The Last Dr Pepper

So, this baby weight is sticking around. I thought that all of the pounds would magically fall off by now. (Isn't breastfeeding supposed to help with that?)

But, since they haven't, I have decided to make some adjustments to my diet (currently: terrible) and exercise (currently: none.)

The first thing to change? No more Dr. Pepper. I developed a new love for it when I was pregnant... and just haven't stopped drinking it. I could probably write a whole post on why I love the sugary caffeine goodness so much - but I digress.

Just in case cutting Dr. Pepper doesn't help me drop ALL of the baby weight, future posts could include: "No More Ice Cream", "I love salads" and "Hitting the Pavement."

But as my wise friend recently reminded me, baby weight is "9 months up, nine months down."

William's To Do List

For those of you that know me, and if you are reading my blog, I assume you do – I love lists. To-do lists, grocery lists, etc… So, I have created a list that sums up 6-week old William’s days. In even as little time as a week, I am sure this list will be different – so its main purpose is to help me remember what the little guy (and consequentially, I) was up to at this point in time.

1. Eat – usually 8 times a day for about 20 minutes each. Mom takes most of the feedings for now, but usually Dad feeds William a bottle once a day.
2. Make dirty diapers – usually around 10 a day! Who knew?
3. Change clothes – we usually can’t get through item #1 or #2 without getting the clothes dirty. I think the most we changed William’s clothes was 6 times in a day…. Before I stopped counting! When I was pregnant, one of my co-workers (who has 2 boys) told me she does 3 loads of laundry a day. I thought she was crazy. Now I get it.
4. Play – How does an infant play? I wondered this myself when we first brought him home. “What should I DO with him when he is not eating or sleeping?” Now, playtime is my favorite time with him. Some our favorite things to do are: read books (never too early!), go on short walks around the block, ride in the car (he LOVES the car!), sit in the bouncy chair (and kick, kick, kick), have tummy time (he doesn’t like tummy time yet, but we still do it), and “sitting up” – he loves to be propped up on our legs to face us. Most of the time, we just stare at him, talk to him, and love on him… and we consider that play time too!
5. Sleep – He is in a nice little schedule of Eat, Play, Sleep. He sleeps anywhere from 1-5.5 hours, with the shorter naps being during the day and the longer ones being at night. God must give a special grace to new parents. I LOVE my sleep, but am somehow able to tear myself from it at least twice a night to feed the little man.

6. Bathe – William took his first real bath about a week ago (after his cord fell off). We bath him every day (usually) and he loves them! (I almost forgot to add bathe to this posting... I'm glad I remembered. Wouldn't want anyone calling CPS thinking we don't bathe our child!)

7. Grow – William is constantly growing and changing! Most recently he has starting kicking, cooing, and even smiling at us! It’s still hard to tell who he looks like most, but he sure gets more handsome every day. And my Granny put it best when she said, “He looks like himself.”

8. Make my parents fall more in love with me...

4 weeks

William will be 4 weeks old tomorrow! Here are a few pictures...

Touched by Prayer

One of the most special things about these past few weeks is getting to spend time (even if brief) with so many loving family and friends. It is so special to see how much love William is surrounded by. And to be honest, I have been humbled - my soul has been touched - by how much love Philip and I are surrounded by.

One of the things that has made the biggest impact on me over the past few weeks is how many people have said "I prayed for you" or "We prayed for you" or "My prayer list prayed for you" or "So-and-so has been praying for you." How can I respond to so many and such sincere prayers that were lifted to the Lord on my behalf? The 'do-er' in me feels a bit frustrated that I can't DO anything in response. I can't send everyone who prayed a thank you note. I can't even repay everyone with reciprocal prayers. The only thing I can do is humbly and gratefully accept these prayers... knowing that there is nothing I did to deserve them, but that my life has been forever touched by them.

And... I can 'pay it forward.' Prayer has taken on a new meaning in my life. Knowing how much I have been touched by the prayers of others, and truly believing that the Lord hears our prayers, has given me renewed vigor and joy in praying over others. So, I would like to send a heartfelt "THANK YOU" to all of these prayer warriors who have blessed me so much.

And, as a quick update... we are doing great! William went to the pediatrician today and is healthy and growing. I am healing great and feeling well!

"Do we not find our minds wandering and ourselves even a tad bored in prayer at times because we wonder whether our words are bouncing off the ceiling? How differently would we pray if Christ appeared bodily and sat in a chair across from each of us, leaning forward to concentrate on what we are saying? Beloved, if only we would realize that although He is invisible to us, that is in essence what He does!" - Beth Moore

William with the Grandparents

William with Mimi on 7/17/09

William with Papa on 7/20/09

William with Lollie, Poppie, Uncle Ant & Daddy on 8/1/09

William was two weeks old on Friday! Here are a few pictures with him and his loving, wonderful grandparents (Mimi & Papa and Lollie & Poppie)...and his cool Uncle Anthony.

