Learning to crawl!

Oliver is now 6 months old! Hard to believe how much he has learned to do in the last 6 months. On a basic level, he has learned to eat and sleep and breath and poop and pee and communicate without being able to talk. He has learned to smile at us when we look at him. He has learned to turn away from a stranger with a coy smile if mommy or daddy holds him. He has learned to sing both in expression of joy and to help keep himself from falling asleep if he doesn't want to. He can eat from a spoon and almost drink from a cup. He can hold out his hand to you and grab at things. He can roll over. He can almost sit up on his own. He laughs big belly laughs that make me laugh too!



What fun it is to watch the determination of my handsome little guy as he attempts to cross the floor after some toy. He just learned to roll over from back to front the first part of November and within a couple of weeks has learned to army crawl and propel himself and barrel roll! He makes very cute little grunting noises as he moves. So now each day includes a large dose of "free range time". Basically, he just entertains himself by exploring our house on the ground. I think it is wonderful - even though it includes dirty faces, cat hair from head to toe and to my sheer disgust a small cat "butt nugget" on the ground with fresh baby drool!




What an exciting time! Oliver is so happy to be mobile and to control his own body better. I think it is great that he is so interested in moving and learning. It certainly helps to tire him out and leaves mommy and daddy more open to do things other than hold and entertain him at times throughout the day.



It is amazing to watch this cute little boy develop with his red cheeks and CONSTANT smile!

As we get into December and I start the buying frenzy that is Christmas, I am trying to remember that the best gifts we have we cannot buy and that everything is much merrier with a little dose of unadulterated baby love in your life!

THANKSGIVING

I am going to try to write more on this blog, but you understand if I may take long breaks. I am working full time and when I get home after doing work on the train home, I realy just want to snuggle in with my little dude for the rest of the night.

I am reminded as of late how thankful I am that Oliver came into our lives. What a joy he is. If you know Tom, you will appreciate that Oliver is so joyful that he makes Tom smile at 7 AM!!! This is a big step.

We have been blessed with a child who for at least 5 out of his almost 6 months of life sleeps well and for at least 3 has allowed us to sleep through the night.

We have a child who spends most of his day smiling and looking at things with great thought and interest. I know that he will be super curious and I am thankful.



I am thankful that we got pregnant even though the fertility clinic had to help and even though those little embryos didn't want to be outside of mommy long enough to make it back in except this one beautiful embryo who became our wonderfully awesome son!

I am thankful that he was a singleton (one baby not twins or triplets) so that we can get used to parenting just one baby at a time!

I am thankful that my pregnancy was for the most part completely uneventful!




I am thankful that I have a kind caring and supportive husband who sat with me through the entire labor and pregnancy and went to pretty much all my doctor visits!



I am thankful that I can produce enough "mommy milk" to feed my son every day and that if he needed to he could live on just that although sometimes due to pumping limitations and his voracious appetite while I am gone, he has to drink formula!



I am thankful that I have a job where I an support my family so my husband can afford to stay home and devote his entire attention to our son only and even finds time to clean the house and have dinner ready most nights when I get home! WOW!!!

I am thankful for good friends who have provided support throughout the whole process!

I am thankful for a wonderful family who even when they haven't know how to helped have helped just by thinking about me and hoping I was okay and more so when they did find ways to help

I am thankful that when I had Oliver there was no swine flu to limit the number of people who could be at the hospital so that my family could all come and see little Oliver fresh into the world!

I am thankful that I have mostly good patients who are kind and thoughtful and not wanting more than I have to give them!

I will have too much to be thankful for to sum up in one sentence at Thanksgiving and may not be able to say the things that I need to as the tears well up in my eyes Grandma Judd style, but I look at my amazing child and my amazing husband and my amazing family and friends and my amazing job and house and I think - wow, even if this doesn't last long, it is pretty awesome now - THANK YOU!

Oliver 3 months (46 photos), by Kirsten Carr

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Totally worth it!

Tonight I am sitting on my new bed in my new house with my new baby. A little over a year ago, I was at the beginning of this journey and hoping to be exactly here. It was an easy pregnancy, an easy delivery and so far Oliver is a pretty easy baby.

