Almost 3 weeks

Olivia is coming up on her 3 week birthday. It's so weird to me that it has seemed to go so fast and so slowly at the same time. Maybe it's the nights that make it seem long, but then I look back and I can't believe how quickly it has passed and how big she is getting. Today her umbilical cord stump fell off and she is definitely gaining weight. She is a very good eater. We are feeding her with a bottle and I am pumping. We have had a lot of trouble in the breastfeeding department but I am mainly concerned with the fact that she get the breastmilk. Whether it is directly from the breast or from a bottle it doesn't matter. It is important to me that she just get it.


She makes all sorts of noises both when she sleeps and when she's awake. She is a grunter when she sleeps and a snorter if she gets really upset and is crying. She also has this interesting sigh that she makes that almost makes her sound like an elephant. I really need to find a way to tape her doing this. John and I laugh everyday at the things she does.


Her eyes are open more now, although the last couple of days she has been sleeping a lot so she may be going through a growth spurt. She has been grinning at us occasionally. It's not quite a smile - we see those when she is sleeping - but it is getting close to a smile. I can't wait for the day when she busts one out for us.



She has had several baths already but this is the first one with the bunny towel. She was screaming in this picture but we thought the towel was cute on her so we had to get a shot of it.

My mom had Elvis groomed when she was in town. He is so hairy that there would be clumps of hair floating around on the floor. It didn't matter how much you brushed him he still shed all over the place. In an effort to cut down on all this hair he was cut so that he now resembles a lion. Yes, I cried when I saw him for the first time because I was torn as to whether to do it or not and extremely hormonal at the same time. But I'm used to it now and I think he looks kind of cute.

Happy Father's Day!

This is a very special father's day since it is John's first. Olivia got him a card and a framed picture of herself that he can take to work and put on his desk.

Olivia continues to grow and become a little bit more alert and awake every day. She holds her head up on her own and already looks like she wants to roll herself over but can't do it yet. She is still eating a whole lot and is very impatient when she isn't able to get it right away. We are still trying to get her back on the breast and slowly but surely I think it is working. I am attempting to exclusively breastfeed during the day. We are still giving her a bottle at night but will eventually do the breast then as well. She had me up several times last night and she doesn't seem to want to sleep after eating so I have to stay up and rock her until she's back to sleep. I never realized how light it was outside at 4 in the morning. =)

Here are some more pictures of her. The one with her sleeping shows her in her favorite position to rest. Pay no attention to me please!:

Olivia Grace is here!

Wow! It has been quite a week. I have been meaning to update this thing for days now but am just now getting to it. Granny (John's mom) is taking care of Olivia at the moment so it has freed up some time for me to get down to business and let everyone know what happened.

We went in Wednesday night (6/4) at 10:00 p.m. as scheduled and unfortunately were unable to get into our Labor & Delivery room until almost 2:30 a.m. But in that time it was determined that I was actually already in early labor. I had actually made a comment to John and my mom that evening that something felt "different". I didn't know what it was but I wasn't feeling the same. Turns out I was already having contractions and progressing on my own. My doctor was at the hospital at the time delivering some babies and said to put me straight on the Pitocin. So we didn't even worry about the Cervadil. This is a picture of me in the OB Triage area waiting for my L&D room (which turned out to be room #5 so John was very happy):

Once the Pitocin was started the contractions kicked way up and eventually I was really having to concentrate and breath through them until they gave me a dose of Stadol which knocked me out in less than 2 minutes. It was awesome to be able to sleep through those contractions. I eventually got a second dose of Stadol as I waited for the anesthesiologist to come with my epidural. I got that at 3 cm. I lost all concept of time early on so I couldn't tell you what time it was. After 6 a.m. I know because my nurse change was at 6. I had the best nurse in Andrea. She was great. Here is a picture of me getting the epidural:

The epi was a snap. It didn't hurt at all. In fact, I thought the IV was worse than the epi. Of course I was on Stadol at the time too so who knows. After the epidural I slept some more until I started having some pain in my butt cheeks and tailbone. They had me in different positions with a birthing ball between my legs which helped. But I was still able to tell when contractions were coming. It didn't hurt nearly as bad though. The epidural is awesome!

