His momma is a shoe lover!

Our good friends the Fitch's gave Cal a little gift. We had to put them on him immediately because we don't know how long they will fit:It's kind of hard to see, but they are white shoes with his monogram across the top...too cute!

So he wore these shoes on a little outing to Babies R Us, and I decided that I LOVE him in some shoes! I saw these and HAD to get them:

I love this kid....!

"We like the name, not the school.."

So Mom was over one Saturday and we were watching college football. Cal State was playing and their logo kept flashing on the bottom of the screen. We thought it was the cutest thing because we have our sweet Cal, so my mom, being the nut that she is, went to the Cal State website and ordered us sweatshirts! She wore her new sweatshirt out around friends and none of them got it. We all think it's hilarious...

We have to keep explaining that we don't care a thing for the school... we just like the name! ha!

Cal update!

It seems like I have been so busy that I haven't had the time to update my blog, but when it comes to updating the blog, I don't really have much to post!

Things with Cal are going GREAT. We are still figuring out his feedings. He is hungry ALL the time, but our doctor said to really try to hold him off so that from time off the breast to time back on the breast is at least 2 hours. This will teach Cal to eat until full at each feeding and it will encourage him to sleep for longer stretches at night. Well, this is easier said than done! We can hold him off sometimes, but when this kid wants to eat, he wants to eat! I have gotten pretty good at holding him off by walking around with him. Eddie, on the other hand, just wants to feed him when he cries. If we continued doing that, we would have a 20 pound 4 week old!

This is how we have to hold him when he *thinks* he is hungry. He passes out every time!

He still gets up at night to eat (of course!). I was getting up to feed him and changing his diaper and spending about 1.5 hours each time up with him. That was ridiculous! He was fully waking up at each feeding and taking his sweet time going back to sleep. I started not changing his diaper at night and it has helped tons! Actually, he has been sleeping by my side (in the bed with me-- I know! it's bad!), and then when it's time to eat, I feed him and he falls right back asleep again. He doesn't like his crib right now, but we are hoping to work him out of that. I have got to break the habit of him in my bed, but it is sooooo nice and easy that way!

I posted a website over on the side bar that we are using to upload all of our pictures. I am trying to keep that really current so if I am slacking here, you can see Cal grow by looking over at that link.

Me and Cal taking a light walk with the Baby Bijorn.

Can you help me?

Why on earth is the picture at the top of the blog so HUGE? I have tried to resize it so that it doesn't take over the entire screen and nothing is working. Can any of you bloggers out there help me out? Thanks!!!

Life at Home

The Williamson crew is loving life at home with sweet little Cal. Our first week has been filled with visitors and my mom came and stayed with us for the week (THANK GOD FOR HER!). Here are some recaps:

Saturday, we left the hospital. Eddie's sister came in town from D.C. so she came home with us and stayed until late Sunday afternoon. Eddie's mom came into town on Monday and ended up staying at our house. She was originally going to stay at my parents house across town so that it wouldn't be too crowded in our house, but my mom ended up freeing up a bed by sleeping on the nursery floor! (more to come on that in a minute!)

Monday night we had an appointment with our pediatrician. She is a family friend...well, sort of. I taught her daughter a few years ago and we became close through her. She had us come at 8:30 at night so that we would avoid all of the sick people. She is not a worrier, but she said Cal should not be anywhere that germs could be. He had such a traumatic entrance into this world and the last thing we need is for him to get sick! So, no doctor's offices, no schools, and he is not allowed to be around his cousin, Jackson, for a while either :(. That is a bummer because we can't wait for them to meet! Other than those things, she said he is doing great! He lost some of his birth weight, but was already starting to put it back on.

Cal is quite the good eater! Oh my! I had a lactation consultant help me in the hospital learn how to breast feed. It is something I have wanted to do and something I feel pretty strongly about. I don't think there is a thing wrong with not breastfeeding, but for me, I really wanted to. SO, in the hospital, he was latching on and was eating, but he needed some more calories since he was in the "special needs nursery" (even though he looked like a line backer in there!), so they gave him a little bit of formula. I kept on pushing for the breast feeding and by the time we came home, he was CHOWING down.

Our instructions for him feeding were to wake him every 3 hours until he had 2 "real" poops (they described them, but I won't go into detail here....), then never wake a sleeping baby. Well, the first night home, we had to wake him to feed him, and then he had his two dirty diapers and it was like he couldn't eat enough! We are trying to find that balance of "is he hungry?" or "is he just trying to soothe himself?". Eddie tends to want to feed him every time he cries, but I do not think I could produce enough milk for that, not to mention our kid would be the size of a real line backer by the time he is 3 months! So we are working on that...

Cal had several outstanding nights sleeping. I would feed him at 11:30 ish, 3:30 ish, and 7:30 ish. Not bad! Then, we hit a bit of a wall. He was waking up every 2 hours starving. He was sucking on his hand so loud I could hear it in the next room. My mom was sleeping on the floor of the nursery so that she could get him when he started to stir and change him before getting me up. After I would feed him and rock him, I would change him again and then hand him off to mom, who would then get him to bed. It was quite the system! Now you understand why I say my mom is a saint! He is still getting hungry every 2 hours, but we are trying to soothe him a little and hold out for at least 2.5 hours.... like that makes a big difference!

We have had a TON of visitors this week and it has been wonderful for all of our great friends to meet Cal. My friends have organized dinners for us so that we have a meal delivered to our house everyday for the next 3 weeks. It is SO nice to not have to worry about meals! I owe them all big time and I will be doing that for them when they have kids!

