The Olson Family Gazette

We did it!

So I had this post all put together last week, and was waiting to figure out how to put up a picture of Abbie with my Caribou Coffee. Still can't figure it out, so when my loving husband has a free moment, we'll get up some more Abbie pictures so that everyone can get their fix:

Well, we made it to Caribou on Tuesday, which went so well that I decided to stop by the office and introduce Abbie to all of my coworkers. The poor dear slept through the whole outing. I think the next time I'm having trouble getting her to sleep, I'm putting her in the car seat. Works like a charm.

Any-who, last night went really well - I actually got an entire 4-hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep. She also seems to be feeding less often during the day now (every 3 hours, instead of 2), so I'm hopefully that we can get onto some sort of regular schedule within the next week or so (even if it does include "midnight snacks").

Beth's First Postpartum Post

Hey all! Bet ya thought I fell down a hole or something, but I'm still here. Abbie and I are doing well - sometimes she's really nice to me and coordinates her diaper changes and feedings, so I get over 2 hours of sleep at a time. :-)

Abbie has grown so much over the past week - when we brought her home from the hospital, she wasn't able to fill out the newborn-sized clothing, and now it's taking a little more effort to fit her into that size. She's also eating very well and dirtying lots of diapers, which the doctor says is a good thing, but she's not the one having to change them at 3am........

I'm also recovering well - the doctor sent me home with some pain medication, which I haven't felt the need to take at all since Sunday night. Wish I could get a little more sleep, but other than that, I'm feeling much better. My brain is also finally starting to think about "non-baby" things occasionally, like tailgating, home improvement projects, etc. It's nice to be able to do stuff like that so that I continue to feel normal.

This afternoon, Abbie and I are going to attempt our first field trip out of the house, just the two of us. Mommy can't have caffeine right now, and we don't have decaf espresso beans in the house, so we're going over to Caribou for a decaf latte. I'll let you know how it goes. Wish me luck!

She slept through the night!

She also woke up throughout the night.

It's been a rough couple of nights, but each one has been better than the last.

Most exciting thing that happened today? She figured out how to put the stink into her diapers. Yes, we had a hazmat situation on our hands just a few minutes ago.

Lots of visiting today as well. Everyone seems to come out of the woodwork for little ones...

She's here

I tried to post this morning from my phone, but the app I use for blogging kept crashing my phone--I don't think it liked the spotty network coverage at the hospital.

We got Abbie's tags off and her lo jack removed. That meant that there was definitely no turning back (like that was really an option before). We did the only thing we could think of.

We brought her home.

Once we got settled in this afternoon, things have been fairly "easy." We found out this afternoon, that she is sensitive to lack of noise. Not that we were doing anything particular to keep it quiet--our house is generally quiet--but when we went to take a nap, she woke up from hers. We also found out today that she loves to cuddle. Every day is something new.

Exhausting and Relaxing all at once

Today little Abigail was a lot less fussy than yesterday. Both grandmas came to visit at some point today, and she either slept or wanted to be fed or wanted to be changed for both of them (wait, she's not even 2--days that is--what else DO they do?).

It was nice for Beth to be able to have her mom there today to cuddle and comfort Abigail (I'm sure it was a chore for her) when she got a little fussy. She was able to get some much needed rest, and I was able to run a few quick errands for us.

I realized on my way home that I am a very picky photographer. I take a few shots, but I usually don't like most of them--many photographers are like this, and it's only exaggerated with digital. What does this mean? It means that I don't really have any pictures (that I like) to show you from today. Maybe the couple that I took with Beth's camera will be better, but unfortunately her memory card didn't come home with me.

I'll try to do better tomorrow when we bring her home. Maybe a double dose of cute is in order as I'm planning on trying to take some pictures as well as some video (no guarantees any of that will come out).

Some housekeeping: we would love to hear from everyone, but if you call us please don't be offended if we don't pick up. we will call you back if you leave a message. also, we would love to have some people visit us, but not a big gaggle all at once, and warn us/check with us before coming over. oh, and be prepared to work :)

We made it

Through the night.

Eventually.

We now understand what everyone was saying when they said that we would be exhausted. We were both too exhausted to even think straight. Abigail could tell that we were a little tense and that made her tense as well. That meant a lot of crying. Turns out she had some mucus left in her tummy. Once they got rid of that, she calmed right down.

Our hospital (and I think most these days) lets the baby stay in the room with the mom, and has the option to send the baby to the nursery if you need some rest. They will bring her back for feeding if you breast feed, or just feed her if you bottle feed. Several of our friends recommended that we take advantage of this for at least the first night just to get some VERY much needed rest.

Around eleven or midnight, we finally gave in and had them take her. She slept very well for them, waking up once, but they rocked her back to sleep. We were able to sleep for about 4 hours--the max they will let a newborn sleep without feeding, even if she hasn't woken up. They brought her in, she got fed, and then we had them take her back until she was hungry again at 6.