Eventually I hit 9 cm and then I was complete a short time after that. I was feeling a lot of pressure and when I told the nurse she checked me and I was ready to push. I really don't know how long I pushed before they had me stop because Olivia's head was right there but the doctor wasn't. It was at least 20 minutes. I waited through a few contractions and then the doctor came in. The room transformed in about 2 minutes. The light was brought down from the ceiling, my legs were put in stir-ups (thank goodness because I was tired of holding them and I couldn't move them on my own), and the nursery crew came in to get ready for her delivery. I have pictures of all of this but I am not going to post them. =)

I pushed a few more times and Olivia's head came out. Her nose and mouth were suctioned and with another small push the rest of her was out and on my chest. It did burn quite a bit when she crowned but once her head was out I felt great. She screamed and it was awesome. John cut the cord and couldn't take his eyes off her. So at 2:22 p.m. on June 5th (her due date) Olivia entered the world at 20.5 inches long and 8 lb. 1.4 oz. She was a big girl! I think she is all Dickey and daddy is so proud!

It took some time to get some feeling back in my legs enough to get me into a wheelchair and up to my postpartum room. The breastfeeding is a struggle. I didn't realize it would be so hard! But I am trying to get her back on to the nipple while supplementing with a bottle of breastmilk that I have pumped. Supply is not a problem! Getting little girl to latch on and be patient enough to work for it is.

We think she is just adorable. She only cries when she is hungry. She is definitely a healthy eater! At her first doctor's appointment on Monday she weighed 7 lb. 12.5 oz. It is normal for a newborn to lose up to 10% or their birth weight so she is above the curve in that respect. The pediatrician said she looks great and that everything was normal. She had no problems with jaundice whatsoever. Aunt Erin can't get enough of her.

She had her first sponge bath last night and didn't enjoy all of it. But she did seem to like when we were rinsing the soap from her hair. The rest of it she screamed through, but that's okay.

My mom has been a life saver over the past week. She has cooked, cleaned the house, fed, and taken care of me and John. It's been great. I couldn't have done it without her, especially the recovery that I've had to do. It hasn't been terrible but it hasn't been easy either. Every day I feel more and more like myself.

The cat is still not quite sure what to think but he's definitely curious. For the most part he just stays clear.

And a couple more I think are cute:

The end is near!

I'm not sure how many of you have heard the news, but I am going to be induced next Wednesday night. June 4th at 10 p.m. is when we are scheduled to go in. We were instructed to call in an hour before that to make sure there was room. If there's not we'll be pushed back - how far, I don't know, but at least we know that this pregnancy is almost at it's end and we get to meet our little girl! And it looks like, depending on how quickly labor goes, that we will have a due date baby. When we went in for our appointment this week I was still only 1 cm and it seemed like he had an even harder time finding my cervix than he did last week since she is still REALLY high up. Her butt is right underneath my sternum. That's good though because it means she is head down and facing backwards. The right way to be.

When we first go in they will start me on Cervadil, which is a cervix softener. Often that's all that needs to be done to get labor going, but if I need more they'll start me on Pitocin after 12 hours on the Cervadil. The Cervadil is usually in pill form that they insert and let work, but they can also use a gel. I'm not sure which they'll use on me. So it's possible that labor may not even get going until Thursday late morning or early afternoon.

I am planning on working Monday through Wednesday, although I'm going to try to work from home on Wednesday. I am also planning on getting a pedicure on Wednesday night. I know, priorities! At least my feet will look pretty if the rest of me doesn't. Speaking of the way I look, below are some pictures. I was 38 weeks 6 days in them.

