Olivia - 1 month

Olivia is officially one month old!  Sorry for all the baby posts lately, but she's the newest thing in my life and I spend all day with her...so what else do I have to talk about!  So...once again...Olivia is one month old!  She is growing like a weed too.  I can see how much she has changed in only a month too.  

I decided with Olivia to do monthly pictures.  I didn't do it with either of the other kids, and I somewhat feel bad.  Olivia needs some things that the other kids didn't have though, being #3 and all.  A little about my picture.  The lamb was a present from big sister Alyssa.  We went to Hobby Lobby a couple of weekends ago and she knew Olivia needed this lamb.  How could I resist Alyssa when she was being such a great and caring big sister?!  I couldn't, so Olivia has this little lamb now.  A friend of mine owns a business called Simsbury Manor Designs and she created this cute little chalk board!  I saw it on her Facebook page and needed one for myself.  She also has some really cute things for Easter that I've been eyeing, but that's a whole different post.

Now I'm going to tell you a bit of the highlights of Olivia's first month of life.  Since babies don't do a whole lot at this stage we'll keep it short and sweet.  Here is a picture of her from each week of her life so far!

Sleep: Olivia is a decent sleeper.  At her longest stretch, she sleeps about 3-3.5 hours at a time.  She has hit 5 hours once!  I can't wait until she does that more often.  Thankfully she has her days and nights figured out.  She sleeps her best at night, and sleeps a lot choppier during the day.  I'm SO ok with that.  It's kind of tiring during the day, but it could be so much worse.  She's slowly starting to figure out how to get herself back to sleep.  After four weeks she's starting to get the hang of things, but we've still got a ways to go.  

Total sleep: 14-16 hours a day

Eating: She has a pretty good appetite.  She never really did lose any weight, a few ounces at most.  She's still a little peanut being only 8 pounds currently.  She typically wants a bottle every 3 hours, give or take a little.  She went from eating about 1 ounce at a time to approaching 4 ounces at one feeding.  She's a hungry girl!  She's been getting a bit more fussy and wanting to cluster feed a bit more often now that she's older and awake more often.  It's very trying, but we're trying to figure it out.  She's also showing good promise since she eats the bulk of her food during the day, and really cuts back during her feedings at night.  I think she's going to figure this out sooner then later.  

Total food: 18-22 ounces a day

Awake Time: Olivia doesn't have a ton of awake time at this point, but when she is awake we try to keep her engaged.  She LOVES to stare at anyone that's willing to talk to her.  She also gave me her first smile yesterday (Feb. 28th)!  I was so excited to see it!  She has had some tummy time and time under her play mat to watch lights and the mobile.  When she's awake, she likes to be held.  

Siblings: We have to keep here where we can see her because her sister and brother REALLY love her.  Sometimes it's very sweet to watch them all, and sometimes I feel like they are attacking her.  I think she feels the same way.  We have to teach the big kids how to treat their little sister.  Evidently it's hard not to get up in Olivia's face when you're near her.  Overall, they really do love their little sister and are very helpful.  

We have had a good first month.  A lot of firsts and lasts, since Olivia is our last baby.  It's kind of bittersweet, but I'm ready.  I know I'm going to have moments of sadness watching other people continue to grow their families, but I know that our family is complete.  It's time to enjoy and give all the love to my three beautiful children.

Decorating Our Master Bedroom

I haven't talked about our house in a while, so I thought I'd give you some insight into what I've been dreaming up.  I've pretty much been considering the furniture for our master bedroom since we started building the house.  

The basic things in the room right now are the flooring and the paint color.  We have bamboo flooring throughout the whole main floor (minus the bathrooms and mudroom).  The paint is called Naval by Sherwin Williams.  Since our master bedroom has so much natural light coming into it, we figured we could go for a more daring dark blue color.  I love how it turned out!  But since we went with such a dark paint color, I want to brighten it up with neutrals.  

