The Birth of Jack Oliver

I know I've fallen behind horribly on the whole blog thing, and did zero blogs throughout this pregnancy, and I apologize! Sophia killed the charger to my laptop (again), and we just haven't bought a new one yet. And before that, Nate would bring my computer to work since it was our only laptop and he needed to have one for the job, and before we moved his desktop would never connect to the internet. BUT, now we're in a new place where it will connect, so I'm going to attempt to get back into it, because I've really missed it! Even the last post I made with the tutorial was done from my phone, and it was a bit of a pain to post from there!

Anyway, moving on, our family has grown! I'm pretty sure that I mentioned on this blog that we were trying to conceive, and after five months of trying we found out I was finally pregnant again! I really wanted to have a home birth, but in the end we just couldn't afford it (the ones here are all out of pocket), so I opted for the next best thing, and that was a natural birth at a birthing center. At 19 weeks, we learned that I was carrying a healthy baby boy, just as I had suspected. My pregnancy was completely uncomplicated, so always a good thing!

15 months

How in the world has another month gone by already??? I lose at the keeping-up-with-more-than-monthly-posts game. I think it's just because I spend my days stranded at home, just Sophia and I, and nothing too exciting happens. Living a glamourous life over here!

Anyway, the weather is finally starting to kind of warm up some. It's been in the low-mid 60s, and even though that isn't the mid 70s like Florida is getting, I'm glad it's not in the 40s. Baby steps! But, that means that on the warmer days that it's not raining, Sophia and I can spend some time on the back deck! Let's just say, she is quit the fan! She's so upset when we go back inside. Seriously, she plants her  feet down firmly, and when I go to pick her up to go in (since she's not moving) she turns her arms into noodles, trying to not get whisked inside. I can't wait until it's even nicer out and we can start going on walks in the nearby hiking trails. It's so pretty out that way.

14 months

Wowsers, sorry for the long hiatus! For a good while we didn't have the internet, but now thank goodness it's back! SO, now to play catch up. A lot has happened since I've been away!

11 months!

So much good news! Okay, first off, Nate finally got hired! He got a job at a classy restaurant that's very close to our house. Yay! What a relief. It feels so nice to know that we'll have an income! And tomorrow he's leaving for a quick trip to Florida to check out this really nice opportunity. But, I'm going to leave y'all in the dark until we know more about it. :)

10 months

Okay, sorry once again for the delay! It's been pretty hectic here, and haven't really had AMAZING internet connections, so it's sort of hindered my ability to post!

Seven months

Why is she already seven months old? This isn't fair, I want her to be my little baby forever. :( And what a handful she is! Into absolutely everything. Nothing is safe! She's learned that she can go to different rooms, so she is one traveling baby! Busy, busy girl. It's so fun watching her explore though. I love her sense of wonder.

Just a random Wednesday blog

It's crazy how much things change over time. While some things I've always wanted (breast feeding, for exampe), others have developed over time. Such as cloth diapers. While I was pregnant with my first I thought the idea of cloth diapers was gross. But then some of my friends were getting into them, so I started researching online and just fell in love. Never looked back! I used to not care for the way woven wraps looked. Now I'm loving them! Maybe I'm just plain turning into a hippie. I'm okay with that!

6 months

Sophia is now six and a half months old...um, what? Seriously, where is this time going? And what a little ham she is. Too cute!

Exciting day!

Why is my little girl almost six months old? That's just crazy! A couple of weeks ago, I weighed her at the birth center, and she's a whopping 14 lbs, 15.5 oz, fully clothed and diapered. What?! She's still pretty petite though; definitely not considered to be a "big" baby. So what has she been up to this month?

What's in my diaper bag?

I finally did it! And I also finally FILMED a video! Well, I've filmed plenty of Sophia, but not really vlog-style ones. Even though I'd like to, but I'm not super sure of myself on camera yet. So, I played it safe and started out BEHIND the camera! Haha. So, if you don't feel like reading pretty much everything I say on the video, feel free to just watch the video at the end of the post! Enjoy!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! Wow has time flown. Really, I mean where is it all going? I feel like I blink and a whole month goes by. Is that normal? Probably in mom-land.

Anyway, it was nice to finally be able to celebrate Mother's Day again. As an active mom. Hard to believe it's been three years since I've been able to, isn't it? I actually didn't really celebrate too much today; Nate had to work, so I guess we're celebrating tomorrow. I'm not sure how exactly we're celebrating, since he says he has a surprise, and I have a feeling that I know what the surprise is. Not 100%, but he's not the best at keeping secrets, and he's been egging me on to guess (I haven't, and I know it's eating away at him to tell me). If it's what I'm thinking, then I'm excited for sure! Whatever we do tomorrow though, it'll be nice to spend time together as a family and outside of the house (grocery shopping doesn't count).

4 months!

