Daddy Can Shave Now!!

Wow.... it has been a week since I last posted! I feel like it has been an entire lifetime since then! Long story made short, Addie started to have seizure activity after being born and the doctors admitted her to the NICU at Presbyterian once they discovered this.... about 5 minutes before we were set to be discharged on Memorial Day.

It's been a crazy week - poor little girl has had a series of tests (CT, MRI, MRA, MRB, Echo, EEG, EKG, Bilirubin... the works) to figure out what was going on. Long story made really short, her labor was really long and really hard and it caused her brain to be deprived of oxygen causing some spots in her brain to be damaged (seen on the MRIs). It was not picked up on immediately because her APGARs were great and she was acting developmentally appropriate. After a week in the NICU and one large dose of phenobarbitol, Addie is seizure free and seems to be developing perfectly fine. She is even attempting to lift up her little head at 5 days old!

While she was in the NICU, Lee decided that he was not going to shave until he could bring his little girl home. Well he stayed with a beard for the first 5 days but had to shave most of it off on Friday because he thought he was going to have to go back to work for a week (so he didn't use his last week of vacation going to visit at the NICU which he could do before and after work). He shaved to a mustache which he is allowed to have at work... only to walk in to find out our little girl was getting out of jail! :-) (no really, the Presby NICU nurses are and were awesome to us and treated Addison (they called her the "big NICU baby" lol) just like she was one of their own).

Saturday was a big day for us... we got to go to the NICU and sign out our little girl! We got her home, she ate (she's eating 5 oz at a time almost and sleeping for 4 hours a stretch praise God), pooped, and then went to sleep.... it was so weird to have her in the house but it was awesome!

The puppies are adjusting well to having her around. I am sorely disappointed in Paige who has all but ignored Addie. She's wagged her tail, licked her once, and otherwise seemed completely apathetic. Brutus has yet to determine how he feels. He is the most interested in Addison's movements... but goes back and forth between licking her and waggin' his tail and barking in her general direction. Andie has done the best... for all of the people who were "concerned" that we were going to keep our Rottie... she thinks she is Addison's mom or something... she follows us around and lays at our feet wherever Addie is. She is not a fan of Addison crying and seems to get upset that we are not "fixing" things quickly enough!

Throughout this entire week we have just been reminded of how great our God is. My friend Lauren sent me this JJ Heller song that pretty much sums it up: "When my world is shaking, Heaven stands; When my heart is breaking, I never leave Your hands."

We are so blessed to have such fantastic family and friends. Everyone has been so supportive of us through the difficult labor and then the week in the NICU. Big shout out to Jason and Alesha for staying at our house and putting up with the puppies :-)

Addison Riley Saunders

Welcome to the world Addison Riley Saunders! 8 lbs 9oz, born at 8:51am, May 29, 2010 was a big day for our little girl: not just Caleb and Adrienne's 6th wedding anniversary, but also Lee's Sgt Tellis' birthday, and the day that Rebekah Goode swore Addie would be born on.

More pics and info to come!

Baby Watch 2010...

Wanted...One Baby to Fill this Nursery:








Well, the nursery is done, the bags are pretty much packed, I even vacuumed and steam cleaned! All that's left is the baby! So far no word on when she's going to decide to come out and meet us...Lee keeps thinking she will come May 25 or 26... who knows though, if she's anything like her parents she'll be stubborn and make us wait! :-)

Until then Lee will keep going to protect the Queen City one hoodlum at a time and I'll keep working at Holt until Addie drops out!

Adrienne and Caleb- it was so great to get to talk to you guys on Friday!! Lee says that you can see this blog so I uploaded the pics here... there will be more on facebook, it just takes forever to post a pic to blogger :-) Love you guys!

Everyone else - fret not, either the blog or facebook will be updated when we go to the hospital to meet Addison....not everyone will get a call from us but anyone in our various family and friendship circles will be communicated with (hopefully)!

Catch you on the flip side!

I got your crazy

"You say I'm crazy? I got your crazy" - Britney Spears


Ahh, God bless Britney and her quotes to defend "the crazy." I started this blog in the hopes of giving a glimpse into our honest to goodness everyday life.... so I suppose that means you all get insight to the good, the bad, and today, the prego....
(duh duh duh)

[side note, I am fully aware that by saying "you all" that means you mom... and maybe 1 or 2 others... lol]

Anywho, so we all know that even non-knocked up Crystal is pretty serious about her lawn... I mean, I have been known to cut it twice just to get a grid pattern and then post a pic to facebook... I realize, I'm a dork.

