Bath Time

Tonight Olivia was so sweet and peaceful during her bath and the rest of the evening before going to bed. It had to be documented. She just loved her head being rubbed with the sponge and soaked in the pampering. What girl doesn't like getting her hair washed and being pampered? It was one of those sweet moments with your newborn baby.

Running

Several weeks ago Owen kept asking us to put his "church shoes" on, which have apparently become his fast running shoes. He'd run back and forth as fast as he could between the kitchen and family room. He kept stopping and pulling his pant legs up, looking at his skin and kind of pointing to his knees. I could not figure out what he was doing. It finally clicked--he'd watch Ryan leave to go running in shorts and he was trying to create shorts out of his pants since he was running. So now, whenever he goes "nunning" he asks us to roll his pants up so we can see his knees and as he runs back and forth he kind of looks down at his legs because he thinks it's so cool that he has shorts on. Seriously so cute! One Saturday I found Ryan and Owen running back and forth with their "shorts" on.

Pretend

Owen has really gotten into "pretend" lately and I. Love. It. I love seeing him use his imagination and I'm always surprised with what he comes up with on his own with no help from anyone else. Here's what he's been pretending lately...

School.

Owen loves when he gets to watch his cousin Clayton get on the school bus. Whenever we drive past his and Lydia's school he points it out and talks about the kids playing soccer ball at recess. He got a back pack for his birthday and loves to put it on along with his shoes and he'll pretend he's leaving for the school bus. He comes into me and in his cute two year old way says, "Bye. School. Good day. Nice Ya-ya." In other words, "Bye mom! I'm going to school. Have a good day." And he wants me to tell him, "Have a good day. I love you. Play nice with your friends." Oh, and he never leaves without a kiss. Then he walks down the stairs and a few minutes later returns to do the same thing over. I love it. Here he is at my sister's house with Ethan's backpack and shoes on. He LOVES putting big kid shoes on.

Doggie.

As mentioned before, since returning home from Christmas in the NW Owen loves playing doggie, in reference to visiting Bart and Misty with their dog Major. He comes crawling in on his hands and knees with something in his mouth and wants us to pet him. So funny.
Dress up.

This doesn't happen at home but every Thursday Owen and I babysit at someone's house and for some reason he's totally picked up on dressing up there. You can imagine Ryan LOVED when I texted him this picture. Here he is with his friend Sydney all dressed up as Ariel, high heals and all. Every time he fell over from his wobbly high heels he was very particular about getting up and getting his crown and heels back on properly. You have to admit: hilarious and kind of adorable.

Kitchen.

Here's Owen playing kitchen with cousins Jane and Wyatt. I think he's picked this pretending up from these two. We don't have kitchen or food stuff so we don't do much of this at home but whenever we go anywhere with a kitchen set he seems to love pretending with food.

Birthday Bowling

To celebrate Ethan, Lucas, and Clayton's birthdays we went bowling with all our cousins. This was Owen's first bowling experience. He loved it and we all had a fun evening!

last belly picture

Please disregard how unflattering this picture is and just go with it. I want the latest belly shot documented. Just after I had Olivia I was so bummed that I never took one last belly picture before heading to the hospital. It was a funny feeling actually--I thought about it after I had her and it seemed hard to believe that I could not take a belly picture anymore. The belly had been around for so long, and yet within a matter of minutes it was no longer available to photograph:) This was taken February 14, one week before Olivia arrived.

Olivia's first week

Miss Olivia Ruth is 1 week old today!

Here she is sporting an adorable 0-3 month outfit. She kind of fits into some NB clothes, but for the most part we've moved on to 0-3 month. And forget about NB diapers, little miss never really wore them.

I'm pretty obsessed with her. I love holding and snuggling her. I didn't do very much of that with Owen--I was too paranoid about getting him into a routine and making sure I was doing everything "right". I did what I felt was good for me at the time, so in that regard I don't regret it, but I do wish I had known how to simply enjoy him during the NB stage more. I'm enjoying Olivia and at the same time I feel like I'm doing what feels good to me to hopefully promote some good long term habits.

Her skin is so soft. Her cheeks are irresistible. Her eyes are engaging. Her little squeal of a cry is adorable to me.

Right now I crave normality and look forward to some kind of consistency, but at the same time I really am enjoying what's going on. My mom is here right now which I love. She's so helpful and it's so nice to have a companion in the house with me during the day.

Olivia meets her cousins

Olivia has had some special visitors in the last week, including her local cousins. Lydia, Clayton, and Wyatt came to the hospital to meet her in the hospital and Lucy and Amy came to meet her a couple days after we got home. They've been so cute with her when they've been around. Looks like Olivia has several future babysitters close by! As a side note, Clayton is particularly adorable with her. Every time I've seen him since having her he specifically asks to hold her. I think it's pretty sweet.

The last picture here is at the hospital. When Owen wasn't so thrilled with sharing his sister with others we distracted him with some Angry Birds. Suddenly all the boys were just as interested in that as anything else.

While We Were Away

I absolutely love this picture. It is so wonderful for Owen to live close to some of his cousins. He has spent a lot of time with these three, Clayton, Wyatt, and Lyida, over the last year. While we were at the hospital with Olivia Owen hung out at Matt and Camie's with these guys. I'm so thankful for Matt and Camie helping us out! Camie was so sensitive to my needs and swooped Owen up and took wonderful care of him. I didn't have to worry once about how Owen was doing. I'm so thankful for that. Sounds like Owen had a great time playing for 2 1/2 days with the Christensens.

Olivia Ruth

Tuesday, February 21, 2012.

