Zane's First Weeks

I can't believe Zane is already 3 1/2 weeks old! The time is flying by and he is already growing and changing before our eyes.

Here are a few things we have learned in the past 25 days:

1. It turns out we CAN still function on the amount of sleep we got in college.

2. Always take the opportunity for a nap or shower when it arises. You can never assume that another opportunity will come that day.

3. Makeup? Just be glad that I got deodorant on and brushed my teeth today. The priorities are a bit different.

4. Maternity leave is not a time to complete household projects. "I'll be home for 12 weeks. I can get that closet cleaned out." Ha! It's a good day if I get a shower and one load of laundry done. Hence why I haven't been blogging much.

5. "Dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge." Urine is not the only thing that can be projectile.

6. Zane- "Mom and Dad, thanks so much for putting a fresh diaper on me. I was just waiting for that so that I could poopy. Oh, did you think I was done? Oops, guess we need yet another diaper." I think our grand record is 4 fresh diapers in one diaper change session....

7. Swaddling works wonders, while it lasts.... He started kicking out a week ago.

8. Quiet alert time is the most precious time. Naptime is right after that.

9. There is always someone who is willing to hold the baby.....

10. He is worth it all.... the pregnancy miseries, the labor and delivery, the loss of sleep, the hard days, and the complete upheaval of life as we formerly knew it.

We love our little man so much! Here are a few pictures of him since we brought him home.

Zane's first bath. He hated it so much that he peed directly on Daddy!

Hanging out with Uncle Robin. Robin & Jill and Craig & Fallon all came to visit the weekend after he was born.

Aunt Fallon and cousin Emma getting to know him.

Stretch!

The Hawaiian outfit we put him in for our friend's beach-themed anniversary party. It was kind of big.... but precious. Check out the flip flops! They make his feet look so tiny!

Tall and skinny boy! Takes after his Daddy in that respect for sure.


I wanted to share this video too. Those of you that know Tommy will appreciate this. He insisted on buying a book about "kid-versions" of superheroes for Zane so he could start teaching him about the superheroes. Male-bonding time....

That is all for now. If Zane will let me, I will try to keep the blog regularly updated with more pictures.

With Love,

Crystal

Zane has arrived!

I hope everyone will forgive me for being a little behind on the blog. As most of you already know, our little Zane Curry Williamson arrived on Monday, August 31 (my dad's birthday!) at 1:18pm. He weighed 7 lbs, 2 oz., and he was 19 1/4 in.

I actually got up Saturday morning feeling "weird." It was hard to explain, but I kind of felt like my blood pressure was high. I haven't had any problems with my blood pressure throughout the pregnancy or anything but I was a little nervous about it so we found somewhere to check it and it was just borderline high but nothing to call the doctor about. That continued off and on throughout the day. We were ready to get this baby coming and everybody was pulling for him to come on Dad's birthday, so we did a little walking on Saturday and ate Mexican food. By Saturday evening, I started having some contractions but still pretty far apart and a little inconsistent. I was able to sleep pretty well that night despite the contractions. On Sunday, I continued having contractions and by mid-afternoon they were about 4-6 minutes apart. We decided to go ahead and call the doctor. My doctor was not on call for the weekend :-( , but the doctor that I spoke with said that I could probably wait a little until they were more intense since this was my first baby. We headed up to the hospital about an hour later, but of course the contractions slowed down some once we got there. They ended up sending us home but the nurse said that I was in the early stages of labor and that she would expect me to have him within 24-36 hours. Meanwhile, dad had everyone at church (including Ms. Mozelle, who ranks right up there with Elijah in the prayer area) praying that the baby would come on his birthday- Monday. The prayers apparently worked, because my contractions backed off to every 7-9 minutes for most of the night, but they definitely increased in intensity. I didn't sleep more than 2 hours total Sunday night. By morning, the contractions started coming closer together again and by morning, they were 4-6 minutes apart again but much more intense.

We got to the hospital about 7am. They admitted me for sure this time and the timing was perfect because my doctor was back on call and it was dad's birthday! I got my epidural pretty quick, which was good because I was in a whole lot of pain by that point. After my epidural, I felt great! I was chatting with Tommy's parents and my parents and the other friends and family members that were visiting. I hadn't progressed very much in the first few hours there and the doctor came back in at about 12:30 to check me. With everyone waiting in the hall, the doctor discovered that I was fully progressed and ready to start pushing. Tommy had to pass everyone's purses out the door as we tried to come to grips with the reality that we were about to have a baby. Just about 30 minutes of pushing later, Zane was here.

