Dear Olivia

Its crazy how much more I love you every day! I can't believe that you are already 6 months old, time is going by WAY to fast and I feel like I'm not going to remember things because they are happening so fast! I want to write some things you've been doing the last couple of months because I know i've been so bad about writing in your baby book and I figure I can just copy it out of here! You had your 4 month appointment in August and you were growing perfectly! The Dr could still hear your murmur but it was faint. We started giving you some real food and you LOVED your bananas and rice cereal. You were sitting up so good in your bumbo seat and had perfect head control, but you hated getting in your carseat! Around 5 months we decided to get you a new one, and thankfully you like that one MUCH better, even though you still cry while you're getting buckled in, you're up high enough to see out the window and you normally just watch things pass by as we drive! By 5 months you were sitting for about a minute at a time and then falling over but you wanted to sit up so bad and be a big girl. You also wanted to move, you started scooting around about a week before you turned 6 months old and you just get better every day, you're already able to hold on to things and stand up but thankfully you haven't figured out how to pull yourself up yet! At this rate I have a feeling you're going to be walking very early just like your Uncle Justin! We took you for your 6th month apt last week and you sure are my little baby! You only weigh 14lbs but you are the cutest thing in the world and everywhere we go we get stopped by strangers telling us how darling you are! You still love to growl at things but you've also figured out how to yell and you're not afraid to use your voice that's for sure! You also learned to laugh and its one of my favorite things in the world, I could listen to you laugh all day long. You love to be outside and it calms you right down no matter how upset you are. We'll sit on the front bench and you love to just watch the cars drive by. Every time you see your daddy you just light up and get so excited, and I'm not sure who kisses you more, your dad or me but I do know that neither of us can stop giving you little kisses all day long! 

You and Gram have so much fun together all day long and I miss you every second that I'm at work. I've got your picture on my desk and I find myself staring at it all day long! You've got the biggest smile and I love that you are so happy! I can't wait until the end of the day so I can pick you up from Grams house and hug you and play with you and your toys and then sing you to sleep.

Never forget how loved you are Olivia. Your mom and dad love you more then you can even imagine and you have so many people in your life that love you so much! All your grandmas and grandpas and great grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. We are all so blessed to have you in our lives and enjoy the laughs and smiles you bring us everyday!!! 

Love- Mom & Dad

Dear Olivia

Dear Olivia: 

Today is just another day that I have to leave you with Gram while I go to work and I hate it. I just want to lay around and play with you all day long! I miss hearing you talk to me and smile your big huge toothless grin when I make silly faces at you. Today I miss you extra! 

Love Mom. 

Dear Olivia

I want to start writing you letters for a couple of reasons, 1 so that I can remember all the little things and 2 so that when you're older you can have a small glimpse at how much I love you. So for your first letter I just want to tell you a few things I love about you! 

I love how you fall asleep at night looking in my eyes while I hold you close

I love that at 2 1/2 months you loved me enough to cry the entire first day I went back to work because you missed me

I love your giant yawns

I love the way you blow bubbles at your daddy 

I love your big smile and how you coo and tell me stories

I love your baby toes

I love your kisses 

I love that you love to lay on your belly WAY more then your back

but most of all I just love you! 

Love Always-

Mom.

Time Flies

Even if your not having so much fun, time still flies! I'm back at work and have been for a few weeks, the first two weeks of July I was working form home so it wasn't so bad though. Working all day when I'd rather be laying around with Olivia sucks big time! I just want to snuggle with her.
 

Olivia will be 3 months old tomorrow and I feel like she was just born yesterday! She LOVES her tummy time and actually cries when you put her on her back, she started to do sit ups last week and I'm sure she'll be sitting on her own in just a few weeks! She's talking a lot and learning to grab for things even though she doesn't really have it down yet, its coming along. She flirts with her daddy and blows bubbles at him, its the cutest thing in the world to watch the two of them play. She's got good nights of sleeping 7-8 hours and every once in a while she'll throw me for a loop and wake up at 3 completely ready for play time! Its hard to turn down her smile already so I normally end up sleep deprived the next day, but she's worth it! I need to do a real 3 month shoot but until then I took this on Sunday and I LOVE it!! I can't get enough of her! 

on a deeper note, I'm starting to think I have a little postpartum, I looked up the symtoms and the ones in green are the ones I have... 

