baby

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Nearly 5 months old

I figure a post is seriously in order. I figure I can post right now without feeling too guilty since I am at Buddy and Frenchie's with nothing to do except do my nightly routine and sleep (which I should probably do now/soon since I have an early dr's appt tomorrow morning, hince why I am here).

Oliver will be 5 months old in a few days. WHAT?! Crazy. He weighs over 16 lbs, is nearly out of all of his 3-6 and 6 month clothes and we just put him in his first size 3 diaper today.

Family and friends who are reading this, I feel so sorry that our family updates are so few and far between, especially since this is primarily how most of you get a chance to catch up with us. I just really struggle with getting the daily grind done (I never do get caught up), so sitting down long enough to type everything out just isn't feasable.

About me: I continue to battle thrush and/or staff infections from nursing. They continue to get better, I think, but it has truly been like a two steps forward 1.9 steps back ordeal. I have done or am doing every treatment in the book, as far as I know, both with traditional meds RX and OTC as well as herbal/homeopathic, with the exception of eliminating all sugars/carbs (read: i could literally only eat meat and a few certain veggies) from my diet...which at this point, I'd rather just live with the pain. Very trying, emotionally as well as physically...and spiritually. I am thankful, though, that I am still able to nurse my baby. I would be devastated if I could not.

The hardest part of having a baby, for me, has been lack of sleep. Most people who know me know that I have always required more sleep than the average person. --Quite a lot more sleep than the average person, even, to function. I don't really know why this is, but its a real thing. I recently had my thyroid tested just to see if there were any issues there that would explain my lethargy/sleepiness, but it came back clear. The next step is to have a sleep study. I'm not sure that I can do one at this point, though, since I am nursing around the clock. I need to call the sleep study center and ask just to be sure, though. Anyway, obviously, the sleep issue is greatly exacerbated by having a baby...particularly since I am nursing and the weight of getting up with baby so he can eat falls 100% on me. I am happy to do it, I LOVE my child, etc, but it has been immensely difficult just to function. All principles finally went out the window about a month ago when I decided sleep was more important, and I've started just pulling Oliver into bed with us at some point during the night so that I can nurse him laying down and semi-snooze and then fall right back asleep. The not getting out of bed a million times/standing to change a diaper, etc, has greatly helped. I still don't get "enough" sleep at night, even for the average person, which means I don't get enough sleep especially for what I require, but it is certainly better than the up down up down up down 20 x charade. I can usually make it up once at night to nurse and lay him back down, but that is the peak of my coping level. After that, into the bed he comes. And the more I read about babies and sleep, the more OK I am with this, regardless of former principles. Please continue to pray for us when you think of it, that what rest I do get would be restful and revitilizing.

Another thing that has been harder than I had prepared myself for was all of the well-meaning advice. Everyone loves us and in caring for us wants to offer their bit of advice to help out. Of course, this often means not following the advice of great-intentioned loved ones. Listening to loved ones and then educating myself and then making final decisions for what works for us and standing my ground in it has been key. I find myself researching, researching, researching. This has been wonderful, although hard. I feel good about decisions that are made once I really look into things from difference perspectives. Which is a good thing.

I feel like I talk about the hard things a lot. That is only because those are the serious things I feel the need to be honest about. Everything light-hearted and wonderful doesn't take up nearly as much time to talk about. :) Its a little like the News - they usually report the bad. So let me tell you how much I love being a mother. -- I love it. This is 100% what I was cut out to do. It is true, I often find myself checking myself, thinking on my LORD to see if I pay Him as much mind and affection as I do my child. I dare not say the answer to that question. I hear this is a common thing for parents. So I will press on to re-order my priorities.

Oliver is such a joy. This week he started making "bbbbbmmmmbbbbmmm" sounds while "talking." Basically, buzzing his lips. This is a fun new sound for him. The first sound he started "talking" with was "Ohhhh...Ohhh....OOOOOHhhhh." He loves talking to walls and ceiling fans and the dresser and window blinds and the nursing pad boxes (with baby faces on them), in particular. In the last week or so, he has figured out how to pull down the dangling toy that hangs from the car seat handle. This is a feat, since it takes a bit of muscle (for him, I imagine) to pull hard enough to make the pully sysetm work, and then the toy goes rattling back up on its bungee. Oh, it gives him big thrills. For several weeks now, he has been pulling his paci out of his mouth, and trying to stick it back in his mouth. This keeps him entertained for a very long time. He'll get it all sorts of turned around. He is getting better at being successful, though. As soon as he gets it in his mouth, he pulls it right back out to keep doing it over and over. He'll keep at this, usually, until he gets mad because he can't consistantly get it put in his mouth correctly. And don't DARE try to help him, because that just makes him more mad! We have a little sinner on our hands! He started rolling over, both directions (in the same day) when he was about 4 months and 1 week old. He loves to smile and laugh. Oh, how I love his belly laughs. He is still a complete mama's boy. :)

I can't believe Oliver will be starting foods soon, in a month or so! Doesn't seem possible. We need to buy a high chair!


Well, he is making sounds in his sleep like hes about to wake up, so I better go for now!
Maybe next time I'll write about my last-minute trip back home to KC with Mom and Dad last month. :)

Thursday, August 13, 2009

When the Wife is Away, the Men will Sit Outside

Dena is away this week visiting family in Kansas and Missouri. So Bruce and I are bachelors.



Things are always exciting when the wife leaves. This time our cat had kittens again. Six this time. Here she is, although you can only see a couple there, there are six.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Yes, we're alive

Wow, its been a while!

I apologize in advance for the serious run-ons, punctuation errors, spelling errors and many ellipses, etc that you’re about to see.

