The Dewberry Patch

Sweet Sallie

2011-06-10T15:14:00.000-07:00

Dear Sweet Sallie,
I want you to know how much we love you. I haven't been able to blog as much with this pregnancy, but you are loved and thought of so much! Currently, I am 37 weeks pregnant and couldn't be more excited to finally get to meet my baby girl. This pregnancy has been fairly uneventful. Feeling you moving and squirming inside of me is the most wonderful part. I love you so much, sweet girl, and can't wait to hold you in my arms.
I have always known that one day I would have a daughter. I have dreamed of bows, lace, tea parties, dresses, sparkles, pink and pedicures. I know what you will look like because I have seen you in my dreams and in my wishes. I love how close I am to my own mother, grandmother and sisters and I am excited to introduce you to this circle of women who mean so much to me. I am so excited to get to experience you taking dance, wearing your first mascara, and having your first boyfriend. I can't wait to meet you, my little princess.
Your daddy can't wait either! He doesn't have any idea how tightly wrapped around your little finger he is going to be. The other day, I came home from work and had a vision of him with his toenails painted and his hair in little rubberbands. He needs a little girl to soften him up. He will take you on dates and show you how a lady is supposed to be treated. I can't wait to see him watching you at your recitals and fixing your hair. He is going to be such a great daddy to you.
Your brothers are excited, too! Nathan talks about you all the time! He tells me almost everyday that he thinks it's time for me to go to the hospital. :) I think he is going to be an excellent big brother. You are only going to be 3 years apart which means that I will have to watch his friends and make sure they aren't hitting on you (and also watch your friends to make sure they aren't liking Nathan!). He is going to be such a big helper! I think you are going to be best friends and I am thankful that you will always have someone to protect you. Mason likes to watch you moving in my stomach and asks lots of questions about how you are able to eat and how you are going to come out. I think he, too, will be a good big brother to you and will enjoy having a little sister.
You are loved by so many already. We can't wait to kiss you on your sweet little cheeks and to give you lots of hugs. I can't wait to watch you grow and learn. You are so special to our family and your being here completes us. My babies are all here and your dad and I can relish in knowing that our family is finally whole.
Our plan (and I'm interested to see the twists and turns that this 'plan' takes) is that your dad will come home on Wed, June 22, which is also my last day of work. On Thursday night, your Memaw and Big Daddy will keep your brother and early Friday morning, June 24, we will go to the hospital to have you via c-section. I am hopeful that by 9:30 you will be in our arms and we can begin getting to know you in the outside world. We are so excited that we could burst. We love you so much and are so ready for your arrival! Love everything about you, my sweet.

Mommy

As of late

2011-01-16T06:02:00.000-08:00

Oh my, it's been so long since I've blogged! I am finding that life with a 2 year old is very busy! Trying to work, keep house and take care of my favorite little person is keeping me on my toes! And to top it all off, we found out recently that Nathan's going to be a...

Yay! We are SO excited! We went to a 3d ultrasound place (the same one we used with Nathan) on January 12 to find out what we are having. I just knew it was going to be another boy. I long ago gave up the dream of having a girl since we had 2 boys, I felt like that's probably what was destined for us. I know lots of people who have 3 or more boys and I assumed that my life would be like theirs.

However..... they told us that we are having a GIRL!!! We are elated, to say the least. I can finally start buying pink and purple! The other day I sat down in my chair and realized that I was sitting on an army man, then I looked over and saw the pirate ship on the table and the tonka truck on the floor. Though I love these toys, I can't wait to start buying barbies and baby dolls and a little toy kitchen!

Nathan is going to be such a great big brother. He already talks about "baby sister" all the time. When he first found out that I have a baby in my belly, he went to Miss Ana's house and told her that he was sick. She asked him what hurt and he said his tummy and so when she asked him why his tummy hurt, he said, "Because there's a baby in there!" lol. He often will walk into a room with his hands cupped together and when we ask him what he's doing he says that he's carrying around his baby sister. It's so precious! He doesn't like to talk about me being her mommy, too, but I'm sure that's an adjustment that will come with time. My hope is that if we talk about her enough, that once she gets here it will just be putting a face with the name.

I am feeling fabulous at almost 20 weeks. This pregnancy is so much different from my last. I was pretty sick the first trimester this time around, and wasn't at all with Nathan. Not physically sick, necessarily, but lots of dry heaving and food aversions. Also, I think I was already pretty swollen at this point and so far, I'm doing really well in that regard. In fact, my doctors have told me that I'm not gaining very much weight this time and that so far I am an example of a "perfect pregnancy". lol. Now that I'm well into the 2nd trimester, I'm feeling great! Sometimes I even forget that I'm pregnant. Just in the last week or two I've started feeling little kicks and pushes. She's an active little one! I can't wait to be able to feel her from the outside, too, and to push on her little heels, like I did with Nathan.

It didn't take us long to decide on a name. We are going to name her Sara Alice (after me, but more importantly, after my Aunt "Me" and of Jason's grandmother Alice. We are most likely going to call her by her double name, but also will call her "Sallie" for short. Sallie is short for Sara and is what the original Sara in our family (my great-great grandmother) went by.

Today I'm off so Nathan and I are fixing to brave the snow and try to make it to the grocery store. We are out of everything or I wouldn't try to get out today. Anyway, he's getting restless so I probably need to start getting him ready. I will try to update more often from now on!

Our life with you at 21 months

2010-05-08T18:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Nathan,
You have just turned 21 months old and you think you are 3. You are already so wise and mature. We love you so much! It's hard to imagine what our life was like before you became apart of it. You fit into our family perfectly and we are so glad that you're here!
You have already started turning flips on the floor. You climb on everything. Ev.ry.thing! You love to jump, but you count backwards. "Two...One...." :) You love to read books and we do so alot. Especially at night before we go to bed. One of your favorites is "Where the Wild Things Are." You say, "Max, max" as we turn the pages. You also love to read "Good Night Moon." This is my favorite book to read with you because you are precious as we read it. You say, "moon.... cow...." and when the quiet old lady whispers hush, you put your finger beside your nose and make a noise in the back of your throat like you're saying hush with a stopped up nose. Then, when we get to the page where the kittens are by themselves, you pull the book from me and give them kisses and you always feed me mush like you are pretending that we can really eat it off the page. I think this means that you have an imagination and that makes me excited that as you get bigger we'll be able to play pretend more and more.
You enjoy school and are always willing to get out of the car with the teachers that come to get you. Almost every day as they are unbuckling your carseat, you point at me and say to them, "mommy..." As if you are letting them know that I'm your Mommy. And I am indeed that. My most favorite job in the world.
You love to "guys" which means go outside. And we spend alot of time on the playground that your Papa built. You love to walk up his ramp and down his stairs over and over again. When we let Sadie out of her pen, you blow air out of your lips as if you are trying to whistle. It's adorable. You are a big helper and are willing to help me do ANYTHING. You love to water flowers and sweep and wash dishes. Oh boy, do you love to wash dishes. One of your favorite things to do at Memaw and Big Daddy's is to push a chair up to the sink and play in the water. Today, in fact, we came into the kitchen to find you actually in the sink!
You love your daddy and try to emmulate him all the time. When he spits on the ground, you lean over and make a kissing noise just like him. You are his little buddy and I hope that you will be just like him.
You do like to have your way, though, and sometimes you pitch little temper tantrums to try to get what you want. We don't like to spank, but time out doesn't work at all. Maybe this just shows that you are going to be tough and be a leader. You couldn't be more perfect to us. We are so proud of you and we love you so much. We can't wait to watch you become the Nathan James Dewberry that you are meant to be.
Love,
Mommy

This may take awhile...

2010-02-28T06:19:00.000-08:00

Wow, I didn't realize how long it's been since I last wrote. I don't know how I ever expected to be able to keep up with a toddler and a blog at the same time. So much has happened since September, I don't know where to start! :)

Let me see if I can try to back it up a few months...

We didn't do much for Halloween. Our downtown Newnan does a great trick-or-treat for the children on Halloween, but this year it rained. Nathan was so cute in his little monkey outfit that Aunt Kiki had bought him. I thought that if we drove through, we might get out and stand in the rain, but after I saw the lines of people wrapped around the buildings, I decided against it. He didn't seem to know the difference so that's good. But, I've arleady started trying to think of cute outfits for him for this year.

We had a very busy Thanskgiving. It's almost overwhelming because we have to see my family, Jason's mom, Jason's dad, our grandparents, etc.... I told him that maybe next year we could go to the beach with just our family and do it there so we didn't have to run around all week. But, then I think I would miss it, you know? And I'm sure that no one will be able to let us take the kids with us! :)

Christmas was about the same. Although, this year was fun because everyone in my immediate family swapped names at Thanksgiving and then we set a $100 limit. I drew Meme's name and Jason drew my mom's. It was so much fun! I really liked doing it this way, so that you only had to focus on one person instead of everybody. And, then we were "surprised" to find out who had our names! It was fun, too, to be able to see what people thought you wanted. Rebecca had drawn my name so she came in on Christmas day with a a huge bag and made it look like it was heavy. Silly girl, she had packed it full of little things that were holding various gift cards. SO cute! I love gift cards, so i was super duper excited! Chris drew Jason's name and he got him a gift card to Dick's and a ton of dvd's of some of Jason's favorite shows. He's realy appreciated those on his trips! And of course, everyone bought for Nathan. He really racked up this year!

It was so cute, because of course he didn't have any idea what was going on. I mean, he did look at us like we were lunatics when we were bringing the tree inside and every strand of lights he saw, he would point at and talk about. Then, on Christmas Eve night, we told him that "Santa Clause was coming tonight..." and even though, he didn't know really what that meant, he still didn't sleep good! Can you believe that? His favorite gift that Santa brought him was his cozy coupe. When I carried him into the living room that morning and he saw that car sitting there, his little heart started beating and he started kicking his legs..... I don't think he's come out of it since! He l-o-v-e-s it. Maybe this spring we will take it outside to play with, but right now it's bringing us lots of entertainment inside. Christmas with him was so much fun! It's only going to get better and better!

This picture is of Nathan with his friends Tuff Hudson, Karson Coley, and Benjamin Edge. He stays with them at Ana Edge's house when he's not at the First Methodist Church preschool. We love her and are so happy with how this is working out. These boys are all so sweet and I'm glad that he has such nice friends!

But, then we had a couple of sad weeks...

We were supposed to get Mason on the day after Christmas and keep him for a week until after New Year's, but that afternoon as Jason was getting ready to go meet Mason's mom, she called him and told him that Mason was pitching a fit and did NOT want to come to Newnan. :( We were so disappointed. We had planned to have a special dinner for him when he got here and to give him all the cool gifts that we had gotten him. It really put a damper on our Christmas. Jason and I struggled with what we should do, but we finally decided that he needed to be with us during the Holidays. I've tried so hard to help him feel apart of this family and we wanted him to know that we really wanted him to be here, so Jason set it up for us to pick him up on New Year's eve and keep him for a long weekend.

That morning, though, as I was getting ready to pick up Mom so we could go get Mason, I learned that my sweet Papa had suffered a major heart attack the night before and was in a medically-induced coma at Piedmont in Atlanta. Mom and I decided that we would go ahead with our plans to get Mason and I'm so thankful that we did. He had so much fun shooting fire crackers and being with everybody. We let him stay up to watch the ball drop and he did! I was surprised that he made it!! We love him so much and are hopeful that this was just a phase and that he will want to come see us in the future.

Papa was on a ventilator and had a balloon in his heart for several days. This was a blessing to us, because every one of his children and grand-children had the opportunity to see him in the hospital. Even if he didn't know we were there. It was interesting because as we would talk to him, his heart rate would rise and the nurse said that his sub-concious knew that it recognized the voices. They eventually began taking him off the machines one by one, hopeful that his body would be able to pick up where the machines left off. On Wednesday, they stopped his sedation medication, but Papa never woke up. Sadly, my daddy and his brothers and sisters had to make the hard decision of letting Papa go. He died on Friday morning and we had the funeral on Sunday. We all feel so blessed that we were with him for Thanksgiving and then again at Christmas. He wouldn't have wanted to suffer. He was just ready to be in Heaven with Jesus and Memaw and all of his friends and family.

Just before Thanksgiving, Papa had come in for a haircut and he only had a $20 bill. He always gave me $10 for his haircuts even though I never charged him. I didn't have change for him that day, so he said that I could just give him a free haircut next time. Well, Papa wasn't one to not get every penny's worth of what he spent. I had the opportunity to give Papa that last haircut at the funeral home just after he'd died. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, but I am so thankful that I was able to do it. I asked Susan to come with me since I knew that she has done it before, and I knew I would need someone with me. She was awesome. It really helped us bond, I think, to do this together.

And he looked so handsome! The funeral was exactly what he would have wanted and I could feel his presence so strong that day. My papa wasn't a perfect man, but I am so thankful for the influence he had on my life and for loving me with such a sweet heart as I became an adult. He loved Jason special and I am grateful for the opportunity they had to get to know one another.

Since then, though, we have hit the ground running. I have had the busiest January and February that I've ever seen and have even hired an "assistant." I am so proud to be at a point in my career where I am able to do this. I am considering going up on my prices and am hopeful that this won't affect things negatively for me. I am thankful everyday, especially these days, for my job and for having one that I love.

Now, onto my favorite subject in the whole world.... little baby Nathan. Except, he's not a baby anymore! He is a full-on toddler! I can't believe how big he is and how fast he's grown. We are walking, running, climbing, jumping, and spinning in circles. He talks all.the.time. and is saying probably 100+ words that we can understand. His first sentance was "I get it!" He knows all of his body parts and can tell you the animal sounds of a dog, cat, bird and snake. He loves the moon and airplanes. He's clearly his father's son, because he's into trucks of all kinds. He eats all day long and is very healthy. He loves to be tickled and to give kisses. He waves (and says) bye-bye when we are leaving something (even the bathtub) and blows kisses on command. His Papa built him a swing set in our back yard that we play on all the time, but his favorite thing is playing with stuff in Papa's barn. Even just walking the ramp gives him such joy! We do time-out when we have to, and every once in a while, he gets a pop to help him snap out of it. He is a toddler, after all, and with that comes temper tantrums. Although, for the most part, that's only when he's tired or not feeling well. We are working on Please and Thank you. I am hopeful that he will be a respectful child with good manners. He doesn't like his stroller - he wants to be "down, down." And he came name everyone in our family. Just recently, he said "Big-da" to my Daddy and I could tell how proud that made my dad. It's so sweet to hear him say your name, although sometimes when he says it over and over and over - I have to remind myself that one day I will miss that sweet little voice calling my name, instead of being annoyed by it. He will be 18 months old on the 5th and this just blows my mind.

