Don't Blink

In 6 (short!) months my baby girl has grown so much! It is absolutely fascinating to watch a tiny blob that sleeps all.the.time. grow into a thinker and a doer. She's seriously SO big. It's hard to realize when you're going through it just how far they have come in such a short amount of time. I watched a few videos of her when she was just a month or two old. All she could do was make little purring noises and try her hardest to look at 1 thing more than 2 seconds. Now she's sitting up, crawling, eating, drinking out of a sippy cup, and problem solving. Her personality is starting to come through. Bron and I seriously cannot get enough. We both complain that we don't get enough time with her. Anyway, I grabbed a photo from each month and thought we could look at her physical progression together because I for one, think it's just too cute! :)

Livy's First Flight

Olivia, Aunt Jenny, and I flew to NY at the end of April. The trip was no fun by any stretch of the imagination but I thought I would share a few fun photos from the trip! Having Olivia with me during the hardest time of my life was really the only way I could have gone through it all-and that's that God's honest truth. 

Olivia and her grandfather, one of the last times they met. Dad made it down for the birth of Olivia (11/25) and Lincoln (11/26). Here they are in the hospital...I think Dad was getting over a cold and didn't want to give it to Livy. 

*****

I sent Bron picture updates between flights so he knew we were safe (6 flights total, 3 there 3 back) - I'm not sure why a few of my photos loaded this way. 

She was really good in her carrier for the most part. 

We had to have Aunt Jen in one! ;)

Meeting Great Nana for the 1st time. 

My view from my hotel room was really awesome. It helped.

Smiles to send Daddy!

Walked to a local cafe for lunch while we waited on my mom to arrive. (I just realized we both look less than impressed. But the food was awesome!)

She really started sitting on her own on this trip. 

Aunt Peggy gave us the idea to give Livy a lemon rind at dinner.

The pack-n-play was a no-go...Livy got to sleep with Mommy on the trip ;)

Going through Detroit

Bron sure did miss his girl! And Bentley missed her too...we think. 

 

Feeding the Baby

Did you know that there are different ways to feed your baby? And I don't mean food or no food - I mean there are different techniques for giving your baby his 1st experience of food. Maybe you did. I didn't learn this until after I had Olivia. I also never knew deciding which way I was going to feed my child and how to do it, would be such a stressful decision. I mean, food is our source of survival if I eff this up...she's screwed! ;) There is no perfect answer in the world of being a parent. This is a major complication in all my parenting decisions-lol! 

I heard of Baby Led Weaning through my Mom page on Facebook. (To refresh your memory, this is the group I have been a part of since I was about 8 weeks pregnant. We all joined this secret group around the same time, all are 1st time Moms, and all were due in December '12. It consists of 77 women and now 81 babies.) I did a few Google searches on BLW to check it out. I liked it and decided to start the BLW way. Well, it wasn't the right choice for us. I really loved the way she explored foods and she really liked feeding herself too-I could tell. But I knew it wasn't something I could keep doing long-term. I read up on pureeing my own baby food and got super excited about making Olivia's baby food (there are so many awesome recipes out there!). So I have decided to give her purees and still give her the occasional pieces of food, like banana, until we reach finger foods. 

The 1st food I made was sweet potatoes and that was tonight. They were a hit! I can't wait to try a new food in a few days...hmmm what should it be? 

Olivia's 1st go at BLW with avocado. It was a win and a fail. Win on O's part and fail on our part. She loved it and fed herself really well. However, the avocado was not ripe!! HAH! So she really didn't ingest any avocado, but sucked on it for taste. 

We also introduced the sippy cup last weekend at my mom's house. She LOVED drinking the water and was SO exited about the sippy cup. I was quite surprised. Here are a few pics of her enjoying her water. 

Happy 6 Months, My Sweet Love!