As you can imagine (or not only imagine, as most of you have been there done that), life with a baby is crazy/busy. I don't really feel like I have time to post on here. Or rather, there is always something else to be done, and I usually feel too guilty to take the time to think about updating the blog because everything else continues to pile up. And when i am sitting down at the computer, it is usually when Oliver is needing to be held (which is quite a bit, still), and that just isn't conducive to typing, but rather, browsing/surfing/reading online, etc...things that don't require much typing.

Lets try to recap, shall we?

Disclaimer, below is the rated PG version of Oliver's birthday. Nothing too graphic, but if you're a man, you might just want to skip over this part.

Oliver was born Wednesday 5/6/09. The short version (actually, not short at all) of the story goes like this: I woke up in the middle of the night 9 days before Oliver's estimated due date and heard our cat (outdoor cat for rodent control since we live in the middle of farming fields) making strange noises, and I wondered if she was having babies since Andrew thought she was pregnant. A couple/few hours later, at 6:30 AM, I got up to make one of my 50 million nightly pregnancy bathroom trips. I got back in bed afterwards, was getting all adjusted with my pillows, and I felt a gush. I was like "OH MY GOODNESS," and flipped on the light real quick. Andrew says, "What are you doing?" I say, "I think my water just broke!" and he says "Does that require turning the light on?!" (gotta love Andrew for coming up with this one. hehe) and I'm like, "YES!!!!!!" Soooooooo...I wasn't really sure that my water broke for sure (because I've never done this before) and I thought, 'Oh dear me...what If I've tinkled on myself (it happens to pregnant women sometimes, you know).' So I waddled/ran into the bathroom again, trying not to get anything on the floor on the way and proceeded to somehow break the toilet seat when I sat on it. Hahaha...So after a while (I'll spare you further details), I figured out, it definitely had to be my water breaking. By this point, Andrew was up, starting to get stuff done, just in case, and I let him know THIS WAS IT! IT IS GO TIME! (I didn't say that.) So I sit there and call the dr's office and get the after hour's number, and call the person who takes the after hours calls. I left a VM for her to call me back, letting her know what had happened. I knew they were going to want me to come in, anyway, but I knew I needed to let them know what was happening. Then I called Carol Ann, our doula (plug for hiring a doula/hiring Carol Ann if you're in the Jackson area!) and let her know what was going on. Then I called Frenchie and told her we were hopefully having a baby today. Around this time, we started having THE storm of the spring. It started raining and got progressively worse. I took a shower and started getting ready. I wanted Andrew to update on FB what was happening, but we realized our satellite internet was out, due to the storm. While I'm getting ready, Andrew is packing up the car with our one million bags and items to take to the hospital, and all of Bruce's (our dog) stuff. We had made a list of last-minute items we needed to make sure we had, and it was saved on the computer. Except around this point, the storm got so bad THE POWER WENT OUT. oh yes. So we're trying to figure out what was on the list so we didn't forget anything. And Andrew has to come into the bathroom, shining the mag lite on me so that I could see to do my makeup and hair (yes, I did this). Eventually, it started to get light out enough so that I could see to finish getting ready with no holding of the mag lite. Meanwhile, Andrew is coming to the door of the bathroom every 2 minutes (Andrew doesn't remember it quite this way, but this is what it felt like to me, and its funny), to frantically ask me if I'm ready yet. (We did still have another 1.5 hrs drive into Jackson and still had to drop Bruce off and get some food before going to the dr's office.) About the 10th time, I informed him that if he did not calm down, I was going to start panicking, and this was not the day for me getting all upset. So finally, probably about 8 am or so (give or take), we were both ready to go. As I'm walking out the door, I notice that Delilah has indeed, had a kitten. At this point, Andrew is pretty much willing me into the car with the whooshing of his arms (the car is running, door is open, etc), but I bend down to look at the newborn kitten. Andrew was all, "DENA. THIS IS NOT THE TIME. GET IN THE CAR!" hehe. such fun memories, looking back. Later, when Oliver was born, I held him for the first time and explained to him that he had had a very busy day: Delilah had a kitten, mama broke the toilet seat, and the power went out in the biggest storm we had seen since moving to Tchula, all while he was trying to come out into the world. So we drive to Jackson, and I make approximately 49 phone calls to family, friends, and members of the church. It was especially fun calling Bubby and Mom and Dad. Each of their reactions was so true to their individual personalities and was just so fun. Bub and Mom and Dad headed down this direction a bit after I called and let them know things were happening. At this point, I was only feeling mildly crampy, nothing I considered true contractions at that point. So we dropped Bruce off at Buddy and Frenchie's and then went to Burger King for breakfast. My entire pregnancy, one of my hang ups was the fact that I knew I was not going to be allowed to eat once I was admitted to the hospital, until Oliver was born. I generally do not do well at all with the whole no eating thing, so I was determined to fill up before checking into the hospital. (I did not regret doing so later). We went to the dr's office, and by this point, I was having some pretty serious crampy type feelings. Dr. Bush was able to see me pretty much immediately, and she said that I had a tiny bit of water left, and that she'd break the rest of it once I got checked into my hospital room. I think I was 2 cms dilated when she checked me. So we went downstairs and got all checked in. We signed some papers at the desk, and at this point, I was "dancing" (as the nurse told me) with the crampy type feelings, (which were contractions, but I had never done this before, and at this time they felt like pretty serious cramps). Got into my room and into a gown. Its kind of amazing, because from that point on, things just took off. I am SO glad we got to the hospital when we did, even though I had wanted to be able to labor as long as possible at Buddy and Frenchie's....I can not imagine getting into a car and dealing with the contractions that started coming. Our nurse, Suzanne, was pretty much amazing. She was like a second doula. She was right by our side, almost constantly. Shortly after checking in, (which was at 10 something or 11 something, I guess, she was like "Uhhhh...have you called Carol Ann yet?" "No." "I think you should." (I'm so glad she sensed I was going to need the support, and not a minute too soon.) Yada Yada Yada, contraction, contraction, contraction..... Things went from feeling zeroish to 60 MPH in the blink of an eye, it was pretty overwhelming. I was going to try to walk with my labor as much as possible, to work with it and help labor do its thing as efficiently as possible. By the time Carol Ann got there, I was in serious serious pain. I had horrendous back labor. HORRENDOUS. When a contraction would hit, I would just hang off of Andrew. I think when Carol Ann got there, which was soon (I couldn't even greet her, I was at that point in labor), I was on my hands and knees in bed. Then I stood up for a while longer and swayed and dipped down with the contractions, and Carol Ann supported my weight from the back while I leaned over the bed a little. The pressure in my back and bottom was just amazing (in a not good way). I kept telling them I felt like my bones were exploding. Thats really what it felt like..Except, it was like a contained explosion, where the full force is there, but there is no place for it to explode to...if you can imagine that. (If you've had back labor, you don't have to imagine it!) I got to a point where my legs gave out, and I had to lay down...except laying down even hurt. Everything hurt. Really bad. But the least painful thing, I guess, was laying on my side, holding onto the bed rail for dear life during a contraction, and laying in exhaustion for the few seconds between contractions. My intent was to try to have a natural birth with no meds, but I was asking for help (for some meds of some sort). Andrew, Carol Ann and Suzanne did their best coaching and encouraging to talk me through contractions without meds...Finally, they gave me a small dose of Stadol....oh sweet relief (comparatively.) It only lasts about 20 minutes or so, and it doesn't take the pain away, but you just feel too intoxicated to care as