Thanks to everyone who gave me birthday wishes today. It is overwhelming and encouraging all at the same time. I have it setup so that my phone gets an update whenever someone posts something on my Facebook wall, so as you can imagine I had a sander in my pocket today.

After work, my wife made an incredible dinner for our family. She made some of our favorite things and had them all labeled with our names on them. As you can imagine, mine involved cheese. I then got to go to the Suns playoff game with my Dad. We were told that we had to wear orange to the game, so we stopped by Target and picked up some sweet matching shirts. We both commented on how bright they looked and how out of place we felt wearing them in the parking lot of Target, but I noted that we would soon fit in.

And it strikes me how often we live with this struggle. We want to fit in somewhere, but that often means we stand out somewhere else. So we must choose which is which and I wonder how many life decisions are the result of this choice alone. Who our friends are, what we spend our time doing, what becomes important to us, etc. Nonetheless, the Suns made it a fantastic night with a terrific birthday victory. Thanks Steve.

We only had to stay at the hospital one night, and it felt great to be home. Madsen is starting to eat better and sleep better. It is truly a blast to have both of the kids at home. Sleep is still scarce at this point, but we know the drill and that it gets easier from here. The support has continued and we are so grateful for it. Gavin has a great curiosity for this new person in our home and hasn’t been angry about sharing us at all. Here is a picture of day 2 of the growing Jernigan clan.

Btw… if you are wondering why Madsen is wearing boxing gloves, it is so that the razor sharp baby-nails don’t scratch up that little face. And because he looks pretty sweet in them.

So the weirdest thing is now I talk about my kids that I have. Odd how you don’t use the word kid when you just have one. And it kind of makes me feel old. But I couldn’t be more proud or excited. We’ve learned a few tricks to make this experience ten times better (if you ever plan on using Banner Gateway, make sure you stop by the gift shop to buy a movie card that unlocks a ton of current movies to your TV). It has also reminded me how blessed we are to have the family and friends that we do.

It’s funny to note in the pictures how much hair Madsen has. Gavin has yet to get his first haircut. It will be a blast to see how each of our boys are different and to watch each of their personalities develop.

Here are some more pictures of the happenings (many of these are from last night). Click on any image to zoom in.

I am proud to announce the newest member of the Jernigan family: Madsen Jeter! He was born at 5:27pm on Thursday, May 6th. He weighed in at 7 pounds and 13 ounces (for comparison, Gavin was 9 lbs 8 oz!)

It’s been a bit of a roller coaster experience. We were scheduled to go in at 5am in the morning, then they called us last night and told us that we wouldn’t be in till more like 5pm in the afternoon, then got a phone call just after 7am today telling us they had a room ready. So turns out we were able to get a good night sleep and then head over to the hospital. God took care of us.

Delivery went fantastic and both Mom and Madsen are doing terrific. Thanks for all your prayers!

Here are some pictures of the experience so far (starting with last night with Gavin). Click on any of them to zoom in.