Coming up for air...

I'm back at work part-time for the next two weeks, then full-time.  It's nice to have a change of scenery for part of the day...

Oliver is doing great.  We had a very rough patch with colic (him) and lack of sleep (me).  The last three nights he has slept in the crib and has managed one 6-hour stretch a night, which has been heaven.  I get up to nurse him sometime between 1-3 am and then he goes back down until 5am (we are installing shades to see if he'll sleep just one more hour after sunrise).  I sleep better because I am not hearing every little noise he makes and he is sleeping better on the comfy crib mattress vs. the this bassinet pad.

He's over 10 pounds now, getting some nice baby-fat rolls.  He's long, too.  The 0-3 months clothes are loose on his chest, but the arms and legs are are getting too short!  Good thing it will be warm enough soon for him to wear onesies instead of sleepers all day.

We went and checked out the daycare today.  I think it will be great- the lady who runs it (and watches the babies under 1) is very nice and put me at ease. It is only a few minutes away from where I work and I will be able to go an nurse him there at lunch if I want to.  That is reassuring that I can drop in unannounced. They don't have anything to hide...

Here are some pictures... more on flickr, email me or comment here if you need the link.

Colick!

Ugh. It's been a long week... Oliver was getting increasingly fussy, and at the peak he was only sleeping for two 3-4 hour stretches in any 24 hour period. The rest of the time he was screaming or nursing (sometimes both, that was fun...). So yesterday, as I was sobbing, a plan was hatched and we did a full- court press on the problem. We saw the Dr, who prescribed some acid reflux meds and I'm going to eliminate dairy for at least a week. We also bought this gigantic swing. 2 months ago I would have bristled at the thought of such a giant thing, but, damn. What a fantastic piece of equipment. Last night I was able to eat dinner without a screaming baby. And right now he's having a morning nap! Thank god. Maybe things are looking up. At the very least I've had a few sane hours, which were desperately needed.

(Oh, and a bonus pic of his receding hairline!)

Things I love about Oliver

His feet and hands are so soft
The sighs and gurgle noises
After a bath, the hair on the back of his head is straight and sticks out and the hair on top of his head is wavy and crazy
He has baby hair-fuzz on his back, shoulders and ears!
The way he raises his hands and covers his ears while sleeping and nursing
He tries to suckle daddy's nose
The satisfied smirk on his face when you pick him up after a diaper change (like he's letting you know that if you had just kept him covered and warm, he wouldn't have had to scream)
His eyebrows go up when you wash his hair
When his arms go limp and he is asleep after nursing
That he doesn't wake up when the dog barks
And that I will find something new to love every single day...

Quick update

Still pregnant. :)

Due date this Sunday, the 7th. Could be any day now...

Shake, belly shake...

A sort of ridiculous video, but sometimes I think this baby is going to kick it's way out.  Wait for the 23 second mark, then you really see some more movement right before the 1 minute mark.

This is getting hard.... but I'm full term TODAY!

Been a rough few days... ended up in the ER with a kidney stone on Wednesday night (Thursday morning, actually).  They didn't quite know what to do since they couldn't give the normal kidney stone painkiller/anti-spasm medicine and they couldn't do a CAT scan to check for a stone.  They sent me up to Labor and Delivery (we went to the bigger hospital in Ellsworth where I will deliver instead of going to the smaller hospital in town) where they hooked me up to some monitors to see how the baby was doing.  Terry was just fine- moving around quite a bit with a steady heart-rate.  Back down to the ER where they had gotten a hold of my OB and were able to give me some pain meds.  Two doses of Morphine later, the pain was even worse!  They then gave me some dilaudid, which did the trick and sent me on my way with a few Vicodin   Luckily I had an OB appointment that morning, so I was able to check in there and get reassurance that the Vicodin wasn't going to hurt the baby (I really didn't want to take it!).  The alternative was not pretty- the pain was still pretty bad, which had spiked my blood pressure in the ER and my stress level was through the roof.  A low dose of Vicodin and some naps was a better plan and healthier all around.  I felt a lot better on Saturday and almost back to normal by Sunday.

Somewhat unluckily, the way the baby is situated, Terry is squishing my kidney and still causing some pain when I stand.  Sigh...  I thought it would be back-aches and general discomfort that would make me want this baby out, out, OUT! I'm full term (37 weeks) as of today, so whenever the baby is ready, he or she is welcome.  I'll be spending a lot of time on the yoga ball trying to bounce this baby out.  :)

I'm treating this episode as a little dry-run for the hospital.  Peter was great, got me to keep breathing and stayed very calm even though I'm sure it was freaking him out a little.  Also got a little preview of the delivery room and the not-so-awesome hockey-puck-sized monitors they strap to your belly.  The nurses were great, though and took really good care of me.

Now we get to brace for (hopefully) the last storm of the season.  10-15 inches of snow expected Tue-Wed.  Hmmm...  hope the baby doesn't decide to show up in the middle of a snow storm.  I'm sure I'll have a few extra Braxton -Hicks contractions just to mess with me at the very least.

Ah- and since I can't leave you without a photo, here is how Abigail and I spent Sunday afternoon:

I have another recent photo, but it's of me with the carton of Ben and Jerry's balanced on my belly.  That alone wouldn't keep me from sharing, but the look on my face is sort of like Gollum with his Precious.  It's not pretty.  

Baby Shower

We had a wonderful, fun baby shower today. The weather was finally nice (saw the sun for the first time in over a week yesterday). Mom had a lady from work make the cake- there is a ton left over, so feel free to drop by for a slice! Actually, we're making Peter bring it to work. Mom is bringing the leftover donut hole topiary to work with her. The leftover bacon? That's going in my belly. :)

Lots of fun things for the baby, hooded towels, books, cute clothes and blankets. My Uncle got us the stroller, which we're pretty psyched about. As you can see, it's pretty stylish (and a breeze to fold and unfold).

It was really nice to have a party, see some friends and celebrate the new baby.

Here's a few pics from the day (including some of Peter figuring out what a burp cloth is!).