He has a full head of light brown hair and dark blue eyes for now. Dad was elated that Zane came on his birthday! I don't think he stopped smiling for a few days. Everything has gone very smoothly and both he and I have been very healthy so far. I will do another post soon about his first couple of weeks. We are so proud of our little man!!

I am including a couple of pictures of the day of his birth, but click on this link to view a full album of pictures from his birth up to a few days ago. It is on Facebook but you do not have to be a member to view the album with this link.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025253&id=152601047&l=2f504a34b4

I am limited on what pictures I can include right now because all of the pictures are on Tommy's computer or the flash drive that he left at my parents' house. Here are a few that Tommy emailed me to include today.




Check out the album for more. I will post again soon about his first few weeks.

With love,

Crystal

Patience, patience.....

I am 38 weeks and 2 days pregnant now, meaning that little Zane is full term and could come at any point now. A couple of weeks ago, I was really freaking out about how quickly he could be here and I was frantic to try to finish everything. Now, we pretty much have everything done and ready and we are just waiting. Neither me or Tommy are very good at just waiting. Part of the reason that I end up being late all the time is because if I have a few minutes, I want to do just one more thing which typically makes me run late. I also hate getting places early and then having to sit around. Tommy just gets bored and feels like he should be doing something fun instead of waiting. I think he is even more ready than I am at this point mostly out of sheer boredom..... He told me yesterday that he almost sent me a text message from work saying, "Can you go into labor now? I'm bored." He didn't send it, but that's where he is mentally. It's kind of like the last couple of weeks before your wedding when all the major stuff is pretty much done and you are just ready to be done with it all and be married already. The only difference is that we don't have a specific date to wait for. Everyday we wake up and wonder, "Will today be the day?" and then we go to bed a little disappointed when nothing has happened. It is really difficult to be simultaneously mentally prepared to have a baby any day but also be prepared for another 2+ weeks of pregnancy, especially at this point in the pregnancy. I am feeling pretty good most of the time, but I am quite ready to be done with this part. Funny how you think you are going to be scared about labor and all that it entails, but really I am just so ready to see my little boy that I don't really care what I will have to endure in the short run to be able to see him. Labor is just a temporary means to an end.

Everything has been going well and I am feeling pretty good most of the time. My doctor was slightly concerned at my appointment last week because of the way he was measuring but when they did a sonogram, he looked fine and he is all the right size but just has a slightly smaller abdomen than most. They think he will probably just be tall and skinny, but who is really surprised about that? Have you seen Tommy? They are watching us a little more closely now but everything is still looking fine. We will go back to the doctor on Monday. Every time we go to the doctor now, we are basically ready to be admitted to the hospital. On Wednesday this week, we had the car packed and everything just in case. We are taking the "Be prepared" approach.

Personally, Tommy and I are rooting for any day now, but my dad is pulling for Monday so that he can share his birthday with Zane. So, cross your fingers and send some good "go into labor" vibes our way this weekend. Please be praying for a safe delivery and a healthy baby boy!!

With love,

Crystal

And the Countdown Begins....

Okay, okay, I freely admit that I have sorely failed at doing my job of updating the blog over the last (eesh) couple of months. I have a whole list of excuses that I will try not to spend all my time on (*Tommy hogging the Internet connection on his video games* Ahem, I mean...... I didn't say anything.... ) :-). Regardless, we have been very busy trying to get ready for Zane and keep up with our busy lives this summer. I was also a little hesitant to post for a while because I lost our brand new camera and I was really pretty depressed about it and just didn't want to post much without having many pictures to go along with it. Lame excuse, I know, but it contributed. Thanks to the generosity of our family, we have a new camera now so that we can take lots of great pictures and videos of Zane after he arrives.

It is a bit of a daunting task to try to quickly summarize the last 2 months in one post, but I will do my best to just give the highlights. I will make a bigger photo album on facebook (soon I promise!) to include more of the great pictures from along the way.

The dogs are trying to adjust. They like to hide under the crib!

My good friend Amy got to visit briefly in July. I was 31 weeks here.

We finally got the room arranged so that we could fit all the furniture. This was a challenge!

We had a great baby shower from our church in July. (I'm 32 weeks here)

Our friend Christi made this for us. Isn't it cute!

Smallz made himself comfortable with all of the stuff we got at our church shower.

We did a few maternity pictures in July as well. I was 32 weeks. Our friend Landon did a fabulous job!

My Grandmom finished the t-shirt quilt she made for me of all my sorority shirts from college and brought it in July. I love it!

