bump #98: teething, scooting, and sitting up

 

 

Oliver is almost 6 months old and teething something fierce. Plastic animal PETA would be all up in his grill for what he's done to Sophie Le Giraffe alone. He has an arsenal of teething toys and mesh feeders that are all proving pretty useful these days, but do any of you mommas out their have any teething go-to favorite remedies or suggestions?

While we're on the topic of teething, I have a confession to make. Add this one to our list of parenting fails, but don't judge too harshly, remember we're new at this. I came home from Back to School Night late last night and noticed something about little Ollie Bear. Lately he's been doing this adorable thing where he sticks his tongue out as far as he can and smiles so big I think my heart is going to explode from sheer adorableness. It's like he's so happy he can't contain it! Anyway, he sticks his tongue out and it is blue. Bright blue. So I lovingly ask my husband, "why is Oliver's tongue fluorescent blue?" And he tells me about how the only thing that could sooth Ollie Bear's aching gums was a blueberry otter pop...and he only had a little. Sure he did! I know how serious that boy is about eating (same as me!) and we do not do dessert in moderation.

You might think I would flip out at the thought of my 5 month old baby noshing on pure sugar water plus blue dye #5 and who knows what. I mean I have been dutifully nursing Ollie since birth, supplementing formula only when necessary, cautiously starting him on first foods and veggie purees only recently, and generally trying to do things "by the book." But all of that goes out the window when he's in so much pain, it's 100 degrees out, and baby wants a popsicle. In the future, I will prep frozen fruit in his mesh teething ring and try to provide more wholesome treats for him. But for now, his tongue is blue and he's happy; so what if I'm not mother of the year! At least I haven't given him ice cream yet, so he's not completely ruined. Please tell me I haven't ruined him!

Moving on.

Another recent milestone... scooting and sitting up almost on his own.

This boy is ready to go places. I ordered him a walker online yesterday and fingers crossed, it is going to be his new favorite toy. He currently loves his bumper jumper and bumbo chair. He's generally very content and smiley, but he lets you know real quick if he's over it and ready for something new. Homeboy is getting LOUD lately!

He is so expressive and entertaining right now. I need to remember to film him more because the pictures don't do him justice. He's adapting well to daycare a couple days a week, but came down with a cold from all the new germs. Sidenote: Nose Frida to the rescue. He hates that thing, but it sure is helpful for runny noses and baby boogies. Nothing worse than seeing your little baby sick and struggling to breathe. Hoping his immune system beefs up and we keep the sickies away, but I have a feeling this is only the beginning.

My parents came to visit for Labor Day weekend and my mom did a photo shoot of Ollie in his new suit and hat. This little guy makes our lives so happy and fun! 

 

I can't believe that next week he will be 6 months old. That's half a year already! It's 4am as I type this stream of conscious blog post, after a diaper change and feeding, and I am reminded that I haven't had a full night's sleep in over 6 months.

And to that I say TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!

The bags under my eyes have never been bigger, but my heart has never been fuller.

bump #95: 6 weeks

Ollie Bear is 6 weeks old today.

He makes a lot more baby sounds lately. Nothing that at all resembles any actual words, but sweet little sounds nonetheless. He also snores, which I love because I'm the mom that will hover over him all night to ensure that he's still breathing. I still do that, but his snoring is reassuring. He also drools on occasion, but now I'm just bragging :)

He weighs 8 pounds 6 ounces, nurses every two hours, and destroys at least 12 diapers a day. The pediatrician said he is in the 9th percentile which sounds low to me, but he is gaining weight and growing so I'm not worried. In fact, once these newborn diapers are done (probably in the next couple hours!) he is moving up to size 1. 



We spend A LOT of time here changing diapers!

I am so grateful for my 8 week maternity leave and all the time I've gotten to spend with him. It will be hard to go back to work, but the bonus of teaching is that Summer break is right around the corner and that's another 8 weeks of special bonding time. Yay! In the meantime I scheduled all our doctor's appointments this week... my 6 week post birth follow up, a dentist appointment, and his check up. Maternity leave is great for getting all that stuff done. And my C-section is all healed up with minimal scarring. To be honest, I still have a 6 month pregnant looking belly so there is literally a fat roll that covers the incision, making it practically invisible. Hooray for distracting layers of chub. Obesity for the win! I gained almost 30 pounds from pre-fertility treatment to pregnancy, to delivery. And at this point I've only lost 15. Oops. But aside from none of my clothes fitting, I don't really care. I've never been the image of fitness so why start now?!

