Venturing Out...

After being holed up in the house for two weeks it was time to go on a road trip. Olivia was so excited by the thought she tired herself out and slept the whole time. We went to Target to grab a few things. We were so nervous to bring Olivia into the store because we were scared of germs. Armed with hand sanitizer we went head to head with the germs. It's weird looking through the eyes of a germa phobe parent but they were lurking everywhere. They mostly disguised themselves as old cute women. There were a few that looked our way and thought about coming over and squeezing her cheeks but I put my hand over my sanitizer and they thought twice. It was like an old fashioned show down outside the saloon. One of the things we needed to grab was Shawntel's hair dye. Before we got pregnant she started dying her hair dark and it looked great but she hasn't done it in quite a while. Olivia is going to think that mommy has been replaced.

Last night was Olivia's first time in her swinger and she loved it. She started to cry last night and we went through the checklist. Her diaper was clean, we just fed her and I had a soothing episode of curb your enthusiasm playing for her, and yet she was still crying. So I laid her down in the swing and set it on the highest setting. It was so cool she immediately stopped. I think she loved it and she ended up falling asleep. I think that if she could talk she would have said cool thanks Dad.

Busy Day

Today we had two Dr.s appointment one for Olivia and one for Shawntel. Both of my girls are wore out. Shawntel's Dr. says everything is looking good and reminded her to take it slow. She said that the best therapy would be to clean the garage for her husband and I couldn't agree more. I was going to do it but, I won't argue with the Dr.. Today is the two week mark for Olivia and the Dr. said she should be back to her birth weight. So they called us back and asked to strip her down and come over to the scale. While I was carrying her over she peed all over me. I couldn't believe it, how come she couldn't wait until after she got weighed. She needed all the weight she could and she lost a half ounce on the way to the scale. We gave her to the nurse and started cleaning up the mess and when we were done we looked at the read out and it said 7lbs 5ozs. AWESOME!!!! The Dr. gave us the thumbs up and gave us some more good news. We don't need to wake her up during the night anymore she said to let her wake us up. Bonus!!! So to reward her we'll feed her breast milk and we'll have taco night.

Peace out umbilical...

Shawntel noticed that Olivia's umbilical cord was getting ready to go and yesterday was the day. I was changing diaper #197 and I looked down and something was missing. I did one of those double takes and saw her cute belly button but I couldn't find the cord. I yelled for Shawntel so I could get a couple extra eyes looking for it. We flipped the changing area upside down looking. The last place we checked was inside of her diaper and there it was. Something new for her baby book. I just know that when she's 18 she's going to see the stuff in that book and think that her Mom and Dad are the biggest nerds. Who cares its pretty cool putting that book together. We're headed to the Dr. tomorrow for her two week check up. Fingers crossed she'll be back to birth weight. I don't think she'll have any problem with that, her legs and cheeks are starting to get a little meat on them and just in case I'll put a clump of Vaseline on her hind end. That should give her a few extra ounces. From there we're going to pick up her birth certificate. Kinda cool. Olivia met Cat today she loves the flowers and a stuffed animal she brought her. She has had so many visitors and is having so much fun seeing everyone.

Olivia's announcements

I finally ordered birth annoucement for Olivia. I never knew how many different types and styles there was to choose from, and of course I wanted the very best for her. She is getting so big already, see is following Jonathan and I with her eyes and I swear she is smiling at us.... I know that she probably just left us a present in her diaper but it is so cute the faces that she makes. I never realized how much you could love something so much and so quick. We are having so much fun, even during her 2AM feedings. I cannot wait until Friday when she goes for her weight check with Dr. Williams. If she is up to her birth weight then we can let her tell us when she is hungry during the night; maybe we can get more than 2 hours of sleep at a time. But she is worth every sleepless minute. I know she has put on some weight because she is starting to get cute chubby cheeks and chuncky rolls on her legs. We took her for her 1st walk on Sunday, it was beautiful out. She liked it, but got fussy at the end because it was too close to feeding time.

First sunset...

