Jacob's first month

I can't believe that Jacob will be one month old tomorrow! Time seems to have flown by. People told me it would, but I thought the newborn stage would take forever. Here are some pictures of his first month of life. Hopefully you can tell how big he is getting.


This is a picture of Jacob in his crib at one week. He looks so much smaller than he is now!


Sept. 3--Almost two weeks old. He looks so peaceful. This is how he sleeps all the time. He looks uncomfortable with this legs like that, but as long as he is sleeping well I won't complain!


Sept. 8--All ready to leave the house in his car seat attached to the stroller frame. I think we just went and got the mail (about a three minute walk), but it was the first time he went out with the stroller.


Sept. 12--Jacob has been smiling a lot. Sometimes in response to us talking to him, sometimes just because he feels like it.



Sept. 19--Jacob and I went with Larry to mow the church lawn. Here we are in the church nursery playing. It seemed to take forever for Larry to be finished, but at least the church had one of those activity gym things he could lay on.

Jacob's first week

I got these flowers from my boys! It was so nice of them.


Jacob loves to eat. When he's awake and not eating, he usually has his hands in his mouth!


My mom came to help out, and I asked her to cut Jacob's really long nails. I was too nervous to do it the first time. My mom had a lot of fun. My mom also did some laundry and ironing for me (Yay, I HATE ironing!). She was awesome, and it was so nice to have my mom take care of me. My dad finally held Jacob when he was 4 days old (My dad was recovering from the swine flu!).

Jacob Hendrik Zylstra

Jacob Hendrik Zylstra was born on August 22, 2009 by a C-section at 6:28 pm. He was 9 pounds, 8 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. His head measured 36 centimeters. I'm told that is quite big.
Jacob spent a few days in the hospital with his mommy recovering and learning how to survive in this new world. Right when he was born, his daddy took a lot of pictures. Here are some:

Labor Story

Friday morning, August 21, Larry and I drove to the hospital and arrived by 7:00 am for the induction. However, things had not progressed as much as planned, and I had to go through three rounds (3 hours each try) to get my body more prepared to dilate. Finally, I was having contractions. At 9:00pm, my water broke and they then could begin to give me the pitocin to increase contractions. By 3:00 am, I was having intense contractions yet still not dilating anymore. I was in a lot of pain, so they gave me some medicine in my IV. Finally I could sleep (for 45 minutes until it wore off). They could give it to me every hour, but it would take the edge off the pain for less and less each time. At 6:00 AM, and after being at the hospital almost 24 hours, I received an epidural. Not a lot changed throughout the day. I laid in bed because I couldn't feel my legs very well, and I had a catheter. I couldn't feel the contractions, but I could feel everything else, including an intense pain as Jacob's head or something pressed up against my tailbone. At 5:15 that afternoon, I was told I had a 5% chance of delivering the baby the normal way. So, we began preparing for a C-section, and at 6:28 pm I was not only the mother of a beautiful little baby boy but also officially finished with about 36 hours of induction/labor!

Mike and Karena's wedding

On July 24, my brother Mike married Karena Kleiver. We are so excited to add Karena to the family! She is such a wonderful girl, and it's obvious how much my brother loves her. Here are a few pictures of the wedding. Yes, I put on a bridesmaid dress at 8 1/2 months pregnant (38 weeks), but I think I looked pretty good! Don't tell me otherwise...well, I did NOT look as good as Karena, that's for sure! We had so much fun at the wedding. It was so nice to catch up with some cousins we don't see very often. And, of course, there was plenty of Bon Jovi...

Trying this out

This is our first blog. I figured we needed one now that we will have a little boy or girl to brag about in a few short days. Please be patient as I figure this whole thing out. Here are some pictures of the baby's room so far. We are SO excited to meet baby Z.