On Daddy's Watch

From 11:00 PM to 5:00 AM is daddy time! I get to clean and feed Will and tend to his every need. Now typically I tend to be a bit of night owl; one of the great gifts of working full-time while going through school a tad more than full-time, so these hours are quite acceptable for me. Lately however Will has really started to like staying up ALL NIGHT with daddy! He usually stays asleep from 11:30 'til 12:15 AM which leaves the balance of the time up to my expert abilities to goof around with my boy and become a bit psychotic from sleep deprivation.

A little needy are we Bella?

Lola Bella has been adapting pretty well to her new brother and is mostly scared to death of him. We have been watching her every move just to be careful and she is still unsure of the newest addition to our family. She will sniff and sniff William and get pretty close until he decides to stretch and move and then she jumps back and hides. She is so sweet and gets really concerned when he cries though and watches with intent while we hustle about calming him down. Bella is feeling a little neglected though and is constantly climbing on our laps while we are holding Will. I am sure it is funny to see with both Will and Bella in our lap! Even though she is scared she has to always be touching me or Mike.

Tough Guy, Ehh?

So Will has decided he no longer needs to wear his O2 in his nose and every time I turn around he is wearing it some other way. It is so funny to see how much he hates it and watch him find ways to pull it off. The other morning he had pulled it off and was wearing it as a necklace, it was awesome. My personal fav is the Vampire look!
I have even triple taped it down, yes I said TRIPLE taped it down and he still manages to get it off somehow. In this pic he is asleep, holding it out of his nose! You can see his little cheek is being pulled by all the tape but apparently it’s better than having the O2 in his nose. .
I guess we are both counting down the days until he no longer needs it!

William Came Home!

We are so excited to let everyone know that William came home around 11 am yesterday! It was the perfect birthday present even if it was a day late. He is still on his oxygen but they were able to send us home with a whole system to take care of him. Its actually pretty cool and not as intimidating as I was imaging it would be. Right now we have a small travel tank and monitor that we can take anywhere and they will be bringing a big stationary system for the house. Its nice because it alarms us when is breathing isn't right so we don't have to constantly be worrying if he is breathing ok. We are so happy to have him home! His first night was really good and he is such a sweetie! He is still eating really good and a pretty mellow baby so far. He has an amazing ability to pee on me pretty much every time I change his diaper though! As for visiting William the doctors told us to be extra cautious still so please be patient everyone. We promise you can meet him as soon as he is ready!

Will

Here are some updated pics. We cant believe Will is already 2 weeks old today!

Our Baby Shower

Here are a few pics from our fun baby shower! Who knew that 4 days later little William would decide to make his grand entrance into the world! We had so much fun and had so much support from all of our friends and family. Thanks to Stacy and Whitni for all the small details, we loved it!

More Oxygen Please!

Since our last post Will is back on oxygen. It was literally the next day they had to put him back on. He is still just trying to completely develop his little lungs and it is hard to go in every day and see him still needing it. The doctor this morning was saying they might consider sending him home on it if he still needs it after he has everything else ready to go. This scares me like crazy! As if being new parents we aren't scared enough already!! But we know he still has a long way to go before they even consider this. Good news though, Will has started nursing! They moved him to a Stage 2 feeding (this is good) which means he gets to nurse every 6 hours instead of just receiving his food through his tube every time. This also means lots of time in Mommy's arms!! He is also completely off of his IV and putting on weight. I have decided for every ounce he gains I should automatically loose a pound, wouldn't that be nice! He gets to wear clothes now and he looks so dang cute in them. Will is also a little flirt and has many of the nurses switching assignments so they can take care of him. We love it! All in all things are going good and we look forward to the little improvements and strengths Will makes every day.
Thanks for all the love and support!
Jamie

The Blog Lady

Many of you probably experienced the same thing I did in my hometown. We had a bag lady. The bag lady was of course crazy and had lots and lots of, well, bags. My bag lady actually had a coat made out of bags which I imagine was quite nice during the monsoon season in Utah (next Friday afternoon from 2:00 PM to 2:12 PM, watch out all you in the area). As Jamie and I use our reusable grocery bags (courtesy of Trader Joes) I wonder what today's bag ladies will do when their bags disappear? Quite disconcerting! Anyway the bag lady came to mind after I decided on the title of this entry. Such a person should in no way be thought to be what I am comparing my wife to; rather just a trite introduction to my wife's diligent efforts at keeping our blog safe and sound!

