Jacob Aaron Enzweiler

After a long 9 months of waiting, my little guy is finally here!  Jacob Aaron Enzweiler came into this world on November 4, 2011 at 1:02 pm. He weighed 8 pounds even (shocking the doctor..more to come on that) and was 20 and 5/8 inches long.  He was born at North Central Baptist Hospital in San Antonio Texas.  He was perfect!
Andy and I and our wonderful support team went in to the hospital on Thursday November 3rd at 8pm to check in.  We had scheduled our induction early on so that our family and friends and could be here to witness our little miracle.  After getting all checked in and set up in the room, we met our wonderful nurse Laura who coincidentally was also from Arizona!  We were really happy to have her with us for part of the process at least. Laura got me started on a low pitocin drip to induce the labor.  My body reacted really well to it and I started having some pretty good contractions right away.

Laura allowed the whole gang to come in and visit with us.  And by gang I mean Mom Stanhill (Grandma) Dad Stanhill (Grandpa), Mom Enzweiler (Nana), Dad Enzweiler (Papa), Auntie Tay, Uncle Jay, and Auntie Jenna.  It was a room full and we loved every minute of it!  Having that kind of support really got me and Andy through it all.  

At about midnight I was starting to get pretty uncomfortable and needed to get some rest in order to be ok for laboring the next day.  Everyone went in to lobby to wait it out!  Crazy Team Jacob!  They all wanted to stay in the hospital with us until he had arrived.  Any who, Laura came in an offered up some pain relief which I was happy to except so that I could get some sleep.  

At about 5 am the new nurse came in (can't remember her name because she wasn't that nice!) and checked my progress.  I was dialated to about 4 centimeters.  She let me know that the doctor would be in about 7 or 8am to break my water and let me know it I was able to get the epidural.  So 8 am came and Dr. Askew came through the door..thank goodness!  She checked my progress again and I was at about 5 centimeters...not too much progress, but it was something.  I had a feeling it was going to be a long day ahead.  She broke my water and let me know that the anesthesiologist would be in in about an hour to give me the epidural!  WAHOO!  I was so happy!  Sure enough they came in and it really didn't hurt as much as I thought it would.  Andy was right there holding my hands and making me think of other things.  He was a really great partner!  

So all the drugs started to kick in and I just wanted to sleep.  The nurse kept coming in to turn me and make sure that I was doing ok.  At about 11 she came in to check me again and I was at 7 centimeters dialated!  I was so excited that I was making some progress.  She flipped me over one more time and left the room.  Not more than 10 minutes later, I looked at Andy and told him that I didn't feel right.  I pushed the nurse call button and in came another nurse that I had never seen before.  I let her know that I felt like I needed to push. She checked me and sure enough, I was 10 centimeters!!!  I started to cry with excitement!  I couldn't wait to meet him!  My nurse was busy helping with another epidural, so I was going to have to wait just a bit....and don't push!  UGH!  I didn't understand how I could not push, but I did it.  :) So the call was made to the waiting room to send in the troops..Grandma, Nana, and Auntie Jenna.  

So at about noon or so, the nurse had me start pushing.  Apparently I was a really good pusher because she had to call the doctor back pretty quickly. And after about 45 minutes of pushing, out he came, perfect little Jacob. We all had bets on how much he would weigh and we all came pretty close.  Dr. Askew wanted to take a bet as well and said 7 pounds 2 ounces.  Well when they weighed him and said 8 pounds, her mouth dropped and she said, "no shit!"  It was awesome!  I don't think that she believed that I could have just pushed out an 8 pounder that quickly. :) What an amazing experience!

After we were moved from the labor room and in the post pardom room, the whole family got to come in and visit with baby Jacob.  It was so wonderful having everyone there to see his little face and share in our joy!  We were so blessed to have so many visitors and support.  Thank you to everyone!  We love you all so much!  Go Team Jacob!!

