Happy New Year!!

Well I hope that everyone had as wonderful a Christmas as we did! I can not believe it has come and gone and now my house looks empty minus the thousand toys Lawson got for Christmas. Mitch and I decided to keep it low key with gifts we got for Lawson because he did not understand Christmas...but the grandparents had a different idea. Between my parents and in-laws...this child is definitely spoiled. They were smart with what they bought because most of the toys are for 6months and up so he will be able to get good use out of them soon!

It was a tiring day for us but Lawson was a trooper. We went to my in-laws for Christmas morning and had a wonderful brunch my mother in law prepared! Then we came home and geared back up for round 2 at my parents. Our traditional meal for Christmas is fried turkey and homemade dressing (my sister's favorite..she can literally eat it by the pan). She was gracious enough to let us veer away from the traditional meal and instead we had a delicious beef tenderloin with all the good southern trimings. (pics of Christmas posted below)

It was definitely a great day and we ALL racked up with goodies!

Now that all the decorations are down..it is time to gear up for 2010! Our New Year's Eve celebration has changed since the new addition. Tonight we are going to grill out steaks with my sister and brother in law, watch the Hangover (HILARIOUS!) and maybe stay up to watch the ball drop...I can't make any promises! Tomorrow we are all gathering at my mom's for our annual New Year's Day dinner with pork, black eyed peas and turnip greens!

We can not wait to see what God has in store for us in 2010. We were so blessed this past year. I can not wait to begin the new year with my family!!

Hope everyone has a great New Year's!! See you in 2010!!

Us at Olive Garden Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning...Happy Boy!


Mommy and Lawson..Christmas morning

Daddy and Lawson

My Little Santa!!


Sweet Boy!!

Holiday Traditions-New and Old

So we finally were able to do the one thing we always do every Christmas...which is watch Christmas Vacation (better late than never). It does not matter how many times I see that movie, it cracks me up! Maybe because it reminds me of some people in my family!
This Wednesday, I am going to take Lawson to my mom's house and we are going to do our annual baking! Although it is a little late in the season, it will still be fun and we should have some goodies to snack on over Christmas.
This Christmas will be a little different for us. Normally in the past we have always done Christmas morning here with just us and then we (my parents and Mitch's parents) all gather at my mom's house for dinner and gifts. Since this will be Lawson's first Christmas we have decided to do things a little different. We are going to do a small Christmas here with us, then go to my in-laws for brunch and gifts, and then to my parents for dinner and gifts. Although it will be crazy on us, this may be the last Christmas we can travel around. I want Lawson to be able to enjoy his Christmas and not have to go anywhere when he gets older. Then both of our families are going to gather on New Year's Day to have my mom's traditional New Year's Day dinner...YUM..and celebrate a late Christmas with them!
So even though the some of our traditions have changed...I am looking forward to spending a great holiday with our families!! I have started to make room for the massive amounts of toys Lawson is going to be spoiled with! We are so fortunate to have grandparents whose goal is to spoil him as much as possible!
Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas filled with love, laughter and family!!

So It Has Been While....

I think I am finally finding the time to blog. I started it briefly before Lawson came but quickly found how hard it was to find some time to get on the internet.

Now that we have some what of a good routine, I hopefully will be able to update this more often.
Just a few things that have happened in the past few months. I have recently left my job at the news station. I went back to work out my notice and have left the door open for help if they need it...but Mitch and I both feel like it is worth the sacrifice for me to be able to be at home with Lawson. I am so lucky to have a husband who is so understanding.
Lawson is a healthy and growing boy! Every day gets better! We have had a few holidays (Halloween and Thanksgiving) and looking forward to Christmas! We recently went and bought a few toys for him for Christmas. He will not know the difference this year but both Mitch and I are excited to wake up Christmas morning and have fun with him!
We had Lawson's baptism on November 22nd. We were so blessed to have many friends and family there. We had about 20 people there! It was a private ceremony and was so wonderful! Afterwards, my mother in law had a brunch at her house and we were all able to go back there and visit! It was a wonderful day!
We also had our first Iron Bowl with him! In the picture below he had his house divided shirt on that our friends, Rachel and Brian, gave him. They are a divided household as well! Needless to say, it was a better year for Mitch! This whole season we would change his clothes from Alabama gear to Auburn gear (yes..I am the proud Auburn fan). My mom jokes that Lawson will be constantly changing his clothes on game day....I have a feeling that he will follow in his daddy's footsteps. Plus Mitch says I do not have the passion the pass along to Lawson! We shall see! Either way...it has been fun for Mitch to watch the games with Lawson and he is looking forward to hopefully celebrating a National Championship with him!!
Lawson has started to laugh recently and we are fortunate to have a good sleeper! We feed him his last bottle at 930p or so and he will sleep until 7 or 8! What wonders more than 4 hours of sleep can do for someone! He just got his first cold which is heart breaking but he has been a trooper through it! He will cough and sneeze but then start smiling and laughing right afterwards!