I realized that I didn't really have a front shot in here, so I thought I'd put one in. Most of the baby is out front, so although I've gotten a little wider, it hasn't been so bad. My belly button has not popped completely. Only a little bit of it at the top is poking out. You can kind of see it in the picture on the right.

John and I are planning a quiet weekend at home. It will be the last one we will have with just the two of us. So we're going to watch some WCWS softball and go to dinner. We are also going to make sure everything is ready for the baby. We have to get the carseat base into his car and just this morning I finished up cleaning the table we put in the nursery, so the room is ready to go except for some wall hangings. We really don't have enough room! Here are some pictures:

My mom is coming in to town on Monday afternoon to clean the house for us. I really do try to keep it clean but I am no where near as good as my mom. Then she'll be hear for the birth and everything. John's mom will come out on the 9th. It looks like Erin, and possible Ryan, will be flying out from Tulsa with her. She has never been on an airplane before and we thought it would be nice to have someone with her on that first flight. She seems really excited about coming out here, and now we know that the baby will definitely be here when she gets here.

We see the doctor again on Monday afternoon. If anything changes, which I highly doubt, we will update!

1 CM

That's it. 1 cm dialated. Seriously. Actually my doctor said "about 1 cm" so whether that means not quite or a little more I'm not sure. The baby is still really high up, which is still really obvious by looking at me, but he did say that my cervix was really soft. And that's what needs to happen so that's a good thing. I will get checked again on Thursday. The Dr. did say that on that day we would talk about getting me "unpregnant". I told him that I would like to discuss that. I'm hoping to have a better idea of when things are going to happen after that appointment. I will be 39 weeks that day. John wants her to be born on 6/7/08 because of the 6-7-8 thing. I think that 6/6 or 6/7 would be fine. I'm trying to avoid having her on a day where someone else we know already has a birthday/special day. I know, not much I can do about when she decides to come, that's just my preference. So that leaves us with May 30th or 31st, June 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 9th or 10th. We'll see what actually happens. My mom says she's going to be born on the 10th.

I am still working. I now work from home one day a week which is really nice. Especially since most of my clothes don't really fit anymore so I'm wearing almost the same things every week. My coworkers are going to get tired of seeing the same things over and over again.

The Memorial Day weekend was a quiet one for us. I left the house one time. To go to the post office. That's it. And that was on Saturday morning and I was gone for about 1/2 an hour. I pretty much sat around and watched TV all weekend - but it was a good weekend for that because of the lacrosse and softball tournaments that were going on. John did a lot of yard work. I cleaned some. I did some knitting. We got the car seat base in my car but not yet in his. We are still waiting on our mattress and I have to stop at Target to get another set of baskets, but other than that I think we are ready. Well, as ready as we can be. Although I still don't have a diaper bag. I need to get on that. My mom has called me three days in a row to see how I'm doing. I think that she and my sister are getting a tad bit excited. =)

Full Term

Alright, I am a day behind. Sorry. I got busy at work all of a sudden and didn't have time to get on here and post an update. I thought maybe I'd write a poem with title: Pregnancy, how do I love thee . . . let me count the ways. And then I realized that the first line would probably be: Oh, I don't. So I scrapped that idea and thought I'd list my complaints. Don't get me wrong here. I would gladly live through the third trimester than go through the first all over again. Here you go - what I "love" about the third trimester:

1. Sore tailbone - apparently her head is pressing on it causing pain when I sit for too long, so now I have started carrying my Boppy in the car in case I need to sit on it at work. Which leads us to:

2. Painful heels/swollen feet - if I stand for too long my heels begin to hurt - so I can't sit or stand for extended periods of time without pain. Nice. And my feet are swollen so now the only shoes I can wear are slip on heels or flip-flops. It really limits what I can wear (which isn't much anymore because a lot of my clothes - including maternity tops - are getting too small). I am having to get very creative with my clothing choices every week.

