7 Weeks Old

It's been a rough week to say the least. I was sick with pneumonia and completely out of commission for 4 days. We were so lucky to have help from family! Jonny was able to keep working and I was able to sleep. It feels like this week flew by since I wasn't awake for half of it.

Ollie is a whole 7 weeks old! I can't believe how big he's getting! He's turning into a chunky boy :) He must be about 12.5 or 13 pounds and he's getting really tall. This week he's starting to smile a lot more. He's especially smiley in the morning. He's still belly laughing in his sleep but I can't wait till we can make him laugh like that. He's loving his baths, thank goodness!

The bad news for the week is I'm having to go back to work sooner than I anticipated. I was really looking forward to having a full 12 weeks off. Unfortunately my maternity leave is only covering 8 weeks, which means I'm back to business. It's going to be soo hard to leave Ollie during the day. I've only left him for a few hours at a time, never a full day. Luckily, my hours will be a bit more flexible now that I'm marketing. Ollie will be staying with my aunt 2 days a week and Jonny will take the day shift on the other days I have to be on the streets. We are so lucky we don't have to do the whole daycare thing. I love that he will be with family, that should make things easier. Next week will be full of getting things ready and tying up loose ends. I was planning on having another 5 weeks off so there's lots to cram into 2 weeks. 

6 Weeks

Where does time go? Half way done with maternity leave and I'm dreading the inevitable and wishing it would never end. I love being home with Ollie. I now know why stay at home moms always say they have the hardest job of all. It's rough taking care of a baby and getting little sleep. When he sleeps I would rather sleep or relax then clean the house and run errands. It's nice to get some "me" time in before he wakes up. A friend of mine had her baby yesterday and I was thinking back to my time in the hospital. I absolutely LOVED those first few days. The new proud-loving-excited-scared-nurturing feelings that were soooo scary and fun all at the same time. Family coming to visit, being proud of accomplishing labor, feeling unstoppable. I wish I could rewind time and relive those days over and over again. 

Ollie's had a stuffy congested nose this week :( took him to the doc on Monday after he was up Saturday night snorting (from being so plugged up). We had used a cold humidifier, steam shower and saline spray/boogie sucker to make breathing through his nose possible again. I didn't know newborns only breath through their nose for quite a while. It allows them to suck on a bottle and feed without coming up for air. The doctor said his lungs sounded fine and to keep doing whatever we were doing. We had caught it right in the beginning and so far it didn't look like it was progressing. 

This week I started going back to spin classes again. Did a 5am class Tuesday and an afternoon class on Wednesday. It was sooo nice to get back to doing what I love! Spin class helps me work out, de-stress and just get reenergized. Friday and Saturday I did some hiking, which is slowly but surely getting easier for me again. My goal is to make it up each incline without stopping. My workout spree was short lived since I got pretty sick this weekend. Of course, the weekend mom and Jonny are out of town, I need help with the baby. I'm soo soo worried about getting him sick since it's RSV season. So many babies are ill this time of year, I've been practically bathing in hand sanitizer to try to keep it away from him. I'm so lucky my family was here to help! My aunt stayed with me Saturday night and it was really helpful to have someone to feed, change and sleep with him. This morning I woke up with a temp of 103. I packed up Ollie and went to my grandmas. Once again everyone was around to hold him so I didn't breathe on him. Gram even spoiled me by making some homemade chicken noodle soup. I'm usually pretty bad about taking meds and going to the doctor, I push it a week before I'll do something about how I'm feeling (hoping it will go away on it's own instead). I feel like Ollie is making me a healthier person. I have to be healthy to take care of him and I really miss snuggling with him the past few days. I've been downing airborne, vitamin c, hot tea, Tussin, Tylenol and vitamin C lozenges trying to kick this thing fast. Going to call the doctor first thing in the morning for an appointment too. 

I've been reading a "What to expect" book and was interested to know Ollie's developmental goals for 1-3 months.  

• Raise head an chest when laying on stomach- Ollie pushes himself up while laying on my chest, but is a bit apprehensive on his play mat when having tummy time. Definitely something to work on. 
• Stretches legs out and kicks while lying on stomach or back- Ollie is already doing this while on his changing table. He loves to stretch out and make me work for a diaper change. 
• Opens and shuts hands- He's been doing this for a few weeks now. They mainly just want to see his hands open and not in a tight fist all the time. 
• Pushes down on his legs when feet are placed on a firm surface- Our strong little dude does this too! He applies pressure and pushes himself up for about 30-45 seconds and drops back down. Then he'll take a break and pop back up again. 
• Bring hands to mouth- So far he only does this if he's hungry... I'm sure he'll do this more in the next few weeks.
• Takes a swipe at dangling objects with his hands- Gram got him and play mat for Christmas and he loves it! He waves his arms all around and bops the animals that hang down. He even tries to get them in his mouth to chew on them. 
• Grasps and shakes hand toys- He grasps but doesn't understand the shake part yet. 