much, kind of...it relaxed me enough between contractions to where I'd kind of go in a sleepy haze...but definitely not enough time to actually sleep....My contractions felt like they never fully went away in between contractions...there was just less pain or more pain. I ended up having three small doses of Stadol over the period of a few/several hours, I'd guess (I have no sense of time during all of this). I was very hot and was thankful we brought a little fan with us. Later I found out (each room has its own temp. control), they had the temp turned down so low for me, that Carol Ann, Andrew and the nurses, etc were FREEZING....I had no idea...I was steaming sweating hot. Sometime in here, Dr. Bush came in and broke the rest of my water, and had me push (I had no idea they would have you do this) to try to dilate a bit more. Oh, the pain. After that, I was like "I don't want to push anymore (until its time for him to be born)!" More labor, more pain, more weepy Dena, asking for help. Every time I'd start crying, they'd encourage me not to cry because they knew I was going to work myself up and it was going to make it hurt more. Oh, it was so hard not to cry. But I realized, too, that I didn't have the energy to put into crying, I needed all the energy my body could muster into just getting through the contractions. Crying and having contractions was horrible. It was like a vicious cycle. Oh, the pain, I need to cry. But crying makes it hurt more. Hurting more makes me cry. Ai ai ai. Heather and Traci came by and I couldn't see them because I was in too much pain and the thought of them coming in the room was too overwhelming for me. They got to see Andrew for a min. in the hall, though. So sweet of them to drive all the way to Jackson. Then I started dry heaving at 6 Cms. That was fun. (Not.) But I know it helped me dilate more! Then I stalled at 7 Cms for several/a few hours, I think (again, no real sense of time, here.) They started me on Pitocin at this time, even though I was adamant I didn’t want it, they were convinced I had to have it (still don’t know all the details of this, I was so out of it.) Eventually, I was serious enough about having the epidural, which coincided very closely with the start of the Pit. I just couldn't do it anymore. Someone, I don't remember if it was Andrew or Carol Ann or Suzanne, told me, "Listen to me, Dena, (something or other about keep going, you're doing great, you don't have to have the epidural)," and I weepily told whoever it was, "No YOU listen to ME: I am in serious pain and I need help, and I'm NOT kidding." They kept asking me if I was sure I wanted the epidural, and I kept saying yes, so they called the man to come do the epidural, but first, Suzanne, while trying to talk me out of it told me that in order for him to administer the epi., I was going to have to sit on the edge of the bed, and I couldn't sit on my bottom let alone sit still enough for the epidural. I kind of panicked when she told me this and told her, "NO. I KNOW they can do the epidural with me laying on my side. Don't tell me he can't do it. I know they can do it that way!" And then she told me he was going to come in and he'd have to check out my back (I don't fully understand this) to see if he'd be able to do it with me laying on my side or not. I remember them telling me it was going to take him a little bit to get down to the room once he was paged, but honestly, it felt like he was there almost immediately. When he did the epidural (with me laying on my side, yay!), Suzanne was with me, and Carol Ann and Andrew were required to leave the room, of course. There was relief almost immediately. Now, I don't know if the epidural just didn't take completely, or if it worked kind of perfectly, or what, because everyone has different stories of the feelings associated with the epidural, but let me just say, I LOVED my epidural. All it did was knock out the majority of the back labor. Everything else, I could feel. I felt contractions, I felt my legs and toes and had pretty good control over them, I could feel my legs, etc, being touched. Some people want to feel completely numb with an epidural, but this was actually one of my fears -- that I'd be so numb, I wouldn't be able to give birth. But for me, it worked out perfectly. Something else I think is cool is the fact that Dr. Bush was working that day (she only works the dr’s office certain days) AND she happened to be on call that night. So when office hours were over, she came to my room and pretty much just hung out with us during a lot of my labor. Its pretty rare to get to have that happen, and especially to have it work out where your dr. happens to end up being the one on-call. I really love Dr. Bush, so this was great for me. Back to the epi- Andrew thinks I got the epi. around 9 PM. Its like having the epidural "unstalled" my progress and allowed my body to relax enough to finish dilating. I am very blessed to have had it work out this way. I was able to talk during contractions and even talked on the phone during the end of labor! I was able to catch my breath before the big finish. I didn’t sleep or doze or anything, I just wasn’t getting exhausted with each contraction. Then it was time for Oliver to come out. I honestly don’t remember being told the time had come. I just remember it was somehow time, and the room filled with about 12 people (no I’m not kidding), and it was lights (dropping out of the ceiling), cameras (after he was born), and action. Yes, I was thankful for the epidural, but as I stated, I could still feel everything. So it was still very painful. I just didn’t have the all-encompassing back-labor like I’d had. I’ll skip all the details of this whole part (I’m sure you’re glad). Finally, he was born at 11:26 PM that same night. Funny thing, friends and family guessed his due date about 3-4 weeks before he was due, and Andrew guessed his due date correctly! Even though he was born 9 days early! Pretty cool. I remember looking at the clock between pushes and thinking if I didn’t hurry things up, Laine would be the correct due-date guesser, not Andrew. Ha. So he was born, and it was wonderful. Everyone said my belly never looked as huge as one would expect, and the sonographer guessed he was in the 40th %tile, but let me tell you, this little boy came out shocking ALL of us in the room, being 8 lbs and 4 ounces NINE DAYS before his due date. Yikes! We were all like, “WHAT?!” What a big boy he ended up being, the little trickster! I thought I would cry when he was born, but I didn’t at all, which really surprised me. I thought Andrew would cry, too, but he didn’t – although he says he got teary eyed. So they got him mostly cleaned off and put a dipe on him and his bracelets and wrapped him in a blanket and I got to nurse him when he was just minutes old. What a precious thing how God has worked it out to be so. It is amazing, with the help of our doula, she had us unwrap his blanket so he was skin to skin with me, we layed him vertical in the middle of my belly and chest, and he literally wiggled like a worm toward his food source! How amazing that a newborn baby has an instinct put in them by God to do such a thing! It was so sweet and just plain incredible. Then Andrew got to hold his son for the first time – the first baby he had EVER held. It was wonderful to watch him hold our baby for the first time! Within probably 30 mins or so, I was able to walk to the bathroom. Did I mention how fantastic I think my epidural experience was? Such a blessing. We had previously put in for a private transition (the first 4 hrs after birth, baby is closely monitored and has some routine things done, which is normally done in the nursery), so we had an incredible private transition nurse in our room with us doing all the normal things with Oliver so we could stay together. It was FANTASTIC. We got several great video clips of this. Within 1.5 – 2.5 hours, I’d say, Mom and Bubby showed up (between mom, dad and bub, there were 2 vehicles, and dad drove straight to Tchula to our house to hold down the fort and check on the power – it was still out!!!). You’ve never seen such an excited and proud Grandma and Uncle!!!! It was neat to get to have them there so soon after he was born, while we were still in the Labor/Delivery room and they were still doing private transition with Oliver. An hour or so later, I got moved to my post-partum room, and Oliver was taken to the nursery for the final wrap up of things. He was returned to my room about an hour later. It worked out so well. I’m so thankful we had the option of requesting a private transition so baby didn’t have to be away for so long! We roomed in the whole time (this was important to me, I know a lot of people think this is nuts). I literally slept maybe ½ hour that night (for various reasons). Thursday was full of the usual stuff – visitors, paperwork, seeing lots of drs and nurses checking on me and Oliver and telling us stuff – and we left for home Friday afternoon.