It's so cool everything we do with Olivia is a first. Yesterday was her due date so we decided to take her out to go see her first sunset. Shawntel found on the computer that 6:25PM was prime time to watch the set. Perfect Olivia feeds at 5:00 so we'll feed her and have plenty of time to get down to the beach. Wro-oong.. Olivia wanted to make it memorable so she waited until after she ate to have a little fun with us. While Shawntel was changing her she waited for her to have a nice clean diaper ready to go and she pulled the trigger. So Shawntel threw it away quick and grabbed another and again she ruined that one. Third time was a charm. So with Olivia clean she was tossed into the car seat and off we were. On the way down to the beach we kept looking at the sun watching it get lower and lower. We were about 5 minutes out from the beach we were going to and we lost the sun behind the trees. When we pulled in the sun was just touching the horizon so with lightening fast maneuvers we grabbed Olivia's car seat and headed for the beach. The sunset was so pretty. We had about five minutes to get a few pictures and bid farewell to the day. Since I'm talking about first, we had our first full diaper genie bag. When I opened the thing up to take it out I was hit with a really bad stench. Each diaper by themselves stunk a little but once in the diaper genie the diapers united. It was horrible and it looked nothing like a bunch of sausage links(this is what I'm told it is supposed to look like and was the reason it stunk so bad) it looked more like a giant diaper kielbasa. Sounds tasty right? Thank god for youtube it's saved me so many times and it did so again. I never thought that I'd be searching for a diaper genie videos. You gotta give the thing a twist I figured with a name like genie it should twist on it's own. No dice but I'm on track now.

Olivia's performance enhancer

Today was Olivia's second Dr.'s

appointment and we were hoping that she put on some weight so the Dr. wouldn't take any of our parenting points. Shawntel has been working hard to get her ready for the weigh in . Shawntel actually fell asleep at the pump last night. I wish I would have gotten a picture but I didn't. She told me to go on to bed and she'd be in in a minute. So I did with pleasure but after awhile I got to thinking that Shawntel should have been in by now. When I walked into the living room she had her chin in her chest fast asleep with two breast pumps still doing their thing. It all paid off because Olivia tipped the scales 4ozs heavier. Aside from just her weight she seems to be more lively. It's pretty cool I think she can actually see us and can make us out too.

Change of pace

After being home for three days we've figured out that it's a better idea to make a schedule for Olivia rather than let her make one for us. It's been hectic trying to keep up with her and trying fit in everything we need to get done. It's hard to believe that a cute little 6 pounder could shake things up that much. Today is the first day we're using the new schedule and it's working awesome.

At birth Olivia weighed 7 pounds but she's dropped a little more than 10% percent of her weight because she wasn't eating. I think we have ironed that out now so hopefully she has put on a little weight. The only thing that concerns me is that she took a poo today that looked like it might back her down to about three pounds. Pampers called and said to monitor her activity because if she does that on a regular basis they want her to test out new products for them. I always thought that changing diapers would be gross but quite the opposite, it is so fulfilling changing those diapers. There's no doubt that some of them are gross but I've never seen anything like it. When she's gone to the bathroom it's almost like her world is just crashing all around her screaming, kicking and crying and here comes daddy with a new clean diaper to fix every thing. It's so cool!

Last night we ate our first "Let's Eat Dinner" meal. Stuffed pork pasanna, it was out of this world. Tonight though or tomorrow not sure which night we will be eating Kenny's famous jambalaya. Thank you Kenny for thinking about us. It sure is a time saver just being able to pull from the freezer and heat something up. Yum yum!!!

Starting to catch our breath...