Also, I am having trouble figuring out how to comment on other people's blogs... something may be wrong with my computer or blog settings. But most likely, it is a user error. When Annie comes over next, she can teach me what to do! Until then... thank you all for your messages, warm wishes, and kind words! They are a blessing to our little family!

Complete

I just wanted to fill you all in on some of the amazing details of the past few days. William and Philip and I are home and doing great. A new baby is such a joy, and of course, we think little William is perfect. A few pictures are attached – I’m sure there will be many more to come! Giving birth to William was the most amazing experience of my entire life. The experience, and William’s life so far, has helped me understand in a new way just how good our God is. He is faithful to answer prayers. He is great enough to be the author and sustainer of life. He always knows what he is doing – truly, His ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And, oh, how He must love his children! Here are a few details on how God has provided for our little family over the past few days.

My water broke at 2 am Friday morning, the very day of William’s due date. Philip and I headed to the hospital, me rejoicing that our baby was soon to arrive – and laughing that he was right on time! Although my water had broken, by 6 am, labor wasn’t progressing much on his own. They gave me Pitocin to speed up labor, and the Dr gave me my epidural shortly thereafter. Thanks to the epidural, labor seemed so fast, and I was able to enjoy it and keep up my strength (I strongly recommend that any woman having a baby give herself this gift). By 3:30 pm, I was ready to start pushing. So far, it had been a typical "textbook" labor according to my L&D nurse. William was delivered at 4:15 pm, a healthy baby boy weighing 7 pounds, 6 ounces, and measuring in at 21 inches long.

After William was delivered was when things got scary. I began having a lot of pain, as the Doctor and nurses kept ‘massaging’ (aka, pushing really hard on) my uterus. I noticed that they hadn’t brought William to me, but had sent him over to the little warmer in the corner of the room. I overheard someone comment that I was bleeding a lot and they needed to stop it. Very quickly, the room started buzzing and the number of people working on my went from 2 (Dr and Nurse) to 8. I was fully awake… and started getting scared when I heard phrases like “Do we need to get her an Operating room?” “may need a blood transfusion” “blood pressure is 60/40” and “may have to do an emergency hysterectomy.” I started getting really weak and just turned my focus on 1. Praying and 2. Breathing. The Doctors sent Philip out of the room to go with William to the nursery, and provide our families with an update. One of the people working on me (from anesthesiology) told Philip to kiss me goodbye before he left. That was an emotional moment for both of us. Philip

Our parents and friends in the waiting room immediately kicked into prayer mode – and I was at peace knowing that I would be covered in prayer. I was even told that one of the doctors prayed over me! The Doctors were able to find the source of the bleeding, and stop it. The situation stabilized, and despite a big scare, the loss of a lot of blood, and some extra soreness for the road ahead, I am completely fine. Praise God!

I think that my mom summed it all up with words better than I can:

So here's what I've learned:
1. A hospital like Tx. Women's in the Medical Center of Houston is awesome. Pregnancy, labor, delivery--none of it is routine. It may seem like it is these days, because it most often is, but as Lauren's L&D nurse said, "This is why no one should ever even consider having a baby at home."
2. The value of friends, family, friends of family, family of friends, friends of friends, and even complete strangers who will drop everything and pray is unbelievably powerful. Many of you texted messages to us like "2 prayer teams from 2 churches praying" and "praying non-stop" and "lifting L, P, W up in prayer." On July 17, 2009 we personally witnessed the power of prayer, as well as God's healing touch. There is no way we could have done this alone.

I will leave you with a moment from late the night of William's birth that I cannot thank God enough for and one I hope that may enable me to get a bit of rest, that of tears streaming down Lauren’s pale, exhausted face, her holding William, looking at her tired, tearful husband and saying, “Our little family is complete.”

Feeling Real...

So, I am the worst blogger ever. I should probably change the blog name to 'Every Month...'

Regardless, a few highlights from life as-of-late:
1) My sweet college friends throwing me a baby shower... it was so fun to see everyone. And all of the precious gifts made this baby seem so much more real.
It is hard to believe there are three of us (me, Jill & CeCe) that have babies on the way! I'm glad I can set the benchmark for growth and pounds gained!
2) Nesting! As soon as I got home from the shower, I HAD to have a place for everything... (we'll see how long that lasts.) So, Philip and I worked on the nursery: finished painting the chair rail, hung the drapes, and put together the dresser. I was so excited when I found the dresser at Ikea... but had no IDEA how much work it would take to put together. 3 hours, and what seemed like 3,000 parts later, Philip and I finally had it assembled!
3) Time with Annie and Jeffrey!
4) 'Passing' my glucose test
5) Applying for life insurance. Nothing says 'I'm grown up' like having a life insurance policy!