2 week appointment

We went to Olivia's 2 week wellness check today.  We can officially kiss the weight loss issue goodbye! She currently weighs 8lbs 6oz, up 18oz from her follow up visit 10 days ago.  We had already deemed her Olivia piggy mouse and that nickname has now been confirmed as suiting.  In addition to her great weight gain, the Dr said that she was a healthy and happy baby all around.  Now that happiness was interrupted when the nurse stuck her heel for the follow up newborn screening but I think it was the squeezing more than the prick itself that was so painful.  Olivia takes after her mother in that she does not like to part with her blood so the nurse was kind enough to only fill 3 circles instead of the 5 on the card.  The whole ordeal was as traumatic for me as it was for her, although I was a big girl and didn't let the tears fall this time.  After a couple of questions about vision (she's can't SEE that far yet Mommy) and congestion (it's normal) and a finger nail cutting lesson, we were sent on our way in a much happier state than after the first appointment. 

Here are pictures from the last few days . . .

Mommy had a Dr's appointment on Friday so we put on this oh-so-cute dress that my Auntie Tonya gave the day after Mommy and Daddy found out that I was a girl.  We had been in the car about 6 minutes when I decided to spit up my breakfast all over it . . .and my blanket and the car seat.  Mommy had to change me in the parking lot of HEB!

I have had several visitors recently . . .

Laura came on Friday evening . . .

Montana and Haylie said hello on Saturday AND brought Mommy a yummy mini bunt cake . . .

and Meagan and Craig stopped by today.

Sunday was bath day, Mommy never gets tired of taking pictures of me all soapy

We tired my bouncy seat out for the first time but I'm still a little bit too small for it.

I surrender officer, I'm milk drunk!

Lookin pretty for my Dr's appointment . . . man does Daddy love these hair bands!

Frank the hiccup elf

Sweet Olivia was plagued by hiccups in the womb.  Much to Mommy's dismay, she got them 4 or 5 times a day.  Well the hiccups have followed her to the outside world.  Now you can blame it on delirium or just a strange sense of humor, but when Olivia started getting hiccups, Granny and Mommy would exclaim "Oh no, the (hiccup) elf!  We hate that elf."  We have since named the elf Frank and promise Olivia that one day we will find him and squish him for her.  I know, I know, enough about elves, let's see some pictures!  Here are a some from the last few days . . .

Sunday night, we had our first Soileau family dinner with Olivia mouse.  Granny and Auntie Nina were staying with us and Paw Paw drove to the house to join us.  Paw Paw had surgery on his knees two days later so he wanted to make sure and see the mouse before he went under.

This is my "thinking" pose.  As I am the smartest baby in the world, I have to spend a lot of my time thinking.

On Tuesday, I had several visitors.  Jane came to say hello first and then Angie came over with Baby Miles, my new friend.  Look at my Mommy and Angie all grown up with their little ones!  Later on that afternoon, Kristen, one of Mommy's college friends came over with her sister.  She lives all the way in California and was visiting her family in Houston so she decided to make a trip up to Austin to see me.

Here is my Granny feeding me.  I've barfed on her a couple of times but she's a good sport about it.  I think I spared her this time though.

Tuesday was bath day.  I'm in there somewhere underneath my hooded towel.

We took my  newborn pictures yesterday.  I was uncooperative and would not go to sleep so we will have "awake" newborn pictures.  I also peed on my Mommy but that's what you get for taking my diaper off!  The whole morning wore me out.

Big yawn after my afternoon snack yesterday.

Here we are waiting for my cousins to arrive from College Station.  Daddy LOVES putting hair bows on me but they don't last very long.

Snuggling with my cousin Caitlin . . .

 . . . and with cousin Hayley.  Thanks girls for coming all the way from College Station to meet me.

All is well in the Robinson household as we are attempting to settle into a routine.  Olivia is eating very well now to the point where we should be calling her Olivia piggy not Olivia mouse.  She sleeps fairly well at night, getting up every 2.5 - 3 hours.  The feeding process is a bit longer now but once she goes down, she is out for a while.  We have been lucky enough to have my Mom and sister here with us this week to help out around the house and watch the baby so that I can shower but they are going home this evening.  Mike is off today and tomorrow but is back at work on Saturday morning and Sunday night before taking a week of vacation.  I guess at some point I'm going to have to figure out how to do this "Mommy" thing on my own.  My Dad had surgery on his knees yesterday.  The surgery went well and they had him out of bed the same day!  I won't be taking the baby to the hospital to visit (germs), but Mike will probably check in and send love from the Robinsons.  We are praying for a speedy recovery!  I have a Dr's appointment tomorrow morning to check up on a fever that I've had the last couple of days but we don't think it's anything that's contagious to the baby.  *Insert big sigh here* life is good!