We are at the end of almost three months without income, will have a new mortgage to pay for come Sept 1, I not longer qualify for individual insurance because my history of fertility makes any future pregnancies more likely be to high risk, things are more dramatic at work than I would like for silly reasons and I just realized about two weeks ago that my true purpose in life is to be the best mom and wife I can just in time to go back to work and be farther from my son and husband than ever.

A person could become frustrated or overwhelmed or both in the midst of all of the chaos and new challenges.

And then I look at my baby lying on the bed next to me sleeping. I smell his head - clean and baby lotion-y. I see him smile and laugh. I see how happy my husband and I are when he is close by.

And I know.....

I can handle any hour commute to provide for my family for as long as I need to. I can afford to pay extra to get the insurance coverage I need while Tom and Oliver stay on the lower premium insurance. I can make it through tough financial times thanks to the good job and years of hard work I have already put in. I can rise above the drama at work and let cooler heads prevail. I can truly enjoy the new house and the new bed and be thankful. This is how I will be the best mom and wife I can be!

THIS WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT!

Oliver newborn pics (31 photos), by Kirsten Carr

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
http://www2.snapfish.com/fbshareredirect/p=282311249082851340/l=3333351007/g=27753373/redirectURL=share/otsi=SALBBL/AlbumID=1613857007/a=27753373_27753373/usercomments=I_xqd%20like%20to%20share%20my%20Snapfish%20photos%20with%20you.%20Once%20you%20have%20checked%20out%20my%20photos%20you%20can%20order%20prints%20and%20upload%20your%20own%20photos%20to%20share./counttext=31%20photos/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

A curse to the toots

Oliver is not a super gassy baby, but when he does get some toots, they hurt and we have to hold and rock him to make it all better. Yesterday was a particularly bad day with holding every 15 minutes and not much rest unless packed around the house in the carrier. Therefore, mommy has devised a curse to the toots. Oliver and she recite and it seems to help - if only to make us feel that we are doing something and expressing ourselves and our opinion about the toots.




"Oh toots from the nether regions of my colon, be gone!
We do not like your painful ways nor your ruin of an otherwise happy moment!
You awaken us from slumber, you interrupt our smiles.
We try to eliminate you with our powerful leg kicking and face scrunching only to be met with resistance.
Be gone, foul toots and do not return for you are not welcome here.
Return happy tummy without pain and allow us to have a pleasant day."

Have baby, will travel

I won't be able to fully update all of the events of the last 6 weeks. Suffice to say that having a baby has done little to slow us down. In fact, this summer has been quite eventful and I am not sure how we would have fit any formal work time in if we tried ;-)

My mom and dad were able to stay for a few days after Oliver was born. It was nice to have them here as all of the cleaning and cooking and some of the baby rocking in the middle of the night was done by them. It was also nice to just spend some time with my boys. The days go quickly with all focus on the little one. He is a real joy and when he happens to smile in his sleep, I know that I am a very lucky mommy indeed.



Breastfeeding went well. We took walks to Target. We had visits from Jake Welch with some wonderful enchiladas, the Watermans on the verge of the birth of their little one and the Hyltons with yummy twice baked potatoes. We started to get bored sitting at home even with the visits ;-) We then visited the Watermans at their place when they had Ilse only 6 days after Oliver was born!




Oliver came with us to go house hunting when he was only about 10 days old. It was during this house hunting trip that we found the house we will be moving into in two days. It is larger and in the neighborhood we are wanting to live in. We are very excited. We will be renting our current place - if anyone wants a nice townhouse in Beaverton near lots of stuff for about $1000 per month let me know!!



We went to Eugene for my birthday just for the day and met my sister, brother-in-law, nephews, mom and dad and had lunch and walked around the park a bit before heading back.



Oliver travels well. He is getting used to meeting lots of new people! He has already been to my work and Tom's work to meet the ladies in the office at both locations!




We went to the zoo with my sister's family, my brother's family and my other brother and his partner. It was good time to walk around and see all of the animals and spend some time with all of my siblings and their kids.




When Oliver was about a three weeks old, Tom's mom came to visit. We were able to leave Oliver with her and go out to a couple of movies and dinner. How nice that was and she sure enjoyed taking care of him. He is now fairly convinced that a baby is supposed to beheld all of the time.