As we were waiting to visit Will at 8:00 PM tonight Jamie and I were updating the blog. I feel sorry for some of you who feel obligated to read each of my inane updates, however; I am completely enthralled with being a Daddy! Jamie has decided my role is to be the creative "dork" for the blog and she will proof read. These pictures were taken as she was enjoying the recent slide show of Sir William. I thought she looked absolutely gorgeous, and even more so when you realize she had just given birth. Regardless, she always looks amazing!

No O2 for You!

As some of you may know Jamie and I have been enjoying a crazy schedule of every three hours we either rush to the hospital or pump... ok so Jamie has been enjoying a crazy schedule! Anyway one of the results of this schedule is that it seems like weeks since William joined us because we come and go from the hospital so often. Our usual hospital attendance is: 8 AM, 2 PM, 5 PM, 8 PM & 11 PM. All shifts (except 2 AM, 5 AM, 11 AM). We go home in between and run some errands before returning. 8 PM & 11 PM usually allows us to sit in the cafeteria and work on some of the things outstanding. Jamie actually accomplishes things; I sit here and look at pictures of Will. I should of course be studying for my finals, but why right? :) Ok, so back to the point.

At our 5:00 PM session tonight we walked in and noticed Will didn't have any O2 flowing through his little nose pipes! We asked the nurse and she said he'd been off the air for the past few hours and was doing really well! They hadn't increased his O2 percentage beyond standard 21% we all breath, but Will has needed a bit of pressure to keep him breathing normal. Things appear fine now though; let’s hope he keeps it up! Additionally it had been about 18 hours since his last BM. When we left in the morning they were going to give him a suppository, luckily they couldn't find one and when they were finally ready to give it to him he had a surprise waiting. The nurses laughed at how heavy his diaper was. It's nice to know our boy is efficient and decides that why poop all day when you can have one massive diaper! He must get that efficiency trait from his mom.

So in summary he is progressing VERY WELL. He still needs to get rid of a bit of jaundice and they want to make sure he can start actually eating (he is fed through a tube presently) but otherwise is doing awesome.

Below is a little slide show I threw together from our morning visit. As Jamie would talk to Will he would respond amazingly well! His facial expressions tell it all! He would smile, look bewildered, and finally when mom got quiet he put his hand by his ear for her to speak up! Hope you all enjoy it!

Addresses

I am trying to get ahead and caught up on a bunch of things before Will comes home and it would really help if everyone would send me an email with their home addresses. Even if you think I have it, please send it to me again! Thanks!

jamie_leigh_21@hotmail.com

I Love You Mommy!

So yesterday while Jamie and I were hanging out with Will, Jamie started talking to him and sure enough I looked over to him using his only known word in American Sign Language:

Yeah he loves his mommy!

Our Handsome Little Guy

Let me first say thanks for all the love and support we have felt the past few days. It is hard to believe it has only been 3 short days since our little guy decided to come, it feels like weeks have passed. We are so lucky to have such amazing friends and family that are there for us. We apologize for any unreturned calls, texts, or hurt feelings the past couple of days have been crazy. Lets get to the good stuff though!!

Mike has been amazing at updating the blog but he is missing a few of the specifics. William Garrett Scott (or Will for short) joined us on Wednesday April 30th at 4:14 PM. He weighed 6lbs 6ozs and is 19 1/2 inches long which is not bad at all for 5 weeks early! He is the most handsome little guy I have ever seen in my life!!! His personality is already well established and all the nurses love giving us his updates. He is very social and loves attention and being touched. When ever he gets fussy he often calms himself by rubbing his hands on his face (if you remember the ultra sound he has loved putting his hands in front of his face from the beginning) and loves to squirm around all the time! We finally get to hold him again and Will loves being held and cuddled and definitely gets this from his mommy. He also absolutely hates all his breathing and feeding tubes and pulls them out multiple times a day. The nurses have tried everything and he still manages to get them out somehow! I think he must get this from his daddy :)

It has been really hard to leave him at the hospital (I came home Thursday night) but we know he needs to get a lot stronger before he can come home. The nurses at LDS are awesome and include us in so much though. Our favorite is what the Special Needs Nursery calls CARES. Every three hours we get to go and help take care of his daily needs. We get to change his diaper, check his temperature, feed him, and brush his hair. This is also when we get to hold him. It is my favorite part of the day and I look forward to every second I get to feel like more apart of his life. Will loves his dark thick hair getting brushed and is content to be in our arms. I look forward to him being healthy and being able to come home. It is rough but I am so thankful for Mike and his strength.

