The Next Feather Weight Champ!

She's practicing her intimidating "I'm gonna knock you out" face.

Jab, punch!

Shake it off...

The Tummy Tub

My friends Wendy and Caleb told me about a different kind of bathtub called the Tummy Tub. It is basically a bucket that the kid gets set down in for their bath. The idea behind this is that the baby stays warm and more comfortable in the water since it mimics being back in the womb.

Olive liked it at first, but it was short lived. I think her cries were more my fault than the Tummy Tub's. It is going to take a bit of practice for me to hold her in there comfortably for both of us. It shouldn't have been on the counter either, the directions show the parents sitting on a low stool and the bucket on the ground. Makes more sense. We'll keep practicing...

Oh, and she promptly pee'd on me when I was drying her off.

Bath time

Little Olive is getting bigger every day. Today was her 2 week old doctor appointment and she weighed in at 7 pounds 3 ounces (she gained 1lb 3 oz in a week!).

Grammy helped bath her. She washed the top half and left the bottom half for me....

Stay tuned for more bath pics as we try out the tummy tub tomorrow!

Big Brother and Sister

The kids LOVE their new little sister....

A bit more of the story...

I thought I would write a bit more of the story for you all since I've got some down time at the moment (Olive is at the nursery)....

Some of you already knew that I was past my due date and being monitored for amniotic fluid levels as they've been borderline low for the past month or more. Even though low, they were still stable, so there was no medical reason to justify induction until this past Thursday when her heart rate was pretty erratic. They thought that she might be squishing her cord a bit, and if we waited, we'd have to have even more monitoring.

We decided to induce Friday night. Even though I was ready to be done being prego, I wasn't thrilled with induction as I would have rather let my body do its thing. However, with the additional montitoring needed, I knew I would have been a nervous wreck over the weekend, so we went for it.

The plan was to give a drug called Cervadil that is just a pill put near your cervix. It dissolves and gets you one, ready for the patocin or two, kicks you into labor. More commonly you still need patocin. Joe and I went in to the hospital around 10:30 pm and started with the Cervadil. They gave me an ambien, and I was out most of the night, and out of it for a bit in the morning too. I started having harder (hurtier) contractions around 5am. I was able to get up, shower, and we were waiting for my Midwife to show up around 9am to start the patocin. Another midwife friend came over around 8:30 and helped me with some pretty gnarly contractions that were coming quick. The nurse checked me and I was dialated to a 9! We were all surprised and my friend told me that it would be over soon. I asked her if it would be 5 hours soon or an hour soon. She said the hour soon!

Only once did I say I wasn't sure if I'd be able to so this without an epidural, but my friend said, just get through this one and we'll talk about it. We never talked about it... My midwife came and we started pushing. Then, another Midwife friend came and with the help of Joe (who was an amazing partner the whole time), and my regular Midwife, I pushed for about half an hour and the baby came right out!

My parents and Jana were at the hospital and were able to meet Olivia right away and we've had a couple visits throughout the day. I'm glad I was able to hold off on the epidural, as I don't have any pain and I've been able to walk around. Olive didn't want to nurse right away and we found out that she had swallowed some of the amniotic fluid junk and therefore wasn't feeling like eating. They eventually cleaned out her belly and now she is one hungry gal. Overall it was a great experience and we are all happy and healthy!

5 Days Late But Worth the Wait!