Bringing Addie Home

As most of you know I had a hard time when we brought Addie home. I have never been so scared in my life. I was having a hard time with the whole breastfeeding thing. I wanted to do it so bad, but it just wasn't working. My milk never really came in (probably because of my breast reduction) and Addie wasn't in to it either. After 3 HORRIBLE weeks of trying very hard and being stressed to the max Dr. Stegall (Addison's Doctor) told me to stop if I was that stressed about it. I cried everyday and Graham was starting to worry about me. When she acting like it was no big deal to stop it was like the whole world was lifted off of my shoulders. I was happy for the first time since we brought Addison home. After that it was smooth sailing. I was a better mom because I was happier and Graham was better daddy because he wasn't worrying about me.
Don't get me wrong it was still tough, but a tough we could handle. Addison was a great baby, at the most she only woke up 2 times a night! We worked her schedule so that she would want to eat around 3:30 and 6:30 am. I woke up at 3:30 and fed her and Graham did the 6:30 feeding before he got ready for work. It worked out very well. At about 9 weeks I decided that since she took better naps on her tummy I would try it at night and she slept for like 7 hours that night! It only took till about 12 weeks to get her schedule to bedtime bottle at 9:20ish and her asleep by 9:45, and she wakes up about 8:30 or 9:00. IT IS GREAT! Graham still gets to play with her, we give her a bath, Graham gives her a bottle and puts her to bed then we get Our time back. Most nights you will catch us talking on our front porch till late, other nights we curl up and watch movies. It is so nice to have my husband back. Those first few weeks we were so tired we were lucky to have a 10 minute conversation before saying goodnight. All of our time and energy was given to Addie, which is the way it should be.

Inducement and Labor!

These pics are last pics before we became parents!

On February 6 I went to the high-risk doctor for a routine appointment. He was looking at the ultrasound and FINALLY said that he wanted to do an amniotesis the next week and if her lungs were okay they would go ahead and induce me. My placenta was aging faster than it was supposed to, my Amnio Fluid was very low, and my blood pressure started rising. I was scared to death, I heard that Amnio's hurt really bad and that most of the time they put you into labor. What if she wasn't ready and the Amnio made me go into labor? I was so upset, but after praying God comforted me and made me feel like everything was going to be fine. I have never felt so sure that God was going to take care of everything, it was like he was there holding my hand (which he was!). Graham and I went in for the Amnio and another doctor in the practice ended up doing it. WOW! it hurt like the dickens! It was very close to the worst pain I had ever felt up to that point! Graham brought me home and I was to lay down until the next day, I was only allowed to get up to go to the bathroom then right back to bed. I was told they would have the results that afternoon so at 1:00 I called to see if they were in, she said they were and that the baby's lungs look great! So I called Dr. Reeves office(my regular OB) and told them that Dr. Briery wanted to induce me that week. They scheduled it for Friday morning.

