Olivia {2 Months Old}

I usually dread writing the monthly posts, but I have to say, I'm happy to have this last month behind us.

Two under 2 has had it's challenges, especially with this sweet baby girl of ours.

Livvie is definitely a screamer and wants to be held all.the.time.

Weeks 4-6 were especially tough, but we are finally starting to see the light.

Initially I could not put her down to do anything. 

Try to go pee: she screamed.

Try to make Jack lunch: she screamed.

The swing, the bouncer, the floor mat - scream.

The only place she seemed content to be (besides my arms) was on her changing table looking out the window. 

The last two weeks have brought some relief, as I can put her in the bouncer or swing for 10-20 minutes (or more), and she is content.

She has even started falling asleep on her own in the swing, whereas before she had to fuss herself to sleep while I bounced her up and down.

The carseat has been one of her least favorite places to be, so car rides have been quite brutal. But, like with everything else, she is getting better, and we have had a lot of drives now where she hasn't screamed at all. 

But, when Livvie isn't fussing, she is actually really happy. We like to say that her highs are high and her lows are low. She isn't a constant screamer/fusser like some babies. She just really wants to be held a lot. And when she gets angry, she's angry! But, when she's happy, she's very happy. She gives lots of smiles, and we don't even have to work for them. I can just look over at her and they start coming, without even having to talk to her.

She's also very vocal and a big coo-er.

Sleeping at night has been very inconsistent. I've been trying to put her down between 8 and 9. We'll get a few nights in a row where she'll give us a 5-6 hour stretch, and then she'll seem to revert back to the longest stretch being 3 hours. Her first stretch is 3-6 hours, but then it seems to go downhill from there, and I seem to be up every 2-3 hours after that. She's getting better at going back to sleep right after I nurse, whereas the fist month I seemed to be up with her for 1-2 hours sometimes. There are still nights where she has to sleep on my chest, which I don't like doing, but there really seems to be no other way for her to go back to sleep sometimes.

During the day she's a total cat-napper, usually only sleeping 30-40 minutes at a time. Some days she gives us one long nap around 2-3 hours, but I don't count on those to happen regularly.

In terms of eating, she's a snacker. I would say she eats every 1-3 hours. If she has a good nursing session, she can go 3 hours, but sometimes she doesn't eat very much, so she's wanting to eat again in an hour and half. I would say she averages eating about every 2 hours.

I really do think she is going to be a totally sweet and mellow girl once she gets past this fussy stage. I can already see her coming out of it, and I suspect my 3 month post will be much different.

All about Livvie at 2 months:

Weight: 10 lbs (40th percentile)

Length: 22 in (50th percentile)

Head: 14.75 in (50th percentile)

*measurements taken at 7 weeks (2 weeks before 2 months)

Clothing: 0-3 month/3 month starting at 6 weeks (still innewborn for some onesies)

Diapers: Size 1 (as of 6 weeks)

Eating: Averaging every 2 hours

Sleeping: All over the place: 2-6 hour chunks

First: Shots at 7 weeks

It's crazy to see how different Jack and Olivia are so far. 
First, they look nothing alike as babies. Jack was a total chunk, whereas Livvie is more average. Jack takes after Jason, whereas Olivia seems to be taking after my side of the family.
 Jack was not into the paci, Livvie chomps on that thing and when it falls out, all hell breaks loose.
 Jack was an awesome napper, Livvie not so much. 
Jack attacked the boob while nursing, Livvie just seems to nibble.  
Jack almost always fell asleep while nursing, Livvie almost never.
But like Jack, Olivia is an awful night sleeper and definitely seems to prefer sleeping on her tummy over her back. Hopefully, like Jack, once she rolls and can sleep on her back, she will become an awesome sleeper like he was. 
 
Here's to another month!

Olivia {1 Month Old}

I'm sure I will say this with every post...

But, I can't believe Olivia is 1 month old. 

I mostly call baby girl Livvie or Livvie Lou.
Or we call her squeakers because that's the sound she makes when she cries or fusses.

