My Turtle and Me - 1 Month Old

To measure my growth, my parents are going to take pictures of me next to the same object each month. The object they chose is this cool stuffed turtle. Right now he is much bigger than me, but I think I'll grow to be bigger in no time.

So here are my pictures from 12/26/2008 - 1 month old!

P.S. I am 22" long and weigh 11 lbs.

O Christmas Tree...

We're finally getting a little bit "settled in" at home. Yeah! Will is doing awesome! Our nightly entertainment is to sit around and watch him and his newest "trick" - exciting life I know, but we're loving it! He loves the lights on the Christmas tree (and any other lights for that matter.) Here's a picture of him being mesmerized. He's also getting really good at holding his head up - he goes for a couple minutes at a time then does a nose dive just to keep you on your toes :-)

PS - I'm getting better every day too.

Cruisin' down the lazy river

Just relaxing on the couch with the padres...

thank you

Hello, friends! I just wanted to say thank you so much to everyone that has been praying for me and "silently" blog-stalking me and just generally caring! I know I've missed responding to some of your emails and calls, please know that you brightened my day and I have really appreciated getting them :-) I've been hibernating the last few days (and probably will be hibernating a few more) letting my body heal (as if I could actually try to do anything else - ha!) Basically, my day has consisted of nap, hold Will, pump, nap. I am so thankful to have my wonderful husband and parents here to be "responsible" for really taking care of my baby for me (though it's so hard to not be able to do it myself...) and make sure that I feed myself and deal with all the other "tasks" that have to be done throughout the day. This has been very overwhelming for me in every way you can think of and I'm just so thankful that the good (people reaching out to make sure we don't have to cook, helping my parents with Will, checking in on me, stopping what they were doing to bring me some water) has been just as overwhelming as the scary medical stuff. So thank you! Hopefully, I'll be ready to participate in the world in a couple more days...until then please accept my blanket - thanks for caring! I feel the love! :-)

Home again... Home again...

Everything went well at the hospital today, so we decided to come home this evening. Stacy is very tired and weak, mentally and physically, but most all the sickness symptoms have gone away. Hopefully being at home she will be able to get a little more rest and not have someone coming into her room every hour to poke and prod her.

Thank you all for your prayers. We definitely feel the love. We are so blessed to have such caring family and friends.

Prayer for Stacy

We would like for everyone to pray for Stacy. Not that she goes home, but just that she gets better. Whether that is... she gets worse for the time being so the doctors know exactly what is causing the problems or that the problems clear up and it is obvious she is getting better. Currently we are unsure with the temperature readings as to whether she has a fever or not. A moderate temperature is supposed to be an indictation that the problems still exist, but currently it is hard to tell what her temperatures are since we get different readings every time she takes it. With so many unexplained things happening, it is hard to be confident in any decisions that we take. So please pray that Stacy can not worry about it and trust that God has it all under control and that the right decisions will be obvious based on the information we're able to get and that we all get good, restorative sleep tonight.

Santa.i.am

My parents haven't gotten to see much of the holidays since my Mom has been in the hospital, so today I decided to dress up as Santa and surprise them when I went to visit them. I definitely think I am going to like Christmas (although Thanksgiving will always be my favorite holiday).

Stacy is getting better

Stacy is doing much better. She was moved to a maternity center room yesterday and Will was able to come visit. He is here again today. It is great to see him again. He is growing so much. Stacy's parents are keeping him during the night so that we can get some rest. The current plan is to keep getting antibiotics until Saturday morning. They would then stop them and see how her body reacts. If everything looks fine, then we would go home on Sunday.

The doctors say that they have never seen a hemorrhage happen this far postpartum. But there are lots of doctors that have been involved, so we are thankful that there are many smart people making sure she is ok.

