Will's Spring Break

Will and Mommy
Will and Daddy
Spring Break is over, so I'm back at work, but...only 27 days until summer break! Not that I'm counting or anything. :) Last week was wonderful! I so enjoyed being home with Will and it made me realize just how much I desire to be a stay-at-home mom. We didn't do much, just stayed around the house and enjoyed each other's company. I also tried to soak in little things that I miss most days, like getting Will out of his crib in the mornings or dressing him for the day. Getting to see Will smiling at me every morning from his crib just melted my heart. I loved it! Because of our teething fun last week, Will also became somewhat attached to me. He got to a point where only I could comfort him. So he spent a lot of time on my shoulder. It was sweet, just what I needed! FYI...we still don't have a tooth. How long does it take?
We did take Will to church on Good Friday, Saturday and Easter Sunday. We had our reasons for going to so many services, but it was great to be reminded that many times of our Saviour's love for us and to fully understand the Cross. Below are some pictures from the break. Hope you enjoy!
This was my unlce's wagon when he was a little boy. He cleaned it up so we could use it this weekend.
Will and Jake riding in the wagon. The boys loved it!
Rocking my Master's shirt. Easter Sunday was also Master's Sunday, so this became his Easter outfit.
Will and Jake

Do we have a tooth?

Will at his Uncle Andrew's game.
All signs are pointing to yes. We could very well be cutting our first tooth. Will came home on Friday with a temperature. It got as high as 102.3 on Friday night, but mostly stayed around 101 or 100.8. He has eaten fine all weekend and played well, but he also has had a snotty nose, several not-so-pleasant diapers and been fussy for no reason. I talked with my mom and my friend Aimee and they both seemed to think he is teething. So, I looked in his mouth, but saw nothing. Today I actually ran my fingers over his gums and felt a little bump on the top. I have never felt that before, so I am starting to think we are getting a tooth as well. I am excited to see Will with a little tooth. I think it will be adorable, however, I am still nursing. You know what I mean!?
Will and Uncle Andrew
Will and Daddy after Uncle Andrew's game at Paulding county, which happens to be Mike's alma mater.
Will eating his first homemade meal. I cooked a baked ziti type dish and we gave him a little of it. He loves feeding himself puffs and the biter biscuits. So we thought we would let him try some real food. He did ok, we just aren't sure how much he got. A majority of it was left in the high-chair or stuck to his bib!
Will in his clip-on high-chair at Zaxby's. We LOVE this thing! Will doesn't have to sit in the icky resturant chiars, and we can put it inside the booth with us. He is also chewing on a straw. He seems to like them, don't worry his Grandpa and Dad were on either side of him watching as he played with it.

New Will Pictures

Here are some new pictures of our little man. He turned 7 months old on Tuesday, time just keeps on flying by! Several people have asked about Will and how he is doing. His breathing treatments are to be given as needed now, and he finished his doses of steroids. He is back to his happy-go-lucky self!
Trying to crawl!
Trying again! He is getting so close, he can get up on his knees and rock. We are waiting to see him crawl any day!

The following pictures are my pathetic attempt at being a photographer. My mom and I took these at a park in Hiram when she was here last week. She had all of the cute Easter props. Taking pictures of babies is much harder than it looks. I think I'll keep my day job!

It all started with a cough...

First Will got it, and then I got it. Now Mike has decided he wants to join us in the coughing fun. But this little cough has led to some craziness at the Fessler house.

Two weekends ago, Will came home with a bad cough. It started off harmless, but quickly started to sound bad. There must have been something to it, because I got sick with a cold. We decided to watch it for a few days before we called the doctor.
Last Tuesday, Aimee(baby-sitter and good friend) called me to tell me that Will wasn't breathing well. All the blood rushed out of my head and my heart sank. She continued and reassured me that Will was feeling ok, he was laughing and playing, but she could tell that he was working very hard, due to congestion, to breath. So, I called the doctor and took him that afternoon. The doctor decided to put him on breathing treatments every 4-6 hours, tested for RSV and told us to come back on Thursday. Praise God the results for RSV were negative, but we still had to continue the treatments and by Thursday we had to start giving him an oral steriod. Will hates the treatments, he fusses and tries to pull the mask off most of the time, but what can we do?

During the course of this fun, my cold turned into sinus pressure and headaches(always fun), Will didn't feel good, and we planned a short trip to Charleston to visit friends who are planting a church there. The trip was in the works for a few weeks and since we had no life-threatening illnesses, we decided to go on. We did call ahead to let them know of our situation, but they wanted us to come on. We enjoyed our time with Todd, Lori and their kids. We were able to see Todd's vision for River Church, and see the area where it will serve. That was neat, to actually see something that we had heard so much about for so long. We did get to see the city and some sights, but I didn't even pull the camera out. Thanks Todd and Lori for allowing us to stay with you. We miss you guys!

But in the midst of this chaos, some great things have happened as well. My mom came and stayed 2 days with us last week during her Spring Break. She was a huge help. Mike was able to go to Newnan to work, and I came home to a clean house and a happy baby. She even had most everything packed for us for our trip this past weekend. She truly served us out of a loving and generous heart, and we are so grateful to her. During her stay, Will started getting up on his knees like he wants to crawl. He is getting pretty good at it, we are sure he is going to be crawling any day. And then just last night, we were driving home and we got the call that Tammy's water had broken and she was in the hospital. They were supposed to induce this morning, but I haven't heard anything yet. That means sweet baby Caleb will be here soon! Our first nephew, we can't wait to meet him!