We are hoping that in the next few months we will be able to start adding onto our house. Things may finally be falling into place for us. We are hoping to add 3 bedrooms and another bath so that we will offically have a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house. We will make our current bedroom a living room. It will be so nice to be able to spread out and to finally have some privacy from each other. I'm hoping that this will be a good time to move Nathan from his crib into a big boy bed. We are planning to have two single beds in his room for he and Mason and then to reserve the 3rd bedroom for our next. :) Maybe we'll work on that this summer as well.

I am so happy with the way my life is turning out. I am madly in love with my husband and am more thankful, every day, for our children. I love my job and our home and I can't wait to see what else my Jesus has in store for me. I can't imagine that it could get much better than this...

shoe?

2009-09-27T07:57:00.000-07:00

Well, after finishing my post the other day, Nathan has finally spoken his first "real" word. He has been saying, "mama, dada, papa" but not always directly to the right person. Often, he will walk around saying, "mamamamama" but, not to me or about me. This time, he walked right over to his little shoe, brought it over to me and said, "Shoe?" I could not belive it! Then, he preceded to try to put it on his little foot. Of course, it didn't sound exactly like shoe, more like, "bew?" But, I knew what he meant and it was the first time that I've noticed him associating what he's saying with the actual object. So, since then, because I praised him so much for it, he's been saying it a LOT. In fact, he might be starting to have a little infatuation with shoes. He likes to wear them all the time, or wear our shoes or help us put our's on. It's the cutest thing in the world! The other day, he brought me a sock and said, "shoe?" and I said "no, sock." But, he was trying to put it on his foot, so I went ahead and helped him with it. Not very long after that, he began to get fussy, so I laid him down for a nap and we he woke up he still had that little sock on his one foot. It was so adorable. I can't wait for him to start saying more so I can see what's going on in that little head of his...

More birthday celebration

2009-09-21T06:34:00.000-07:00

September is a HUGE birthday month for us. We have Nathan and Jason (of course) and then, Christy, Chris, Papa, Greg, Susan and Howard. So, last weekend, Rebecca and Chris came home (finally! Since they were being quarantined in Milledgeville for Becca having the swine flu) so we could celebrate September birthdays. We had steaks on Friday with everyone and then, Saturday my gift to them was to make supper which was country fried steak and gravy, homemade mashed potatoes, lima beans, biscuits and homemade strawberry cake (jason's favorite). I LOVE to cook like that! Daddy said that he felt like he was eating with Memaw. :) He could not have said anything sweeter.

I can not believe that Christy is 16! It just blows my mind that she's old enough to drive all by herself. It makes me feel very, very old. She looks so cute in her new car and I'm so proud of her! She drove us back from Troy the other day when we went to take Mason to meet his mom. I was so comfortable with her driving that I even took a little nap.

The past several nights have been hard on us. Nathan hasn't been sleeping very much and not napping, either. He's eating well and pooping regular, but he's been holding his mouth sort of funny and drooling a TON. Last night Jason and I were playing with him on our bed and he was laughing with his mouth open. I noticed two small white patches on his tongue. :( I'm hoping it's not thrush or something even more serious. I will feel so bad for not noticing it sooner. We have an appointment at the Doctor this morning.

He's learned how to climb onto the sofa and is now wanting to climb onto the arms of the sofa! He LOVES to be outside and has started throwing little hissy fits if you even open the door and not let him go outside. Papa has built him the greatest swing set and Nathan's really enjoying it. He and I were in our bathroom the other day and I stepped out to grab something from the bedroom, when I came back, he had climbed onto the trashcan, onto the toilet and was reaching for the windowsill. Uh-oh! Next thing I know he's going to be on top of the refrigerator! He eats almost everything we put in front of him, but has lately started throwing his food off of his tray when he's finished which his Dad and I HATE. He loves other children and is enjoying going to school at First Methodist. He still sucks his thumb and would carry those darn blankets around with him all day long if I'd let him. We are trying to not let him do that. He (usually) will go to bed around 8 and sleep until 7:30. He (usually) takes about a 2 hour nap around 1:00. He's not really talking yet. He's said a word or two here or there, but not enough to really count, I think. I can't wait for that! It will be fun to hear what goes on in that little head of his. :) Anyway, I could go on and on. We just love him so much and are so proud of him. I'll let y'all know when we get home how the Doctor's appointment goes...

Happy Birthday, Honey!

2009-09-14T13:50:00.001-07:00

After I blogged and went to bed last night I realized that I didn't even blog about it being one of the most important days on our calendar!

My hubby turned 28 yesterday! Happy Birthday!! I wish you could have been here with us so I could bake you your favorite cake and shower you with kisses and hugs. I love you very much and am very, very glad that you were born. Thank you for being so good to us. I hope you'll be ready to celebrate when you get home on Thursday. Nathan and I are anxiously waiting for you.

Love,
Me :)

tivo

2009-09-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

So, I'm going to quickly catch up on the two last weeks, since I've obviously not kept up with my blogging...Last Monday night, I was getting all prepared for Nathan's first day of school (mom's day out at the church), by fixing his lunch getting his bag ready and making sure we were in bed on time. About 1:30 in the morning, though, Nathan woke up crying. Sometimes he does this, but he usually goes back to sleep pretty easily on his own if I just ignore him. However, that night, he wouldn't stop crying! So, I changed his diaper, tried to give him something to eat, tried rocking him - nothing was working. An hour passed, then another and he was still just crying uncontrollably. But, I knew that I had to go to work the next day, so since I had done everything I could to try to soothe him, I decided to leave the room and try to go to sleep on the couch. Every so often, though, I would go in there to check on him because he would drop his little silky over the edge of his crib and I know that he can't go to sleep without it (which is probably why he was dropping in the first place, but what do you do...). After about the third time of me going back there, I was laying on the couch and heard the most awful noise I've ever heard - he fell out of his bed!!! :( I could cry right now. It was awful. I'm sure that he'd dropped his silky and was leaning over the rail reaching for it and just fell right over. I ran in there, flipped the light on and here he came crawling out from beside the bed, tears just streaming down his face. At this point, I called my mom because I was thinking that maybe she would say, "well, sara, have you tried ___" and it would cure everything. Maybe there was something that I hadn't thought of. She didn't have a real magic answer but she offered the idea of just putting him in bed with me and pulling Mason's bed out from underneath our's so that if he fell off of our bed, he would at least land on Mason's. This sounded as good as any idea I'd had yet, so I layed Nathan on our bed and proceeded to pull out Mason's bed, but as I was doing it - he fell off. Yes, people, he fell off the bed twice in one night! I just might be the worst mama ever. I feel so badly about that night. Luckily, he didn't have any broken bones or bruises even. I quickly got in the bed and snuggled him up close to me (which he normally won't let me do), but he finally fell asleep whimpering into my chest. :( Poor little baby...
One of my friends said that he must have just been super excited about his birthday party coming up the next weekend....
And he should have been because we partied hard! It's a big deal that my sweet little boy was turning 1! We started out the festivities by having what was supposed to be a "small" get together at the park Saturday morning for just Nathan's little friends and their parents. It went so well! We had a nice little group show up and it was a lot of fun! I am so thankful that he was in such a good mood. As each of his guests were getting there, he would walk up to them and smile like, "hey, good to see you! Thanks for coming!" :) It was so cute. He got so many nice gifts, too. I hadn't expected to have so much to bring home!
The next day, we had another party for him at my parents' house for just family. (I did two parties because we have so much family and so many friends that it would have been too overwhelming to try to have them all together). Daddy cooked a whole pig that was delicious! I swear I have the best baby! He stayed up until 9:30 that night just hamming it up for the camera and for our guests. You would never have known that he was up past his bedtime. I mean, the icing could have had something to do with that...

Here are a couple of pictures from both parties:

Our sweet little birthday boy

The pavillion at the Kids' Castle Park

Our little family

Nathan and all of his sweet little friends

Cake Monster

Party #2
Told ya'

All set up for our second celebration

The beautiful cake that I did NOT make :)

Giving brotherly love on the Birthday

September 5, 2009

2009-09-05T18:53:00.000-07:00

I really and truly am too tired to blog tonight. I can't mentally put it all out in words the way I want to right now, but all I want to say is...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NATHAN!

This time last year, I was relishing in the sweetness of the greatest miracle that God has ever given to me. I was counting fingers and toes and learning the sounds and smells of my son. I am so thankful for this child and for the whole last year that we spent together. I can't believe he's already a year old. Time truly does fly when you're having fun! ;)

lazy sunday and manic monday!

2009-08-31T17:48:00.000-07:00

So, Sunday was truly a day of rest for us. It was rainy, so we really just stayed in and relaxed most of the day. I decided to make a meatloaf for Jason and his Dad for when they got home from fishing and man - was it good!

Nothing beats a good ole' meatloaf with lima beans, rolls and sweet tea, of course. I love cooking good southern meals for my honey, especially when I can tell that he likes them! I don't get a chance to cook for him very often, so when I do - I appreciate it.

I am totally in love with this website http://www.allrecipes.com/ All of the really good meals I've prepared lately have been treasures from the site. I like it especially because it lists the health facts about the dishes and people can leave rate the recipe and leave reviews. But, my favorite part, is that you can type in what ingredients you have and it will bring up a recipe for you that includes all of those ingredients (in case you have a case of cooker's block, like I sometimes do.)

The fisherman ate their dinner and then they spent the evening making Nathan laugh. It was hysterical. (disclaimer: this sounds like the most redneck thing ever - and it is - so, just play along...) Jason and Mr. Mark were rolling a dip can back and forth to each other across the kitchen floor and Nathan thought that was hilarious. He couldn't even stand up without falling over for laughing so hard at that little round can rolling back and forth in front of him. It was too cute!

Today was really fun! We went to Nathan's orientation for "school." He will be going to First Methodist 3 days a week for Playschool. I think this going to be a really good thing for him to have a little more structure and to be around more kids his age. He will still go to Miss Ana's in the afternoons, but this will just be something a little extra for him to do. I can't wait for him to start - I feel like he's growing up so fast. I can't believe I'm already filling out immunization forms and emergency contact info. I just hope he gets as much out of it as I'm expecting him to...

So, when we left school, we came home to have lunch and a nap and then headed out to Babies' R Us and Target to get our list of supplies that the teachers asked for. We saw two of the other kids in his class there doing the same thing. I also saw an old friend of mine in there who told me that she's expecting! (I wondered what she was doing in the baby store since she doesn't have children). I'm so excited for her! She is only about 6 weeks pregnant, so I can't wait for her to announce it herself. While we were there, after we finished giggling excitedly with my friend, I was looking at the Halloween costumes when I heard a man say, "Oh no, little buddy, don't do that! Um, Ma'am!!" I was thinking, "aww, I wonder who's child is getting into something...." and then I glanced up and realized that NATHAN WAS STANDING UP IN THE BUGGY! Little booger! I can't believe he did that!! Guess I'll have to start buckling him in, now.

We ate leftover Meatloaf at Mom and Dad's and we got a really cute little video of Nathan climbing into Memaw's chair. He truly is a little monkey. I don't know how I'm going to keep him from breaking his arms/legs/neck. I just know that one day I'm going to come into the kitchen and find him on top of the table or refrigerator or plant shelf! hahaha.....ha....ha? :-/

slacker!

2009-08-29T12:59:00.001-07:00

ahh!! I'm starting to slack! Let me back up...

So, Thursday I was off of work and Nathan and I had a great day! It all started with waking up to a very cool house. Yay! We had slept in a little late, so we had to hurry to get ready because I was going to my very first Zumba class! Oh, "What's Zumba?" you ask? Well, it's similar to jazzercise, but a little more pumped up. Very Ancient Africa-ish. Kinda crazy, if you ask me. But, at least it was fun and it helped me feel healthy. It's time I do something about this leftover baby weight, but I'm procrastinating it badly. Nathan went to the daycare at the gym with his friend Ally (my friend, Jessica Montgomery's baby). I'm so lucky that he is such an easy-going child. I was so proud of how he let me just set him down and then he walked over all by himself to play with the bigger boys and never looked back at me. I'm really glad he's not a crier like some babies.

When we got done at the gym, we were sleepy and hungry, so we went straight home for lunch and then Nathan took a nap while I caught up on my book. I'm currently reading "The Time Traveler's Wife." I'd started it a couple of years ago, but life got in the way and I ended up shelving it, but since it's just been made into a movie I decided that it may be time to pull it back out and try to re-engage myself. But, it's hard to find time to read! I can't get very far because I'm always in the middle of something and then when I pick it up, I have to re-read to figure out where I am. This makes me sad, because reading is one of my favorite things to do. It makes my soul feel good to read a good book.

After Nathan woke up, we went to Target to pick up a few things. Nathan enjoys shopping, but not for a long time. It was good that Memaw called and invited us over for dinner because I could have spent all evening in there! Love that store!!

Anyway, So Friday was really quiet at work. Shelby and Jenny planned a fun trip to the beach for all the girls at the shop. I really wanted to go, but since I'm taking off next weekend for Nathan's birthday I knew that I needed to stay. Plus, I had some big color clients that needed to have their hair done today and I knew that I probably shouldn't pass that up. Plus, I'm not quite ready to leave Nathan yet. :)

Friday evening, we went to Memaw and Big Daddy's and we got to show off how Nathan has learned where my nose is. I say, "nose..." and he looks up at me and puts his little finger right on my nose. SO CUTE! I love him soooo much and am so proud of every little new thing that he's learning.

I worked this morning - again by myself - I'll be so glad to have those girls back on Tuesday! And Jason came home around lunchtime. After I got off work, we let Nathan take a little nap and then we went over to my mom and dad's to play Wii with Preacher Pa and Meme. Can you believe that the physical therapist actually recommended for Preacher Pa to play the Wii to strengthen his new hip? I think that's crazy! Jason and Daddy grilled some yummy steaks that went really well with the homemade chocolate cake that mom and I made.

Mom bought Nathan a climbing tower thing that has a little platform and then a little slide on it. Nathan loves it! Just like a boy, he immediately tried to walk up the slide! And of course he took a tumble or two. It's hard to see him get hurt, but I want him to know that it does hurt to fall and that Mommy and Daddy aren't always going to be there to catch him. He's also started throwing his food off the side of his tray when he's finished eating and he's learning that when he does that we say, "NO!" I guess he thinks that it's funny, so he's started doing it and then looks up at us and laughs. We're going to have to try some new tactics with this, I think....

Well, Jason just put our little pumpkin to bed. He's going to catch up on his NCIS show and I think I'm going to take the opportunity to read! :) Night y'all!

Law-sey Day

2009-08-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

I lived at Lake Junaluska in North Carolina for about 10 months after my first year of college. While I was there I worked at the local Belk with a girl who was straight from the hills. And i don't mean the O.C. Hills. She had black, heavily permed hair that went straight down her back to practically her fanny and wore long painted nails. I can't remember her name, but I remember that whenever things got a little stressful, she would say, "Law-sey Day!" Probably like some of us might would say, "Good Grief!"

About this time last night, I was saying a big, long, southern "Law-sey Day!"