Olivia's first week

This is going to be a long post, as if the last one wasn't long enough, BUT there will be tons of pictures to look at!  I could never put post all of the pictures but here are several of Olivia mouse's first week in the world.  She was born on August 16th at 3:12pm and the pictures are time and date stamped so you can follow the week.

This is me only 4 minutes old.  Wow, it's VERY different out here!

Mommy got to hold me for just a minute before they whisked me away to check out my lungs.  Believe me, they work just fine now!

Here I am in the nursery a little more awake.

I HATED my first bath, thanks Mom for putting this one on the internet for all to see me screamin.

I still hold my hands like this, especially when I'm sleeping.

Our very first family portrait.

And then everyone wanted to hold me . . .

My Granny (Becca's Mom)

My Aunt Nina (Becca's sister)

Mommy of course.

And Daddy.  Note the time and how very tired Daddy looks.  I sure do already have him wrapped around my little finger though!

The next morning Paw Paw (Becca's Dad) was by again to say hello.

And our labor and delivery nurse (who was a gift from God!) checked in.

Amee came by to see me as did Mike P

Unfortunately, my Daddy's family live out of state but we were able to Skype with Nana and Papa (Mike's parents) and Aunt Karen (Mike's sister) who is also my Godmother.

Whew!  Saying hi to everyone is tiring.

Here is Daddy getting me ready to go home.  I wasn't thrilled about putting on my "going home" outfit.

Adios hospital, I'm outta here!

Here are Mom and me at my first pediatrician's visit.  It was a traumatic day for Mommy because we found out that I was a hungry little mouse.  That was also my Mommy's birthday, she's old now.

My first bath at home before my follow up Dr's appointment.  I didn't mind this one so much, Daddy did a great job!

Scrub a dub dub.

My going to the Dr. again outfit.

Good morning Daddy, I love you!

This is what I looked like when Mommy put me down after breakfast this morning . . .

and this is how I ended up.

We have had quite an eventful 6 days and every day is sweeter that the last.  Olivia mouse has a huge personality and tons and tons of love to give.  My heart is warmed every time I look at her and we fall more in love with our daughter every day. 

By the way - her given name really is Olivia Helen which she will never figure out because all I call her is mouse

Olivia update

Well, little Miss Olivia "Mouse" Robinson is in her 4th day of life today and I finally have a minute to send an update out to the family! Long story short, everyone is doing really, really well, but there is always a longer version isn't there? We were discharged from the hospital around lunch time on Wednesday and were very excited to bring our little munchkin home. The car ride went smoothly, Daddy drove very carefully and Mommy sat in the back seat with her and watched her sleep because that's what new Mommy's do.
NOTE: I have learned that having a newborn means you are on HER schedule, not yours. I wrote the above portion of this post last night around 9pm and now it's 2:20pm the next day and am just now getting back to it :-)

When we got home, we put Olivia in her Pack n Play, there is a picture of course, and you should have seen the cats reactions! They sat on the couch and peered at the Pack n Play but couldn't see what was in it. They didn't know if she was a cat, another animal, or a person! All three of them acted strangely at first and our big, crazy cat made some strange noises, but now they are adjusting. Zoe (the big, crazy one) avoids her like the plague, I think Olivia makes too much noise for her and interrupts her life of napping. Bella will come say hi every once in a while but it's Machaya (the youngest one) that we are having trouble with. She wants to be with/all over Oliva all the time. She is always looking to jump in her Pack n Play and managed to do so once with Olivia inside her newborn napper! She jumped up and put her front paws on Olivia's tummy, didn't wake the baby but freaked Mom and Granny out. She got a little swat for that from Granny but she won't learn, she just wants in there to be with Olivia. Same with the bassinet in her room although we keep it covered with a mesh netting so that she won't jump in. We think that she was so used to being the center of attention, she's just a little confused as to why she isn't anymore. Everyone is still adjusting.

From the time we got home, Olivia and I had nursing problems. They started in the hospital really. She had to be taken to the nursery when she was first born because she had some fluid in her lungs that they couldn't get out and I didn't get to see her except for 3 minutes after she was born for almost 2 hours. Talk about a traumatic experience for this first time Mom, all I wanted was my baby!! That stress was not helped by the fact that I received very little help from the first couple of nurses in postpartum in regards to us feeding properly. I also got a lot of conflicting information so consequently I came home without the tools I needed for Olivia and I to successfully nurse. Wednesday afternoon and night were chaos. She would cry for hours and hours at a time because she was hungry and couldn't latch and then would sleep for hours and hours at a time because her body felt that she was being deprived of nutrients and was trying to conserve energy. At one point in the middle of the night, I was able to get her to eat a little bit and then woke Mike up to take her because I thought that if I took one more step with her I would fall down and I didn't want her to get hurt.

