Well, I wanted to post the pictures on here like I normally do, but I due to the lack of time I am just going to post a link to my facebook album. It's much easier to post a large amount of pictures on there like I want than on the blog.
Here are the pictures - enjoy! Christmas 2009 Pictures
Merry Christmas everyone! I know, Christmas was yesterday. We've been pretty busy this week so posting was not really an option. I hope everyone had a great day. Christi, Landon, and I had an awesome Christmas spending time with family. Landon got a lot of great stuff from Santa and a bunch more presents from everyone else. Hopefully I can get around to posting some of the pictures tonight. Sorry to make this post short but I have to go. Merry Christmas!
Well, Christmas is a whopping 6 days away and we've bought maybe 5% of our gifts. I know, we are behind the curve. We are planning on going out this afternoon sometime. Christi's parents have generously offered to watch Landon while we go out. We decided it is just too crowded to take him out today - plus the weather is nasty.
We have already taken him out several times. He's made the trip to Christi's parents numerous times and he also went down to Twin City, Georgia, for my big family Christmas get together last weekend. Naturally, he was the star of the show! Landon also went on his first shopping trip with Christi and her mom Thursday to a few stores. I don't know how much shopping they got done since a lot of people were wanting to come up and see him. Apparently having a baby means tons of random people will want to check them out. It's kinda cool, but at the same time it's like we don't know you or what kind of germs you have so please back off. Admire from a distance. Maybe if it wasn't the cold and flu season I wouldn't be thinking that, but it's just the natural protector instinct kicking in.
Hopefully today we can finish shopping. I know, this is probably a little optimistic, but we have a lot to do next week and I'm not sure how we can fit it in. It really doesn't feel like the Christmas season to us. Maybe that's because we already received our Christmas gift! When everyone asks us what we want for Christmas, neither of us can really think of anything. We have what we always wanted - Landon. It's truly a blessing. Although we already have what we want, we still want to go shopping and get everyone their Christmas presents. We don't want to not get presents just because we have Landon.
I still can't believe it's 6 days until Christmas. I think since our attention has been completely shifted from the holidays in December onto Landon that it doesn't feel like Christmas time. I am looking forward to taking some days off work and spending time with my family. Unfortunately, either Tuesday or Wednesday I will be giving a presentation over some work we have been doing and so I cannot take the entire week off. Still, I will be taking a lot of time off after Christmas so we can enjoy our 1st Christmas as a family. President Obama gave all federal workers 4 hours off on Christmas Eve so that was very nice since that is 4 hours of leave I can use on another day.
Well, Landon is starting to wake up so I need to stop writing so I can help Christi feed and change him. Enjoy a few pictures of him to help start the weekend off right! Merry Christmas everyone!
Hope you enjoyed the pictures. As you can tell he is a bundle of joy. One thing we think is funny is that he loves to have his hands by his face while he is sleeping. No matter how tightly he is swaddled in a blanket, those hands end up by his face. Sometimes we find him with both hands behind his head, elbows out to the side like he is really kicking it in his crib. Unfortunately, every time we try to take a picture he moves. Have a great weekend everyone. I hope everyone traveling has a safe trip! I know there is some nasty weather outside. Be careful.
We went to his 2 week doctor's appointment today. I know, holy crap Landon is 2 weeks old! It still feels like he was born yesterday. Everything is going well. After we left the hospital Landon's weight had dropped to 5 lbs 8 oz, but now he is up to 6 lbs 11.75 oz. He was surprisingly still the same length. It definitely feels like he is longer than he was born. It makes me think they probably didn't measure quite accurate when he was born but then again I couldn't tell you since I'm just going off of feel from holding and seeing him.
He's not a fan of the doctor since they have to check him out in just his diaper. He hates being undressed or having his clothes changed. He's content just laying in an outfit he has peed all over. Good news everything was looking good with Landon and we don't have another visit until he over 2 months old, which feels like it will be forever but at the same time this first 2 weeks has flown by so I'm sure it will be here before we know it.