3. Food is not really of interest to me - those of you who know me well, know how much I love to eat good food. Or just eat in general. I can be a food snob. But now nothing really sounds good and I'm not eating much because the baby is taking up so much room. But I think that I am probably still gaining weight. Whatever. Plus I think I'm getting a little bit of morning sickness again.

4. Not sleeping - I toss and turn all night. I can't get comfortable and then when I do I have to pee. I guess I should get used to not sleeping though.

5. Painful hands, specifically the knuckles - because of swelling at night when I wake up my fingers kill. They sometimes hurt to bend until I get up and get moving and the swelling goes down.

6. Swelling - I am down to just my wedding band on my left hand and no other jewelry on my fingers. I don't sleep with it on because I would not be able to get it off in the morning if I did. Plus, I am almost at the point where I have to put another link in my watch. I am desperately trying to avoid that.

7. Kicking - it can get downright painful when she decides she wants to really let loose on my insides. She likes to stretch her right leg out which then presses my left side out, and that does not feel good. Plus she enjoys using my bladder as a squeeze toy which is also lots of fun.

8. Going to the bathroom every 1/2 hour - actually it's not too bad considering she hasn't dropped onto my bladder yet. I guess I should be happy but when you go to the bathroom 3 times between when you get up and leave for work it can be a little time consuming. But also feeling like you REALLY REALLY have to go only to get to the bathroom and barely anything comes out.

9. I can't get up - I have a hard time getting up off the floor, off the couch, out of bed, etc. I can do it, it just takes a little longer than it used to.

10. Anxiety - about everything: the room not being totally done, labor (specifically tearing or episiotomies), what the hell I'm going to do with a child, all the normal stuff. Anxiety over this being over. Anxiety about my Dr.'s appointment this week because we start the internal checks and I'm scared that I am not going to be dilated at all or effaced at all. I will be 38 weeks and 1 day at the appointment. I don't want to feel like I'm going to be pregnant forever anymore.

11. Questions from people - I've been pretty relaxed about this, it hasn't bothered me much, and it still doesn't, but the constant questions from different people over and over can get tiring. There are only so many times I want to tell people when my last day of work is or how I'm feeling. Like I said, most of the time, not a big deal, but this week I have been irritated by everything.

12. Having my ass look as big as my stomach - Ok, I know I'm going to get crap for this but sometimes I look in the mirror and, depending on what I'm wearing, I feel like my butt is as big as the belly. I know it's not, but body image this far into pregnancy is not always the best. But what can you do - it's just the way life goes.

13. Itchy stomach - my skin is so stretched it itches pretty much all day long. And no, lotion/oils/whatever did not stop me from getting stretch marks.

14. Being completely and utterly uncomfortable - no matter what, no matter how you sit or lay down, no matter where you are.

Alright, that's about enough of that. Some good things: the baby moving, knowing that she'll be here soon, all the attention (I know I whined a little bit in one of the complaints above, but people are generally pretty nice to pregnant women), time off soon! The ultimate though is having a baby once this is all over. And I have to believe that everything that I've gone through (which I really shouldn't complain about because it really HAS NOT been that bad) will all be completely worth it when she finally makes her appearance in the world.

The pictures below are from last week, at 37 weeks. I am wearing some new nursing pajamas that I had just gotten. I had to order some more stuff because they didn't have my size, but I should have those soon. She is still really high.

My awesome co-workers threw me a surprise shower/party last week that I had absolutely no idea about. Almost all of them were convinced that I knew about it. I must have been pretty oblivious to what was going on around the office because they had been planning something for about a month! They had breakfast and lunch, decorations, the whole shebang. Their gift was awesome too and it really went a long way in allowing us to complete buying the remaining items on our Babies R Us registry. The only thing we're really waiting on now is our mattress because we had to order it since they didn't have it in stock. We should have it in a week or so.

On a completely different note, New Kids on the Block are coming to town in October. October 13 at Jobing.com Arena to be specific. Anyone who wants to come down and go with Erin and I are more than welcome to. Tickets go on sale June 9 so let us know. John is in charge of getting them because I am hoping to have a baby by then.