We were so refreshed, even if we only got 6 hours of broken sleep. We didn't even realize how tired we were until we were awake this morning. We were doubters at first (yeah, we're first time parents, give us a break), but I highly recommend taking advantage of this if you are in a similar position. With all of the security measures in place at this hospital, there really isn't any worry about baby swap or missing babies--Abbie has a security tag on her like the ones you find on CDs at Circuit City and two id bracelets that match up with ours.

The first day

What an exciting day for Miss Abbie. She was rudely shoved from relative comfort--all warm and cozy--to a noisy, large, cold space. She got to meet and spend time with all sorts of great people, but two stuck around her for the day. One of those people was nice enough to fill her tummy.

I will be uploading pictures periodically to my Abigail Evalyn collection on flickr. Some of the pictures are set to friends and family only--let me know if you have an account and you aren't one of my contacts. If you don't want to sign up for an account, let me know and I can send you a "guest pass" that will allow you to view the pictures.

Enjoy!

Wehaddababyitsagirl!

Continuing with the old commercial theme, we'd like to place a collect call.

Most of you got the email, but as a continuation of my pseudo live blogging, after a few (for very large definitions of few) hours of labor, Abigail Evalyn Olson was born at 5:58 this morning, weighing in at 8lbs 3oz (I think in my email I said 4, but apparently they round down here--the scale said 3.6oz), and measuring 21" long.

Mom and baby are trying to get some rest, but nurses, etc. seem to want to come in every 15 minutes.

Pictures to follow as soon as I can sneak home and download them off of my memory card.

Any second now...

Does anyone from the Chicago area (maybe they were on elsewhere too) remember the commercials for a big sale. There was a lifeguard in a rowboat on the beach. They showed him at different intervals of the day predicting when all the people would show up to the beach. Each time they showed him he would say, "Any second now. Aaaany second now."

I feel like the guy in the rowboat right now. We've been here for almost 13 hours and it looks like it may be a couple more before we meet the new addition. We're both very excited at this point.

If you didn't figure it out, the punchline tothe commercial was that the big sale was bigger than any recreational activity. I think the baby likes the warmth and doesn't want to come out.

Any second now.

Drugs are good, mkay

That was an exciting few hours... Labor wasn't progressing so they decided to help it along with Pitocin. That got contractions going. Everything was fine at first, but at about 8:30 the contractions were stacking on top of each other and getting pretty severe--Beth couldn't relax at all in between (what little time there was)!

We knew this would be a risk with pitocin, so we had planned ahead of time that if it did happen we (really, she) would go ahead and get an epidural. There were some really nasty ones right as they were putting it in, and then almost instant relief. She's been almost asleep for the past hour or so--definately able to relax now.

Hopefully when she wakes up, it'll be time to push. Oh--the tv is still noisy.

Here we go...

So it's official. Beth's water has broken which means this baby is coming sooner rather than later.

We're all checked in and they've done all sorts of tests, etc. so now we wait. The TV in here is making a terrible hissing noise, so we've got that going for us.

If anything of note happens I'll post again.

Due Date

Well, my due date has come and gone now, and still no baby. I saw the doctor yesterday afternoon who determined that I was 1cm dilated and 50% effaced, which means that I still have a ways to go. I officially have an appointment at the hospital for induction, though: Monday, May 12th at 6am. If the baby hasn't come by then, I go in for a bit of Pitocin to move things along.

So, what does a 40-week pregnant woman do to kill time? Guitar Hero, of course! Here are some pics, courtesy of Marc. I have to extend the strap on the guitar as far as it'll go, but I'm still doing pretty OK on expert level (and the baby seems to like the songs that require more strumming).

Landscape Design?

So does anyone know a good landscape designer? After 6 years of killing plants and staring at way to many yews in our backyard, we've decided we need professional help. Some lessons are best left learned without having to experience it yourself. For example:

-Magnolias should NEVER be trimmed, especially not aggressively. It will take many years before it recovers
-If you trim a Yew too far, you will end up with a big empty hole-looking thing in the middle of your bush.
-If you don't trim a Yew enough, it will eventually end up looking like a character out of the Muppets
-There are a myriad of plants that won't survive in a well-drained, shady area that is sheltered from the rain.

So, like I said, we've decided to get some professional help with the landscape design. Of course, we'll need to keep the cost down, so we'll be trying to do as much of the work ourselves once we have a plan, and we'll probably spread it out over several years, but we first need a designer. Does anybody have any idea where to look for one?

Welcome to the Family

Hi all!

Welcome to the Olson Family Gazette - a blog dedicated to updating the 7 people who are interested about the goings-on in the Olson family household. For those of you who are new to this blog, welcome! To my 3.5 previous loyal readers, I've changed things around from a personal blog to a family one, so that everyone can stay up-to-date on all of the strangely unimportant, yet amusing activities going on.

Since Marc's now in full swing with his triathlon training, we're exploring the wide world of raw meat with Kahlua, and, oh yah, I'm due to deliver a baby by Tuesday, I'm sure we'll have plenty more to share in the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned!