Ansley's Pics

Yes, I have a free minute to sit down and type...alone.  These moments are rare.  Life is going very well, but extremely busy.  I knew two children would be hard, but I had no idea it would be this busy!  A friend told me that one was hard, but two felt like 200.  Most days that's how it feels!  I wanted to show you some of the pictures Ashlee Culverhouse took for Ansley's three year old pictures. They were too precious.  I hope to update again soon on lots of our previous life happenings....Halloween, Ansley's 3rd Birthday, Thanksgiving, and of course our Christmas celebrations.

Newborn Photos

I was so excited to open the mailbox this afternoon and see my long awaited package...the CD from Ashlee Culverhouse Photography.  I have religiously checked the box each day to see if it was there.  Finally, today it arrived!  The sweet pictures did not disappoint either.  I wanted to share a few with you.  Happy Thursday!

Four Weeks Today...

I can't believe we are getting close to ONE month!  On September 12th, Will will officially be one month, but today marks exactly four weeks from his arrival date.  We're all doing well and settling into our new normalcy.  Life with two is hard...much harder than I thought.  There isn't a spare moment to do anything.  Ansley has transitioned well though.  She had a few rough moments, but overall she did really great.  She loves to hold him and does a great job with him.  She's been a big helper in getting burp cloths and helping mommy put up everyone's clean clothes.  Will is growing and doing great too.  He's eating around 3.5-4 oz which is great.  He is a very happy and calm baby, only crying when he's hungry, tired, or needs a diaper change.  He's still eating right at 3 hours which is pretty time consuming, but I think he will start making it longer soon...I hope any way!  We've had a few rough nights, but that's to be expected.  The hardest part with two is trying to keep everything quiet at night so the whole house doesn't wake up! 

We had Ashlee Culverhouse come over to take Will's newborn pictures.  I wanted some with Ansley in there too.  She and Will both did so great at the session.  I was amazed at how she listened and cooperated! :)  Will slept for half of the session and then was awake.  He never cried and let her take all the pictures she wanted.  I can't wait to see all of them, but for now, I'll post two sneak peaks. 

We ventured out of the house for the UGA game two weekends ago.  We went down to Griffin and Allison's house.  College football watching sure has changed now that everyone has kids!  :)

For the most part though, we have been staying at home and relaxing.  I'm feeling almost back to normal and hoping to get out of the house more often.  For now though, I'm enjoying my sweet time with Will.

Obviously this was taken before Will arrived, but it's one of the only pregnancy pictures I have.  Mr. Bo Arnold took this at Griffin and Allison's shower three days before Will made his arrival.

Ansley and Will were ready to cheer on the Dawgs!  Ansley's got her Dawg cheer down! :)

I'm in love with these.

Our sweet Will...so beautiful!

William Callison Greer

We are so happy to introduce our newest family member, William Callison Greer.  Will was born on August 12, 2014 at 6:35 am.  He weighed 7 pounds 2.9 ounces and was 20 inches long.  His scheduled delivery was actually August 20th, but he decided he was ready to come a little early.

When I found out I was due in August, the first thing I thought of was school starting back.  The beginning of each school year is a very busy time.  I knew a lot of work needed to be done before I could leave for maternity leave so I worked all summer to get things ready.  With Ansley coming so early, I had no idea what my future with Will's pregnancy would be.  All along, I said I just wanted to meet my students before having the baby.  Ultimately, I would have liked to have worked the first week.  Well, Will listened to my request and let me meet my kids.  I made it through pre-planning and the first day of school before Will decided to make his appearance.

Monday night, Mitch and I were watching TV when I started having mild contractions.  They weren't too painful, but I noticed that they were rhythmic.  I decided to go to bed and see if I could sleep through them.  They began to get stronger and a little closer to each other.  Eventually, they were every 10 minutes over a 2 hour time period.  I knew they needed to be closer, but I called the DR to make sure.  Sure enough, he told me to wait.  I waited and noticed they were getting stronger.  I had a few other "labor" symptoms show up, so I called the DR back.  He told me to come in to get checked out.  We arrived at the hospital at around 2:30 am.  Mitch's mom came over to watch Ansley, and then my sister came to relieve her.

They checked me and noticed I had some labor signs and decided to do the C-section at 6:00 am.  We let our family know the great news, and then we had to wait out those long 4 hours.  My contractions were pretty strong and closer at that point, so it was a long few hours. 

Everything went well with the C-section for the most part.  Mitch had to be wheeled out because he thought he was going to pass out.  He doesn't do well in hospital situations.  He ended up being fine and being able to go to the nursery when Will was born, but we didn't get any pictures of him during delivery.  We laugh about the situation now, but I was a little worried about Mitch during the time.