Where has the time gone??? I can't believe my sweet Sophia is officially 4 months old today! And can't believe how much I suck at blogging consistently (okay, yes I can). It's just when she's asleep, I have a ton of things to do (aka, cleaning), and by the time I'm finished, in the event I actually get to finish, she's already awake again. Maybe someday I'll get into a better routine. Maybe. :)

Parenthood hopes

So, I've got to say, that I'm a little bit proud of how this time around of parenting is going. Not that I didn't think I did a good job with Blake, but I was a first time mom who didn't really know what I wanted. Well, as far as parenting styles go. This time I am so much more educated. Not that I was uneducated before, but I just hadn't even given any thought to certain aspects and just went with what most of society in America did. I had no idea what I was missing out on. But then there were some things that I wanted that didn't work out, and I was so devastated by that. I think this birth experience was therapeutic.

9 weeks

Well, time to play catch up, as usual! I'm not sure why it is so hard for me to keep up with this blog, but it is. I guess life just gets to me. And now I think the fact that I'm constantly nursing this little girl, which makes it not so easy to type, plays a factor. Anyway, where to start?

Picture day :)

Just a quick post showing off her pictures from today. :) Every Thursday I'm taking pictures for her future book featuring photos of her once a week. She already looks different from her week one pictures! And I was lucky enough to catch her in a happy, alert state. Love my sweet girl!

Happy day after Christmas!

Six days old.

Can I just first start out by saying that time is absolutely flying by? Sophia will be two weeks day after tomorrow, and it feels like I just had her yesterday.

Well, anyway, she's doing great. Breast feeding is going pretty awesome I would say. I'm having to use a nipple shield with her for now, but with it she's doing great. With Blake, not even the shield would really get him to breast feed all that well. And let me tell you, she is all about that nursing thing. She eats so much! Which is great, because I want to make sure she's getting enough. It's so funny when she's done, because she will usually have a little bit of left over milk trailing out of her mouth. :) Got to love when babies are milk drunk! It feels so great knowing that I'm able to provide for her in such a way. Makes me realize even more what I missed out on with Blake (can't say I didn't try though), but it also makes me appreciate even more what I CAN do for her. This time around just feels like it's going so much more smoothly. I guess that's part of being a second time mom though, too.

Sophia has arrived!

Sophia is here! And what a story I have to tell about how she came. :)

So where to start. Well, my due date came and went on Wednesday (12/12/12 for those who forget). I had an appointment the next day, and my midwife agreed to perform a membrane sweep the next day after clinicals (so that way, if it worked, I would have the weekend off). So after clinicals I go in, and she checks me first. At this point I was about 80% effaced and 3-4 cm dilated, although she said she could stretch it to a 5. She also told me that Sophia was very low, which I knew already, and that she's ready and was probably just waiting on me. So, she did the sweep and there was a decent amount of blood after. She said she thinks that it would probably work, and the contractions usually start to pick up in 3-5 hours.

39 weeks

And still pregnant! I think I am definitely making progress though. Right before I turned 38 weeks I lost my mucus plug, but no bloody show. Not that it really means anything other than I'm dilating, which I kinda figured anyway. I'm still getting whole lots of Braxton Hicks contractions, many of which are uncomfortable, some even painful. Nothing regular though, and nothing that progresses. And she is very low in the birth canal. From my own checking, I would say somewhere between a 0 and +1 station. That, again, is just my guesstimation, but yeah, VERY low and engaged.

Room tour!

I feel like this is probabaly the most prompt I have EVER been for a blog post. :) I'm so proud of myself! But I really wanted to get this up BEFORE she is born, so might as well do it right away! And just as a warning, this will be a very picture heavy post. Missing from her room that I added tonight after a target run is her diaper pail (aka a step lid trash can that I put a drawstring laundry bag in), and her laundry hamper (just boring and white, but it's pretty much hidden from sight anyway). Other than that, everything is done!

37 weeks

So much has happened in only three weeks! For starters...I'm married! Me and Nate have officially tied the knot, and I love it. :) He's such a wonderful husband, now we just need our wonderful daughter to come into the picture finally! It was a little ceremony, with only me, him, our moms, Cheyne, and her man, Koti. One of Nate's coworkers actually married us. It was nice though. I'm not really one to be the center of attention, so I think I would be too nervous during a big ceremony. Nate still decided to surprise me though and arranged to have the song I've always wanted played at my wedding (Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles) played at the end, just after being officially married. :) Isn't he sweet? Yes, yes he is, and he's all mine for forever. My mom made my wedding dress, since I couldn't really find any reasonably priced dresses that fit and that I liked, and it worked out very nicely. Nate looks so handsome in his suit, and I thought it was sweet that he insisted on dressing up with me, despite the small size of the event. Our bands still haven't come in yet, since we're having the girl who made my engagement ring make both of our bands, and it takes up to 3 weeks to make. It'll be so worth it when they're finally here, but it feels like it's taking forever! For the ceremony, we literally tied the knot with embroidery thread. You know, whatever works! :D