Dad and Bubby stayed just under a week and mom ended up staying one day short of 3 weeks. She was going to stay 2 weeks, but I was so exhausted and non-functioning she stayed an extra week. I seriously don’t know what I would have done without her. We also were provided meals every few days or so for better than a couple weeks by church members. Also, so wonderful. When Oliver was 2 weeks old, I found out we both had Thrush and I had staff infection from nursing (this was horrific). We found this out after finally going to the MS Breastfeeding Medical Clinic (I pretty much love them up there, now…I wouldn’t still be nursing if it weren’t for them). These infections were probably contributing greatly to some of the extreme exhaustion I was feeling, since I was in such severe pain, Oliver was in pain from having the infection, and was consequently not sleeping hardly at all, so neither was I, etc etc, etc and we didn’t know something was truly wrong with us until he was 16 days old and saw Dr. Saenz. I am actually still battling problems with it, would you believe that? I’ve taken antibiotics and done all sorts of things, and so has Oliver. But NOTHING like it was at first. I am nearly healed up, its just taking forever (I hear this is normal for such infections). At the height of the infections/pain/before/right after going to the doctor, it was so bad, I felt like I was going to pass out sometimes and I’d scream and cry my eyes out and totally freak out when I nursed. It was REALLY bad. I know it was God sustaining me through that, because there is no way I could have handled that from my own will. I am SO thankful for the Breastfeeding Clinic and the ministry (I see it as this) they have to women to help them with related issues.

Ok, so first three weeks were pretty much ridiculously rough, and I was beyond exhausted. First two months, I couldn’t get anything done hardly because I’d barely get started on something and Oliver would need to be held, or else he’d cry like a banshee – (I’m not talking just fussy, I’m talking, no one in their right mind would let their kid cry like this). So I held him a lot. And got hardly anything done. But that’s ok. Traci came and cleaned one time while I took a nap with Oliver. It was glorious. I could kiss her feet. She’d be totally grossed out if she knows I said that. Hee hee. Debra (Andrew’s mom) came to visit when he was 5-6 weeks old. She helped a lot. She stayed for 2 weeks. Then Melissa (Andrew’s sister) came for a week right before he turned 2 months old. She helped a lot, too. Then, he turned 2 months old, and it was like a switch was flipped and he was a lot more content, and I was able to start getting things done in better chunks. Its still not easy, and he has worse days than others, of course…but….its much better, now.

