Olivia

We feel so blessed to have little Olivia in our family.

                            

You know those stories of the illusive "perfect baby"?  The baby who sleeps through the night at 2 weeks old, is always happy, and just generally easy?  Yeah, I had always heard about them too, and I wasn't sure I believed that they really existed.

But, I stand corrected.  Because Olivia is just perfect.  No, she doesn't sleep through the night, but she's pretty darn close and has been since she came home from the hospital.  For the first two weeks, she got up around twice per night.  But, that was okay because Garrett was home and I could nap whenever I wanted to during the day.  The day my mom left (at 3.5 weeks), I put her to bed at 6pm.  She woke up once, at 1:30, and then slept again until 8.  Not every night has been that good, but she still only gets up once and it's very brief.  Having Ellie was a difficult adjustment for me (she was tough), so I was really nervous about three, since everyone says it's the hardest.  But, thankfully I've found that that hasn't been the case for me.  Although there have been moments of frustration, I've found that the transition to three was smooth.

She's also adorable, obviously. :)  Here she is hanging out with Daddy during his post-work nap:

Sleeping beauty:

Sisters.  I can't believe I am the mother of three girls:

Our friend Haley made the cutest little matching skirts for the girls.  Here is Olivia wearing hers:

Smiles for Mom:

Her hair is awesome - after her bath is gets all fluffy.  Also, it was very dark when she was first born but it's starting to lighten up a bit.

I could just hold her and snuggle her all day... we are so blessed!

We are loving being a family of five!

I am...

Wow, October flew by!
1. Listening: Haven't been listening to much music lately, actually.  Normally I love to have music on in the house, especially when I'm cooking dinner or cleaning the house, but lately I've just been craving silence and peace.  In fact, when Garrett does turn music on, it kind of drives me crazy and I feel a little bit edgy and aggravated.  Not sure why... hoping it will pass soon.  I do love music!
2. Eating: Halloween candy.... Reese's PB cups, mostly.  And mini candy bars.  Anything with chocolate!  The girls got an unbelievable amount of candy... I'll probably start slowing throwing it out soon, just to get through it more quickly.
3. Drinking: Still lots of water... and some Diet Coke occasionally.
4. Wearing: Long sleeves and jeans!  I don't think I've worn jeans since my first trimester (early spring of last year).  I only have one pair that fit me right now, so they are getting a lot of use.
5. Feeling: Feeling thankful and very blessed.  We are loving having a new baby in the house and I love watching the girls interact with her.  Abby especially is such a big helper and she just loves talking to and singing to Olivia.
6. Weather: It has been cold in the mornings!  The temperature has been in the low 40s when I take Abby to school a little after 7 a.m.  The afternoons have been beautiful though... low 70s or high 60s.  Sunny too!  Great park weather, and great for afternoon walks, too.
7: Wanting: Sushi.  You know this by now.  And now that I can have the real, good stuff, I'm craving it even more.
8: Needing: Needing to sell some things on Craigslist... things are starting to feel cluttered.  Plus, I want to actually buy some Christmas decorations this year, so I feel like I need to sell some stuff first.
9. Thinking: Thinking a lot about next week's election.... should be interesting to see the results roll in on Tuesday night. Garrett and I already did early voting so thankfully that's one less thing I have to do next week.
10. Looking forward to: Thanksgiving!!  I love Thanksgiving. Love.
11. Dreading: Garrett goes back to working nights next Sunday.  Six nights a week, for two weeks, and they are 12-14 hour shifts.  I feel bad for him.  But, these are the last overnight shifts for a few months (I think) so that's good.
12. Enjoying: Having my mom here visiting!  She came yesterday and will be here for a week.
13. Grateful for: A healthy baby who sleeps a lot and eats well. (knock on wood!)

Birth day

She's here!  I still find it hard to believe that we are a family of five now!

Two weeks ago, Garrett and I were just hanging out at home, watching some Burn Notice on Netflix and eating takeout sushi.  Garrett had worked all day so we were just relaxing and planning an early bedtime since Garrett had to be back at work at 7 the next morning (Sunday).