Alright, I have to make another bathroom run.

Renovation

I'm a little behind in getting these pictures posted, but better late than never. The first picture is of our guest bathroom before the new tile. The linoleum that is in there was in the master bathroom and kitchen as well. We replaced all of it. I put the picture in so you could see what we replaced.

This picture and the following pictures are of the tile that was installed. This is the guest bathroom completed.

This is the kitchen in process and completed. I am really glad that I did not get to see what was underneath the refrigerator and oven. I'm sure it was pretty nasty.


We had our 36 week appointment today which consisted of listening for the heartbeat (149 beats/minute) and then my Group Beta Strep (GBS) test. That will make a difference when I go into labor. Group B can be very serious to the baby and cause all sorts of problems so we need to know if I am positive. If I'm positive I'll have to have antibiotics when I get to the hospital. We also scheduled the rest of our weekly appointments through my due date. Only four more weeks.

Last night I think I had my very first Braxton Hicks contraction. It didn't hurt at all but my stomach was rock hard for a while. I couldn't tell if it came and went because I couldn't feel it without touching my stomach but it definitely happened at least once. John felt it too. It was really strange to feel how hard my stomach was but have no pain at all. I guess I should appreciate the fact that there wasn't any pain. That is not always the case with BH.

Daycare

Kids are freakin' expensive! I have been very negative about the whole daycare situation from the beginnning because I didn't want to have to utilize it, but we're going to have to. I knew that daycare was going to be pricey but it is more than I thought. After our visits though I have a more positive impression of the facilities. John and I have visited 3 daycares so far. Actually, he's only been to two but I am taking him to the one only I have been to tomorrow. That one is for State of Arizona employees but is associated with La Petite Academy. We get a reduced rate which is awesome and it is within 5 minutes of my office which is also nice. It offers many of the same programs and features as the other places we've been. It is in an older building but it looks to me like they really try to take care of it. The downside is that I would be the only one to drop her off in the morning and pick her up in the evening since John doesn't work any where close to me. That would entail daily rush hour travel, except for the one day that I will be telecommuting. So that is a little disconcerting. But with everything else being equal it's an awesome price that would save us a ton of money. And I'd be able to go over there and check on her at lunch time if I wanted to, which I'm sure that I will.

On another note, my parents, my sister and her boyfriend, Ryan, are all going sailing starting Friday. I am very jealous because John and I would be on this trip if I weren't pregnant. They fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico tomorrow and then on to Tortola, BVI. They get the boat Friday and are out for a week. They are going to have several flags flying from the boat including a pirate flag, a U.S. Navy flag, and a Texas flag. The pirate flag is Erin and Ryan's contribution. Ryan has some sort of odd infatuation with pirates that I don't get. Kind of like John with his monkeys and midgets. It makes no sense to me. The pirate flag was going to be a surprise for my dad but I didn't know that and let the cat out of the bag when he was here last week. Oops. Oh well. We will definitely be going the next time they schedule this trip.

4 weeks to go as of tomorrow!

Another baby update

I hit the 35 week mark last Thursday. As you can tell by the picture, I am a house. I probably have my own gravitational pull because, like Juno says, I am a planet. At least I feel that way. I am still getting around pretty well. Stairs are not my friends anymore and I've noticed more problems with my SPD in the recent week or two but I'm still able to get up off the couch and out of bed without any help. I'm sure John appreciates that. Everyone at work is asking when I'm going to start my leave. I'm trying to go up until I go into labor. But I think that if I don't have her by June 6, which is the Friday after my due date, I may just stop working then because my doctor did say that he would not let me go more than a week past my due date. Our next doctor's appointment is this week and now we will be going in once a week. I also wanted to get a picture of the cat in here again. You can see in the picture where his back legs are being pushed out by my stomach. Nice.