Stacy update - what I'm thankful for - since I missed it Thanksgiving

Hello, all! First of all - Will is awesome! He loves the sparkly lights on the Christmas tree (according to my mom) AND I'm fine now. We did have a bit of a scare last night when I started bleeding at home. I want to give kudos to the paramedics and all the emergency department staff and the awesome PICU nurses that came down to help take care of me (and Andy and my dad - my mom stayed home with Will.) Andy also did AWESOME throughout the whole thing. He's such a good husband (and good daddy) I'm so proud of him. I also want to share the love with the fabulous girls from our small group that have been going by the house to help my mom out. I'm just so thankful to have such wonderful people surrounding me. Several people have asked what they can do...I would love it if you would pray for me - that my body would fight the infection and keep my uterus clamped down like it's designed to do and that there won't be any long term sequelae feeding Will. That all the doctors and nurses would have wisdom and think twice about everything they're doing to make the best decisions. That my parents have the strength to be sleep-deprived and take excellent care of Will. That we can all get good restorative rest.

Baby in a basket

One of these things is not like the others

I remember way back when...

So now that I'm a week and a half old, I've had some time to muse about my experiences in the world thus far. I was just thinking about a few of my "firsts."

Here are some pictures of the 1st time I...
Enjoy! Love, The Willster (I'm trying it out)

...got weighed (I've done that several times now...I was back up to my birthweight on Wednesday - bet I'm more now...I've grown an inch too!)

...wore a hat - I've got lots of fancy hats - apparently my mommy likes them

...was feeling obstinant

...got to cuddle with my daddy

...got to cuddle with my mommy

...celebrated Thanksgiving

...got a bath - the warm water was kind of nice, but gettting dried off is rough

...cheered for the turkey!

...gave a shout out to the turkey

...cheered for Auburn! War Eagle!!

...peed on Daddy

...went outside

...rode in a car

...met my brother Lincoln up close

...met my brother Ike up close

...hung out on the couch with my brothers and Mommy

...tried out Mommy's pouch wrapping skills

...tried out Daddy's baby wearing skills

...had a sponge bath - it's not nearly so nice as a real bath

...received a package

First week at home

Well, we have been home since Monday, and I thought I would give a little update about how the week has been going. Stacy is working on a post that will give more pictures of the weeks activities, but since it had been so long (3 days) since the last update, we thought we should add something.

So this week... We had 3 appointments to go to. One each day (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) we have found that it takes a whole lot longer to do anything now with him. With him eating every 2 to 3 hours, we have to plan around that. Today, Friday, we had no appointments, so it was great to finally sit at home and relax.

We have had lots of wonderful food provided for us. Stacy's Mom cooked for us one night (Thanks Patsy!), our small group is bring by meals (Thanks Fusion XO!), and my Mom's book club sent food with her (Thanks Book Club!). It is great to have so much food in the house that the problem is which of the wonderful meals do I want to eat now.

On Wednesday, my Mom came over from Dalton, GA to help out for a few days. She has been helping out with all those little things that we just haven't had time to do like washing clothes and washing dishes. In 48 hours, I think she has done 20 loads of laundry for our clothes, Will's clothes, towels, sheets, dogs' sofa covers, etc. Thanks Mom for all the help.

Tomorrow we get to decorate for Christmas. I was able to run out to Home Depot today and buy a tree so we could have someone help decorate. Sunday we will have one last Thanksgiving celebration with Stacy's Family. It will be the big Thanksgiving dinner that we missed last week.

Well I couldn't end the post without adding pictures of Will. He is growing up so much, 8lbs 12oz, yesterday at the doctor and measured 21 inches today.

He's becoming bright eyed more every day.

He can sleep in about any position.

He might need a haircut already to get rid of the pony tail in the back.

A very rare moment of him crying

Aren't I cute!?!?

Me in my hospital carrier

Me in my new car carrier


Me and my brothers

The family hanging out on the sofa. (I understand that is this is a common place to find my mom and my brothers.)

We are home!

We made it home today. The dogs were very glad to see Stacy and I, and Will. They got very interested when he started to make squeeking noises. Well, everyone is feed and it is nap time now.