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Merry Montage Holiday

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Merry Montage Holiday

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Finally an update!

I can't believe it's been almost 7 months since I've updated. Olivia will be 9 months old next week. She's crawling, babbling, has three teeth (with a fourth on the way) and already standing up while holding onto things.

So much has happened since my last post. Unfortunately, because I can hardly remember what I ate for breakfast this morning I'm not going to be able to go very far back with the updates. I can do a week, but only because big things happened.

For starters we had our first trip to the emergency room last Friday. Carter tripped at day care while he was running down a hill and he hit his head on a rock. Lots of crying and 12 staples later he was almost his normal self. He's a champ! Staples come out this Friday, that's going to be interesting.

Then last weekend Grant and I ran TWO 5k's. Saturday was a small 5k in Red Bluff, which was my first 5k and Grant's second. Then Sunday was a huge 5k in Chico, involving thousands of people. We both did great. I came in at 38 minutes and Grant came in at 43 minutes. We're pretty proud. And my goal for my next 5k is to beat that time.

And that's it. That's pretty much all that I can remember. I should probably say "have a great holiday season" because let's be real, who knows when I'll update again. But no, I'm really going to try to update at LEAST once a month. That's sad, but that's the reality of my busy life right now.

Good day!

Oh wait...I guess maybe I should post some pictures. Haha. Okay I'll leave you with a few.

Okay so I'm too lazy to figure out their exact ages like I usually post...so I'm just going to say, Carter is 3 years, 4 months and like 7 days or something, and Olivia will be 9 months old in 2 days. How's that? Yep, works for me!

Our fun weekend

Olivia is such a great baby. She's sleeping great, eating better and finally not screaming her head off every time time she rides in the car. Oh and she's been sleeping in her crib now for about a week. We're both getting more sleep because of it. She had been sleeping in a bassinet next to our bed but every little movement she made I heard, so sleep wasn't great for me. And she was getting woken up in the mornings when Grant was getting ready for work. So it's much better now. And she had another great night of sleep last night; went to bed at 10pm, up at 5am for a bottle, then she went right back down and she's still sleeping now. If only Carter would sleep past 7am. :)

Here's one of Olivia's 2 month picture

I had a really hard time picking which 2 month picture I liked best. My favorite ones she's not smiling in. I like the cute little look on her face in this one though. She is such a happy baby, smiling all the time and she started  laughing. It's so cute. My favorite is when she wakes up in the morning because when I go into her room to get her she is all smiles. Melts my heart.

The weather was SO nice this weekend. Grant helped a friend build a fence all weekend so it was pretty much just me and the kids. Saturday we went to a friends house then took a nice walk to the Choo Choo Train Park (Carter's favorite park). I found out Olivia likes to face forward in the Baby Bjorn.

Then yesterday the kids and I went to a nearby town and hung out with one of my best friends. We went shopping, went to lunch then to a big park. Both of the kids did great all day.

Oh and we had ice cream :)

Carter is 2 years, 9 months, 2 weeks and 2 days old
Olivia is 2 months and 6 days old

Awwww sleep...sweet sleep!

Since we switched Olivia from soy to regular formula this week she's been sleeping so much better. It seems she has a sleep routine going; bottle at 10 pm then bed, then she'll sleep until around 4 or 5 am, have another bottle, then back to bed until 7 or 8 am. Not too bad for a 2 month old. I believe Carter was on a very similar schedule at this age and he ended up sleeping through the night at 3 1/2 months old so sounds like Olivia is on the right track. Yay!

