Tonya's Photos

We were lucky enough to have a friend of ours, Tonya, take some beautiful pictures of Liam. She was sweet enough to do 2 sessions since Liam was an "angry little elf." We just got the photos back and they are even better than I'd hope. Thanks Tonya!

One month!

I can't believe how quickly one month has flown by. It has been a whirlwind of diaper changes, feedings, giggles, sly little smiles and sleepless nights. Liam seems to change everyday. He has been so alert lately and loves to sit straight up, hold up his head and look around. We have mostly good days, peppered in with some real doozies. He had one of those doozie days a few days ago...you know the type. Clean, dry and comfy but very upset. Those are the times when it is hardest for me, it makes me feel helpless when I don't know what to do to comfort him. Liam is growing well, at last weigh in (which was probably about 1 1/2 weeks ago) he was 9lbs 14.5 oz. One of these days I'll have to weigh him again. I made Frank buy a baby scale when we first brought Liam home since the nurse in me worried he wouldn't get enough to eat and would lose weight. His Buddha belly assures me he's doing well. I'm so excited for Christmas. I know that Liam has no clue what is going on but having him makes the season so much more meaningful to me.

Notice the poor boy's baby acne....thank goodness for picture programs with a "heal" feature!

Being Mommy

I always knew I wanted to be a Mommy but I can't begin to express how wonderful it is to look at a sweet, little baby and know that he is yours. The awe and the incredible responsibility of it are just amazing. As many of you know, I am just not a morning person...that's why I work the night shift. But this morning will go down as a cherished moment. Liam was a very good boy last night and actually let me get some sleep. I had about 3 hours straight from 3 to 6am! That is much different than 3 hours between feeds, which gives you only an hour and a half to two hours rest. When he woke up at six I brought him into our bed for a feeding and was blessed with a ton of smiles and a giggle. The giggle has been his newest trick. He was so excited to see me, and that recognition between baby and mom does a lot to boost the spirits of a really, really tired Mommy. Well, this blog will be short as I'm holding a little sleeping dude in my arms as I type. We are off to sit in the recliner and enjoy the morning together.

Another Peek

I was looking at the pics we have taken of Liam and found more that I wanted to show off....so here they are. We were lucky enough to have one of the wonderful girls from the ward, Tonya, take pictures this last week. She is so sweet and did 2 photo sessions since Liam was very grumpy the first day she came over. Her photos are just gorgeous! Doesn't hurt that Liam is the star in them! She has a few pics up on her blog as a little preview. Her site is www.tonyajoy.com/myjoy Just keep scrolling down until you see our cute little booger.

2 weeks and counting

I had grand plans to update the blog when Liam was 2 weeks old but...Liam had other plans. Liam is now 17 days old and has kept us very busy. Unlike the babies that I take care of at work, I can't change, bottle feed and get him back in bed in half an hour. Breastfeeding takes a lot longer and though I LOVE the time with him, at 2am, 4am, 6am....a little more sleep would be a welcomed trade. I'm still so amazed that he is ours. It seems that he does cute, new little things everyday. He is very alert and likes to hold is head up. We had a fun trip to Grandma and Grandpa Ellett's for Thanksgiving. The food was great and I didn't have to cook a thing! Here's some pictures of our little blessing.

5 days old

I can't believe it has been 5 days since Liam was born. Every day seems so new and yet it's hard to remember being pregnant just last week. Life has been wonderful. Sleep has also been a distant memory but somehow the Lord blesses mothers to get through it. I know that I have gotten less sleep in the last week then ever before, but I don't feel as tired as I often did coming home from the night shift. I can't get enough of Liam and love to watch Frank as he interacts with him. He is a great Daddy! Still learning how to do that diaper bit! Here are some photos that we took of him this morning. He was wide awake and checking out the world. He's just perfect!

Finally a Mommy and Daddy!!!

Wow! What an experience! I can not begin to tell you how blessed our family is. We went in LATE Monday night to begin our induction only to find out that the Labor and Delivery unit was extremely busy. I was terrified that they would send us home and make us come back in the morning, which would have only been about 5 hours away. But, the nurses were great and hurried to have a room cleaned for us. By about 1am they had finally gotten us settle, IV in and pitocin started. Let me tell you, pitocin sucks but epidurals are amazing!!! After laboring about 6 hours without the epidural and having made very little cervical change my nurse (who was really great) said it was time to call the anesthesiologist. I love that doctor!!! The IV pain meds did nothing to cut the pain just made me feel very dizzy and weird, so I had only had one dose. The epidural worked miracles! At 2:30pm they checked me and said I was still only 4.5cm, an hour later I began to feel really hot but still had no pain. The doctor checked me and...10cm and a little head that was very, very low. At the same time the Labor and Delivery unit was bustling. My nurse, who was also taking care of another patient got called away. Her other patient was only 27 weeks pregnant, bleeding, contracting and going for a c-section. Since I was still comfortable and Liam was doing great they had me sit and let the contractions continue to push him down. Waiting actually turned out to be a great thing since I only had to push for half an hour. It was physically the hardest thing I have ever done. I remember the doctor instructing Frank to count to ten and after a few really hard pushes I told him, "you have to count FASTER!" Before I knew it, Liam was put on my belly and every pain and discomfort I experienced was completely forgotten. (Don't worry, the pain and discomfort was remember again when the epidural wore off!) What an amazing, perfect baby. The doctor, who had told me early in the morning that she felt Liam would be "an 8 pounder" looked and him and was shocked. We were all shocked! 9lbs 5.6oz!!! That's huge! Liam has been wonderful. He is breastfeeding amazingly well, is only slightly jaundice and sleeps....like a newborn! We are all very happy, tired and amazed. I still can't believe he is ours. We feel so truly blessed.