I started feeling contractions around 10, but I didn't really think much of it since I'd had Braxton Hicks off and on for several weeks.  They were painful but nothing too bad.  Soon, though, I noticed that they were lasting a lot longer than normal Braxton Hicks.  I got out my trusty little phone and started timing them.  Sure enough, the first contraction I timed was a minute long, and the next one started 9 minutes later.  The next, 6 minutes later.  Then, suddenly, 4 minutes.  I looked at Garrett and said, "We'd probably better go in."

By this time it was about 11:30.  I texted a couple of my friends, waiting to see who would get back to me first!  Thankfully, my friend who lives down the street was able to walk over and sleep on our couch so that was easy.  While we waited for her to come, though, we packed our bags (no, I hadn't done it yet.... this was a week premature!!).  (As a side note, when we got to the hospital and I looked through my bag, it turned out that I didn't pack anything useful and I had to send Garrett home for some more things.  Basically all I could think to pack between contractions was a pair of underclothes, my toothbrush, and my phone charger.  We also brought the camera (with no memory card).  Haha.).

Got to the hospital around 12:15 and were admitted immediately.  My contractions were about two minutes apart by the time I got to my room.  The nurses got all my information and hooked me up to the monitors/IV's.  I have always hated getting IV's and this time was no different.  The first "nurse" who attempted it busted my vein and I have to say, that was the most painful thing that happened during this whole experience!!  I cried, it was so bad.  (I put "nurse" in quotation marks because even though her tag said nurse, she was obviously being trained and had never done an IV before, ever... an older nurse was talking her through everything.)  Anyway, thankfully the older nurse put the IV in (my other wrist).  But, it was really hard to forget my burst vein because they had the blood pressure cuff on that original arm and every time it went off (every 3 minutes??), my wrist just throbbed.

Anyway, my contractions were pretty painful by this point, so I asked for the epidural.  As luck would have it, one of our friends from church was the anesthesiology resident on call, so he did my epidural for me.  He did a great job and the experience was a bit more enjoyable after the medication kicked in.

Olivia was born at 4:16, weighing in a 7 lbs 14 oz - our biggest baby yet.  

I know a few weeks ago, I blogged that we were pretty certain about what we were going to name her.  I also mentioned that it was a rather uncommon name... obviously we went a different route because Olivia is actually in the top 10 most common names, and has been for a number of years now.  My original name choice was Greta, but Garrett suggested Olivia a few weeks ago.  I immediately ruled it out (too common for me), but for some reason it stuck in the back of my mind.  After she was born, I kept calling her Greta in the hospital but for some reason it just seemed wrong, no matter how hard I tried to make it work.  I just knew in the back of my mind that she was supposed to be Olivia, but I was fighting it pretty hard - this time for more personal reasons.

Literally the last thing we did before leaving the hospital was talk to the birth certificate lady (we had been discharged and everything).  Even when she asked me the baby's name, I had to think for a few seconds about what to say!  Garrett had given up by this point and had told me to just CHOOSE already!!  Obviously, Olivia won out.  I just knew that that was what we were supposed to name her.

We usually call her "Olivia", but she's also gone by Liv, Livvy, and Livia.  I'm not really sure what nickname (if any) will stick, but I like them all.

Thankfully, we were able to leave the hospital on Monday morning, and got settled at home with our family of five.  Garrett got a wonderful 2-week paternity leave, which was amazing (I think he got half a day with Abby?), and it was sad to see him head back to work early this morning.  Three kids is quite an adjustment and I'm glad he was able to help out so much.

Our three girls: Olivia, Ellie, and Abby, all at one day old:

Olivia:

O.M.W.

#12 - Artwork

#12 on my goal list is to buy a piece of original art.

But, it's not really the "buying" part that is important... I just wanted something nice on our walls, something that you couldn't find in everyone else's home.  Since art can be expensive, though, I decided to just make something myself.

First, I came across this print from Gus and Lula on Etsy.  I loved it and I knew it would go perfectly in the girls' room.

So, with Garrett's (major) help, I made this:

I love how it turned out!  It's hard to see how big it is here, but it's about 42 inches long and about 30 inches tall - pretty big!  I was going to put it above the yellow crib, but it makes me nervous to have something so heavy hanging so close to the baby, so we moved it to another wall.  It looks so bright and cheery in the girls' bedroom, which is a mix of yellows, pinks, and some aqua (I really need to get some pictures up!).