We've been using the cat to test out all our baby equipment because, since he is 18 pounds, we figure if it can hold him it can hold the baby. I don't think that he appreciates it very much. I barely got the picture of him in the stroller before he jumped out. I suppose it's a good thing that he doesn't like being in any of the things because we really don't want him to get in the habit of being in there.

I realized yesterday that we do not have a diaper bag yet which kind of freaked me out. I think the reason being that I am an organizational freak and the fact that I am not ready to transport the baby around or have all the stuff I need to travel with her really bothered me. That, along with a crib mattress (kind of key) are tops on the list of items needed. Plus mattress pads, sheets for the Pack N Play, and a diaper Champ. We finally got all the boxes that my parents shipped with our shower gifts and I started going through them this weekend. We do not have enough room for it all! I am putting the clothes in size order and trying to get all the bath items in one area, all the changing items in one area, and all the toys together somewhere. It's crazy how much stuff a baby needs.

The pictures below are of the "chair rail" that I did with leopard print ribbon. I love the way it looks. The pictures don't really do it justice. We have some things we are going to hang on the walls, we've set up the stereo system, and will be finishing off getting the crib all ready to go in the next week or so.



I was going to get my hospital bag ready this weekend but that didn't happen. Maybe this coming weekend I'll get to it. Later on this week I will post the pictures of our new tile. We had it done last week and it is awesome. We are so glad we finally hired someone to come in and get it done. John is working on baseboards and transitions. Once those are done we will totally finished with the floor renovations! I can't wait.

Mini freak out

I almost made John take me to the hospital last night. I noticed, at about 6:30 or so, that I hadn't felt the baby move in a while. I couldn't tell you the time the last time I felt her, but I remember thinking as I was leaving work at 5 that I hardly ever feel her when I drive. I remember wondering if the car puts her to sleep and that it will be interesting to see if that happens after she is born as well. So I know that from about 5:00 on I hadn't felt her. My doctor says that if you don't feel the baby move more than 10 times in 2 hours you should call and go in and get checked.

At 6:45 or so I took a drink of something cold and decided I needed to eat something and go lie down on my left side to see if that would get her moving. Usually about 5 minutes after I start to eat she starts to move. Well this time she didn't. I lay there for a while and when John got home at about 7:15 I was really nervous. I told him that she hadn't been moving much, just a random movement here and there, but that she had been moving all day long. So we decided that we'd eat dinner and see what happened, then make a decision about whether to go to the hospital. Long story short she started moving after I had a bowl of Cap'n Crunch, so we're all good.

It's hard to get used to the fact that she is getting bigger and doesn't have as much room to move around anymore. I have been so used to feeling her being active all day long. I can see movement but not always feel it. And my kick count timing is getting longer to get to 10 movements. But my doctor did say that I may feel less and she gets more scrunched in there which does make sense, but it is still nerve-wracking. I'm just glad that I now know where to go in the hospital should we need to since we had our tour the other night. I kept thinking that we'd be walking down the hall in the labor and delivery area and hear some poor woman screaming, but that didn't happen and I am so glad. I don't know why, but I was so scared of that. =)

Anyway, on to other news. John had his quarterly all-staff meeting at work this week and he got another shout-out just like last time. This time it was from one of the top guys - his boss' boss. Apparently he hadn't been sold on hiring a purchasing manager when John was hired, which he said at the meeting, but then went on to say that after looking at all the numbers since John had been hired that he was willing to admit that he had been wrong! I guess John is doing a great job and saving them a bunch of money. So needless to say I am very proud of him! He'll probably not be too happy that I am posting this out there, but he'll get over it.

Monday morning starts one of the last parts of the flooring renovation we've been doing. The tile guy is coming! Finally we will have all the floors done! He should take 3-4 days to complete it, then all John has to do is put in the rest of the baseboards and we will be finished. Thank goodness. This has been a long process but it all looks so good. I'm sure the tile will be great too. My dad is coming out to supervise and I'm excited to see him. He missed the baby shower weekend so it'll be nice to hang out for a few days.