Happy 4th Birthday Jack!

To our sweet little boy, Jack, Happy 4th Birthday, though he has believed to be 4 since Saturday...Jack is such a wonderful little boy. From the moment Darrin and I found out we were pregnant, we started calling the baby "Baby Jack." I just knew he was a boy and that his name was Jack (full name is Jackson Darrin Allred).

I instantly fell in love with our little boy. He moved a lot during the pregnancy and seemed to be tight and snug; he loved resting his foot in my left rib cage, giving me the worst burning feeling. I would try to move him, but somehow, he would manage to sneak his foot back up there. Since

Jack was a planned C-section, we knew the exact date he would come and so counted down the days. Originally, we were planned to come in at 5pm on Friday, February 20, 2004. But late Thursday night, we received a call from the hospital that they had a cancellation and so were now scheduled for 8am; we couldn't have been more excited. We hurried and gathered all our things, set the alarm clock, cleaned house, and went to bed, anxiously awaiting such a new and exciting adventure for our little family.

Well Jack finally arrived quickly and without any complications at 8am Friday morning. He weighed 8 pounds and 11 ounces. He was chubby in all the right spots. He even came out hungry too! The nurses instantly fed him a bottle while the doctors took care of me. I remember vividly the very first moment I saw Jack. The best way to describe it was: Love at first sight! All I wanted to do was hold him, kiss him, and just love him. I couldn't stop the tears from coming. It was such a special moment that I will always remember.

Since that day, I have come to know Jack, his busy, curious, and energetic personality. Since Darrin has been in Orlando all this week, Jack has slept with me in my bed. (OK, let me rephrase: he goes to bed in his own bed, and then somehow meanders his way over to my room in the middle of the night.) Jack is still a snuggler and so he crawls into bed, only to snuggle in close to you-love that! He is teaching me so much, that I just love being his mother.