He's learning more and more everyday. It's still hard to believe he's 2 weeks from being 2 months old. He's developing is own little personality and traits that make him "Oliver". Can't wait to see more of his personality in the future :)

Hello 2012!

2011 brought us many great things. New friends, work positions, and best of all, our baby boy! So many new obstacles are coming our way, this will be the year of change for us. After maternity leave I'll be heading into my marketing position. Ollie will be going to daycare and Jonny's race schedule is packed. It will take lots of learning and adjusting to new routines and schedules 

My New Year's resolutions are:

1. Be the best momma Ollie could ever want :)
2. Get back to pre-baby weight by my birthday.... plus or minus a few pounds.
3. Save more money. Spend less on wants...
4. Pay off credit card
5. Work: Get 20-30 new O2 patients per month

Ollie and I started working on our fitness today. It was nice being able to leave the house and work out with him. I'm slowly but surely getting back into my hiking groove. Hiking with a stroller is a whole lot harder than going solo. That extra 20 or so pounds takes some work to push up the climbs. I'm sure it will get easier and I'm happy to have a work out buddy :)

3-4 Weeks!

Baby boy is 4 weeks old today! Things have been so busy lately I haven't had time to post. Last week was busy since it was Christmas week. Tons of shopping, wrapping, and baking to finish up before the big day. We had a great weekend celebrating with friends and family. Ollie was spoiled and had lots of snuggle time with his favorite people. It's nice that he's so relaxed. We don't mind him bouncing around for different people to hold him. I enjoyed dressing him up in his Christmas outfits  :) It's amazing that now I couldn't care less what I look like (most of the time) , as long as Ollie's cute and happy.

Our first Christmas as a family!

Daddy and Ollie snuggling Christmas morning

Ollie's "Define Naughty" onesie

There have been a lot of "frists" for Ollie this week (week 4). He's been smiling a lot and even at the right times. When we tickle him his face lights up with his cute little smile. He LOVES his bumbo and is sitting  up in it all by himself. On Wednesday he had his first bath! He didn't seem to mind it at all and was pretty relaxed. Then he peed all over me while we were toweling him off :) Fun stuff! 

It's so nice to be home with Ollie but in 4-8 short weeks I'll be back to work. My doctor finally released me to start working out. After 14 weeks of no activity, I'm sooo out of shape! I went for a nice hike this morning on a trail I used to be abe to go up and down 3 times in an hour. This morning I only made it twice - the mountain won! I was even passed by a 75 year old man who was running up the mountain! Hopefully I'll be able to walk in the morning! I'm pretty excited to be able to workout again though. I have another 35 pounds till I'm back to my pre-baby weight. I'm motivated and ready for it to be off! Not so happy everyone and their uncle will be at the gym for a few weeks. Luckily, things seem to empty out in February after the "resolutioners" dwindle away. I'll still be there spinning my Chipotle booty back to normal :)

2 Weeks Old

Baby boy is already two weeks old. This has been a long week for him ....and us. We are adjusting to lack of sleep and trying to make a schedule. Jonny is quickly loosing his OCD-ness. Ollie has managed to pee on our bedroom wall, poop on our bed and has peed on me 3 times this week. We are managing to smile and laugh through it all. On Wednesday he has a doctors appointment to be circumcised. I was not pleased at all with the doctors office! We walked in to talk to the doctor and had to stare at all the needles and scalpels for the procedure. Not to mention, we had to put him in a baby straight jacket before going to the waiting room... broke my heart. We came back in to Ollie screaming louder than I've ever heard. They didn't pick him up to comfort him or anything :( I know professionals get desensitized to the work they do and don't realize what kind of impact it has on their patients. The places I've worked at are very patient care oriented and I expect to go to the same... especially for Ollie. Needless to say, we will be having a nice chat with the doctor when he goes in for his check up.

Ollie had his newborn pictures done by our friend Meghan this week too. We didn't get to many in since it was chilly and Ollie wasn't up for posing. The one's she got so far are awesome though!

Being a mommy is one of the best things ever! Ollie is soo good and puts up with us when we're not sure what we're doing. His eyes are wide open now and he loves looking at lights. He's getting used to is diaper changes and isn't fussing as much when we change him (if we're in his time limit). He's smiling here and there now too, probably form gas but we love his smiles :)

1 week old already? Time, PLEASE slow down!