The next day was Valentine's Day! My mom took off work and came and cleaned my house. She is so wonderful, we spent the day going from room to room her cleaning and me just chatting with her, something I will always remember. That evening Graham and I ate a quiet candlelight dinner and tried to go to bed early. We both were so excited we couldn't sleep!
We got up early so we could get breakfast on the way to the hospital. We still were late but stopped at Hardee's anyway. Once we got to the hospital we were taken into the labor and delivery room and they started hooking me up. Soon after that my parents, and Dottie came up. It took forever for them to get me hooked up to everything, then Dr.Reeves came in. She said she was going to break my water ( I thought, great this will go fast........boy was I wrong!). Breaking my water was AWFUL!! It hurt so bad, and I remember thinking there is no turning back now. Dr. Reeves was about to leave and she said I will see you sometime after midnight........WHAT???............MIDNIGHT?? surely it isn't going to take that long. Shortly after that the nurses moved me to a larger room because there were so many people in there. We got in the other room and I started watching TV while mom and Dottie talked and read the newspaper. By that afternoon I started feeling the contractions and they started getting bad, I stood it as long as I could but finally around 3 I asked for some pain meds. They were great, they knocked me out and I got to sleep for a couple of hours. We had several visitors that day, my dad was in and out, Graham's aunt Margaret came and stayed awhile, Meghan came up and Jon came for awhile. By late afternoon Miranda had gotten there and I was so happy to see her walk through that door. We have definitely had our share of fights but if I ever need her for anything she is always there to tell me the true (like this IS going to hurt) and to hold my hand through it. It was so nice to have her medical knowledge, she told me what everything meant that the other nurses were saying. My pain meds started wearing off and I started shaking uncontrollably, and hurting really bad. The only way to get through the pain was to hold Graham's hand and look him in the eyes, it gave me comfort that I wasn't in this alone. HE IS SO AWESOME!! By 9 I couldn't take it anymore and I asked for the epidural. They got in there about 9:30 and sat me up to give it to me. Graham was so scared that it was going to hurt me and I would move or something, but I was in so much pain I would do anything for it to lessen. And man did it! That was the most wonderful medicine I have ever had. I was great after that. I got a second wind and was happy! By 4 am they checked me and said they were going to call Dr. Reeves because I was FINALLY at 7. When she got there, at about 4:30 she checked me and said that if I wasn't at 10 in an hour she was going to do a C-Section. I was kind of upset, I mean why go through this pain and not finish it out, but I was also ready for Addison to come out. When she came back in at 5:30 I was at 9 1/2 so she said they would get me ready to start pushing. After Graham and I had talked again we decided we were very tired and we didn't want anyone in there so we asked the nurse to get everyone out. After a few arguments everyone was out and it was just us. Graham was scared because he thought it would take too long and I was too tired to do this, and so was I, but I was determined to get her out FAST. I started pushing at 6 am and after one pushing Graham asked the nurse if this was going to take a while and she said yes so he went to the bathroom. When he came out they could already see her head. I pushed for 16 minutes with only 5 pushes and Miss Addison was here! She got checked out by the doctors and I got a COKE! I wanted one all day and no one would give me one, it was the best Coke ever! After everything was cleaned up Graham brought her over to me and let me hold her. She was so perfect, she looked just like Graham. Our families came in, mom, dad, randa, dottie, bobby and sam. We only had a few minutes in there before they would move me to the post pardum side so they took pics and then headed home to get some rest. Graham and I and miranda (she was helping me breastfeed) staying and looked at her for a few more minutes before they took her to get a bath and move me. We got into our other room and slept, or tried to, I was so excited. Even after 21 hours of labor I still had energy and I wanted to just play with her some more.
Several people came to the hospital to see us and we totally loved showing her off. Our perfect little angel, Addison Nell (after my grannie Nell the most wonderful woman ever).

Bedrest...ugh

Since November my blood pressure had been on the high side so I was seeing Dr. Briery a high-risk OB. In January I went for a routine monthly appointment, everything seemed to be going okay until they started the ultrasound. The tech had a bad look on her face and she said my Amniotic fluid was low. THANK GOODNESS mom was with me, those 5 minutes that it took for the doctor to get in there seemed like forever. I was already crying when he stepped in. He told me to calm down and he started doing an ultrasound. He explained that it wasn't too low but it was something they would have to start watching every week. He said my goal is to get to 38 weeks. Then he asked if I was still working, when I said yes, he said that totday is my last day. I was so upset, I wasn't ready to leave work, I did not want to lay in bed for the next 5 weeks. He said that I could get up and do LIGHT housework, but I couldn't be on my feet more than 30 minutes at a time. I walked to the parking garage to break the news to Graham, I was so scared it was going to stress him to figure out how to make all of our payments. But he was wonderful, he totally agreed with the doctor and was actually happy he had told me to go to bed (Graham always thought I was doing too much). So home I went, to lay around. Man did that SUCK! There are only so many movies you can watch! Everytime Graham came home and I was up doing something he would get mad at me and take over so I would lay down. I was losing my mind! It got to where when he got home at night we would just go ride around ( I wasn't supposed to be driving much either, I had to stay calm so my blood pressure would stay down). It's one thing if you can just stay at home and clean and do things, it's another if you feel great and you aren't allowed to do anything.

Our last trip, just us!

For Christmas last year Graham took me on a surprise trip. He is so wonderful! We couldn't go far because I was 7 months pregnant so he did some research and remembered I always wanted to stay at a Bed and Breakfast. He booked us a room at the Baird house in Valle Crusis, NC for a couple of days after Christmas. It was the coolest place. They were so nice and the house had so much history. It was a great trip for us to go on together before Addison got here.

Boy or Girl??

On October 22 we had the ultrasound to tell us if our little bundle was a boy or girl. Up until this point I thought we were having a boy. We let mom and Dottie go with us to see. They were so amazed at the ultrasound and how clear it was. It didn't take long for the tech to tell us we were having a girl! I was so excited, me, mom and Dottie were all crying. We were so excited. Now we had to agree on a name for her..........................Graham didn't like any names I came up with for a girl!

Our 1 Year anniversary

I never thought I would be pregnant on my one year wedding anniversary! Well we celebrated it a couple of times! In September we went to Tunica for the weekend and to see Rodney Carrington. It was for Graham's birthday and our anniversary. We gambled and well, I did good, Graham.........he played cards for about 15 minutes and after losing $75 he quit. I made my own money and won back his money (I guess I did learn alot from Vegas when daddy took me after turning 21). We had a blast on that trip!

On our real anniversary we went to church that morning and spent the rest of the day hiking at Cloudland Canyon. It was very nice, but I was 4 months pregnant I didn't want to walk that much. That night we had dinner at my favorite restaurant, Back end Cafe.

It was a wonderful first year. Alot easier than I was told. We learned to love each others imperfections and to laugh through the hard times and cry together. Our love grows stronger every day and we are the happiest we could every be!

Our big news!

We had several trips to the beach last year, we went alone to Gulf Shores, then with my family back to Gulf Shores and with Graham's family to New Smyrna Beach . We had a great summer! Then on July 1, 2007, it was a Sunday, on our weekly trip to Walmart I bought a pregnancy test. This was a monthly thing, I always thought I was preggers, but earlier that day my dad had made a comment that got me wondering. So after we got home and got the groceries put up I went and took the test (Graham didn't even catch that I bought one). I remember looking at it and only seeing one line, Okay I thought, it wasn't like we were trying or anything. But......as I was walking out of the bathroom I went to throw it away and I saw 2 FAINT LINES! My stomach was totally in my throat! I went in the living room and turned the TV off and said, "Graham, we have to talk," he was scared he thought something was wrong with me. So I took his hand and walked him into the bathroom where I feel to my knees, "look on the counter" I said. He took the test and was like I don't think that is really true......... after arguing a few minutes about if it was true or not, it hit us. WE WERE PREGNANT! I smiled at first, then all the emotions hit me (if you have children you understand, if you don't you will totally get it when you do get pregnant), I was happy, scared, excited, worried, every emotion you can think of. I sat on the couch with the test for about an hour crying. I was happy and sad. For a few minutes I thought my life was over, then I realized it had just begun. The next morning I called Miranda and told her the news, she couldn't believe it. Then I called Heather, she was totally shocked too! Every morning that week Graham made me get up before he went to work and take another test, and every test was more positive. By Thursday I couldn't keep my mouth shut any longer so we had our parents over to eat dinner. We had gotten two picture frames and put baby stickers all over them and in the part where the picture goes we put a post-it that said "Picture coming March 2008". After dinner we gave my mom and Dottie the bags, as they opened them neither one of them got it. It took a few minutes of looking at it before they started crying. They were so excited! We made them be quiet until we had our first ultrasound in August, it was so hard for them.

The start of our life together

Hey everyone! Meghan showed me her blog and I thought it was a great idea so here goes!



Let's see.......... Graham graduated in May of 2006 with a Mechanical Engineering Degree and got a job at Mueller company. That August we bought our first home, almost exactly 2 miles from both of our parents! Graham moved in and we started getting it ready for us to live in after we got married. It took ALOT.....the rooms were all painted some weird color, we had hunter green, yellow, red and orange, and light green with dark green trim. IT WAS A MESS. Slowly but surely we got it painted and added furniture. It wasn't my Dream house by any means but.......we were just starting out and I loved it! I graduated with my Finance degree that August and started working toward my Marketing degree. On October 14, 2006 all of my dreams came true, or at least up to that point in my life, Graham FINALLY married me. It was a wonderful day, i remember being so completely calm because I knew this is what I wanted with every bit of my heart. The next morning we left for our honeymoon. It was so wonderful. We flew into Boston, a place I had wanted to go since I was a little girl, rented a car and drove into Salem, MA. Now you have to remember this is Halloween time in a very spooky town, I loved it! There were ghost tours, and all of the Salem Witch Trails history it was definitely a cool place. There was also this hot dog place, oh my goodness I would fly up there right now to have one of these hot dogs!..............Anyway, what was so neat about our honeymoon was we only booked our airfare and the car rental. We knew we wanted to drive into Maine but we didn't have set times we had to be anywhere. So when we wanted to stay in Salem longer, we could. All we had to do was be back in Boston on Friday night to catch our plane! We spent Sunday and half of Monday in Salem, going through tours and looking at all the historic stuff. The we headed up to Maine. I started out taking a little nap and when I woke up I looked over at the gas gage and the LIGHT WAS ON!! We were in the middle of nowhere, Maine with no gas. I mean who is going to come help us out here???? Graham hadn't even noticed, what a goofball! Luckily there was an exit right up the road. That was a close one! We got as far as Portland and decided to spend the night. We got a hotel and started on a journey into downtown Portland. Wow, Portland is a big city! We got lost a couple of times, but we finally found a restaurant on a boat in the harbor. It was beautiful and to say the least we were not dressed for it. We had on sweaters and blue jeans and everyone else had on dresses and suits. Oh well were just the rednecks from Tennessee, lol. The next morning we decided to go to Freeport and do alittle shopping at the "outlet" stores. They WERE NOT outlets by any means but it was still fun to go to the LL BEAN store. It was getting late and we didn't want to be driving alot at night so we started making our way to Bar Harbor. Before Bar Harbor you go through a town called Bangor (this is where the University of Maine is). This is the town we were so close to moving to, to get our master's from UM, so we had to stop and look around alittle. It was a very cute town, the houses were old and all decorated for Halloween (everything up there was decorated for Halloween BIG TIME), a place that I would LOVE to live in. There were cute little white churches on every street corner and the trees.........oh the trees.........they were in full bloom and BEAUTIFUL. I would Highly recommend everyone driving up north to see the New England Fall, something you will never forget. We made it to Bar Harbor, found a hotel and headed into town to eat. Graham made me eat at this hole-in-the-wall place called "Chowders". It was wonderful though. We had clam chowder and lobster bisque. You haven't tasted either of these dishes until you do in Maine! Bar Harbor is on an island off of the Maine coast that is in Acadia National Park. We spent all day driving through the park taking pictures and just taking in all the wonderful things God has given us in this world. It was awesome, you had the mountains with the changing colors, that ended in the rocky coast of the Atlantic ocean. I have never seen beaches like that, where the waves were HUGE and they crashed into the rocks and sprayed 15 feet in the air. It was truly amazing to be there. It was a time in my life where everything was....PERFECT.. I had the hand of the love of my life and we were experiencing this together. We stopped at the lighthouses and we went to the end (or beginning) of the Appalachian trail. It was very neat. That night we dressed up and had dinner at a restaurant that overlooked the ocean. It was so neat you could see the lights of the fishing boats just off shore. It was very good, Graham got Maine Lobster and I did try it but it was not my taste in food. The next day we drove back down to Salem because we loved it so much we wanted to spend some more time there. Then we went into Boston on the last day. Boston was pretty neat but very confusing and there was construction on every corner. We did see the real Cheers bar and the where the Boston Tea Party was.

Our Honeymoon was so amazing every day there was a new adventure to have. We will do alot more traveling like that, without an agenda.

The next couple of months were normal newly weds stuff. We got adjusted to living together (not so easy). Graham does so many things that drive me CRAZY! as all husbands do. He doesn't know what a dishwasher is, he thinks the dishes get out of the sink and into the dishwasher theirselves. He has a real problem folding and putting up his clothes, and it's really hard for him to fill up the Crystal Light pitcher when he drinks the last bit. But all of these things are Graham, and I love him completely so I have to love all the things he does.