My little man is 3...

It's so hard to believe that it has been 3 years (or a little more) since Tucker made his entrance into the world. I am so thankful for our sweet, loving, outgoing, ball-loving, compassionate, hilarious little boy. He is at such a fun stage where he is talking up a storm and repeating everything just as he hears it. I will say he is a little more country than Jonathan and I are - his accent cracks me up - but, unfortunately, I think he may grow out of it (it's just too cute)! He loves anybody and everybody - doesn't meet a stranger. When he sees or hears one of his little friends crying, he is the first one to go over and offer them a toy or try to cheer them up in some kinda way (his preschool teacher told me this and I have noticed it, too). I love that about him. Don't get me wrong - we have had a challenging year with "listening" as well as other 2 year old things but..all in all, we are BLESSED. At his 3 year wellness visit he was 35 pounds and was 38 inches tall. We had his little birthday party at the worship center at church again this year. I tried to find a place where I wouldn't have to do anything - like Monkey Joe's or somewhere - but it was a little more expensive than I wanted. I knew all Tucker wanted to do anyway was play play play so that's what we did. The kids played and played basketball and all kinds of things in the gym at church and had a blast.

Briley's 6 week appointment..

Briley had her 6 week appointment last Friday, February 21st. At our 2 week check up the doctor asked us if we wanted to come back at 4 weeks and 8 weeks OR if we just wanted to come in the middle and do 6 weeks. To eliminate having to go to the doctor two times (when they were giving us this other option), we chose 6 weeks (not even thinking..) So...we went to her 6 week appointment and she looked great and everything was going well. She was 11 lbs, 10 oz, measuring 23 inches long. She ended up getting 4 shots (1 oral and the other in her thighs). Well, we knew what would probably come next..she would be sleepy the rest of the day and would have a low-grade fever (just like Tucker). So.. we left the doctor and got Tucker ready to go to the circus with my dad and Tammy. They were taking him for his birthday - and he had SO.MUCH.FUN!! Jonathan and I decided to go eat somewhere and do a little birthday shopping while we had the time (without the birthday boy)..so we ate at Panera Bread and then just went to Walmart. Briley, of course, just slept the whole time - which is what we expected since she had just gotten her shots. Well....... we got back home and were just hanging out, waiting for Tucker to get home and she felt a little warm so I decided to take her temperature. It was 99.9. Completely normal after having shots. As we were watching tv and just hanging out, I was trying to wake her up and feed her.. she was having the hardest time waking up - so about an hour after we took that first temp of 99.9, I decided to take it again. It was 101.5. The doctor told us that anything over 100.4 is what they needed to know about. She had also told us NOT to give her tylenol because she was only 6 weeks old (which I will get to in a minute..). So .. I immediately called the doctor and it took about 10 minutes for someone to call me back. As I was waiting, I checked her temperature again.. it was 102.1............I started freaking.out.!!! When the nurse called back I told her what was going on and she said that because her fever was over 102 we needed to take her to the ER. We waited for Tucker to get home (he was almost there) and then we left and took her. When we first got there, they sent us to a family room so that we wouldn't be around all the germs in the pediatric waiting room. The lady in triage who took Briley's vital signs (blood pressure, temperature, etc) was so sweet. She could sense the fear on my face (maybe because it was coming out in a liquid form!) and she gave me a heads up as to what they "might do" since she had a fever. She said "now just to let you know they COULD and MIGHT draw blood, put in an iv, and could even run "other" tests"..I said ok and thanked her for giving me a heads up. She gave her tylenol - GO FIGURE! and we were then immediately taken back to a room. If we would've known that they were going to give her tylenol, we could've done the same thing at home - but our dr was adament about us not giving it to her.. Anyway - the ER doctor came in and started asking questions and we made sure to tell her she had JUST gotten her 6 week shots today and proceeded to tell her what was going on. They made us put her in a little gown and then wanted to start running tests. One of the very first things they explained was that they were going to do a chest xray, take some blood, and then they would be doing a spinal tap. The doctor said, "the risk is that we could introduce an infection that wasn't even there in the first place.." Jonathan and I both looked at each other and I just had this uneasy feeling.. When the DR went out, we started discussing it. I strongly feel like it was the Lord that laid a good friend of mine on my heart. I immediately said "I've got to call Alyson Weimar". Alyson is a pediatric nurse who used to work at wake med but now she and her husband and 4 kids are on the mission field and are stationed at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville. Even though it was 12:30 at night, I texted her. When she didn't answer, I called her. I didn't leave a voicemail but she called me about ten minutes later. She said she was up anyway because they were at Camp Caraway with their youth for the wknd. Anyway..I started telling her all that was going on and told her we needed help. I asked if this was your child what would you do? She immediately told us to tell the doctors to take it one