I promise to call when things settle down and we get him home so please don't get offended. For now the best way to keep update is our blog. We love you all so much!

Doing Better! (Updated)

*** Just added some new photos to the slide show below this afternoon***
So we just stopped in this morning to check in on William. He is doing much better! They decided he didn't need the all the extra gadgets hooked up and his breathing has stabelized. Jamie will add a bit in a minute, I just wanted to add some photos.



Feel free to click on the slideshow to see the photos one by one on Picasa.

What happened to my calendar!?

Anyone who has either worked or gone to school with me (or even tried to hang out) knows that my life is run through my outlook calendar. If it's not on there, I won't remember it and you will be enjoying a nice big burger at Squattersall by yourself! For some reason nobody told our child that!

So at 3:15 AM on April the 30th little William Garrett Scott decided he wanted to start his long trek out to see the world! I guess William didn't understand he was supposed to wait until June 1st to begin his quest. Jamie woke me a little while later around 5:00 AM to tell me we needed to go to the hospital because it appeared her water had broken. I will spare you a lot of the details involved, however; suffice it to say we both imagined we could just get this fixed and wait a few more weeks. Upon arrival and check in (me in my stellar Board Shorts & Flip Flops) they informed us that today we would be having a baby. Shock and awe are really the only words to describe it. We knew William had been developing well beyond what he was supposed to; but still 5 weeks early couldn't be good!

From 6:00 AM to about 12:30 PM Jamie endured a lot of pain as the doctors pumped her full of meds and her contractions began. A few hours later she finally received an epidural which was the best feeling I have ever experienced. I know it sounds bizarre but watching the love of your life writhe in such pain, and being completely worthless to help, nothing more than a place holder or a freshly misted fern, it really helped me. Jamie quickly went through all of the necessary steps and the doctor was alerted she was ready to go! After a few minutes of pushing William came out screaming and squirming about.

The nurses immediately took him away to be examined with my in accompaniment. He was doing awesome for 5 weeks early, but still was not perfect. After a few minutes his breathing was ok and we enjoyed seeing him, holding him, and playing with him. After being shuffled to our new room William's breathing worsened. We notified the nursery and they took him away to begin running tests. While anything I could experience pales to what my wife had just endured the ensuing hours were torturous. My wife unfortunately watched me weep uncontrollably for hours, unable to speak with a literal lump in my throat. I couldn't swallow. Jamie would ask what I was thinking and what was wrong, I could not speak because I would inevitably begin wailing! We decided to pray together and not a word left my mouth. For the first time in my life I literally could not speak. For a successful salesperson and arrogant son of gun, this is quite amazing! But such was my pain out of the fear of what awaited my son.

The longest night of my life was spent watching my wife recover and pacing outside the special needs nursery hoping my son would be fine. Luckily the cot was so comfy I slept plenty! When morning broke and our pediatrician arrived we had good news. William had fought hard to become self sufficient and had improved tremendously. He was nowhere near coming home with us but he was no longer in immediately danger as he had been. The remainder of the day we continued to check in on our little guy and watch in amazement as Jamie recovered with absolutely no medication. What woman endures labor and just asks for a single Alieve? I guess living with me for nearly four years has built up her resistance to pain!

Mommy and baby are doing well; dad's kind of in a daze but so happy things have turned out great!

Spoiled?

Mike here, yes I know it is a bit odd to hear that I am typing a blog, but alas it is true! So I have heard some rumblings in those close to me that Jamie and I may be spoiling our little doggy Bella. I ask you could you not want to spoil such a cute little pooch like this! It may be true that with our little dude coming quite soon that Bella may begin feeling like Lady on "Lady and the Tramp" however she will hopefully at least enjoy the ride she is on!

I thought it would be fun to share these images! I thought it made my two girls look so cute!

Enjoy!

Your Invited!

Stacy and Whitni and throwing me and Mike an open house/ baby shower this Saturday April 26th from 2-4 PM so consider yourself invited! We would love it if you could stop by just to help celebrate in our joy, its going to be pretty casual so just show up with whoever you can. If Whit and Stacy are in charge you know there is going to be some yummy treats! Let me know if you need directions to our house. We hope to see you!