Well....that is it for now! Hopefully I can post something after Christmas!! I added a few pics as well!
Merry Christmas everyone!!



Lawson's First Halloween..dressed as a monster or dragon..not sure which!



Lawson and Daddy after Alabama 's Win over Florida!


Lawson in his House Divided Shirt...bad year for Mommy!


At Lawson's Baptism

Lawson Brandon Jones

Sorry for the delay of the update, but I am sure you understand how it is with a newborn! Here is goes....

My water broke on September 9th around 1130p. I was not sure that it definitely broke since it was not the gush I had heard about but I called the doctor and they said to come on in! So Mitch packs up the car and away we go to the hospital. We get there and the put us in a room to check to make sure my water definitely did in fact break and quickly confirmed that it had! So they put us in a labor/delivery room and around 1a or so. They got me all hooked up to monitors and IV's and Mitch went down and got our stuff. We then proceeded to call the family and tell them what was going on. They started me on the patossin (i know this is the incorrect spelling) drip at 5a and increased it every 15 minutes to make me start to dialate.

5 hours later I still had not dialated past 1cm and we decided it would be best to have a c-section. We knew he was going to be on the bigger side so my nurse said it was probably going to happen this way anyways. At about 930a I was able to get my epidural (thank goodness) and get a little bit of rest. By this time all the family had arrived. I was scheduled to have my c-section at 1p and luckily my doctor was on call that day! It could not have worked out any better!

At 128p, Lawson Brandon Jones was born. He weighed 8lbs 3oz and was 19 3/4 inces long. He was healthy and screaming as soon as he came out! As you can imagine it was overwhelming with emotions and Mitch was on cloud 9! He is such a great dad and is so good with him! It is amazing the love you can have for such a small little person!

Even though we are a little sleep deprived, we are so lucky to have him here! It has been a long journey as many know and we both thank God everyday for giving us this gift! God is so good!

Lawson's Debut Update

So we went to the doctor this past Thursday for our growth scan of the baby. He is a whopping 8 lbs. 4 ozs. already! Now granted these are not always accurate but still. So the doctor said she would definitely not let me go past 39 weeks which is September 15th. We are going to do another growth scan on the 14th and determine whether she thinks it would be better to do a c-section since he is so big.

If I do not go on my own before then...we at least know we will get to meet our precious little boy in 10 days or so! We can not wait!!!

4 weeks and counting!

Things have been going pretty well over the past few weeks. I am still at home resting, which has been nice. I went to the doctor on Monday and I have started to thin out. So I am making a little bit of progress. I had to come off the medicine to help with the contractions because you are not supposed to take it after 36 weeks so we will see what happens. I am slowly coming down on the insulin so maybe by next week I will only have to take it at night versus two times a day. All in all, feeling really good! Just ready to meet Lawson!

Our family threw me and the baby a shower this past Saturday. It turned out wonderful! I could have not asked for a better day because it really felt like fall in August with low humidity! We had a great turn out and and got all the last minute things we would need for Lawson. So now the car seat bases are in the car, his bag is packed, wreath is bought for the hospital door and now my bag is packed. So I think we are ready.

We have been doing a few things around the house to help us get ready. We always felt that we needed more seating and so we bought a love seat! We used the excuse that we would need the seating for people when the baby came but I think deep down we wanted it too for football season! We also bought a new entertainment center to house the 46 in flat screen we bought at Christmas. It has been in our bedroom so it will be quite an adjustment going from a 46 in to a 37 in. in the bedroom.

A few weeks ago, Mitch and I had some pregnancy pictures done. They turned out pretty good. I do not think I look like myself because of the bells palsy but over all they are good. Here are a few of them!

No more work, no baby yet....what's a girl to do??!!