Even though he's still so tiny and brand new, I think I've already made a few parenting mistakes... I breastfeed on demand which means constantly so he is not on any kind of schedule, and I pick him up immediately whenever he cries. Even though Oliver has a Rock 'n Play Sleeper and a Mamaroo bouncer, he fusses unless he is being held. So I hold him all the time.  Even though he has a crib and a bassinet, he sleeps best in our bed (safely don't worry!). So I'm not really getting any sleep ever. Oh well, I've got plenty of time to figure out this parenting thing. And first babies are trial runs, right?!


Oliver goes back and forth on whether he likes his bouncers or not. This week it's a firm NO.

A friend at work gave me this book...

Is that wishful thinking?
How and when did you get your babies on a schedule?
Will he ever really sleep through the night... or for more than an hour and a half at a time even?

bump #92: Out and about with Ollie

Ollie's first two weeks have flown by and we have taken advantage of his mostly easy-going personality by showing him the sights in San Diego.

 

That means lots of beach days!

La Jolla Shores

My wonderful mom stayed with us for 2 weeks after Oliver was born and took ALL of the pictures documenting this super special time... over 8,000 pictures total!



Coronado Island



Hotel Del Coronado

Downtown San Diego and the bay



Baby feet at the beach

We also visited the pediatrician for Ollie's 1 week check up. He did great until I picked him up and his umbilical cord got stuck and detached on my dress. Gross! (see picture) My mom and I freaked out and 3 days later it got infected and we were back at the doctor's office. Coincidentally that was also the day he got a rash from one of his swaddle blankets, his circumcision ring was irritated and half falling off, and he had his first poo poo diaper blow out in the car and there were no extra outfits in the diaper bag, so we showed up looking pretty pitiful. Mom of the year right here!

 



When I wasn't frantically running to the pediatrician's office, we managed to get out for a walk with my best friend Tiffany and her daughter Kynlee.

We also stopped by my classroom right before school went out for Spring Break.

We gave my students little birth announcements and "it's a boy" candies.

My 1st graders were so excited to see the baby. But no touching! He stayed safe in his stroller.
 

We also took Oliver to Andrew's Composition class at Point Loma. He's college ready!

My friends from work had a karaoke party and, of course, we brought Ollie there too. He liked our rendition of Britney's "Baby One More Time" and Whitney's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody."

We took some "2 weeks old" pictures at the park. Oliver has tons of cute little boy outfits and suits with ties and the like, but they're size 3 months and he is still in newborn size. Everyone told me he would grow out of them before he got to wear them so we're putting him in them now even though he is swimming in them. He is long and lean (foreign to me!) so dressing him is a little tricky. He's a champion eater (exclusively breastfeeding so far) so hopefully he'll get chubbier soon and fit in his clothes. 

 



It was so nice having my mom here! But eventually she had to go back to work. Boo. So she went back home on Easter Sunday morning and Andrew's mom arrived on the train that afternoon. We have been so spoiled with all this extra help from the grandmas and we are loving it!

I've been getting lots of baby smiles lately.

And I don't know what this is about, but Oliver often inadvertently flips the bird.

Maybe his not so polite way of letting us know he's over the photo shoot? 

 His eyes are still gray, but turning more blue everyday.

 

He's got a big head like his dad and is already growing out of his beanies.

He has a strong grip and loves his Sophie Giraffe. 

He's not a fan of tummy time, but likes laying on his back and taking in the surroundings.



 

He loves his MamaRoo bouncer and we often put him in it to sleep at night...

for his two hour stretches of sleep between feedings.

 

 He loves his doggies.

 

I made a "walliver" a wall of photos of Oliver. We're going to need a bigger apartment!

 

 

It's only week 3 and Oliver has already completely changed our lives in all the best possible ways. We are so in love!

bump #91: Oliver's Birth Story and way too many pictures

 

 

 

 

At the risk of sounding cliché, pregnancy brain has quickly turned to an even more potent mental deficiency known as mommy brain. So I want to document Oliver's zero birthday here before I completely succumb to the maternal mental fog.

At our 38 week appointment on March 11, it became apparent that delivery via C-section would probably be our best option. The baby, though head down, was not anywhere near the cervix, which was very tiny and would not open for the baby to pass through, and complications from a succenturiate lobe on the placenta (common with IVF) meant that placental rupture and hemorrhaging were highly likely and incredibly dangerous for the baby and myself. We thought about it and prayed about it for a day, then called to make the appointment. We asked for Friday, March 20 (my grandpa's 81st birthday) or Saturday, March 21 (the first day of Spring and conveniently a weekend). Neither day was available, so Thursday, March 19 would be the day we would finally meet our Oliver. This was only 4 days before our official due date and after waiting so long for our baby we were ecstatic to get him a little bit early!

