Family Ties

My family tree is an interesting one...

My dad's mom, Doris

My mom's dad, Bruce serving in WWII

My mom's parents (LOVE this picture of them!):
My dad's parents

My mom's mom passed away from breast cancer before I was born. My dad's dad also passed away (from a heart attack) before I was born.

My (remaining) Grandfather was so devastated after his wife died that he sort of shut himself down and wouldn't talk to anyone-- it was really hard on my mom to watch him be so upset. I love how in the picture of them above you can almost feel the love he has for her-- just look at how he looks at her......sigh!

When my brother was born in 1978, it brought my Granma and Granpa to town to see him. They started spending some time together and found happiness again in each other's company. They both had experienced a painful loss and that common factor was something that bonded them. For the first time in a long time, they were both smiling and happy.

This picture was taken right before I was born... they brought McDonald's in for my brother who was obsessed with BeeBies (french fries!)

Long story short, they fell in love, and waited until after I was born in September, 1980 and got married in October! In Spanish class in high school, we had to create a family tree with the limbs that were labeled (in Spanish)...my teacher could not understand that MY family tree actually grew together!

If you want to get technical about it all, my mom and dad are step-brother and sister-- how gross is that? haha

I love old pictures and after reading Lauren's post on her Happily Nested blog, I really want to do something with all of these pictures!

Easter at the beach! (and a sleep update...)

Happy Easter to everyone!

Last Wednesday, I drove down to the beach with Cal and my mom. Eddie was staying back to work (and play golf on Friday morning!), and was driving down later. On the way to the beach, I was talking with my mom about Cal's sleeping and she was convinced that she would be able to "break" him of his sleep habits while we were gone.....

Wednesday night, my mom said she would get up with Cal. He woke up at midnight (right on time!), and I got up with him, but my mom came running in. She shooed me away and said she had it under control. I went back to bed and listened to Cal scream at the top of his lungs until about 12:30. I walked out into the family room and my mom (who NEVER gets flustered) was blown away! She said she had never seen a baby fight sleep like that! She wanted to try for another 30 minutes, so I waited until 1:00 and then went out to get him. My mom was dumbstruck. She thought FOR SURE she would be able to get him down. Now she knows what I have been going through! He went down finally and was up again at 5...

Thursday at the beach was super busy....and Cal did NOT NAP! Everyone tried rocking him to sleep, but he never napped for longer than a few minutes. I think every nap totaled 45 minutes. The crazy thing is, he was happy as could be the entire day! No crying, no fussing, just laughing and smiling at everyone! Go figure! Thursday night, I gave Cal some Tylenol because I really think he is teething like crazy. We fed him dinner, and I also switched and gave him 2 veggies earlier in the day and then for dinner gave him a fruit and some oatmeal. After dinner, he had a bath and then played and played and played. Once he rubbed his eyes, I took him and had him down by 9:00 (later than I would like, but at least he was down!). he stayed down until 6:00! We all celebrated on Friday!

There was a repeat performance Friday and Saturday nights-- it was AWESOME! I thought, are we over this horrible hump?? Saturday night was so good-- he woke up at 5:15, but I fed him and he went back to sleep until 8:45! And we were supposed to go to church at 9! OPPS!

We got home last night (Sunday) and Cal went down without a problem.... but he woke up at 11:30, 2:00, and 5......sigh.

I did have a revelation though: the lamb swing has GOT to go. I am too tempted to use it for naps, and it is not smart of me. We travel too much, this kid has GOT to learn to nap in his crib! That's all there is to it!

This morning, I worked for about 25 minutes to get him down (he was sooooo tired), and he slept for 40 minutes. This afternoon, I put him down and let him cry it out (it took 25 minutes to cry it out), and he's been asleep for 40 minutes now.....we'll see how long it lasts! BUT he is in the crib! PHEW!

And finally, here are some pictures from Easter weekend at the beach:

Cal with his Easter basket!

My two boys

Love my sweet little guy

With a new hat from the Easter Bunny!

South Carolina

We went this past weekend to South Carolina to visit Eddie's grandparents, Lala and Pop, and his parents flew in from Texas too. We left Friday morning, as another mini storm came in. It was pouring down rain and 32 degrees. When we got to Burlington, the far left lane and the far right lane were both sheets of ice. We just cruised in the middle lane watching cars go flying by us.... and then we saw them wrecked on the side of the road a few miles ahead. Seriously, we saw that happen several times!

We got to Pendleton safely and had a nice weekend with Eddie's family. Cal was a trooper in the car both there and back. As hard as it is to believe, Cal did not cry one time the entire weekend. Not once. I was shocked (and thrilled!).

Here are some pictures of the growing little guy....

4 generations

Mr. Thunder Thighs

Who is this kissing me?

Getting Baptized

Cal got baptized today, Sunday, January 17th. It was such a special day and one I will always remember. He was wonderful during the service and during the baptism too. I was such a proud momma and beaming the entire time. I just feel so BLESSED to have this amazing baby and family. There are a bunch of pictures (and a video) on the mobile me page, so check that out if you want to see more than this....