Not too long after that, we took Oliver to his first baseball game. PGE park, Portland's AAA park has a baby suite with lots of cool amenities. We enjoyed taking advantage of that. Oliver mostly slept. He also rode the max for the first time that day. I am getting sort of used to having perfect strangers come up and dote on him ;-)



Oliver is also very lucky to have met my great-aunt Rosa. She is my grandma Judd's only remaining sibling and a very sweet lady (although she tries to pretend she is onry). I had the pleasure of taking care of her as a patient but now mostly get to enjoy her as a nice friend! Oliver slept well in her arms - it was only many minutes later when she admitted her arm had gone numb and asked for me to help her return him to me ;-)



At the end of June, we traveled to Grants Pass with Oliver. The plan was to see Tom's favorite band, Wilco, play at the Britt festival. Both grandmas were ecstatic. We enjoyed being back in Grants Pass for a nice visit and got to see Terry and Alison Hopkins and their little boy Brenten as well as get a quick trip in to the Applegate River to put Oliver's feet in it for a minute. The music was amazing!



From Grants Pass to home for a day to Seattle for a family reunion. Now he has met all of my mom's siblings - Dan was the only one missing but we met with him in Portland before he left for Europe on a trip. He has also met many of my cousins. He has lots of catching up to do on the Winn side and I imagine that will come later in the summer when we go to the farm to meet great-grandpa/ma Winn! We stayed in Seattle a few days after that and Oliver went on his first ferry ride to Bainbridge!




Oliver is truly the most amazing little person I have met! Of course, as his mommy, I think he is the most beautiful and sweet child in the world. His daddy is amazed at his head strength and ability to bear weight on his legs. He is quite convinced that he will be standing soon - I just hope he learns to roll over and starts smiling more ;-) It is not hard to believe that I love him. He is easy to love. My eyes well up with happiness at the thought of all the fun things he will get to do in his life.






I love getting him out of his crib when he is crying and knowing that I am the only one that can fix his problem. I know he will get older and be able to fix his own issues.




I love watching him look around and wonder at the world. I sing to him and talk to him and although I am very much living with him in this moment, I still think he will be more fun when he can tell me what he is thinking! I will love to hear his thoughts!




I love taking showers with him in the morning and then getting him dressed. He loves to snuggle and like his mom and dad, he loves taking showers!



I have many more things about Oliver that I could write - how he is very tolerant of our antics for example. I also have many more instances of outings and trips that he has taken - like the two knitting groups he has been with me too. I have a million people to thank for helping us and loving us and supporting us! This is my catch up and I hope to keep up a little. I keep forgetting that not everyone is able to see my more frequent updates on Facebook so I will try to be better about posting on both. But if you find yourself joining Facebook, look me up and see the more complete Oliver album!

Here is a pic of blueberry face - Tom thought it would be cute to balance a blueberry on his nose.....you kinda had to be there.

TOTALLY IN LOVE!

As most all of you know, monkey was born on May 26th 2009 at 414 PM. He weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces and measured 19.5 inches long and head circumference is 13.75 inches.




We went in for induction as scheduled. This experience was totally different than how it had been before when we went in for the contractions a couple of weeks ago. They were waiting for us with a room all ready. They checked us in and it was almost like being checked into a fancy resort.

Once all of my vitals were taken and the IV placed, they gave me a "sleeper" (Ambien) and told me to try to get some rest. Tom had a large window seat that was both wide enough and long enough for his body and they had put out pillows and blankets for him.

We slept but not very much. The contractions started to get more intense although I had been contracting about every 3-4 minute when I came in, they calmed down a little bit once I got settled and relaxed but still was having contractions every 5-10 minutes. By 6 AM, I was ready for a dose of pain medication just to see if it helped. My cervix had changed to maybe 3-4 cm at that point. The Fentanyl they gave me for the pain was "nice" in the way that having about 4 beers placed in my IV would have been "nice" I felt no pain but also had a difficult time controlling my thoughts. And the baby monitor started to look a little "flat". No more please. Let's do the epidural, thank you!

