The Birth Story...

I can't believe Greyson is already 2 months old! Finally, the Lord listened to my prayers and gave me a good new born! He's so laid back and puts up with so much from his emotional, but well intentioned big sisters.

I wanted to record Greyson's birth story before he got any older. WARNING: if you have suffered from a hard labor and delivery you may not want to read this because you will be extremely jealous!

On December 6th I woke up and got ready just like any other day (I'm still cursing myself for not washing my hair that morning). My due date wasn't for 3 more weeks so I definitely wasn't expecting the crazy day to come. I dropped Kaitlyn off at pre-school, ran over to walmart to pick up a site to store order and then headed off to the doctor for my 37 week checkup. I had to schedule this checkup a day earlier than usual because she happened to be booked on my normal day. While waiting in the waiting room I kept having my normal uncomfortable Braxton Hicks contractions, but I definitely was not in labor. I kept saying "I've had two kids, I know what a contraction feels like". Finally, after waiting for an hour I was called back. I brought Lexie with me to my appointment - again not thinking I was going to give birth in the next couple of hours. My doctor starting discussing moving my induction date up a day or so and then she checked me to see how dilated I was. All I remember was looking at her face between my legs and seeing a look of surprise on it. She says to me, "uh, you're 6 centimeters dilated. You're not going home today". I looked at Lexie and started to cry. My first thought was, "you're not going to be my baby anymore". Then, my second thought was, "man, I knew I should have washed my hair"!

I told my doctor to please let me go home and I promised to be back in one hour. She said it was up to me, but if my water broke I probably wouldn't make it back to the hospital. I was determined to go home and make sure the kids were taken care of and get my hospital bag. We have no family in the area, or on this side of the country, so my best friend met me at my house and picked up Lex, while Jared and I headed to the hospital. When I got to the hospital an hour later I still wasn't in labor, but I was dilated to a 7. My doctor wanted to break my water so I told her to give me an epidural. A short while later they gave me the epidural even though I wasn't having any painful contractions. Then, she broke my water and 30 minutes and 3 pushes later Greyson was born. 7 lbs 11 ounces and the sweetest little guy in the world. The BEST labor EVER! It only took a couple of hours, I never felt a thing and I didn't tear.

8 weeks old in his swing

7 weeks old. The tail end of a smile.

I love when he puckers up for a big kiss. Did I mention that I love having a boy?

Cutest pictures ever...

My friend Erika took these pictures when Greyson was 8 days old. She was so sweet to pack up half of her studio and cart it over to my house so that Greyson wouldn't have to be out of his bili light for too long. These are some of my favorites.

Merry Christmas...

It's easy to celebrate Christ's birth when holding my brand new baby boy!

The hospital, milk allergies and the Twilight cast...

Unfortunately our little man has had a rough first couple of weeks. First, he had really bad jaundice and had to be on the bilirubin lights for 9 days. This wasn't too bad, but we barely got to hold him and the nurse had to come to our house each day and take his blood which is always sad. Then, on Wednesday when we were getting ready for bed we noticed Greyson had blood in his stool. Our pediatrician told us to bring him to the ER where we waited for 11 hours through the night until they finally admitted us. It turns out Greyson has a milk allergy. They put him on a special (and really expensive) formula and he's doing better. The doctor said I can try to breastfeed again, but not for 2 weeks because I have to eliminate all dairy and soy from my diet. That might not seem too hard, but trust me it is! We'll give it a try though. I'd rather be able to nurse him than feed him that expensive, stinky formula!

While we were at the hospital, they put us in the pediatric cancer wing because Greyson is so young and they didn't want him near any contagious kids. Before we knew what was wrong with Greyson I just couldn't help but feel so bad for the parents and families with terminally sick children. My heart really went out to them. If all Greyson has is a milk allergy, then I feel blessed.

I know this is random, but since we happened to be in the cancer wing we had some unexpected visitors - Esme, Carlile, Rosalie and Emmet from the Twilight movies. They were visiting the kids and teenagers and stopped by our room. It was actually a nice break from everything else we were going through. They were sooo nice and seemed genuinely interested in us and actually spent 10 minutes talking with us. Before they left they gave me an autographed book from Stephenie Meyer. Kinda cool.

Introducing...

Introducing Mr. Greyson Brock Hickman. Our little Christmas present decided to come 18 days early this year! He arrived on Monday, December 6th weighing in at 7 lbs 11 ounces and 21 inches long. He has a little jaundice so he has to lie under the bili lights for a few days (that's why there's a funny light in the pics), but other than that we're great!

He gets to wear these awesome shades while sunbathing under the lights

Our little Christmas present!

I was watching Beauty and the Beast with Kaitlyn and it was the final scene where Belle and the Prince were kissing. Katy was wondering why they were kissing.

I said, "oh, they love each other a lot like mommy and daddy".

Kaitlyn responds, "yeah, but you and daddy are married so you don't love each other anymore".

I was laughing hysterically. Probably true in a lot of marriages across America.

Guess who I saw today...

Stephenie Meyer! I knew she'd been attending my church (at a different time) for a couple of months but I hadn't seen her yet. Today I was walking out of the restroom and almost ran into her family. I didn't talk to her or anything because I didn't want to be annoying. I'm sure church is the last place she wants fans following her around - at least I wouldn't. She's a very pretty lady and I probably wouldn't even have known it was her if I didn't know she was in town. I heard, not firsthand, but from a good source, that a teenager approached her at church and asked for her autograph and that she replied, "sorry, I don't sign autographs on Sunday". Good for her!

Now if only I could run into some of the cast around town...j/k
(They're filming all of the indoor scenes in Baton Rouge - apparently big tax breaks here)