We are doing ok. I am definitely not sleeping as much as I would like too. I thought I could operate on a few hours sleep like I did in college, but apparently getting good sleep since being in the work force has really diminished that ability. Christi is doing much better physically. She is healing well and moving around incredibly good. You wouldn't think she had major surgery 2 weeks ago. Her blood pressure is still a little high, but other than that she is doing good. We are both still getting used to having a child. Sometimes you wake up and you wonder what is going on and then you realize oh yeah, that's Landon. I know, it sounds bad, but your brain isn't used to it yet. It's something we have to get used too. We also have to get used to that life still goes on. It really feels like the world stopped, but since I have been back at work I know it definitely hasn't. Thankfully everyone there has been incredibly supportive and have made it very easy for me to do what I need to do in order to care for Landon and Christi.
It's getting time for me to go to bed. I need to catch up on some sleep. Hope everyone has a great week.
Where have we been? All we have been doing is taking care of Landon so far. I started back to work this week and I'm really not liking being away from Landon. I have a lot more pictures and stories to post, but we are about to eat dinner so I need to go. Just wanted to let you all know that we are doing well. Check back soon for some updates. Sorry for the lack of updates, but should be some soon!
I know I've been slack on posting pictures to the blog. I have posted some pictures to facebook because it's much easier to just upload and go instead of having to link each one like I want. Here are some pictures from our days with Landon so far.
We are now at home with Landon and he is doing pretty well so far. We came home Friday afternoon, about a day earlier than initially expected. The first day he was pretty fussy, but he did much better last night and today. He wasn't getting as much food as we thought he was, so we are now supplementing with a bottle and he is doing really well.
Having a son has been awesome. Yes, it is a lot more responsibility but it is worth it so far. When he was born I had never changed a diaper before, but now I feel like a diaper changing machine. The first diaper change wasn't very pretty since Landon ended up peeing on himself, but ever since then I feel like I've done much better. I haven't had any aversion to changing the diapers, either. I guess when it's your son it doesn't bother you and you don't think about the poop and pee that could be in there. Keeping those legs and feet under control is a challenge, but that isn't too bad either. Landon is surprisingly strong and you really have to make sure you have a hold of him or else he is going to wiggle free. He was holding his head up off Christi's chest briefly while only 1 day old in the hospital. If Christi and I are around while someone else is holding him and he hears us talking, he will try to raise his head and turn and look in our direction. That is always cool to see that he knows our voices.
Christi is doing incredible. She is amazing. After all she went through in the hospital, it's great to see her getting around the house so well. I can't express how proud of her I am and how much respect that I have for her. She recovered about a day faster than they were expecting and now she is getting around so much better in such a short period. Since she had the c-section, it was a challenge just to adjust herself in the bed, much less try to get out of the bed. Now I cannot keep her sitting down long enough. She can easily get up and down by herself and is doing a lot of things around the house already that I was not expecting her to be doing quite yet. Actually, she is probably doing too much, but she is doing ok. I finally got her to sit down on the couch about 2 hours ago and she has been relaxing since then. She is so strong and I know she has surprised herself in how much she has been able to do. She tolerated A LOT of pain to get him here and now she is a very tough woman who isn't letting a little soreness keep her from doing what she wants to be doing, which is taking care of Landon.
We have had a lot of visitors at the house so far. Christi's parents, her brother Jason, my mom, and my sister Annie have been here as well as both of our grandparents. Also, some of our friends have stopped by and checked in on us, but mainly wanted to see Landon. He is definitely the center of attention. The first night we were here I recall holding him and I looked around and there were 7-8 people all crowded around staring at him. He makes time stand still. I'll be doing something and I'll stop by his cradle and see what he is doing; next thing I know he it's 10 minutes later and I have completely forgotten what I was doing.
Christi's parents have been a huge help to us. They have been fixing us meals and taking care of some of our chores while we have been busy tending to Landon and trying to get some rest. Christi's grandmother made some homemade chicken noodle soup and my mom made some chicken casserole, green beans, rice, and carrot soufflé. Christi's parents are on their way over with some more food. It has been extremely helpful to have meals already prepared so that we can just concentrate on Landon and not have to worry about having to fix every meal.
Everyone keeps asking how it feels to be a father. Words can't really describe it. To sum it up in one word: awesome. He is amazing and I love every single second of having him. From changing his diapers to quieting his crying at 4 am - I wouldn't trade ANYTHING for him. It has really brought Christi and I to another level of closeness as well. I touched on it some a little earlier, but I really cannot express how proud and amazed of her I am. She is an amazing woman and I am incredibly lucky to be married to her.
It's almost time for Landon to wake up. I think I hear him moving around, so I better go check on him. Keep checking back for more updates! We are so happy to have Landon here and will be writing a lot about our experiences with him. Thanks everyone for all of your time and generous gifts. We really appreciate it!
