Letter to my Olive

Dear Olive,

You are now just over 2 months old.  My have you changed.  You are talking and smiling a lot.  You recognize our voices and faces now.  I just love the sound of your voice and your beautiful, gummy smile.

Friends always said, "Enjoy this time, they grow up so fast".  I had no idea how true this was until a few days ago.  The first month and a half was really tough with growth spurts, inconsolable crying, wanting to be held constantly and little sleep.  I wanted nothing more than for you to just grow up and get to the "fun" stage of walking, talking and playing.  And now as I watch you grow before my eyes I kind of want to stop time and have you stay this age for a little while longer.  You are so innocent.  Your only needs are to be loved, held, fed and changed.  I'm the only one that can console you when you are upset.  You're my sweet baby girl, but you will not always be as sweet as you are at this moment.  I fear that one day you will break my heart when you yell, "I hate you!".  I hope that never happens.  Those will be the not so "fun" years, but we'll get through it.

I now cherish every single moment you are awake (except when you don't want to go to sleep and it's 11 pm).  I take a lot of pictures and videos because we'll never get this time back and I want to be able to look back and see just how precious this time was for us.

Having you here is the "fun" part.  And although I get a little emotional thinking how all of this will be gone one day I know there are many more amazing days with you to come!

I love you sweet girl.

Mama

Liv talks

Liv has found her voice and I absolutely love it!

She is the most talkative in the morning and at night.

Enjoy!  :)

Liv talking to her mama

Liv talking to her bird friends on her mobile

First Date Day

Thanks to my wonderful mama, Dan and I enjoyed our first of what I hope will be many date days.  

I missed her the moment we pulled out of the driveway, but I knew she was in great hands.

Olive somehow always ends up in our conversations now...and I love that.  :)

We enjoyed lunch and a movie.

We had delicious sushi and I didn't have to swallow my food, I got to savor every bite.Yum.

We went to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Great action movie. It was also nice to feel my milk let down midway through the movie.  Thank goodness for manual breast pumps.  :D  Don't worry, I pumped in the restroom.  

My mom was able to get Olive to nap in her swing for a good 45 minutes. WTH? She never naps that long for us.  I'm lucky if I get 15 minutes.

The 4 hours away from Liv was a bit hard, but was just what we needed.  We always have to remember to put each other first.  

Thanks again Mama. <3

Now when are you available again?  ;)

Olive's 1st Christmas

This was our first Christmas as a family of 5.  And it was wonderful!  Sure it was exhausting at times and most of my day was spent nursing and changing pampies, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  :)

A week before Christmas we had "Christmas" with Dan's family.

Dan made a scrumptious meal of turkey, pork, gnocchi, greens, rolls and pound cake.

She got clothes from her aunt Angie and a beautiful bracelet and keepsake from her grandparents.

 This outfit shrunk a bit when I washed and dried it.  Oops.

Liv's 1st visit with Santa went well.  I know next year will be very different.  :)

I decided to hold her this year.

Christmas Day was spent with my parents.

Dan again made a delicious meal of goose, dressing, turnips (which I now know I love) and carrot cake.

 My girl is so big!  Her looks are changing. Some days she looks like Dan of course, but there are some days or moments in those days where I see myself.  

It's pretty amazing how much she has changed in 2 months.  :)

Olive got an outfit from her Tio Adam, Tia Melissa and cousins.  She also got a Christmas blanket, paci holder, gift card to Target (will be great to use on more clothes because she is growing out of everything) and hair bows from her Nana & Poh Poh.

We got her an outfit, some Dr. Seuss books, her playgym/mat and her learning tower that we bought from a consignment shop.

My dad began to feel under the weather by the end of the night so that is the reason for the no smile.  Olive was exhausted at this point.  :)

 I keep thinking how different it will be next year.  She'll be unwrapping gifts and walking.  Wow.  

All in all it was a great holiday and we look forward to many more Happy Christmases with our baby girl and our families.  

Happy 2 months, Olive!

Our beauty is still growing and just about to break my back.  :D

I see other babies that are 3-6 months and she is as long as them, just unable to hold her head up.  
I hope she walks earlier than most babies because my back and knees can't take too much more. lol

Age: 2 month

Weight: 12 lbs. 12 oz. (85th percentile)

Height: 23 inches long (85th percentile)

Head circumference: 15 1/2 inches (49th percentile)

Sleeping: I am nursing closer to every 2 hours during the day.