(Saturday, May 25th, 2013)

Livy Loo,

You are 6 months old today. Exactly 6 months ago I was holding you in my arms with pure joy and your daddy and I were just in awe. We couldn't believe you were ours, and ours to take home and keep. You took the fast track and are sitting up, saying da-da, rolling all around, and even starting to crawl. You're up on all fours and make a little progress forward each time. We couldn't be more proud or in love. You're a happy little thing! Rarely fuss or put up a fight unless you're tired or hungry (like your mama). You love your sock monkey lovie and hanging out with babies and other kids. We're in GA this weekend for your 1st trip to GrandMoms house. You were so inquisitive when we got here, looking all around wondering where we brought you. After a day filled with shopping you has your 1st taste of baby food, peas! Not so sure you liked the taste but you loved eating!
We love you to the moon and back, Olivia Jane, and watching you grow is the best thing that has ever happened to your dad and I!



-15 pounds 2 ounces
-26.2 inches

Aaand...she's back!

Hello, friends!

I've decided to start blogging again. It's been a few weeks. I took a break to move my blogging to a password protected site, for security reasons with little O. However, I never kept up with it and I miss blogging. So, I've decided to come back to the ol' abitofeverythingbutrimas! I took a look back over my pregnancy via this blog and realized what a great thing this is going to be for Olivia one day. I didn't purchase a baby book for her, which I still really should, but I think this is going to be more special since it will cover day-to-day action of her life with my raw emotion included. So, welcome back friends, I've missed you!

Well, I have already started two posts  but I spent all my time reformatting. So stay tuned for..."Feeding the Baby" and "Happy 6 Months, My Sweet Love".

xoxoNicole

5 Weeks Old!

Olivia is 5 weeks old! I know she is still so little, but almost 6 weeks seems so big in 1st time Mommy eyes :). 

I'm a little lost on what exactly to blog about now that I don't have the weekly milestones or weekly survey to fill out. So I'm sure this will now be a hodge-podge of all things Olivia, I'm sure you won't mind ;). 

These last 5 weeks have been a whirl-wind. I feel like it's been a lot longer than 5 weeks. The 1st few weeks are a complete blur, and I have blocked out her 1st week almost completely! Probably a little bit of sleep deprivation + the brain working its magic so people have more than one child, haha. 
She really is a pretty good baby though. She's not too fussy, we can usually calm her relatively quickly when she cries. She does get a little gassy, but nothing a little "ants go marching 1 by 1" leg pumping can't cure usually...and then there's Gripe Water if that doesn't work. 
I've had to cut dairy from my diet. That really helps with the gas and the #1 symptom, which was stuffiness. She would wake up stuffy every AM. So the ped recommending cutting diary - and it went away when I did so. It is a SUPER hard adjustment. Sometimes I'll eat something with diary and then think "oh crap! that had dairy in it", just because I used to eat so much of it. But I'm getting better and so is she! :)

Her eyes have turned from a dark deep blue/grey to a dark blue. They seem to be getting lighter and more blue. My little blue-eyed babe! I always wanted blue eyes when I was little, so I'm kind of excited for the blue eyes. She's also starting to be able to look us in the eye. She is focusing a lot more. Bron and I are pretty sure she smiled at us on purpose for the 1st time yesterday and at Bron today. We'll have to see if it keeps happening to know for sure though. 

Breast feeding is going well. I think it will continue to change and we will constantly keep learning new things, but for the most part we have a groove going. She was fed her 1st bottle at 3 weeks. 
She is giving me 3-4 hour stretches of sleep during the night. We have a good bedtime routine which helps her know it's bedtime. I'm hoping over the next week she will start to sleep a little longer at night...from what I've heard about the 6 week mark, I think it's a pretty reasonably wish ;). 

I hear her stirring in her crib, so that will be all for now. I will just leave you with a few slew of pics taken with my phone from her 1st two weeks!!

Sleepy parents able to cuddle on the couch again with that big ol' belly outta the way ;)

First Sunday morning family cuddle session 

She's Here!

I was waiting my whole last trimester to write this post! :)

Olivia Jane Butrimas was born Sunday, November 25th at 7:35 PM! She was 7 lbs, 10 oz and 20 inches long.  

My water ended up breaking at 7:25 AM on the 25th (yep, exactly 12 hours of labor!). So we had to go in to L&D pretty quickly-even though I tired getting more time from the DR on the phone. I was so excited when it broke. I couldn't stop laughing & smiling-haha! Bron was excited and nervous, getting all the loose ends tied together and putting the finishing touches on our hospital bags. After 3-4 phone calls and more water gushes I finally threw on my robe and got in the car. 