Everything was going smoothly, Jason had left Monday afternoon so Nathan and I got up yesterday and did our normal routine. I dropped him off at Ana's and then I went to work. Well, as I had mentioned, he's been running a temperature so I was a little concerned about him throughout the day. I spoke with Ana late that afternoon, and she mentioned that she could meet my mom in town instead of Mom having to drive all the way out to her house to pick Nathan up, since Ana had some running around to do anyway. It wasn't but maybe a half-hour later that Christy called me to tell me that Ana's son Benjamin had thrown up in her car on the way to bring Nathan to meet them. "Great!" I thought. This is what I have to look forward to! I promptly call my Aunt Joyce to make sure she could come to watch Nathan today for me, and thankfully she was happy to do it!

So, I get home and get him ready for bed, put him to sleep and then am trying to catch up on All My Children, when I realize that it's *really* hot in the house. So, I got up to check the thermostat and sure enough - the air was out. See, we like to keep our house pretty cold. I live with a man who's inner furnace never dies down, so when he's here it's usually on 68. When he's not, I'll keep it on 70, but it's still pretty cold compared to some people. That thermostat said it was 76 degrees in here! Like a sauna for somebody like me!! AND I had a baby with a fever trying to sleep in there. :( (you know, it's funny how this stuff ne-ver happens when Jason's home and it can't happen on my day off, of course). But, thank goodness that my sweet Father-in-Law lives close by (ha!) He came out to look at it, got right on the phone with somebody he knew and then reassured me that the man would be out first thing in the morning to look at it.

This was when I was reminded of my mountain friend and her sweet phrase and Lord - did I say it! Because it was then that I realized that not only did I have my sweet little Aunt coming to keep Nathan at my house, but I was having her come into a house with no air, and with a strange air-conditioner man coming to look at the unit and I wasn't going to be there and AHHHHH!!!!

I needed a xanax or something.

We struggled through the night with as little blanket (and clothes) as possible, and I got up early of course, because I was stressing out about what to do, but it really all worked out well. Joyce came around 9 and the air conditioning guy didn't need to come inside and he actually got it working quickly. Oh! And nathan didn't get sick (praise God!), so he's still recovering from this fever thing and we're just hoping that he gets well soon. Now, Jason and I (yes, he surprised us with a short visit) are going to snuggle down deep in our covers and enjoy our cold air. :)

Good night!

Almost!

2009-08-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

Well, two-a-day ain't bad!

Yesterday was one of the most perfect days ever. We woke up to a beautiful Sunday morning so Jason and I decided to catch a Braves game around 1:30. We dropped Nathan off with Memaw and Big Daddy (i.e. best grandparents ever) and then headed to Atlanta to eat at the Varsity. You *must* eat at the Varsity before a Braves game! We met Jason's childhood friend, Joe, there and caught up on lost time with him. Then, we headed on over to the stadium. It couldn't have been a prettier day. We sat on the very front row and Jason even al-most caught a foul ball. It was great!

We did leave the game a little early because it was so hot, but we stayed long enough to feel like we got our money's worth and were really glad to get home and find out that the Braves, had in fact won the game. Yay! I hope we get to do that again. Spending time with Jason is one of my favorite things to do. It will be fun to take Nathan, too, once he gets big enough. :)

Unfortunately, though, when we got home we found out that Nathan was running a fever. Not high enough to be very alarmed, but enough to worry his mama a little... So, that's what we've done today is nurse a little fever and try to sleep it out. (I even got in a 2 hour nap!) We did go to visit Big Daddy at work during lunch to pass time while Ellie was getting groomed, and that was a lot of fun. I think Big Daddy likes it when Nathan and I surprise him.

Here's to hoping that this little fever goes away and a new tooth emerges soon!

One - A - Day

2009-08-22T18:54:00.001-07:00

I have so much guilt over how long it's been since I've written. That's the problem I've always had with keeping a "diary". Sometimes stuff happens so quickly that I can't keep up and then I've forgotten and feel overwhelmed when I think of sitting down to actually try to sort it out into some sort of logical material. But, it makes me sad that I haven't done it and I've missed recording so much of Nathan's first year.

I've been telling myself that if I can log onto facebook everyday to update my status or if I can log into yahoo to check my email, I should find just a few minutes to log on here every day and just type out one funny/odd/interesting thing that has happened that day. It shouldn't matter if it's witty or long enough or unimportant to anyone else. This isn't like writing in a journal. This is much easier than that. And I should do it. For Nathan...

So! Every day, I'm going to do it. Update my blog with something worth mentioning about that day. Because everyday is important and should be remembered - somehow.

Like, today, Nathan wore the shirt that his Daddy bought him at the truck stop. It says "Daddy's Mini-Me" and it is adorable!

I had so much fun watching Jason chase Nathan around this afternoon. That little tickle box gets turned upside down by his Daddy in a way that I can't figure out. He doesn't laugh like that with me, which is fine, because we have our own special little moments, too. There's something very precious about a boy and his Dad and I'm enthralled with watching this relationship blossom between the two most important people in my life.

Mother's Day 2009

2009-05-10T06:42:00.000-07:00

It's Mother's Day and I'm feeling so thankful for my sweet baby boy. My heart is with those women today who want to be Mama's and are having trouble becoming one, or who are mama's but who have lost their babies or who's babies are sick. Also, my heart is very much with those Mama's who don't have their Mama's anymore. I have no idea what it is like to be one of them, but can imagine how painful a day like today might be. Thank you, God, for blessing me with Nathan. I pray that I will be as good of a Mama to him as mine has been to me!

Jason came home on Friday and since he was having to leave this morning, we decided to celebrate Mother's Day last night. I know it's kinda crazy, but we haven't had a REAL date since Nathan was born. It's hard for us, because Jason's usually only home on the weekends, and so we like to spend the weekends all together so he can spend as much time as possible with Nathan. But, we were long overdue for a date night. Also, alot of people have been getting onto me lately for not having let Nathan spend the night off yet. But, I haven't had a reason to let him (and it's hard to imagine waking up without him there), so it hasn't been an option.

So, last night I packed up his little bag and took him over to my parents' house. Okay, you have to understand that Mama and Daddy live literally two houses away from us. It's not like they live across town or anything, but you would have thought so. I kissed him and kissed him and hugged him and loved him like I was going to be away for the whole weekend. I honestly almost cried as we pulled out of the driveway. I know, I'm a little attached...

We had a little disagreement about where to go for dinner. We knew we wanted Mexican and since I'd already conceded on the movie (I wanted to see 17 again, he wanted to see Wolverine - stupid, but naked Hugh Jackman? Oooooooookaaaaaaay, if you insist.....) so I felt like he should eat where I wanted to eat, right? I love El Ranchero, but the salsa is too chunky for his taste (enter me rolling my eyes and breathing out deeply), and he wanted La Parilla, but it's a little pricey and not very tasty (enter him rolling his eyes and breathing out deeply). So, I offered La Fiesta because I have a discount card, but we were already on the other side of town so we decided to go to Fiesta Grill which is owned by La Fiesta. It was so nice to be out together by ourselves. My husband is not one to talk alot while he's eating - which drives me nutty - but, he did manage to tell me how pretty I look in my purple dress. haha.

Of course, when we got in the car, my sister had sent me a text message that said, "Hey Mommy and Daddy! I've had my bath and my bottle and now I'm going to sleep. I love you!" That almost made me cry again....but, i sucked it up so I could see Hugh Jackman naked. Oh, the sacrifice.

And the movie was O-kay. I guess I need to know more about the x men movies. I kept asking questions and was a little confused, but just so you girls know - Hugh definitely deserved Sexiest Man of the year. I wonder if I could talk Jason into making his arms look like that...

When we left, I called Mom and Dad's of course. She said that he'd fallen asleep a little early, so they'd gotten him up to be sure he would sleep well all night and now he wasn't going back to sleep. She said he'd been in his pack-n-play just talking to himself like, "where am I at? Where are my parents? Why is it dark outside and I'm still here?" So, we decided to go ahead and pick him up. :) yay! I don't think any of us were ready for that. Maybe when he's 1.

This morning, we got up and Jason left, and then he called. He said that he was just giving me a warning - so I'd be decent - that his Dad was coming to give us something. I was like, "????What??? Why???" But, Jason said he didn't know. Awwww...... Mr. Mark walked up with 2 cards that Jason had bought for me and had left in his truck. One was from Nathan! :) How sweet! The one from Jason was especially sweet because we have a little inside joke that we are Team Dewberry. (He would die if he knew I was telling this), but we even have team huddles. I like to text him sometimes and say things like, "Nathan and I just voted you MVP. It was unanimous." haha. So, inside the card that he got for me, he wrote "keep up the good work. Love you, Jason." Oh me. Y'all probably think that's so stupid, but it makes my heart swell and puts a smile on my face. I just love him so much! As long as he remembers that I'M team Captain. :)

26

2009-05-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

Really? Am I that old? I certainly don't feel it. I catch myself all the time feeling like I'm fresh out of High School. But, I'm exactly where I hoped I would be at 26. I have a sweet little house, a husband that loves me and a precious child all of my own. Life is good!

With wedding plans in full swing (only 16 days away!), I almost forgot all about my birthday! One of my clients last week asked me what I was doing for the weekend and I said, "Well, we have another shower for Rebecca on Sunday........Oh! And it's my birthday!" haha. There was a time when I would have been anxiously anticipating that day for several weeks beforehand. Much like my youngest sister Christy, who makes sure we all have her birthday circled on our calendars and will start reminding us of her September birthday here in a few weeks. :)

Mine was actually on Saturday (the 2nd). Jason was home and busily putting my new beautiful screen door on the front of our house.

You can really tell you're getting old when you start asking for gifts like that! I just want to be able to sit in my living room with the door open and not have insects sneaking in at the same time. It's so pretty! I'm so blessed to have a husband that is so handy! We had the best dinner ever at my parents' house - steak, twice baked potatoes, salad and rebecca made me the best carrot cake in the world. Homemade! Delish!! It was so nice to do something so low-key and nice. I'm so lucky to have such a great family! Here's a picture of me with my sisters at my birthday party. We all wore Maxi dresses! haha. Great minds think alike! :)

We don't have many new updates. Nathan's cruising around on everything he can pull up on. I swear, he's gotten so big so fast! He's such a flirt. That little toothless grin will mealt your heart every time! Everywhere we go he makes new friends. I could not be more proud. He's just the best thing that's ever happened to us and we feel so blessed to have him be our's.

I can't wait to see how the next few months go. It blows my mind that he's already 8 months old. Before we know it, we'll be playing baseball and swimming in the swimming pool. I just can't wait to watch him grow up! :)

playing catch-up

2009-04-17T02:31:00.000-07:00

It's been so long since I've blogged that I really don't know where to start. About a month ago, Jason and I were sitting with Nathan on our front porch. We've been anticipating a tooth now for about 3 months as it seems every week like he is having the symptoms, I slid my finger inside his mouth as we were sitting there and lo and behold - there was a tooth! Just the edge of one, enough to see a little glimmer of white. :) I remember then thinking "I need to blog about this!" haha. Within a couple of days the other bottom one had made it's grand apperance and that's as far as we've gotten on the creating teeth front.

He actually did really well with teething. Like I've said, we were anticipating one because he has been drooling constantly, and chewing on everything. But, other than that we didn't have much notice that the first one was coming. Now, I'm not sure if it was because I knew that the first one was in and the next one felt like it might be on it's way out, too, that I became a little paranoid about it or if it's really because he seemed more upset with the second one, but it did give us a little more of a fit. He was just really fussy and didn't have much of an appetite, just not himself until after it was in. I'll have to get a picture of his pearly whites to post for y'all!

We went to see Dr. Jackson for our 6 month check-up which went really well. I'm getting better and better about the shots. It's so hard to see my little man being so happy and sweet and then not understanding why he's being hurt. :( I hate that part of the visit more than anything! Everything checked out perfectly. He has been in the 90-95 percentile on his height and weight, but has just recently dropped into like the 65th. Dr. J said that it's probably because we're doing more solids and less bottle and that some babies just bloom earlier rather than later and that's probably nathan's case. I'm not worried about it. He has a huge appetite, so as long as he's eating well, that's fine with me! Of course, his head size is still off the charts. haha. In fact, Dr. Jackson said, "Now, you may start being able to sit him up by himself for a few minutes at a time." And I was like, "Oh, we've already been doing that..." He looked at me like, "Really?" So, I positioned Nathan on the table and showed him and he said, "I mean, that's really remarkable seeing as his head's so big. He must have really great core strength to be able to balance it so well." HA! I don't take offense. I mean, that's just another reason that I'm glad I had a c-section.

We also dealt with our first sick virus since I've been on my blogging hiatus. It started one weekend while Jason was here (thank goodness!). We had given Nathan his morning bottle, which he seemed to take well and then we sat him him his walker like we always do. Just a few minutes later, Jason looked at him and said, "I think he's choking!" So, we rushed over to him and just as we got there, he spewed - i mean, speeeeewwwweeeeedd - all over the place. My first thought was that he'd just had an air bubble and that he was probably fine so we went on about our business. Then, that night at dinner he threw up again and I noticed that he'd not had much of an appetite. What a little trooper, though, because he'd still play and act normal. Not puny at all. That's what kept throwing me off was he seemed completely fine! There was a night in there where Jason and I felt like for sure he had a fever, so after checking it - it was 100 - we kept him on tylenol, motrin and snuggled him all night. What a great excuse for a snuggle! :)

It's a good thing that he got to feeling better when he did because Mason came up to spend the week with us. His mom brought him to us on the 2nd and then we had him until Easter. It was so much fun! My mom and I took he and Nathan to the World of Coke on Monday since she was out for Spring Break. I'd forgotten my camera :( so I didn't get a lot of great shots - but we had a blast. I can't believe this weather has been so crazy, though! Here it is Spring Break and we were freezing! Luckily, it warmed up just enough for us to go to the Panama City Beach for Easter weekend. We stayed at the condo that my parents' share with several other people. We are so blessed to have a place to go to that's so nice and comfortable (and not on the strip). Jason, Daddy and my Uncle Billy went fishing Friday and Saturday and so Mom, Christy and I just stayed back and played with the boys. I'm so thankful for them being so willing to help me out with everything. I don't know how I would have done it without them. I'll post beach pictures soon.

Oh yeah, Nathan's started crawling! It's the cutest thing in the whole world. He started by doing the worm. Like a little inch-worm all over the floor. Now, he's gotten it down a little better. But, man can he get it! He's all over the place!

I'm having to be super careful about my floors these days. A couple of days ago, I was busy doing something and noticed that he'd crawled just out of my sight to the other side of the sofa. He was being mighty quiet and still, so I peeked around to see what he was doing and he'd pulled a hair ball from under the sofa and was trying to figure out what it was so he could put it in his mouth. GROSS! Just yesterday, he crawled into the laundry room and found his way over to our metal rolling cart thing that we keep our detergent and all (that's too high for him to get, too), but he pulled himself up to his knees and then reached up to the next shelf and pulled himself up to standing! :) YAY! He's getting so big. It makes me happy and sad at the same time.