Olivia's Two Month Check-Up

Since I'm so far behind lets start with Olivia's one month stats:
Weight: 8 pounds 14 ounces
Height: 21"

You may not know (because of my lack of posts) that I had been having problems with Olivia eating. It started when she was about three weeks old, she just wasn't eating much. Then when she was 5 weeks old I took her to the pediatrician because she was barely eating anything at all; in a 12 hour period she had eaten only 5 ounces so I was worried. The doctor suggested that I switch her to soy formula. Her weight at that appointment was 9 pounds 2 ounces (so only 9 ounces up from birth. Not great). I put her on the soy formula and had a follow up visit 4 days later. She seemed to be eating a little better and her weight 4 days later was up to 9 pounds 4 ounces (so a 2 ounce weight gain in 4 days). The pediatrician was happy enough with that to wait until her scheduled two month check up to see her again.

That puts at us today. We didn't get to see our normal pediatrician, instead we saw Dr. Carter, who was great. Her two month stats are:
Weight: 9 pounds 11 ounces (25th percentile)
Height: 23" (80th percentile)
Head: 38 cm

The pediatrician wasn't really concerned with Olivia's lack of weight gain since she's growing so much in length. I couldn't believe how long she was. Carter was only 21 1/2" long at two months. Poor Carter might be shorter than his sister someday. Haha.

In addition to Olivia's appointment Carter also had a follow up visit from his double ear infections and tonsillitis he had a couple of weeks ago. Luckily he got a clean bill of health. And just for fun I'll post his stats:
Weight: 30 pounds 8 ounces
BP: 99/68

We didn't get a height for him, but I thought it was weird they check his BP. Apparently that's standard now for kids ages 2 and up. And she said that 99/68 is perfect for his age.

I still haven't taken Olivia's 2 month pictures, I'll be doing that tomorrow (hopefully). So I'll leave you with Olivia's one month photo:

Carter is 2 years, 9 months, 1 week and 3 days old.
Olivia is 2 months old.

Birth Annoucement

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Olivia's birth story

Yeah I'm about 2 1/2 weeks behind but I figured I should post the birth story now before I start to forget all the little details.

The cesarean was scheduled for 7:30 am on Friday morning, February 10th. We had to be there at 5:00 am though, lucky us. We got there right at 5:00 and after checking into the emergency room entrance I was walked back to my "labor room". Even though I wasn't going to be laboring they had to get me started on IV fluids and prepped for surgery. I had a really nice nurse who only had to poke me twice to get the IV in (as opposed to the 10+ sticks they attempted when I had Carter).

After the IV we anxiously waited...

Grant snapped one last belly picture before they put the catheter in...

Luckily the time went by fast and before we knew it they were ready for surgery. In addition to my regular doctor we had a friend of ours, who's also a surgeon, assist with the surgery. And his wife took pictures. I absolutely LOVE that we have pictures of Olivia being born! *don't worry I won't be posting any gory photos on here*

The thing I was most nervous about was getting the spinal. Luckily I had a great anesthesiologist (we requested the same one I had with Carter) and the only thing I felt was the shot to numb my back before the spinal. I didn't feel the spinal at all.  After I was all numbed up and ready to go they let Grant in the room and began working away. Although Grant was behind the curtain with me he had prior consent from my doctor to peek around and watch what they were doing. He loved it. I laid there and tried to remember every detail of the surgery and everything I felt since I remember so little from Carter's cesarean. If you've never had a cesarean before let me just say that it is weird. Being able to feel tugging and movement but no pain. The doctors were awesome though, they were telling me everything that they were doing as they were doing it. They told me they were getting ready to take her out then all the sudden I heard her cry and everyone comment on how much hair she has. That's when I started crying. 

They cleaned her up a little then Grant brought her to me.

 

I got several minutes to see her pretty face and tell her how much I love her, then she was off to the nursery along with Grant. But before Grant left the operating room the doctor had him join him and pointed out and named all of my insides for Grant to see.

While they were sewing me back together the anesthesiologist asked if I wanted a sedative to help me sleep. I polity declined because my number one goal was to remember everything I could and NOT sleep. After they finished me up I was off to recovery. This is when I did a lot of sleeping after having Carter. I'm guessing that I did get the sedative after having him. This time though I was wide awake and alert and so so anxious to see my little girl again. I was only in recovery for about 40 minutes or so and then it was time to head to my private room. Yay!

