I'm Dreaming of...

a white Christmas.

And how sweet it is that we got some white stuff for Baby Boy's first Christmas.

As you can see he enjoyed watching every minute of the falling snow. 

 All the while this little lady ate up every bit of attention from her grands over the holidays.

One of the moments I have been anticipating for weeks was December 24th.  While on bed rest with McClain, I would look at the days on the calendar counting down to Christmas Eve.  I held onto the short term dream of making it through the pregnancy, and holding my newborn closely during our church's Christmas Eve service.  My moment came.  How thankful I was to celebrate my son's birth, along with the Risen Son's birth.  

Loving my two babes (and Lindsay) on Christmas morning.

So I have to say that life with two kids is wonderful, but totally crazy.  Especially when your 16 month old gets sick and passes it onto your two week old during the week of Christmas.  But we survived the germs, the interrupted sleep, the hustle and bustle, the white stuff, and even squeezed in family time with everyone.  

We spent some time as a family of four Christmas morning.  Even though Santa took a sabbatical from our house this year, we enjoyed our morning just lounging in our pj's and playing Christmas music.  And I do mean live music from our two in house musicians...

We had Christmas lunch with my mom and her side of the family and then went to my dad's for dinner.  It was a cold day to be out and about, but little buddy snuggled up by the fire at Pop Pop's and kept warm.

And Lucy Mills basically was into everything that day, but she looked so darn cute so we allowed it.

The day after Christmas, Travis' mom, dad, and brother joined us.  I think Santa dropped off our presents at their house because they brought all the loot.

Including Lucy Mills' very own pink reading chair! 

Testing out her new seat.  I think it's a keeper. 

God has certainly blessed us in 2010.  Bring on the new year! 

Our Grands are Grand!

We have four pretty amazing people to thank for standing by our side these past few months.  Well actually these past 30 years...give or take a few.  Little McClain could have been born extremely prematurely had you not stepped in to take care of us.  

My mom, Suggie or "Gee" as Lucy Mills has dubbed her, moved in with us when I came home from my stay at Richland.  She did everything required of a homemaker which enabled me to stay put in the bed.  I could rest assured knowing that everything was taken care of with Shugs around.

Here she is snuggling McClain.

My dad, aka Pop Pop, provided the means for us to hire help outside of the home.  What a blessing that was! Now what am I going to do since I have grown accustomed to house cleaners and babysitters??? Back to reality! 

After two daughters and a granddaughter Pop Pop finally has a boy! 

And what would we have done without my sweet in laws? You would never know that they do not live locally with all of the help they have given us.  Grandmother and Granddaddy graciously took time off of work to help us. Grandmother always brought books and new toys to keep our little girl occupied.  Since I had to be inside our four walls, that usually meant that she did too.  Thanks to Grandmother, Lucy Mills always had fun things to do. 
In God's perfect way of timing things, my father in law arrived on the Sunday night before I was admitted to the hospital at 30 weeks.  The entire week I was gone, he single handily took care of Lucy Mills.  They have been best buds ever since.

Getting their fill of McClain.

And here are three generations of Mason men. McClain's first name is Robert named for his grandfather.  

Many thanks to you four!
  I don't know how we can ever repay you. 

Mr. McClain

McClain definitely wins the prize for the best baby award.  

He has a sweet, but laid back and easy going personality (so far).  We have even dubbed him "laid back Mac" around our house because he just seems to go with the flow.  And he would have to since big sister seems to rule the roost most days...

McClain is a week and a half old and has been a pure joy to have in our family.  He is an excellent sleeper - he has only been waking up once in the middle of the night for a feeding. Yet Travis and I are still finding ourselves sleep deprived and unbelievably exhausted.  

Go figure.  

McClain has been eating well and his reflux and milk allergy are doing much, much better than when we were in the hospital.  He loves to snuggle, look at the lights on the Christmas tree, and basically just chill out.  Thank you God in Heaven for giving me such an agreeable baby! 

Here are a few pictures of little man's first week at home:

giving mommy a little wave...

Sweet Siblings...

...well sort of.  Let me explain.  

One of the moments I have been anticipating for months was when Lucy Mills would meet McClain.   These two would end up being about 15 months apart in age so I thought that she may not be too aware about what was going on when he arrived.  While she has added "baby" and "brubba" (brother) to her ever expanding vocabulary, would she actually know that McClain was ours for keeps? 

Eager to see "her baby."

Although hesitant at first, it seemed that everything had started out well.

Perhaps she even wanted to hold him.

"Here he comes Lucy Mills..."

And we are not a fan.

Looks like we may have some adjusting to do on the home front.

But after some comforting and reassurance from Grandmother and Grandaddy, 

Lucy Mills realized that this big sister gig may not be so bad after all.

She even started giving Baby McClain kisses...