The sweetest thing ever is that he's started giving kisses. Like full on slobber all over your cheek, kisses. I can tell that's what they are because it only happens when I've been kissing on him and then it's like he says, "Okay, now it's my turn!" He'll turn around and grab my face and just plant one on me. I mean, it's the most precious thing you've ever seen. Sometimes, it takes off all the makeup I've just put on, but I don't care. Nothing is better than a little baby slobber to make a mom look complete. I'll come back later and update with a few pictures of everything. I think I even have a video of him crawling. Right now, my butt needs to get back in bed since it's only 6a.m. and I'm awake for some reason. :)

Okay, I promised I'd come back to do this, so here they are...

....that's me giving Daddy kisses for getting dressed up, taking us to the beach on our way out of town, and not fussing (too much) about doing it. :)

This is our fairytale

2009-02-26T04:27:00.000-08:00

So, I just wanted to post real quickly to let y'all know that my sister just started a blog! Yay!! She follows mine pretty closely and is always quick to point out how long it's been since my last posting, so now I can give it right back to her! haha. Please go visit her site thisisourfairytale . I have a feeling that she's a really good writer and might become a better blogger than me. eek!

On a side note, I helped her set her's up last night. I remember when I started mine not long ago, it seemed like there were tons of options for names of your blog. However, when I was trying options for her's they were all - i mean all - already taken! That means there must be tons and tons of bloggers out there. I hope I get to "meet" more of you! :)

I'm also excited to announce that my sweet friend, Becky, just had her little girl. I'm excited to see how life at the Gore residence goes as they already have a little boy like us. So, it will be interesting for me to watch them and imagine what my life might be like if we have another one. (Not anytime soon, i promise!) You can read all about sweet Marley Ann here.

Well, today is my day off and yes, I got up at 6:45, because little pumpkin had started talking to himself and I knew that soon it would turn from sweet babble to "Feed. Me. NOW!" So, we are going to play a little this morning, and after his morning nap go to the grocery store to buy stuff to make a cheesecake for my dad's 50th birthday party!! (it's a surprise, so don't tell him!) Then, we may stop by my grandparents' house for a little bit. I hope this is a warm and fun day for you, too!

Has anyone seen my baby?

2009-02-22T05:54:00.000-08:00

I was just wondering if you've seen my baby. He seems to have gone missing! And who is this big boy that is living in my house?

My cousin just recently had a baby girl so we went to visit her yesterday. She is right at 9 lbs. which is what N was when he was born, but she is so tiny! She's so light and little and sweet. She slept the whole time (I forgot my camera....), and was a little angel. Then, I looked over and my big hoss of a son was sitting there weighing in at almost 20 pounds, sitting up by himself, smiling at everybody and it hit me! He's not a baby baby anymore. He's a big boy!

Y'all he is the sweetest child. I know every mother says that about their children, but mine really is. He's just so dang cute! One day recently, he was fussing for no apparent reason, so I started patting my hand over his mouth like an indian and he thought it was funny. Now, all I have to do is pat my hand over his mouth and he starts humming. I have yet to get it on camera, but I will and I'll post it as soon as I do. Y'all should see him in his walker. The first couple of times I put him in it, he acted like, "Umm....okay. Mom, are you sure about this?" Then, he got to where he thought it was fun because being in it moved him. He wasn't sure how he was moving or how to get to where he wanted to go, but he was liking it! NOW, he's obsessed. If I go to put him in it, his little feet are already moving then I set him down and Zoom! He's off. Gosh, it's hilarious! And this is nice, because I can finally start getting stuff done. I definitely don't leave him in there for too long, but I can actually put a load of laundry in without having to hold him at the same time! Thank the heavens!!

He's started sitting up by himself. Or, sitting unassisted, I should say. He can't pull himself to a sitting position yet, but he'll stay for awhile if I set him up like that. And he's getting up on his hands and knees. Not moving, or rocking, but propping up on them and then looking around like, "Oh no! What do I do next?" Bellyflop. Last week, I was putting him in his carseat and he was fussing while I was buckling him in. It sounded something like, "wha, wha, wha....da, da, da." And I said, "WHAT? DID YOU SAY DA DA? DA DA DA DA DA DA?" Poor little guy will never say those words again. He looked at me with huge eyes like, "I dont' know what just happened, but that made her act a little crazy, so I'm definitely not saying that again!" haha. Oh well....

Finally, we had a short little play date with our friend Joel. He was born just a couple of weeks after Nathan and we haven't seen them since the babies were very little. So, we stopped by to let them play. I can't believe how big they both have gotten! We love our friend, Joel, and hope that we'll be able to get together again! Here are some pictures that I took of the new friends. Don't they look like little old men?

Valentine's Day, er.....a few days late.

2009-02-16T17:38:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to publish this post, but keep forgetting to. How was your Valentine's Day? I really love these Hallmark holidays because a) it gives me and opportunity to be loved on and b) it gives me a great conversation piece with my clients while I'm doing their hair. It's so funny to me to hear the plans that people make.

So, Jason was home! (And has been every weekend for a month or so - yippee!!) We decided not to go out since it was on Saturday we knew that there would be really long waits and if you know my husband at all, you'll know that he is not a very patient person. So, we decided to grill out steaks instead. His absolute favorite cake in the whole world is homemade strawberry, so I used Paula Dean's recipe and whipped up a sweet cake for my sweet Valentine.

Here's the recipe, if you are interested:

Simply Delicious Strawberry Cake
Makes 1 (9-inch) cake
1 (18.25-ounce) box white cake mix
1 (3-ounce) box strawberry flavored instant gelatin
1 (10-ounce) package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed and pureed
4 large eggs
1/2cup vegetable oil
1/4cup water
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)
Garnish: sliced fresh strawberries
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease 2 round 9-inch cake pans.
In a large bowl, combine cake mix and gelatin. Add pureed strawberries, eggs, oil, and water; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour into prepared pans, and bake for 20 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks. Spread Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting in between layers and on top and sides of cake. Garnish with sliced fresh strawberries, if desired.
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes about 4 cups
1/4cup butter, softened
1 (8-ounce) package cream sheese,m softened
1 (10-ounce) package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed and pureed
1/2teaspoon strawberry extract
7 cups confectioners' sugar
In a large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in 1/4 cup strawberry puree, reserving remaining for another use. Beat in extract. Gradually add confectioners' sugar, beating until smooth.
Note: For pinker frosting, add 2 to 3 drops of red food coloring to frosting.

Yep, people, that's 7 cups of confectioners' sugar. It was delish!
Here's a picture of my little helper:
We are on a tight budget these days, so I knew that I shouldn't expect a bouquet of flowers, but I did mention to him that I do love it when he gives me flowers (especially because he always includes a sweet card with them that I can keep forever.) But, he was quick to remind me of how expensive flowers are right now and how we have so many other things that we need to spend that money on. :( Sneaky, fella...I call them the economy-friendly bouquet. The card was so sweet and those flowers have lasted me almost the whole week! He did good.

Tiiiiiiime???? Where arrrrrrrrrrre you?

2009-02-13T18:44:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't posted in forever. I've just been so busy that I haven't had a chance to sit. I promise I'll be better about it.

So, Mason was here ALL last week. Susan and Howard brought him here on Saturday the 31st and then Jason and I took him to meet his mom on the 8th. That's a really long time. We had so much fun, though! You can really see him and Nathan starting to bond.

Sunday morning, I got up early with the boys and decided to make everyone a big country breakfast. I even made pancakes! I just knew Mason would be extra excited when I told him I was making pancakes, but instead all he said was, "nah...I'm not hungry." He's such a picky eater! We even invited Mr. Mark over to come over to have breakfast with us. I must say, it was yummy!

So, after we were finished, I was cleaning up a little and realized that everyone had disappeared into our bedroom. I went back there to find them and there was the sweetest thing I've ever seen. Daddy playing with his boys. I just had to get my camera and grab a couple of pics.

God, I love those boys so much. It's amazing to me to see how much our family has grown. When I met Jason little Mason was almost 2. I had just moved into my grandparents' basement and Jason was living with his Dad. Now, we have our precious little house our big almost 5 year-old, Mason, and now our sweet Nathan. I swear, I didn't know life could be this good! I am very, very blessed...

Are you there, Spring? It's me, Sara...

2009-01-25T19:41:00.000-08:00

So, I'm either nesting (which better not be the case because I'm certainly not pregnant) or Spring cleaning (which is weird because it's only January - wishful thinking?). When we moved into our house I would clean it all the time. I remember wondering if there would ever come a time when I wouldn't clean it so obsessively.

Hahaha

Enter - getting knocked up. Cleaning definitely took a backseat to baby belly. I used every pregnant excuse I could come up with (tired, heartburn, big ole' belly, swollen ankles, can't hold a broom and a blt at the same time...) I mean, I would clean, as in pick up here and there and dust off every once in awhile, but 102 was definitely in need of a life-altering top-to-bottom cleaning. I guess watching Nathan laying on his belly and 'almost' getting into crawling position made me take a second glance at my floors and not at the spots that get swept over every now and then, but the spots that a baby might crawl to and the things he might pick up to put in his mouth.

Oh, pleeeeeeease. I challenge you right now to look around your floors, in the tiny corners, under the edge of your sofas or the edge of the bottoms of your cabinets and not find something a little yucky. Please don't tell me that I'm the only person out there who let's these things slide a little.

I guess it hasn't been done much because since pregnancy I've had a 9+pound load to lug around when I'm here. He loves being held and since Jason's gone alot, I end up not having an extra set of hands to help me out in this department. (Of course, he says that I could do it when I'm not blogging or Facebooking - but, come on! That's my social life! haha, not really....well, kinda.)

My parents kept Nathan for us Saturday morning so I could work and Jason could get some stuff done around the house. They had to run some errands, so they decided to take Nathan with them. Well, he's obviously got his mama's charm, because he talked his Big Daddy into taking him into Babies R Us while Memaw was at the Dollar Store. Oh lord, I wish I had been there to witness this. How many grown men do you know would take a baby into Babies R Us by themselves?? So, not only did Nathan talk his Big Daddy into taking him into the biggest Baby store in the world (or at least Newnan), but he looked up at his grandaddy with those big baby blue eyes and batted them to the exact tune of, "please buy me a walker and a new highchair to keep at your house, Big Daddy, please..." It took me several years to perfect this look, but my son's a quick learner. Do you know that they actually came home with a walker AND a new highchair. I couldn't believe it. My dad is already spoiling his grandson. Next, it's going to be the latest fishing rods, four-wheelers and b.b.guns. Sweet ole' Big Daddy....

So, back to the original story, it was GREAT because I brought the walker over here and was able to put him in it while Jason and I cleaned (I added his name so he wouldn't get his feelings hurt, but he really just made me think he was helping by staying out of my way. Don't tell him I know his secret....) Nathan adores his walker. Hasn't quite figured out yet why he's moving around or how to get from one place to the next, but is interested in it happening. It's particularly funny when he scoots in front of the oven and catches his image (now that you can actually see a reflection in it). He starts smiling at himself and cooing. Just precious...

So, I started by going through the piles of mail, books, magazines, etc. and put all of it away. Took everything off the countertops and scrubbed (with clorox anywhere spray) them all down. Put dishes in dishwasher and kept laundry going. Wiped all surfaces including kitchen table, chairs and legs. Re-organized my pantry. Swept, swept, swept. Vacuumed the rugs and mopped. Oh, and scrubbed the bathroom down with every anti-bacterial product I could find. I think that if Nathan all of a sudden started crawling across the floors I would actually be able to enjoy watching him and not cringe at the thought of what he was crawling around on. I can't tell you how good this feels to my soul to clean! Spring better be on the way here with a quickness now that I put in all this hard work.

P.S. I think the Chinese definitely have the right idea, no shoes beyond the front door...
OH! And P.P.S. We were fixing to leave my parents' house the other night when Memaw started making Nathan belly laugh. It was absolutely the sweetest sound I have ever heard and luckily, my dad was able to grab his camera in time to catch it. So, here it is. Be sure to check out his little bald head...

Cue ball?

2009-01-14T19:10:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things about my son has been his hair. I've thought how convenient it is for him that he has such great hair and his mom's a hairdresser. I've loved hearing everyone say to me, "look at all that hair!" He was born with it parted perfectly on the side. It's beautiful, thick, dark, slightly red, curly when wet....

Until now. Now, I've got a cue ball. Well, that's not true. I've got a cue ball with bangs and a mullet and a weird curl on one side. His hair has been falling out. As soon as I can snap a good picture, I'll post it. Bless his little heart. Apparently it happens sometimes because babies hormones are getting all straightened out and it's just part of the process.

Hmm... maybe that's why mine's been falling out, too? Or we have some strange epidemic happening here in the Dewberry house. I mean, falling out by the HANDFULLS. Every single time I run my hands through my hair. I can't tell you how much there is. Like, everytime I brush my hair after getting out of the shower, I fill up a hairdbrush. Y.U.C.K. This is definitely not something I was expecting, especially 4 months later.

Have I told you lately how much I love my little pumpkin? I honestly remember feeling during those first several weeks like I just wasn't cut out for this. I felt a little overwhelmed and sad because it was hard to figure out what he wanted and he seemed sad so much because he wasn't smiling. Holy cow. I've definitely been bit by the love bug. I'm obsessed with him! He makes the funniest little faces and the huge smile he gives me when we make eye contact is enough to melt my heart forever. I have so many dreams for him. On the one hand, I don't want him to get ANY bigger, but on the other hand, I can't WAIT for him to start really talking and crawling and calling me mommy... Oh, good grief.

Speaking of him getting bigger, we went to his 4 month doctor's appointment. He weighs almost 16 pounds! That's CRAZY! I just can't believe he's gotten so big. I feel like we just moved into size 2 diapers and are almost ready for size 3. I've felt like he was never going to make it into 6 months clothes, but all of a sudden he's fitting comfortably in 9 months. Oh me. This is what I have to look forward to, right?

Have I mentioned that I quit breastfeeding? It was just really hard to continue doing with my work schedule during the holidays. I had the opportunity to work through my lunches to make extra money and decided that it would be better for us if I did that. So, it messed up my supply and I was getting ready to give it up anyway, so figured I'd go ahead and wean. This wasn't so bad. I never had any kind of pain and am really glad I decided to do it. We are both more independent and I can really make sure of how much he's getting which makes life much easier. We made it to 3 1/2 months, though, so I feel pretty proud of myself. He's started eating solids and LOVES it. He hasn't disliked anything I've offered him (which is all of the stage 1 foods). Still getting cereal in all of his formula bottles and staying really full which helps him stay happy for longer period of time (and sleep longer, too - woohoo!).

