First Road Trip

I took Ty on his first long road trip this past weekend. We drove down to Stuart, FL to attend my friend, Jenn's wedding (and to see grandma and grandpa, of course). Tyler did great in the car and slept almost the entire way. The trip usually takes 5.5 hours, but with nursing stops, it took over 7 hours (Matt had to stay in Tallahassee since it's the middle of the semester.). We spent some time with grandma and grandpa...Tyler LOVES them. He spent the whole weekend smiling, kicking and squealing with delight. I love seeing them with him. Ty attended multiple wedding events and his first wedding ceremony and reception. It was perfect weather for a beach wedding. Jenn and I have been friends since I was 4 years old, so it was really special to be there for her on her wedding day. I have known 2 of the other bridesmaids for almost 20 years as well.


I also got the chance for Ty to have a play date with two of my friends' babies. Jackie's daughter, Maggie, was born 3 weeks before Tyler, and Meredith's son, Miles, was born 2 weeks before him. We all work together, so it was pretty strange that we all got pregnant within days of eachother. It was so sweet seeing our babies together for the first time.

The First Months of Motherhood

The first week after having Tyler was really difficult. I was in a lot of pain and I was terrified of being a mother! People can tell you that motherhood is hard, but it can't be fully understood until experienced. I'm so thankful that my mom stayed with us that first week. I seriously don't know what I would have done without her. Matt's parents came and stayed with us the second week, and then we went to St. George Island to stay with my parents, sister and brother-in-law for the third week. We spent Christmas there. Scroggy and I even got to go out on a date while we were there! My mom watched Tyler and we went over to Boss Oysters in Apalachicola for lunch, walked around downtown and then stopped by Eddy Teach's for a beer on our way back. It was much needed time together. After Christmas, we had some time to adjust to life with Tyler without company.

Life is hectic. Scroggy is in a graduate program, is working 2 full days in the computer lab in the History Department at FSU, is working full time as a manager and bartender at Applebee's, and he takes care of Tyler Mondays and Wednesdays while I work. I started back at work at 32 hours, but was unable to clock the hours I needed while trying to take care of Ty. So, I'm currently working 20 hours until the end of February. At the end of February, I will be taking Tyler to a woman at my church who watches a few children in her home. I will only need to do this on Tuesday afternoons and Thursdays, but I am still very sad to do it.

Tyler is doing great! He started smiling pretty regularly at about 2 or 3 weeks old, and now he smiles A LOT - It is so sweet. He loves kicking his legs, thrashing his arms, sucking on his hands, taking baths...Very exciting stuff! He HATES when we do "tummy time" so much that he taught himself to roll over from his tummy to his back before he was 6 weeks old. He recently discovered his hands...He goes cross-eyed staring at them and hits himself in the face often. He isn't very interested in toys yet, although he seems to enjoy his activity gym mat. He bats at the toys, but I'm not sure if it's on purpose. He responds to people's faces and voices, and he tracks people with his eyes. He will follow me around a room with his eyes and turn his head. He is sleeping better these days...At first, I was up every couple hours to feed him throughout the night. Now, he sometimes will sleep from after his late-night feeding (usually around 11pm) until 6 or 7am. I am looking forward to the day when that becomes consistent. The exhaustion in those first few weeks was indescribable.

Tyler is such a joy to watch...I know he's not doing too much yet, but I love watching these little changes. Being a mother is the hardest thing I've ever done, but we are so thankful for him!

Tyler is Born

Tyler was born on December 3, 2010 at 4:14am at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. He weighed 7 lb. and he was 19.3 inches long. My labor was 14 hours and 14 minutes long (even though I was having contractions for over 25 hours), but I made it through! I was woken up by painful contractions at 3:30am on December 2nd. I began timing them, but they were inconsistent. I woke Scroggy to tell him what was going on at 5:30am and we both went back to sleep (although my sleep wasn't very restful). We went to my 9:30am doctor appointment and I was 3cm dialated. We went back to the apartment and tried to get some rest because we didn't know whether or not we would be going to the hospital that day. Thankfully, Matt called his professors and told them that he couldn't attend class that day. The contractions became consistent (about 5 minutes apart) around 2pm. We finally decided we should go to the hospital at 6pm. I was 4cm dialated when I was in triage and was happy to hear we could be admitted to a labor and delivery room. With the encouragement from my husband and my nurse, Rachel, I waited until I was 6cm dialated to receive the epidural (I felt like I couldn't wait another second!). So, I was pain-free by about 10pm. A few hours later, when I was about 8.5cm dialated, the epidural wore off on my left side, so thankfully that was fixed almost immediately after I told my nurse. My nurse left again for a while and when she came back around 3am, she said it was time to push. After pushing for over an hour, Tyler was born! Matt said that when just Tyler's head was out, his eyes were already wide open. The doctor kept commenting on how alert Ty was (and how big his head was!). My parents were in a waiting room nearby and they were able to hear Tyler's first cries. Matt even cut the cord! As Tyler was being bathed and weighed, he was crying pretty hard, but held onto his daddy's finger the whole time. It was so precious. Scroggy was a wonderful coach...Our nurse was wonderful and she said ours was the best delivery she's done in a while. She thought Scroggy and I made a great team. I was able to have my doctor, Dr. O'Bryan, deliver Tyler since he just happened to be on call that night, and I was SO thankful for that. What a bizare experience. It still seems unreal that I went through all of it.

Ultrasounds

22 Weeks


18 Weeks


12 Weeks


10 Weeks

Belly

40 Weeks


38 Weeks


36 Weeks


34 Weeks


32 Weeks


30 Weeks


28 Weeks


24 Weeks


20 Weeks


16 Weeks


12 Weeks


8 Weeks


4 Weeks

Pregnancy

The journey begins! We are on our way to meeting the first (Well, second if you include Buster) addition to our family. The reality is slowly sinking in... It is still pretty hard to believe! Our first appointment with Dr. O'Bryan is on May 1st, so we are praying that everyone is healthy and that everything is developing accordingly!