The New Bed

I am in heaven thanks to my wonderful husbands sympathy for his preggo wife and buying a new bed! It is amazing how much a comfy bed makes life so much more enjoyable. It was definately time for a new bed but we didnt realize it until we slept our first night in the new bed and realized how miserable our old bed was. Thanks to my trip out to see Aimee and my amazing sleep there we found the best bed at Sam's Club for an even more amazing price. Seriously Sam's is the place to go if you are looking for a great bed, they are such a good deal. And the second best part, new sheets!

No Mexican baby here!

So we are pleased to announce that I had no complications while in Mexico! All the locals were awesome and kept saying I should have a Mexican baby, it was so funny. We had the best vacation ever and enjoyed every minute together. It was so fun having so many good friends to hang out with and we made some fun memories that will last forever. We pretty much layed by the pool all day everyday and headed into town at night for some fun adventures as well. We played cards in the hotel lobby every night and enjoyed the entertainment of everyone coming back drunk.

Some highlights of our trip included a hilarious ride in an elevator the size of a dumb waiter with McKell and Parker, having Ashley spot me 40 pesos to use the bathroom at the flea market, the crazy taxi drivers, the best and smallest tacos ever at Taco's and Beer, getting to know all of our friends a lot better, and our final dinner in Old Town Puerto Vallarta (the view and sunset were amazing).

Mexico Here We Come!

Ok so seriously I am trying to be better about updating my blog but it seems like I never have time to even breath lately. Everyone says to take it easy before my little guy gets here but I am honestly wondering when I will have some "spare" time. I have many fun things I need to get updated on here so I will get them on asap, lets just say I have been a busy girl! The best news though is I am anxiously trying to get ready for Puerto Vallarta, ok so more accurately FRANTICALLY trying to get ready! We leave tomorrow and I am running around like crazy trying to get things done (so why am I updating my blog now.......). Everyone keeps teasing me and asking if I have my baby in Mexico will I name him Nacho or Jesus? Any votes? I wonder if they will let me take him back through to the USA.....would he be considered an illegal immigrant? Ash reassures me her hubby, a firefighter, has been studying up so he can deliver my baby on the beach so at least I could have an American deliver my baby. It is so funny and I am finally realizing that this time tomorrow I will be laying on the beach doing nothing, ahhh finally! My Doctor says I am 100% ok to go so everyone keep their fingers crossed I don't go into premature labor while enjoying our last vacation without kids! Wish me luck too on braving the bikini with my big old baby tummy. I am prepared with tons of sunblock and just hope I don't get mistaken for a beached whale while on the beach! Above is one of my favorite pics from Cabo last year. Love you all!

Surprise!!

Have I mentioned how much I love the girls I work with? They are so sweet and surprised me a couple of weekends ago with a baby shower. I was so clueless and it was my first surprise party ever! Ashley and Heather totally had me fooled and said they just wanted to go out for lunch, I was so surprised when I walked into a baby shower for me. It meant so much to me and I am truly thankful for good friends who support and love me. We had so much fun and they all went in and got me so many fun things I desperately need. Not to mention it got me even more excited for the little guy to get here. Thanks girls, your the best!

Girls Trip to San Fran

This is a little bit late but I figured since I am on a posting rampage I should catch everyone up on what exactly has been keeping me so busy. In March I got to go on a girls trip to San Francisco with Stacy and Whitni. It was so much fun! We walked pretty much the entire city, yep even me 7 months preggers! We got to see everything from Pier 49, Ghiradelli Square, Nob Hill, Crooked Street, Union Square, China Town, Aquarium at the Bay, and of course take a trolley ride. We found plenty of good shopping and decided San Francisco is the perfect weekend getaway. My feet were a little tired and swollen though!

The perfect vacation!

My trip out to Aimee's was so awesome. The kids are so big and were so cute with me being pregnant. Jess was obsessed with trying to pick out a name, Nat was obsessed with trying to feel him move, and Ty was convinced I had a ball under my shirt the whole time. We had fun at Build a Bear and made a special bear for the baby with 3 hearts, one from each of the kids. It was so cute. We got to take the girls lunch at school, have a snow day, watch movies, and just be together as a family! We would like to say we missed the guys, but nope we were too busy having fun! I am so glad that they are moving closer, we have missed them! We also got double spoiled because the next week after I got home they all came to IF for Easter and to house hunt and so we (Mike this time) got to spend more time with them.

Two Blogs!