We haven't seen Jason since 2 days after Christmas and he's coming home tomorrow. I can't tell you how excited our house is to have our daddy coming home. Let me end with that because it reminds me of all the housework I need to do...

someone actually reads this?

2009-01-08T13:59:00.000-08:00

I am so honored to have received a blogger award from a savannah redtop ! It always surprises me when someone mentions to me that they've read my blog. It definitely keeps me on my toes.

So, I'm passing this award along to the following bloggers:
McKinley's World
The Wooten Family
Greenway Baby
Caldwell Crib
Crazy Mama
The Professor and Sarah Mae
Boswell

Put the logo on your blog or post.
Nominate blogs which show GREAT ATTITUDE and/or GRATITUDE!
Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

???

2009-01-08T06:38:00.000-08:00

Just so you know, I have tried several times to edit that last post so that the paragraphs are separated correctly. I know I'm not perfect with my punctuation, but I did try to break it up a bit. Blogger must be on the fritz because it won't allow me to do it. Oh well....at least I tried!

nursery rhymes

2009-01-06T19:21:00.000-08:00

Rock-a-bye baby, in the tree top

When the wind blows, the cradle will rock

When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall

And down will come baby, cradle and all.

Of course, I've heard this nursery rhyme a million times. I've even sung it a time or two to Nathan. But, I've always wondered why this nursery rhyme has to be so sad? I mean, who wants to sing to their child a song about a baby falling out of a tree? Who made this stuff up???

Well, I can tell you who. A woman who is at her wit's end from having a 4 month old baby who has been an excellent sleeper, but all of a sudden has forgotten how to - is who wrote that song. A woman who has been up every hour and a half listening to her child giggle to itself knowing that in a minute, it's mama is going to have to crawl out of her warm bed to turn him back over because he's flipped. A woman who's child has only taken one 30 minute nap all day long and who should be sleeping fabulously, but is strangely wide awake. That's who.

That's what has happened to me at least. Ever since he was about 2 months old I could tell people that he was the perfect child. I could see the envy in people's eyes when I honestly told them that he goes to bed around 7:30 and sleeps until 7 or so in the morning. I've known how very lucky I am.

When he was really young, we started a bedtime routine of getting in our pj's; turning on our sound machine, humidifier, and night light; reading a story; having a bottle; saying good night to special things in our house and the people we love; and going to bed. Now that he knows the routine as soon as I lay him down, he sticks that cute little thumb in his mouth and goes right to sleep without fussing or anything! It's so great. Well, I've read about the 4 month wakeful period. Medically, it's litsted as something that happens they become so alert that they don't want to sleep. It can last a week or two and often happens when they are around 4 months old. I'm afraid that's what we're in. Nathan did just turn 4 months on Monday. He seriously only took one 30 minute nap yesterday and woke every hour and a half last night. He's learned how to scoot around in his crib, so he woke up once with his face pressed against the crib rails (thank goodness my mom had lowered the bumper!) and then again when his arm was stuck in the rail and he couldn't get his thumb to his mouth. Poor little pumpkin.

I'll keep you updated on how tonight goes. He's had a pretty busy day being back at Miss Jennifer's after having 2 weeks off for Christmas and he's had 3 naps that each lasted longer than 30 minutes. Thank the Lord! I just hope I don't climb up in a tree tonight and throw him from it... (just kidding, sort of)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-04T06:39:00.000-08:00

It's 2009! Can you believe it?

I have so many fun memories of New Year's past. From the year that Rebecca, Charlotte and I stayed up late and threw confetti all over the playroom. To the time my sisters came to my apartment and we littered the yard of the apartment complex with new year's decorations. To the several new years' that were spent at the Delt house in LaGrange. But, my favorite new year's was 2006.

It was the first time I'd spent New Year's celebrating it right. My good friends, Philip and Carl and I went to Atlanta and went to an awesome party at the Hyatt. It was formal so we had to dress up and one of my favorite bands, Zac Brown Band, was playing. It was so much fun to stay in downtown Atlanta and to be celebrating the New Year with some of my favorite people. I'd spent much of 2005 single, trying to focus on my career and myself. I had wanted to truly experience being single and dating before I settled down, but I was beginning to get a little lonely. Just before midnight, I'd received a phone call and stepped out onto the balcony to take it. There were lots of people around and I felt sure that my group of friends were just inside the doors. All of a sudden, everyone around me started counting down. I rushed inside and realized that my friends were nowhere to be found. So, as the clock struck midnight, I sat drunk and alone wondering if this was what my year had in store for me.

Ha!

The next weekend, Zac Brown was actually playing in Newnan. One of my friends had asked me if I cared about going to see him, but to be honest, I was partied out. I really wasn't in the mood, but she insisted that I go. So, I went without putting too much interest in what I was wearing or how I looked. I was surprised at how many people were there. The parking lot was full and there were lots of people I knew from high school milling around inside and out. We'd gone inside and gotten a fairly good table where we could see the band playing, but I realized that I had left my cell phone in my car. So, begrudgingly I headed back out into the parking lot to get my phone. When I was coming back inside, there were a group of guys standing by the front door. I recognized them from high school, but didn't know them well enough to speak. One of them, however, stopped me and said, "Hey - how do I know you?" And I said, "you should know me, Jason Dewberry, I'm Sara Perkins. We went to school together." He nodded and sort of laughed a little. I went on inside and couldn't believe that he'd actually talked to me. I thought he was so cute and said to my friend, " you won't believe who just stopped me...." Later that evening, because we had such a good table, his group of friends came and sat with us. I knew some of his friends better than others, so it wasn't strange for them to ask to sit with us. Jason ended up sitting next to me. I remember that he was sitting to my left and another one of his friends was sitting to my right and there was a man sitting behind me that had already offered to buy me a drink or two. But, I just remember being drawn to Jason. He was so handsome and funny and seemed to really be interested in me! After my weekend in Atlanta, this was certainly refreshing. We danced a little (even though he was recovering from a broken ankle) and I remember drowning in his smell. He gave me goosebumps by just brushing his hand against my arm. We talked about people dating and I remember him saying, "everybody needs a girlfriend to keep them in line." I felt like I'd known him forever. Our friends call him "Dewberry" and at one point, I said, "Dewberry...." to him, he quickly stopped me and said, "I'd rather you just call me Jason." Thinking back on this night and our first few months together makes me blush, still. I am so in love with this man and truly believe that God sent him to me. We met 3 years ago on January 6th. So, even though I spent that New Year's sad and depressed and lonely - 2006 turned out to be a really good year. 2007 we finished our house and moved in and 2008 our baby boy was born. I can't WAIT to see what 2009 has in store.....

quick update

2008-12-29T09:16:00.000-08:00

Santa bought Nathan new carseats for Christmas. We now have one for my car and one for my mom's. Jason won't get one since when we're all together we always take my car. I've blogged before about how much Nathan hates the carrier. Cries as soon as he looks at it. Screams at the top of his lungs the entire way to and from any destination. Some people say that they will eventually stop crying, but not my son. And my favorite - "My child would fall asleep as soon as we put them in their carseat."

I never believed this statement. I was beginning to think that this is how it would be for the rest of our lives. The thought of a child falling asleep in their carseat seemed like something out of a Disney movie or a fairytale.

This has become the main reason we don't go anywhere. Not even to the grocery store. Very frustrating. However, I told him the other day that we really can not stay on Mt. Carmel Rd. forever. We are going to HAVE to leave at some point. So, he asked Santa for a new careseat. Or, at least I did. And he delivered!

Here he is before:

And now...

It's true! They do sleep in carseats! And I believe in miracles!

'Tis the Season

2008-12-25T19:30:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

It's weird to think that this time last year I was pregant and didn't even know it yet...

This is Nathan's first Christmas and boy has it been fun! It all started with Mason coming up on Thursday. We had so much fun with him this time. I think he's starting to get used to Nathan being around all the time. We are so lucky that Susan and Howard were there in Florida and just happened to be coming back that day. We don't ever mind going to get him, but it's nice to not have to make that 2 1/2 hour trip both ways if we don't have to. So, Thursday night Jason's sister Christy came by to see him and we then had dinner with my parents.

Friday, Mason spent the day with Mr. Mark. They just pal'd around all morning and then picked Jason up from the truck stop at lunch. Mason loves going to the truck stop so this was a real treat for him! He kept telling us that he wanted Santa to bring him a "Mac" truck like his Daddy's. Good thing I'd already gotten him one! Last year, Santa came to Mason at both our house and his mom's house, but now that Nathan's here (and since Mason's getting smarter about Santa) we decided that Santa would only come to the house that he's at Christmas eve night. That way there's no confusion as to why Santa comes to him twice and not to everybody else twice, too. Also, last year Mason had told us that he wanted trucks and cars and "digger things." However, when we went to pick him up to have Christmas with him, he said, "Santa's going to bring me airplanes and helicopters!" Jason and I were like, "oh....no!" and of course rushed around like mad people buying up airplanes and helicopters at the last minute. So, Christmas morning that child had more presents than he could have ever dreamed of. This year, we decided to scale back alot. Especially since we didn't have the pressure of playing Santa, we felt like we could get away with not having to do as much. But, between Jason's grandparents, both sets of my grandparents, Jason's mom, Jason's dad, my parents, Jason's sister, my sisters, and then us - he STILL had tons of stuff! Our boys are so lucky to have such a great family. And Jason and I feel so lucky for them, too! Here are a few picks of him opening our gifts to him...

He's so funny. As soon as he'd finish opening one, he'd be ready for the next and he played with the bubble wrap from someone else's present more than any of these, but oh well. I need another toy box, that's for sure!

Saturday, I had to work and when I got off we had Christmas with my sisters and Mason at Memaw and Big Daddy's house. Rebecca and Christy both were not going to be here for Christmas day so we had to do Christmas for them a little early. My Mom went ahead and gave my dad his present - a Wii! Oh Lord, I don't think my parents' house will ever be the same again....

Jason's mom came over that afternoon and Jason's sister came back again, too. They brought Mason even more gifts, but we couldn't play with them very long because we had to get ready for our 2nd annual Twinkle Tour! This is SO much fun and we are so glad we got to do it again this year. My cousin Alison's husband Jim's family owns a small church-type bus. He drives our Perkins family around in it to look at Christmas lights and we stop at some people's houses for appetizers. Of course, everyone brings their drink of choice which makes it hilarious. Everyone from my 65 year old Aunt and uncle to my youngest cousins were there. My mom kept Nathan for us which was so sweet of her. It was really nice for Jason and I to be able to enjoy ourselves without having to worry about him for a little while. Mason went in her place and got to ride with Big Daddy. He LOVED the lights and had lots of fun with the other kids. I'm not sure if he remembered going last year, but I hope he'll be able to go with us every year.

Sunday, we slept in late and then went to my parents house to play Wii. It was nice to have a day off to not have to do too much. We let Mason stay up late with us that night and watched "Home Alone." He thought he was so big. When I told him that he could stay up late, he was like, "are you going to let Baby Nathan stay up late, too?....He'll probably whine alot." haha. I said, "Nah, this is only for big boys." He grinned real big and climbed up onto the sofa. It was so fun for the 3 of us to hang out together like old times and I think it was good for Mason to see that things haven't changed THAT much with having Nathan here.

Jason took Mason back on Monday and I had to work then we went to my parents house to play Wii. Tuesday was sort of mellow, too, I worked - came home - played Wii. Then, Wednesday the fun started again. I worked that morning, then rushed home to start cooking for Christmas day. I went ahead and made the breakfast casserole and cheese danish for Christmas morning and then made the deviled eggs for us to have with our Christmas lunch. We got all dressed up and went to Susan and Howard's house for a little Christmas party. We had so much fun being with everyone. Nathan wasn't in much of a party mood. I've learned that when he gets sleepy he wants his bed at his house. Kinda' like his Daddy, I guess. :) He was not having me trying to get him to sleep on Susan's bed. So, we had to cut the party short a little. Too bad, because I heard there were lots of holiday cheer shots being taken which would have been fun to watch, but oh well....

Then, this morning, I woke up early to make sure I could get everything started. As soon as Jason and Nathan woke up we went to see Mr. Mark and give him the coffee mug I had made that had the boys' picture on it. My parents and grandparents came over around 9 to exchange gifts. It was so much fun and I hope we make this a tradition! We gave them each 2 mugs with a picture of each boy on both of them. They LOVED them! Jason and I decided to not give each other gifts this year so we could focus more on the kids and since we don't have alot of extra money right now. I wondered if he'd cheat, but luckily neither of us did. I was sure to remind him that this is not tradition, though!

I hated to see my family leave, but kinda' glad they did because I had to quickly get started on our Christmas lunch. I had planned on cooking a ham that I had already bought, but Wednesday, one of my clients brought me a huge beef tenderloin! What a nice gift!! So, we decided to have it instead. Jason and his dad took care of preparing the meet, but I still had to make the green beans, squash casserole, homemade mashed potatoes, rolls and sweet tea. Whew! Luckily, I squeezed a shower in there just before Jason's brother and sister got here. We had so much fun being with them and I'm so glad that everyone enjoyed my food. I am so proud of myself for getting it all taken care of and for it being so yummy. I just hope that one day my boys will tell their wives, "nobody can cook as good as my mama!" :)

After they left we went to my parents house to, you guessed it - play Wii!

Hazel Ana

2008-12-10T17:53:00.000-08:00

Today I am reminded of all my blessings. I am a wife and a mama and that is all that I've ever wanted to be. As a little girl I would dream of what my husband would look like and what I would name my babies. Of course, a little girl doesn't dream of the silly little things that come along with life like bills, fussy children or husbands that travel. Nevertheless, I have all that I've ever wanted and I am blessed. I ran across this blog www.hazelana.blogspot.com today. I do not know these people. I do not know anyone that these people know. I have no idea really how I found it, but I started at the bottom and read up. I do believe that once you're a mama you are everyone's mama and everyone's baby is your baby. I love little Hazel. The chinese culture describes an emotion that they call mother-love as being the love that only mothers have for their children. The love that causes a woman to urge her children in the right direction, the love that makes babies want to curl up in only their mother's arms, the love that keeps us strong when our babies are sick. I can feel the mother-love that there is for Nathan. I, we, can not be more blessed and thankful for all the many mothers we have in our lives...

My favorite gift

2008-12-10T17:50:00.000-08:00

The best gift that I ever got

Didn't really weigh a lot

It didn't have a ribbon 'round

And it sometimes made the terrible sound

The best of all it seems to me

It wasn't neath the Christmas tree

And yet, I guess I'd have to say

That it made all the other presents twice as gay

The best gift that I've ever known

I'd always wanted most to own

Yet in my dreams of sugar and spice

I never thought it could be so nice

The best gift that I ever got

Was sometimes dry and sometimes wet

Was usually pink but oftentimes red

As it lay so innocently in its bed

The best gift of the year to me

The one I hold most dear to me

A gift that simply drove me wild

Was a tiny new born child...