step at a time. The doctors were trying to follow protocol (of course, as they should!) but were wanting to do everything quickly and all at once. Alyson suggested waiting to see if her fever responded to the tylenol, having them do the blood work first and seeing if there was any abnormalities with that. She said she could then be admitted for observation if she needed to before deciding if we needed to do the spinal tap. Now.. don't get me wrong.. I'm not 100% against a spinal tap - and will do one if we ever need to - HOWEVER - Jonathan and I both knew that she had JUST gotten shots that day and we strongly felt like it was nothing other than her little body having a higher fever due to the vaccines. The DR's and nurses there couldn't understand that and kept trying to push so hard for us to sign the papers to do the spinal tap. In the meantime, Alyson had a close friend who was working that night and she texted her and told her to come find us. She did - and she reassured us that we were doing the right thing - and that's what she would do with her child, too - spinal tap would be the last resort. So...I was so thankful for her. Briley's fever started coming down (Praise the Lord) and she started eating again - just like normal - because she was starting to feel better. They did the bloodwork (which was painful to watch - because it was through a little IV - and all that came back normal. Because of that, we decided NOT to do the spinal tap and to follow up with our doctor the next day. Her fever never got back over 100.4 the next day. We monitored it constantly and (it did go up over 100 one time) but we gave her tylenol and, within 36 hours of her having the shots, it didn't come back anymore. I must say I am BEYOND thankful for Alyson Weimar and her friend for encouraging us and walking us through that whole process. Again, I am NOT against spinal taps - but I did not want to risk any kind of outside infection or just have them do it for no reason - when we felt so strongly her fever was just due to the shots. Also - we have talked to many people since then (even a few doctors and nurses) and they have all questioned why she had her shots at 6 weeks and not "2 months" (or 8 weeks). I was able to look at Tucker's records and he got his at 6 weeks as well. Even a close friend of mine who works with children had a chart from the CDC and it shows that it is recommended for babies to have those shots at 8 weeks.. so these are definitely questions I am going to take to my doctor when we see her at 4 months. (ACTUALLY, we changed and we are gonna have Briley start seeing the DR Tucker normally sees just because we already like her and have now had this bad experience with the other one..) I'm also going to ask her about the tylenol part - because we gave Tucker tylenol at 6 weeks but she was adament that we didn't need to give her any ... but then that's the first thing we did when we got to the ER.. go figure! Jonathan said it sounds to us like our doctor owes us our copay for the ER :) Anyway - I am just so thankful she is ok.. you can imagine that there was lots of prayer time and constant communication with the Lord that night. I am so glad He laid Alyson on my heart so we could talk through what was going on and get that reassurance from her. We understand that the DR's have to take themselves out of the situation and just follow protocol (that's what Jonathan does for a living, too, so we totally get it) - but sometimes you just know your child and your specific situation and I am thankful that we listened to our gut and didn't make any rash decisions that night. Hopefully she WON'T ever need a spinal tap.. but especially thankful she didn't need one last Friday ..

1 month old already!

Time flies! I feel like Briley was just born and it has been a month already (well, yesterday)! I wanted to try to keep her stats from the doctor on this blog. I didn't do such a good job with keeping Tucker's stats but I thought it would be cool to look back and see her growth/what/how she was doing at each point (along with how Tucker is doing, too). I know this sounds crazy but life isn't as crazy (YET!) with her arrival as it was with Tucker's. I've heard different things from different people about what the biggest adjustment was... for some people it's going from zero children to having 1 child. For others, it's going from 1 child to having 2. For others, it's more. So far, our biggest adjustment was going from zero to 1 child. I think it's because we didn't really know what to expect and are a little more laid back this time. With Tucker, I was worried about every little thing 24/7 but ... I'm trying not to be that way this time. Am I tired?! ABSOLUTELY! Am I worn out?! Of course! But ... Jonathan has been SUCH an awesome help and awesome husband and daddy. He has made sure I've been able to lay down when I'm overly tired (and when he's off work) and has just been the best daddy taking care of Tucker and Briley. I am blessed for sure! I'm not saying it's not going to get harder once she starts sleeping less and less and being awake more and more and moving and crawling, etc etc :).. but, at this point, we are at least making it :) Praying that continues!! It's so funny to see how two kids that came from the same gene pool can be so similar in ways and so different in other ways. I see such similarities in some of her expressions that remind me so much of Tucker when he was an infant.. but she also has her own little personality (well, as much personality as they have at a month old!) already! :) Anyway... Tucker has been such a good big brother. I think it has finally set in that she isn't going anywhere and she's here to stay! And I think he is happy about that! :) He loves her so much and I'm very thankful.. Here are a few pics from the 1st doctor's appt..