Sleeping at night has been wonderful. ::knocking on wood:: She sleeps anywhere from 5-8 hours straight sometimes.  Thank god because I need it some nights.
Eating habits: Nursing and Expressed milk. I give her about 3 oz. of milk in a bottle at night and that has helped her sleep longer. Sometimes she'll get 2 bottles a day depending on if we need to run errands and I don't feel taking the boob out.  :)
Favorite activity: Eating and being in mama's arms.
Cutest Moment of the Month: Smiles, Laughter and recognizing our voices and faces.
Milestones:
Lifts head almost 45 degrees when lying on stomach
Head bobs forward when held in sitting position
Grasp reflex decreases
Follows dangling objects with eyes
Visually searches for sounds
Makes noises other than crying
Cries become distinctive (wet, hungry, etc.)
Vocalizes to familiar voices
Social smile demonstrated in response to various stimuli

Firsts: Laugh, Smiles and vaccines.

Olive's First Thanksgiving

You can tell how busy Miss Liv as been keeping me seeing as I'm just now blogging about Thanksgiving.

Dan, Olive and I enjoyed a low key Thanksgiving with a wonderful meal. My parents came by later in the evening for leftovers and dessert.  :)

It was very hard to help Dan with Thanksgiving lunch when Little Miss Liv wanted to be held constantly, but we managed and everything turned out great.

Can you tell I had little to no time to put on anything "nice" for Thanksgiving?  Oh well. The day was perfect.  :)

My little turkey

Growth Spurts

Holy hell.

Liv already eats about every 1.5 hours and when she goes through these growth spurts it just about does me in.

She gets super fussy and wants to eat or just be near my boob.

She hit a growth spurt at 2 and 3 weeks and then again these past couple of days at 6-7 weeks.

I'm left exhausted by the end of the day.

There are not enough arms in this house.

She wants to be held all of the time.
And she is no lightweight.  She is a whopping 12 lbs. now.  

I can't put her down in her pack & play or rock & play for more than 15 mins. before she starts crying.

She does sleep 4-6 hours at night so I'm definitely grateful for those hours of rest. Maybe I need to start eating and doing chores in the middle of the night.

It's a good thing we love her so much. :)

I dream of the days when she can go 2-3 hours between feedings.  Will that ever happen?

When Olive is not crying she is so wonderful.

She does really well in the car and we've gone to the grocery store a few times. She's great. She is starting to smile when she sees my face or hears my voice and I just love it.

In the other news, I'm back on the pill. Yippee! We CAN NOT have any unplanned babies any time soon. :)

Olive's Debut (The Birth Story)

5 weeks later I have finally found the time to write & post our birth story. It's a long story, but I want to make sure I have all of the details here so that I can one day share them with Olive. The story, told by Dan, is much better in person.

Friday night, October 21st, I began having more discharge. It was thinner than normal. I call my midwife to make sure I'm okay. She tells me it sounds normal and if I experience any bleeding to call them back.

Saturday morning, October 22nd, at around 8 a.m. my mucus plug fell out and continued to come out throughout the day.

I began to have back cramps. They felt similar to what I experience during my menstrual cycle. I would later learn that I was in early labor and these were irregular contractions. We went to Lowe's to get a few last minute things for the house before Olive arrived. Throughout the day I had been in contact with my friend Lisa about what I was experiencing. Lisa suggested we put a mattress pad down, under our sheets, just in case anything exciting happened overnight. I honestly didn't think anything would happen. I had read one can lose their mucous plug and not go into labor for weeks so I figured my body was just preparing itself and that I still had time. Well, I was wrong. We didn't have a mattress pad so I suggested we cut up some trash bags. I did some relaxation exercises on the birth ball. Around 11:30 Dan fell asleep and I began to track my contractions with an app on my phone. I didn't get any sleep. I walked around the bedroom and the hall a few times. Around 1:07 a.m. I woke up Dan and asked him to look at the app to see if he thought I was in labor or what he thought about what the app was saying. Dan is still half asleep and then I feel a pop and ask him, "Did you hear that pop?" Yes, I asked him if he heard it. I felt a gush of water flow out of me. I then said, "I think my water just broke". It was 1:08 a.m.