I'm going to use bright white blackout curtains.  I haven't found the perfect ones yet, so I have nothing to post for you there, but you can get the idea of white curtains.  I'm also going to put a 9x12 white shag area rug under our bed.  I've been eyeing something like this from Pier One.  I think it's going to feel amazing on my feet when I wake up.

The one thing that I've been having the most trouble deciding on it the actual bed.  I know that I want to get an upholstered bed in a light grey color.  Beyond that, I have ideas of what I would like to have, and I have things that I can't do because Brett doesn't like them.  I personally really love tufting on a headboard.  I would love to see that.  Ok...I take it back.  I think I have found what I think is an amazing bed, but I don't want to spend the money.  Good one Macy's for ruining things for me.  So here is what I would LOVE to have.

So here are a couple that we are actually considering.  I would say this first one most resembles my "dream bed".  It's more masculine for sure.  Both of these beds we found on Wayfair.com.

Alma Panel Bed

Amber Platform Bed

I've got a lot to think about there.  I think they're both really nice looking beds and will go great in the space.  I just don't know which one I like best.  

The next question is what to put on the bed?  Originally, I've been looking for something that is mostly white with some grey accents on it.  I haven't been able to find exactly what I have envisioned in my mind.  I'm starting to feel like that is the norm. Whatever I'm thinking doesn't really exist, or it does but it's way out of what I want to spend.  Anyway, I think I've found something that I'm excited about, but here's the catch.  It comes in both grey and blue.

These are from Pottery Barn, and I love how simple the pattern is.  Plus it's mostly white so I think that'll be good, once again, to help brighten up the room.  I'm starting to lean towards the blue because I think it will just bring more color into the room.  What do you all think?  I need some help!

That's kind of a sneak peak as to where I'm going with the decor in the room.  It makes me excited to be able to fully design and decorate my master bedroom retreat.  Let me know if you have any suggestions because I'm MORE than open to it!  

Olivia - 3 weeks and Newborn Session

I can't believe Olivia is already three week old!  Time really does fly by.  It's been a pretty good 3 weeks with a newborn too.  She's been pretty sleepy still.  I think just now she's starting to try to stay up a bit more, but she just gets herself over tired and then it's not so much fun for mom.  At least typically, she has these moments during the day and not in the middle of the night.  She's been giving me 2-3 hour stretches of sleep, which isn't what I want, but I can definitely deal with it most of the time.  

The big kids have been so excited about their baby sister, or as Luke calls her, baby sissy.  Alyssa loves to help take care of Olivia.  When she's crying, Alyssa loves to sing to her to comfort her.  It's very sweet.  Luke also loves his baby, but he's had a lot of fun playing with her stuff...or sitting in it.

When Olivia was 1 week old, we had newborn pictures taken by RGB Photography.  She did such a wonderful job!  This time instead of just getting pictures of our newborn, we opted to get a few pictures with the whole family.  I think it was definitely worth it.  

Since Olivia was supposed to be here in February, I planned to have Valentine's Day themed pictures with the kiddos.  I think they still turned out really nice.

These two are a few of my favorites.  She captured a smile.

And this picture with Brett is just adorable.

Those are a few pictures from our photo shoot.  Olivia also had her first bath when she was 2 weeks old and LOVED it!  She was so calm.  The other two kids hated their first bath and just screamed.  Olivia thought she was at a spa or something.  She just closed her eyes and enjoyed.

We went to her 2 week well baby check up on February 17th, and she now weighs 7lbs 6oz and is 20 inches long.  She's doing really well!  She had to get her heal poked, and wasn't a big fan of that.  It was one of those sad mom moments, but we made it though.  

Now here are just a few pictures that I like from her first few weeks of life.

Olivia at 1 week and again at 3 weeks.  She's getting a little more pudge in her face, and now I'm starting to see her siblings in her more and more every day.  I'm excited to compare pictures of all three kids in the future.  

Valentine's Day Projects

For the past couple of years I have decided that we would make our Valentine's for the kids to hand out at school because it's just one more fun craft that we can do together.  Alyssa has really enjoyed it.  Luke on the other hand...really could care less at this point.  Plus he's just not as into crafts as Alyssa is.