1st DR's appt: Monday, January 13, 2014 Weight: 7 lbs 5 oz (she had lost a little birth weight) Height: 20 inches We went back in for a weight check Wednesday, January 15th. She was 7 lbs 11 oz - almost back to birth weight! 2 week DR appt: January 22, 2014 Weight: 8 lbs 4 oz Height: 21 inches Head: 36 cm We go back for her 6 week check up Friday, February 21st. 1 month update Feedings: She is eating every 2 1/2 to 3 hours during the day and eats 2 or 3 times during the night (depending on the night) Sleeping: She sleeps a good amount of the day but is starting to wake up some. She goes down anywhere between 9 and 10 and wakes up about 2:00 or so, eats, then goes back down and wakes up about 5:30 or so and then may or may not go back down for another hour or so if Tucker hasn't woken up already.

Wordless Wednesday

The arrival of Briley Anne Williams! :)

On the morning of 1/8/14, I could not sleep.. I woke up tossing and turning and thinking about all kinds of things. I had planned Jonathan's "surprise" 30th birthday dinner for the upcoming weekend (1/11/14) because of Briley being due the day before his 30th birthday. I laid in bed thinking out all the details and trying to decide whether to take Tucker with us (and the other 28 people that had rsvp'd) OR if I was going to get a babysitter..........not knowing that this dinner was going to get postponed anyway, I laid there and laid there. This insomnia had not really been a problem for me the rest of the pregnancy (not to the point that it was with Tucker) - I guess because I was so worn out every night after chasing after my crazy toddler! Anyway.. so Jonathan had to go back to work that morning so he got on up and went. Tucker woke up around 7:00 and I went ahead and started giving him a bath to get ready for preschool. When I went to the restroom I had a little tinge of blood in my underwear (I know, TMI) ... but I had been cramping a tiny tiny bit so I thought .. hmmm I wonder if this is what it's like to see the beginning stages of labor?? I immediately texted my mom and Jonathan just to let them know and to be on standby. I already had an appointment at 10:20 so I was just going to ask her about it when I got there. Well ... I went on to take Tucker to preschool and drove straight to the doctor's office in Cary. I saw Dr. Richardson (one of my favorites). I told her what I had experienced that morning and she said "well ... that could mean that labor is either coming pretty soon or it could be another two weeks." She asked if I was having any contractions and, at that point, I really wasn't.. so she didn't even check to see if I was dilated. Once I left the doctor, I was on the phone with Ms. Debbie - it was 10:59 - and I had my first big contraction. There was no doubt this was a contraction..I told her I almost had to pull off the road. I knew it didn't mean anything until they were 5 minutes apart so ... I just went back to my mom's house to get some work done while I waited for Tucker to get out of preschool. As I worked, I started to tie up some loose ends because I just "felt like" labor was beginning. My next contraction was 40 minutes later. I started texting Jonathan every time I had a contraction just so we could both keep up with how far apart they were. When it was time to go pick Tucker up from preschool (which was 1:00 because he had "lunch bunch" this particular day), I was in pain.. the contractions were 15 minutes apart and then started getting closer and closer... 10 minutes, 7 minutes, etc. Once I got him home and got him down for a nap, Jonathan was calling asking if he needed to come on home. Of course, I was thinking so but, at the same time, I didn't want to go and be sent home. I told him to come on home. In the meantime, my mom said she could come over and keep Tucker until we found out if I was truly in labor. So ... about 2:55-3:00, I called the DR and they told me to go on over to the Raleigh office so they could check to see if I was dilating (instead of going to the Cary office so we wouldn't be so far away from the hospital). So ... off we went! Now, let me just say... I had eaten Bojangle's and Moe's and some other snacks throughout the day because I did NOT want to get caught in the middle of labor again (like I did with Tucker) and not be able to eat. I had also taken a shower immediately when I got out of bed because, again, I did not want to be caught without a shower. These were the two things that happened with Tucker :) I learned my lesson! Anyway ... so we get to the DR's office and Dr. Buckley checked to see if I was dilated about 3:45. When he did, he said "yep, you're in labor..you're already 4 cm's dilated.. head on to labor and delivery!" OMG!! :) So ... we did as he said. We got over there and they hooked me up and contractions started to get closer and closer. By this time, Jonathan had let everyone