Happy Valentine's Day!

To Lindsey:

Breakfast in bed with heart-shaped pancakes, grapefruit and orange juice

A hair cut and hour of shopping ALONE

Another hour ALONE in front of the fire with my new bookDinner of heart-shaped pizza, ice cream floats and chocolate chip toffee cheesecake

To Ryan:
A little something to remind you how much we love you while at work...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hard Work

It's hard work being a baby.

Exhausted...

at 8:45 am.

Mylicon Miracle & Craig's List Love

Mylicon Miracle

We have seen a Mylicon Miracle at our house.
Collin has been really fussy after each time he eats. I have been cutting things out of my diet trying to figure out the cause, but it was beginning to look like I wasn't going to be able to eat anything at all!

For example, Sunday night Collin woke up to eat at 12:30am. I fed him until about 1am, and then he began his characteristic arching of his back, kicking/stretching of his legs, flailing of his arms (which I have learned means he needs to burp/toot). I burped him in a variety of positions until at 1:30. Nothing.

Frustrated, I woke up Ryan, who burped and rocked and bounced our little guy until 2:30am. Result? Collin screamed and screamed in pain, and nothing came out.

I use this story as an example of each time he has eaten since about a week ago. It was becoming very draining, to say the least.

Enter Mylicon on the scene. Ryan picked it up on the way home from work Monday night, and it has worked like a dream. Collin doesn't seem to mind the flavor, and he is so happy and content to be alive. We had begun to believe he hated being awake, since all he'd do is eat and scream with his eyes open. Now today I have played and read to him most of the morning! Yeah for gas relief meds!

Now doesn't he look content?

Craig's List Love

I also wanted to share my Craig's List Love. I have found so many great things right here in town for so cheap. Here are a few of the baby things I have acquired:

Play Mat Gym (with music) -

New: $69.99; Craig's List: $10

Car Seat Base -

(We actually bought the whole car seat, but we really just wanted an extra base.)

New (just base): $30; Craig's List (whole seat): $15

Baby Bath Tub -

New: $25; Craig's List: $5

Baby Swing -

New: $72.99; Craig's List: $20

Boppy -

(I already had one, but I'd been wanting another... and for this price? I couldn't resist!)

New: $30, Craig's List: $5

Stroller Frame -

New: $60; Craig's List: $20

Electronic Ball -

New: $13; Craig's List: FREE (She threw it in since I bought so many other things!)

Now just to clarify, all these items were not purchased from the same person or at the same time. These have been my finds since about September when I started gathering things for the coming baby... But still: What did people do before Craig's List? I'm in love.

Happy One Month!

Today Collin turns one month old. Time flies! He is growing so fast. Yesterday he had his doctor checkup -- Weight: 10 pounds; Length: 22.5 inches.

He no longer fits into "newborn"-sized clothes, and some of the "0-3 months" things are getting too short. What an eater!

Here are some fun photos from this past week:

Pushing a Poo

Mommy's New Man

Our Little MonkeyShhh! I'm Sleeping

We are having so much fun learning and growing together. Happy One Month, Collin!

Collin's Blessing

Today Collin turned 4-weeks old, and we blessed him in sacrament meeting. Grandpa Morello and Papa Williams stood in the circle while Ryan pronounced the blessing.

Our little man

Everyone
Morellos
Williams
The Women (and Collin, of course)
The Men

We are so grateful for the priesthood and eternal families. We are also grateful for our loving family who is always willing to travel long distances to share in our special family milestones. We are especially grateful for our little Collin: for his health and strength and sweet, mild temperament.

Happy Two Weeks!

So we are now among those obsessed parents who photograph the child day and night. Here are some fun pictures we took to celebrate his two-week birthday.

He likes to strike funny poses. We call this his GQ pose.

Awesome, huh?

Collin will only sleep during the day if he is being cuddled (luckily this hasn’t transferred to his night-time sleeping yet). He likes to be hugged and to lie on Daddy’s chest.

This is how they fell asleep watching football on New Year’s Day.

We spent some time this week before Dad has to return to work having a little photo shoot.

We would have gotten more family photos, but Collin soaked his little outfit. Good times.

And here’s one last picture of our chipmunk.

Jaundice

Sorry that we haven't posted more in the last week. Our first week of parenthood has been... too eventful.

We were discharged from the hospital in time for Christmas, but unfortunately we were re-admitted on Christmas Day for Collin's jaundice. We are all home now but may have to return for additional treatments. Each day we have had to return to the hospital for Collin to be tested, and then we anxiously await our doctor's call to see what steps need to be taken. It is quite frustrating since we've been given very little instruction on how to help him other than to feed him.

