Anne's 1st week

I love this 1st picture and think it captures her features best of all

Sisters

Olivia loves being a big sister and is a fantastic helper.

The weekend before Anne

At church 3 hours before Sarah's water broke


Shortly after the water broke (but before we were sure)


3 hours after Sarah's water broke our friend came over to stay the night with Olivia while we went to the hospital. You can see why we love these guys - this picture is like a postcard of friendship.

2 nights before the water broke we went to the Michigan-Utah game which Olivia loved. Her favorite part? "Getting popcorn and walking around with daddy."

3 days before the water broke we had a first visit by this squirrel. Notice that there's not a drop of snow. By Sat night (the night before), everything was covered in many inches.

Anne Debra Jones

Today has been absolutely unbelievable. Sarah's water broke around 8pm last night (the 12th), but we weren't sure until around 10pm. We made arrangments for Olivia's care, got our bags and braved the terrible roads, arriving at the hospital around 1am. Sarah was incredible, progressing through labor without needing pitocin or an epidural. She transitions to active labor so quickly, that just as everyone was ready for her to start pushing the baby's head was out. The midwife and nurse (both of whom were absolutely incredible all night long) helped Sarah finish the job, and by 6:50 Anne was laying skin to skin on Sarah's chest. Believe it or not, she weighed 6lbs 14oz, Olivia's exact weight though around a week and a half later.

There's so much that could be said, but nothing quite captures it. We obviously feel full of emotion and gratitude. We have loved Anne for quite some time now, it's nice to put a face with that emotion. Olivia is handling the transition beautifully and seems to love being a big sister.

Recent videos

Here are a few videos from the last month or two. Sorry I'm so far behind!

Baby #2 Update

Sarah is finishing the 37th week and we couldn't be more excited for baby girl #2 to join us. Even still, I feel like I'm racing her to try and get everything finished for school this semester. I have one big paper, a 3 day take home exam, another big paper, submiting an abstract for a conference, finishing a chapter I'm writing for a book, grading 21 papers on health reform and grading 77 final exams. Sarah's been having such strong contractions for so long that I've been worried I wouldn't make it - but I'm starting to be a little more optimistic now.

September Visitors

Sarah's parents visited at the end of Sept and beginning of October. It was great to have them here as they played with Olivia, helped build shelves in our basement, and "watched" General Conference with us.

It was also great to have my dad here for his bday in mid-September. We went to a Tigers baseball game in Detroit (which Olivia loved), played in the backyard and read lots of books.

Marathon

On Oct 17th I ran the Detroit Marathon, my first time doing the full 26.2 miles. What an experience! I had trained for months in cities all over the world, including Ann Arbor, Ottawa, Montreal, Dublin, Paris, Rennes, Toulouse, and Nice. I was very happy that during my training runs I was able to get my time for 13.1 miles (21.1km) down to 1h51m and my time for 5 miles (8km) under 40 min. Certainly not lightning fast, but pretty good for me. Unfortunately, I was sick leading up to marathon day and didn't have that great a race. My body started falling apart around mile 14 and I had to walk quite a bit. I ended up crossing the finish line in 4h 45m. Recovery has been tough, physically and psychologically. I've only run 2x in the 6 weeks since the race, neither time feeling able to go more than 2 miles. Even still, I definitely want to do it again, to prove to myself I can get closer to 4 hours.