Lovely Winter

We enjoyed Christmas in St. Johns this year. We were lucky to get lots of snow to play in. Maddie loved her Minnie Mouse from Santa. I didn't get any Christmas pictures of William, but this photo was taken on Christmas Day so we'll count it.

William's Photo Shoot

I'm a bit behind in the blogging...Here are William's newborn photos taken by my good friend Jenna Jameson. They turned out so great; I couldn't put all the ones I loved on here because it takes too long! He is not even one week old in these. My how he has grown, by about 10 pounds!

2012...Here I Come!

Every year I make a list of goals. It's something I quite enjoy doing. Writing a list of all the things I want to someday become. But then everyday life steps in, and I quickly get sidetracked just trying to get the dishes done each day. Here's hoping I can better myself in at least one way this year.

1. Nightly family and personal prayer/scripture study.
2. Exercise at least 3 times a week. (I already broke this one, but am still trying!)
3. Drink more water (I'm the worst!)
4. Read one non-fiction book.
5. Monthly date nights and temple dates
6. Work on family videos, a photo book and a piece of art decor for the house.

William Updaate

Our Sweet William. Apparently Sweet William is a plant, who knew? Just a little update on our adorable little boy. He is almost 4 months! He is definitely a fast growing boy. 9pounds at birth, 12 pounds at his 1 month appointment, 15.2 pounds at his 2 month, and we are awaiting stats for his 4 month appointment. I predict a near 20 pound weigh-in.

He is laughing and smiling and trying to engage anyone he can in baby gurgling chatter. He LOVES his big sister and his eyes follow her all around the room.

He's quite fond of being held, and still doesn't nap during the day without that comfort. But, he does do pretty awesome at night and will sleep from 9 pm-ish to 7am-ish with only waking once to eat (usually).

We got a bit lazy in the bottle making/pumping department, and he now refuses a bottle. We were so adamant that this kid would most definitely take a bottle! Ugh, we failed miserably. I have hope that we can still make it happen. It must happen. Mother needs her time off too.

This kid can drool! Maddie wasn't a huge drooler, so this is new to me. I always try to dress him so cute for church, then have to throw on that tacky bib. Ruins the whole effect. His hair is hilarious. It looks like a come-over in the back. I'm still hoping some curls will emerge.

We love our Bubz.

Halloween

We opted for a very buggy Halloween. It all started with Maddie's decision to be a ladybug. I made Maddie's costume, and I found William's costume at Goodwill, and as you can definitely tell, Casey's and mine are homemade. We hit up a few Halloween events this year. We got invited to a party on Wednesday and Maddie spent the entire time with all the other little ones in the bounce house. Then Saturday night we went to our ward trunk or treat. Finally came the actual Holiday where Maddie had a slow start to trick or treating, but I finally coaxed her into gathering free candy from strangers. We headed home to an evening of candy eating and family fun.

We're now on week 2 of William's life and still adjusting. He's a noisy fellow; lots of squeaks and grunts. He still doesn't like his bassinet, so we're still not having great nights. He's gained 15 ounces since his birth because he's always eating! My doctor said to wait until he really cries from hunger before I feed him, so he's not snacking so much.

Maddie is still doing well with him; she doesn't seem to dislike him in any way. Every once in a while she'll ask to hold him. Mostly she likes to disrupt his daytime naps by shaking him and yelling, "Wake up baby! Wake up!" Which, I'm fine with his daytime naps being interrupted if it helps him sleep at night at all.

He's still doing great going back and forth between nursing and bottles, and I'm trying to build up a storage of breast milk so we don't have to use formula anymore. We're on our last container of the freebie stuff.

Mom is doing well and feeling pretty great; other than lack of sleep. I forgot how painful nursing can be, but I'm at least glad that the contraction type cramps stopped after a few days. I jump at any chance to leave the house since we're home all day long. I've been blessed with fabulous friends, who brought me dinner for two weeks! I even got gourmet breakfast one morning. I really feel so overwhelmed with how kind and generous people have been. It definitely makes me want to be that kind of person to other people.

William's Arrival

William Kenny Lewis arrived Friday, September 16th at 7:43 pm.

I had been to my weekly doctor visit that previous Monday, and the doctor told me to come in to his office that Friday (my due date) and he'd schedule a time for me to get induced. So I went in at 9am to my appt., he checked me out and said, "how would you like to be induced today?" I of course said yes and he said, "how about 11?"

So we hurried home, got all packed, I cleaned the kitchen and whatever else I could, then we dropped off our little Mads with the inlaws, grabbed some Taco Bell and headed in.

I was having light contractions when I got in, I wouldn't have noticed if the machine didn't tell me. They started the pitocin at noon. I began to feel them noticably. The doctor came in at 1 or 2 and broke my water. That hurt. By 4 I was ready for my epidural. Just in time for Jeopardy. At 7 my doctor came in, checked me and predicted the baby would be here at 7:40pm. At 7:30 I started to feel the contractiona pretty frequently and began to feel pressure down below. In came to doctor, he told me to go ahead and push, and within 2 or 3 minutes we had a baby! I looked down at the doctor and asked, "Is that usually how it goes?" I seriously couldn't believe how fast and easy it all was. Delivering thte placenta didn't hurt at all. I didn't feel the pain of getting stitched up afterwards. It was all so different than last time.

We love our little William and are adjusting to life with a newborn around. He's not a fan of his bassinet yet, so we tag team the recliner at nights. Maddie enjoys loving on him and telling him he's all done eating so Mom can play with her. Casey, as always, is such a sweet loving dad, and is loving that this baby enjoys bottles from Dad (as does Mom, except the whole pumping thing).