fully appreciated my theme, but it was a hit nonetheless.
“Is that where they go potty?” -Jackson pointing to the porta-potty 
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Get me outta here
Remember how Luc would always pass out during Jackson’s naps? Here he is during nap time on our first full day with two kids.
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Who is that again?
Jackson, showing me the welcome home signs he and Grandma colored:
“Look at the decorations we made. It says Mommy and….and….and….and….tell me what the baby’s name is.”
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Our first night with two
“Sooo, do we need a baby gate now?” – Justin, upstairs with me and Beckham, realizing Jackson left us and went downstairs by himself.
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Homecoming
Just like with our Zoom meeting with Jackson, I initially didn’t want to be holding Beckham when we returned from the hospital.
But Jackson was in bed napping when we got back, and by the time he woke up, I was curled up on the couch with the baby — I guess too tired to move. So Justin carried Jackson downstairs for the official brothers meeting.
Talk about a rude awakening! Jackson did not seem pleased. He refused to even look at me. He just wanted to sit with Justin and kept turning his head away from me — with the occasional dirty look at the baby.
I think it was just a bad combination of Jackson being sleepy and me holding Beckham. But thankfully he warmed up to both of us not long after. He opened up some special gifts that Beckham brought for him — I think that definitely helped!
Later he was happy to hold the baby and especially excited to put him in the swing. By the end of the night, he was already sharing Lamb and Soldier Teddy Bear!!
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On our way home!
So hard to believe he was born on June 10, and we were already leaving the hospital by 3:30 pm on June 11. Woohoo! Much different than with our little NICU baby, Jackson. And extra speedy because of the coronavirus. I’ll take it!
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A virtual visit
Thanks to COVID, no one was allowed in or out of the hospital room.
So, for example, Justin couldn’t leave to get me some ice cubes. Or to pick up food the next day. (After our first order from the cafeteria, we learned we had to actually get two or three “meals” a person in order to not be hungry, lol.) And while normally spouses leave when you get the epidural for sterile reasons, this time they kept Justin in with us during the procedure.
Unfortunately, this policy also meant no visitors could come meet the baby. I was so sad that Jackson couldn’t visit us there. But as with everything these days, we had to make do with Zoom!
Initially I had the camera set only on me, and Justin was out of view holding Beckham. I didn’t want Jackson to be jealous or upset that we were there with the baby and not him.
He didn’t seem to mind, though.
After saying hello, he told me he was exercising and ran away. I thought for sure that would be the end of our visit, haha.
But he did come back to the camera, and I started asking him about what he was doing but he cut me off.
“Where did the baby go?” he said.
Apparently I didn’t have to hide Beckham, after all. We showed him Justin and the baby, who was sleeping, and Jackson said he was sleeping, too. When I said the baby was wrapped in a blanket, he ran to get a blanket, too.
Then Jackson showed us the little baby dolls my mom had brought for him. He was laying them down and putting on their blankets, too.
He was way more interested than I was expecting him to be. And the best part of our virtual visit is that I was able to record it, so now we have a video of the special moment that we can watch again and again.
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Introducing Beckham James
Born June 10, 2020 at 1:57 a.m. weighing 7 lbs 8 oz and measuring 20.75 inches long
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Finally — a name!
“Let’s just wing it,” Justin said when I was still pregnant and trying to brainstorm names for the baby.
We did have one name picked out for each gender, though, so I’m not really sure why we kept everyone in suspense for so long.
When the nurses asked right after he was born, I was the one who put off announcing it. There was too much going on — no need to make a decision on the spot, I thought.
I just needed a minute, but then it kind of spiraled from there.
Next Justin said we should sleep on it.
Sleep? Ummm… when exactly would that be happening?
Then, when we were in the recovery room, for some reason Justin thought this would be a good time to start looking up baby names.
“I’ve already read them all,” I told him. Literally, I think I read them all.
Still, I was nervous about pulling the trigger.
Is it the right name??? Is it too weird? It’s such a hard decision!! When someone came in for the birth certificate, I told them we needed more time.
Next Justin was second guessing whether we should flip the first and middle names that we had chosen. But I vetoed that idea pretty quickly.
My cousin reminded me to go with my gut. Everyone’s name always ends up fitting perfectly, after all.
Finally I was confident to make a decision. It flows nicely, it goes well with Jackson — plus it’s just an awesome name! And Justin was ready, too.
Back to what we originally picked out, we made it official: Beckham James Dardick.
Fun fact: I first came up with Beckham after I googled “names similar to Bennett” — which is Jackson’s middle name.
Another fun fact: Jackson’s first and middle name initials are JB while this baby is the reverse, BJ. That was not done on purpose, but still fun nonetheless.
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Warning: TMI
It felt like the next day (since he was born in the middle of the night), but really it was later that same day when I learned I wasn’t exactly in the clear yet.
Baby boy (not officially named at this point) was doing great.
But I ended up with a couple of blood clots and lost a little blood. The nurse came in for a regular check and discovered blood had soaked through my clothes, the mattress pad, etc. Next thing I knew a whole team was back in my room with a medical cart in tow.
Noooooo!
I felt exhausted and defeated. I was so over all the poking and prodding and just wanted to be done — for good!
First they got an IV ready and started me up on pitocin. Again. Then they put in a catheter (ouch) and manually extracted the blood clots (double ouch). They didn’t know where they were or how many there were so this process was mainly just kneading my stomach over and over — hard. One of the nurses squeezed my hand throughout.
Thankfully, they got them out and I was fine going forward. I didn’t end up needing any medication — or whatever was in the next step in their protocol for this situation — so that was good news.
I did have to keep the IV for awhile, and the nurses had to do more frequent checks on me. The “massages,” as one nurse called them, were light and easy the remainder of the time.
Everything was all good from then on, and I was still able to leave after 24 hours (a shortened stay due to COVID).
I couldn’t wait to sleep in my own bed again!
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