One Month Old

Its been one month since Liv entered the world. It seems like it was forever ago haha. She has definitley been staying awake longer and just looking around, checking out her new world. We had a good week. My mom took Thursday and Friday off of work so I had lots of help. I would feed Liv around 6ish and my mom would come get her around 7, or when she woke up...so then I could sleep in a little bit. SO NICE. Sleep is wonderful haha. Lets see, what is new with Liv? Other than just looking around, we've been putting her in her boppy a lot more. Lying her on her tummy so she can learn how to pick her head up. She does it for a little while and then gets tired and gives up haha. I don't know why I think her sitting in the boppy is so darn cute, but I will post pictures and you can see for yourself. She is drinking around 5oz. of milk every 3 or 4 hours. Sometimes she drinks less, and sometimes she thinks she wants a little more. I'm always worried about how much I'm feeding her but she is a bigger baby and I'm going to go on what a nurse told me, which was "a baby will eat as much as they need". She's a growing girl!

We went to my cousin's wedding yesterday. My mom, grandma, Liv, and I went to the ceremony and the dinner. Liv wore her party dress hah! She slept almost the whole time. She woke up to eat, but then went right back to sleep. After the dinner my mom and I went home and my mom watched Liv while I went to a friend's wedding reception. I had so much fun! I just danced the night away haha. I went out two other nights, and this was the first night I actually felt a little more comfortable and let loose. It was nice. Its beautiful out today, so we are gonna bring Liv for a walk later...I will have to take some pictures of that. Here are some pictures from throughout the month!

Milk-induced coma...this happens to Liv a lot
Looking like her dad
Smiling? I like to think so haha

cute pj's

Liv's Party Dress haha

On the way to the wedding

Hanging out outside with grandma Carolyn

Anothe shot of the party dress

Pooh hat that Auntie Dani got her

Little Cowgirl

Me and Liv at the wedding

Back in the Soo

We are now back in the Soo. Pat left for Ireland last Wednesday. Its been hard knowing he was going to leave and even harder watching him leave. You kind of have to detach yourself from the situation because thinking about it is all too overwhelming and it will get me nowhere. On a positive note, Pat loves Ireland so far. He said its beautiful. He lives right downtown in a big apartment overlooking the river and he says there is so much to do. The only problem is they are a little more slower moving than in the U.S. and he still doesn't have internet or cable for that matter. He was supposed to get it last Friday and he still doesn't have it...but he has purchased a Skype phone, who knew they had those! He got that today, so we've been able to chat a few times throughout the day.

After Pat left, the next hard thing was leaving Carolyn and Doreen. We had a good couple of weeks :). Its hard not knowing when we'll see them next. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I had a huge eye opening day today too. I got out of bed with Liv around 9:30ish and it seriously took me until 3pm to be ready to head out the door. I was going to unpack and that took me hours due to constant interruptions, feedings, fussing, puking, etc... I finally had a few sips of coffee around 1pm haha. Carolyn and Doreen have been there all day with me for the past couple of weeks...so if i needed to do something like shower or wash bottles or due laundry...they could keep an eye on Liv. No more help during the day for me...And WHOA am I tired at the end of the day. Also, my class started today. My final thesis class...and there's already something due!!! Shoot me now.

Quick story...I've learned my lesson now. I have been pee'd on by Liv before but I obviously hadn't cared too much I guess because I kept changing her without her changing pad. So last night around 3am I fed Liv and I was thinking how exhausted I was, but she needed her diaper changed so I was lazy and changed her on my bed. Well she pee'd all over my bed...at 3 in the morning! So I had to change my bedding obviously. Not something I felt like doing at all at that time in the morning. Oh well haha. I won't be making that mistake again though. Now that I'm back home with reliable internet I will keep my posts more consistent. Here are some photos of Liv recently.



Ok...nobody liked as much as me, but I loved this bonnet and thought it was adorable haha!
Hanging out in her boppy

Potato Sack

A rare occurance...Lily snuggling with Liv

Auntie Dani and Liv

Taking a dip

Pretty girl

Enjoying Marquette

We have been staying busy up here in Marquette. Its been beautiful the last couple of days so we've taken advantage. Carolyn and I have walked on the beach every day this week...the first day we got caught in the rain! And not just a little sprinkles...a complete downpour haha. Olivia was in her sling, so I had her covered but the whole side of her body that wasn't against me was soaked. She slept through it all though.

We also made the hike up sugar loaf mountain yesterday. It was harder than I remember seeing I haven't been working out. I felt a little out of shape! It was really hot but it was a nice outing. There is a little patio in the back of the condo that we've been spending a lot of time on too. It's so nice that its hard to just sit inside...and pat has been in control of the air conditioning and its freezing inside!

Pat got the news that he has to leave on the 19th...which btw is next Wednesday!! Those are not excited exclamation points, they're shocked ones. I can't believe he is leaving already :(. They want him to fly out of Chicago, which means he'd have to drive a rental car from Marquette to Chicago early Wednesday morning ::Yuck:: I've said it twenty times, but I'll say it again...its going to be hard but worth it so I'm sucking it up. On a happier note, I have some cute pictures from over the past few weeks in Marquette, enjoy.





Staring at her daddy. She loves to study people.
It's a miracle! Her eyes are open! She sleeps a lot...but here is a shot of her beautiful blue eyes.

On top of Sugar Loaf. She was so impressed by the view she decided to take a nap...

Not happy...she was hungry by the time we started up the trail.

Lounging outside in her Canada outfit...I woke up and Pat had her in this outfit haha..he would.

One Week Old

What a hectic week. Learning how to take care of a baby is hard work! We are now in Marquette for pretty much the rest of August. Olivia has a doctor's appointment on the 18th that we'll have to head back to the Soo for though. Everything has been going pretty smoothly. We had one rough evening where Olivia was fussy and I got a little emotional because I was feeling a bit overwhelmed, but as my mom says "desi you just had a baby 7 days ago". I keep telling myself it hasn't been very long. Other than the one meltdown we're doing good though. Olivia is for the most part very content. She loves to eat haha. She wakes up usually twice a night to eat, about every 4 hours. She's drinking 3 oz. a bottle. We like to call her Chubba ha. She eats like a maniac...she drinks her bottles so fast and usually ends up with the hiccups at least 3 times a day. She has the bluest eyes and I love when she's awake and alert and staring at you. Especially when you feed her...it's like she's saying thank you. There's a few things she loves doing other than eating, she loves her swing, she loves to sprawl out on her back and look around, she loves her bouncy seat (sometimes), and she likes to sleep. I've decided infants are pretty boring haha, but for some reason I find a lot of entertainment just watching her. The date that Pat is leaving is getting close and I'm having a hard time even believing he's gonna be gone. We are in denial a bit...but I do have a lot of help that we're thankful for and we just have to remember that this is going to be for the best in the long run. I promised pictures on the last post and I didn't deliver, so I'll post an array of them, from her birth to yesterday :).

Staring intently at her daddy...she thinks she's the luckiest girl in the world when she's eating :)
Pat is convinced this is how Olivia was hiding in the womb...she tucks her feet up like that all the time haha
Staring at Auntie Dani
Lily trying to check out her new sister and Olivia's favorite gadget
Right before heading home from the hospital
After her hospital photo op

Her little hospital bracelet

Uncle Taylr
Pat's first time holding his daughter...studying eachother
First time meeting Auntie Dani
All cleaned up and upset
What?!! She's 9lbs????? hahaha, this was around that moment
First time seeing/holding Olivia

She's Here...Birth Story

I have so much to update on. First of all...Olivia is here! I know, where did the name Olivia come from?? She just didn't look like any of the names we had chosen and Pat suggested Olivia out of nowhere and I really liked it and we intend to nickname her "liv" and "livi". I love my nicknames.

I'll start out with our arrival at the hospital. I was scheduled to be induced at 7:30am, Saturday, August 1st. We got there and I got all hooked up to the monitors and they discovered I was having little contractions. I was about 1.5 centimeters dilated and 75% effaced. Dr. Mackie decided to start out with cytotec. It is supposed to "ripen" my cervix and initiate some contractions. Well...it kind of worked. It did get my contractions going, but they weren't doing what they were supposed to do. My timeline may be an issue here because my labor lasted 22 hours. The next step was to break my water. This wasn't easy to do because I still wasn't dilating past 2 centimeters. Once my water was broken my contractions got stronger...I definitley started to need to breath through them. I went into labor knowing I wasn't going to be able to have an epidural. The intrathecal that was available to me only lasts 3 hours...so the game plan was to wait til I was dilated to 6 or 7 so that it would last while I was pushing. Around 6pm on Saturday, the nurses started the pitocin. I'm not sure if it was before the pitocin was started or after that I was offered statal (not sure if it's spelled right). I recieved it through my IV and it was supposed to help me relax between contractions. It did immediately. I felt drunk and I felt like my eyes were crossed haha. It did help, but not with the pain so much.

The rest is so fuzzy to me because I was drugged and I was just waitinggg to be able to have the intrathecal. I made it to 6 centimeters and I could not wait any longer. I don't even really remember getting it. I remember I was leaning over the side of the bed and holding onto Pat. Pat said that was the only thing he couldn't handle watching. I was having really strong contractions during the intrathecal and I didn't even care how it felt. I couldn't even tell you if it hurt. Afterwards I felt nothing. I passed out for 3 hours! Thank god I did because I needed it. When I woke up...the intrathecal was wearing off though. My contractions weren't full blown, but I knew they were coming back. The nurse checked me and I was dilated to 8/8.5...so she gave me ideas of what to try. Pat and I walked, I sat on the toilet, I sat on the stability ball, and I sat on a damn birthing chair. It took about an hour and after which, they told me I was ready to push. I was in so much pain...and it was too late to even give me any more statal. I started pushing around 4:30 am, Sunday, August 2nd. My mom and my sister were both by my legs and Pat stayed up by my head and coached me through everything. It ended up working the best that way. It was so weird because I had no idea how to push and it took me awhile to figure it out. I pushed for about an hour before I was ready for Dr. Mackie to come in. I didn't feel as though I was getting anywhere until I could see the head. I reached down and felt. It felt impossible, but as soon as her head came out the rest was easy...obviously I suppose. It was very overwhelming.

Olivia wasn't crying at first and had a lot of mucus in her lungs. So they brought her over to the warmer and worked on her. Dani and Pat stayed by me. Because of where my placenta was located, it caused me to lose a lot of blood. Not completely sure why? Also, having a 9lb baby didn't help. I ended up with a 2nd degree tear and that took about 30 minutes to sew up. I was very lightheaded and woozy. It was surreal, I felt unable to even hold my baby. I didn't really understand the situation at the time. I recieved to shots in my legs to stop the bleeding, which had not so nice side effects later. After everything was said and done, Olivia had to go to the nursery because I had lost so much blood and they didn't want to move me into my room until later. I felt awful the first day...I cried because I felt like I should feel better and be able to take care of my baby. I couldn't though. It was rough...but all is better now. Everything was worth it. I love Olivia and I really did have the best team there to support me. They deserve a lot of credit. It was a long and hard 22 hours.

On a funny note...a 9lb baby?!!! We all guessed how much she was gonna weigh before the nurse put her on the scale. I guessed 8lbs 1oz and Dr. Mackie guessed 8lbs 6oz...and then when they said 9lbs 1oz we all almost peed our pants! Where was she hiding?? Dr. Mackie could not believe I had delivered a 9lb baby...and neither could I! That is most likely the reason my labor didn't progress the way it should have.

Onto Olivia...she is so alert. I think its because she is a bigger baby. She looks a few weeks old haha. She definitley loves to eat. We have to be really careful because she sucks her bottles down so fast! I will post some pictures tomorrow. We just got home today and I will have more energy tomorrow to post some pics.