Santa Claus

In case you haven't noticed.... I LOVE PICTURES!!! So, we took Alyssa to have her pictures made with Santa for her first Christmas. We did these at Parkkonen Photography in Taylors. Again, I narrowed it down to my favorite picks.

6 month photo shoot

We had her pictures made when she was 6 months. Here are some of my favorites. (And we took over 200, so yes, I did only put my favorites!) We had these done at Sight & Sound in Union, Amanda Ferguson always does such a good job accommodating to our individual needs, likes, and personalities.

PICTURES

Here are the pictures as promised!

My pretty 4 month old!

First trip to the mountains

getting our ears pierced at 4 months


She did soooo good!



my 5 month old



too cool for school






our first Halloween





green beans are good!


our first Christmas

Hello Stranger

Wow, has it really been that long? I guess you can say working full time at the hospital and as a mommy really take up a lot of my time!! Just ask my husband, poor thing hasn't had a home cooked meal in MONTHS!! I just don't have the time. There's always laundry waiting to be done, dishes stacked in the sink, and toys all over the place. I'm up at 5:00 to get me and Alyssa ready, don't get off work till 6:00, come home, feed me, feed Aly, take my shower, give Aly her bath, then it's just about our bedtime! Whew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Well, let's catch up shall we?

Alyssa is now 7 months old. She is sitting by herself, rolling over by herself, and scooting (backwards). She has her first tooth, she's eating baby food, and she's just growing up way too fast! She will be getting tubes in her ears on Jan. 11 because we've had 5 ear infections and 2 busted ear drums. No fun!! Her Daddy and I also went on a cruise in December for our 3 year anniversary and left Alyssa with her grandparents. My first time away and it was to another country!! That one was rough but we all survived!

I'll try to post some pictures later. Right now, I have to go fold towels.

Only one more week till I start back to work. Where did the time GO????? It feels like she was just born last week! Time is flying by, and I know it's only going to get worse the older she gets. I wish I could bottle her up and keep her this small forever!

Beach

We took our first beach trip! It was definitely a different experience for me and Keith. We were so used to waking up, spending all day on the beach, then doing whatever we felt like at the moment in the evenings (out to eat, putt putt, arcade, driving around, etc). You can't exactly do that with a baby! We had to plan our times out for when someone else could watch Aly. Mama and Daddy both were a huge help with this, but we still were not used to planning. Also, I started getting headaches again. I had gone two whole weeks without a single headache and got one on the way down to the beach. I was miserable!! So we spent our week trying to plan around Aly and my headaches.... but we did have fun, just learning to do things as parents and not just a couple. I can't wait till Aly is big enough to actually enjoy it: playing in the sand, getting in the pool, I wanna see how she reacts to the ocean! Soon!!

So it's been a while... yeah! This "mommy" thing is absolutely wonderful but definitely exhausting! I love holding my sweet precious angel and she loves to be held. Especially at night.... we're working on that. Until then, she and I are sleeping in the recliner in the living room so Daddy can get some sleep in order to function at work each day. (Any advice on getting a baby to sleep by herself in her crib without crying every hour?)

Alyssa

I'm a mommy!! Wow, that feels so weird to say. Alyssa Payton Williams is here. She was born May 18 at 12:32 pm. She weighed 8 lbs 1 oz, was 20 3/4 inches long, has a head full of hair, and blue eyes.

While I'm completely thrilled that she's finally here, the process to get her here was definitely NOT a fun one! I finally let the doctors talk me into an epidural, and they messed it up! They went too far and put it into the actual spinal column instead of the epidural space. So within seconds of getting it, I went completely paralyzed from my rib cage down. I almost fell off the side of the bed because I had no trunk muscles. Probably would have fallen if Keith hadn't been standing right there. I panicked thinking they had totally screwed up and the paralysis would be permanent. The anesthesiologist didn't do a good job of explaining what had happened and easing my fears either. Finally a nurse came back in and explained it was nothing to worry about, they did this on purpose for c-sections. So it's nothing serious, they just didn't mean to do it on me. That made me feel better, but it was still so strange to watch the nurses move my legs and position me in bed knowing those were my legs but having no sensation or control whatsoever.

When Alyssa was finally born she had tied her umbilical cord in a knot and swallowed too much fluid. They wouldn't even let Keith cut the cord because she had turned "so blue she was almost black" (is how my Mama described her). They cleaned her up, showed her to me for about 5 seconds, then rushed her to NICU to be suctioned and placed on oxygen. I didn't see her again until about 4 hours later.

Then they couldn't stop me from bleeding. The doctor worked for over an hour to stop the bleeding. I lost over 6 pints of blood and had to get a blood transfusion. They're still not 100% sure what went wrong, but the doctor thinks there may have been a 2nd partial placenta. Which means I may have started out with twins and one just didn't develop, but the placenta didn't dissolve either. He is going to go back and look at the ultrasound to see if he can see the 2nd placenta to figure out if this really is what happened. They wound up having to do a D&C to stop the bleeding. The doctor later said if that hadn't worked, his only other option would have been an emergency hysterectomy. Praise the Lord that didn't happen!!

The good news? I have the most ADORABLE baby girl in the world!! (Sorry to all you other moms out there, I'm sure I'm just a bit biased!)

Alyssa is finally here!

Holding my baby girl for the first time

my little cuddle bug

hey there blue eyes


nap time with Daddy

3 weeks to go

So it's been a while! Let me catch you up:

Had our baby shower for friends, family, and church. Huge shower!! Lots of people!! Tons of fun!!

This child got more clothes than she'll ever have a chance to wear!!



Alyssa's first bikini!!

Also started having some heart problems. Nothing serious, but my doctor sent me to a cardiologist just to be safe. I'm now wearing a heart monitor and have to get some blood work done. I go back in 2 weeks to see if they figured out what's going on or not.

Had a baby shower at work last Thursday. More people! More fun! (pictures later)

Now I'm down to 3 weeks!! We're so excited and can NOT wait... that and the fact that I feel like I'm walking around with a watermelon in my belly!! And this child is a MOVER!! For the past week she has moved ALL DAY LONG!! Man, I don't know if I'm gonna make it another 3 weeks.....