By 730 AM I had my epidural and that was NICE!!!! NICE in the way that I felt no pain, no discomfort, and could SLEEP as I haven't slept in quite some time. They had to put in a bladder catheter and I was stuck in bed but sleeping for 4 hours was AWESOME!



By about noon, the contractions were picking up to the point where with each one I could feel pressure. Not pain, just pressure. Pressure is harder to control with epidural because it is a different set of nerves. At that point I was about 7-8 cm. About an hour later I was 9+ cm. Pressure increasing significantly over the next hour or so and I could still control pressure pain with breathing and humming "Blue Skies" while Tom squeezed my hand and patted my leg. About 3 PM I could not resist the urge to push any longer. About 315 PM they let me start pushing. They set up a mirror so I could see what I was doing.

This may seem like a weird thing but I have been on the other end of the delivery process for about 100 babies and I know what good pushing "looks" like. I just didn't know exactly what it felt like. With the mirror, I could make the two come together. By 4 PM, they were calling my OB to come running over and his head was well visible. I actually panted through one set of contractions to give my friend time to run across the parking lot from her office to be there in time to deliver Oliver. She saw me push one time and put on her clothes. Only a couple of pushes later and out he came.

His cord was wrapped once around his neck so they had to cut it before Tom could officially cut it. Then he was out. He cried softly and they placed him on my chest. After a minute, he wasn't really picking up his efforts to cry loudly and be strong and active despite the nurses and I stimulating him vigorously, so they took him to the incubator and worked to get him to wake up a little bit more. While my friend tried to piece back together the remains of my perineum, I sent Tom to the incubator to hold the hand of our new little one while he was getting his act together! One hand grabbed up to Tom and then the other and I'm pretty sure it was at that moment that my husband became a daddy! He admitted later that he just about melted right on the spot. Even talking about it later made us both tear up with happiness!

In due time, he was back with his mommy and I cannot describe in words what it is like to look into the eyes of your newborn child for the first time. Those who have done it know, those who have not can only imagine.




AND HIS NAME IS........Oliver Marshall Carr





And I don't think it would be humanly possible to love anything more than this.

He is training us how to be awake from about 2-5 each AM. I am trying to figure out how to shorten that time down. He sleeps most of the day but has at least two periods of eyes open to the world. Last night was the first night that we really slept well for any length of time. He slept in his car seat and that seems to have helped (reflux? tummy pain?)

He is eating a LOT! He is having good pees and poops and basically doing everything a normal baby should do! He is practically perfect in every way and I feel like singing songs when I look at him! Everything feels like it needs an exclamation point after it!

He listens to Beatles, NIck Drake, Shins, Decemberists, and many others on his dad's iPod playlist and loves to be close to the speakers and listen to his daddy sing the lyrics to the songs as he holds and rocks him.

Although being awake at 2-5 AM (and yesterday until almost 7) is not my favorite, I am doing well with the lack of sleep and last night's almost full 8 hours of sleep was AWESOME!

I look at him in the early morning when he is wide awake and not wanting to go back to sleep and we talk about what he will be when he grows up.

I hope that he will be a strong but kind man who, like his daddy, balances deep concern for other humans with a soft spoken manner and easy going spirit. But I also hope he has a passion for life to be the best he can be and set high goals for himself so he can feel successful and happy and in love with life however that happens for him and whatever he choses to do with it.



I hope he can learn as much as possible about himself and others. I hope he has a good sense of humor about himself and tries to not find fault with himself or others.

I hope he learns to have fun and to enjoy all the things there are for him in this world. I hope for his dad's sake he is passionate about music and sports - or at least one of the two! He has long fingers and toes that would be good for either of those things. Tom thinks he would be a good pitcher and if he happens to be left-handed all the better for a long MLB career ;-)

Today I took him to my office and weighed him and he is already above his birth weight!
Yesterday we went for a walk to Target and he had his first stroller ride!
He loves to spend time with family and friends already and is a good sleeper!






My favorite time is when he happens to smile - usually in his sleep and I look forward to the day when he can voluntarily smile and interact with us with his eyes well focused!


I AM SMITTEN! I AM IN LOVE! What a difference a year makes!

