Smiley

I was talking with my mom yesterday and she casually mentioned that she hadn't seen anything on the blog in a while. And then not so casually said she wanted to see more pics of Livy :)

"One of our favorite things is to just sit with you on our big bed in the morning

when none of us have anywhere to rush off to.

We get to just sit and chat and coo at you, giggle at your smileys,

and sometimes,

if we're really lucky,

you talk back to us, and we get to relax.

Our whole family together."

-from 'letters to my baby' (a private diary for Liv)

Sleep

Oh how I love you! And oh how I love that my darling girl is such a wonderful sleeper. Well as least I feel like she is. Maybe I just expected the worst and since its not as bad as I expected I am pleasantly suprised. Although, I am still exhausted and I admit, some days are better than others, I am so pleased that I am still a normal functioning human being.

She slept for 7 hrs last night! I woke up on my own at 6am and popped out of bed to go check on her because the last time she ate was 12. I was worried until I could see that she was just fine, still breathing and sleeping away. I ended up waking her up a little later because I worried about letting her go more than 7 hrs. It probably won't happen again tonight, but it was awesome to get some sleep :) Its actually not the first time she's done that either. I think she knows how much we like our sleep. She usually sleeps anywhere from 4 to 6 hours during the first stretch, wakes for a feeding, and sleeps for 4 more.

Here's a little video of Liv learning to hold her head up. Don't mind my high whiny voice, I can't help it. I love the days when I get to come home for lunch and enjoy her for a little while. She sure is a sweetheart and such a blessing.

p.s. She actually does have hair. Not very much, but some. It doesn't show up at all for some reason in this video. Anyway, thats all.

::sick::

So, a few days after I asked if I really should keep Olivia away from crowds for the next 2 months, she got a little cold :( We didn't even take her out and a little bug still managed to come into our house and infect our baby.

It was sad to see her so stuffy, but we were very grateful that it was nothing to be alarmed about. She was over it in about 3 days. I'm just so glad it wasn't swine flu, or regular flu, or rsv, and that she is already better!

Speaking of illness, I got my H1N1 vaccine. I was a little nervous about it since no one really knows what the side effects are, but after Olivia got that little cold I decided I was more worried about her getting sick, so I decided it would be best to get it. Especially since I am around all kinds of patients and people all day.

Our Clinic supervisor came into clinic on tuesday and announced that one of the senior students had swine flu, and gave us the option to leave and get the shot. I had been waiting to hear when the shot was available and hadn't heard a darn thing, so I was glad to get the inside info and be able to leave school to get it. Lucky I did too, supply ran out about an hour after I received it.

We all thought it was kind of funny how serious the school was about this, like it was a medical emergency or something, so we took pics to document. Also, I was elected to be the class historian so I have to take pics of everything!

pondering

Today I went running for the first time in about 5 months. I really missed being able to run while I was pregnant. It was refreshing and exhausting, but mostly it was exhilerating to be breathing the fall air and enjoying the fall colors on the mountains.

I enjoyed my alone time to think about nothing stressful and just get out and move my body. I am so thankful to have a body that works, two legs that can run and two arms that I can hold my sweet baby with. Thats what I thought about today while I was running.

I can't help myself

I take millions of pictures everyday because every face she makes is still so new to me and I think every eyebrow raise is adorable. SO here are a bunch of pictures of my girl doing nothing but sleeping and staring (two of my favorite things she does). These won't be interesting to anyone but me, B, and maybe my mom. Does she look bigger?

little messes

When I've finally got Livi fed, burped, and napping I love to look around the house at the mess we've made.

There are always blankets strewn everywhere


pacifiers, burp cloths, and bottle tops on end tables


her cute stuffed pig from grammy


and a little teeny sock in the middle of the kitchen.

She loves nothing more than to kick those socks off.

I love these little messes. I think back to the time when these messes weren't there, and it makes me grateful that they are there now. I am so thankful to finally have her here in our family.

My mom

Since having a baby, I have come to appreciate my mother so much more. I think of all the sleepless nights she must have had throughout her life, having a newborn 7 times. I think of all the diapers she must have had to change with 7 kids, and all the days spent cleaning spit up off her baby's face, and the millions of hours spent feeding and burping and changing clothes.
Then I multiply that by a million because she has done it again and again everytime any of her children have a baby of their own. She was here with me for 10 days, staying up with the baby, burping, changing, wiping, cleaning. I don't know what I would have done without her.

Why would she offer to come help when she knows what hard work it is?

I think its all the cuddling, calming, blinking, smiling, loving moments you get to have with your baby when you're a mom... or a grandma, and I think of how much I love my sweetest baby, and I think that's how much she loves me. And maybe how much she loves her (my Livy).

And that's why I love my mom a million times more than ever. Thank you for being such a caring mother, and for teaching me how to be a mom.

p.s. Happy Birthday Momma!

Celebrating 1 Week

I've been wanting to put up some pictures of Olivia, but I've been spoiling myself; taking time off and enjoying all my time with our little Angel. We've been learning all the ins and out of nursing, and figuring out our days and nights. So far, she's been such a good little girl, even doing her long stretches of sleep at night (which has been amazing for us since her first day home she slept all day and had a hard time eating because she was so tired; then woke up every hour that night wanting a full service meal) She's really come full circle!