~"The Best Gift" by Barbra Streisand

Baby, it's cold outside!

2008-12-02T20:14:00.000-08:00

So, I'm writing this from my parents' guest bedroom. Yes, I'm staying at my parents house tonight. No, it's not because Jason and I had a fight or because our house has been repo'd. But - our heat is out - AGAIN.

Now, I have been trying to be really patient with this idiot that installed our unit only a little over a year ago, but my patience is wearing thin. I'm not sure if he realizes that he's dealing with a woman that just gave birth 3 months ago - who's hormones aren't all intact - who's living on little sleep - and who just lost a really damn good sale at Target.

Yep, I lost the sale at Target - they aren't going to give me the coveted Britax carseat that I so desperately wanted. Let me take that back, they aren't going to give me the coveted Britax carseat at the price they said they would - however, they will sell it to me for $299. Apparently, in very small print on some part of their website it says that they have the right to cancel an order if the price was a misprint.

What - ev.

It's the week after Thanksgiving. I should be more thankful, right, instead of complaining so much, so let's take a deep breath....

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. Mason came to visit again. Every year we try to swap out going to Jason's family's Thanksgiving and going to mine. My family usually goes to Lake Junaluska so that's why we can't do both. However, since Jason's parents are divorced, we end up having 2 Thanksgivings anyway, plus my papa always has a big Thanksgiving at his house the Sunday after for our Perkins family so let me just tell you - I am TURKIED out. gobble, gobble.

I am very proud of myself, though! It's always fun for me to cook meals that my mother-in-law is really good at making to see if I can even get close to making them like she does. So since we were hosting my father-in-law's family at our house this year, I decided to do most of the cooking. I made a Turkey Breast, Sweet Potato Casserole, Green Bean Casserole, Macaroni and Cheese, a Chocolate Pie and Deviled Eggs (or "doubled" eggs as Mason called them). Everything turned out so nice! My deviled eggs could have been a little less mustard-y and a little thicker texture, but that's okay. I even got a great big hug from my hubby and he told me how nice it was for me to have gone to so much trouble for them. :) Makes me want to stay at home all day and be a little Betty Crocker.

My Dad got a new camera recently so I had him come up to the house to help me take Christmas pictures of Nathan for our Christmas cards. I thought of this cute idea and am so glad they turned out so well....here's a couple we're debating against...

I'm just so proud of my little pumpkin.

We "may" be starting to teeth. It's really early for that, but I got teeth pretty early so I've kinda been expecting it. He's started drooling aLOT and chewing on his hands pretty aggresively. Also, his diapers have been pretty loose - not a lot in them, but loose. I'm hoping this doesn't mean we're fixing to get alot less sleep. Just keep your fingers crossed for me that those little suckers pop on out pretty quickly.

Alright, I'm off to try to get some sleep in this strange bed....keep the heating and air man in your prayers!

How's your pregnancy going...SIR?

2008-11-17T11:50:00.000-08:00

Ugh. He's gone and done it again. Not only did he freak everyone out by getting pregnant once, but noe he's pregnant again! The only good I can see in all of this craziness is that his sweet little girl won't be the only one who's dad gave birth to her....ick. And you want to know what really drives me nuts? He got to deliver VAGINALLY as in - through his vagina. I couln't even do that!

Blogging one handed is pretty difficult, but necessary. My baby boy is recovering from a cold and needing lots of snuggle time - which is fine with me! So, please excuse the typos!

It's beginning to feel alot like Christmas! It actually dropped below freezing last night. Maybe I can get Jason to help me put up Christmas decorations during Thanksgiving. He made the BEST chili yesterday! I'm so lucky that he can cook. Looking forward to having day-old chili (even better than fresh) with Mom and dad tonight. Here's what i spent yesterday evening watching...

.......awww!!!

In other exciting news, my friend Hillary emailed me last night to let me know that the Britax Marathon carseat was on sale at Target from $280 to $46!!!

This is one of the best carseats made and i could not believe it. So, I went to the website and sure enough, plain as day there it was for $46. You better believe I snatched one up. Today, though, there are rumors circling that it may been a mistake. So keep your fingers crossed that they still honor it!

Alright, I'm off to heat up the chili!

shot to the heart...

2008-11-10T19:14:00.000-08:00

Quick update!
Nathan's 2 month doctor's appointment was today. He got such a good report! He weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs. 4 oz and is 24 inches long! That means he's grown 4 inches in 2 months! :) He's in the 90th percentile for his height and weight and he's in the 95th percentile for his head. (typical dewberry, hehe) My little baby is growing up...

He's got excema on his face that I'm having to treat with some Hydrocortisone Ointment. Dr. Jackson doesn't think it will stick with him for the rest of his life, but should be gone by 6 months or so. I've always had pretty sensitive skin so it doesn't surprise me that he does a little, too.

Nathan's been spitting up a lot and with him hating to be on his back it's made me wonder if he has reflux. Dr. Jackson said that it does sound like he may have it, but he's gaining weight great and so unless it starts visibly bothering him or becomes worse, I could just treat it by adding cereal to his formula (he gets 2 bottles of formula a day while he's at the sitter's). Yay! I've been anxious to give him something different as I'm sure he's getting pretty bored with the same ole' formula/breastmilk/formula/breastmilk meal plan. We tried it this afternoon and I must say - he loved it! haha.

(FYI: after doing some research on the whole vaccines=autism debate, we decided to follow our doctor's recommendations of going ahead with the vaccines. We believe that this is the right of every parent to treat their child how they wish. Jason and I feel very strongly that our doctor has been educated far more than we have and having known him most of my life I very strongly trust his opinion.)

He received his first 4 vaccines while we were there. I can't remember right off what all they were for. It was pretty painful to say the least! They had me hold his little arms down while they poked him not once - but three times! :( As soon as he thought it was over, they stuck him again. It was THE SADDEST thing ever. Luckily, it was over quickly and he wasn't looking at me while they were doing it so hopefully he didn't think it was me doing it to him (which was my fear). Here's a picture of his battle wounds...

Dr. Jackson told me that he might have a few side effects from the vaccines like soreness, fatigue, low-grade fever and loose bowels. So, this afternoon my mom came over to see our little trooper. We noticed that while she was holding him he started straining and his face turned bright red. "Uh oh!" we said, "He must be going poo!" Mom stood up with him so I could try to get a better picture of his little legs when suddenly....yep, you guessed it....he exploded. It was coming out his diaper - onto mom's hand - and then onto the floor! lol. Poor Memaw! Normally, she would be the one to quickly come to the rescue and clean up, but since she was holding him, it was up to me! haha. I had to think fast - so we started stripping him and just set him in the empty sink. This led to him "ice skating" in the poo and spreading it all around, but have no fear! With him out of mom's arms, she was able to help me get everything cleaned up (even the floor) and get him into the bath. *PSA: Before you decide to never eat at my house again, I did clorox everything thoroughly!*

So, that sums up our day today. I've got laundry done, dishes washed, baby in bed and now it's time for me to lay down too. Jason's in Pennsylvania and we're missing him badly. Hoping he'll make it home soon and then have several days off for Thanksgiving. Here's to hoping we don't have dreams of needles and mean nurses tonight....

Oh Brother, where art thou?

2008-11-09T17:57:00.001-08:00

It's been a whole month since I last blogged. Ugh! I get so mad at myself when I get so behind like this. A month is a long time for someone so little - it's half of Nathan's life! haha. So much has been happening. He's 9 weeks now and we are adjusting easier and easier all the time.

It CAN be a little overwhelming at times. He's a little like his Daddy in that he isn't very patient. He'll let you know real quick if something isn't right. He makes the cutest little pouty face that I'm trying to catch on camera. (stay tuned). He sticks out that bottom lip and frowns - it's just pitiful to look at and it works! He very quickly gets what he wants.

He's smiling ALL the time. Especially in the morning. He's been sleeping FABULOUSLY! A week or so ago he magically started sleeping 7-8 hours a night!!! Oh my gosh, I've never felt so refreshed. It seems like just a couple weeks ago that I was savoring a 4 hour stretch. haha. I usually put him down around 9 and he will sleep until around 5:00 or so. The best part about nursing is I can then bring him into bed with me and nurse him while I continue to sleep. Hello, Happy Mama! Isn't he just the cutest thing?

He's begun sucking his thumb. He was doing this during some of his ultrasounds, but I thought this it may just be a fluke and a couple of times when he was just born he'd find it, but I thought that it must have been on accident. Lately, it's the only thing he'll take. He HATES the pacifier (we've tried several kinds) and only wants his right thumb. It's great because as soon as he starts giving me his sleepy cues I lay him in his crib, he'll find his thumb and soothe himself to sleep. I just might have the best baby in the world. :)

Mason came up for Nathan's baptism. It was the first time they had met. It went pretty well. I was a little nervous that Mason would be a little jealous of his new little brother, but he really didn't seem to pay him too much attention. The only thing that made me wonder was when he said, "Sara...I think the baby is crying because he knows he can't play with my toys because these are MY toys." I just smiled at him and he continued on with what he was doing. Hopefully they are far enough apart that this won't be too much of an issue. Here's a pic of the brothers together.

As I mentioned earlier, we had Nathan baptised on October 26 at First Methodist. It was really special because my Preacher Pa was there and helped with the service. Fortunately for us, the Bishop and the District Superintendent were also there! It couldn't have been nicer. Nathan wore the baptismal gown that Preacher Pa's mom, "Mama Weeze," made and was remarkably good. Jason held him almost the whole time and was so sweet with him. Everyone commented on how good Jason was with him. It just makes my heart swell to see the two of them together. If only Jason could be home more often....sigh.

The only bad part of the weekend was that around midnight the night of the baptism, Mason started throwing up. He threw up on the hour every hour for the rest of the night. Turns out, it spread around through almost the entire family. :( I feel so bad that people seemed to get it coming to the baptism of our little baby.

Nathan has to get his 2 month shots tomorrow. I think I'm going to be a bigger mess than he is. Here's a picture of him smiling as he probably won't be doing much of it tomorrow. Wish us (me) luck!!

We beat colic's ass

2008-10-04T17:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't had time to blog lately. I barely have time to shower. This mommy stuff is definitely harder than I expected! We have had a very productive first 5 weeks together! It's been SO much fun learning about our little man. Just in the past week or so he's become so aware! It's hilarious to watch. His eyes get huge and he stares at things as if he's thinking, "what in the HELL is that???" I *think* he's beginning to recognize me, Jason, our house...

It's a funny thing, being on maternity leave. When it IS a little like a vacation, it's the hardest vacation I've ever taken. Spending 24 hours a day with someone can drive anybody crazy, especially if you don't take time to get outside or interact with someone different. The hardest part about this newborn stage for me has been that because he's too little to really interact and doesn't know how to smile yet, it seems like he's always unhappy. We went through a couple of weeks lately where I was convinced that my little pumpkin had colic. When he wasn't nursing or sleeping, he was fussy. Very fussy.

And then, all of a sudden, just this week it seems like he's come out of it. It started Saturday night while Jason was home. I had gotten up with Nathan in the middle of the night like always to nurse him. Normally, he would go back to sleep, but this night his colic kicked in. I was literally up for 3 hours in the middle of the night with him trying my darndest to get him to go back to sleep. Finally, I came back to bed and said, "I'm fixing to lose. my. mind." My sweet husband (who apparently didn't realize I'd been up so long with him) said, "just go back to sleep - I'll get him." AT LAST! I was able to sleep! So, I slept...and slept...and slept.

Note to self: Get enough sleep!

So, Tuesday I decided to go back to work (yes, my son is only 4 weeks old), but I just couldn't take sitting at home all day anymore without adult interaction, plus my clients were getting itchy for me to get back and since I've changed to a different salon amidst this maternity leave, I was excited to get into my new place. But, when Tuesday morning came, I woke up with my heart in my throat. It was hitting me that someone else (who I've heard lots of good things about and met a few times, but don't REALLY know) is going to be spending quality time with my son. Enter: tears. Honestly - one of the hardest days of my life. I dropped him off with her a full hour early, so I would have plenty of time to love on him and fix my makeup before having to go to work (which I was only going to be at for about 3 hours, anyway). I never thought I'd feel that way, but I was seriously full on SOBBING, like snorting sobbing. Snot, mascara... the whole bit. How embarassing! I had to go to my first day of work with no makeup on and tear-stained cheeks. haha. But, the good part is - that it was fine! We did fine. He slept most of the day and seemed well and happy when I picked him up. Now, 2 days later I'm reflecting and realizing that we are all of a sudden on a schedule, he seems calmer and happier and maybe it's because I'm appreciating our time together more, but he's actually smiling at me - and I honestly believe that he is doing it on purpose because he loves me (and not just because he passed gas.) He hasn't been nearly as fussy and so I hereby declare that we've beat colic's ass!

On a side note, breastfeeding is still going well. Nathan has a Dewberry hollow leg that I just can't seem to keep full, so I have started supplementing (to the advice of my husband - the lactation consultant) with formula. We only give him formula, though at times when he's going to be with the sitter, because she'll be giving him formula, and I still try to nurse him the rest of the time. Nathan's gaining weight great! I had my postpartum appointment last Friday. I'm healing really well. My incision is still open (!) but apparently it's looking better, which is good I guess. I just can't wait for it to close up completely. I've only got 10 more pounds to lose (plus the 15 or so I should have lost before I even got pregnant) so Nathan will continue to get the "melon juice" for a few more months at least. Alright, that's it for now. Hopefully, it won't be too much longer before I'm able to blog again...

boys...you may not want to read this.

2008-09-13T15:13:00.000-07:00

You can't say I didn't warn you! Nathan is 8 days old today. I can't believe it. My little man is growing up.... tear. Seriously, the past 8 days have flown by. I've had so much that I've wanted to write down, but haven't had a chance to get to it. I'm sure now that I have a few minutes he'll wake up and need me, but we'll see how far I can get...

I want to start off by saying how proud I am of Jason and I for being new parents. I know I gush about my love for him alot, so skip this part if it makes you want to vomit, but I do! I can't get enough of him and watching him with our newborn has been one of my favorite parts. I've known that he's a good daddy, but seeing how gingerly he holds Nathan and how he sweetly kisses him and how he runs to his side when he starts to cry....man, it chokes me up. One of my favorite memories from the hospital is of Nathan's first dirty diaper. You mom's know what I mean by the first dirty diaper. Yuck. Of course, I used this opportunity to play on my recent surgery, so Jason came running to the rescue. He was so funny trying to clean him all up without hurting him and doing so all while Nathan's screaming. When he was done - he looked so proud. Nathan had quieted and I noticed that he had his little tiny hand wrapped tightly around Jason's big finger. Ugh....I'm going to have to stop before I start crying again.

