Sweet Child of Mine: November 2012

Monday, November 19, 2012

The many faces of Hatcher!

Since Hatcher has arrived in our lives, the faces he makes have kept us highly entertained! This post is just to show the many faces that make us laugh!!

This picture was taken in the hospital; Johny calls it his game face! :)

This sweet boy wants to talk so badly!

This is the "I'm making a poopy for you Mommy" face!

This smile melts our hearts! :)

He's so silly!!

He's so happy in the mornings which is so much fun!

You did what?!?!

hehehe!!

I'm pooping...don't look at me! :) haha!

The absolute sweetest smile in the world! :)

When Hatcher was two weeks old, we took him to LaGrange (my hometown) to have his newborn pictures taken & to visit family!

The fabulous Tracy Thompson of Photography by Tracy T took the most beautiful newborn pictures for us! We will cherish them forever! We highly recommend Tracy to all of our family & friends. Below are a few of my favorite pictures from the shoot.

After the session with Tracy, we stayed the weekend & visited with family. Hatcher had not met my Maw Maw or my cousins yet so they had the opportunity to spend some good quality time with him. We also had a cook out at my grandparents house & visited with my sister & parents. It was a wonderful trip & I look forward to Hatch spending lots more time there seeing where mommy grew up!

The car ride to LaGrange

Hatch visiting with Maw Maw!

Poppy & Hatch at our family cook-out!

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Life at Home - Week 1

We left the hospital on Thursday, September 27. Checking into the hospital was a piece of cake but checking out was like an act of congress! It took forever!!

Johny & I were so excited to bring Hatcher home & to introduce him to Dooley! Ok, I have to admit that I was a bit nervous too because Dooley has been the center of our world for 2 years & those who know him know he requires lots of attention. He was great practice for being parents! When we came in he was so excited to see us & ran around in circles. Didn't even pay attention to Hatcher. He & Johny went out in the back yard & ran around before bringing him inside to meet Hatcher. The meeting went great & he even gave Hatch a little kiss to seal the deal! We were so relieved.

For the first two weeks, my mom stayed with us & it was such a blessing! She was a huge help! She kept our house clean, clothes washed & food on the table. I highly recommend to any new parents having some help the first week or two. I was still not getting around really good & having an extra set of hands was helpful. Thank you mom for being there with us!

The first week was fun & definitely an adjustment as we figured things out. It's a process of trial & error for sure. There were many sleepless nights & late night feedings but those are some of my most precious memories!

We had lots of visitors the first week as we introduced Hatch to family & friends! He is one loved little boy! Below are some pictures of him coming home & of him meeting his loved ones.

Mommy & Hatch ready to go home!

My first trip in my car seat! I did great!!

In the car & ready to go home! :)

Annie came to visit us on Saturday!

Watching my first UGA game with daddy!

Loving on Great Grandmother Ricks!

Hatch with Granddaddy!

Hatcher meeting GiGi & Paw Paw (my grandparents)

Hatch meeting PaPa Outlaw (J's grandfather)

Johny, Hatch, Papa Outlaw & cousins Josh & Jake

3 generations! :)

Cousin Jake & Hatcher

Great Aunt Tammie & Hatcher (J's aunt)

Cousin Josh & Hatcher

One of my favorite pictures from H's first week at home! :)

Hatcher's Birth Story

Well, I can't believe it's been 7 weeks since Hatcher's birth & I'm just now blogging! Talk about being way behind. I have so many things I want to post about but I'm going to start with Hatcher's birthday; the best day of our lives! :)

We were scheduled for a c section on Monday, September 24. We had to be at the Medical Center of Central GA in Macon at 8:00 a.m. & my surgery was scheduled for 9:30. We had quite the entourage at the hospital as we arrived & I wouldn't have had it any other way! We arrived a few minutes early & went to get signed in & ready to get the party started. I had done all of my pre-op on Friday so checking in was super easy. I got changed into a lovely hospital gown & we headed to our recovery room where we would stay until time to head to the OR. We had great nurses who constantly checked on us & prepped us for what was about to happen. 9:30 came & went as there was an emergency c section that came in with twins! I was already super nervous about surgery & when things didn't start on time my nerves got worse. Johny was wonderful & really talked me through everything & made me feel so at ease.

Around 10:15 they came & said they were ready for us! The emotions that overcame us were indescribable as we knew we were minutes away from meeting our son! Johny got changed into his scrubs while they performed my epidural. I have to share that Johny was so excited he managed to put his scrubs on backwards which made for some laughter in the OR!! (Sorry honey I had to share!)

I am not going to share all the details of my c section as things didn't go as planned & let's just say it wasn't an easy experience. However, at 10:45 a.m. when I heard Hatcher Thomas Ricks cry for the first time it was all totally worth it!! They cleaned him off & brought him over to us & the nurses took pictures of us as a family of three!

Johny went with the nurses to the nursery as they prepared to bathe Hatch, weigh him & measure him! After surgery, I went straight back to recovery where I stayed for about an hour. Johny came to visit me as I was pretty nauseous & anxious to meet my baby boy. He brought me lots of pictures & started telling me all about him.

When they came in to wheel me to my room, tears of joy came over me as I couldn't wait to hold Hatcher for the first time! I will absolutely never forget that moment between us as I saw him recognize my voice. He was perfect & he was all mine!! God is so good!

Over the next few days, we met with a lactation specialist & learned all about breast feeding. It was quite the challenge at first & Hatcher's blood sugar dropped which scared all of us but my milk came late in the afternoon the second day & all was good! I'm happy to report that we're still breast feeding & have a growing boy!

Originally, we were supposed to be released to go home on Wednesday afternoon but due to the complications of my c section I wasn't able to move around like they had hoped so we didn't go home until Thursday afternoon. As ready as I was to take Hatcher home, I wanted to make sure my body was ready so I could take care of him as best as I could.

I want to thank everyone who came to visit us, sent flowers, called, text & sent us messages on Facebook. We were overwhelmed by the love & support we were shown during such an exciting time!

Below are some pictures I wanted to share with everyone of our sweet boy! :)