Author: mrsbarnes

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Well we’re another week down! I loved having Adrian home this week. It was so great having him there to help with the little ones! We celebrated with friends on Saturday. It was great seeing everyone again, it had been awhile since we’d been able to see our friends. It was also fun showing off Olivia!!

Sunday was Valentine’s day! I spent the whole day with my 3 loves! Adrian let me sleep in while he took care of the girls. We went out to lunch and then walked around the Spectrum. It was very crowded but it was nice to be out of the house. We never got a double stroller so we were armed with two strollers 🙂  I was amazed that See’s candies was not crowded so we went in and hand picked a box of chocolates, YUM! Valentine’s day has evolved into something so different from our “couple” days. I’ll have to start thinking of fun family traditions to start with my girls, like making heart shaped pancakes or something like that.

Jillian caught a cold this week. This was not fun. She ultimately  passed it along to Adrian and me. It’s amazing that I went 9 months without getting sick, while others around me were, and one week after giving birth I get sick! I think it has something to do with being sleep deprived! Although Olivia is a great sleeper, at night I get 3-4 hours in between feedings!

We took the girls to the doctor’s office today. Olivia was having diarrhea and I was a little scared of dehydration. It turns out it may just be because I have been producing too much milk. She is up to 6 lbs 12 oz and looking very healthy.  The doctor also said that Jillian is fine, just congested. I have to spray saline drops in her nose and keep the humidifier on when she sleeps. I’m hoping she gets better soon. (I hope I get better soon too).

Today marks Olivia being one week old! We’re surviving pretty well since we have so much help! I’m going to hate it when Adrian returns to work on Monday.  Jillian seems pretty oblivious to the baby. She knows Olivia is a baby and she’ll give her kisses. She even helps throwing away baby diapers. Throwing things in the trash is one of Jillian’s favorite things. This morning Adrian caught her throwing my mom’s garlic press in the trash. We think this is where our TV remote ended up.

There was some bad timing on Jillian’s part. She caught a cold! She was up coughing all last night. It’s so sad when your baby gets sick and there isn’t much you can do besides offering comfort. She does really like it when we rub Vic’s on her chest. I’m hoping that since I am exclusively nursing Olivia, she won’t get sick. Adrian is a little bummed that he won’t get to take Jillian to music tomorrow. He misses seeing her interact in the music class.

We welcomed Olivia Paige Barnes to our family on February 2^nd, 2010.

We arrived at the hospital at 7 AM for a scheduled induction.  My water was broken at 9 AM. The contractions started to become more and more intense so I was given the epidural. The epidural seemed to have worked because the contractions were not as intense however I still felt them a little. I just assumed that was normal, I don’t know what I was thinking because with Jillian I didn’t feel a thing! Well, as the contractions increased so did the pain. It became very apparent that the epidural wasn’t working right. I was pressing the button every 15 minutes or so to try to increase the pain meds, nothing worked. The anesthesiologist came back to give me a larger dose, this only worked on the left half of my body. The contractions became stronger and stronger. This was the most pain I had ever felt in my entire life. All these women who chose to do natural child birth are CRAZY! I can’t understand why someone would elect to have that much pain inflicted on themselves? My pain was apparently even too hard to watch, my mom had to leave.  The anesthesiologist came back in and re-inserted the epidural. Finally the contraction pain subsided. Unfortunately, the need to push came right away. This was almost as bad as the contractions themselves. The nurses had called my doctor; she had gone home for the day. It only took her about 15 minutes to arrive but it felt like a lifetime. When I was finally able to push, I was exhausted.  I had a hard time pushing. Olivia was born at 7:19 PM on February 2^nd, 2010. When she came out her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. Fortunately once the cord was cut Olivia started crying, there was no damage done to her breathing. The doctor said that the wrapped cord is what made the pushing harder.  Just my luck!