• Irritability or hypersensitivity
• Difficulty concentrating
• Anxiety and worry
• Crying or tearfulness
• Anger
• Negative feelings such as sadness
• Loss of interest in activities you usually enjoy
• Difficulty sleeping (especially returning to sleep)
• Fatigue or exhaustion
• Changes in appetite or eating habits
• Headaches, stomachaches, muscle or backaches

that or it might just be my special time of the month... either way. I'm watching it. I actually feel a little bi-polar to be honest, one second i'm fine and then the next i'm either crying or yelling, so I'm pretty sure my hormones are still a little out of whack! 

quick update

This is going to be VERY short, it seems like every time I sit down to get something done Olivia wakes up and starts crying lol it doesn't matter if shes been asleep for 5 mins or an hour! Anyways I just wanted to write down a few of her firsts! Shes smiling like crazy, rolling from her belly to her back and scooting {yes already and yes we know we are in trouble!} She has almost full head control and is already trying to sit up when shes laying on her back!! We have to go back in for another echo on Monday to make sure her murmur is getting smaller because at her 2 month check up they could still hear it. I keep wondering when the hospital bills will stop coming but I don't think they ever will! We had Olivias baby blessing yesterday and it was so wonderful! She was blessed by my dad and we had so much family there to support us!! Anyways I'll try and get a real post up soon!! In the meantime enjoy a couple pictures!  

6 weeks old

I can't believe how fast time has gone by already since Olivia was born!! The days seem to mush together I guess. She is growing so quickly and soon she wont fit in any of her new born cloths :( She thinks she is way bigger then she is and tries to stay up all day long but eventually her little eyes can't stay open any more and she passes out for a few hours and then does it all over again! 

Papa and Gramie bought her a swing this week and she loves it {and so do I} She loves to see whats going on so I love that I can put her in the swing and she can look around until she falls asleep. She is so strong and will probably be sitting up WAY early! She already has amazing head control and loves when we practice sitting in her bumbo seat! She loves her tummy time too and can already do little mini push ups! I have to watch her though because she already wiggles her little self all over the place!! 

We had her newborn pictures taken when she was just 13 days old and they are SO cute!!! 

We went for our first hike over Memorial Day weekend, we didn't realize it was 5 miles and that ended up being a little to long for baby but she did amazing and slept in her pack almost the entire time! 

Then I made an attempt to take our own family pictures and it was a nightmare but something is better then nothing right?! 

I made some subway art that I just need to get printed to hang in her room! 

 

The dresser I repainted, it was blue and from the 60s but now it matches her room perfect!! 

This is Kasey when he was 1 month old...  and this is Olivia I think they look JUST alike!! CRAZY! 

 Had our first "play date" with Doc, he was born the day after Olivia! 

Grandpa Fackrell and Grandpa Mike came over for a visit! 

We have had so many visitors this month and so many great gifts, we can't thank everyone enough!! I only have a month before I have to go back to work so we are going to make sure to have the best next 4 weeks ever!!! 

Done

O am so done today! Done with being a home owner done with being a photog done with everything! My entire life I've always felt like I was the annoying one everyone secretly hated and just wanted to shut up and I hate that feeling, I'm no where even close to where I want to be in life and I'm starting to think I never will be, so I'm trying to get used to the idea of putting down my camera for a desk job ill never love and just dealing with it because bills have to be paid. Growing up sucks.

Before we knew...

Before we knew it was you coming to our family I had two dreams about you. You were the most beautiful little girl with long brown hair and a smile that stole my heart. I asked you your name and you said it was Olivia. When the nurse told us you were a girl I knew just what to name you because you'd already told me your name! How special for me to have met you in my dreams. I love you!

Olivia update

Baby is doing so good today! She'll be off her iv by 7 tonight and just needs to eat a full bottle, so fingers crossed. She ate about 20ML when we were there this morning and 40ML at 1, I'm about to go back to feed her again and hopefully she will be hungry. and drink the entire 60!!! The Dr had heard a murmur the other day and ordered a ECHO it came back today and it looks like her to main arteries in her heart and a little thick and tight but he said normally they will just grow out of that so we'll probably have to get a follow up one in a couple of months.  In the meantime isn't she so cute!