If I'm being completely honest, the thought of surgery freaked me out. A lot. But once we knew it was safest for Ollie I happily hopped on board. I was also very grateful I was lazy and never made an official birth plan because it turns out that nothing goes according to plan anyway :) So long to my "water birth" because after a C-section you can't even go in a pool for 8 weeks! No, actually the biggest change was that I had to turn my "push mix" into a "cut mix" on the iPod. It included classics like Rod Stewart "The first cut is the deepest", Leona Lewis "I keep bleeding love", and Bryan Adams "Cuts Like a Knife." I thought it was hilarious, but perhaps a little off color. Don't worry; it wasn't the soundtrack to Oliver's birth. It turns out they don't let you bring anything with you into the operating room, much less your obnoxious playlist.

No matter what happened, we were finally going to have our precious baby boy, so I focused all my nervous energy on celebrating Oliver's birth day and laughed off the scary thoughts of a long recovery at the hospital by comparing the experience to a day at the spa.

Wednesday night our parents arrived in San Diego so they could be present for the big day. A bonus of a scheduled c section was that everyone who wanted to be there for the birth could make it! We went for a walk on the beach and had a nice "last meal" dinner. Before I knew it, it was Thursday, March 19 and my 4 am alarm clock was going off. We were the first "case" of the day and had to be at the hospital by 5:30, two hours before our scheduled 7:30 surgery.  Here is my 39 week and 3 day bump at 5 am checking in to the Women's Center at Grossmont Hospital.

*Note that this is the first time in my whole pregnancy that I am wearing flats. Something about getting cut in half made me question packing my Easter espadrilles. If you are packing a hospital bag, all the footwear you need are flip flops and cozy slippers. I packed 3 hospital bags, you know, for options, and ended up wearing the same two robes and pajama sets all 4 days at the hospital. Live and learn.

Getting back to Ollie's birth story... I relentlessly researched all the FAQ's about cesareans the week before delivery. There is a lot of information out there and it is way more useful than my scattered account here, but this is how our day went down:

5:30-7:30 - prep for surgery
7:30-8:30 - operating room where Oliver is born
8:30-9:45 - recovery room and bonding with baby
9:45 Thursday morning through Sunday afternoon - post partum room where I could have as many visitors as I wanted from 9 am to 9 pm and nurses took excellent care of me and the baby.

So the whole operation from prep to post partum was under 5 hours. Not bad at all! Today, even though I am still recovering and have a few more weeks before I'll be back to normal, I am so grateful that we had a scheduled C-section because everything went smoothly and our Ollie Bear is here safe and sound.

For the two hours pre-surgery, I was prepped in the labor and delivery unit. Fetal heart monitors were strapped to my belly to make sure the baby was doing good. Nurses asked me a million questions about any allergies or medical conditions (none) and Andrew prayed over me and Oliver. My mom and dad came in to visit before they wheeled me off to the operating room. I kept telling everyone in the halls "We get to meet our baby today! Yay!" and happily danced over to the operating table. The doctors said I was the best patient and had a great attitude. They were right. I was probably the best flipping patient ever! I just didn't want them to think I was a frantic spaz and put me under for the procedure. I really wanted to be alert and awake the whole time and I'm really glad I was. I was so ready to meet my baby!

Meanwhile, Andrew got ready in his scrubs. He was the only person I was allowed to have in the O.R. with me. I really wanted my mom in there too, but they made no exceptions. My mom gave him a quick tutorial on how to record with her camera and

here are some video clips of Oliver's birth.

Our parents waited anxiously checking their cell phones for any pictures or messages.

Dr. Bavaria (like Bavarian cream donuts. Yum.) gave me a local anesthetic and administered the spinal to prep me for surgery. This was not bad at all. The hardest part was curling up over my huge belly and holding still for a minute so he could get it in the right spot. He did and it worked almost instantly. Before I knew it I couldn't feel anything from the chest down. This is a good thing! I also requested that he put Zofran (anti nausea medication) in with the injection and that made recovery much better. I can honestly say I am still "vomit free since '93" and that is no small accomplishment! Normally you're on a clear liquid only diet for the day following surgery. They had me chowing down on a delicious dinner by 6 that night because I was doing so well. Total champ right here! Andrew stayed on a stool next to my head and the anesthesiologist stayed right behind me making sure I was "comfortable." Andrew didn't look over the curtain. I told him I would have wanted to look, but he said he saw blood on the ground and chickened out. I don't blame him; even though I couldn't feel pain, I felt a ton of tugging and pulling. Apparently Oliver was so wedged over my right hip that they had to use a vacuum to get him out. And the extra lobe on the placenta was so high near my left rib that I had bruises in the shape of fingers on my lower abdomen where they had to hold me stable so they could reach all the way up to remove the whole placenta. Another reason C-section was the best option... I never could have safely delivered that mess of a placenta on my own. But none of that mattered now, because our Oliver was here!

