Derrick's Post-Partum

First, I want to apologize for not adding this post earlier. All of you that have children understand how busy it is once you come home.

Holly, Harrison, and I left the Texas Tech Universtiy Medical Hospital on Feb. 7th. Since then, we have been visited by both sets of grandparents who stayed for a combined two weeks. It was fun seeing them with their new grandson!

Harrison is doing great! He went to the doctor for his two-week check-up and got a clean bill of health. He is growing (he now weights 8.8 oz., 21 inches long). Holly and I feel very blessed to have him in our family. He is a character (gets that from his mom) and makes us laugh all the time. He is sleeping pretty well, but he likes to keep us up sometimes (gets that from his dad).

He hates being cold, so he does not like having his diaper changed. He hated the sponge baths but he LOVED his first tub bath that he had yesterday!

I have added some new pictures of him. They range from feedings, to baths, to playtime. I will try to add more as we get some good ones!

By the way, we have some other good news. I accepted an assistant professor position at the University of Alabama in Huntsville the day after Harrison was born. So, we will be moving back to Alabama in August! It is a great opportunity and we are very excited. I will be defending my dissertation next Friday so please keep me in your prayers.

Take care!

Welcome to the world Harrison!

It is our great pleasure to introdue the newest addition to our family, Harrison William Smith. He was born on February 5 at 6:15pm at University Medical Center in Lubbock, TX. He weighed 8 lbs., 3 oz. and is 20.5 inches long (yes, he is short and stocky like his dad). Mother and baby are both doing wonderfully!

He came a week early! Holly was having some issues with her blood pressure, so the doctor decided to induce. We checked in the hospital on Februrary 4th to get fluids in her (she had been sick and not able to keep food down). They started the induction on the morning of the 5th, broker her water around lunch, she started pushing at 5:45 and 30 minutes later he was born. It was amazing to watch! Holly is an amazing woman!

Keep posted for more!

35 Weeks and More Pictures

I apologize for not updating this as much as I should. Between the holidays, writing a dissertation, and getting the house ready for Harrison, the blog has been put on the back-burner. Holly is 35 weeks and we had our second ultra-sound today. He currently weights 5 lbs. 14 oz and is projected to weigh around 7.5 lbs. (Holly was excited about that as big babies run in my family.)

The pictures turned out great (I love 4D technology). Holly is doing well, no major complications. We are gearing up for three showers in Lubbock within the next 8 days, so it will be busy! Check back for more as I add pictures from the baby showers.

His name shall be Harrison William Smith

Sorry it has been so long since I updated this! It has been crazy around here lately. This is what has been happening:

1. Holly is pregnant! Oh yeah, you knew that...moving on.


2. I went to Louisville, KY for a week to present at the American Printing House for the Blind Annual Meeting and work on a project with them.


3. Holly and her mother traveled to Pennsylvania to visit her sister.


4. I went to Washington, DC for a training with the NCLVI Fellowship.


5. Holly took me to Flagstaff, Arizona for my 30th birthday trip. We went to the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest, and the Painted Desert (see pictures below).


6. I am in the middle of my data collection for my dissertation. For those of you outside of academia, it is hard and time-consuming.


7. Holly is pregnant! Oh wait, again, you know that!



Holly is doing well. We went to the doctor for a check-up yesterday and all was well. The baby is moving alot now and it is SO cool feeling him move! Holly is starting to really show now being almost 7 months along.

We registered for baby things Monday and Tuesday at Target, Babies R' Us, and Wal-mart. We have decided to go with a Sports theme for the babies area (and future room once we move). OH YEAH, we decided to name him Harrison William Smith. We were going to name him William Harrison but we decided we did not want him to have to deal with being called by his middle name. William is my dad's name so he was pumped when we found out! Ironically, we chose Harrison because we like the name but it is a family name also.

Other than that, we are gearing up for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have alot of traveling ahead of us (three trips). We are looking forward to seeing family and friends!

I will make sure to post more updates. We have our next ultra-sound at 32 weeks, so some time in December. We are looking forward to more pictures! Enjoy our pictures and I will add pictures of Holly soon!

It's a BOY!!!

The great question has been answered: we are having a boy!

We went to have the sonogram this morning at the University Medical Center. The sonogram took about 30 minutes and was amazing to watch! Here are some pictures of our baby boy:

If you look closely, you will see an arrow on the picture. The small circle being pointed at is our baby boy's scrotum. (The only time in his life where pictures of his "stuff" are okay!)

This picture shows his feet (at the top they are pointing in opposite directions)!

This is a picture of his skull. You can see his eye sockets and nose. If you look closely, you can see his hand to the upper-left of his head.

