Miss Olivia

Olivia is getting so big, It seems that time is just flying by. She is almost 4 weeks old and we can't believe how big she is getting. It probably helps that she loves to eat. She is a great baby, very content and easy to please. I did realize the other day that she does have her days and nights still confused. Although she sleeps all night she is much fussier, eats more often and takes longer to settle back to sleep. We have been trying to keep her stimulated during the day but it is quite difficult to wake up a newborn who wants to sleep.

Merry Christmas

All in all our Christmas was very enjoyable. We split the day, my family came in the morning and Ryan's family in the afternoon with a shared Christmas dinner. It was really nice to be able to share the day with our entire family. Unfortunately Chase came down with a high fever on Christmas Eve, so although he was able to open presents and even play a bit, he went up and down with a fever all day and was up all night. Chase got some great new toys that I hope will keep him busy over these next crazy months. And yes that is a giant stuffed giraffe, we got it to go in Chase's room.

Big Brother

We have had such fun watching Chase fall into his new role as big brother. He has been so loving and sweet.

The Real Deal

Every year we receive dozens of Christmas cards from friends and family, many that include beautiful photos. Photos where everyone is sitting so sweetly with perfect smiles- unfortunately this is not our reality. This year Chase found it difficult to pose for any pictures. We finally resorted to giving him fruit candy just to get him to sit down for 20 seconds at a time and then it was a matter of catching him without his finger in his mouth or chewing with his mouth open. We did manage to get a nice family photo but I wanted to share the reality of what we went through in order to take that photo.

Our Beauty

Here are some recent photos. Olivia will be a week old tomorrow. We went for her first doctor's visit and she is doing great. She is almost back to her original birth weight and although she looks a little jaundice her bilirubin count was within acceptable limits. We have to go back next week to double check her jaundice.

I am feeling great! I can't believe how much easier this recovery has been compared to my last surgery. Don't get me wrong I still need pain meds to get around but a little less everyday. Chase is still doing well. I feel so bad that I can't pick him up- when he asks I know he is confused about why I can't and it hurts my heart. Ryan is going back to work tomorrow, hopefully he will be able to get a full nights sleep- otherwise I pity his coworkers :)

Olivia's Birth

Well, we did it. Wednesday was an exciting but hard day. I am sure no one looks forward to major surgery, at least I have a beautiful baby girl when everything is said and done. Ryan and I headed into the hospital early Wednesday morning, we got settled into our room and headed off to the OR about 8 o'clock. I ended up getting a spinal instead of an epidural, unfortunately it affected my circulation and I had trouble throughout the surgery keeping my blood pressure up. I would look over at the machine and it would read 40/20 and it was making me really sick- kind of scary. When Olivia was born she was screaming bloody murder. She looked and sounded so amazing- God is good!

It seemed like the surgery took forever, I just wanted to get my hands on my little girl. Ryan and I were both surprised by the fact she was 7 pounds and 5 ounces- she would have been a whopper if I had gone 2 more weeks. When we made it back to the room, it was overflowing with our families, how nice to share this experience with the people we love.

I struggled the rest of the day with managing my pain. The pain medication took a bit too long to make it to my room and by the time it arrived I was in agony. They had to give me extra doses to get control of it, which made my mind pretty cloudy. By day 2 I had the medication/pain under control. The rest of the week went smoothly. I have been feeling great!

Chase did great with my Mom. The second day he was starting to get nervous and needed some extra loving so I am glad we were able to head home on Friday. He has been great with Olivia, he has asked to hold her several times and is quite interested in her presence. He was so excited to find her in bed with us the first morning we were home, he kept sitting up and pointing to her as if he were saying, "Look, she's here." He is still a little nervous, especially at bed time, since that is usually special time with Mommy. We have had some much need snuggle time with Mommy to help reassure him.

My mother and sister will be here at least through December to help us heal and get adjusted so we have lots of extra hands- thankfully.

...and three became four

We are so blessed!

Erica gave birth to our beautiful baby girl - Olivia Lee

We're all overjoyed and looking forward to heading home tomorrow.

More pictures and details to follow.