10 lbs.

21 1/2 inches

Tuesday morning Ryan woke up about 5:45 to get ready for work. I got up to go to the bathroom and felt a ton of pressure. Honestly, I didn't think much of it. I kept telling Ryan whenever I felt the pressure. He had been keeping track of how often I told him and told me I felt pressure every 5 minutes, consistently. It was uncomfortable but I expected it to hurt more (I never felt contractions with Owen) I realized he was right and called the doctor. They told me to head in to the hospital. We gathered all our stuff and I had a small break down, worrying about Owen and how his world was about to be rocked. We dropped Owen off at Matt and Camie's and arrived at the hospital at about 7:30. They checked me out and admitted me, I really was in active labor.

They asked me what my birth plan was, to which I immediately responded, "epidural". I asked the nurse to please get me a labor room with a window in it. When I had Owen I was in my labor room for over 24 hours with no window. I look back and it felt like such a long day with no concept of time of day. This time I wanted to have be able to see the outside world. It seems silly, but I was so happy to have a window in my room. When we got into my labor room my nurse started getting me set up for an epidural. When I realized I had just gotten there and I was about to become numb to everything that was going on I just couldn't do it. For some reason I suddenly did not want to be hooked up to IVs and stuck in bed and what felt to me like being "checked out" of my labor. So, I opted to labor on my own. I labored to a 9/10 and then got an intrathecal, similar to an epidural but only lasts for a short time.

I'm so happy with how things went. I'm happy I labored on my own for as long as I did, and the pain medicine took just enough off in order to deliver. By the time I left my labor room any numbness was gone and I could've walked myself to my post delivery room. I felt great! It was a very different experience than I had with Owen.

As soon as Olivia came out the doctor and nurses all took note of how big she was. They were as anxious as we were to weigh her and find out her stats. I had been telling people, including doctors, that I knew she was big. I was certainly right, 10 lbs!! Olivia is the only newborn I'm around, so as far as I'm concerned she's my tiny little baby girl. I love that Olivia is apparently a big baby, and yet she's very proportionate. She has the cutest chubby cheeks, but otherwise she actually doesn't look like a chubby baby.

It was fun to spread our news. The best, however, was when Owen came in to meet his sister for the first time. He was thrilled and very proud to meet her. He wanted to hold her and love on her the entire time. In fact, when his cousins wanted a turn to hold her he was pretty protective and had a hard time passing her off. Our new little family of 4 had a few minutes alone before Camie and the kids came in to meet Olivia. I treasure those moments. What a special time for us as we shared those first moments together as a new family.

We love our little Olivia Ruth and are so thankful for her safe arrival.

The REAL way to prepare for nursing

My friend Rachel just sent me this link with the following article--the real way to prepare for nursing. Her timing couldn't have been better. Just what I needed tonight, a little humor about a not so humorous (to me at least) topic. It's pretty funny, take a look.

http://www.parenting.com/article/suck-it-the-real-way-to-prep-for-nursing

Day 1
Gently rub your nipples with sandpaper.

Day 2
At bedtime set your alarm clock to go off every two hours. Each time it rings, spend 20 minutes sitting in a rocking chair with your nipples clamped by a pair of chip clips.

Day 3
Draw branching lines all over your chest with a blue-green marker, then stand in front of your bathroom mirror and sing "I Feel Pretty."

Day 4
Open your already-crowded freezer and make room for five dozen plastic milk bags.

Day 5
Fit the hose of a vacuum cleaner over one breast and set on "medium pile." Turn off vacuum when nipple is three inches long. Switch breasts.

Day 6
Obtain "DO NOT CROSS" tape from your local police station, then wrap firmly around your chest. When your spouse asks about it, say, "Get used to it."

Day 7
Tape a water balloon to each breast and squeeze into a maternity bra. Repeatedly hook and unhook the nursing flaps with one hand while using the other to balance a sack of squirming puppies.

Day 8
Dine in the fanciest, snootiest restaurant you can afford, making sure to arrive with a big wet spot directly over each nipple.

Day 9
Record your mother proclaiming, "Just give the baby some cereal like God intended, and she'll sleep right through the night." Play in an endless loop at 1 a.m., 3 a.m., and 5 a.m.

Day 10
Slather your breasts with peanut butter, top with birdseed and stand very still in your backyard.

Day 11
Go someplace public -- a museum, a courthouse, the steps of your office building -- and stuff a lifelike baby doll under your shirt. Use the doll's arm to suddenly hike the shirt up past your collar bone. Lower shirt. Feign nonchalant smile.

Day 12
Suckle a wolverine.

Congratulations! You are now ready to nurse a baby. Maybe.

Melissa Balmain, a freelance writer living in Blacksburg, Virginia, is a two-baby nursing veteran.

Dinner with Terry

Sorry for the bad picture, but it must be recorded that we enjoyed dinner out with Terry Brown a few weeks ago. I love the Browns dearly. Terry was in town for business and made a detour to take us to dinner one evening. It's always wonderful to catch up with him and reminisce on meeting him and his wife, Nancy, in Ohio 7 years ago (really? 7 years already?!)! As always, I wish Nancy could've joined us. Thank you Terry!

Amy's Birthday

For Amy's birthday Camie and I headed to Amy's side of town to take her to dinner. We had fun at dinner and picked up some dessert on our way back home. Such a fun evening and great to be close to Amy for her birthday, something I haven't been apart of for years!

Love him

Trying on mom's glasses. Obsessed with big kids' shoes and back packs. Playing "doggie" ever since staying with major in WA. Eating breakfast.