Thanksgiving into Christmas

I really tried hard to focus on thanksgiving throughout the whole month this year. I saw people listing things for which they are grateful on Facebook and I decided it wasn't a bad thing to try. Except for one day, I successfully posted a blessing in my life each day leading up to thanksgiving. It made the Holliday more worthwhile in my opinion.

This is also the first year I got to spend thanksgiving Hixson style. We celebrated by making an old fashioned turkey dinner with the typical, yet delicious, side dishes, and we dined together by candlelight. Then we indulged in our childish side by playing some good old hide and seek in the dark with only a flashlight to seek with. Lucy, mercifully, slept through most of it. She hasn't done too well in complete darkness in the past.

Here, Aunt Isabel is entertaining Lucy.

We also took the time to see some family nearby that we normally don't get to see. We made the 3 hour drive to see my sister Irene and her family in Fresno. They entertained us with some funny commentary to what must be the absolute worst movie to have ever been produced, which unbelievably will be joined by a sequel.

Then we hopped in their 15-passenger to head to the discovery center. There we discovered a worm farm, a maze, a fish pond, a sandbox to bury dinosaur bones, a cactus garden, and a wachamacallit eardrum-like thing that lets you hear someone whisper from far away.

 

 

 

We eventually had to stop imposing ourselves on the Ryan family. So we headed back north to Stockton while Lucy was still in a good mood, also so we could visit David's grandmother before it got too late.

 

Now with thanksgiving over, we are welcoming in the Christmas season.

 

My main entertainment now is trying to get the camera ready in time to film Lucy while she is giggling and making new sounds, such as squealing.

 

 

 

I will also add more random pictures of Lucy since I know she's the main reason people read my blog.

 

 

 I'm glad she smiles so often. It made her photo session the easiest thing in the world. Those pictures will be ready soon, and then I will post them on here as well. They turned out wonderfully if I say so myself.

 

3 Months Old

It's been a while, and there's a lot of catching up to do. We're already approaching Lucy's 3-month mark, and she's been through quite a bit. A lot of these pictures I'm going to post are already on Facebook, but I realize not everyone is on Facebook. So I'm putting them on here as well.

3-week-old Lucy got to meet her 3-day-old cousin, Cassidi. The angle of the camera makes her look smaller than she is, but they're actually about the same size. Cassidi is Irene's baby girl, for those who don't know.

 

 As a new mom, I assumed most of Lucy's behavior was normal. I thought that way so that I wouldn't freak out over everything, as was my tendency. She ate, she slept, and she cried. No matter how much. However, a quick visit to the pediatrician showed that Lucy was underweight. That wouldn't be so bad, but the scale showed only a 4 ounce difference in an entire month. You might notice she looks abnormally tiny in the picture. The charts showed that she should have gained about 2 pounds. I freaked out a little. Her crying in the evening appeared to be more than just colic. Poor thing was hungry and my feeding her exclusively wasn't enough. So the doctor had me put her on a formula intended for premature babies. She made weekly visits until the doctor was satisfied with her weight. The bottle was hard for her to get used to, and it seemed she had to drink it upside down or she wouldn't take it. Now she takes it readily and even while upright. Her most recent visit showed that she had successfully gained 10 pounds and she had even made it on the charts. Now I know what a content baby looks like.

 

 

As you can see, Lucy now knows how to smile, and I'm loving it. She mostly does it during certain times, like bathtime and diaper changing time. I've even heard her laugh once or twice, but she hasn't quite gotten that far yet.

 

 

Halloween just happened and we were lucky to find a costume that was in Lucy's size. So this is my little pumpkin. Not that she did much in it except pose for the camera in honor of halloween.

 

 

We have attended a couple hockey games. And Lucy has officially been dubbed a Thunder fan.

 

 

Of course, she slept through both of them despite the loud music.

 

 

We've also been to a service project distributing bags for people to put food in and leave them out front a week later for us to pick them up. Lucy was in a very good mood that morning.

 

 

Now at almost three months, Lucy has finally outgrown her newborn clothes and I've had fun dressing her in clothes I've wanted her to fit in for a while. This dress is almost an exact replica of one that I wore when I was little. The scan turned out funny but I decided not to spend too much time on it.

 

Still I think they're pretty close. But hers is cuter.

 

 

This is the last picture I took before I did this:

 

 

I always knew I would chop my hair off when I had kids. I didn't expect to do it on the first one, but I figured why hold it off. It's so much easier and I'm pretty satisfied with it. Hardly takes any work at all.

 

So in three months, this is how Lucy looked in the beginning:

 

And this is where she is now:

 

I don't know if you can see how much she's changed, but I do. So things are going great. This felt like a lot of catching up, so I'm gonna end right there.

Lucy Leanne Hixson

I just barely started this blog and already I feel like I have a lot to catch up on. I think I'll start by relating my experience in welcoming Lucy to our family. On August 16th, I accomplished quite a bit. I went to interview the last pediatrician on the list of those whom I was researching, and I felt good about having her examine our baby when she arrived.