Now, here's where you can call me a baby. My mom went home today (she goes home everyday for a little bit)...but she isn't coming back tonight. When she left, I started bawling. I know, I know. I am SUCH a baby. She lives 10 minutes away and will be back tomorrow! We are on our own for nights now, which I am so not worried about, but it was soooo nice to have my mom here. She just knows what I need before I even ask for it or realize that I need it. Eddie and I are going to be so fine, but I appreciated having her here soooooo much and it makes me sad to know that when I get up in the night with Cal she won't be there helping me when he throws a fit. At least I know I get to see my sweet baby... that makes it all worth it!

I think this is it for now. I will try to be better about posting. We are just so in love with Cal and I don't think I can kiss him enough. He has had 2 sponge baths and did not enjoy them very much! He is rocking in his swing right now so I am going to get going on the thank you notes! We have more visitors coming in an hour.....

Bringing Home Baby

We weren't sure when we are going to be released from the hospital. Cal inhaled some meconium when he was born and it took him a while to snap out of it (their words!) when he was born, so he was in the special needs nursery right away until Saturday. They ran a bunch of tests on him to rule out infection. He had a very high white blood cell count, which could be a sign of infection so they had to monitor him and even gave him a spinal tap to rule out meningitis (talk about scaring momma!).

They wheeled him into the room on Saturday afternoon and I about died. He hadn't been out of the special needs room the entire time and I was just to happy to see him in our room! The sweet intern that had been working with us had really been trying to get us discharged on Saturday and it worked! We received word that we would be out of there around 4:30! YAY!

Here are some pics from our trip out of the hospital:

Dad carrying his car seat down the halls of the hospital. He was anxious to get him out of there!

The sign waiting for us announcing the arrival of Cal!!!

Home Sweet Home!

Pictures from Cal's BIRTH DAY!

Happy BIRTH DAY, Cal!

September 16th, 2009

Here's the story:

I went to the doctor on Tuesday, and I was fully dilated and 2-3 centimeters dilated. She "sort of" striped my membranes.

The contractions started on Tuesday night around 6 ish. They were super sporadic and very all over the place (sometimes they really hurt, sometimes they only hurt a little). We went to bed, but I was still timing the contractions-- about every 10-15 minutes. At 2:30 am, I jumped up with a KILLER contraction and my water breaking! I ran into the bathroom and made it in time to have the water break on the bathroom floor.

I called the doctor on call who told me to hold out for a few hours if I could. Eddie jumped in the shower and I started getting our bags ready to go. Well, in the next 10 minutes, I had 2 contractions that brought me to my knees in pain. I couldn't speak through them and the pain was pretty darn ugly.

We went ahead and got in the car and headed to the hospital. I had contractions the whole way to the hospital and I was not a happy camper. It was sooooooo not fun.

We checked into the hospital and I got a wheelchair and was taken to my room. Eddie had to go move the car and I was told to change into a gown. And I was left alone. I curled up on the bed and cried and the NICEST nurse in the world came in to check on me. The doctor came in to check me and I was at 4 cents. They had a anesthesiologist on hand right then, so they were willing to give me an epidural right then instead of waiting to run all of the blood work. Thank the LORD for that one! He hooked me up with an AMAZING epidural and in about 5 minutes, I was loving life.

You would have thought we were on a picnic. I was like a comedian. I was a happy happy girl. I was joking with the nurses, watching TV, and loving life!

At 9:00, I was 7 cm, and at 11:00, I was 10 cm, and it was time to push!

After two hours of pushing, the baby was making NO progress. The loving life part was no longer. I was hurting.

The doctor decided to use the vacuum on the baby. I have NEVER felt pain like that before. I was screaming and the baby was just NOT budging.

After the 3rd hour of pushing, the idea of a C-section was mentioned. Then, the doctor noticed the baby had a BM, so a C-section was going to happen...quickly. They raced the bed down the hall and doctors were running around like crazy.

I went into the OR as Eddie got suited up. They got me all prepped for the C-section and I had developed a massive case of the shakes. I couldn't stop shaking, so I decided to throw up. All over the operating room floor. Then, my nurse that I LOVED came over to hold my hand and slipped in my puke. Opps.... she didn't even flinch though.

So, Eddie came in and they did the surgery and I felt like I was open for a million ages, and then Cal was born! All 9 pounds, 3 ounces of him! No wonder he wasn't coming out!

All of the nurses came up to me the rest of the day to comment on how horrible of a day I had and they couldn't get over all that I'd been through.

You know what? I'd do it all again, the exact same way, tomorrow. Cal is such a blessing and I am sooooo happy he is here. We are so in love with him!

He is here!!!

I will write a much longer post with details later, but wanted to let you know that he is here!

Calvin Edwin Williamson, IV

"Cal"

September 16th, 2009

Born at 2:48 P.M.

9 pounds, 3 ounces

20.5 inches long

Baby Watch 09

Doctor's appointment today at 4:00

Dr. Chappell checked me and I was very nervous she would say "nothing to report!", but instead, much to my delight, she told me I am fully effaced and 2-3 centimeters dilated! YAY!

As she was finishing the exam, something kind of hurt...down there... and when I let her know that it was uncomfortable, she said she did it on purpose. She stripped part of my membrane! Her advice to make the baby arrive? Sex. Lots of sex (!!!). She said the sperm would break down the rest of the membrane, etc, etc, etc.... Not real sure I see a night like that in my future! haha!

She said the baby's head was way low (she could feel it!), and I was a minus 1.

I asked her about an induction since my mother in law is coming next week. She said she didn't think there was any way I wouldn't have the baby before her arrival, but we could talk about it.... so, I scheduled an appointment on Tuesday for her to check me again, and if all looks good, we will have an induction on Wednesday! But she feels confident we won't need to go that long.

Sorry for all of the gory details in this post. There really isn't a pleasant way to write about this!

I will keep you posted! Thanks for checking in on us!

xoxoxo