Please check out both our blogs!

http://micholandjamie.blogspot.com/
http://jamieandmichol.blogspot.com/

We have been having issues with the new one so I am back using my old one.

I've been tagged!

10 Years ago? *I was fourteen, in 9th grade, and basically just trying to fit in. I was nearing the end of basketball season, getting ready to try out for fast pitch soft ball, and get my license, woohoo!

Things on my To Do List today? *Work, doctors appointment, gym, play with Bella, relax.

What would I do if I were suddenly made a billionaire? *Finish decorating the house, buy the $600 cradle I cant justify buying, give Mike 100,000 to buy all the things I don't let him buy now, help out family and friends, save for retirement, travel, kids futures, and then let Mike invest till his little heart is content!

3 of my bad habits? *I don't wash my face unless I am in the shower, I pick at my cuticles when I am nervous, I cant let anyone else fold the laundry (I have certain ways things HAVE to be folded)!

5 jobs I have had? *Kids basketball Referee, Assistant Manager of a retail beauty store at 18, the lovely Blockbuster sales clerk (hey it was through beauty school), I worked at a tanning salon in Texas for like 2 weeks, Manager at Bath and Body Works, and Manager at wholesale beauty supply house.

5 things people don't know about me?
*1-I have always wanted to be a Mom. Since I was little I could never dream of anything else. When the teacher would ask "What do you want to be when you grow up" I would copy other people but deep down I've always just wanted to be a Mom.
*2-I have a hard time letting people in and in return have hard time finding real friends. I put a lot into my friendships and often get hurt when people don't put the same value in me as I put in them.
*3- I hate my toes being pulled, seriously. I call it toe-a-phobia. I truly think Mike is going to pull one of my itty bitty toes off when he is teasing me sometimes!
*4- I love Cherry Dipped Cones from Dairy Queen.
*5- I burned my chest really really bad when I was about 5 trying to make popcorn for my Mom.

I tag Michol, Rachel, and Jodi.

I am a Yummy Mummy!

Ok so here is a pic of my updated baby bump. Lets just say the little guy is growing big and making me wonder how I will survive the next few months! He is so active and we watch in amazement as my tummy bounces around and cant believe how strong he kicks already. I am loving every minute of being pregnant and I am so excited to be a mom. We are hopefully getting the nursery going soon, we should be done framing the basement this weekend and then its baby decorating time! I am proud to say I haven't had too crazy of pregnancy cravings so far. I could pretty much live off of chocolate dipped strawberries (whats new) and Juicy Fruit gum (kinda weird) but that pretty much keeps me happy.

It's a boy!!!

We had our first ultra sound yesterday and we are so excited to be having a boy! It was amazing to see his little body fully formed and watch him move around and stretch out. We even got to see him have the hiccups and see his little body bounce about with every one. We have plenty of pictures of his arms, hands, legs, and feet but none of his face.

It was funny because every time we would get a good angle of his little face he would immediately put his arms up in front of his face! I guess he knows how many pictures Michol is going to take of him and figures this is his only time to hide so he better take advantage. We are also happy to say he is growing strong and healthy and everything is looking great. They even moved up my due date 5 days so I hope he keeps at it!

We are so excited to start the nursery and really get ready for his arrival. I have it all designed and I am ready to put Michol to work! Although our true work is going to be picking out a name. We have plenty of books and know with time we will figure it all out. We are so excited to start our next adventure in life and are thankful to have such great friends and family to share it with. Thanks for being a part of our lives! Jamie

Feeling the Baby Move

So I can officially say I have established what it feels like when the baby is moving and kicking around! Finally, I was beginning to wonder if I ever would feel it and then realized I could already feel it. I just wasn't stopping for five seconds to figure it out. The little on is most active around 6:30 am when I am driving to work and around 9:00 pm when I am reading. It seems to always start moving when I am on the computer too. I think I just get so busy I don't notice it a lot in the day. It is such an amazing feeling! I am getting excited to find out what it is on Monday!!!!

New Blog

Ok so because I am horrible about updating my blog....Mike has taken on a new one, that he is in charge of!! Check it out. Hopefully he is better than me. I will probably start posting on his so look there first!


http://jamieandmichol.blogspot.com/

Griffith Family Sealing November 3, 2006

Here are some pics of Porters sealing!

Halloween

Here is a pic from Halloween. If you cant tell our theme was Alice In Wonderland, can you tell? I had to show my cute heart bloomers!