The last couple of days have been a whirl wind We've had so much fun experiencing every kind of emotion. 2/12/2010 started with Shawntel's water breaking and from there the roller coaster began. It started as a nice pleasure ride and as Shawntel started to experience contractions it slowly became a fast ride into the unknown. It brought excitement and pain along the way but not just for Shawntel. It wigged me out a lot more than I thought it would. Starting at 5:00 am we progressed through about 9 hours of labor. Shawntel's plan was to have the baby natural and was making her way through the contractions great. When the nurses came in to check Shawntel again to see how many centimeters she was dilated. The one doing the checking wanted another nurse to check and confirm what she was thinking. The second gave it a check and sure enough 5 centimeters(awesome), 90% effaced(excellent) and breach(WHAT!!!). She then got an ultrasound lady up to the room to confirm and sure enough there was Olivia was upside down. So the nurses then explained we were now going to have a C sectiona nd how it would go down. They left the room and the emotion roller coater took a sudden right turn. I had my hands in the air and Shawntel had one on the rail and one in the air. The nurse then came back to the room with my new outfit a pair of funny booties so that I don't track mud in the OR(sterile environment), yellow hospital gown, a lunch room hair net(I thought we may stop by the cafeteria and I might serve up some navy beans who knows) and a surgical mask and we were told to be ready at 4:30. When 4:30 hit though the plans had changed because somebody else was 10 centimeters dilated and cranking out a baby. Oh our Dr. was the only Dr. there that day and was on the move all day, she said that she delivered 4 babies that afternoon/evening including Olivia. So we were told then that she was wrapping up with that one and Shawntel would be getting wheeled back within 10 minutes. Here we go starting to get the butterflies back again and wham another patient hit 10 centimeters. Wow so we were put on hold just a little while longer. That was number three for our Dr. and Olivia would be number 4. So without further ado it was Shawntel's turn there was no turning back this time no one else was pregnant except Shawntel. So she was wheeled back and given the spinal block and set up for surgery. I came in about 15 minutes later and was shown to my stool. I wasn't prepared for for anything that went down in there. It was weird on one side of the curtain was the peaceful smiling face of Shawntel and on the other side of the curtain was Olivia coming into the world kicking and screaming Discovery Chanelesque. I have a great respect for labor and delivery nurses and OB Dr.'s(not that I ever had a disrespect but wow their job is wild). Olivia came out folded in half but first. Once her legs chest and arms were out all that was left was her head. Her head doesn't seem to be that big but, she looked like a sleeping ostrich with her head buried and it wouldn't come out. The Dr. and nurses then put it in high gear and the mood changed a little. The Dr. was telling people to quiet down and was a little more as a matter of fact. Then we both heard the sweetest sound ever Miss Olivia took her first breath and started to cry and she hasn't stopped yet.

Today is the day???

Shawntel woke up this morning at 5:00 and went to the bathroom then on the way back to bed went again uncontrollably. Weird! Then it happened again and started the contractions we think. It's now 8:00 and she is still getting the contractions. I'm a mess and she is pretty cool. I thought it was supposed to be the other way around. Our bags are packed and I think today is the day.

Will there be overtime!

Too funny not to blog real quick. Jonathan just called from work to tell Olivia and I that we can either go into labor now or after the 15th because he is up for overtime. Grandma Kim said that Olivia cannot come during the Daytona 500, but after would be great. If it was up to me, 2-10-10 sounds like a great birthday! But I know Olivia is going to let me work my last two work shifts then come...... she is sooo much like her Mom already it kills me. 10 days or less to go, hopefully!

11 Days to go...

Shawntel says she is so excited that we only have 11 days to go but, I don't think she has given much thought about where she is going set her late night snack or her glass of milk once Olivia is out of the oven. As the due date gets closer it gets tougher and tougher. It's kinda like your Mom says we're going to Disney land sometime in the next week and doesn't give a time or date. Even though I would love Shawntel to go into labor today, right now if Olivia could hold off until Thursday around 7:00 PM it would be great. We have an appointment to do the lets eat dinner thing where you go and prep a few meals and put them in freezer bags for a later date. My cousin just had a baby boy and he said that this was super helpful when they got home from the hospital. We have another Dr.'s appointment before the lets eat dinner and I'm guessing she'll check Shawntel again to see how we are progressing. Roxy still smells like skunk.

We Graduated with HONORS!

We had such a busy day on Wednesday. We started out with Doctor's appointment at 10:40. To save the gory details we are 20% effaced, soft and 0cm dilated. Dr. Henderson predicted an early baby but not in the next week. I hope she is wrong and Olivia comes NOW! After our appointment we had car seat school. As silly as it sounds, it was the most interesting class we have taken so far. It has forced Jonathan to be consistent with his seat belt which makes me very happy :) After seeing how 30 mph crashes are on babies and children, we went outside to install our car seat. We decided to place it in the center position, which the doggies are going to hate, but it is the safest for our little Olivia. After we got the car seat installed and received our certificate so we can bring Olivia home from the hospital we were off to Chilli's for dinner. It has been our tradition for the past 4 Wednesdays to eat out before our classes at the hospital. YUMMY! We attended our Baby CPR class after dinner, thank goodness Jonathan already knows how to perform CPR on an infant because our teacher was terrible. But we got the basics and Jonathan is going to find a certification course for me. After the class we met up with Mom, Dad, Becky and Kenny to celebrate Dad's birthday and Kenny & Becky's 31st Anniversary at Red Lobster. I got the best dessert, a chocolate-chip cookie lava cake with vanilla ice cream. HOLLY YUMMY! There is actually perks in being pregnant, no one questions when you eat an entire piece of cake and some of Becky's Death by chocolate cake! It was a wonderful day and we are ready for Olivia to get here. Today is now Super Bowl Sunday and I cannot believe we have less than 13 days to go. OMG!