We hope all of y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We spent the day with the Marshall clan & Will got to spend time with all of his cousins. Everybody was really good and we had some great food. The Aggies however did not do very well, actually we got stomped. This of course will make half the family happy. I guess we have to root for OU to win by a little. Anyhow, below is a sampling of some of the pictures from Thanksgiving.

Although he may not be that photogenic yet, he is really darn cute! Bill is determined that he won't play round ball, but I say otherwise :-)...

It has been awhile since we updated the blog...sorry! This parenting thing is a bit time-consuming, but totally worth it! I had to take this picture yesterday of Bill and Will...already, like father, like son! It was too cute.
Will is really growing! We went to the doctor last Monday (he was 5 weeks) and he had gained nearly 2 lbs and grown an inch (10lbs, 12oz and 21 inches long).

Milestones

Even though everyday seems like a little miracle in itself, we have things happen that really are exciting. This week Will slept in his own bed for the first time in his life, he took a nap today in his own room and I would say that this week he will actually look in the direction of a person's voice. He had a stuffy nose earlier this week, so Bridget took him to the doctor. He was fine, no fever and the runny nose was not that bad, but he now weighs over 11 pounds and grew about an inch since his 2 week check-up. It is amazing how fast they grow. Bridget has one more week home with Will full time. It really is a blessing that we are able to live close to family and have the support that everybody has given us, we both are extremely grateful. Will had a day full of visitors yesterday, uncle Danny stopped by and we went to Jason's to eat lunch, then Becca Jones came by and we went over to Uncle Doyle and Aunt Katie's to watch the Tech/OU game, which is another story in itself (what a blowout!). We will try to post a picture later today or this week, Will is just not that photogenic yet. We look forward to seeing family over Thanksgiving and if we do not get to see you, have a safe and wonderful holiday. Oh, beat the hell outta t.u.!!!!!

The miracle of life continues to change every day. Will and mom are doing great. He seems to grow and develop more personality each day. Even though it is hard leaving him every day to go to work, it gives me a special perspective on how much he changes. Bridget loves staying home with him, but I tell you with just spending a weekend at home I can say it must be an exhausting job! We have had lots of visitors and these two pictures show how much he has grown in just a couple of weeks. Our dear friends Chris and Stacy's baby was born Wednesday and Bridget and Will got the chance to go up to Austin and welcome J. D. into the world. Congrats y'all!

Will loves bouncing on the ball with Grandma!

Truly amazing

Well no matter what you feel about the outcome of the recent general election, it really was historic and Will got to experience it with mom and dad! Since our last entry Will had his first doctor's appointment and all is well. He is growing like a weed! He moved up to the next diaper size this weekend and everyday he seems to change a little. It was hard to tear myself away from Will and Bridget, but I went to a wedding for some dear friends of ours this past weekend in Colorado. Bridget and Will hung out in Austin and spent time with Nanna and got to go on walks with Romina and Cecily. Everyday things seem to get easier and easier for Bridget. Will seems to be getting into a routine and gives her some blocks of rest. We are learning everyday and it has been so helpful getting advice from friends and family. Beaux and I probably sound like two women talking on the phone about our kids, but it is so great having the chance to share this experience with others. I am convinced that Will was upset that I was leaving in the picture below.

Night out on the town

We finally got Bridget out of the house and Will did pretty good. We went out to eat with Nanna and Grand-daddy at the Huisache here in town. He did not sleep through dinner as we had hoped, but he let Bridget at least eat her meal. Bridget's mom came down to help Bridget today and she is feeling a lot better than yesterday. I tell you, this nursing thing is TOUGH! We have had lots of visitors. My mom, who has not requested any particular grandma name, came by to visit late last week with Aunt Daw and Becky. PaPa came by on Halloween on his round about way to Austin to see Camden and Cecily. If nothing else, having Will around makes us a little more popular. It really is great to see everyone! Thanks again for all the love and support.

Nurse Visit

We did not get it posted yesterday, but Will had a nurse from Christus Santa Rosa come by the house to visit yesterday. The service that the hospital has provided has been incredible! It was a routine visit in which she just visited with Bridget and looked at Will. The biggest things were that Will has gained weight since birth, he weighed 8 lbs 4 oz. She also took the little clamp off of his umbilical cord. The nurse said that Bridget was doing a great job! We will post some more pictures later. We have had lots of visitors lately and we greatly appreciate that. It is so much fun for me to get to show Will off. Again, thank you all for all the help and support.

Will's day out

Will had his first big outing today.  Mom, Will and Nana went to Babies R Us in The Forum to get a few things...he did great!  Slept the whole time; got home and ate, then went back to sleep.   It was really nice to be out-and-about on such a beautiful day!

Hanging With The Girls

Well I had to go back to work today. It was good to see everybody at work, but boy has it been so nice getting to be home with Bridget and Will. We are extremely grateful that everybody at work made it possible for us to have almost a week of quality family time. Bridget's mom drove down to spend the day with her since I was gone and I think she was able to rest a little since she could trust her mom to take care of Will. I think she still is not quite sure about me watching over him. She is such a good mom, we have learned so much in such short period of time! She is feeling a lot better today. Will had another bath and enjoyed every minute of it. We have really enjoyed all of your comments to the posts. I hope all of you are well.