That's another thing. Nobody told me that I would cry this much. I mean, I'd heard of the baby blues, but just plain out bawling for no apparent reason? It's almost uncontrollable. I think I'm starting to scare people. I asked my doctor about it at my last visit (that's another story) and he said that it's completely natural. Unless I'm having bad thoughts, I should just let it flow. And, honestly, the thoughts aren't bad - they are all so sweet. How much I love my husband, how much I love our baby, how much I love my mama.....any little thing about the 3 of them will set. me. off. Jason had to go back out on the road on Wednesday and just looking at his truck sitting in the driveway will make me cry, thinking about Nathan having to go to school for the first time makes me cry, watching my mama spend endless hours here taking care of me while my husband is away - makes me cry. So, if you are expecting and haven't heard of this yet - you've heard it from me. Just let it flow.

So, here's the other story to the doctor's visit (and part of why i don't think the boys want to hear about it), but, I've been feeling rather well from having just had major surgery. It seems like everything's beginning to not hurt as badly and I'm starting to be able to do small things for myself that I definitely couldn't have done before. Then, Thursday morning I wake up and my nightgown is soaked with this blood-tinged fluid. My first thought was that it must have gotten stuck between my legs (told you not to read this part!), so I changed nightgowns and went back to bed, but when I woke back up, it was there again. Lots of it. I realized that it was coming from my incision! So, I called my doctor and they asked me to come in. Actually, the incision looks really good. I thought it would still be sort of open, but it's completely closed - except for this tiny spot on the edge of a stretch mark that is pouring fluid. Apparently, since I labored for so long, my body had built up this fluid to be able to push the baby out and since I didn't end up delivering that way, that fluid is having to escape any way it can. (through tears, too, maybe?) So, he wants me to just let it flow. yuck. Really? I just might not ever have another baby again. Or at least next time, I won't labor. I'll just schedule the c-sect and get it over with.

Thursday was also an exciting day because we went to Nathan's first doctor's visit! We are using Dr. Jackson and we LOVE him. I've known him for some time from church and am so glad he was willing to see us even though he's not taking new patients. Nathan's doing so good! He's gained 5 oz. back and already another 1/2 an inch. He's really healthy ang growing perfectly. Dr. Jackson said that I've been breastfeeding really well and gave me some pointers on how to keep up with his growing appetite. He also wants us to have him sleeping through the night by 2 months. Lord, I hope that will happen! We talked about his stance on vaccines and I really appreciated hearing his opinion. Then, at the very end of the appointment, he said, "do you mind if I say a prayer over Nathan?" Oh. My. Gosh. The tears just fell. I couldn't help it. I've never heard of a doctor that's whole profession is based on science, but who believes so stronly in God that he offers to pray with his patients. He prayed that Nathan would stay strong and healthy all of his life and that God would give Jason and I the wisdom to know the difference in love and discipline and that He would give Dr. Jackson the wisdom to treat Nathan for the illnesses that he may encounter. tears. that's all I had.

Speaking of breast feeding, this has been one of the most exciting parts. Jason doesn't understand what the big deal is, but I tried to explain that it's just a mother's nature to want to breastfeed her child - be able to give him that nourishment that he needs. It would be the same if he were told that he wasn't able to procreate. He would feel jilted a little because it's a man's nature to want (need) to do that. I've been so clueless as to what to expect, but am really getting the hang of it! He latched on really well from day one, so that hasn't really been a problem, the worst part, I guess, is that since he's a big baby - he wants to eat all. the. time. He's been sleeping great - even at night - he'll sleep for 5 or 6 hours at a time. Love it! But, the only problem, is that this means when he wakes up he's STARVING and it takes me like 2 hours to fill his hollow legs back up. Isn't it amazing what the female body is made to do? And have you seen how far those suckers can stretch? If your mama breastfed you - go give her a hug right now.

Bless his little heart. His daddy has been lovingly calling him, "Nasty Nate." Partly because Jason once knew somebody called that or something and partly because they didn't want us to give him a bath for the first week (or so we thought - turns out we could have been sponge bathing him.) So, by Thursday - he was really Nasty! I couldn't wait to put him in his first bath. Here's a picture of how much fun he had:

Lastly, I want to talk about my Mama. Now, as I sit here my cheeks will be wet, but that's okay. She's taken three days off of school to be with me since Jason had to leave. She's spent every day and night right here beside me. I have to admit, I was a little nervous at first that we wouldn't want to kill each other by the time it was over, but I'm starting to think about moving her in...she's been an angel! Not only has she kept my house nice and clean for company, but she's made my meals, kept up with my medicines, done my laundry, helped me into and out of bed, held my baby while I showered, changed his diapers when I've been unable to, reorganized my pantry, refrigerator and Nathan's chest of drawers. She drove me back and forth all over town on Thursday for our appointments and has gotten up in the middle of the night to help me when he's woken up. What would I do without my mama? She's amazing. I know how blessed I am to have a Mama that is so sweet and loving and who puts everyone else before herself. I can't imagine having to do this without her. I hope that when Nathan grows up, I will be as good to him as she has been to me. I just love her.

oh my god, Nathan's cord just fell off, I have to go....

He's finally here!

2008-09-07T06:21:00.000-07:00

....and he's so worth it!

The doctors had told me that since we were scheduled to be induced Thursday morning at 7:30, I should call at 5:30 to be sure that there hasn't been an overload of women who have gone into labor naturally and taken all the rooms. My doctor had said that this wasn't usually a problem and they didn't anticipate Wednesday night being a big labor night, but you just never know. Jason and I fell asleep pretty easily, surprisingly, but about 3:00 I was up and at 'em. I couldn't sleep any longer for waiting for the clock to change. Sure enough, 5:30 rolled around and I called the number I was given and - you guessed it! Every single labor and delivery room was full. So, they asked me to call back at 10 to see where things stood then. I was so disappointed - but looking back on it, it was probably a good thing because I went back to bed and was able to sleep another 3 hours or so. So, around 10:00 I called again....and again, all the rooms were filled. The nurse I was talking to said that as soon as they had some women discharged, they would start calling the people on their "induction list". I had not even considered that they might have a list of people getting induced, but she assured me that I was number 1. She also asked for me to keep in mind that since I live about an hour away from the hospital, if they do call and someone walks in in active labor, they will have to put that person in the room before me. So, at about 11:30, Mom, Jason and I decided to head on over towards Fayetteville so that when they did call we'd be very close and could get their quicker than if we were in Newnan.

We had lunch at Taco Mac in Peachtree City and shopped around at Smith and Davis. It was nerve-wrecking because a lot of people who knew I was being induced didn't know that we had been delayed so people kept calling to check on me and everytime the phone would ring I would jump thinking, "this is it!" 2 very long hours later, we were debating on whether this was even going to happen that day and they called! We were just passing the hospital on our way to Fayetteville so we quickly turned in and practically ran into Labor and Delivery. (yes, I was running! I was SO ready!)

By the time we got checked in and I got changed into my new little outfit, it was 2:00 and they immediately started the pitocin. I'd heard that pitocin was a doozie, so I was prepared for the pain. Luckily, the practice of doctors that I see are VERY liberal about an epidural. Their thoughts are that if you are in pain they will give it to you. Unlike other offices that want you to be so many centimeters along or if you've gotten too dilated they won't give it to you. So, by about 8:00 I had gotten to about 5 centimeters and felt like the pain was beginning to get intolerable.

I want to stop right here and say how impressed I was with our medical care. We could not have asked for better nurses! The one in particular that was with us for the duration of labor, her name was Reneer, was amazing! She was 19 weeks pregnant herself and dealing with lots of nausea. Bless her heart for working through it - all night long and having to deal with me! I honestly think that she is why God wanted me to wait to come in at a later time than when we had originally planned. The hospital doesn't like to have the husband hold the wife up during an epidural because they've had so many pass out, but this little 5'2'' pregnant girl wrapped her strong arms around me and let me hold onto her as they inserted my epidural. She was an angel! Poor Jason had to just sit on the couch and watch and was a really good sport by not losing his dinner. This was around 8:00p.m. Shortly after, Doctor Turner came in to break my water (which was a breeze since I couldn't feel a THING!) She felt sure that by doing this, it would kick-start things into gear and we would have a baby by 4:00ish or so.

My Dad came around 9 with the most beautiful bouquet of flowers and the cutest balloon I've ever seen! The balloon sings a song when it is jostled that brought a little smile to my face. Also, he'd bought a "congratulations" card and had written "from your hospital buddies" on the inside. Everyone in the waiting room had signed it. It was so sweet because I was able to see who all was anxiously awaiting our little one and it reminded me of the terrific support system we had during these trying hours.

Around 10:00, the doctor asked for all visitors to leave the room so Jason and I could try to get a little rest while we waited for me to dilate enough to start pushing. YEAH RIGHT! rest? with the machines making all kinds of crazy noises and them checking my cervix every 30 mins we knew we were in for a long night. Apparently, when I sleep - I sleep hard, too, because the monitors were showing that as soon as I fell asleep my heart rate would begin to drop which would in turn cause nathan's heart rate to drop so all the nurses would come rushing in to wake me. Poor Jason didn't sleep at all for worrying about us. I was so exhausted, though, that I was trying to take little cat naps and it was so nice to wake up and see my husband standing beside me. Just knowing that he was there watching out for us was such a relief! Around midnight, all of our hospital buddies left except for Mom and Rebecca. They were so sweet to tough it out with us in those uncomfortable waiting room chairs just waiting for little Nathan to get here.

At around 4:00, they checked my cervix again and I had gotten my bloody show. I was a full 8 cm and the doctor felt like it wouldn't be long before it was time to push. It was at this point that they inserted an internal monitor for my contractions and one that they placed on Nathan's head to monitor his heart rate. The monitor that they used for my contractions rubbed against his face which is why in his pictures he has a little mark on his forehead. Poor guy! So, Jason went out to get my mom and sister. They came in and everyone was so sweet to give me words of encouragement of how to get through this. Everyone kept saying, "it won't be long now!" haha! Little did we know, I still had 7 1/2 hours to go!!

It was about 6:30 that Dr. Turner felt like Nathan's head was finally in a position where we could start pushing. I had dilated to the full 10 cm and was completely effaced. We were very hopeful that he would be delivered before her shift ended at 7:30 and I felt ready to do this. She wanted to turn the epidural down, though, so I could feel the pressure and would know better when to push. We probably pushed for about 45 mins when she alerted us that her shift would be ending and Dr. Ralsten would be taking over. We were a little weary about this as we had felt so comfortable with Dr. Turner, but trusted that Ralsten would advise us to do what we needed to in order to get Nathan here safely - our ultimate goal.

It seems to me, though, that someone had some miscommunication because I suddenly began feeling like they hadn't just turned my epidural down, but had turned it off! I could feel everything!! Not only was I completely exhuasted (I'm talking, falling asleep between pushes - exhausted), but the back labor I'd had a few weeks ago was back with full force. I can't describe the pain other than to say that it felt like I had broken my back and it was literally in 2 separate parts. My favorite little nurse Remeer had also changed shifts and our new nurse Polly had come in at the wrong time. Unfortunately, I probably took a lot of my frustrations out on her. Although, I probably took them out on everybody in that room. All I remember was seeing black and using cuss words that I don't use very often. Luckily, I have a very understanding family. Dr. Ralsten came in and suggested getting an epidural "boost" and that we take a 30 minute break. I know that I was still in a lot of pain, but it definitely took the edge off. I was able to fall asleep and tried to rest up for the next set of pushes that I knew were coming.

I just want to say how sweet my husband was through all of this. I had been nervous about how he would react to me being in pain and how his patience would hold up with not having much sleep. Boy, was I crazy. Not only did he not sleep a wink for being worried about Nathan and I
but, he stood right by my side and held my hand through all the pain. Several times I got sick and he was there in a flash holding the little bowl and wiping the hair back off of my face. He'd rinse the bowl out and bring it back to me without even making a face. While I was pushing, he counted and helped give me the support I needed to make the decision to go ahead with a c-section even though I wanted so badly to do this naturally. He could not have been better and just knowing that he was by my side helped me through it. I'm so in love with him and even more so now that we've been through this together.

So, around 10:00am on Friday morning, we tried pushing again. Nathan was just not coming past my pubic bone. Dr. Ralsten felt like my pushes were strong and what I would normally need, but for some reason, it just wasn't working to get him past that crucial point, so by 10:30 we had decided to do a cesarean. They took me out of the room and into the OR while Jason suited up in his little outfit. I honestly don't remember much of this because I was so tired that I think I slept through most of it. I remember being so concerned that Jason wasn't in the room yet, but they brought him in just as they were getting started. I'm not sure if it was the medication, nerves, or what exactly, but for some reason I was shaking uncontrollably. Poor Jason was so worried. He kept saying, "just hold onto my hands - it's going to be okay." I couldn't see anything of course and remember asking him to let me know when they had started. He was like, "baby - they started a long time ago." ha! Good thing I couldn't feel any of it. The worst part of the cesarean to me is not being able to immediately hold the baby after it's born. They showed him to me for a brief second and then whisked him off to the nursery. Jason went with him and I fell fast asleep as they stitched me up and took me to recovery.

Our little boy, Nathan James Dewberry, was born at 11:46 in the morning on September 5, 2008. He weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs 13.6 oz and was 19 3/4 in. long. When the doctors were pulling him out of my stomach, I remember hearing them say, "No wonder you couldn't get him past your pubic bone! Look at that head!" haha. He's definitely a Dewberry because his graddaddy, daddy and brother all sport handsome heads that are a little on the larger side. Also, he was face up which is why I was having such terrible back labor and why he got the little scratch on the front of his face. If he had been face down, he wouldn't have gotten it. He has a FULL set of dark hair which accounts for all the heartburn I'd been having. It's funny because as a baby, Jason had a full head of blonde hair. I didn't have much hair at all, but was born with dark hair that turned blonde. Looks like little Nathan is a perfect blend of the two of us. :)

By 2:30 we had been moved into post-partum and were able to start getting to know our little one. We were so tired that we definitely went to bed super early! Nathan has been breast-feeding like a champ and has passed every test with flying colors. He's absolutely perfect and we are so excited to have been blessed with him. He's so sweet and even as I sit here with an incision all the way across my belly and not able to move hardly without feeling pain, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat to be able to hold him in my arms. I feel like he's been apart of my life all of my life, but I'm just now getting the chance to meet him. We will be taking him home tomorrow, Monday, morning and can't wait for him to see his sweet little house and what all we have for him in it. I wish there were a way to keep him this little forever. I'll write more when I get a chance which will probably be less frequently now that my little buddy is here. :)

tomorrow?

2008-09-03T13:15:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow? We are going to have a real live baby, tomorrow? Really?

It seems so surreal. After almost 10 months of being pregnant and dreaming of this child, we will finally get to meet him tomorrow. For so long it's been - oh, I have several months left, several weeks left, several days left...but, now it's tomorrow!