Technology is amazing! This is the face of our baby boy! You can see his ear, nose, mouth, and eyes. Looks good-looking to me!

The sonographer said everything looked great. The body was forming normally and he is a good size for this stage (14 ounces)! Holly is doing well, still growing daily! I will post a picture of her soon! We continue to plead for your prayers for Holly, the baby, and our future as graduation approaches. Take care!

Week 19

Today we had another doctor's appointment. The babies heartbeat was strong and averaged around 150 bpm. Everything seems to be going well! Holly is doing much better. She is off her morning sickness medication and feeling much better. She started feeling the baby move around last Sunday (September 16th) and has felt it moving all week. It becomes more real everyday! She is getting a little bigger but I will wait on posting a new picture for a few weeks.

We are going to have the sonogram on October 2nd to find out the sex of the baby. We are SOOOOO excited! I will post the news as soon as we know!

I am busy doing my dissertation research. I am starting the job hunt so everyone please keep us in your prayers as we begin looking for the next home. Check back in two weeks!

16 Weeks!

I apologize for not posting earlier but nothing extraordinary has happened in the past three weeks. I am finishing up some contract work before school officially begins. I am teaching two courses at Texas Tech and one online course at the University of Nebraska starting Monday, August 27. My dissertation proposal defense is scheduled for September 5th. This is a major step toward the completion of my doctorate. Please keep me in your prayers during this time. I will be a nervous wreck for the next few weeks.

Holly is doing well. She is still having some "evening sickness" but she is doing better. She is taking half the dosage of the medication she was taking for the sickness and doing well with the change. We are both praying for the sickness to end soon. We had her 16 week appointment today (even though she is really just 15 1/2 weeks). The heartbeat was strong and very loud at around 140 beats/minute. It is very exciting to hear the heartbeat! We set up the appointment for the sonograms to determine the sex for next month! That will be exciting! We will keep everyone posted.

By the way, we are asking everyone to keep Holly's maternal grandfather (we call him Papa) in your prayers. He has an enlarged heart and a congestive heart failure. He flew all his grandchildren in to New Orleans last weekend. Holly had her first "babyshower" with some of her aunts and cousins. Papa gave us also some wonderful gifts! It was a good trip under tough circumstances.

Here is a picture of Holly in her first maternity clothes at 16 weeks:

Week 13

Well, tomorrow Holly will be 13 weeks! We are constantly asked how everything is going so let me just say, it is going okay. Holly is still fighting "morning sickness" which is more of an "evening sickness" for her. She is okay but is still tired and sick most of the time. She isn't showing yet but we will take pictures as soon as she begins to show!

We have been asked a million times if we are going to find out the sex of the baby and the answer is YES! We will find out about the sex around 20 weeks which will be in early October. We will let everyone know as soon as we know!

We have a doctors appointment on August 23rd so expect a new post around that time!

Week 11

Today is week 11 of the pregnancy! We had a doctor's appointment for 10:15 am but we did not see the doctor until around 12! We had a good visit with the doctor and we were able to hear the heartbeat for the first time with the Doppler. The baby averaged 152 beats per minute! SO, it is official, we are pregnant!!!

We called everyone, starting with my family. Everyone was very excited! We had trouble getting in touch with Holly's parents but finally were able to tell them right before Wednesday night bible class. Getting in touch with the Ironaton folks (especially Scott and Lorinda) was difficult as many of them were at Indian Creek Bible Camp. We were also able to tell our "Florida" friends right before bible study so we were very happy going into the church building.

After three days, it seems that we have told everyone on our list. I am sure that we will remember someone later that we forgot. I hope they can forgive us!

In the beginning...

And our lives are changed forever...

It was the morning of June 12, 2007. Holly went to work and was coerced by a co-worker to take a pregnancy test after being just 4 days late. To her surprise, she was pregnant!!! SO, she rushed home (around 7:30 am) and awoke me with this wonderful news. It took me a while to realize that it was not a dream!

We decided to keep it a secret from everyone until we heard the heartbeat around week 12. In the meantime, we traveled to Florida for a vacation (to see Will and Jenn Thomas, Dan and Trudy Ingram, and Kirk and Christie Hunt). Then we traveled to Alabama to visit our family and friends (Scott, Lorinda, and the Ironaton folks) over the 4th holiday. Hiding it was definately hard, but we succeeded.

Holly has been very sick, especially in the evenings. Her doctor has put her on some medications that have helped with her nausea. She is having the typical issues: nausea, tiredness, and not being able to sleep. We are both looking forward to the 2nd trimester.