Even though the grand introduction to her baby brother didn't go as smoothly as I had anticipated, Lucy Mills has done extremely well with him since we have been home.  She loves to give McClain kisses, bring him his paci, point out that he has hair and ears.  But in my opinion the cutest thing is when he cries (which is rare!) her eyes well up with these huge crocodile tears.  She has such a tender heart and can't bear for her baby to be upset.  We took both kids to the pediatrician the other day for check ups and when the nurse started to examine McClain he let out a few whimpers.  Lucy Mills started balling so much that Travis had to take her out of the room to calm her down.  

I love that she is already sensitive to her brother even though they are still so young.  My prayer is that these two will be best friends and always look out for each other.  

How could you not love this little angel face? 

And for the sake of comparison:


Lucy Mills at 2 days old

McClain at 2 days old

What do you think...see any resemblance? 
{Besides the crooked hats}

12-10-10

 I am not really sure how to start this post other than to say that December 10th did not turn out quite how I expected.  Well, I did end up with a baby by the end of the longest day so I suppose we can say goal accomplished.

The Lord has faithfully answered so many prayers along this journey and this day was no different.  To my amazement I was able to stay pregnant with the plan to induce at the 36 week mark.  I was previously induced with Lucy Mills at 36 weeks and my labor with her took 11 hours before she made her grand entrance into the world.  So naturally I figured that this labor and delivery would follow suit. 

After kissing my sweet little girl goodbye, enjoying a quick date night dinner (at 4 o'clock!) with my husband, I checked into the Labor and Delivery unit at the hospital ready to get the show on the road.  I was given cervadil which the doctor said should speed the labor process along.  She said that with the progress I had already made that the baby would probably arrive no later than noon the following day.  Off to dreamland I went with the anticipation of being a mother of two within hours.  

Well by morning I was still 2 cm dilated.  So no change there.

I was given pitocin to speed up my contractions.  Still no change.

She broke my water.  No change. 

Okaaay.

The hours inched by and the pain increased.  The anesthesiologist was called in three times because my epidural continued to wear off throughout the day.  This was a much different experience than the last time.  After 16 hours of labor I made the difficult decision to surrender to a c-section.  I never made it past 6 cm (and held there for 4 hours) and never fully effaced.  Part of me felt like a failure, but when Dr. Jones looked at me and asked me "if I was ready to meet my son," I knew it was time.  My blood pressure had thankfully stayed in the normal range all day but around hour 16 of labor it started to spike.  This was getting to be too much.  I knew that the goal was a healthy baby and a healthy mama, even if things didn't go according to my plan.  

I was prepped and taken back to the operating room where Travis and I laid eyes on 

Robert McClain Mason 

for the very first time. 

I know c-sections are a pretty common practice these days, but my experience was not very kind.  My preeclampsia had totally stressed out my liver and kidneys, and as we later found out my heart.  Therefore I bled entirely too much during the surgery.  Ten hours after McClain was born, I was doing cardiograms, heart ultrasounds, and finding out that a cardiologist had been called into see me.  Apparently my heart rate sky rocketed while my hemoglobin levels dropped, leaving me borderline risk for cardiac arrest.  Add severe dehydration to the mix meant things were pretty scary.  My third night in the hospital I had a blood transfusion which seemed to do the trick.  I felt much better afterwards and everything seemed to correct itself. 

Seeing this little bundle lifted my spirits entirely.

I only share the details of this pregnancy and delivery as a reminder that God is sovereign and totally in control.  I am grateful that He brought me through the suffering and now I am enjoying such a sweet reward.  Lucy Mills and McClain are the joys of my life and I see them as the gifts that they are. 

 

                                  How blessed am I that the Lord chose me to influence their little souls?

The Baby Boy I Never Knew I Always Wanted

The house is quiet, the kids are sleeping, and the only light is the glow that comes from the twinkling white ones that adorn the Christmas tree.  
This is the moment I have waited months for.  
The moment when the pregnancy was behind me and I was home with my son.  


I have so much on my heart and so much I want to record on here - 
the story of his birth, my health scares, the first time my children met each other.  
But for now I will just bask in the peacefulness of this sweet moment, curled up in my white and blue bath robe, to reflect on how much I love my little boy.  

You see I have always been somewhat partial to girls.  I come from a family of girls, I have always babysat for girls, and I have a little girl.  So when I found out that McClain was on the way I was nervous about what kind of mom I would be to this little man.  
How would I do with someone who loved tractors, trains, bugs and ballparks? 


Let me just say that I am madly, ridiculously, over the moon in love with my baby boy.  I can not get enough of his sweetness.  My friends with boys always told me that there is a special bond with mothers and sons.  They would go on and on about how boys love their mamas.  All I heard was "you just wait Lil, he is going to steal your heart." I just could not grasp the concept until the nurse handed me my sweet McClain.  

It's been a hard journey to get to this place, but I look forward to every moment of life with my little one. After all he is the baby boy I never knew I always wanted.  

Baby Boy is Here!

"For this child I prayed and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of Him."

1 Samuel 1:27

Robert "McClain" Mason

12-10-10

10:01 pm

6 lbs. 7 ozs.