This year I asked Alyssa what she wanted to give her friends for Valentine's Day.  She told me all of her friends need candy hearts.  She LOVES the candy hearts so obviously everyone must love them.  I went out on Pinterest to see if there were any good ideas for candy heart Valentine's.  I found this website/blog where she put these Valentine's together for her kids with free printable.

To make them, I obviously bought candy hearts, which you can buy anywhere.  I bought little Valentine themed zip lock bags from our local Dollar Store, and printed the free printable out on some card stock.  I spent most of the time cutting out the bag toppers.  

Alyssa was so excited to help, so I got her a little scope to scoop up the candy hearts and put them in the little baggies.  We had a great little system going on!  Towards the end she was getting very creative and trying to put "boy colors" and "girl colors" into each bag.  It got interesting. 

Next, I wanted to find something fun for Luke.  He is 2 and doesn't really care so much about these things right now, but his name is Luke...so why shouldn't I do a Star Wars themed Valentine's Day card?  Duh.  I came across this article on Pinterest that had a bunch of really great ideas for kids along with free printable!  It was definitely what I was looking for.   I went for the "Yoda Best Valentine" printable at this website.  

Once again, I printed out the Valentine's on card stock, and cut them all out.  Alyssa wanted to help with these too, so she practiced her cutting skills.  She did a really great job actually!  I am a proud mommy.  Then I bought glow stick bracelets from, again, our local Dollar Store.  They came in packs of eight, so I thought that was a decent deal.  

Then I used a knife to cut little slits in the Valentine to place the "light saber" in Yoda's hand.  I also taped the glow stick onto the back to make sure it stayed in place and we didn't accidentally break it.  I didn't want them to glow before the kids got them!  

Our last project was making heart shaped cupcakes for the kids here at home.  I saw this on Pinterest and thought it was a great idea, and plus Luke loves cake!  Again...I bought my supplies at the Dollar Store.  I have to say that I hardly ever actually go to the Dollar Store, but man it was a successful trip!  I bought cupcake papers and marbles to complete this project.

We made red velvet cake, because hearts are read, right?  Alyssa helped me put the marbles in place to make each cupcake look like a heart.  She also helped eat some of the cake batter.

Then we put them in the oven and waited.  I was actually really excited to see how these would turn out.  When i pulled them out of the oven I was super impressed!  They look just like hearts!

Once they cooled, which was a long and torturous event, we did the decorating.  Of course there had to be a TON of sprinkles involved in this activity.

We had so much fun doing these projects for Valentine's Day!  I love all holidays and I think I'm passing my love for them off to my daughter.  Next up...Easter.  Alyssa is already anticipating the festivities!  I can't wait to dye eggs and do all the other fun Easter activities.  Stay tuned!  

Olivia's Exciting Birth

Here is Olivia's birth story.  I just want to say that this is a birth story, so if you don't like hearing about these things you might want to skip over this one.  That's all.  Thanks and happy reading :)

A brand new Olivia Kate - January 31, 2016

I've always had a gut feeling that I was going to have Baby #3 the first week in February.  I just wanted this baby to make it to February so that each of my babies could have a birthday in a different month.  Well #3 had other plans in mind...

I had been passively timing my contractions starting during the week of January 24th.  They were still just braxton hicks contractions, but they were getting more common, so I figured why not "time" them.  By the end of the week they were about 20-30 minutes apart.  I was just thinking we're making progress for sure.

On the morning of January 31st, I woke up at 3:00 am just very uncomfortable.  I just knew something was different; just like I did with my other two pregnancies.  So, I got up and went to the living room to watch a bit of TV while I timed my contractions.  By about 4:30 am, my contractions were about 8-10 minutes apart.  I decided that I would wake up Brett and go take a shower.  Both of my previous pregnancies have also started out early in the morning, so I'm fairly familiar with this whole set up.  When I was done taking a shower I started to time my contractions again, and they were about 5-8 minutes apart.  At this point we decide to give our family friend a call to make her way over as soon as she can.  She did not waste any time.  Brett jumped in the shower and pretty much by the time he was done she was here and ready to send us off.  The kids ended up waking up just as we were about to leave, so I got to tell them that their baby was coming!

