Baby's First Christmas

When Paul and I got married we decided that we would alternate where we spent the holiday's each year. Last year we enjoyed Christmas in San Antonio with Paul's parents, so this year we went to Houston to celebrate with my family. The plan was to go to my brother and sister-in-laws house in Conroe and grill steaks. Unfortunately Norma (my sister-in-law) came down with the flu and we had to rearrange our plans. We ended up doing lunch at my parents house, minus Norma. Her doctor said it would not be a good idea to be around the baby, or Jamie (who is pregnant). In our family, Norma always takes such wonderful pictures and emails them to everyone. Halfway through Christmas I read an email from Norma that said she sent the camera with John (my brother) and to make sure we take lots of pictures. Oops.... not a single shot had been taken so I told John we better start taking photos. We tried taking pictures that we thought Norma would take... they came out pretty good, but I'm sure Norma would have done a much better job. We took several pictures with the guys wearing silly wigs that my nephew Joshua brought with him. Hope y'all like the pictures as much as we do!

Before we left for Houston, my mom took some pictures of me, Paul, and Taylor in front of our Christmas tree. She bought several outfits for Taylor (all of which were to big). So we put the outfit on her temporarily just for a few shots. The pictures turned out ok. The plan was to make Christmas cards and send them out to everyone, but with a new baby, time just flew by and before I knew it Christmas had come and gone. Maybe next year I will take them early. So since Taylor didn't have a Christmas outfit, she ended up wearing an outfit that was given to her by Aunt Jamie. It has yorkie's on the t-shirt. So cute! She slept through most of Christmas day, but at least she looked cute! Please ignore the sweat pants I wore all day. It's always freezing in my mom's house!

I Survived the first 2 weeks!!!

So..... no one tells you how hard the first two weeks are. Probably because if it stayed like this forever everyone would only have one child. The lack of sleep, crying, and constant feeding is so exhausting. Before the baby was born I told my family I wouldn't need any help and that I wanted to be alone to bond with the baby. After a breakdown in the hospital in the middle of the night Paul asked my mom if she could stay and help me for a week. Thank goodness my mom suspected this would happen and had already packed extra clothes. If it wasn't for her I don't think I would have survived! So mom, thank you! I love you so much and I will remember this when Taylor tells me the same thing!

One new change that I recently made was adding in formula. This has made a huge difference with Taylor in just 2 days. By bottle feeding her with formula or breast milk I'm able to make sure she is getting enough which I don't think she was before. I am going to try to switch completely to formula. I feel bad that I don't want to breastfeed, but I just don't like it. I was formula fed and I turned out just fine!

I'll post more pictures of Taylor soon now that she is finally sleeping more regularly and I'm able to get things done. Doing my first load of laundry today..... it's kind of exciting!

Newborn Photo Session

When Taylor was 5 days old she had her first baby photo session. We get to preview the pictures in January, but the photographer posted a sneak peek on her blog. When your baby is featured on the blog you get a free photo! Very excited about that. Here is the photo on the blog. You can also view it by clicking on the link on the right side of my blog. Enjoy!

Welcome Baby Taylor

After the long wait baby Taylor has finally arrived. We went to the hospital Friday morning to be induced. After 5 1/2 hours of labor and 1 1/2 hours of pushing we welcomed our little girl at 4:29 pm. Taylor weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs and 13 oz and measured in at 22 3/4 inches long. She is such a beautiful baby... and has a full head of hair. Since we've been home things are going pretty well. I'm in a lot of pain, so thankfully my mom has been here to help. Originally I said I didn't want any help from anyone and that I would be able to do it all on my own. Boy was I wrong.

Here a some pictures of Taylor. There are so many more but these are some of our favorites that we have taken over the past 5 days.

baby fever

Yesterday I met up with my friend Sheridan just to get out of the house to keep me from going crazy thinking about my baby. Sheridan's baby, Reagan Reese Wilson is 3 months old (born Sept. 6th). Here are some pictures of her cute winter outfit.




Last week we met up for a cup of coffee at Starbucks and this is a picture of me holding Reagan. We tried, but we couldn't get her to look at the camera.

The End is in Sight!

So for the past 5 weeks I have seen my doc every Monday to check my progress. To say that I was disappointed to have made it to this Monday's appointment is an understatement. My baby was due Sat, the 28th (which has come and gone). For the 3rd week in a row I am still at 1 cm so there has been no progress... but as the title to this entry states, "the end is in sight!" If I do not go into labor on my own, then I will be induced Friday morning at 6am, which means it is pretty likely that I will have a baby by this Saturday. I'm really hoping to go into labor on my own though. One of my concerns if we induce is if it increases the likely hood of having to have a C-section. My doctor says it does increase the risk slightly which is why he prefers not to induce. That is why he is going to give me the rest of the week instead of getting me in there tomorrow. This does make me happy to know that I will not be pregnant forever! I will keep you all posted if labor begins before Friday.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was nice. My parents, Jamie & Jason, and my in-laws all came in town. We had a full house... oh, and I can't forget the 3 dogs. Everyone was hoping I would have the baby while they were here. No one really wanted to leave out of fear that the baby would come as soon as they were gone. It's nice to have to house quiet again so I can try to re-prepare myself for labor. We didn't really take many pictures because we were pretty lazy and didn't really get ready. And if you know my sister and I, we do not like to take pictures if our hair and makeup is not done. Here are a few that we did take.

The Final Countdown

So I officially have 4 more days until my due date. Unfortunately at my Monday doctors appointment there have been no further advances. I'm still at 1 cm with no effacement. I went ahead and scheduled an appointment for next Monday, so my doc said that if I make it to that appointment we can talk about inducing. So we'll wait and see. Here are some pictures that Paul took of my growing belly on Monday. I'm big, but thankfully no stretch marks!