So I've kept up with mowing the lawn, even as I've gotten more and more preggers (I figure it's just walking, heck, I'm even leaning on the mower handle itself and it is self-propelled so I don't see the harm in it)... So the grass is finally back to being green and thick and it's pretty freakin' fantastic if I don't say so myself... here... see for yourself.


That's right, you're jealous... don't judge, I feel like I am in some kind of candid camera competition with the teenage boys down the street who make their grass look better than mine...

So long story longer, it flat out pisses me off when inconsiderate people park on my grass. I realize that the fine people at the City of Charlotte actually own the strip of grass between the road and the sidewalk, but if I'm expected to keep it up, I expect people not to freakin' park their vehicles on it. Call it a pet peeve, but few things fire me up more than walking out and seeing tires in the middle of my grass.... or parked like this moron:


So tonight I go out to get some groceries and see that someone yet again is having a party and out of the 7 cars parked along my area of sidewalk, 4 of out of them are parking in the middle of the grass by the sidewalk.

I try to be responsible.... "Crystal, you're pregnant, you don't need stress.. and flipping out on your front grass is not a good thing..." I take some deep breaths, slam my car door to make myself feel better, and leave to go to the store.

Upon my return home I find a black Impala has parked, not only on my grass, but 1/2 in front of my driveway! Literally blocking my driveway and I had to drive on my actual FRONT LAWN just to GET INTO MY OWN DRIVEWAY.

To further add insult to injury, said owner of the car was walking out of my neighbor's house and proceeded to glare at me as I tried to maneuver around her car just to pull into my driveway.

I'm not proud, but the crazy came out... and I well, lost it. Big. Time. I definitely yelled at the lady who turned out to be about 55 (which kind of took the wind out of my sails a bit). By the time I got inside I realized that I had yelled so loudly that my own dogs cowered as I walked in to the house and slammed the door for good effect. I just might be slightly embarrassed now that I've calmed down...

So yeah.... "you call me crazy? I got your crazy."

Could We Just Be Normal For Once?

I expected this pregnancy and our life afterwards to be "normal".... don't know why, nothing else in our lives has been normal yet, but for some odd reason, I realized today that I really been hoping, rather, expecting "normal." Normal... whatever the heck that even means.

I completely expect being tired, exhausted, confused, dirty even.... but I'm finding that I'm way more of a control freak than I realized... I think the more that I try to plan for this baby's arrival the worse I am beginning to feel about our situation.

I joke that I watch 16 and Pregnant to feel better about ourselves and our situation... hey, we have a house, 2 jobs, and health insurance (for what it's worth).... we're much better off than so and so.... However Lee did point out to me the other day that comparing ourselves to the stupid teenagers wasn't exactly raising the bar very high for us to climb.

I spent the first 4 months of this pregnancy puking.... that's right, there aren't many places in Charlotte that I didn't christen... so I figured once food stayed down things were fan-freakin'-tastic... I mean, I was eating....that was worth its weight in gold to me.

The closer it gets to Addie's arrival the more I realize that the puking part may have been the most "normal" part of this whole deal.... everyone has their opinions and God knows that everyone wants to tell you their opinions... or more, how your opinion is ridiculous compared to some book they've read or some article or some experience they've had. I'm a firm believer in learning by doing... always have been... I rarely read directions (well, at least not all the way through).... I don't like asking for help... I like to try to figure it out on my own. But this whole baby thing is gonna be a whole other beast...you think of "normal" Cleaver-esque type of existance... dad works 9-5, mom takes care of baby, house is spotless.... Whatever! I suppose it will all work itself out and things will just fall into place, it's just difficult to try to think now how it will all look when it does.

For us, "normal" will be me working 7-4, Lee working 1-11 (or 12 or 1 or 2...) Addie chillin' in daycare for the afternoons (which may be the most "normal" part of it all)... oh, and throw 3 dogs into the mix. I have not a clue how a single parent does it... I haven't even figured out how we are going to get the grass mowed with only 1 of us being home at the same time with Addie... I mean, even I realize that you can't exactly strap baby on in the baby carrier and go about mowing the grass!

I don't know, at this point I think I'm just a huge pregnant, emotional, and slightly swelling preggo who is realizing more and more that this is gonna be one heck of a ride for the next 18 years!