Weekend of Baby Reunions!

Olivia had quite the social weekend!

Friday night we went to dinner at Texicana Cafe with JonO, Lexie, Gammie and Grandpa.  While we were there we ran into Danielle Archambault.  It was crazy.  I know we live in the same city as Danielle so it's bound to happen, but it is always so strange to run into someone from high school, especially when you went to high school halfway across the world in Belgium.  Small world.  Olivia got to meet Danielle and Madison, so yay!

Then Saturday evening, we met up with Mark, Melissa, and Austin in Round Rock.  They are in town from Colorado for a week or so visiting family.  The last time that we saw Austin, he was just a month or so older than Olivia is now, and I was close to 6 months pregnant, I believe.  He is such a big boy now!

Melissa and I with our babies.

Sunday afternoon we had our Bradley Birthing Class Baby Reunion!  It was so great to see all of the new parents and, of course, it was wonderful to meet all of the new babies.  So precious.  I'm hoping we have another reunion once the babies are a little bit older.  It will be really neat to get to see them all as they grow and change.   

The 7 new little families.

Needless to say, Olivia was pooped come Monday and is slowly beginning to recover.  Actually, she did amazingly awesome through it all.  Friday night we may have stayed out a little bit later than we should have, but she still did well.  I'm hoping by keeping her out in the streets we are making her flexible, and not completely ruining her sleeping habits, yet. 

Wordless Wednesday - Shopping Day with Grandma, Aunt Sarah & Aunt Audrey

Our Little Troublemaker

It all just keeps getting more and more fun!  Over the weekend we went to San Antonio to celebrate with my family for my Mom's 50th birthday.  We had such a good time with Olivia, and it was our first time away from home overnight since she was born.  She did amazingly well.  I was a little nervous that she would have a difficult night while we were at my grandparent's home, but she slept like a champ for us!

Olivia is an amazing sleeper at night.  She has been mostly sleeping through the night for sometime now, and will typically only get up a couple of times very briefly, and just to nurse.  Easy peasey.

The birthday girl in San Antonio with her girls! Happy 40+10, Mom.

On our way back home Olivia had a very messy diaper!  We were so close to home, that rather than putting on a new outfit, she remained almost nakey the rest of the drive home.  She loved it.  She went straight in the tub once we got home.

Our weekend flew by entirely too quickly, as it always does.  On Monday, when I went to have lunch at Olivia's school I found out that she had been having a very rough day.  She was very fussy and Ms. Maria said that all of the normal things they do to usually calm her down had not been working.   I took her temperature there, and she was not running a fever.  I nursed her and then Dave and I took turns rocking her to sleep.  When I left to go back to work, she was sound asleep.

 I called the daycare at 2p.m. to check on her, and her teacher answered the phone.  I could hear Olivia crying in the backgroud.  It's funny how you can pick out your own baby's cry immediately.  Ms. Maria said that she had woken up and had been crying again since then, she thought that she was possibly having a hard time transitioning back to school since the weekend, or maybe a stomach ache, or maybe even the very beginning stages of teething.  Who knows??? 

I decided to go pick her up and just call it a day for her at daycare.  I brought her back to work with me, and wouldn't you know it, she was an angel for the rest of the afternoon!!!

It was pretty hard to concentrate on work while she was here, but once she feel asleep I was able to get some things done!

She's rolling from side to side now.

And she's out! :)

We think that she may have had an upset stomach.  That is really the only conclusion I have come to because since her fussy Monday morning everything else has returned back to normal.  Tuesday was a great day for Olivia at daycare.

I love when I catch these two all cuddled up!

Wordless Wednesday! 12 weeks.

"I breastfeed."

Funny story. On Monday, it was our very first morning getting ready to send Olivia off to daycare. She had been with her with Gammie for 2 wonderful weeks, but now it was time to get into our real life daily routine. We prepared as much as we could the night before and just had to load up the car in the morning. "School supplies": check. Bottles: check. Extra outfits and bibs and pacifiers: check. Diapers??? Of course not. I totally forgot to pack diapers. Luckily, Dave and I were going over the list together as we were driving and we realized this before we were at her daycare.


Dave stopped at a nearby H.E.B. and ran in to get us a pack of diapers. Livy and I stayed in the car to cuddle some more. When Dave came back to the car he had a big ol smile on his face. I asked him what was up and he had a cute little story to share. He said that he was in a big rush picking the diapers and quickly paying for them that he left his receipt there with the cashier. The cashier tried to call after him and let him know that there were coupons for formula included with his receipt. Dave said that he didn't even turn around and said, "No thanks, I breastfeed!"

