Halloween

We celebrated William's first Halloween by inviting over other people with babies. He had a lot of fun with his friends! All of the babies looked so cute in their costumes and we even took them Trick or Treating. (Moms and Dads need candy, too!) It was quite amusing to watch the babies in their costumes - they were sort of poking and pulling at one another, not quite sure what was going on. The night was over by 8pm, and we all couldn't believe how mellow Halloween was now that we have little ones.

Pumpkin Patch

In honor of William's first Halloween, we visited the pumpkin patch on Sunday. Will thoroughly enjoyed people watching...he takes after his mommy and daddy!

9 Months (Almost)

William will be 9 months on Sunday and he just keeps getting bigger! I took him to the doctor yesterday (first ear infection of the school year) and he weighs 21.5 pounds. He finally figured out how to crawl on all fours and he quickly scurries across the room to get all sorts of things. His current favorites include remote controls, shoes, cords and, as always, the cat. He loves to try and copy what we are saying - just the other day we got him to say "hewo." (Of course he knows what he's saying and he means it!) Will pulls himself up and loves to get into the TV armoire. He doesn't quite get the meaning of "no" yet, so we find ourselves picking him up and putting him in a new locale quite often. He is eating more finger foods; today he enjoyed the soft veggies from a pot roast. He smiles constantly, giggles often, and is full of surprises!

8 Months

It is hard to believe that Will is already 8 months old. We are so lucky to have such a great little man that brings us so much joy every day. Will weighs about 21 pounds, has six teeth (four on top, two on bottom), babbles strings of "da" and "ba", but sadly no "ma". He goes to sleep at night like a champ, but still prefers to stay awake during the day. He can feed himself cheerios, puffs and other small bits of food. He prefers mommy for soothing, comfort, and calm. Daddy is best for excitement, laughter, and fun. William loves the cat, but now matter how sweetly he smiles or coos at her, Chewie prefers to run in the opposite direction. He army crawls all over the house and beelines towards the smallest things on the floor. He is pulling himself up on things and has discovered that he can go from his belly to sitting up in just a few short moves. Will started a new daycare this fall and the ladies who care for him can't believe how strong he is. A care giver from another room stopped Marc today and said that he is the cutest baby she has ever seen. We whole-heartedly agree!

6 Month Stats

William had his six month appointment today. He weighs 19lbs, 5 oz and is 27" long. He is in the 50-75th percentile for both length and weight. Dr. Lee told us that the gums for his top four teeth are swollen, so William may add more to the two he already has sometime soon. She was pleased with his growth and development and it was certainly nice to have good news from the doctor's office.

Weekend in Long Beach

Will spent his first of many weekends at Grandpa Gene and Grandma Lisa's vacation home in Long Beach. It was a smaller group this year, but we had a nice time visiting with Marc's grandparents, Gene and Lisa, as well as his brother Jay, wife Jennifer, and soon-to-be baby. We enjoyed great food and each other's company. It was a weekend of firsts for William: meeting Great Grandma and Grandpa Daily, seeing the ocean, and riding a merry-go-round. William got a great new toy from Uncle Jay and Aunt Jen and we was rolling all over the floor to grab at it. People are predicting that he will be crawling within the next couple of weeks, as he kept lifting his but up into the air and trying to scoot around. He still needs to figure out that his arms are an integral part of crawling. We'll see if the predictions are correct. It is exciting to think that at this time next year William will be walking on the beach and will have a new cousin to play with. It will be lots of fun, for sure!

6 Month Photos

We had William's six month photos taken last week and we couldn't be happier with the results. Marc was out of town, which is why he isn't in any of the photos. We'll be going back to get more pictures at the 9 and 12 month mark. We'll get some family shots then, too.

Happy Independence Day!

William will be 6 months old in a few days and we can't believe how much he has grown! He is rolling all over the floor, eating some solid foods (peas and sweet potatoes), sitting up, and cutting two teeth. He has the sweetest disposition and an even sweeter smile and giggle. We spent the holiday barbecuing with the Richards half of the family. Since it was so hot, Grandma and Grandpa Richards brought Will a swimming pool and he just loved it! We had a wonderful time relaxing with the family.

Happy Easter!

Handsome Little Man

William got a chance to sport some fancy duds and wow the ladies at Uncle Bryan's wedding last weekend. The bride was beautiful and both Sasha and Bryan looked so happy! Our little man was quite a sight in his tux...

8 Weeks Old

I can't believe its been a month since we last posted pictures. You'd think we were busy or something!

Today William turned 8 weeks old and we spent our day making a trip to Portland with Grandma Jordan to visit Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Jordan. We had a nice visit! William really enjoyed meeting his other Great-Grandparents.

According to our scale, William weighs in at just over 12 pounds and, according to the very precise markings on his tummy time mat, is around 23 inches long. We go for our two month visit on Thursday, so we'll have his official stats then.

William gives smiles like you wouldn't believe, can mimic us when we stick out our tongue and is getting ready to roll over. His favorite game is to lay on our chest and roll off to the side.

Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure...



Guy Smiley





William's feeling on this year's Mariners.






Raise the Roof!

1 Month!

William is a month old! We haven't been to the doctor since his 2 week appointment (and won't go for another month) but by weighing him at home, I estimate that he's about 10 pounds. He gave us his first smile last week and continues to smile at least once every day. Perhaps the best thing he did on his birthday was go five hours between feedings, which meant that Mom got 4 hours of sleep in a row last night! Lets see if he does the same today!

Yup...He's a Richards!

Need I Say More?