So, Mitch and I went to the doctor yesterday. We met with the nutrionist, who showed me how to administer my shots, and then off to the ultrasound and fetal monitor we went. Lawson is growing great! He is 5lbs and 13 oz. His heart rate was 160 and poor thing had the hiccups while we were doing the ultrasound. He has the hiccups ALL the time but it was kind of neat seeing his stomach move up and down with the hiccups. He continued to have the hiccups all through the NST, which got quite loud. For those of you who do not know what an NST is, it is where they hook you up to a fetal monitor and a contraction monitor and watch the baby and me to see how we are doing.

Baby Lawson did great! Me on the other hand, started having mild contractions...again. Strong enough for them to register. So we went in to see the doctor, she checked me and I am not dialated but she has now taken me off work....starting today. So I was a little bit in shock because I felt like I had so much I needed to take care of before I left work but I got it all done and now I am looking forward to just taking care of me and Lawson.

Hopefully, as the meds taper off for the bells palsy so will my insulin. If that happens I will have a better chance of making it to my actual due date and not have to be induced! Either way, we are just so excited to meet our little boy!

Mitch has been such a trooper through this entire pregnancy and continues to rally by my side here at the end with all the issues I have been having! He is a wonderful husband and is going to be a GREAT dad to Lawson!!

Pregnancy Does The Weirdest Things

So I noticed on Tuesday that my right eye was extremely dry. I thought it was just my contacts and maybe some allergies. So that night I went home took out the contacts and put my glasses on. My eye starts pouring water...which again I thought it was just my allergies. Then Wednesday morning I was brushing my teeth and realized when I went to spit I could spit out of one side of my face. As the day went on it got a little worse. I realized I could not really move the right side of my face. So I called the doctor and they told me to come in. I saw the on call doctor since my regular doctor was in Gadsden. He told me he wanted me to go see a neurologist and come back tomorrow to see my regular doctor.

So I went back to the doctor yesterday. She told me that I have Bells Palsy. Which apparently is common in pregnant women who have gestational diabetes. It, like the diabetes, will go away after (or even before) delivery. So now I have to take a steroid and antibiotic (all are safe during pregnancy) to help the Bells Palsy. But since I have gestational diabetes, the steroids will make my blood sugar levels uncontrollable without insulin. So now I have to be put on insulin on Monday.

From now until Lawson arrives, I will be at the doctor twice a week. Once to be checked to make sure I am not dialating and then twice a week to be hooked up to a fetal monitor to make sure I am not contracting. At least I only have a few weeks left, and since I have to go twice a week maybe it will make these last few weeks go by quickly.

They moved our ultrasound to Monday instead of the 20th, so we will find out how big Lawson is!!! I am really excited! I am trying to be optimistic because we have prayed so long for this child and I know all this is totally worth! Just a little overwhelming to deal with in the last final weeks!

I will keep you posted on our appointments on Monday. Please continue to keep us in your prayers through these final weeks!!

Almost There!

I will be 33 weeks tomorrow. It feels like yesterday when I found I was pregnant. Time sure does fly!

This past weekend we had a wonderful couple's shower hosted by some of my sister and good friends! Despite the rain, it was wonderful! We are truly blessed to be surrounded by wonderful people! We go TONS of stuff and now Lawson's room is almost filled to capacity. His closet look more full than mine and Mitch's. He is definitely going to be one well dressed little fellow.

Despite feeling larger than life, I have felt pretty good. The heat of the south is the only thing that really slows me down. I am getting to the point now where I have a hard time sleeping at night because the only way Lawson will settle down and let me sleep is on my back, which I have always hated sleeping on my back. But who needs sleep anyways!

I go this Thursday for my bi-weekly check up. I have to meet with my nutrionist first (because of the gestational diabetes) and then to the doctor.

On August 20th (Mitch's birthday), we are going for my next check up and get to have another ultrasound to see how big Lawson is. One of the side effects of gestational diabetes is a large baby so they are keeping an eye on him to make sure he is growing just fine! What a cool present for Mitch (and me) to get to see our baby on his birthday! I wonder if that means I have to buy him anything.

Well, this blog thing is new to me but thought it would be a good way for out of town relatives to see what we are up to! I will try to post some pictures soon and keep you posted on the arrival of Lawson!

Finally Gave In

So I finally decided to start blogging. All of my friends are blogging and I enjoy reading their blogs so I decided to follow suit. Hopefully I will be able to update this regularly.