I woke up really early this morning while Ollie was still sleeping. I wasn't sure what exactly woke me up, until I looked at the clock. It was 3am on the dot! One week ago at that exact time, I got to see my baby boy for the first time. I can't believe he's already a week old! I'm sure times only going to continue to fly by.

We are really enjoying his sweet temperament and personality! He is soooo sleepy during the day and loves to keep momma up at night.... although we are getting a system down. He absolutely hates being changed (clothes and diapers). Jonny and I try to tag team him as much as possible to calm him down as quickly as we can. He is the strongest newborn I've ever seen! While burping him on my shoulder, he loves to pick up his head and look around or straight at me. I heard that mom's who worked out through their pregnancy have stronger babies, I thought my cravings for Chipotle and Moe's canceled out most of my spinning... but maybe we lucked out.

Can't wait to see what other fun things the next few weeks has to bring :)

Oliver is finally here!

What a crazy week it's been! Last Thursday Jonny and I went to my scheduled doctors appointment at 10:50 am. I brought along all of my hospital bags just incase the procedure they were doing would break my water (membrane sweep as planned). I organized my whole bag and grabbed a few last minute things.

Dr.Crum took a look at my swollen legs and my blood pressure and asked how we felt about having our baby that night. We were pretty taken back by the question, but of course we wanted him here as soon as possible! Dr.Crum called over to the hospital to see if they had rooms available that night since she was on call. My cervix wasn't dilating so she inserted a ballon catheter that would start contractions and dilate me. She told me to wear it home and that the hospital would call me in when they had a room available. On the way home I started having pretty good contractions and we turned around and headed to the hospital. On arrival they admitted me and started pitocin to help speed things up. Dr.Crum came in around 4pm and took out the ballon catheter and broke my water. The contractions started getting closer and stronger. I asked the nurse for the epidural a few times, but did't get one till 10pm. Afterwards, I was loving life! I felt sooo much better! My wonderful family came to wait out Ollie's arrival and it really helped pass the time by talking with them. An hour or so later, my blood pressure was down to a normal range but my temperature started rising. They packed my body with ice bags to get it to go down, but didn't have much luck. The temperature was also increasing Ollie's heart rate (usually around 150/due to my temperature was averaging 200). They tried a few other techniques but nothing was working to help the baby, even when my temp came down a bit. The nurse called Dr.Crum and they decided to do a C-section. I was shocked since I was already dilated to 8cm and thought things were going to be going the normal route.



They wheeled me into the operating room and gave me a stronger anesthetic. I loved my anesthesiologist! He was amazing and talked me through a lot of the surgery. Once I was prepped, they brought Jonny in and made the first cut. I felt lots of pressure but no pain at all. The only rough part was when they tugged him out. Jonny said he could see my whole mid section being lifted off the table as they muscled Ollie out. I was sooo excited once he let out his first little cry. Dr.Crum said she was amazed at how big he was and that she didn't think I would have been able to push him out.  They took him over to an incubator to check his sats and measurements. I was surprised that he wasn't crying at all after his initial squeaks. I remember asking the anesthesiologist a million times if he was okay and if that was normal. He said it was and I tried to relax while the sutured me up. I found this part to be the worst! Still no pain, but I could feel them piecing me back together and hear them using the suction. ewww!

Ollie was born at 2:58 am on December 2nd @ 8lbs 13 oz and 20 inches long! Almost a 9lb baby! They checked him over and then took him to the NICU where he had to be monitored for a while. They took me into recovery till I got some feeling back in my legs. I also had the shakes really bad wich was quicly cured with some Demerol- once again, love my anesthesiologist! They wheeled my by NICU to see Ollie before they took me to my room.  It was so hard not being able to hold or even touch him since I was in a lot of pain and laying on a gurney.

It was a long night. All the adrenaline and anxiousness made sleeping impossible. People were in and out the next day for visits. It took forever for me to go see him! The morphine made me extremely grogy to the point where I made no sense talking and feel asleep randomly. They started me on Vicodin and once I could walk to the bathroom the promised a visit. I finally got to go down to see him on my own at 3pm. the wheeled me down to the NICU and let me stay as lon as I wanted. They also decided to release him to come stay with us in our room. For the rest of our stay, the NICU nurses did random checks and antibiotic drips on him.

We are so happy our boy is here! It's the most amazing thing to look at him and know he's ours. Not to mention that he was the little guy kicking in my belly :) He's such a calm boy and we have it soooo easy compared to other people we know. The last few nights have been rough, but totally worth it when you look at his little face. We are so excited to see what the next few weeks have to bring!