She is growing quickly and starting to get her own look.

Clearly she is not the most photogenic - she is much cuter in person - I think it is the bug eyes shes got going on.

 Baby girl loves to be held...all the time, especially chest to chest.

She is rarely happy in the bouncer, swing, carseat, or laying somewhere unless she is asleep. We are trying to get adjusted to the sling, as I need my hands to entertain and care for brother.

Livvie started off as a great sleeper the first 10 days or so (going 3-4 hour stretches). The last 3 weeks or so, she has dropped to 2 hour, sometimes 3, hour stretches, so I'm surviving off of coffee and diet coke.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Livvie's first month.

1 Week 

                                                 
        2 Weeks

                   
  3 Weeks

 

                                                  4 Weeks

 And all about Livvie at 1 month:

Weight: 8 lb, 8 oz (25th percentile)

Length: 20.5 inches (10th percentile)

Clothing: newborn

Diaper: newborn

Eating: every 2-3 hours

Sleeping: 2-3 hours

Firsts: smiled at 4 weeks (but they are VERY hard to come by); bottle at 2 weeks

Likes: being held, pacifier, walks in the stroller

Dislikes: laying on back, diaper changes, the carseat

Livvie Lou, we love you!

Olivia's Birth Story

Our baby girl entered the world eleven days ago on May 15, 2014.

6 lbs, 12 oz and 18 3/4 inches of perfection.

I haven't blogged much the past 9 months - this pregnancy, coupled with chasing a toddler, took it out of me.

I last blogged 3 months ago, with this story of our baby girl.

We thought the bumps in this pregnancy were over after that.

But they continued - and that is where her birth story begins...

At 34.5 weeks, I went to my bi-weekly ob appointment (The night before I had been at labor and delivery for some bleeding I was having. Thankfully it turned out to be nothing).

I had been measuring normal up until then, but at this appointment I was measuring a week behind.

So, they told me to come back in a week to see if I had grown appropriatley.

When I came back a week later, I had not grown at all and was measuring 33 weeks. They sent me to do a growth ultrasound to get an estimate of our baby girl's size.

The ultra sound had were weighing in at 5lbs even, which I thought was a decent size at 35.5 weeks, but apparently it was only the 14th percentile. The perinatal doctor said the 'concerning' part was that our son was not small, and you usually make babies of similar size, so there could be something genetic going on that was causing her to be small and not grow appropriately. 

He ordered non-stress tests twice a week and ultra sounds weekly to monitor our baby and make sure her activity was normal and that my placenta was doing it's job.

 

So, this was all stressful. After all we went through at her 20 week ultra sound, it was hard to find ourselves in another place of uncertainty about her development. I was told that she had IUGR (intrauterine growth restriction). My doctor did not seem concerned, which was a huge comfort throughout the last few weeks of our pregnancy. However, both my doctor and the perinatologist said that if her weight percentile dropped to the 10th percentile, they would induce me - figuring the baby would be better outside than inside at that point.

At 37.5 weeks, they did another growth ultra sound. Baby girl now weighed 5lb, 12 oz. Again, I thought that sounded good -she had grown 12 oz in two weeks (which was only a few ounces less than she should have). However, this dropped her down to the 12th percentile. The perinatologist said I was barely 'skating along' and would need to be induced at 39 weeks. 

So, 39 weeks came.

Here is how the day went...(which is very similar to Jack's labor)

7:45am - We checked into the hospital and they began hooking me up to the monitors and checking my vitals. My heartrate was literally between 130-150. I was so nervous, not about the labor, but about her health. My mid-wife (who my doctor brought on this last year and does Tuesday/Thursday deliveries for him) came around 8 and calmed me down significantly.

8:45am - Started pitocin. I came in dilated at 3cm, 60% effaced, -2 station.

11am - Got the lovely epidural, although it was not as lovely as the one I got with Jack. The anesthesiologist had a difficult time finding the right spot to put it in, so it took awhile. Then, the epidural hit my right side much more than my left, so I could not move my right leg for the rest of labor, with my left leg eventually losing complete feeling too.