I am extremely excited to announce the birth of Landon Ryan Patterson. He was born at 9:59am this morning and weighed 6lbs 8oz and was 20.5 inches long.
Christi had to have an emergency c-section after they induced her. Her blood pressure went up, Landon's heart rate dropped and they decided it was best to go ahead and take him. Christi is doing well and trying to recover. We are both extremely excited and thrilled to finally have Landon with us. He is doing great and so far is very calm. Let's pray he stays like that.
I will do my best to post pictures soon. Thank you everyone for your prayers.
Hey everyone. We're coming to you live from the hospital room. Christi resting in her bed and I'm on the couch bed trying to get some sleep but I am too awake right now. The current status is that they have begun inducing Christi. It could be anytime from lunchtime tomorrow to tomorrow night, so we're really just playing the waiting game.
Everything is still pretty surreal. I guess it won't really set in until everything starts happening. I'm a mix of excited, scared, nervous, worried, and anxious. It's really hard to describe. I feel like I'm watching a movie and that everything isn't real. You always imagine these events happening in your life, but now that it is actually happening it doesn't seem real. I'm very excited to be a dad and I cannot wait to finally see Landon's face.
It's weird that today I was at work and everything was normal. I woke up, did my normal morning routine, did everything at work that I needed to do, etc. Now, on the same day, I'm lying awake in the hospital writing about what it feels like to almost be a dad. It's crazy. It's like tomorrow I am going to wake up and everything is going to completely change. It's exciting and scary and I'm ready for it to happen. Of course, I'll probably not so excited at 3am when Landon is awake and I have to put him to sleep, but I think it will be worth it.
It's almost impossible to describe all of the feelings I am having right now. I have so many thoughts and ideas racing through my mind that I can't type fast enough to write it all out. I'm sure this post is going to read worse than my medicine induced coma of a Thanksgiving post I just had - short, choppy sentences that don't really flow and don't seem to have a real point. Regardless, I feel the need to just write about what I am feeling so that maybe one day when he is old enough Landon will be able to read about how excited I was to finally meet him and then maybe he can understand the immense love that I have for him and always will.
Our nurse tonight has been very helpful and nice. We like her a lot. Christi was not looking forward to the IV but she was a trooper and is doing well. She is currently a little more than 1cm dilated, but she was like that at our appointment today so there hasn't been much change so far. Hopefully throughout the night the medicine will kick and everything will go smoothly. It's eerily quiet here tonight. I can hear a train off in the distance and the pounding of the rain on the window, but other than that there isn't much going on. It's almost like the calm before the storm. I'm sure tomorrow is going bring a lot of rain, so to speak.
Well, I know it's time to go to sleep when I start bringing out the cheesy puns in my blog posts. Keep checking back for updates. I'm sure it will be more random posts.
I was just updating my facebook status to let everyone know that Christi is at home ok and not having the baby, which seemed to spread pretty rapidly once news was out that she was having contractions at the hospital. While doing that, I saw a post from one of my best friends in high school, who also recently became a father. We talk every month or so and they are doing well. He posted a link to an old video of him playing at our high school talent show. He is Jonathan, the lead guitarist (he's incredibly good), and he is playing along with 2 of my other best friends - Kam and Grant. The girl, Cassie, was a grade ahead of us and is a good singer. Below is them performing "Sweet Child of Mine". Enjoy
We are home from the hospital. Christi started having contractions @ 8pm while we were out to eat. She continued to have them every 2-4 minutes for about an hour and we called our doctor's office, who told us to go to the hospital. We went to hospital and she continued to have them with the same frequency and increasing intensity. They decided it was "probably very early labor" and sent us home around 12. The nurse seemed like it wasn't a big deal, so I'm really not sure how soon it will be. We only have 1 week left until due date and it looks like he could be coming soon. They gave Christi a sleeping pill (Ambien) so she can sleep through the night. Please keep Christi and Landon in your prayers. Thank you. I will keep you posted.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I know I did. Christi and I went over to her parents house for lunch with her family. It was delicious, as always. They always cook the best tasting dressing. We had a lot of other tasty food, but my other favorite is Mrs. Debra's chocolate pecan pie with some ice cream. After eating we ended up watching some TV, talking, and letting all of that food settle.