So, of course, Dave got a big kick out of being able to say, "I breastfeed", because he thinks that it sounds silly coming from a man. However, I was absolutely thrilled with this story because I felt like it was just another way David has been supportive in my breastfeeding journey.

Olivia enjoying a meal on our hike last weekend.

Learning to do something that I assumed would be the most natural thing in the world has been hard at times. From hearing about other women's struggles, my own experiences have been relatively smooth in comparison. I will say that I have been blessed with a husband who was so helpful in the beginning that I was able to push through any of the painful times and difficulties. He was there to tend to my needs while I was tending to our daughters needs and everything worked really well for us right from the beginning.  Along with Dave's help, I was also very determined to breastfeed, and thankfully so was Olivia. She knew exactly what to do and really helped me along the way as well.  I cannot express in words the bond I feel for Olivia, and I attribute much of that bond to our times spent breastfeeding.

So as usual whenever I find an interest or a desire to learn more on a subject I become fixated on it. These days I can't get enough information on breastfeeding. There are not enough forums and articles to keep me satisfied. I love reading about other women's breastfeeding experiences and about problems they have encountered along the way. I also love hearing success stories and women who have been able to overcome certain difficulties (i.e. latch issues, supply problems, or other medical issues.)

The funny thing is that after my first 2 weeks of breastfeeding Olivia I had come to the conclusion that I did not enjoy it. I was not sure whether I wanted to continue to breastfeed her. There were a ton of reasons that I started feeling this way. I became anxious about needing to breastfeed over the holidays when we would be doing a little bit of traveling, I was nervous about my ability to return to work and continue to breastfeed, I feared having to nurse in public, and I did not want to miss family socializing times because I needed to go breastfeed my baby. Also that dreaded thought kept creeping into my brain, "I was formula fed, and I am fine." With Dave's encouragement, I kept it up and we worked through any possible obstacles. Surprisingly, there haven't really been any obstacles to breastfeeding once I fully committed to it and decided that was what I was going to do.

My work and boss have all been very understanding of my need to pump a couple of times a day. I'm lucky to have my own office where I can close the door and blinds.  Now that Olivia is only a mile away from my work I am able to nurse her right before she goes to daycare if I need to, during my lunch hour, and when I pick her up. This means that she really only gets 2-3 bottles of breastmilk a day, if that. She will sometimes refuse the bottle and hold out until I'm able to nurse her. She likes it directly from the tap, what can I say?

So breastfeeding has become my passion of the moment.  I know that we still have a long journey ahead of us because Olivia and I have only been doing it for 10 weeks, and a number of issues can arise.  I fully intend on breastfeeding her for as long as I can and I'm hopeful at keeping this up.   

It amazes me that there is a community of breastfeeding momma's on the net that people can reach out to for support.  I have also come across some social and politcal issues that stand in the way of many mom's desire to breastfeed, and that irks me to no end.  I'm also irked by the judgment moms pass on each other, whether they decide to breastfeed or formula feed.  There are so many things for mothers to feel bad and guilty for already, that we don't need each other's help.  I feel that so long as a mom makes an educated decision to choose one way or another, and decide which will be best for her and her baby, we should not judge each other.  Every mom is raising their baby to the best of their ability and that should be celebrated.   Unless they aren't, then we should judge those moms...just kidding! Sort of...

Two Month Check-Up - Our little shorty

Our baby girl is 2 months old!  Crazy.  We had her 2 month check-up and shots yesterday.  Dave was not able to go because of work, and I had to brave the dreaded shots alone with Olivia.  It was not as bad as I had anticipated, but it also wasn't a blast.  She cried, and of course, I shed a few tears as well. 

Olivia now weighs 11.1 pounds, and is 21.5 inches long!  She is our little shorty! 

The check-up went well, and Olivia checks out as completely healthy.  The skin rash/eczema that she had for a week or so has completely clear up!  Thank goodness. 

Recently we have discovered that Olivia loves naked time!  Gammie has been watching Livy for the past two weeks and she has been able to get the most smiles and cooing when Olivia is down for a diaper change and her diaper is off.  Our little nudist :)

She also loves laying down on the changing table in her bedroom without her diaper on.  She just coos and kicks and smiles.  This time with Olivia every morning is one of my absolute favorite times of the day.  Even the mornings we are running short on time to get out of the house for work, I try and take extra time with her when she is in  this calm and happy state. 

My little naked baby. 

We are getting more and more smiles from Olivia and she has great visual focus. 