(deep breath in)

I mean, I'm trying to imagine what it's going to be like. Going to sleep tonight with Jason knowing that tomorrow the child that we've created together will be in our arms. Looking down at my stomach and realizing that it's not going to look like this after tomorrow. Folding the last few little outfits and knowing that tomorrow we'll be able to actually put some of them on him. Having dinner with my parents and knowing that tomorrow there will be another member of our family.

Tomorrow what has been 2 will become 3.

We've given Nathan his eviction notice.

2008-08-25T18:38:00.000-07:00

Soooo......at today's 38 week appointment I am 2 centimeters and 65% effaced and he is finally engaged. I've lost my mucous plug (that was disgusting - let me tell you) and she said that my body is ready. Thank God!

We've given Nathan his eviction notice. He has exactly a week and 3 days to pack up his stuff and get out. If he decides to wait until said date, he will be physically removed from the premises. Either way - he's coming out! This means, he really won't live in my belly for the rest of his life. I won't get any more stretch marks and my heartburn will finally go away.

The very first thing that I plan on doing when I get home from the hospital (assumming he comes naturally and not via c-sect) is lay flat on my stomach. Oh, how I miss laying flat on my stomach! I'm going to kick the snoogle out of our bed and cuddle up to my husband. I'm going to bend down to pick something up without having to do it from the side and I'm going to walk like a normal human instead of like a beached whale!

Do you think my ankles will come back? Will I be able to wear my wedding rings again? Will I be able to actually run from my house to my car if it's raining? Will I be able to enjoy a tomatoe sandwich without fear of waking up with acid in my mouth? Will I be able to feel the urge to pee and actually be able to pee more than just a trickle?

Ah, it's the little things in life that bring us the most pleasure... remind me to re-read this post next time you hear my say "i think I want a baby."

Rainy Sunday

2008-08-24T17:53:00.000-07:00

It's raining outside and I got to sleep in with my husband! It sounds so trivial, but since he's been driving the transfer truck it's something we don't get to do very often and will be doing even less of once Nathan's here. I wake up and realize that this is the happiest I've ever been in my whole life. For all that I have to complain about - my life is really, really good.

I am married to my very best friend. I love everything about this man. We've been together almost 3 years and I am still utterly smitten with him. I'm so proud of what we have and am so thankful for the marriage that I've been blessed with. I can't imagine what our lives would be like without each other and feel so lucky to be married to my favorite person in the whole world!

I'm a mother! This child will call me mommy. He will be my son. I'm so in love with him that I can't even think about anything else... I plan and dream and worry and pray and cry about every essence of this child. I'm so ready to meet him I could burst.

I have the most amazing family. I can call on any one of them at any point and I know that they will be there for me. I have grandparents that I admire, cousins who I like to hang out with, aunts and uncles that are hilarious and even a whole family of in-laws that I truly love. Not many people can say that, but I really mean it. I adore my step-son and am so lucky to have such a special little boy be who Nathan will look up to. I wouldn't give anything for any one of these people and am so lucky that they will all be here to help me raise Nathan. I talk to my parents and both of my sisters almost every single day - I don't know what I would do without them. My heart literally hurts when I hear of people who aren't close to their families like this.

I haven't even blogged about my baby showers. They were the 3 nicest baby showers that I've ever been to (even if they were mine). The fact that so many people felt compelled to do something for me makes me want to weep. I truly am humbled by these people and for what great lengths they went to to make this pregnancy so special.

I have been so blessed. There are days when I hurt so badly from being pregnant, or that I'm so hormonal that every single person I see makes me angry, or that I am so worried about how we are going to afford this little person that I forget about these things. I needed to write them down somewhere so I can look back on it and know that I. am. blessed. We all are if we can just realize it. I've got it really good and I need to learn to be more thankful. I guess bringing a new life into the world makes you realize it. Let's just hope that he will realize how good he has it and be thankful, too...

birthday?

2008-08-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

Well, at yesterday's doctor's appt (37 weeks), I had finally started to progress some. She said that I'm 1 cm dilated and 50 % effaced. Yay! I never knew I could get so excited about silly numbers like that. She also wanted to do an ultrasound b/c as she put it "it looks like you're going to have a pretty big baby."

We went back to the ultrasound room and got started. It was so good to see my little boy again. He's so cute in there - head down, which is good and hiding his face of course. She said that he is measuring right on everywhere except for his head and his belly! lol. I had a feeling he was going to have a big head since his daddy and older brother both do, but to hear it was funny. He's measuring in the 80th percentile for his "age." So, she had me come back to her office for a chat.

She said that she really doesn't want me to go past my due date (sept. 9) since he is measuring big bc they want to give me a chance to have a vaginal delivery. But, they would like to see me get to 39 weeks (sept. 2) so that we're sure his lungs are fully developed. She advised Jason and I to find a time between the 2nd and the 9th that we want to have a "birthday." :) Of course, we want him asap, so we picked the 2nd and depending on how favorable my cervix is we'll either be doing an induction or a c-sect. Meaning, if I'm still progressing next week then we'll do an induction, but if I'm about the same place I am now, we'll plan for a c-sect. So, unless I just naturally go into labor on my own before then, our little Nathan is coming September 2! We can NOT wait and now I'm getting even less sleep because I'm up all night making sure that everything's taken care of....ugh. Wish us luck! :)

Nathan, you trickster!

2008-08-07T18:54:00.000-07:00

So, last night about 11:30 I rolled over and felt a tremendous twinge in my lower back. It seemed to stretch around towards my lower abdomen causing me some menstrual-like cramping. At the same time, my uterus became very hard like a braxton hicks, but stronger. The worst part was the pain in my back. Of course this happens when Jason's not home! I thought that maybe I had pulled something so I tried to change positions, but nothing was relieving it. I was up and down all night with having to go to the bathroom every 30 minutes to an hour and just could not get the pain to stop. Around 6:00 I called my mom to see if she could offer some suggestions and her sweet self dropped everything she was doing to come over - at 6:00 in the morning! She rubbed my back some and we looked online at "back labor" and realized that this was what I was experiencing. So, about 8, when I knew the doctors were up (i hate to wake them in the middle of the night) I put a call in that I thought I was having contractions. Seriously? I thought they would tell me to take some tylenol and put my feet up, but they wanted me to come into the office as soon as I could. So, still not wanting to over-react, I drove myself to the hospital to get hooked up to the monitors. Luckily, Nathan's heart-rate was just fine and sure enough - I was definitely having contractions. They had been hard to time at home but were probably 5-10 minutes apart there at the office. My doctor had me admitted and they started me on a fluid drip to see if I was just dehydrated. Apparently, I was a little because after an hour I had only had 3 - about 20 minutes apart and I still had not dilated. So, they decided to send me home. She said that they will either go away completely or they will start getting stronger and I will start dilating at which point I will need to go straight back there. Now, it's just a waiting game. I've had a few more since I've been home but like an hour or so apart. Let's hope that he's not quite ready to come yet because I've just realized how much more we have to do! I don't have our hospital bags packed or the carseat even installed! ha! I guess this was a big wake up call. Jason's on his way to Newnan tonight and we're just keeping our fingers crossed that everything will turn out okay. It was so funny to leave the hospital this morning with my little i.d. bracelet and bandaids on my hand. People kept looking at me like, "wait, you're still pregnant!" Maybe next time I go in, I'll leave with a baby! :)

a little note to my litte one

2008-07-22T19:14:00.000-07:00

Dear Nathan,

Hey little buddy! This is your Mommy. You are due in 7 weeks and we are so excited to meet you!!

I went to see the doctor today and he thinks you're going to be a big boy! We've been comparing your ultrasound pictures to your daddy's newborn pictures. You already look so much like him! That's a good thing because he is very handsome!

Memaw's been talking to you a lot lately in my belly. Have you been listening? She's been asking if you're ready to come out and play. I can't wait for you to meet her and Big Daddy. You're going to have so much fun with them! Memaw's ready to read you books and teach you all about nature and Big Daddy's ready to have a new fishing buddy! Your aunts Rebecca and Christy are so excited for you to get here! Can you feel them when they put their hands on my belly? You'll be their first newborn nephew and the oldest cousin to their children. Hopefully they'll both have lots so you'll have lots of little cousins to play with!

Your Gigi and Stanley and Papa and Mary Lou are excited to meet you too! Gigi has come to both ultrasound appointments with me. Did you know she was there? She's got a really cool pirate ship at her house that I bet you'll like to play with. You'll probably get to spend alot of time with Papa because he just built a really cool barn in our backyard that he works in sometimes. I bet he'll teach you all about his tools and tractors. You're going to love your Aunt Susan and Uncle Howard. They have a place at the beach that your daddy and I love to go to. We can't wait to take you there for your first beach visit! Maybe Uncle Howard will let you drive the boat like your brother!

We've got everything all ready for you. Your little nursery is all ready and I've started washing all of your little outfits. It's hard for me to believe that you're going to be small enough to fit into some of them, but then it's hard for me to imagine that you're very big inside my belly. Don't worry though we have plenty of clothes for you in all different sizes so you just come on out here whatever size you want to be, okay?

Your daddy and I had fun putting together your crib and changing table. We've washed the sheets so they're nice and soft. Sometimes we pretend that you're already sleeping on them. When I first found out I was pregnant with you, Big Daddy gave you a little teddy bear that's sitting in your crib waiting for you to snuggle with. Memaw and I think this will be your favorite stuffed animal and that you'll carry it with you everywhere.

I know you hear your four legged sister, Sadie, barking sometimes. She's excited to meet you as well. She's having to adjust to being an outside only dog because I started getting nervous that she would want to play too rough with you while you're still very small. She can tell that something's changing though, because she likes to smell the new baby things that we bring home like your stroller and swing. She may look a little funny and will probably steal your food when you get a bit older but I think y'all will be best buddies.

Have you been listening to the songs that Memaw, Mason and I have been singing to you? Alot of them are ones that Memaw sang when she was little and I sang when I was little, too. I think you'll really like Bill Grogan's goat and the one about swinging on a star. Your brother's favorite is the moon song. I bet he'll sing it to you the first time he meets you.

Speaking of your brother, he is really excited! He calls you, "baby Nafan" and knew you were a boy even before we did! He's very interested in how your going to get out of my belly....(let's let your daddy explain that one to him.) He'll be able to show you how to be big and teach you all about anything you want to know. His mommy is different from yours, but we hope that you'll be alot alike. Your daddy and I are very proud of him and are glad that you'll have him to look up to.

I think you'll like it a lot out here! We live in a sweet little town that your daddy and I grew up in. We have lots of family around and a lot of room to play. Our little home is ready to have a baby in it. Your daddy built our house before we even got married! We're going to be making it a little bigger once you get here so you and Mason will both have your own rooms. That will be fun for you to watch! Your great-grandparents are moving here soon so you'll get to spend lots of special time with them in their new house. Of course, we'll play at great-grandfather, Perkins', house alot too. In fact, that's probably where you'll learn to ride your bike and to fish. There's so much we can't wait to do with you!

Anything you could possibly need we're ready to give you. We have stored up lots of hugs, kisses, cuddles, laughs, tickles, sways, rocking, bouncing, love... anything you want... we're ready to give to you. We're ready to read you stories. We're ready to make you feel safe. We're ready to let you feel loved. We're ready to kiss your scrapes and bumps. We're ready to teach you new things. We're ready to watch you learn and grow. We're ready for you sweetheart. Just come whenever you can. We're ready to be your Mommy and Daddy! We love you, Nathan!

Love,
Mommy

Just a few notes about this pregnancy

2008-07-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I've had virtually no complications. I haven't been sick really at all. (Other than feeling like someone had slipped me the date rape drug every day for 3 months or like my esophogus is on fire every day for the last 2), I've had it pretty easy. Thank GOD for the snoogle. Without it, I don't know how I would get any sleep. Of course, my husband thinks it's annoying to have a huge overstuffed pillow taking up half the bed, but don't get me started on what it would be like for him to have his hips and back sore every day from carrying around an extra 15 pounds all the time... I'd never hear the end of it.

People always ask about my cravings. For my first trimester all I wanted was pulp. I was sucking down anything with pulp in it and even ate a whole lemon one day when I couldn't find anything else. Lately, it's been BLT sandwiches. I seriously could eat 5 a day. Probably not helping my heartburn much, but they are so yummy and I never really cared for them that much before. Hopefully, next trimester I'll be back into something more healthy...

And the last thing I wanted to blog about was people's comments and opinions. I guess I asked for it when working in an industry where I see hundreds of women a week who all have their own ideas of pregnancy and what it's supposed to look like. I just wish that my salary didn't depend on my kindness to them, because sometimes it would be so nice to really let them have it. Yes, I know I'm huge, I feel huge, but what goes through someone's mind to make them think, "oh, I'll tell her how big she is because that will really make her day." No woman ever wants to hear about how big she is for any reason! I've actually gained less than the average woman at my stage and am right where I'm supposed to be according to my doctor. So, no I'm not carrying twins, I'm not going to topple over, I will be able to reach your head even with my belly in the way to cut your hair, and my ankles are not going to pop. Thanks for being so thoughtful of me, though...

There. I think that's all for now that I wanted to make sure was encrypted somewhere in cyberspace for me to look back on. It's definitely faster than actually writing it all down in a journal like I should. Please feel free to comment (unless it's about how big I am). I'm going to go make myself a blt. :)

pregnancy and dreams

2008-04-11T04:55:00.000-07:00

Ever since I've entered my second trimester, I've begun having the strangest dreams! Hormones do crazy things. Mom has been urging me to write them down, and a friend of mine told me about this site, so I thought I'd give it a try....

Well, the first strange dream I had was a few weeks ago. It was just before we were supposed to have our "big" ultrasound to find out what we're having. I dreamed that we were at my mom's house, in her kitchen, and there were lots of people there. Someone told me that they had a portable ultrasound machine in their car and that if I wanted, they could bring it in and we could find out right then what we were having. So, I agreed, she brough it in, started rolling it around my belly and as we are all watching the microwave (as it was the ultrasound monitor -?) we realized that the baby had 3 eyes! All in a line straight across it's face. Funny thing is, I don't remember being upset about it.

Then, a few days later, I dreamed that my mom, christy and I were in the car with my grandmother O'Neil. We were riding along when Meme looked at me and was crying! She said that she had something to tell me and that she didn't want me to be mad at her... I was feeling nervous and she told me that she was pregnant, too!! haha. She said that she didn't want me to be mad at her. I was just astonished. The dream was so detailed that we even discussed in the dream that her child would be my child's great aunt or uncle.

...i told you these were crazy...

Then - just last night - I dreamed that I was pregnant, IN MY LEG! Near my ankle on my right leg. You could see the baby through the skin and it felt squishy. It didn't seem odd or anything, in fact I was at work sitting in my chair when his little arms popped out - which scared me. The next thing I knew he had come out completely. He was 4 years old and Asian!!! He was even already dressed. I don't think I was concerned about the asian part, but I was so excited because it had not hurt at all.

Anyway, there they are, all of my crazy dreams so far. I'll be sue to update them the further along I get.