Hallelujah!

Our happy little man!

He finally did it! At 6 months Will finally slept through the night! Last night I started to get him ready for bed around 7:45. I noticed that he was sleepy, so I started to rock him. By 8:20, he was out cold so I laid him down in his crib. We didn't hear a peep out of him until 10ish. Mike walked in put in his paci, and Will went right back to sleep. He then didn't wake up until 5am!!! It was amazing! Mike and I by far had our best night of sleep since Will was born.

We don't know yet what caused this wonderful sleep, but we have a feeling it might be fewer and shorter naps. I happened to be home yesterday. So his normal routine was off a little but he still took 2 naps. The naps were at different times than he is used to. They were also shorter, around 1 & 1/2 hours total for both. We have often wondered if too much sleep during the day was not allowing him to sleep at night. We are testing this theory just in case. Will just went down about 15 minutes ago, it is a little later than last night, but still roughly the same routine as last night. We'll see how he does for tonight. Regardless, I still felt this was a blog-worthy milestone!

**UPDATE**Will did not sleep as well last night. We were up several times trying to calm him down. Mike must have rocked him 3 times to get him back to sleep.
Maybe the night before was a fluke, I don't know, but at least we see he has the ability to sleep all night. That in and of its self gives us hope!
Will in daddy's hat.
Will after his walk around the neighborhood on Tuesday. We have been blessed with 80 degree weather this week! :)
Hanging out!
We now put Will in a high-chair when we go out to eat. This is him at Cracker Barrel. He is still a little small, so we put a jacket or blanket behind him. It makes it so much easier for us to eat. Doesn't he look grown-up!

Our snowy weekend

Looking out at the snow.

Can you believe it? It actually snowed in the Atlanta area! Mike, Will and I went to Chattanooga this weekend to visit my parents and sister. We had heard talk about there being snow flurries, but didn't think much about it. When we got up this morning, the Weather Channel was talking about 3-5 inches in Atlanta. I still didn't believe it, but we packed up and left early just in case. As we got into Paulding county I was shocked! There was so much snow! It was on the roads, cars and grass. It was so pretty!
Will and Aunt Linny. We don't get to see her too much, because she lives in Nashville. We enjoyed getting to hang out with her this weekend. I sure do miss my little sis!

But, as always in the South, the snow has been short-lived. It is melting as we speak and I now see the sun peeking out. Oh well, my hope for a day out of school is diminishing! :( We didn't take Will out in the snow, it was way too windy, but he did enjoy looking at it from the window.
The snow is slowly melting. How sad!

Last night, and before the snowstorm, all of us(mom, dad, Linny, Mike, Will and I) went to my cousin Holly's house. It ended up being our family get together, which was good. We got to see everyone. Will and Jake got to see each other and play. For the first time they seemed to notice the other. They would look at each other and giggle. We sat them in a chair together, but they ended up hitting each other, so we quickly separated them. They both seemed to have fun, especially with all the attention they got. Below are some pictures of these two cute cousins! Will and Jake
Two cute cousins!
Happily playing by themselves!

In other news, Will went to the doctor last Thursday for his 6 month check-up. He was 27 inches and 15.3 pounds. He was in the 70th percentile for his height but in the 15 percentile for his weight. The doctor was concerned about his weight because he dropped from the 50th percentile at his 4 month visit. The doctor didn't seem to think that he was eating enough. He has been eating solids 3 times a day plus nursing or taking a bottle 6 times a day. But, he is also very active right now. He jumps in his jumper twice a day, kicks like crazy in the bathtub and rolls all over the place. I guess he is just burning off all of the calories he is taking in. We are now adding a small scoop of formula to his food to give him some extra calories. We have noticed that the extra calories have also allowed him to sleep better at night for the past few nights. He is sleeping 5-6 hours straight in his crib. YEAH!!
Other than that our baby is healthy and growing like he is supposed to. That's all we can ask for.
Me and my baby on his 6 month birthday.

Baseball and Mariachi Bands

Strange combination, but this is how Will spent his six month birthday. Mike's youngest brother Andrew plays baseball for South Paulding High School. Last night was their opening game and Andrew got the start(he is a left-handed pitcher, just like Mike). Anyways, it was Will's first baseball game. He watched for the first few innings, but he then got hungry and tired. After he ate his cereal and green beans, we snuggled him up in blankets and he fell alseep on Mike's chest. Will woke up in time to watch the last inning and see SPHS win. Andrew was credited with the win...sweet! Will wore his I love Baseball shirt which evidently brought Andrew some luck. Baseball players are notorioulsy superstious, so we promised Andrew that Will would wear the same shirt to the next game that he starts.

After the game we went to a Mexican resturant called El Nopal (If you happen to be in Rockmart this is a good place to eat). When we walked in we heard a mariachi band playing. They were not playing "tradional Mexican" songs. They were playing Margaritaville, evidently they did cover songs. It was pretty funny. Anyways they were walking from table to table taking requests. When they stopped at the table next to ours, Will was standing in my lap and he could not take his eyes off of them. He even laughed out loud at one of the guys playing a super huge guitar thing. The band got a kick out of Will and so they had to play at our table. Paul requested "Lonley Boys" and the band circled our table and played. One of violinists would poke his bow at Will and even brought his violin close to Will and plucked the strings so Will could see it. He was fascinated! We have some baby music instruments at home(thanks Colleen!). I might have to pull them out so that will can start playing with them. You never know, we might have a little musician on our hands!

P.S. It would have been great if I had some pictures from last night, but I left the camera at home. That figures!