It looks like Ryan may have left out Collin's vitals at birth in the last post:

Weight: 7 lbs 13 oz

Length: 20.5 inches

But at the doctor's yesterday he already weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz., so you can imagine what kind of eater he is!

Please keep our little Collin in your thoughts and prayers. He's had a rough first week.

We are loving every minute of parenthood, and he is an absolute joy. It has been challenging, but we wouldn't change anything for the world.

Baby Knows Best

It is my pleasure and privilege to introduce Collin Daniel Williams, first-born and soul heir to the Williams family fortune.

So, after all of our worrying and belly-aching (and aching bellies) about being in the hospital during Christmas, inducing labor, etc., our little man decided enough was enough. After a surprisingly pleasant 9 hours of labor, and a relatively quick 2 hours of pushing, Collin was delivered at 11:44 am Sunday morning, and the miracle of life began.

As you can see, Lindsey is doing amazingly well, and Collin is, of course, perfect. We are enjoying a few days of rest and recuperation in the hospital, and we will be going home to spend Christmas will G-ma and G-pa Morello and Uncle Jared. We are so happy to have him here, and eternally grateful for the best Christmas present we could ever have hoped for.

The moral of the story is: Don't question the baby's (or the Lord's) timing. We've stressed our selves out twice now worrying about dates and timing, and both times everything has worked out perfectly.

Well, enough of my rambling....I know you really just want to see pictures, so here are a few more...

Brand 'spankin' new

A hint of a smile

Zonked out on the warming table

Happy Birthday or Merry Christmas?

0 Days

What do you blog about when your Baby Ticker reads 0 days? What will it say tomorrow? +1?

No, I bet it'll just sit at zero until I delete it's computer code. Maybe I should just delete it today, so I'm not so disappointed tomorrow...

Yep, you guessed right: today is my due date. Yet here I sit blogging in front of my home computer. Yesterday I thought I had my last doctor's appointment, but (unfortunately) they scheduled me another one for Monday, December 22nd.

I haven't dilated anymore than before (3), despite having contractions about 10-minutes apart for a few hours on Tuesday night. I even got up and took a shower and they continued, until I was waiting for the next one... and woke up an hour later.

Waiting, waiting... I'm not a good wait-er.

39 Weeks

Baby Update:

I have had a chronic cough for almost 3 weeks now. Last week the OB said I could take a cough suppressant, but I decided that would really just cover the underlying problem (which was still unknown).

Anyway, I kept thinking I was getting a cold, but the runny nose, stuffy ears, and yucky head never came. Yesterday I went to meet our family physician for the first time (she's going to be our pediatrician too), and she looked in my nose, throat, and ears and then listened to me breath and declared... no congestion. Then WHY, I asked with obvious impatience, do I have the nastiest sounding cough in the world?

Her reply: acid reflux. Did anyone else out there know that heartburn could cause a chronic cough? And what is the remedy: Delivery. And that, my friend, is my number goal right now: getting my little guy out.

I also had an OB appointment yesterday (that's right: got weighed, measured, blood-pressured, poked and prodded at twice in less than an hour). The great news: I am dilated to a 3, and I am 50% effaced. They still scheduled me an appointment for next week and told me not to get my hopes up, but it is hard not to.

I'm ready buddy; make your debut! Otherwise, I may be shunned from society as a carrier of the plague.

Thoughts

Picture Perfect

I love having a fireplace to hang with our cute little stockings in a row. We even bought some of those environmentally-friendly logs in a box to burn every once in a while.

We decided we'd keep our "mini-tree" as our only tree for at least one more year. I think it looks quite cute standing guard there in the corner.
This is our tribute to Caterpillar.
Fireplaces, Christmas trees, stockings, Charlie Brown movies, hot chocolate, Christmas lights, candles... These things make me happy.

Week 38

When I got home from Seminary today, I was feeling huge and thought it would be a good day to take some more pregnancy photos.
It's funny - now looking at myself - I don't think I look nearly as humongous as I feel. The last week or so I have been feeling all the uncomfortable parts of carrying around my 6 lb. 11 oz. friend: lower back pain, sore feet and calves, pressure behind my hips, pain in my ribs, difficulty catching my breath, a constant need to use the restroom...

And all the while, my little guy is poking and jabbing and moving and grooving. I'm glad he's comfortable. I don't know how much longer my body can survive being beat up.