Thursday afternoon, we had our newborn visit with her pediatrician. Babies are allowed to lose up to 10% of their initial weight in the first few days but the higher percentages are not common. We found out that she had lost a whole pound since Thursday, 13% of her birth weight. Mommy LOST it! The Dr. was very concerned and put us on a strict formula regement. I will never forget giving Olivia her first little bit of formula and her eating so very frantically because she was so very hungry. It sure made a difference that night though. She was up every 1.5 - 3 hours, ate, had her diaper changed and then went back to sleep. What a good little mouse she was! Dr. Thorstad said she had to gain at least an ounce by our weigh in the next afternoon or . . . well she didn't really elaborate on the "or" part. She said that 9 out of 10 first time Mom's cry at the newborn appointment but I don't think she thought it was a good idea to upset me any more than I already was with the "or". So Friday afternoon, we went back to the Dr. our eat, poop, and pee log in hand and held our breaths while the nurse weighed her. 4oz, she gained 4oz!!! My perfect, beautiful, over achiever. Insert happy tears here. I got a high five from the Dr. and a "don't give up, it's not too late to be able to nurse her" and we went home proud, proud parents.

Since then, everyone has been much happier. Baby Olivia is happier because she's not hungry all the time and Mommy is happier . . . well because her little mouse isn't hungry all the time. We did have a hiccup (poor Olivia physically has hiccups all the time) last night. I was letting her "snack", eat just a little bit and then go down but wake up very shortly after to eat a little bit more and then go down . . . repeat, repeat, repeat. I hadn't been sleeping, eating, or resting enough myself, so after 5 hours of her "snacking", I wasn't in great shape. When Mike came home from work, he ordered me to bed and took the next couple of bottle feedings. This morning, Mike told me how to avoid snacking. You have to make her eat a full meal because if you don't, she'll get lazy in your arms and drift off to sleep. It starts with taking off the blanket, then the hat, then tickling the feet, then pulling up her jammies so she's not warm and cozy anymore. You have to keep her stimulated and awake enough to eat. When she puts 30-45 mL in her tummy, she burps and sleeps for the 3 hours that she is supposed to. Thank God for the patience and calm of Mike, he is the best Daddy Olivia could possibly ask for and the best support system that his hormonal, tired, and stressed wife could ever ask for.

I have also been lucky enough to have Mom and Nina staying here with us. We do a lot of watching the baby, resting, reading, and working on tapestries (that's Mom) and it's great to have people to encourage and help me while Mike is at work. In addition to them, many of my friends have reached out to me with thier stories about similar difficulties that they went through - thank you Facebook! They have been able to talk to me from a "been there, done that" perspective, offer support, and the solutions that worked for them. I had no idea how many people have trouble nursing their infants and it is really nice to know that I'm not alone.

Today has been great! I've been able to pump successfully AND she's nursed with little difficulty. I have calls in to make a lactation consultation appoinment for next week, but as it's the weekend, Olivia and I are working very hard on our own before we can get in to talk to someone. I am much calmer and relaxed, and Olivia has picked up on that and is doing so well. I'm pretty sure we are going to make it!! Now I can truly enjoy EVERY minute of my precious angel's life and watch as she grows and changes every day. I have never felt love like this in my life and am in love with being her Mommy.

I plan to post again this evening with pictures from the first few days of Olivia's life.  It will probably be a long one (like this one wasn't long enough) but I have SO many cute pictures to share!

My last day pregnant!

Well, this will be my last post as a pregnant lady.  At 6am tomorrow, we will check into Seton Medical Center and at some point during the day (hopefully sooner rather than later) we will welcome Little Miss Baby Robinson into this world.  We have had a great weekend.  We spent yesterday morning relaxing at home and yesterday afternoon at Beth's pool with friends.  It's an amazing feeling being in the pool when you are 9+ months pregnant.  Last night, Mike and I had a quiet dinner at home and then got a good night's sleep - two things we probably won't experience for a while.  This morning, Baby R made her last formal appearance as a "bump" at Laura and Blake's wedding and was quite the topic of conversation!  Laura's Uncle must have asked me 20 times if I was feeling OK, I think he was a little worried that he would be delivering his first baby right there at lunch.  When we came home, Mommy, Daddy, and Baby R watched golf (aka took a nap) and then once Mike went to work, I went into cleaning mode.  Vacuuming, dusting, laundry, and dishes are all done so that we can come back from the hospital to a clean and organized house.  I just finished writing a letter to the baby in her baby book and am now wondering how I will ever be able to sleep tonight!  There are lots of emotions right now.  I'm nervous about the delivery but have all the faith in the world that God is watching over us and that we are safe in the capable hands of Dr. Reich and the nurses at the hospital.  I'm a little sad that I won't be pregnant anymore, a surprising emotion for me.  I fell in love with being pregnant months ago and am afraid that I will miss the constant movement in my tummy and just knowing that such a special gift is in there.  I'm sure that sadness will be washed away as soon as I see my daughter's perfect little face and hear her cry for the very first time.  I'm so very excited to meet my daughter, our daughter, and begin a whole new chapter of my life with Mike as a parent.  God has blessed us with so much happiness and I thank Him every day for that.  Thank all of you for your love and support and keep an eye out for pictures, we'll post them ASAP!