Baby Olivia - A Birth Story

April 25th 2012

4:06 am  6 lbs 13 oz  19 inches long

Baby Olivia showed up a few weeks early! Her due date was May 16th but she couldn't wait any longer to get here! I was spilling protein in my urine so they wanted to go ahead and deliver her early, I really wanted to avoid a C-Section so we got started on some progesterone on Tuesday evening at 5:30 to see if I would start to progress at all. I was having a lot of contractions but nothing big or painful until about 10pm I had a contraction that woke me up almost in tears from pain, but we didn't think much of it and i fell back asleep. 30 mins later my nurse walked in to get me ready for a second dose of progesterone and before she could even say hi my water broke and I was dilated to a 2, we started the pitocin and an hour later I was having super strong contractions about a minute apart, the nurse came in to check me and I was at a 4 and going pretty quick so I asked for my epidural and got it right away, it was working fantastic for about 30-45 mins and then i started feeling my contractions again but very lightly so I just pushed my button for an extra dose {since it takes 20 mins} and thought I'd be good to go, but no such luck the contractions just kept getting worse so we had the anesthesiologist come back in to check it out and everything was fine so he asked what I was dilated to and I was already at an 8. He explained that because my contractions were so strong and quick that was why I could still feel them, he said a normal contraction is about a 3 and mine were probably going at about 7, he offered to put something else in my IV that would make it so i didn't feel anything but I figured with how fast things were going I'd just deal with it. at about 3am on Wednesday morning I was already at a 10 and my nurse called the Dr. We started to push at about 3:25am and 40 mins later at 4:06am Olivia was born! 

I shocked everyone with my delivery. My Dr had told me we could try to push her out but I was very unfavorable since I wasn't dilated at all or effaced, he and the nurses thought I'd get my two doses of progesterone start on the pitocin and be in labor for 12 hours after that and end up in a c-section. It was really nice to prove them wrong!! 

When they took her down for her bath and to check her vitals they found that her blood sugar was at 12.5 {it should be at 100} so they took her back up to the NICU for an IV but said she would probably be doing fine in a few hours and bring her back down. that "few hours" has turned into two days and she is still there. Her levels have been consistent for a day and the Dr ordered for her IV to be weened off within 24 hrs. Shes now just got to get a hang of eating she'll be home! They did start a feeding tube until she learns how to nurse good on her own, and since she hasn't had a lot of food to poop out she is starting to get a little jaundice and they are putting the billy ruben light on her so she can get rid of that before its an issue. The Dr today also heard a +2 grey murmur so he ordered an echo just to make sure its nothing and he said not to be worried about it for now, so I'm not. She's doing so good and I'm hoping to have her home in a day or so. 

She is the most beautiful thing in the world and I love her so much. I love watching Kasey stare at her and love on her, he is going to be such an amazing dad and is already so in love with her! We are both dying to get her home so we can just snuggle her all day long and give her so much love! 

 Brand New

First Family Picture

So much hair!!! 

   

37 weeks and... done?

37 Weeks... well I think thats as far as we're going. We came to the hospital yesterday for a non stress test and a 24 hr portien check, things look good {we haven't got the results yet from the protien} blood pressure is still a little high, blood work looks great and no signs of early labor, BUT the Dr wants to go ahead and deliver anyways. I'm still trying to figure that one out, but whatever. Either way our little watermellon will be here by tomorrow. I remember when I was calling her a little raspberry lol. Kasey is SO ready to be a dad and everyone is really excited, I'm still on the nervous/scared side because i'm not dialated at all so we'll have to cross our fingers and pray that the gel/pill thing they have works and we don't have to have a C-Section, that is my very last option and I will protest against it unless there is a concern for baby or me! 

For now, there are no complications and baby and me are doing great!! 

We'll try to keep everyone updated via the family calling tree and FB :) we do have our cell phones so you can reach us on there but if we don't write back right away hope you understand! 

As soon as babys here you can expect a picture! 

-Love 

Kasey & Ashlee!