 

After about 10 minutes, at 7:54 AM, Oliver was out and they quickly assessed his apgar scores (8 at one minute post birth and 9 at five minutes post birth. Yay!), took his measurements, cleared his lungs, bundled him up, and placed him on my chest. It took another 10 minutes to deliver the placenta and about 25 minutes to stitch up my uterus, all the layers of skin, and then apply dermabond (sort of like super glue) to my incision. There were no staples or visible stitches. My belly is somewhat glued together, but it's holding up so far so that's fabulous. I was going to post a picture of it, but I'll post this one instead...

Here is our first family photo together.



I was so happy I got to hold my son for a few minutes before Andrew went with him and they wheeled me to recovery. Holding him, though, was somewhat awkward as I couldn't move anything but my arms and they were difficult to move with IV's, blood pressure bands, and that finger clip thing they make you wear. My legs were in vibrating compression bands so I had wires coming from everywhere. I also had a catheter for the first 24 hours I was at the hospital. Super uncomfortable! This is when they placed Oliver on my chest for skin-to-skin time and told me I could try to nurse him so he could get all that wonderful colostrum. I couldn't lift my head, yet alone my arms so you can imagine how graceful the effort of nursing a brand new baby with zero experience in that department went. I did eventually get the hang of nursing with the help of a lactation specialist the next day, but at this point all efforts were futile. I was just so happy to finally hold my boy!

After an hour in the PACU recovering, I was wheeled to my post partum room where I would stay the rest of Thursday and all the way through Sunday afternoon when I was released. Yes, almost 4 days in the hospital, and they were necessary! It was so nice to have so many wonderful nurses and doctors caring for us around the clock. As prepared as I felt for this whole motherhood thing, it was nice to have the experts on hand to help us out. They already even sent us a card in the mail!

By 10 am, our families were allowed to come stay with us in our hospital room. My dad immediately high fived me for finally bringing a boy into our family. He's still plenty outnumbered by girls, but little Oliver felt like a win for him!

We had lots of visitors everyday and there were lots of happy tears for our long awaited miracle baby.

The grandparents took turns holding Oliver all day every day and were so, so happy!

 

Oliver loved all the attention, was on his best behavior, and slept like a champ the first few days.

 

 

My OBGYN and Oliver's pediatrician checked on us every morning.

 

 Oliver was circumcised and didn't even cry. He is seriously the most mellow little guy!

By the end of the day Thursday (delivery day), the nurses wanted me to be able to dangle my feet over the edge of the bed. I did them one better and was able to successfully stand up by myself. I couldn't walk though and was in a lot of pain. My pelvic bones felt like they were being singed and pinched by flaming hot tweezers. I was on Toradol and Percocet for the pain the first day and then Percocet and Motrin the following days. The second day, Friday, was probably the most painful because they removed my catheter and walking to the bathroom every couple hours was torture. Even though I had a C-section, I still had to wear these huge mesh underwear and giant maxi pads because you still bleed down there. Ick. I found myself practicing Lamaze breathing that I didn't get to use during delivery, but had to use during recovery. Just sitting up in bed took a great deal of effort. By Saturday I was walking the halls pushing Oliver in his bassinet. Very slowly.

Sunday afternoon we were released from the hospital and went home to introduce the dogs to their new sibling. They were so excited!

 

All our family returned home, except for my mom. She is staying with us for a couple weeks to help out as Andrew had to go right back to work. It has been so great having her here.

 

 

 

I am the oldest of three girls, so neither my mom nor I have had much experience caring for baby boys. You can imagine the pee pee shenanigans that have ensued this week...

 

Oliver is a fire hydrant and often sprays us during diaper changes. Even with pee pee tee pees and covering him with baby wipes, he still manages to get us!

 

 This little photo shoot was a real doozie! Pee and poo EVERYWHERE!

 The rest of the photo shoots have been more mellow and less "yellow" :)

 

 

 

Oliver is mostly quiet, happy, and alert. He has beautiful blue-gray eyes, a cute little nose, and the sweetest smile. He loves to nurse and be swaddled and lounge in his mamaroo rocker.

Everyday we thank God that our baby boy is in our arms and we cannot believe how truly blessed we are. Oliver is our little miracle and we are so grateful we get to be his parents.

 I can't believe he is 1 week old already! We are loving every minute with our sweet boy!