This is fun (not): we found out Oliver is highly allergic to baby wipes, after not knowing what was causing the yeast infections and chemical burns (literally, chemical burns) on his bottom, we finally figured it out after a few weeks of him having the problem and trying 5 or 6 prescriptions….I feel HORRIBLE that every time I changed his diaper and wiped his little bottom with a diaper wipe, I was making it worse instead of better. It only got better when Debra was here and she suggested using just water on washcloths since the wipes would probably not feel as good as just water and cloth, not suggesting it because she thought he was allergic to the wipes (I guess my mom had suggested stopping the wipes way back, and I dismissed it absentmindedly since we were using they hypoallergenic/sensitive/dermatologist recommended/alchy-free wipes). So we used washrags for about a week during one of the prescription diaper creams, and it cleared up completely! So I thought it was the prescription that worked! So I started using wipes again, and do you know the yeast infection started coming back?! So I KNEW it has to be the wipes-hes allergic to all those chemicals! So now we use only water on washrags and you have never seen a healthier baby bottom! Amazing! Poor little guy! Oh, my heart breaks to think what I was doing to him! Then, a week or 2 ago, I suspected he was allergic, also, to babh wash, since a little bumpy rash he’d had for weeks at the top of his back started to spread and get worse and start to look a little like the yeast infection when it had begun on his rear end. So then went my hunt for something super sensitive and chemical-free to bathe him with. Enter California Baby Products. Oh wow, I am such a fan, now. This little guy, with the most sensitive skin on the planet is doing great with the Cali. Baby wash/shampoo! So THANKFUL!!!! Aaaaannnd…just realized he must also be allergic to sunscreen (your run of the mill kind with the usual chemicals), so I plan to pick up some Cali. Baby sunscreen soon, as well to try it on him.

So, In my run down of the (almost) first three months of his life, I’ve mentioned all the bad things, just to let you know what has been adding to the craziness…But our precious baby boy, this gift from God is so so so worth it, and we have had such sweet times enjoying our baby. We love him so much. So don’t think I’m all depressed or something. Just wanted to let you know what has been up, so to speak.

Lets see. He is thriving and growing very well. He is big and tall for his age (shocking to me, since Andrew nor I are particularly tall or big). Hes now wearing mostly 3-6 m. clothes, with a few flat out 6 m. pieces and a few 0-3 m. pieces that still fit him. He grows out of things so fast. Its amazing. He’s got to weigh close to 14 lbs now.

Other fun highlights:
He smiled at 6 weeks. We had a family photoshoot with Erin Fults when he was 7 weeks. He loves to stare at ceiling air vents and fans. Hehe. He smiles at me when I come to his crib or when he sees us for the first time after a nap or after “playing” by himself for a while. he loves looking at his “friends” on his swing mobile – they make him laugh. He is just so stinkin cute.

Pictures to follow. Ha. Maybe. Someday.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Here are a few pics of Oliver from within his first 3 weeks of life. They are completely out of order. Hopefully I'll find some time to update again soon and post more pics (we have lots but I can only upload 5 at a time and it takes FOREVERRRRRRRRRRR!) and give descriptions of these. I have to restart my computer now, and blogger is being difficult, and I can't save this post.

(Hi to everyone coming here because you received the birth announcement :) )















Monday, May 18, 2009

He is here!

No time to give details, and most of you already know, but here you go!



We hope to give more info and details soon.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

38 weeks tomorrow

Update time!

We are 15 days from Oliver's due date, but we think he is coming sooner.

Today was my 38 week dr's appt, and I am progressing nicely, still. He is still at -2 station, I have dilated a little bit more to 1.5 centimeters now, but the big, exciting news is I am now 50% effaced! SO EXCITING!

My doctor thinks Oliver will come on his own, no problem, no later than his estimated due date. Andrew and I are thinking sometime next week.

We'll see what happens. He is considered full term, so statistically/medically, he should be fine & healthy to be be born anytime.

That's all for now. (Its weird to think that the next post I might make could very well be an "Oliver is here!" type announcement!)

Friday, April 24, 2009

3 weeks away from Oliver's due date!

I haven't updated in a while, and thought I'd give a quick update.

Today is 3 weeks from his estimated due date.

I had a dr's appt on Monday (for my 36 wk appt, even though I was 36 w 3 d.) where they checked me for progress for the first time. I was 1 cm. dialated, no effacement, and -3 station. They tested me for Group B Strep, and I found out today the test was negative. Yay!

Today, I had another dr's appt for my 37 week-er. Everything is the same except he dropped another cm. to now be at -2 station. Hooray, Oliver! Good job! I also got a sonogram because my fundal ht. measurement on Monday was the same as it had been 2 wks and 3 days prior, and generally, its supposed to keep growing as a good indicator that the baby is growing, etc. Anyway, the sonogram showed all is well. The measurement probably did not change since he is dropping down into my pelvis more. They estimated his weight today from the sono. at 6 lbs 7 oz, putting him in the 40th percentile. (I'm not putting too much stock into their guess on his size, though, because they can be a couple pounds off either direction.) He is very definately still a boy. He is head down and face down, just like hes supposed to be! Go Oliver! Hes such a good boy, doing what hes supposed to do. Hehe. Amniotic fluid is great at 10 cm (whatever that means). All I know is that is apparantly great, and they would be worried if it was less than 5 cm. We could see his little diaphragm moving rhythmically, and the sonographer said he was practicing his breathing movements for outside the womb. So amazing how God has created babies to practice the actions of breathing while still in the womb when they don't actually breathe, just to prepare them to survive in the open air. Amazing. His HB was good. I can't even remember what it was. Hmm. Basically, everything looked good! The sonographer said he was down really low (yay for droppage!) and that my belly was "all baby" which didn't make me feel too shabby. Haha. I was given some pictures - three of his face and one of his boy parts. I can't see anything on two of the three face pictures, but in the last face picture I think he looks just like Andrew. :) It is so bizarre. He looks like he has a really tall forehead, too, just like Andrew. hehe. He kept his little hand up by his face the whole time.

