Introducing.......

Brooks Clyde Jensen!! I was pretty determined to have this wee man early and thank heavens he agreed. I'm so glad he decided to join our family a full week early. I'll try not to bore you with too many details but here is his story.... My contractions started about 3:30 am April 8th. I wasn't sure it was the real thing as they were about 5-6 minutes apart for the first 3-4 hours. I didn't want to lay in bed forever so I finished up the laundry, took a bath, finished packing the hospital bag. Chris heard me up and around and woke up about 6:30 to see if he wasn't going to work that day. I said I didn't think so. The boys got up about 7:30 and we did our normal morning routine. They got pretty excited when we told them today the baby might come, but then pretty concerned when I'd 'shut down' for a minute or so every once in a while. Kayden got ready for school and I had Chris give me a blessing right before he left. All of a sudden Kayden got really sad that I might not be home when he got there, so I promised him I'd wait for him to get home before I left.

Things picked up just a little bit, I sat on my yoga ball, tried to lay on the couch and remember all the Bradley stuff we'd practiced. I really wanted to go natural and stay home as long as I could, but it got pretty hard to concentrate and focus by myself cause Chris was still busy with Trace. About 10:30 I succomed to laying down in my bed and getting serious. By 11 Chris was trying to get me in the car but I had to keep my promise to little Kayden. He got home about 11:45 (luckily my brother and his awesome new wife had come out to spend the day with the boys) I tried so hard to put on a happy face and kiss them goodby. Chris and Landon carried me pretty much to the car. It was seriously so all of a suddenly horribly painful and hard!! Anyway, long drive later to the hospital (Timpanogos) we checked in about 12:35. I had been telling myself the whole drive to be ready to hear I was only at a 6 or 7 just to be ready for a few more hours of work, but really wasn' sure if I'd be able to at that point.

The nurse checked me and said 81/2, I asked her to say it again!!! Ya, I knew I could make it. Everyone was so wonderful and supportive of me trying natural and kept the room dark and quiet and giving me lots of pillows and things. The midwife came in and was great! Chris ran to move the car and grab the camera cause we were ready to push! The Dr walked in, and asked me how soon I wanted to have the baby. I don't think I said anything for fear of what I may have said to him-seriously what kind of question is that? So he broke my water and less than 10 minutes of pushing we had handsome boy number 3!! 1:31 pm so we were at the hospital about an hour is all, it was great. And we were home about 24 hours later without so much as a Tylenol-also great.

Chris had suited up and helped 'catch' him. It was a wonderful experience. I'm so glad I made it for the entire thing going natural, it was much more emotional and meaningful this way. He weighed in at 9 pounds and 21 inches long and as you can see has a wonderful head of dark hair. He is such a sweetheart!

I love the name Brooks, it had to grow on Chris for a few months. We wanted something as a middle name that represented both of us and had some meaning for us, so Clyde is the name of our mission president that we both served under, plus having served in Scotland it is a very Scottish name as well.

It always amazes me the spirit of a newborn. What is it about them that can make you want to just stare, for hours, even in the middle of the night, when you haven't slept in 2 days? We are so blessed!