Garrett did most of the work: he cut the pallet, connected the boards together, measured for the "sunbeams", and even made and cut out the stencils for the words.  All I really did was paint it.  And, since I already had the white and aqua paint, it only cost me $4 for the yellow paint and 50 cents for a cheap sponge paintbrush.

We both loved working on this project - it was easy, and fun to work together with Garrett on something.   So, here's to #12 - get some "original" artwork in our house!

(Also, take a minute to look around Gus and Lula's etsy shop... everything is so cute!)

101 Update

Originally, #32 on my goal list was to paint/refinish an old dresser I have.  We've had it since we got married (and I'm pretty sure it's one that I had growing up), and it's nice and solid and definitely a keeper.  It was in our bedroom in Utah, then Georgia, then Virginia, and all that time I wanted to do something with it but just never got around to it.

So, when I made my 101 goals, I figured that I should finally get it done.  However, it's not really a priority anymore because #1 - it's inside our walk-in closet now, so it's not really part of our "bedroom decor", so I don't care how ugly it is.  And #2 - I have done a couple other furniture refinishing/painting projects over the last year and I've decided that I really don't like doing it!  I'm not patient or meticulous enough to do a very good job.

That being said, I did swap this out for a different furniture-painting project... one that I cared about a lot more, so I really tried to be patient and make it look nice.  I painted the crib yellow, and I think it turned out really well:

I used spray paint, and actually enjoyed this project more than I thought I would.  It was a little bit frustrating that I had to use so much paint (a ton just went flying into the air, between those darn spindles), but it was all worth it in the end.

Another goal that I feel like we can safely cross off the list is #38, Teach Abby to read.  She got pretty good over the summer with me, but she has improved significantly since she started kindergarten.  I'm actually pretty shocked with how well she's done.  Garrett and I are really proud of her!  She can read several books now, only needing help once in a while with a word here or there.  It's so much fun to see her reading and she seems to really love it.

I am...

I can't believe it's been a month since I last did a post like this.  I'm going to try to do this at the beginning of each month. Currently, I am...

1. Listening: I'm really liking Spotify more lately, which is a computer program that lets me listen to pretty much any music I want to.  I've been listening to a variety of different things - stuff I loved in middle school, high school, current favorites, etc.  I've also starting listening to BYU Devotional podcasts, which are great.
2. Eating: Green grapes from Sam's Club... Sam's has the best green grapes because they stay crunchy.
3. Drinking: Lots and lots of water, still.
4. Wearing: Same as last month - maxi dresses and skirts.  It's still SO hot and humid here... plus I don't have any pants that fit!
5. Feeling: A little bit anxious, excited, nervous... I can't believe this baby is due in 2 weeks.  Honestly I don't feel like she is coming any time soon though, so I think we still have plenty of time to get ready.
6. Weather: It cooled down one morning last week, which was heavenly.  Then it got really hot and muggy again, and it's been pretty miserable!
7: Wanting: A foot rub!  I would really love a foot rub at the end of a long day.
8: Needing: This cough to go away!  I've had a cough for almost two weeks now, and coughing with a pregnant belly is really painful!  It's also no good with my tiny bladder... haha.
9. Thinking: I've been thinking a lot lately about how blessed I am when it comes to my kids.  I have great kids, and I love spending time with them.  Their little personalities are just so fun and it's always entertaining to have a conversation with them (like talking to Abby about her poster, which I blogged about yesterday).  I've also been thinking a lot about a parenting quote that I read a few weeks ago... but that's a whole other blog post, which I will write soon.  It's making me think harder about who these girls really are and how I should be parenting them.
10. Looking forward to: Some of my friends have graciously offered to throw me a baby shower next week, which is such a nice surprise!  And since I really don't need any baby (or girl) stuff, they are throwing a "diapers and wipes" party.  I'm excited to get stocked up on those essentials.  I'm also really excited about General Conference this weekend.
11. Dreading: Cleaning my floors.  It really, really has to be done, but I have to do it on my hands & knees since I don't have a mop, which is why I've been putting it off.  Determined to get it done tomorrow, though.
12. Enjoying: Books.  I go through periods of time when I don't read at all, and then for a few months I'll be reading constantly!  I just caught up on a couple Mary Higgins Clark books, which were good.
13. Grateful for: I took 2 naps today. It felt great!