My mom, step-dad and mother in law were in the room with Grant and Olivia but as soon as I got there they let us get some family alone time. I was thankful for that. They told me that Olivia practically came out of my belly rooting because she was so hungry so I feed her right away. Then we had some quality bonding.

Later that day Carter got to visit and meet his sister.

 

When he came in the room he was excited to see me and then Olivia let out a little cry and Carter quickly turned to see what made that noise. Then when he saw her someone asked him who that was and he said "baby Sam". Haha! Baby Sam is our best friends baby, who i now six months old. It took him awhile to realize that his "sissy" wasn't in my belly anymore. We got him meeting her for the first time on video so one of these days I'll have to upload it and post it.

Our hospital stay was pretty awesome. We were the only ones there Friday and Saturday so we had some great personal service. One of the nights the nurse even came and got Olivia for a couple of hours and rocked her so we could get some sleep. Although our experience was nice I was still anxious to get home so we were out of there Sunday as soon as possible.

Carter really loves his little sister. He's always asking where she is and constantly wanting to give her hugs and kisses and "pet her head". It's so cute. I love my family!

Today Carter is 2 years, 7 months and 4 weeks old and Olivia is 19 days old.

35 weeks

This post is a little late but better late than never right? So I was just comparing my 35 week pregnancy photo from this week, to my 35 pregnancy photo from my pregnancy with Carter and wow, not only am I bigger but I'm carrying her so much lower. Here's my photo from this week:

Carter and I were walking through the grocery store the other day and this lady walked by and said to me "Wow, you look like you're about ready to have twins". Nice huh? I mean it's true, yes, but still who says that to a random stranger?

This pregnancy started out much like Carter's, no morning sickness, I felt pretty good for the most part. The similarities continued until recently when I started feeling different aches and pains that I've never felt before. I'm sure it has to do with the fact that I'm bigger and this is my second pregnancy. I'm at that uncomfortable point now. It's uncomfortable to sleep, sit, stand and pretty much just move. Luckily Tuesday is my last day of work so I'll have a good 3 1/2 weeks to relax get ready.

We've been busy on the nursery. We had so much to do to get it ready for Olivia, and although we're not quite done yet, we don't have much more to do. It started with Grant adding two electrical outlets (the room only had two to begin with and that just wasn't enough). Then, because our house is so old and awesome and he had to tear out so much of the wall to install the outlets, he got to re-sheet rock parts of the wall, then tape and texture. Then we painted. Then Jack and Grant installed the lighted crown molding (so awesome! my favorite part of the nursery). Then Grant installed the trim around the door and closet. Then we (and by "we" I mean Jack and Grant) ripped up the carpet. We originally planned to just clean the floor and call it good like we did in Carter's room but the hardwood wasn't in great shape. So they rented a sander and sanded and finished the floor. That's about where we are now. So at this point we need to install the baseboards (which I believe are already painted and even cut to size) and paint the closet doors. And my wonderful Dad is installing the same closet insert that he did for Carter's nursery so after that's done we can hang the closet doors.

I'm just so much further behind this time than I was with Carter's room it feels like. The crib is due to be delivered on Tuesday. But I don't have any sheets or a crib skirt or anything. I don't even really know what I'm doing with those. I'm sure it'll come together before she comes though, I just hate waiting until the last minute. Anyways, without further ado here is the nursery....

Thanks to the good size window the room is nice and bright in the daytime

 

Here's the best picture I could get of the lighted crown molding at night. This picture does not do it justice.

So as you can see I went pretty bold with the colors. The walls are Valspar's Bayside. I'm using white furniture and bright pinks, light pinks, oranges, yellows and greens as accents. I'm hoping it'll all come together nicely. I'll definitely post pictures when it's done.

And next weekend is my baby shower so I'll make sure to post about that as well. 

Carter is 2 years, 6 months and 2 weeks old
I am 35 weeks and 4 days pregnant with Olivia