After spending the early afternoon with Christi's family, we went over to my mom's new house for a Thanksgiving dinner. They were supposed to eat lunch at 2, but due to some turkey cooking difficulties it turned into an early dinner. It was another good meal. It was also our first time seeing her new house; they had just gotten everything moved into the house last weekend. I enjoyed spending time with Blake and Annie (my brother and sister). I don't get to see them as much recently because they are both in college and we're busy with everything going on in our lives.
Landon was the main topic of conversation at both places. We're not sure when he is going to be here, but we hope it is soon. It's crazy to think that next Thanksgiving we will have almost a 1-year old child. We're both excited, nervous, anxious, and scared of what will be coming in the next few days.
Another thing that I am worried about is that I am coming down with a head cold. Well, I guess I shouldn't say coming down since I definitely have it. I haven't been running a fever, but a lot of coughing and runny noses. Hopefully it goes away before the big day comes!
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
Tomorrow is the 38 week mark. The time until Landon's arrival is getting soon, but I know we don't know exactly how close we are until the time actually comes. I do know that we are ready for him to be here. All we have to do now is wait.
We have been busy cleaning the house in anticipation of everyone coming here after Landon is born. We're expecting a packed house since noone can come to the hospital. I've been doing most of the scrubbing cleaning with any chemicals since Christi cannot be around anything like that. We try to keep the house as clean as we can, but it's been a while since we had a thorough cleaning of every room in the house and it definitely showed in the amount of time it took to clean the house. Thankfully we had some help. Christi's parents came over a few days and helped and my mom came over 1 day over the weekend to help as well. Christi's mom also washed all of Landon's clothes for us and helped us organize them by size. That was a HUGE help since it allowed me to concentrate on just cleaning instead of me having to go back and forth between cleaning and laundry. Naturally, all of this cut down on the computer time for blogging. I had plans to post some stories that happened, but that didn't end up happening.
Besides the cleaning, the biggest thing that happened was Christ ended up going to the hospital one day the other week. Everything is ok, just a little scare. Basically, she wasn't feeling good at the end of the day. Her friend, Lynn, called the doctor and told them all of her symptoms. The way their office works is that they have the nurse call you back later. Well, this day they were taking forever and Lynn called them back after over an hour of waiting. The assured the nurse would call back soon, and she finally did. They told Christi to go to the hospital. She was expecting just a little visit to get a few things checked, but it turned out they actually admitted her into the hospital for observation. It took forever to get seen (a few hours), but they finally came in and did a few things and everything was OK. The worst part was having to sit in the tiny, cramped room and wait. It wasn't fun seeing Christi all hooked up to the machines. I guess it something I am going to have to get use to seeing, but only when he actually comes it's going to be a lot more going on. Very hectic. Like I said earlier, everything was fine and nothing is wrong with Christi or Landon.
One of the other things we did recently is buy a camcorder. The plan is to take a lot of videos of Landon as he is growing up, especially the first few days. MAYBE I'll be able to post some videos of Landon, but I'm really not sure what to expect and what will be going on. I'm not anticipating a lot of free time, so if I'm not able too post any videos please don't be mad!
Well, it's getting late so I need to go to bed soon. Keep checking back for updates - it could be any day now!
30 days. Today is exactly 30 days from Landon's due date - December 8th. I know I touched on how close we were in my last post, but today definitely gives you an idea of how close we are. I'm excited, nervous, anxious, and ready. At least I think I am ready, or at least as ready as I can be.
We had another shower today with another great turnout. Again, we were given a lot of very nice presents. After these showers, we are definitely running out of room to store everything we are getting. The one thing we still need more of is diapers. We have been given a few boxes, but we will need a lot more. We were told today by a girl who had a child not too long ago that we will likely go through 7-8 diapers a DAY. That's a lot of changing. I guess I'll learn the hard way how to change a diaper, because I have no idea what to do. I think I have a general understanding of the process, but I've never actually done it. Should be fun.
I will try to post some of the shower pictures later if I am able to get a copy of them. We left our camera at home by accident. I know, we have to get better at that. On another note, we've started packing our hospital bag. I have my clothes set out and Christi is working on her things. I need to get some toiletries and other things together and get them in a bag for us to have. A lot of little things we have left on our to-do list that hopefully we will make a large dent in this week. Just random things like cleaning, getting some things organized, re-arranging the cabinets to make room for Landon's bottles, etc.