Baby shower was last Saturday, given by the ladies of Tchula Presbyterian Church. It was lovely.

My parents were here last week, into this week for about 5 days or so. That was a good time. Mom and I got pedicures. Yay! Especially since I can't reach to paint my own toes.

We have most everything ready for baby Oliver to get here. We have tied up most loose ends, I think.

We have packed for the hospital, and everything is sitting by the front door. We will just have to grab the last minute items that can't be packed at this point.

It is surreal to think that we're really going to have a real live baby here within a few weeks or so! I just can't believe it. I am trying to enjoy this time, these last few days where it is just Andrew and me, and enjoy my sleep and such. But I am also very excited to meet this baby face to face. I guess that is normal.

People keep asking me if I feel miserable. I guess that is standard feeling for most women in the last weeks. Honestly, I have hit bumps and still deal with things like crazy heartburn, discomfort in general, extreme overheating, trouble sleeping or getting comfy, swelling/pain in my feet, etc, but I still maintain that I do not feel miserable. I'm trying to take all the aches and pains in stride. I just kind of expect not to feel super great. I have my days/moments, but I would not call it misery. And I am enjoying getting to have Oliver all to myself so close to me for these last few days. I know I will miss it in a way, even though it will be glorious to have him outside!

I'm spending the night at Buddy and Frenchie's tonight. Every time I/we come to Jackson, there is so much to get done. Its kind of amazing. Today I went to the dr's appt, went to Borders to buy a baby book, ate lunch, went to 4 stores to get baby socks (trying out a few pair from each place to see which ones stay on the best), and did another errand before landing here at the Grahams. Tomorrow, I need to go to Target, get my haircut, and go to Walmart and Kroger for several things on the way out of town to head back home. It was just too much to do in one day for me. I'm glad I split the trip into two days.

When I said goodbye to Andrew this morning, he said, "Try not to come back with a baby." Haha. I told Frenchie what he said, and she caught something I didn't at the time: I'm still coming back with a baby either way! Lol. Just not the way he meant it.

Ta ta for now. I am tired. I wore myself out walking around Jackson all day. It was stinkin' hot, too. 80 something. For a pregnant woman that =s something like 110 degrees (or more). For real.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Pack N Play adventures and Bruce

Mom bought us the Pack N Play and the Monitor we registered for. She paid for them over the phone and we were able to pick them up at the Babies R Us here. Thanks, Mom!

Here are pics of that adventure:



Andrew making his "I refuse to smile for a picture" face:





It really was quite the adventure. Andrew decided to start putting this together last night after we got home from being in Jackson for 2 days. It took longer than I expected. Graco included ridiculous, non-helpful directions (that don’t even deserve the right to be called 'directions'…unless you consider “put the metal rod in the pack n play” adequate directions. ...Excuse me…there are several metal rods, and where exactly in the pack n play is this supposed to go???????) So that was fun/funny/frustrating. We finally got done at 12:30 and called it a night. I say “we” but all I did was lay in bed and watch Andrew put it together and take pictures with my feet propped up (as you can see here)

because I overdid the walking/probably salt intake, too on Thursday and Friday, and therefore had bad feet swelling. :) I guess I was growing Oliver, too, so I helped a lot. Haha. Just not with the Pack N Play.

As you see it now, we have the bassinet feature set up. Whenever we want to use it as a regular play yard for him to play in, we can just move the mattress/bottom to the very floor of the pack n play. Pretty neat, huh?

You can see the blue sheets we ordered for the pack n play mattress from www.cloudsandstars.com in the pics, too. We have the PNP in our bedroom because we plan to use that as his bed (with the PNP bassinet feature) for the first little while.



now for some non-baby-related pictures…

Here are some pics of Buddy and Bruce (10 months old) playing together. Buddy plays with him and lets him get all wild like no one else. Bruce loves playing with Buddy. These were taken, I think on Thursday at Buddy and Frenchie’s. We were in Jackson a lot this week (Mon, Tues, Thurs & Friday) for baby-related classes/appts, etc, so we spent the night at their house Mon. and Thurs. nights. And we spent large chunks of our days at their house during the week in between appointments, too. They are so good for us. For those of you who don’t know, these are the people that let me live with them for 4.5 months as soon as I moved to Jackson from KC before Andrew and I got married. They are our adopted parents, and their home is our home away from home. So lovely. I don’t know what we’d do without them.



Belly Pic: 33 wks 2 days


Taken last Sunday. Enjoy!

Baby Clothes: 35 pieces for under $22 including tax

I will try to make this snappy since I keep starting a new blog update and then don't have time to finish it but just save it instead and then still don't have time to post all the pics/give all of the info I want to give...so the blog post keeps getting longer and longer but never gets posted.

So I'm skipping some stuff (for now or maybe forever) that occurred well before this just to get this post up.

Went to my normal go-to consignment shop this week to look for good bargains on baby clothes. Walked out with a footed sleeper and a LAURA ASHLEY top/footed bottom set in new to Excellent Used Condition (hereafter referred to as "EUC" for simplicity)for just over 5 bucks including tax. Not bad.

As I was walking out of the store, I noticed a Goodwill in the same strip that I'd never noticed before. I decided to take a chance and go on in. I am SO glad I did. I ended up digging through baby clothes for an hour-hour and a half. There were two shopping carts crammed full and overflowing and two huge bins about the size of two shopping carts each, crammed full and overflowing. Each individual piece of clothing was 50 cents each. I walked out of there with 32 pieces, most of which look like they've never even been washed, and the others are in EUC. Brands including Carter's, Gerber's, Tommy H., Gap, Talbots and more. I was SO excited!