Right now Olivia is mostly sleeping through the nights.  She will fall asleep for the night around 9 or 930 and will usually only get up once around 2-3 to eat.  She will then go back to sleep till about 5 am.  This is when she is usually up with us for the rest of the morning while we get ready for work.   Although this is usually how nights go for us, once or twice a week she will be extra hungry and get up several times a night to eat.  

I absolutely love the age our little baby is right now and I wish I could freeze her at this stage.  I told my mom that this past weekend and she told me that she felt that exact same way with all of us!  She told me that each time her babies would do something new she felt that way.  I know our time with Livy is just getting more and more precious and I can't wait!

Life After Labor

Some thoughts and experiences since welcoming Olivia into this world....

Being a mommy has been absolutely wonderful so far.  I've seriously loved every moment of these past 8 weeks! I'm so in love with our little girl.  That does not mean that things have been completely perfect and smooth for us, but we have been lucky that any rocky patches we have had so far have not been major crisises.  We've been able to work through everything thrown at us, with most of the tears coming from me.

My maternity leave was the most marvelous thing in the world.  I absolutely loved being able to be home with Olivia all day, everyday for those 7 weeks.  I've been lucky not to experience any serious "baby blues."  During the first couple of weeks after Olivia was born, when Dave had just returned to work, I thought I was going to get a serious case of postpartum depression.  I would cry when he would leave for work, and then cry again around 6pm in anticipation of him coming home.  If Dave wasn't home by 6:10pm, I would call him worried and frantic as to why he hadn't gotten home yet.  Thankfully, all of that passed in just a couple of days, and I'm guessing it was just a lot of the hormones balancing out in my body. 

Speaking of my body, holy moly having a baby does crazy things to your body.  It truly took me about 4 weeks after Olivia was born to start feeling normal again.  I had always thought I would be the type of person to bounce right back after giving birth, but I felt like it was quite the opposite for me.  In those first 4 weeks all I wanted to do was be in sweatpants and be at home.  Luckily, once the holidays were over, that was pretty much all I did.  I think being able to stay at home and rest all day while taking care of Olivia, I was able to finally start feeling normal, and slowly get out of my "hermit" funk.    

Olivia has been an awesome nighttime sleeper.  It took us about 3 weeks to really figure out how to get  her to sleep for her longest stretch of the night.  Dave is the best swaddler and rocker when it comes to bed time, so for awhile he was in charge of getting her to sleep for the night right after she ate.  I would then immediately go to bed to try and get some sleep.  This method would usually allow me to sleep from about 8pm to midnight.  Once I had that solid 4 hours of sleep, I was usually charged up and ready to go for whatever type of night Olivia wanted to have.  She has never been so fussy that we just didn't know what to do, yet.  She has also started to sleep for even longer stretches on some nights.  Those nights I feel like I get even less sleep because I'm in and out of sleep anticipating her to wake up and want to nurse. 

I've realized that co-sleeping is the absolute way to go, for us, at least.  Although Olivia likes to eat several times throughout the night, being able to feed her immediately in bed before she starts crying, allows me to get much more sleep than when I tried putting her in the bassinett the first couple of nights.  Plus, we get a ton of cuddle time in, which has been priceless since my return back to work. 

Nursing has become one of my all time favorite pasttimes.  I felt like we had a rough start to breastfeeding because it took 5 days for my milk to come in, however, the more I read up on breastfeeding the more I realize that is rather normal.  Those first 5 days were the roughest because she was a very sleepy baby and wouldn't want to wake up to eat.  I wasn't sure if she was getting enough and we weren't seeing the number of wet diapers we should have been.  Concerned about this, we took her to her pediatrician, Dr. P., whom we absolutely LOVE, and we were reassured that Olivia was doing just fine, and to keep trying to nurse her as often as possible.  Not even 12 hours after that visit, my milk came in, and almost everything with our breastfeeding relationship has gone very smoothly since.  My little porker even put on more than 2 lbs between then and when we took her back to the doctor for a skin rash at 5 weeks old. 

It has absolutely killed me having to return to work and be apart from her.  I just made it through my first full week back.  I wish there were a way I could stay home, but unfortunately we need to be a dual income family at this time.  Everyone tells me that it's a wonderful thing for both of us that I return to work, and that she gets to experience daycare.  Part of me knows that is partially true, but another part of me knows that there is no one better than me to care for her day in and day out.  I also am wrecked with that mommy guilt already, I know my return to work is affecting me way more than it's affecting her, but it's still hard to swallow and push through. 

A career change is something I've been really considering, as I would love to become a teacher in the future.  This would take me back closer to my original desire to become a social worker, plus I will be able to work with crazy children, rather than crazy adults. Who knows what the future holds.