Miracle

It truly is amazing less than 9 months ago what is now a beautiful young boy that is in my wife's arms tonight came from this! Life will resume somewhat for me tomorrow. Even though I regret that I will not be able to be with Will all day I know that Bridget will do a great job with him and it brings me great comfort that our family and friends are so very helpful.

Everybody Loves Bath Time

Will got his second bath last night, he seems to enjoy watching/listening to the water in the sink. He seemed refreshed and happy after the sponge bath, so much so he wanted to stay up until around midnight! Bridget let me sleep most of the night and she says she got some sleep. She is feeling better today than yesterday. Evening visitors are hard for her, but it is great to have company through the day. The Kehoes came over this morning and saw Will, it was great to see them! The Voelzels are also coming by sometime today. Grandma and Grandpa Symm and hopefully Uncle Danny are coming over to visit later today. Again, thank you all for the love and support, we are supremely blessed.

Will's Boys

What a motley bunch Will's grandpas and Uncle Danny make! Again, we can't tell y'all enough how much it meant for each of you to be with us Tuesday to welcome Will into the world. Bridget and Will are napping and I am watching a little college football. Can you believe Tech, 63-21 over Kansas? Looks like Tech is going to win the Big 12 because there is no doubt in my mind that the high school team we have over in College Station is going to spoil t.u.!

Daytime is good

So far, Will has fallen into a schedule that works for him and we are adjusting to. He did great all day yesterday, but he still is not really interested in going to sleep until about 11:30-12:00 am. However, he has been sleeping until about 3:30 am. He then wants to nurse, be changed and then go back to sleep. It seems like with time we can get adjusted to this easy enough. The biggest thing right now is that Bridget is engorged and really sore. She really does seem to have TONS of milk, even though she is expressing regularly as well. Will was weighed yesterday at the lactation consultant and he actually had not lost an appreciable amount of weight. When we left the hospital he was 7 lbs 9 oz, while yesterday he was 7 lbs 8 1/2 oz. Last night Doyle, Katy and Kyle came over for diner and Ian stopped by on his way to go hunting and spent the night. Understandingly due to her engorgement, Will felt more up to socializing than Bridget did. The goal for today, as Cindy the nurse would say, is REST, ice and frequent nursing! If anybody has any good tips let us know. He really seems to like his bouncy/swing seats that Bridget's cousin gave him. Do you think Ian is ready for fatherhood? Check out the 4:00 am picture below.

First Outing

All is great today! We had our first outing. Bridget is dealing with huge you know whats for the first time in her life and they are really sore. We went and saw the lactation consultant so that she could get a pump. Naturally I wanted to go so that I could see how it worked and also wanted to put Will into the space age car seat. He was great, he did not cry even once! Doyle and Katy are coming over for diner tonight. We also plan to walk him down to the mail box for the first time in his stroller! The collage is a collection of pictures from Tuesday and Wednesday, enjoy!

First 48 hours

We went in to the Cristus Santa Rosa Hospital at 5:00 am on the morning of 10/21/08. Bridget was calm as a clam and I was as nervous as usual. The nurses (Cindy & Anna were awesome) got Bridget hooked up to IVs and they started the pain train around 6:30am. All went very well until the contractions were too strong and way too close so Bridget requested an epidural (about 4 hours later than I would have!). From then on Bridget was able to rest and get ready for the HUGE finale. William Scott was born at 5:59 pm surrounded by the wonderful hospital nursing staff, Dr. Gilderneck and his two proud and terrified parents. He weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. We were surrounded by our wonderfully supportive family and they were so patient to let us go through everything on our own.

We spent a long night in the hospital trying to figure out what to do with our new addition. We learned all sorts of super valuable tips on how to take care of Will. He was so good! He nursed great almost immediately. We were able to actually get a little sleep over the night, but certainly were not what you would call rested. We kind of made the decision that we were going to bust free as soon as they said we could that night and sure enough the next morning we got word that as long as everything checked out for Will and Bridget we could leave later Wednesday. Dr. Snyder examined Will, circumsized him and told us that everything was a ok and that we could leave. We packed our gear and headed out of the hospital around 4:30 pm on 10/22/08. Will was home ruling the roost right at 24 hours after being born!

The first night at home was great! Will was fantastic and ate, slept and dirtied diapers all night. He really did good and let Bridget and I get almost 5 hours of sleep, all added together of course. We woke up refreshed and charged for a full day home at last with our baby boy! The day was great and followed more of the same as the night before. Nana came down to bring him a different bed to sleep in because the pack and play made it hard for Bridget to watch Will during the night. After Joyce left Will took a long nap. Tonight we plan to give him his first bath!

We truly appreciate all the love and support that we have received from our many friends and family. We love all you and are so happy that we can share this time with you all!