Here are my treasures from that day(all are Goodwill finds unless otherwise noted)(and you really need to zoom in on some of these to catch to adorable detail!):

size newborn:
(look at the little puppy dog feet! ah!) (one thing still has the tag on it!) (the last item is from the Winnie the Pooh collection.)



Some much needed sleeper gowns, size 0-3 months, all with the optional fold-over handsies:


more 0-3 months clothes:
(the yellow sleeper is from the consignment shop...i think its brand new without tags)


more 0-3 months stuff:
(I don't know what "size" the cap is.) (I'll be able to use the pants with some of the many onesies we already have.) (The romper is by a brand called "Tea" from San Fran. (had never heard of it before) and I checked and it retails for $23 new. Yay!)


3 month items:
(Laura Ashley outfit in EUC on the left from the consignment shop.)


3 month stuff:
(I love both of these with all the wording. TOO adorable!!!!)



3 month footed sleepers:
(I don't know why the picture rotated like this. Sometimes blogger glitches and does this, and I'm not starting over again.)
(I showed the backside of the yellow one because it is so adorable!)


3-6 month onesies:


6 month clothes:


Two 6-9 month onesies and a 6-month romper:


Needless to say, I am done buying clothes for Oliver at least for a while unless we determine we need to fill in with a few particular things when the time comes.

As you can probably tell, one company’s “3 months” might be the equivalent measurements of another company’s “6 months”…and we don’t know how he will grow…so basically, we’ll have to wait and see when he can actually wear these things.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

No pictures because pictures =s way more time to blog. Even though I've taken a lot.

I haven't updated in a while, mostly because the things I want to update about involve posting pictures here, too, and I just don't have the time/energy (or feel like I do, rather) to get into all that. Seriously, making a lengthy blog post and including pictures can take a couple of hours. Not kidding. So I've been putting it off. But I'll give short versions of the highlights with no pictures...at least for now.

Stroller and infant carseat came today (this is no fun without pictures). I am WAY too excited about it. Andrew set it all up and wheeled it in to the computer room today. He taught me how to work the whole system tonight, which was really fun. I think its really cute that he read all about it and figured everything out. This was something I chose sight (in real life) unseen, yet, I did a TON of research regarding it and ended up really really happy with my choice, now that I've seen it (because its here) in person. Or at least I'm happy with it now, sans testing it out with a baby. :) HOORAY! I would like to throw out a HUGE THANK YOU to Oliver's "Amah" (that is her grandma name) Berry...that is...one of his handful of "adopted" grandmothers. (Can I tell you how much I love the fact that we get to "adopt" parents and grandparents who love us and take care of us? Or maybe rather they've adopted us....or...both...I love it.) Joan Berry is a dear dear friend to Andrew and me that we know from our church we were at in Jackson. She is very good to us and already to little Oliver. We love her dearly. Anyway, she wanted to buy his infant car seat, but ended up providing enough for us to pay for part of the stroller too, so we just went ahead and ordered the whole travel system (stroller and car seat sold together) online. Yay!

We decided to go ahead and buy the crib mattress, ourselves, too, since its not something we could put on our registry, anyway. That came, i think, last week. That was fun, too. (Also no fun without me posting the pictures.) SO thats in the crib now, but without the sheet on it yet because I realized we don't have a mattress pad yet (one thing we are keeping on the registry, at least for now. No, we're not buying everything ourselves right off the bat. :) )

Another highlight, I bought a few diapers off off diapers.com because I got a really good deal (with a promotion) on them, and those came last week (I think), too. Loads of fun. They are so tiny! EEP! (Also, no fun without me posting pictures.) I bought one box of newborn and one box of size one diapers. That is a start. EDIT: We planned on getting a Sam's club membership to keep us in diapers for the rest of the diaper buying, because I thought it was the cheapest, until I realized it is actually cheaper on diapers.com because there is no TAX! /end EDIT.

The Butterfields gave us their old changing pad and their old changing pad cover, so I was able to take the changing pad off the registry. Yay for that, and thanks to the Butterfields!

Buddy and Frenchie (or Papa Bud (I have to double check that this is his grandpa name...why can't I remember for sure???) and G-G) gave us a basket of baby goodies the other week. :) Some too cute onesies and a couple blankets and a couple bibs and some extra towels we can use for various baby messes. :) And the Baby Signlanguage book, which I am WAY excited about!!!! (For those of you going, "what???" No, we aren't planning on our baby being deaf, but you'd be amazed at how much babies can communicate through simple signs way way way before they start talking. It is pretty amazing to witness, if you've never seen it before, and I love it. I have only a little experience with it from a little girl I nannied for, but I am a believer because of it.) (Again, so not exciting without the pics. There are cute ones of Andrew looking at the baby clothes. :) )Thank you Buddy and Frenchie!

Moving on, I got some more clothes on the cheap from the consignment shop again the other week. Just a few things, but so cute. (Insert pictures here that I have no time to upload.)

Morgan sent us lots of goodies. A sleepy wrap (LOVE IT!) and a couple of really great preparation books for labor/birth/nursing and some lotion. (I also have pictures of these...which you of course not getting to see.) Thank you Morgan, Caleb and baby Emma!

The ring sling I ordered a while back came a few weeks or so ago. Its really really lovely, and you'll see pictures of it later.

Those are the main highlights. Other than the fact that I had a weird day last week where my feet were super duper swollen and it was a little scary, but everything is fine.

There you have my 40 minute (or so) version of the highlights instead of 2 hr long story version with pictures.