My mom, AKA Martha Stewart, made his outfit for the day. We were going to do a gown, but he is just such a boy that we had to put him in a romper. I really wanted to do a gown though and put the monogram on it and have all of our kids wear it. Oh well.... thankfully, I have an incredible mother who is willing to make more! She did such a great job and I don't think I could have picked out a better outfit in any store! It was PERFECT!

We are exhausted tonight after an action-packed weekend. Maybe Cal will sleep through the night tonight...???

PS-- for those wondering, my whole "not feeding him in the night" thing is working... he got up once last night at 4. I put the paci in and then brought him in with me at 5 and he slept until 7:45. I just have to cut out him waking up until morning.... I will post more on that later!

xo

Bowling in Arizona!

The TCU Horned Frogs were invited to the BCS bowl game, The Fiesta Bowl, in Phoenix, AZ.

We flew out on the 29th for 8 days, 7 nights....that's a loooong time to be gone with a baby! Each of our bags weighed just at 50 pounds! That's a lot of stuff to take!

Before we left, Cal had a little sniffle, but we didn't think much of it. Also, I should note, on the 26th, Cal slept through the night (I got wayyy more excited than I should have....it hasn't happened since!).

We made it out there fine, wish I could say the same for Eddie's bag.... we were delayed leaving DC, so we didn't get in to AZ until 11:45, AZ time, which was 1:45 am our time. We were pretty dead. Cal slept a lot on the plane, so he thought it was time to play when we got to our room!

Poor Cal...his snotty nose turned into quite the cough and one day he was just full on under the weather. We had the team doctor check him out, and he thought everything sounded fine to him. I was worried sick, of course! It's hard to have a sick baby and be away from home! We are buds with our pediatrician so I called her on her cell phone (!!! I am THAT mom!) and she was great-- told me to give him some baby tylenol and that really seemed to help him. We went into see her when we got back and it turns out he has a chest filled with "crap" and an ear infection. Poor little man.....

It was a great trip out there and we spent some quality time with Eddie's family. We even got a picture with 4 generations of Calvin Edwin Williamsons.... it was pretty special. The outcome of the game was a bummer, but the trip itself was fun.

Me, Eddie and Cal in our matching O-Line t shirts and Cal with his jersey. I love this one :)

The Williamson Family

Riding the bus to the game, riding like a big boy!

Calvin Edwin Williamson, I, II, III, IV!

Turkey Day flying to Texas

We flew out Thanksgiving Day morning to Fort Worth to spend Thanksgiving with Eddie's family. Cal had a SUPER cute Thanksgiving Day outfit (if I do say so myself!), that was just about too small on him :). Good thing he couldn't eat everything on turkey day....it certainly would not have fit by the end of the day! Pics of this in next post...

Our flight was super early on Thursday, and I was pretty much a stress case trying to get everything ready to go. We did not take a stroller or car seat, so we didn't have to lug those items (we borrowed them from someone in Texas). I carried my diaper bag and Cal in the Baby Bjorn and put other important things in a carry on suitcase. When we got out of the car and loaded Cal in the carrier, he fell asleep immediately. We walked through the "special needs" line in the airport and they let me keep Cal in the carrier without having to take him out (PHEW!).

Cal in the carrier.....ready to go!

We got bulk head seats on the plane, so we have plenty of leg room. He woke up when we sat down, but wasn't fussy at all. I got out the "Hooter Hider" (hilarious name, by the way--ha!), and he ate away during take off. He fell right asleep and slept until we landed in Atlanta!

Snoozin' on the plane-- no big deal!!

In Atlanta, Eddie's sister, Carrie, met us at the gate; she was on the same flight from ATL to DFW! We were able to rearrange seats so that we could all be in a row together, so I wasn't going to be feeding him with a stranger right next to us. Again, I feed him on take off and he sleep the rest of the flight! PHEW!

Sitting in the Atlanta airport with Aunt Ceebs!

From Atlanta to Dallas/Fort Worth!

I was a nervous mess about flying with him, but he seriously did not cry once! On our first flight of the day, there were like 30 babies on the flight so it was a noisy flight, but our little guy wasn't adding to the chaos!

WE MADE IT! I was beyond exhausted by Thursday night (all the food might have something to do with that.....), but we did it! PHEW!

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.....

29 candles on the birthday cake

On September 1st, I turned 29 years old! So much for having this baby when I am 28! Eddie is a few months younger than me so I was hoping we would both be 28 when Cal came to town, but now he will have an older momma! :)

We celebrated by going to dinner with the family to Mez and then opening gifts and having some cake. My big gift was an AWESOME camera that I already love love love. I have been playing with it a lot to try to learn all it can do before the baby arrives. Here are some of my favorite shots of just playing (poor Hank has to put up with me!):