I had him call our midwives while I jumped in the shower. The contractions were much more intense now. I felt them in my belly now and the back labor was not letting up. Dan left a message with the answering service and we found out the midwife on call was the one we had hoped would be there when we went into labor. That was great to hear! I immediately felt a calmness come over me. All would be fine. Our midwife calls us back and we discuss laboring at home for awhile, but she wants to make sure I can feel baby girl move. At this point I am so focused on the pain I could not say for sure that I could feel her move. The midwife asks Dan to get me something sweet to drink and have me lay on my side. After drinking something sweet I should immediately feel Olive move. Well the only semi-sweet drink we had in our fridge was kefir strawberry yogurt. We never thought to just drink sugar water. I drank it, but didn't feel anything. The midwife said she didn't want to take a chance and tells us to make our way to the hospital.

On our way to the hospital Dan tries to avoid all potholes. Impossible. Damn Houston streets! He apologizes over and over again for hitting a pothole, but I just want him to get there. Luckily, the hospital is only about 8 minutes away.

We arrive at the hospital, pull into the valet area and it is dead. The valet guy comes over very slowly. He must've been dead asleep when we drove up. He opens my door and I immediately vomit. The smell of kefir still haunts us. I get out of the car and head over to the bushes to vomit some more. The valet guy is now wide awake and rushing to the car with a wheelchair. You know that 1 hospital bag? Well, we have like 4 bags including the camera bag and Dan has trouble carrying all of the bags while trying to push me in the wheelchair as I'm still vomiting into trash cans and trash bags. We get no help to the elevator or through the doors to L&D. Great. I'm thinking this is not starting out well.

We get to L&D and they immediately put us in our room. Our L&D nurse takes my stats and hooks me up to the monitors. I continued to throw up. The nurse had poor bedside manners and was no help to us. My contractions were not letting up. Our midwife arrived and she checked me. I am 8 cm dilated and 100% effaced. Hearing that I was 8 cm dilated was wonderful to hear. I was thinking, Thank god! Okay, I can do this. Then the midwife tells us that baby girl is in the occiput posterior (OP) position or posterior position, also referred to as "sunny-side up" or "face-up". This is why I had been experiencing back labor. She says, "Okay, all we have to do is wait for this baby to turn.". Easier said than done. I'm hooked up to an IV because she was afraid I would be dehydrated due to the vomiting. We started doing "runners" where you move from one side of your body to the other side and squats to try to get Olive to turn. I spent some time in the shower and Dan sprayed my back with water. I went through 5-6 hours straight of contractions without a break. My contractions were back to back. They were killer! This was the transition stage that we read about. Dan and I attempted to do some relaxation techniques that we had learned in Bradley, but with no break it was pretty useless. He was saying things to help me relax and all I wanted was for him to SHUT UP! He did play a song from his film that I absolutely love and that helped a bit.

At some point the shift changed and a new L&D nurse arrived. She brought a nursing student with her and asked if I would mind if she assisted. At that point I didn't care one bit who was in the room and allowed the nursing student to be apart of the team. They were both wonderful. They brought new energy to our room. It was just what we needed. We attempted more "runners". They had me do more squats, lean against the bed and sit on the toilet. It was really difficult to move to different positions, but I stuck with it. I was exhausted. They also had me push a little to try and turn her. Now babies can be born "sunny-side up", however, I was swollen down there and her head was not turned enough for her to come out so it made it really difficult. I asked for my mirror so that I could see my progress, but they thought that I'd be discouraged if I saw how little I had progressed. Dan informed me of this later. But they handed me my mirror while they covered the area that was swollen so I wouldn't freak out. The midwife checked me and there didn't seem to be much change. The OBGYN ("midhusband") on-call came in and Dan overheard the midwife and midhusband talking. He knew they were talking about possible surgery because they can tell I'm exhausted and don't know if I can keep going. I didn't tell them I wanted drugs or that I couldn't do it anymore, but I guess they were just going over our options with each other just in case. Dan tells them, "Look my wife is strong. If anyone can do it, it is her. Please don't give up on her.". Wow! Thanks babe! He was a wonderful Bradley coach. I'm so grateful he fought for me to continue our plan for an unmedicated, vaginal birth.