Induction Part Duex

So as I write we are about an hour and a half away from our second attempt at going in for induction. Our original induction scheduled for Friday 1201 AM (May 22nd) was cancelled due to the hospital being too full of women already in labor - come on ;-).....So we got the next day that coincides with my friend/OB being on call which is tonight induction and she is on tomorrow! I called earlier to make sure that they have me still on the schedule. Yes. And at that time they were looking okay but you never know in the wacky wild world of OB what may happen. We will leave here at about 1140 PM for our 1201 induction. Tonight has been a good night of contractions. It is my due date today. This baby will now be a gemini like his mom AND dad - not that I place much worth in that but just an interesting fact.

Mom and dad have been here since Induction: Part I. We have been trying to keep busy. Friday, mom and I went shopping while dad and Tom got some things done around the house. Saturday we went to the Portland Farmer's Market and got some fresh strawberries and rhubarb, tomatoes, morel mushrooms and herbs for a small planter that I am placing on the back deck. We then went to Salem to help my brother NIck and his partner Keith with their new place. Only dad had clothes for this so mostly mom, Tom and I went to Home Depot to help Keith get some stuff and then sat on the deck and enjoyed the weather. We had some good Japanese food in Salem before heading back to Portland. Sunday was the zoo with my brother Jeremy and his family and then BBQ after at his mother-in-law's place. Yummy foods! Today, some housework, changed over the closet from pregnant winter clothes to mostly normal summer clothes with some pregnant clothes left as well. Also got some good knitting done, did some final shopping and checked the packing job for the hospital for the 100th time.

I am ready!!!!!



The charge nurse I spoke to earlier said they would call if anything changed and we get bumped again. I think I may cry if this happens - or just not answer my phone and go to the hospital anyway and just sit there waiting for a room!

I am ready to see monkey. I am ready to hold monkey. I am ready to paste pictures of monkey all over my blog and facebook. It is my due date. I feel zero guilt about augmenting labor or possible need for epidural (nothing against all you natural delivery mommies but nothing about how this pregnancy started was natural so I am not expecting it's end to be either for some reason!). I have had a good pregnancy, I gained less than 25 pounds (just barely) which was my goal. I have walked and stayed active and eaten well. I am ready to start being a mommy and since it is now three years since we first started trying to get pregnant - IT IS MY TURN!!!!

So I will go take a shower now and get as clean as I can for the upcoming physical challenge!

Induction

So Monday was the "stripping" of the membranes. It did nothing! In fact, I think it may have slowed things down from before if that is possible.

I went to work Tuesday and decided that was about it. Just not comfortable to think about having to lug my body into work for the rest of the week.

Today got to sleep in a little - thank you to Tom for figuring out the bus to work so I could sleep in and still have the car for my massage!



Had our weekly ultrasound and doctor visit. No change to the cervix, monkey is doing well.

So the plan is to try to induce on Friday. Why? Because my OB is on call and it is the weekend and we are a little anxious! I think once we get a little pitocin this random contractions will organize into something that will work a little bit better. So just after midnight (late Thursday, early Friday), we will head to the hospital. If that doesn't work after a few hours, we will have to come back next week (likely Tuesday).

This really may be it. It is exciting to think about having monkey outside and interactive in a whole new way. Hopefully he will come this weekend when it may be easier for people to visit. I can't wait to post pics of little monkey and announce his name!


Here's hoping it works! I think I should try to get lots of sleep in the next 24 hours ;-) I might regret it if I don't!

Will it be today?

Only a week until the due date! I am wondering if it won't be sooner. I have been having contractions for the last three days but they are picking up in frequency today and a little bit more intense. Not to the point where I can't talk or function but to the point of being OBVIOUSly a contraction and not something else. I am so glad that I got my pregnancy pics done last week - see sample.




Everything is packed and ready to go. My OB friend is on all tonight so she is going to try stripping my membranes and see if we can get things going. This process works sometimes. It is basically a separation of the amniotic sac from the inside of the cervix/uterus just using the fingers. It helps to release the cascade of hormones to start labor - sometimes!



I am excited! Our front office woman who was due last week had her baby yesterday and she is a cutie. I can't wait to see our little monkey!

So a short post to say here's hoping he comes soon on this nice sunny day ;-)