Due date

Well today is our due date, not that Baby Robinson took any notice.  Mike and I went on a nice long walk yesterday evening which did bring on some contractions but they didn't last very long and certainly weren't strong enough to even consider calling the Dr.  We had our weekly appointment today with our regular Dr. now that she is back from vacation.  Her parting words to me before she left were "stay pregnant until I get back", clearly Miss Robinson listened.  Today's visit did not show very much progression.  I'm still 70-75% effaced and have moved on from 2cm dilated to barely 3cm.  We did get some very exciting news though . . . if she doesn't arrive before, we are being induced on Monday!!  This brings up a whole bunch of emotions for Mommy especially - Daddy can't get past impatient and excited.  It all became very, very real today.  I mean, we've always known there was a baby in there, she particularly likes to make her presence known to Mommy's ribs very late at night.  But now that we have an end date to the amazing journey that we have been on for the last 9+ months, the emotions vary from excitement to fear to elation to anxiety and then repeat.  Now there is nothing to say that we will make it to Monday.  I personally believe that little Miss Robinson will take a "you can't tell ME when I'm going to be born" approach to the scheduled induction and show up sooner.  Whenever she decides to make her grand entrance whether with a little help or not, we will keep everyone posted.

Pool Party

We have had a quiet and relaxing weekend, perhaps our last for a while.  We ended the weekend with some fun in the sun at The Matthews' pool this afternoon to celebrate Lynn's birthday.  There was plenty of great food, lots of laughs, 300lbs of ice (you had to be there) and of course our amazing friends, all of whom are anxious to meet Miss Robinson.  We have several friends who live near us that have volunteered to be "on call" just in case I go into labor while Mike is at work and many, many more who will help out any way we need them to.  Baby Robinson is so blessed to have such a huge group of people who love her so much already!  The highlight of my day, besides Angie's Buttermilk Pie, was swimming.  Being in the pool not only provides some relief from the heat but takes the weight of my baby-filled tummy off of my back.  I wouldn't say that I "forget" that I'm pregnant because Baby R LOVES being in the pool and kicks up a storm whenever we swim, but it is nice to not feel all of her weight for a while.  After promising everyone that we would call/text when we went to the hospital no matter what time of night it was, we came home for a little nap on the couch (me), our evening walk, and some football - go Bengals!!  I have had some contractions this evening, nothing major but you never know!

39 week check up

We went to the Dr. today for our 39 week check up.  My blood pressure was good and the baby's heartbeat was good but no further progression from last week.  I'm still about 75% effaced and 2cm dilated.  We got our hopes up a little bit when a couple of weeks ago I was already advancing which was unusual for 1st time Mom's.  Now it looks like Miss Robinson is comfy in there and not making any aggressive moves to come out anytime soon.  That being said, we are still a week away from our due date and anything could happen.  Although we would have liked to see some more progression, the important thing is that the baby is perfectly healthy and that is all we can really ask for.  To deal with the "disappointment" of not having progressed, Mike and I treated ourselves to Chuy's and frozen yogurt for lunch which has brightened our day significantly.  Now it is nap time which I feel no guilt about - gotta nap while napping is still possible!

Baby Robinson's Nursery

Baby R's nursery has been in work in progress for quite some time now. Back in May, Mike's Dad came all the way from South Carolina to help paint several rooms of the house, the nursery being one of them.  In addition to painting, they put a chair rail all the way round the room.

Then they put her crib together.

After my baby shower at Cool River in June, her room really started to come together.  Granny and Paw Paw Soileau gave us our beautiful bedding . . .

 . . . and Meagan made her a beautiful toy chest and book case.  Among the other amazing gifts that we got at the shower are all of the toys on top of the toy chest, the Bumbo you can partially see in the bottom right hand corner and a wonderful children's book collection.  The stuffed animals you see on the shelf were mine when I was a child.

Then Katy came over to personalize her room with hand painted butterflies and flowers.  You can see that she has a little assistant (Mazzi) growing inside her :-)  Baby Robinson's new friend will be joining us later on in the fall.

And after two full Sunday afternoons of work, Baby Robinson has a beautiful, one of a kind nursery that she will be able to enjoy for years to come.  Katy did a phenomenal job and we could never thank her enough.