Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we had dinner with our good friends Nick and Chelsey and their new baby Jade.  It was an amazingly delicious feast!

Nate brined the turkey - SO GOOD

Nate's full plate

The babies hanging out together while we ate

So happy sitting with her Daddy!

We also got the chance to take some family pictures for the first time with all 3 of us.  For once I wasn't the goofy looking one in every picture!  Nate and Olivia also had their fair share of non-photogenic faces.

 This one's my favorite

 We got photo bombed by Indie

Olivia decided to wave at the camera in this one :)

First Doctor Visit

Olivia had her first Dr. appointment a few days after she got out of the NICU.  Some of the concerns that they had in the NICU were that they thought she wasn't gaining weight fast enough and that her temp was still not quite as warm as they wanted so I was a little concerned going into the appointment.  The doctor definitely put my mind as ease while he was talking to us.  He said that in the NICU they tend to be a little overly cautious and that we really didn't need to be worried about her progression because everything looked just fine to him.  And as for her temperature, he wasn't worried about that either.  He said as long as she's acting normal and doesn't seem sick that her temp would level out all by itself, which it has.

At her appointment she weighed 6 lbs 13 oz, which put her back up to her birth weight and in the 16th percentile.  A week later the doctor wanted us to come in just to do a weight check and at that time she weighed 7 lbs, 11 oz.  She is definitely growing just fine!

Her head circumference was in the 6th percentile, I want to say it was 13.5 in but I can't find the paper so I could be totally wrong about that.  The percentile is correct though.

She was still 19 in, which was her birth length, putting her in the 10th percentile for length.

She is just the sweetest little baby girl and we love her to death!

First Week Home

A random collection of pictures from Olivia's first week at home (her 2 week of life).

Tummy Time!

Her zombie pose, she does this a lot, it's so funny :)

Love her face!

First bath at home, don't mind my makeshift blurring

About to leave for her first doctor visit.  This outfit was kind of huge so she looks like a baby oompa loompa haha

Snuggles

Her first snow day!

All bundled up and ready to go, I know I keep saying it but I sure do love this kid!

Coming Home

After 6 days in the NICU we finally got to bring Olivia home!  We didn't get that many pictures of us leaving the hospital because we were in a hurry to get out of there before they changed their mind!

Getting her dressed

Hanging out with her Daddy while I talked to the nurses

I can't believe how little this baby is!  Please ignore my huge belly here, I'd just barely had a baby after all...

Getting all loaded into the carseat

Her first time outside of the hospital!

Sleeping in her own bed for the first time

Getting a MUCH needed manicure.  We just love having this sweet girl at home where she belongs :)

In the NICU

A few hours after Olivia was born, after she'd just come back from the well-baby nursery for a group B strep test (which was negative), the nurse came to check her vital signs.  The nurse noticed her temperature was just a bit low so she had to go back to the nursery to hang out in the warmer for a bit.  While she was in the nursery getting warmed up, they noticed some irregular breathing, so they called in a neonatologist.  They decided that she had some kind of infection and needed to be on antibiotics so away she went to the NICU.  Unfortunately the only way to give babies antibiotics is by IV and the only place they can do that is in the NICU.  After running what seemed like a million different tests, they decided that she had a pneumonia.  Because I had been on antibiotics during labor, it made it so they weren't able to get a conclusive result on any bacterial cultures.  As frustrating as it was to never get a definite result back to know what kind of infection, they assured us that that was the best news because it meant her infection wasn't too severe. 

We didn't really get pictures of each of the 6 days she was in the NICU but here are pictures from her 3rd day in there

Poor thing, she had to have 3-4 IV's, one of which was in her little head.  I know the head is supposed to be one of the better spots for a baby's IV but it's so sad looking!

Our first family photo!  We meant to take one on the first day of her life but with all the commotion, it didn't happen...

And these are the pictures from her last day in the NICU.

This last one is a bit randomly placed but for some reason blogger isn't letting me move it so whatever.  This is right after her first bath, the bows in the NICU are so much cuter than the ones in labor and delivery!  We didn't get one of us giving her the bath cause our hands were full, sorry.  Also, the nurse was really proud of that faux hawk she gave her, I did NOT do that to her hair, let that be on the record.

The Birth Story

This is the Bracelet I mentioned in the last post.

At around 2 am on October 26th, I woke up to go to the bathroom.  Pretty much the same as I did every other morning that week.  I tried to go back to bed but I was having some pretty strong contractions.  Again, pretty much the same as every other morning that week.  After about 30 minutes of trying to go back to sleep and not having any luck, I decided to play on my kindle in the living room for a bit (aka Facebook stalking).  Since not very many people are posting about anything at 3 in the morning, I had to move on to reading blogs.  I spent a good 3 hours reading about everything that my sister Sheri was doing in 2009.  By 7am I was still having contractions but I really didn't think I was in labor because there wasn't any consistency with how far apart they were.  By this time, I decided Nate should wake up so he could entertain me until the contractions calmed down enough to go back to sleep.  My contractions started to last really long (up to 3 minutes) even though there was still no consistency with how far apart they were.  I decided to call the nurse at my doctor's office because all the times I'd been having contractions before this, they didn't last more than 90 seconds.  The nurse on the phone told me I needed to get to the hospital asap.  We got to L and D around 8:45 and found out that I was 5cm dilated!  Only 2 days before at the doctor they measured me at barely 2cm.  Since I tested positive for group B strep, they had to get the IV with antibiotics started.  By the time they found a good vein and had everything going, it was 9:30 and I was dilated to 6cm.  Things were definitely progressing!  I was lucky enough to get the delivery room that had a tub in it so as soon as my first round of antibiotics finished, I got to get in the tub, which really helped with the contractions.  After that, things had REALLY picked up, so they checked me again and I was at 8cm.  I decided at that point that I'd be a lot happier with an epidural, which I really was!  Just after the epidural started working, they went to check me again and my water broke.  At 12, it was time to start pushing and 29 minutes later, our little Olivia was out!  From here, you should refer to the previous post for pictures right after she was born.

Introducing the newest Breneman....

Miss Olivia Christine Breneman was born just over 2 weeks ago on October 26th!  I know I'm pretty late getting posts up about her first 2 weeks of life so please bear with me as I start getting things all figured out.  Having a baby seems to make everything take longer!  Enjoy these pictures from her first moments of life.

 I love how grumpy she looks here.  She was NOT enjoying this bath!

 All cleaned up and ready for some snuggles

 Holding her Daddy's hand while we waited for the pediatrician to check her out

Getting ready to move out of the birthing suite and into the recovery room

Is that not the most precious face you've ever seen?!

The one and only time that Olivia was actually in my room after delivery....  (more on that in a later post)

My "push" present.  I never knew this was even a thing until very recently but apparently husbands are supposed to give their wives a present for pushing out the baby.  I always thought that having the baby out was the present but this is awesome too!  I didn't get a picture of it but it's a charm bracelet with a charm for each person in our little family of 3 :)