Brett and I got in the car and headed out at about 6:00 am.  When we got to the hospital my contractions were 3 minutes apart.  Just a bit of back story, but I wanted to make sure that I got to the hospital in enough time because this time around I was Group B Strep positive, so I wanted to be able to get the antibiotics necessary before baby was born.  Anyway...so we get to Labor and Delivery and they're always a bit slow, and it doesn't help that we tend to get to the hospital when they are changing shifts.  They check me and I was 3-4 cm dilated, so the nurse told us that she was going to talk to the on call doctor to see if they'd want to admit me or not.  I was thinking you're going to want to admit me.  My second came pretty quickly.

She came back and said that she wasn't sure, but she was going to hook me up to the monitors in a room.  We moved to a room, and she hooked me up to the monitors.  My contractions were getting kind of wonky and #3's heart rate was dropping.  She got me to switch positions and said that after that they'd definitely be admitting me.  Just a bit later the on call doctor came in to introduce herself and ask me if I wanted an epidural.  I said YES absolutely as soon as possible!  Thankfully the anesthesiologist was in the area because my pain level was becoming more and more unbearable with every contraction.

Before the anesthesiologist arrived, the nurses arrived and put in my IV to get my antibiotics started. Once that was all going, my friend the anesthesiologist arrived.  He told me to sit on the edge of the bed and boy was I dreading that.  When you're in labor like I was, it's really hard to sit like that through contractions.  My whole body was shacking, but I was so relieved that he was in my room already.  At the very end of the procedure, I was feeling a TON of pressure down in that area.  Then all of a sudden my water broke.  My water has never broken on it's own, so I was actually kind of excited about this.  I scooched back into my bed and definitely knew that it was my water that broke.  So I told my nurse and she, only for the second time since I arrived, checked to see how far along I was.  She was shocked but I was already at a 10 and ready to go!  I think I was just as shocked as she was!

She ran to get the doctor and nurses to get in my room quickly.  Everyone started running in and getting ready.  The doctor told me to push when I needed to, which I was SO thankful for because I knew this baby was coming.  I pushed through one contraction and our little Olivia Kate was born.

Olivia at one day old.

Olivia was born at 8:02 am, weighing 6 lbs 5.7 oz and was 19.5 inches long.  I couldn't believe that after being at the hospital for two hours we already had a baby.  I was in such shock and filled with so much happiness.

The downfalls of having a quick labor were that they weren't able to get in the antibiotics that they wanted to before she was born, and the epidural that they gave me didn't kick in until after she was born.  So it was kind of lame to sit in my hospital bed with numb legs once my baby was already here.  Needless to say, I felt everything during labor.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be though.

Because of the fact that we didn't get in enough antibiotics, we had to stay in the hospital for two nights.  I have never had to do that before, so it was kind of hard.  Especially with two kids at home that wanted to see Mom and new baby sister.  They did come and visit, but it wasn't the same as having Mom at home.  In some ways it was really nice to have that initial bonding time with Olivia in the hospital.  It's hard being that third kid :)

Overall, I thought it was a really great labor and delivery.  It was by far my easiest I think.  I can't believe we are a family of five now, but it really has been so wonderful so far.  I am so excited about my complete little family.

And here are a bunch of pictures for reading the whole story!

Olivia after her first bath.

The big kids meeting Olivia for the first time.

Alyssa holding her baby sister.

Luke "holding" Olivia.  He loved it.

#3 is HERE!

I just wanted to put out a quick update about what's been going on for us.

Sunday morning I went into labor (I will get a birth story out when I have a little bit more time to think about it).  We finally got to meet and find out what Baby #3 is.....

Welcome Olivia Kate!  She was born at 8:02 am January 31st weighing 6 lbs 5.7 oz and was 19.5 inches long.

She's a really great baby so far, and I will come back and update more later with more pictures of course :)