2 Weeks Old

William turned 2 weeks old on Sunday. In his two weeks, William has learned:

• To scream hysterically when getting his diaper changed, especially when we are fastening up the new diaper.
  
• That he enjoys being wide awake anywhere from 3-5 hours at a time, leaving his parents (mom) worried that he's not getting enough sleep. Mom and Dad are thankful that he's not crying while he's awake, but they do wonder what it will take to get this little guy to sleep.
  

Doing Well

We've been at home for four days now and we are settling nicely. William is a very good baby so far (let's keep our fingers crossed). He rarely cries and when he does, he calms very quickly. We feel pretty fortunate. William finally learned to breastfeed on Saturday, so feedings are far less stressful now. Today Marc started going to work half days and Will and I did just fine on our own. We are thankful to all of the people who have brought us meals...its nice not to worry about what's for dinner. Here are some of the latest photos.

We Are At Home!

After 5 days, they finally let us go. We arrived home around 1:00 this afternoon. William has been sleeping since we arrived and we took the first quiet minutes at home to put away our things and get organized before the mayhem begins.

Not Yet...

Dr. Lee met with us this morning and William is doing perfectly fine health wise. The problem is that he is just not eating enough. Right now it is a struggle to keep him awake to eat 45mL of formula/breastmilk from a bottle. He should be eating 60mL (minimally) per feeding. So...she would like us to stick around until we are succesful at getting him to eat. We asked if she thought that there might be a neurological reason why he gets sooo sleepy and lazy when it comes time to eat and she assured us that this wasn't the case. He is just a lazy eater. Like everything else with this guy, he will probably turn it around, but on his own time.

The good news is that he is completely off all his monitors and gets to room in with us from now on. So, we get to have him by ourselves and hang out with him all day privately, just in a little cubicle of a room instead of our own house. While we wish we were home, it has been sort of nice to have a team of nurses who we can turn to with any questions. We know that we are putting a diaper on and burping correctly, we know that the little noises that a newborn makes aren't anything to worry about, etc. In a way its been nice to have been "eased" into parenthood with the help of the nurses.

Lets hope that Little Will decides he likes food today. We keep telling him that there's no way he can be ours if he doesn't like to eat! :-)

Coming Home Soon!

The doctors are pleased with William's progress thus far. This morning his bloodwork showed that his sodium is normal and his bilirubin is still low. We have made some progress breastfeeding, but it seems that William has a weak tongue (according to a lactation consultant). We are pumping what we can and supplementing with formula. We were hesitant to supplement, but the nurses reminded us that we have to look at it as though it is medicine. In order for William to stay off of the IV (which he as been for most of the day) he needs to be eating a certain amount every three hours. Tomorrow we will work with the lactation consultant some more and do our best to get him to latch on for a prolonged period of time. A room opened up for us today, so we are able to spend the night at the hospital until he comes home. They are hopeful that we may all be able to go home tomorrow, but it all depends on his bloodwork tomorrow morning. We'll let you know!

Not Coming Home Yet

I am being discharged today, but William will not be. Unfortunately, they are out of guest rooms for NICU parents, so we will be staying at home without him at night. We only live a few minutes away, so its not too terrible.

We just spoke with Dr. Lee, the pediatrician, and they are going to keep him today and most likely tomorrow. She is fairly certain that the hole in his lung has healed, but they are going to do an xray today to verify that. In checking his blood, they have found that his sodium is low and they don't really know why. They are going to put more sodium in his IV to see if that helps. If they can't get that under control, they might have to send him to Tacoma General. Dr. Lee doesn't think that will have to happen, but she wanted us to be aware that it is a small possibility so that we are not caught off guard if it does. The biggest thing we have to tackle before going home is his feeding. William has not taken to breastfeeding well at all, but they are not ready to give up on that and switch to formula just yet. He is not a very coordinated sucker/swallower, but she said that this sometimes happens to babies that have disorganized and stressful births. My milk has not yet come in (hopefully it will by tomorrow) and perhaps feeding will get easier for him once there is more for him to get. If my milk doesn't come in by tomorrow, or he begins losing weight, we will start him on formula. There is no way to really tell when he will get to go home, we just have to take it day by day and see how he does.

That's the lastest info on our little guy. We are very taken with him, but obviously this is all a bit worrisome.

I've Woken Up!

After spending most of his birthday snoozing, William was finally awake some today. We took these lovely photos after they took him off of oxygen. He looks much better without those tubes!

William Jacob Daily

William was born at 7:31 am on Sunday, January 7th. He weighed 7lbs, 4oz and was 20.5 inches long. They are slowly weaning him off of oxygen and I was able to start breastfeeding him. He is doing very well and we are eager for you to meet him!

Woo hoo! Today was my last appointment!

Well, we had our last trip to the OB's office today. I am so glad that I will no longer be going there three times a week! I am only 1cm dilated and 50% effaced, so there is still a ways to go. If he doesn't come on his own this weekend, then the process of induction begins Tuesday night.

On Tuesday, I will call the Birth Center at 5pm to see if there is room to take me (you don't get a reserved bed with an induction). They will do their best to fit me in since I am being induced for medical reasons. However, if they are full of ladies in labor, there is not much they can do. If they are full, we'll be on standby until they can get us a room.

At any rate, if all goes as planned, I will be admitted Tuesday evening and be given stuff overnight to ripen my cervix. Between 8:30 and 9:30 on Wednesday, the doctor will come to start me on the pitocin and hopefully labor will begin soon after. Depending on how long the labor takes, Baby Daily will make his appearance later that day, or the next.

This is our last weekend of freedom! Weird to think that in 4 more days we'll be in the hospital starting the process of having our baby. WOW!