Will has been a great baby so far.  He does a lot of sleeping and just fusses when he's hungry or has tummy issues.  Ansley has been adjusting well too.  She doesn't understand why she can't help do everything, but she's starting to learn.  We're trying to include her in as much as she can help with.  She's enjoyed holding him and watching us change his diaper.  The transition for her is getting better too.  Her world was rocked upside down for a few days, but things seem to be settling into place.  We're trying to keep her daily routine as normal as possible right now.  For now, I'm enjoying some recovery time at home with my sweet and handsome fella.

Here are some pictures from his delivery.  Please excuse my look in these photos.  At that point, Mitch and I had been up over 24 hours and we were exhausted!!

Life Lately!

Well, it's July the 9th.  I just looked and my last blog was on February 17th!  I am a terrible blogger.  Honestly, I had to try three passwords before I could even log in to blog tonight.  I've been so tired each night, and after I put Ansley to sleep, the last thing I've wanted to do is blog.  The biggest reason is that my pictures are on my camera, iPhone, Facebook, Mitch's iPhone, and everywhere else.  It's a chore to get them all loaded, BUT I did it tonight! :)  So, here's a quick recap of our life happenings the past few months. 

First, our sweet neighbors and friends, Chris and Amy, had baby Kennedy. Ansley is in love with baby Kennedy.  We talk about her every.single.day!  "What's baby Kennedy doing?" is something I hear a lot!  Ansley was thrilled to get to hold sweet Kennedy.

 

 I think Easter was the next big thing to take place.  It was rainy and cold the day of the church Easter Egg Hunt, but that didn't stop this little one from having fun.  She definitely knew how to hunt eggs this year!

 

 

 We also had fun dying eggs.  Ansley loves doing anything with her daddy!

 The Easter Bunny came Sunday morning and brought a few goodies. 

Look at that perfect golfer's stance!  I think she's seen this done a few times in our living room!

 

 

 We did get a family picture at church, but I'm not really sure where it is right now.  :)

We've celebrated a few birthday parties with friends and had fun swimming and playing outside too.

We recently celebrated the 4th of July with our friends and neighbors.  A fun time was had by all.

 

Mitch and I celebrated 6 years of marriage with a little "babymoon" trip to Buckhead too.  We ate lots of yummy food and enjoyed relaxing for a change.

 

We've been really busy getting ready for our new addition, William (Will) Callison Greer.  We've been so very blessed to have three sweet showers for baby Will.  My awesome co-workers gave me a sweet shower on the last day of post-planning.  I had such a great time celebrating with them.  Sorry for the TERRIBLE picture.  Believe it or not, this was about the best one of me.  I'm not that photogenic, especially being pregnant.

Mitch's Aunt Brenda also gave us a really sweet shower.  Ansley was invited to this one and had a blast opening Will's gifts.

 

My sister and brother-in-law also gave us a Diapers and Wipes Party.  We decided to include family only and include the guys and children in this party.  The food was amazing and we are all stocked up on diapers and wipes now!  Sadly, we didn't do a good job of documenting anything from that party.  :(

I've also been busy getting the nursery ready.  Ansley was born at 33 weeks, and I was NOWHERE near ready on the nursery when she arrived.  Although we don't think Will will be coming early, I have been extra careful to get the nursery done early!  I think I put most of the finishing touches on this afternoon.  I'm sure I'll add a few more details, but it's pretty much ready! 

I have a to-do list of things I need to do before he actually arrives, so I would like for him to wait the rest of the 6 weeks until my C-section!  We are so blessed with how generous everyone has been, and we can't wait to meet him.

A quick update on Ansley before I end my post tonight.  Ansley is 2 1/2 and is so much fun.  She's in the 11% for weight and 88% for height!  She's definitely built like her daddy, long and lean. She's a typical 2 year old with LOTS of energy!  She wakes up ready to go each morning.  She started sleeping in a big girl bed in January, and she's finally consistently staying in there.  She is very excited about being a big sister to Baby Will.  She has a hard time saying her 'w' though, so she tells everyone that his name is Bill.  :)  It's been funny to watch everyone's reactions to the name Bill.  She talks nonstop and is VERY inquisitive.  I know her questions are a good thing, but they can be quite exhausting!  We are definitely in the "WHY?" stage.  She will continue to ask why until she gets an acceptable answer too!  :)  We are also potty trained which is a huge relief!  It was definitely a task, but she's doing wonderful with it!  We can't wait to see how she interacts with Will and how great of a big sister she will be.  I know there will be some adjustments, but we know she will fall in love with him so quickly!  Pray for us as we transition into this next phase pf our life.  I promise to try to blog more frequently.  :)