That's all for tonight. Stay tuned for more updates. Take care everyone. Goodnight.
Wow! We are only about 4 WEEKS away from having Landon with us! Christi has been doing really well so far. Lately, she has been having a lot of contractions and the past few days they have become more intense. Her stomach will be as hard a rock when this happens. It's just another sign that it's almost time. It was happening just a few times a day, but last night she had it happen 4 times just during dinner (about an hour and a half). Crazy. I know it's very uncomfortable for her and painful (getting worse). I hate it because there is nothing I can do.
Another thing is leg cramps. She would get them occasionally, but the last few nights she got some during the night and her reaction to the pain woke me up and worried me. Thankfully they went away, but they seem to pop up randomly. It's usually her calves that cramp, but her hamstrings have also done it. Speaking of waking up the night, Christi has also had frequent bathroom trips in the middle of the night, which is completely natural. Apparently, according to some books we have read, this is the body's way of preparing her for not getting a full night's sleep. When Landon comes and is up during the night, her body will have already prepared itself for not getting a full night of sleep. Very interesting. I've been waking up more often, too. Normally I sleep like a rock, but every time she wakes up I wake up. I guess that's me subconsciously being aware of her movements and waiting for that one night when it's time to go to the hospital.
Landon is progressing very well. We had a sonogram last week but didn't get any good pictures because his face was to Christi's back. He is in the vertex position (face down) so that is good. Christi was measuring a little big the last few weeks; they measure her stomach vertically and how many weeks preggo you are is how many centimeters you are supposed to me. Just another reason to go metric! They measured Landon to see how big he already was and as of last Wednesday he was a solid 4lbs 11oz. The "average" size baby for this time frame was 4lbs 8oz, so he's doing well and he's going to be above average in everything he does, just like his mom and dad ;)
We have another visit this Wednesday. Hopefully we will get some good sonogram pictures. Speaking of, I don't think I ever uploaded any pictures from the 3D sonogram. Here are some for your enjoyment. Stay tuned for more updates! The time for Landon's arrival is near!
Yay for Saturday! That means GT is playing. I'll be going to the game with Jason and 2 other guys. I'm excited for the game today. I hear there is supposed to be a flyover! I was at the GT-VT game and there was supposed to be paratroopers, so they could be jumping today. That would be awesome.
The past week was really busy. Either Christi or myself was working late or had something to do too almost every night. Work this week wasn't too bad, just busy as usual. I'm getting a lot more responsibilities and have become the point of contact for several issues, so things are getting crazier at work. I like it, though. It tells me they trust me to be in charge of projects and to get them done correctly.
I took an interesting training class this week. It was Systems Safety Engineering. It mainly covered how to calculate reliability of systems, identifying potential system faults and failure modes, designing safety features into systems, etc. I thought it was pretty interesting although I don't do a lot of that in my day to day job. However, the mindset of identifying hazards was very useful. I also won't forget that regardless of education, work position, etc - all workers have a 0.1% chance of committing an error per operation and it's a random variable so you don't know when it will happen. If they are stressed and dealing with stressful issues or environments, it goes up by a factor of 10-100. Yea, I thought the same thing too - that seems ridiculously high, but the numbers prove it to be true. Stress is a very bad thing. So if you're stressing at work, take a moment to relax before continuing on. It could really help prevent mistakes. You're welcome.
I am about to eat some breakfast and get ready to leave for Atlanta. Have a great day everyone. Go Jackets!
We were completely overwhelmed with the turnout for the baby shower last Sunday. We got a lot of great presents and more people than we thought would came showed up (more than I thought would, anyway.) To give you an idea of the amount of stuff we were given, Christi wrote out nearly 40 thank you cards from all of the attendees this past week. That's a lot of people. We're very grateful and appreciate of everything we were given and I can't wait until Landon gets here to use it. Below are pictures from the shower.
See, I told you we got a lot of things. I condensed 133 pictures into 23 for this post. We were fortunate to get a lot of great presents from friends and family. We had out 2nd shower this past Sunday (yesterday) but I do not have any picture from that shower that the moment. Again, we were blessed with friends and family giving us a ton of gifts. We are literally running out of storage room! Thank you everyone who has given us some gifts. We really appreciate everything.
Stay tuned for more updates on Christi and things that are going on. We will be very busy this week but I will have some more updates coming this week. As always, thanks for reading.