know (my mom, dad, his mom, Todd & Laine, close friends etc) to be praying because we were going to be having a baby sometime soon. At first, I didn't ask for the epidural (even though I knew I wanted it) just because I thought I had a while longer, but the closer and closer the contractions got, the more painful they were.. so about 5:00 or 5:30 or so I got the epidural. It hurt SO bad.. I didn't remember it hurting that bad when I had Tucker. It may have been worse because I kept having major contractions while they were putting it in. Anyway - withing about 15 minutes, I was feeling lots better. There was one side that was still feeling contractions so she added more epidural. Well .......... if I had done my research I would've never let her do that.. but I'll get to that in a minute. So ... my mom, dad, and Ms. Debbie came to visit. As they were visiting (about 6:20), I said "uh oh" ... my water had broken. At this point, they had not checked my progress yet (since we had left the dr office) so ... she checked me and I was at 10cm!! About 6:25 we started pushing. I probably pushed for 15-20 minutes and gave out...........I felt like I was going to fall asleep and just didn't feel good at all. They had to lay me on my side. My blood pressure had dropped. What we figured out was that I had too much epidural in me .. they put ice way right under my boobs and I was numb there (and you're not supposed to be) so ... they backed some of the epidural out. By this time, it was shift change so I was getting a new nurse. The new nurse that came in was AWESOME. Her name was Annette and she was a midwife in London/England for years. She was so encouraging and just said we would take as long as we needed to get my blood pressure right before we started pushing again. After about 30-45 minutes of laying there and not pushing, I started to feel better. My blood pressure was finally back to normal. About 7:35 we started pushing again and Briley Anne made her arrival at 7:57!! It was the most AMAZING thing - just like with Tucker. What a GIFT from GOD!! I am so much more in love with my husband for being such an awesome encourager and being right there with me every single second and now so much in love with both of my children as well. Now ... where was Tucker?! Tucker was WELL taken care of by Ben, Toni, BJ, and Samantha. I never had to worry one second because he LOVES them so I knew he was having fun. Ms. Debbie went home a little later and relieved Toni and stayed with Tucker that night. It was actually so nice to have her at night because we were able to have time - just the 3 of us - me, Jonathan, and Tucker - just to gaze at her and love on her before we introduced her to Tucker and the rest of the family/friends the next day. I am SO SO thankful to God for my blessings - Jonathan, Tucker, and Briley. Briley is doing great and adjusting so well here at home. Tucker has been such an AWESOME big brother. I was so worried about him being "rough" (because he is such a boy!) but he "just knows". He is so gentle with her and kisses her on the forehead every single chance that he gets. He is so protective of her already and wants to be around her all the time. I am so proud of him as a big brother. Now I'm sure there will be plenty of days where they will get on each others nerves and bicker and fight but, for now, I am enjoying him loving on her. GOD IS SOO GOOD!!

Santa 2013

The last 2 years Tucker has been VERY skeptical of Santa and has cried both times sitting in his lap. This year was completely different. He LOVED sitting in Santa's lap and telling him what he wanted for Christmas (a bicycle!.. and train tracks). The disappointing thing was that we couldn't take pictures with our own personal camera like we did the last couple of years so the picture isn't that great but I promise he was happy! He and Jonathan even went back to the mall for me today (to do some last minute things - b/c I barely last through a store or two) and Jonathan called to say he sat on Santa's lap again and just talked and talked to him. They didn't take a picture this time - but they were the only ones in line so he got to have good conversation with him for a few minutes. Here is a pic :)

Briley's Baby Sprinkle :)

We seriously have the best friends anybody could ask for! They threw Briley a baby sprinkle November 17th. It was absolutely perfect. We had already been blessed with a couple of showers for Tucker just three years back and already had most of the "big things" that we needed, but a few of my friends suggested celebrating Briley, too! I am so glad and thankful that we did. She got lots of cute "girly" things and lots of necessities, too (diapers, wipes, pacifiers, washcloths, bathtub, towels, etc. etc.) We are so thankful for our close friends and family that were able to share this time with us. I will try to upload pics later.