William Patton is here

William Patton McAllister was born on January 15th 2018 at 9:10 am. He weighed 8 lbs. 8 ozs. And was 20.5” long. He was immediately placed on my chest and I was amazed at how content this made him. My girls were weighed, measured, wiped off and had the eye stuff out on before they put them on my chest. But they’ve changed everything since then and now wait to do all of that stuff until they’ve been on your chest for a couple of hours and let you breastfeed if you want. Those first few moments were so sweet and we were so excited to be meeting our son.

Upon cleaning him up and getting his weight and stuff they determined that his blood sugar was low. I knew this was a possibility due to my gestational diabetes but since neither of my girls struggled with it I didn’t think he would either. They didn’t seem too concerned at that point but said they’d have to continue to monitor it and gave him a sugar paste in the mean time. The next time they checked it was still low so they had me start supplementing formula to see if that would get it to rise. Well the next time they checked it was dangerously low and they broke the news to me that he was going to have to be admitted to the NICU. I was doing all I could to contain my emotions about this, because I knew if I got upset my girls would see that and be very scared and also get upset, but when they mentioned the risk of brain damage with sugar levels that low I lost my ability to contain emotion and began crying. As soon as I was crying both girls were crying hysterically. So my nurse and the NICU staff coming in at the time probably thought we were all crazy. I managed to calm them down a bit and get myself together too and Neal and I walked him up to his private room in the NICU. We had to leave them for an hour or so while they put the IV in and got him set up. We went downstairs to let the girls draw some pictures to hang in his new room and to say goodbye to them. About a half an hour after the girls left the neonatologist along with the NICU director came into our room wheeling William in his bed. We didn’t understand what was going on. The doctor explained to us that upon putting his IV in he got so mad and his adrenaline likely kicked his body into function and his blood sugar rose to a great level. He canceled the NICU orders and was bringing him back to us. They continued to check his sugars but he kept them up. We were so relieved!!

We were able to go home the next day around 1!! My mom spent 9 days with us and was so much help. This baby has been a dream. We’ve never experienced a baby that will sleep when you lay them in a bassinet or swing and we check his breathing often because it is just so foreign to us. He is so sweet and we are so excited to have this precious little boy added to our family. 

Look how much he looks like Ella!

William is on his way! (+ a holiday update)

Well this pregnancy has flown by pretty fast! That really is no surprise given that I have 2 busy girls at the ages of 7 & 6 and we have just been through a vigorous round of holidays.

Thanksgiving & Christmas couldn’t have been anymore blessed. We stayed in NWA for Thanksgiving (as we have for the past several years). We did Thanksgiving dinner with our favorite friends and had an overall relaxing day (although Reese was still recovering from surgery).

We celebrated early Christmas with Gigi, Pop, Lisa, Will & Caroline at our house in early December which was a really fun time. We had our friends Christmas party at our house which is always a fun time we look forward to. We did actual Christmas in Houston this year. Traveling that far was a bit risky at 35- 36 week pregnant but I’m so glad that we did it as we had a blast with family down there. I’m including a few photos that are just fun memories of our a

sweet Christmas celebrations this year. I also included a photo of the girls class parties so I have that memory stored as well ☺️.

I am currently 38 weeks and 2 days pregnant. William is holding on safe and warm in my belly. As of last Friday I am 3 cm & 80% effaced. I see my doctor one last time this Friday (2 days from now) and will be induced on Monday the 15th (5 more days 😳), if he doesn’t come on his own prior. Hopefully only my closest family will ever look at this post because I’m including a photo of my bare belly so that the 5 of us have this memory. 

We have been trying to make the most of our time as a family of 4 lately. I let both girls have a dinner that they helped me cook from beginning to end. We took them ice skating on a miserably cold day & took them to an escape room which was a blast. We had a family game night which we need to make a regular thing, even after he gets here. We rented a weeknight movie and watched it while eating in the living room one evening. I surprised the girls and checked them out early from school yesterday and took them to an afternoon movie. We took them to 3 high school basketball games last Friday to see one of their favorites play. I just love this sweet family of mine and the ages that the girls are at are so sweet and easy. I know it will not be so easy for a while, once little man is here, but the love, fun, cuteness and joy that is going to be added will be so worth the difficulty that will also be added to our day to day for a while. We cannot wait to meet this bundle of joy that is coming in the next 5 days or less!! 💙

Oh & I put together these sweet outfits for the girls to wear upon his arrival! 💜💛

Update- today I’m 38 weeks and 6 days. Tomorrow I’ll be 39 weeks and we will meet our son!! Here are a couple of photos of my last day pregnant (ever!).