On our tour of the hospital the nurse told us to make sure we check in by the clock...so all the way to the hospital I was thinking "go to the clock". Well, there was no one at the clock desk, so I had to go to the emergency room. When I told them I was supposed to check in at the clock and that my water broke, they both gave each other funny looks. Maybe I got the clock part wrong? I'm not sure, but I thought I was doing so good remembering and the nurse who wheeled me up to triage said she'd never heard of this "clock check-in" lol. 

So once we were settled in our room the nurse came in with the IV and fluids. This immediately put my red flag up because if you have an IV you can't walk around and walking around was key, in my mind, for this natural labor. She assured me that they would just give me one bag-unless I need the pitocin, which she also said the DR told her to start soon. So I asked that they wait as long as possible for the pitocin. 

Before we knew it Bron got a text "I'm here!"

I didn't even know she was coming yet! Bestest BFF ever...just sayin'. Mom was on her way too...I was just hoping I would not have the baby before she got there. But I wasn't having contractions yet so, I was pretty confident Olivia would wait for Grandma! So, as I just said, I was not contracting on my own which. I had always heard that if your water breaks they will only give you 24 hours to go into labor naturally. Well, I guess my doctor didn't even want to give me 4 hours...because the nurse brought on the pitocin (& so it begins..). I did ask her one more time to delay the pitocin, which is when she told me my doctor could see everything she does & that she would get into trouble if she didn't start it - I thought that was pretty funny, actually. So now, I'm hooked up to fluids & pitocin...my vision for a natural labor was slowly slipping away and visions of c-sections were dancing in my head. (If you've ever seen anything on natural birth vs. c-section you'd know that induction=pitocin, pitocin=epidural and epidural=c-section...it's just...law.) As my contractions started more guests arrived, Teresa, Kelly, Nash & Brock. 
The nurse came in a few times to re-position the fetal heart monitor and the contraction monitor (both on my belly) because every time I would move (due to the contractions become stronger & closer together) the monitors stopped picking up what they were supposed to. At about 1 or 2 PM the contractions started getting super painful. I was trying my best to breath through them, but to no avail. I tried getting in the rocker to labor a little bit, but I only lasted about 2 contractions and my whole body started shaking with each contraction. I soon started to feel like I was losing control and they were taking over. I was tensing up and dreading them each time they started. Bron was by my side for each and I would lean into him for support. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and asked for the epidural. I received the epidural (while screaming scared) around 2:30/3:00. I felt immediate relief..."like heaven", I believe were my exact words. Right before I got the epi, mom got there! So after it was put in I had her come in-and of course we had a tearful moment-haha. 

I was very fearful that the epidural would lower Olivia's heart rate and slow down my progress. However, my little girl did just fine and I progressed just fine. I was at 5 cm when they put it in and progressed to 10 cm just two hours later. At about 5:00 PM it was time to push!! I'm not sure exactly when they figured out she was faced wrong but, she was face up and to the right instead of face down. So it was a very difficult road through the canal for baby (and me)! Plus, with the epidural I had a hard time feeling where or how I was pushing and what kind of progress it was making. At the very end the epi started wearing off and I was able to feel what I was doing, and made more progress with each push. It was that and the doctor's threat to throw me in the OR in 20 minutes that really got her out ;). I did need oxygen at some points during pushing because her heart rate dropped slightly...plus it really helped a lot after the 3 pushes to catch my breath. I also had to use the barf bag at some point during my 2 1/2 hour pushing session :). 
My DR asked if I wanted to feel her head coming out and I declined. I just wanted her OUT! Finally, when I saw her head come out I gave 110% more to get the rest of that little body OUT OF ME! Haha! It was the hardest thing I have ever done. 

And yes, the Jaguars did win on her birthday ;)

It's amazing the little details you forget over time. It's also amazing how you really do forget all the bad and all the pain after a little while. It will be 3 weeks tomorrow and I already have forgotten every single negative feeling I felt after the hard delivery. (Well, besides the part where I know I really strongly felt I never want to do it again.)
We had lots of visitors during her delivery and after she was born. The hospital staff kept saying how many people were waiting on her and the "party" that was happening for Olivia outside :). 

Right before we were discharged and peaced out!!

Happy birthday, Olivia!!