12:30pm - My midwife came and broke my water. At this point, I'm only 4cm, 80%, and still -2.

2:30pm - I was 5cm now. But, they stopped pitocin because my body had naturally started labor and my contractions were too close together for baby to keep up her heart rate. The same thing happened with Jack, so I wasn't too nervous. They gave me oxygen and were re-positioning me a lot to help find a spot that baby liked.

3:45/4pm - I was still at 5cm, and they didn't think my contractions were strong enough to keep things moving, so they started pitocin again. I got a new nurse at 3:30, who happened to work at my ob's office. She noticed that my catheter was blocking my cervix, so she repositioned it. She said as soon as she moved it, my cervix immediately began dilating more.

4:30pm - Well, that seemed to do the trick, because I was very quickly at 10cm. They began getting things set up and ready for baby to come. 

4:40pm - My mid-wife had me do a trial push. I pushed once, and she said stop! Baby girl was about to come out, but the other nurses who were helping with the delivery weren't in the room yet. So, we waited a few more minutes for everyone to get there, including the hospital pediatrician (in case there was something going on with baby girl that needed immediate attention). Once everyone was ready, I pushed for one contraction, and that was all that baby girl needed (so much different than Jack's delivery)

4:49pm - Our Olivia Louise was here. The first thing I heard when they pulled her out was, "That is not an IUGR baby." She was a great size and perfectly healthy.

 

The moment I first laid eyes on her.

We are overwhelmed and overjoyed to have our beautiful, healthy girl here. Her name means Symbol of Peace & Renowned Fighter, and I think it is so appropriate for the journey we had in welcoming her here.

 

 

My midwife, Sonya. I loved having her deliver our sweet girl.

Livvie Lou, we love you!

And our family of four!

 

The Story of our Baby Girl

It's been awhile.

Over two Three months (I had to go back and change that because this post alone has taken me almost a month to finish).

But, lots has been going on.

Probably stuff that I should write about, but haven't had the energy to do so - napping has trumped blogging.

Let me fill you in...

On September 16th (yes, 5 months ago), three days before Jack's first birthday, we found out I was pregnant again.

It was quite the surprise.

My heart was racing with panic; Jason was weeping with joy.

Pretty much the same reactions as when we found out I was pregnant with Jack.

Except this time I kept thinking about how I was pregnant at this time a year ago.

But all you women who have ever been pregnant know that no matter how much shock or panic there is at first, the attachment to your baby comes just as instantly.  

After four weeks of waiting and not feeling super confident about the progression of the pregnancy (due to low progesterone levels and spotting), we had our first ultra sound and saw that little heart beating for the first time.

A little over a week later, I was back at the doctor's office, thinking I was going through a miscarriage because of extreme abdominal pain.

Turns out I was 'just' passing a kidney stone and our little baby was still growing and progressing.

We had our 12 week NT scan a few weeks later and shortly after that, a few days before Thanksgiving, we announced our excitement and thankfulness for the 'extra baking we were doing during the holiday season.'

Our 20-week ultra sound was scheduled for January 2nd. 

I barely slept the night before.

I was really nervous for it.

Much more so than with Jack.

We arrived at 6:45am for our appointment.

The tech took all the images she needed, but seemed pretty disengaged with us the whole time.

I finally relaxed when the doctor came in and immediately told us everything was looking wonderful.

She began to take a look around herself, and I noticed that she kept going back to the brain.

And she said a couple of times that there was definitely no cleft lip.

And back to the brain she would go. 

Then, she finally said it...

"There's a part of the brain that I should be seeing, but I'm not."

She continued to talk, telling us that nothing was confirmed because ultra sounds don't read the brain very well, but we would need to go get a second ultra sound and a fetal MRI at Stanford as a confirmation.

I couldn't muster up any words, so Jason asked all the questions.

The part she couldn't see was the corpus callosum, which connects the two hemispheres of the brain.