I continued laboring, midwife checks again and said it's time. Olive had turned enough that it was time for me to push. I glanced at the clock and believe it is about 8:00 a.m. Two of the best moments before Olive arrived was seeing our midwife put her surgical gown on and having the baby nurse called to come in and set-up. That meant we were close! Unfortunately, the only position that worked and allowed Olive to come out was me on my back. Go figure. I always thought pushing would be the most painful part, but it wasn't for me. It was the back labor that was torture. Pushing felt so good! And as I pushed they told me they could see Olive's head and that she had a lot of curly hair. The first thing I thought was They are not telling me about my baby's hair as I'm pushing?! And the next thing I thought was Curly Hair?. Dan was a great help at this stage too. He told me exactly when to push to make the most out of my effort. I would push at the peak of my contraction, take a tiny break, and immediately push again. The nursing student supported one of my legs, while Dan supported the other while giving me ice chips. I have them all telling me to keep it up and that Olive is almost here.

Finally, over 24 hours of labor (even though I didn't know I was in labor) and a few hours of pushing Olive made her debut on Sunday, October 23rd at 10:46 a.m.

Olive was placed on my chest and tried to nurse. I have no idea what to do, but the L&D helped me and Olive latched on. We delayed cutting the cord, we allowed it to stop pulsing. Dan was asked if he wanted to cut the cord. He declined. We gave the honor of cutting the cord to our amazing nursing student. It was the 1st delivery she had participated in.

Our midwife tells us she needs to take care of me. Dan and I look at each other and this worry comes over us, but she just had to stitch up a vaginal laceration which I understand is a normal tear. Thankfully, I did not tear my perineum.

I delivered the placenta and found out that I had a battlefield placenta. Basically, it has a big vein running through it and if my water had broken at the sight of that vein there could have been lots of blood. Thankfully, that did not happen. Dan probably would have passed out at home had that happened. They were all amazed by it and brought in a couple of doctors to take a look at it and examine it.

Our midwife was amazed that I didn't complain or ask for medication and later looked over at Dan and said, "Steel waters run deep".

What an amazing experience! I'm so happy and proud that I was able to have the birth that I had wanted. Without my strong, supportive husband and amazing L&D team I don't think I could have done it.

APGAR 1 minute-9, 5 minute-9

Olive is the symbol for peace & victory. I find it to be a very fitting name. :)

Happy 1 month, Olive!

Has it only been a month? It seems longer. :)

Our baby girl is growing up.

She is changing right before our eyes and boy is she growing. She has already begun to wear 3 month clothes. Yikes. Maybe they run small. :D

I just love her!

Age: 1 month

Weight: 10 lbs. 1 oz.

Height: 21 3/4 inches long

Head circumference: 15 inches

Sleeping: She went through her 2 & 3 week growth spurts and that was rough for mama. She still nurses about every 1.5 hours. It can be exhausting.

She slept 7+ hours one night. It was heaven! Most nights she'll sleep 3-4 hours straight and then 2 hours after she is fed and changed.
Eating habits: Nursing. I've started pumping to relieve engorgement and she has taken the bottle a couple of times.
Favorite activity: Eating!
Cutest Moment of the Month: Snuggling with mama and smiling as she dreams.
Milestones:

Can lift head momentarily

Turns head from side to side when lying on back

Hands stay clenched

Strong grasp reflex present

Looks and follows object moving in front of them in range of 45 degrees

Quiets when a voice is heard

Cries to express displeasure

Makes throaty sounds

Looks intently at parents when they talk to him/her

Firsts: Bottle!

Where did my figure go?

Breast feeding is an amazing way to lose weight. :)

It has been almost 4 weeks since giving birth and I have lost all of the baby weight.

I'm most definitely happy about that.

BUT I want my figure back!!!

My legs are nice and lean now, almost too lean if I'm being honest.

But I've lost my butt. :( What the heck? No one tells you that's going to happen. The husband is also not happy about the butt being gone. :D

Did anyone else lose their ass while nursing? Will it come back?

Hopefully it'll make its return soon or at least after I finish breast feeding.

I love my curves. :)