We had a great time at the lake with my family in July. Here is my niece Emma making friends with 2nd cousin Carson.

We have already had a busy month of August as well. My co-workers threw me a shower at work, but unfortunately I do not have any pictures of that one yet. I will have to get my friend Donna to send me the ones that she took. I didn't want to risk taking even my old camera because the camera that I mentioned before that I lost, yeah, I lost it at work...

Some of our college friends threw us a fun shower last weekend. We had a great time reuniting with lots of friends and family. Tommy entertained the men with video games upstairs.

My wonderful hostesses

My friend Jacque got to be here for the shower from North Carolina. Unfortunately I didn't get any posed pictures with her. But here she is next to me!

Tommy's sister, Tammy, is only 4 weeks behind me. We are looking forward to Zane having a great time with his cousin Noah! We are 35 and 31 weeks here.

Whew! I think those are the main highlights of the last couple of months. Zane's room is just about ready. We just need to hang things on the wall. I will definitely post with the finished product. I am 36 weeks now and we are realizing every day that he will be here very soon. This is both exciting and terrifying! We have just about everything we need (and so much more), aside from a couple of trips to Babies R Us and Target. I am feeling okay most of the time, just tired and getting a little fed up with having this big belly and all the pregnancy woes. I plan to keep working until I deliver or Labor Day weekend, whichever comes first, as long as I continue without any major problems. It will be such a relief to be done with pregnancy, although I know that caring for a newborn will be a whole new adventure in itself. We can't wait to meet our little boy and start getting to know him! I will make a point to keep the blog better updated now, I promise!

With Love & Anticipation!

Crystal

Zane's Room

I finally have a few minutes to update and show you guys the progress we have made with the room. We took a leap and decided on the red paint for the room and we absolutely love it!! We also got the crib all put together so it is really beginning to look like a baby's room. To show you how far we have come, I am posting the very honest before pictures of this room. Before we did anything, this was the catch-all junk room in our house....


It doesn't even look like the same room anymore. With a lot of help from some friends, we installed a ceiling fan and got the room all painted.

How many men does it take to screw in a lightbulb.... er, install a fan? We've even got an Aggie in there. Thanks Andy & Brooks! Tommy's parents were a great help too!


Andy also stuck around and helped us tape the room to get ready for paint.


Our friends Mike Taylor and Mike Reed helped Tommy do most of the painting. They were both lifesavers!!

Tommy posing with walls almost done. Just lacking one coat of red!

And now for the finished walls!!

We think the red turned out great!! I will post pictures of the crib in a separate post because I am out of time. Off we go again!

Love,

Crystal

Paint Problems

We have yet to decide on a paint color for the nursery. So I need some help from some of my more design inclined friends, or really anyone.... It has been harder than we thought to find a shade of blue that we both like on the wall and that matches/coordinates with the blue in the bedding. The blue in the bedding is almost a denim blue, which looks like a gray blue on the wall and that looks a little depressing to Tommy. We are still considering blue at this point, but I decided to think outside the box today. Up to this point, I have been trying to avoid very dark or bold colors since our bedding is so colorful and bright, but I am willing to consider anything at this point. My friend Nikki and I picked up a stack of paint swatches tonight in a variety of colors and ideas. Tommy and I are both kind of liking the concept of painting red on the bottom and painting the top a creamish-tan. (We already have a chairrail in the room). I really feel like the red would grow with Zane as we go from baby room to toddler room in a few years. My only concern is that it might come across as too much with the bright bedding. I am rationalizing however that with the furniture and everything, much of the red will be covered so maybe it wouldn't be too much. Please tell me what you think!!

Let us know what you think. If you have additional suggestions, we will take them. We are trying to avoid green because we already have another bedroom in the house painted green as well as the bathroom. I am also stearing away from yellow because I don't think that would grow up with him very well. But, I am still open to suggestions!

Thanks,

Crystal

Baby Bump Watch

Well it seems to be time for an update on the baby belly. I am showing for sure by this point. Random people all day long ask me when I am due. I am at a point where I feel pretty darn huge, but everybody exclaims about how small I am. Whatever! I realize I have quite a ways to go, but I am now having a hard time getting up and down and bending over. I get tired pretty quick these days if I have to do a lot of walking. I've told Tommy before that I wish sometimes I could just take the baby off and make him carry it for me for a while but that won't come for a while. So here is the update and the last recent one for comparison....

25 weeks- 5/28/09

21 weeks- 4/29/09

I will try to post some pics soon from last weekend with Robin & Jill & Emma in Tulsa. We had a great time and I have some fabulous pictures!

Love you all!

Crystal