Olivia was so alert right after birth; I got to look into her beautiful (slate grey) eyes. I can’t wait to see what her eye color will be J!  Olivia’s weight at birth was 6lbs 1oz. Her height was 18.5 inches. She is absolutely perfect! It was so neat to see the similarities between her and Jillian. When Olivia cried I could totally see Jillian. As the hours went by I noticed more and more all of Olivia’s individual beautiful traits. She was able to nurse right away; she is a very good eater.  Everything else went smoothly at the hospital.

On Thursday the nurse found that Olivia may have jaundice, but the pediatrician had already come by earlier and couldn’t come back to check. So we saw our doctor today. Everything is fine!! We were excited to not have to go through phototherapy like we did with Jillian.

Our first day back home went great! Jillian was super excited to have mommy and daddy home again! She gave Olivia a kiss and wanted to point out her eyes, nose, and mouth. It was very cute. I don’t think she is truly aware of what has happened. She has just been going about her business as usual. Which is great!! She does want Adrian more than me though; she’s become a Daddy’s Girl for sure!! I think it’s because he’s had to take over so much of the parenting duties during my pregnancy, and continues to do so still. I am so blessed that he is an amazing father and husband!

I’m trying to get as much rest as I can with having a newborn and a toddler in the house. Thank goodness I have such a strong support system here at home! My family is the absolute best!

Click on the picture below to visit our growing album of Olivia.

Olivia Paige Barnes

After having a conversation with the doctor we’ve decided to be induced on February 2nd.  The doctor originally wanted to do it this Sunday but I needed the 2 extra days to wrap my mind around it.  I’m not too worried about the baby being here early because she’ll be 39 weeks and 2 days and a  baby is considered full term at 37 weeks. Jillian was born at 36 weeks 4 days and she was perfectly fine, well she did have Jaundice but that only lasted a week.

So I will go to the hospital at 7 am on Tuesday and the process will begin. I hope the labor doesn’t last too long. I was  in labor with Jillian 15 hours from the first contraction to the time she was born. So I’m crossing my fingers that this one will be less.

This morning I woke up having contractions!! They were not fun at all, they made me nauseous, it was hard to eat breakfast. I had 3 really painful ones but the last one was at 9:30am, they stopped after that. Luckily I had a Dr.’s appointment today. My mom drove me in case I had another one on the road. She said the contractions were the baby getting into position. She’s dropped a bit, and I’m starting to dilate. She doesn’t think the baby will come before the due date, so that means 2 1/2 weeks of contractions! Ugh!! After my appointment I took a bath and went to sleep. Thank God for my mom! She’s the best! I slept from 11:00am until 3:15 pm. It made me feel so much better!

Jillian’s music class started back up today. We were super excited! She’s really come a long way, we started when she was 3 months old. She gets up and dances, claps and “sings” along.

Here is the link to our music class. It’s so much fun! Check it out!!!

#mce_temp_url#

So today I watched as Jillian practiced her tantrum. Haha! She crouches down to throw herself on the ground. Then she covers her face, says oww, and starts to fake cry. I wonder if she knows I’m watching.

Since our annual passes expire on the 27th I wanted to get at least one more trip in! I also still had $30 in Disney credit to use.  I loved that we got money on our birthdays last year!! This year Disney got wise and the only incentive for annual passholders with their new give a day get a day promotion is an all day fast track pass. No money 🙁  It’s okay though, we probably won’t be returning to Disneyland until the new baby is at least 6 months old.

This morning when I was getting ready I got another dose of third trimester problems. I couldn’t tie my shoes!!! I wanted to wear walking shoes to be comfortable but just putting them on was the hardest thing I’ve had to do in a while!!! I felt like a contortionist trying to find the best position to reach those darn laces. Ugh, no more laces until the baby comes!!!

It is amazing to me to see how much Jillian has grown. When we first started going to Disney she wasn’t quite aware what was going on. She like to look at the lights and that was about it. Now a year later she dances with the music, gets super excited to see Mickey Mouse, and loves to point out the animals and flying things in Small World.