She's the most beautiful baby ever. Sometimes we find ourselves just staring at her, talking to her and admiring her tiny little features. So far, parenting is everything we ever imagined...we love her more than anything in the world.

This is just a little video we made of her first 48 hours of life...

I can't believe she's already one week old. We have a ton more pictures so I will try to update frequently.

Olivia Pearl

Our little miss decided to go ahead and come this morning on her own!

She arrived at 9:34 AM

6 lbs 6 oz 19 in

Isn't she lovely...

Everyone is healthy and doing great!

A more detailed report to come later....

pretty onesies all in a row

Been spending my free time sorting and washing Livy lou's clothes. The nursery was in disarray with the crib jam packed full of clothes, shoes, headbands, toys, etc. and no dresser to put them away. I will have to wait until after Brady takes the MCAT so he can paint the dresser.

The above pic is my effort of storing the clean clothes. So far I've only washed her clothes from newborn to 3 months, so this is less than half of her clothing! Thank goodness for grandmas, moms, and friends who have spoiled her for me :) I don't think I'll wash anymore until the dresser is done.

While washing, I've also been taking inventory of what we have
blankets: 18

burp cloths: 14

bibs: 9

wash cloths: 6

big hooded towels: 3

I think we probably need a few more burp cloths and bibs (in case we have a spit up-er). What do you moms out there think? What do we need more of?

just keep breathing

this is a boring update post- no pictures. no time. sorry

in case you wondered, i'm still here. just very busy and unable to post about any of the fun and exciting things that have happened in the past 2 weeks.

brady is entering crunch time for studying for the MCAT. he has been taking a prep course all summer. monday was his last class, and now its completely up to him to stay focused and continue 6 to 8 hour days of studying until he takes the actual test on aug. 25th. he's been so good at going to class and doing all the "extra" work they've suggested, and has improved his score each time he's taken a practice test. i'm already proud of the hard work he has put into getting ready for this HUGE test. he has mapped out a 'course of action' for the next few weeks up until the test and informed me that its my duty to make sure he sticks to it! this will be a fairly large milestone in his life and for our little family when its finally over!

meanwhile, i have enjoyed slowly easing my work schedule and have hired brady's sister, danee, to take over my position. this is my last full time week, and then i will move to 3 days a week for the first two weeks in aug., and then i'm done FOREVER! don't get too excited for me, though. two weeks after that i'll be starting school, which brings me to why this week has been so busy. i've been doing my independent study public speaking course. I started last monday and i had to be done by today to meet the requirement for DH school, so that meant i was writing a speech and presenting it every night for the past two weeks. we also started our pre-natal classes last week! look at this picture on my book:

everytime i look at that chubby little baby face it makes me want to cry. i can't wait to meet my little baby.

last night we watched the birth video during our class. somehow, even with all the anatomy, physiology, and biology classes i've taken, i've never seen a birth video. i've been told by a countless number of people how disgusting it is and how you want to cover your eyes or make sure you haven't eaten lunch just before seeing that. this was not my experience at all. i must be the only person in the world who gets teary eyed while watching a baby be brought into the world, even with all the blood and fluid. maybe its the pregnancy hormones, or maybe i'm weird, but after the first 2 seconds of being a little shocked it honestly wasn't gross to me but seriously so amazing. it only took those few second to realize that this is how a baby is brought into the world! i want to see this! i am constantly amazed by how my body can grow and nourish a baby, and so thankful that i am able to be a woman and experience this unbelievable blessing.

other exciting things that have been happening and will likely show up in a later blog post:
-baby shower
-24th of july fireworks
-32 week visit (now i go to the doc every 2 weeks for the next month)
-brady took a pic of a wasps nest by our car. this doesn't merit a blog post, but you never know
-our re upholstered retro rocking chair

Saturday morning thoughts of a soon(ish) to be mother

I am doing terrible on blogging. I don't know where all the time in one day goes, oh wait, yeah I do. I work for 12 hours of it and then come home and spend the rest of the night getting the nursery cleaned out and set up!

We had a terribly fun time with family in Texas and were spoiled for 1 whole week! Now I'm making up for it at work. I will be trying to get pics up from our trip in any spare time I can find.

In other news we got a crib and lots of goodies to fill the room from a baby shower I had with my home ward! I am so grateful for such kind friends and wonderful family! Things are coming along, and all of the sudden I feel like time is slipping away too fast.

I am huge. Okay not huge, but I grew so much in the last two weeks, and I was so busy that I didn't really notice until I looked back at pics and saw my stomach poking out of EVERYTHING! I can no longer cover this baby up. She is ready to be seen :)

Speaking of her, she is going to be a mover and a shaker. Not a day goes by that I don't feel her kicking and moving like crazy! I love it. And the best part is that she kicked her dad a few times :) He was so excited. I wish he could feel it everytime like I do.

As for the name, we both love the name Olivia (and call her Liv) but for some reason I really have trouble with the finality of things (what is wrong with me), so I can't say that that is for sure what her name will be. I just can't name this little sweetheart until I meet her in person. (but she will probably be Olivia Marie since that is what we are already calling her :)

Last night, while at the sunflower market shopping for broccoli, I saw a little girl run by with glasses and all the sudden I got nervous thinking about glasses and braces and imodesty and insecurity. Please please be a good girl Olivia. Or better yet, let me be a good mom!