I also stopped at Walgreens hoping to find some last minute items so that I would feel prepared to go into labor at any time. The cashier asked me when I was due and I responded the 29th but that I felt like things were moving along fast and that it seemed likely she would come sooner. Little did I know it would be that night!

When I arrived home, I had quite a bit of energy left over, so I proceeded to clean the house. In the end, I managed to clean the kitchen, fold and put away the laundry, and do some organizing in the baby's room. I was actually preparing to head out of town that weekend to my mother-in-law's, because she had put together a baby shower for me. Later I would realize how nice it was I could get the house in order just before going to the hospital. It was as though I was preparing to welcome someone home or something.

That evening there was a Relief Society activity, which was actually a swimming party. David came home just in time to see me off. As is expected, I got a lot of questions about my pregnancy and how things were progressing. My responses were positive and optimistic. I enjoyed chatting with some mothers about their experiences with pregnancy and labor, and I also took time to wade in the pool and relieve some aches and pains that I had forgotten were there. Overall the night had been well spent and I headed home.

After taking a brief shower to wash off the chlorine, I laid down on the couch while David was occupying himself on the computer. It didn't take long for me to fall asleep seeing as I had a full day. At length, I became aware of a pinching sensation down below. Following this was a warm flow of moisture. My eyes flew open and I sat up. I had heard enough stories to recognize that my water just broke, but I was still in denial. I headed to the bathroom, and sure enough, my water broke. However, I still wanted a confirmation, so I called the OB's office and told them I think my water broke. He was quick to tell me to go to the hospital right away.

This was my last belly photo from the day before.

As ridiculous as it is, instead of feeling excited, I only felt inconvenienced. How many times had David teased me to not go into labor until after the baby shower! I never actually believed I would jump the gun! However, I could at least count my blessings that I didn't go into labor while on the road, because it's an hour and a half drive to his mom's. Not to mention, I was grateful my water hadn't broken in the pool or in the shower, or I may not have recognized I was in labor. Up to this point, I couldn't even tell I was having contractions.

My things were mostly gathered already so there was not much more preparation I needed to do. I called to let them know we were coming, and then we were off to the hospital. I felt anxious, not because I feared the pain of labor but because I couldn't get over the fact that she was two weeks early and that it wasn't supposed to be like this. On the way, I remembered I hadn't asked David for a blessing before we left the house. I voiced my thoughts aloud, and he gave me one in the parking lot to the hospital.

It was midnight when they had set me up. My contractions remained painless, so the only thing that kept waking me was the constant need to use the bathroom. Other than that, I feel that I slept pretty well. At 4 o'clock, the nurse came to give me pitocin because my contractions were irregular and nothing was progressing. I wasn't looking forward to when it took effect. Sure enough, my contractions became more intense, and two hours later, I was dialated to 4 cm. It was at this time I requested an epidural and they promptly gave it to me. From that point on, I could relax, which helped the labor move along quickly. It wasn't long before I felt the need to push. The nurse checked me and basically said, "Oh crap," because the baby's head was right there.

They called for the doctor. He came in still in a white shirt, tie, and slacks. The nurse rushed him back out, saying, "You were supposed to take me seriously when I said the baby is coming!" He came back later in his scrubs. Whithin a short while, Lucy had arrived. The nurses told me to talk to her, that she would recognize my voice, but I was bawling so much, I didn't trust myself to speak at the moment.

Daddy is making phone calls. That's why he has headphones. Not because he's so bored that he has to tune out the present with music.

 

Lucy weighed 6 lbs 12 oz. She was smaller than I expected.

 

This was my favorite picture.

 

She's changed quite a bit since I'm writing this two months later. It's interesting to see how much she's grown.

Testing, testing!

This being my first post, I'm checking whether I have this site figured out. I've been hoping to get this started for a pretty long time, but it seemed pretty complicated when I tried setting it up in the past. Now, I don't know why I couldn't figure it out the first time.

I'll summarize where I'm at currently. We live in Stockton, California in an apartment. David works as a tech manager for a trucking company, and he feels pretty comfortable working there, especially since one of the perks is he gets to work beside his dad. There's a possibility he could get a position with Microsoft, but that's pretty debatable right now.

As for me, I was a simple housewife, but now I've graduated to a stay-at-home mom. I spend my days keeping the house in shape, learning new recipes when I can, and taking care of our adorable newborn, Lucy. It's been quite the transition for us since we brought a baby into our lives, but I'm enjoying it all the same. Sometimes I miss not having the freedom I had to get things accomplished but not enough to ever want to go back.

It was challenging in the beginning, learning to handle the lack of sleep and to find the rhythm in feedings, but I now feel I've got a better handle on things. I know I'll lose it again temporarily as she enters new phases and grows bigger. Being a mom is wonderful.