Another dr's appt this Friday. Just doin the normal stuff. Do you believe (its after midnight now, so I can count this way) we have 8 weeks and 1 day to go until his due date? AHHH! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!! WE HAVE SO MUCH TO DO! Hes going to be here before we know it and I'm going to look back on this post and these times and not be able to believe there was a day when he wasn't born!

Overall, feeling good, looking decent and enjoying myself. Needing extra rest and sleep (which I have during the whole pregnancy) and can't be on my feet too long at a time or its really painful. But enjoying life!

Please pray that Oliver turns head down, facing my back soon! Hes got a couple more weeks or so to safely do so, but I'm getting a little antsy that he is still laying transverse in my belly. I don't want him to be so comfortable laying this way that he doesn't turn down, because that would = a C section.

Over and out!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Cribs, Dressers and Furniture Rearranging

(As always, you can click on any of the pictures so view them larger.)

So the crib and dresser (that mom and dad Barnes bought us) came into Babies R Us. Andrew borrowed Robert Hutton's truck today and drove it to Jackson to pick them up! Then the Hutton men came over and helped unload the furniture and move furniture around. We couldn't have done it without them (truly). I took a lot of pictures. A LOT.

Here was the "baby's room" as of last night, before anything was moved out. Note: we are continuing to keep my desk/computer in the baby's room. So it will be a combo. baby's room/my desk space. I only took pictures of the part of the room that would be changing (so not of my computer desk, etc.)


All of the furniture pieces you see there are now in the spare bedroom on the other end of the house.

We had to try to figure out how we were going to fit the new furniture (new crib and new dresser) and different furniture (smaller bed and matching chest from the other end of the house) to all fit into the baby's room. So last night, I measured everything (or found out the measurements for the new furniture) and made to-scale paper cut outs of the part of the room that would be affected by the move. (Let me just clarify, they were approximately to-scale...because 1" on paper equaled 19.625" in real life...so when I made the cut-outs, I obviously had to just get close to exact measurements...there was no way I could measure an exact 2.03 inches, for example.) I did this because, I simply can not visualize things without having something concrete to actually see if it will work. I also did this because, Andrew was convinced we wouldn't have enough room in here for a full-sized bed, and I really wanted to keep a real bed in this room. So I had to prove my point and make it look good on paper. :) Andrew just came in here while I'm blogging and wanted me to tell you that he was very proud of me for making to-scale drawings/cut outs. Ha. So here are my cut outs. The pink paper represents only the part of the room affected by the move, but the room is actually bigger than this, but I didn't worry about that part of the room for the cut-out purposes. You will see the full-sized bed I wanted to end up in here, the baby crib, the new dresser that matches the crib, and an antique tall chest of drawers that was in another bed room. Oh, I will say, the window parts were not at all to scale, I just stuck them on the drawing to keep my bearings straight. And yes, I actually measured where the closet (which has accordion doors) started from the wall, and how far the door sticks out when it is in a half-fold. :) I had to make sure any furniture we put over there wouldn't be in the closet door's way.



Today, before the Huttons came over to help us unload the new furniture and move around existing furniture, Andrew and I somehow managed to get a good part of the moving process done, just the two of us (mainly him). This included swapping two beds (the queen into the spare bedroom and the full into the baby's room) throughout the house, getting them (mostly) put back together, moving the tall antique chest into the baby's room, scooting existing pieces of furniture around, unloading all furniture drawers, cleaning off all lamps and things from the tops of to-be-moved furniture and doing preliminary cleaning of furniture/sweeping of floors where furniture had long been. It definitely helped to have this done before the Huttons came.

So, back to the new furniture. Here are some pictures of it in the back of the Hutton's truck with the Hutton men and Andrew getting ready to unload it. So excited! The dresser came fully assembled (just had to put the legs on it) and the crib was completely disassembled. The boxes weighed 130 and 140 pounds!




Robert Sr. and Seth with the crib (I'm not sure how they got suckered into carrying this instead of Andrew...hehe...I feel kinda bad!)




Andrew & Robert Jr. then Robert Sr. bringing in the dresser. (Robert Jr. just had major surgery on his shoulder about a month or so ago. How/why was he picking this up, I have no clue? Robert Sr. realizes this 3/4 of the way in and takes over. Robert Jr, "But, I wasn't using that arm to lift!")





The guys getting existing furniture out of Oliver's room, carrying it into the spare bedroom on the other end of the house.



Watch the doorway!!!!!



Watch the overhead lights!!!!!!



Watch the doorway, again!!!!! (Andrew's face cracks me up here.)




Amazingly, we had more room than anticipated and fit an extra piece of furniture into Oliver's room! We put the matching antique dressing table where we had originally planned to put the tall antique dresser and ended up putting the tall antique dresser on the other side of the bed (where there is blank space in my to-scale drawing.) :)



Andrew and Robert Sr. moving more furniture out of baby's room & into the spare bedroom. Love Andrew's face!



Bye guys! Thanks for your help! (The baby crib box just stayed in the living room since it wasn't assembled and all the parts had to come out, anyway.)



Andrew starting the assembly of the baby crib. ...Totally not amused that I'm STILL taking pictures. LOL.









All done!



Now for Mama and Oliver (28 wks & 5 days) next to his crib! (You can see the dust ruffle (freshly starched and ironed) in this one!) Only 79 more days (give or take) and he can be in the crib!!!


Beautiful crib! Now all we need is the mattress (which we don't have yet) and then we can put on one of those super cute crib sheets I blogged about before!



Beautiful combo dresser! Thanks again Chris and Debra!



After all of that, I completely forgot to get a final picture of the room. HA! Oh well. I have no doubt there will be plenty more pictures of the room as more stuff comes together!

"DENA......ugggggggh....no more pictures...please!"
"But I have to show how big the crib box was!"



Then we dragged the cardboard/packing stuff outside and had a bonfire.

The end.