From what the doctor said, the effects could be very mild, but like a lot of things, there is a spectrum, and therefore a more severe side.

We had planned on doing a cake gender reveal with our families the following night, but I was not up for it.

Gender seemed so insignificant to me at this point, and I knew I was going to be emotional when we found out the sex.

I wanted Jason and I to find out just the two of us.

So that night, we sat on our couch and looked through the pictures they had put on a disc for us.

And then it came - the picture of 'nothing' with the words, 'I'm a girl.'

And then came the tears.

It was such a sweet moment.

I chose not to google, which is so unlike me. But, I know myself, and I knew I would diagnose our baby with the most severe case of this, so I stayed away from Dr. Google until we knew more.

Jason on the other hand wanted to know everything there was to know about people born without this part of the brain, so me not googling basically didn't help because Jason told me all the worst-case scenarios anyway.

We decided on her name the day after our 20-week u/s. Or as we say, she picked her own name. My sister looked up the meaning of one of the names we were leaning towards and this is what it meant: Symbol of Peace and Renowned Fighter. It was just too perfect, and so our baby girl had a name.

After a long two weeks of waiting, our appointment at Stanford finally came on January 15th. I was surprisingly calm thanks to the many people praying for us and our baby girl. Our prayers going into this appointment were that 1) they would see the corpus callosum; 2) if they did not see it, it would be a mild diagnosis; 3) God would give us peace and equip was for what our future held.

Our ultra-sound tech was great, and it was fun to see our baby girl again. She did a very thorough ultra-sound, examining all of the anatomy. I felt like I was really able to relax and just enjoy looking at our baby girl.

However, when the doctor came in with a cardiologist and two ultra-sound techs, my heart definitely started pounding. But, right away he said, "So, we aren't seeing any of the concerns that were on the first ultra-sound." He then went to show us the corpus callosum on her brain, and it was a clear as day!  Our referring doctor still wanted us to go through with the MRI for 100 percent certainty, so we did that and got the call later that afternoon confirming that we had a perfectly healthy baby girl. We are not shy to believe that this was God's little miracle for us.

It was quite the few weeks for us as we sat in uncertainty, but I know I am thankful for that time. God does amazing things in your heart as you face uncertainty and only have Him to lean on and trust. Regardless of any ultra sound and it's findings, our baby girl would have been loved just the same. We are thankful for His grace and love for us.

Fall so Far

Fall is my favorite.
I used to think I was unique for loving Fall because I thought everyone else loved Summer.
But, it seems like I am in the majority now.

October is the start of my Fall.
It's my favorite month of the year.
When Jack was given a due date of September 28th, I really wanted him to be late so that I could have an October baby.
(That desire quickly changed and when my doctor said he would induce me 9 days early I did not hesitate to say "YES, please!")

However, I think November is starting to become my favorite month now instead of October.
October does not feel like Fall in California.
It is hot.
And the leaves have not changed yet.
It's hard to think pumpkin bread and apple cider when it's 80-90 degrees out and feels like summer still.
Maybe I will have a November baby one day...

So, here is our Fall so far in pictures.

First Fall outing was to the Pumpkin Patch with the cousins.
(Sorry, photo overload, but my sister got so many cute ones of Jack)

 

And Fall always means Grammy's birthday.
On October 27th, she turned 102.

And Halloween, of course.
This was the best I could get of our very excited Jack-Jack.

  
So grown up compared to our 'Jack'-o-lantern last year. 


Last weekend we took a trip up to Apple Hill.
It's Fall land in California.
Apple farms everywhere, filled with everything apple: apple cider, apple donuts, caramel apples, cinnamon apple fudge, apple milkshakes. You name it.

Jack had a great time running around and exploring.
He especially liked the hay barrels.

He found a family that needed help pushing their wagon up the hill. Such a little helper (even though it took them twice as long with his help)

Our family picture from Apple Hill this year.

Again, so grown up compared to our visit last year. 


The only main event left of Fall is Thanksgiving.
Can't wait!