  

The engagement

    It was Christmas Eve 2007, I was sitting on the floor in my pajamas in Andy's room at his parents house wrapping presents for the following day.  I had just woken up from a nap since we were getting ready to go to midnight mass.  Andy came in an sat on the floor next to me to "help me wrap presents."  He had been doodling in this little notepad all day long and pulled it out all of a sudden and told me to look at what he had drawn.  I was so out of it, that all I said was "nice."  He said "no, let me show you again."  It was a flip book and he had made a cute animation.  He got it down the second time and it said, "Jamie, will you marry me?"  I was in shock and didn't know if I had read it correctly.  I looked up and he had taken the ring our of his drawer and was down on one knee with tears in his eyes. My eyes welled up and I said yes right away!
   I was so excited to share with all of my friends and family....we were making phone calls all night and the next day to let everyone know the exciting news.  It was the best Christmas present ever!

The Flip Book Animation

How it all began....

     This classroom is where it all began.  We both were in our first year at the Art Institute of Phoenix in January 2007.  The class was called Introduction to Design and Andy walked in a bit late for our first class.  There were only two seats left and of course Andy picked the one with the broken drafting table.  After trying to adjust it and hitting his head with the table, I offered Andy the seat next to me and let him know that "I don't bite."  He just snickered and moved his belongings to the table next to mine.  I had recognized him from our future freshman orientation as the creepy guy with all of the tattoos and piercings. Little did I know what an amazing man he really was.  

    We chatted often in class about our families and what we hoped to do with our degrees when we were finally done.  We soon realized that we had a lot in common.  There were so many similarities with how we were raised and our family values.  It only took about 3 weeks for me to start crushing on him.  I didn't know how he felt and so began the innocent flirting.  He was pretty oblivious to it at first, but I could tell that there was something special between us.  By this time we had made some mutual friends in our class and decided to go out to a basketball game together.  We had a great time and made plans to go out again.  Our friend Lindsay's birthday was coming up and we all decided that that would be the night that we would go out.  I figured that this was my opportunity to lay it on thick with Andy.  

    About a week later we all met at Lindsay's place to head out for her big birthday bash in Scottsdale.  I got all dolled up and was ready for the night.   The place we were going, Martini Ranch, wasn't exactly Andy's cup of tea, but he just wanted to celebrate with Lindsay.  We were all having a great time...drinking, laughing and taking silly pictures.  Andy announced about half way through the night that he was going to have to leave early since he had to be at school at 8am the next morning.  I tried and tried to get him to stay, but he just wasn't budging.  I told him to come dance with me for a bit before he left.  He was hesitant, but finally gave in.  There was definite chemistry between us and I wanted him to know how I was feeling.  It was too loud in there to talk, so being the extremely forward and open girl that I am, I just planted a kiss right on his lips.  And by the way he smiled, I could tell that the feeling was mutual.  He only stayed for a few minutes longer but then had to go. I was so happy how the night had turned out!  I was a giddy mess when he left and knew that it was the beginning of something good.  

   The next day we spent the whole day talking for hours and making plans to get together again outside of school.  He asked me on a "proper" date to his place so that he could make me dinner.  Our first date was amazing!  He made me vegetarian chicken fettuccine alfredo, fresh alfredo sauce.  I was quite impressed.  He had bought a bottle of wine and we just sat at the table eating, drinking wine, and laughing.  We decided to play video games the rest of  night, where I beat him fare and square in many rounds of Soul Caliber II.   He told me that he was pretty impressed with my video gaming skills, but little did he know that I all I was doing was smashing buttons.  

   After that day, we were pretty much inseparable.  It didn't take long for us to fall in love and know that this was going to be our happy ending.  We met each others families soon after where both of us fit right in.  It was the first time that my brother had actually accepted one my boyfriends.  I knew then that it would last forever.  After 9 months of dating and spending countless hours together, Andy popped the question.