Olive's First Halloween

A month or so ago I saw a ladybug costume at Target that I had to get Olive for Halloween.  I knew she would look adorable in it - even if just for a few minutes to snap a picture.

Happy Halloween!!!

Olive's First Outing

It's been awhile since Andrew and I have left the house and done anything together.  On Friday we all finally got out and drove to Pasadena.  We went to a few baby stores and ended up at La Salsa for lunch.  Guess I can't blame the pregnancy anymore for my shrimp taco craving.

All the Men in Olive's Life

Olive is a very lucky little girl.  She has 3 men in her life that will spoil her rotten....and I'm not even counting her dad!

She has Grandpa Dan.

Papa Mel.

And Grandpa Chris.

Pretty lucky lady, if you ask me.

Glamour Shot - 2 Weeks

Olive Harper Cahn - 2 Weeks

Olive's 2nd Trip to the Doctor

We had Olive's 2 week checkup scheduled for Friday, but ended up going in Thursday.  For the last few days she has been projectile vomiting and doesn't seem very interested in eating.  Of course, I worried she wasn't getting enough food and that she was sick.  Thankfully the doctor gave her a clean bill of health.  She weighed 7lbs 11oz which means that she is gaining weight and getting enough food.  As far as the vomiting - the doctor thinks I might be feeding her TOO much.

Does that look like the face of a sick baby?  I love it when she smiles in her sleep!

Olive's First Stroller Ride

A few days ago, Andrew and I decided we needed to get out of the house. We loaded Olive up into her new stroller that Grandma Cahn bought her, and headed outside for a walk.  Unfortunately we didn't get far.  Olive woke up and was not happy.  We quickly headed back home in order to feed her. I will say this: Our stroller is AWESOME.  It is super easy to maneuver and looks cool too!

Mommy needs Sleep

The hardest part of having a baby is the lack of sleep.  I used to get at least 8 hours before Olive arrived - now I'm lucky if I get 4.  I try to take a nap in the afternoon, but sometimes it doesn't work out and I end up passing out with her on the couch.  I have to take it when I can get it!

Olive's Busy Social Calendar

Since being home Olive has had many visitors who couldn't wait to see her.  We haven't been able to get out of the house, so its been nice having friends and family over.

Our first visitor was Grandma Melodie.  She ran errands, made dinner, and even helped give Olive a bath!

Then Christine and Garrett.

Then Grandma Carolyn who helped all day and even made us a delicious pasta dinner.

Then Molly and Tim.

Then my friend Poppie, although I don't have a picture of her and the baby.

Then Uncle Todd and his girlfriend Liz.

Then Auntie Lindsay.

She has been a very, very busy and popular baby.

Hungry Eyes

Andrew and I have been trying for days to get a good picture of Olive with her eyes open.  It hasn't been easy since most of the time she is eating or sleeping.  Daddy finally snapped a few pictures of her when she was awake!  You can't tell from the picture but her eyes are blue.  I'm hoping they stay that way.

Man Down!!!

This morning Olive had a little accident on daddy.  He had just changed her diaper and was bringing her into the kitchen for a bath.  Unfortunately she was naked and peed all over him!  Oooooops.

Glamour Shot - 1 Week

Olive Harper Cahn - 1 Week Old

dairy queen

little olive has been growing like a weed.  a 1 week old weed that is.  kim and i have been adjusting pretty well, but the lack of sleep is difficult for kim.  naps during the day can only help so much at 3am, and jr is really only interested in milk, which i can't help with.  until now.

we broke out the breast pump today and got 3 oz!  that allowed kim to take a longer nap this afternoon, and if all does well, i should be able to do one of the night feedings tonight, allowing kim to get some well earned sleep.

Olive's First Car Ride

I couldn't resist taking a video of Olive when we brought her home from the hospital.  She looked so cute in her little car seat.  I had Andrew put on the same music I would always listen to in the car when I was pregnant with her.  I think she remembers it!

Olive's 1st Baths

On Tuesday my mom came over and helped us with Olive.  She went to the store and Target to get us food and things for the baby.  I don't think our fridge has ever been this full!! After she made us a delicious chicken dinner, we decided to get her help with a sponge bath.  For whatever reason I have always been extremely nervous about bathing her.

Andrew, of course, has no fears when it comes to anything.  I let him and my mom do the dirty work and I took pictures!

On Friday, Olive's umbelical cord came off.  Andrew and I decided to try our hand at giving her a real bath!  Even though I was nervous, Andrew and I were a pretty good team.

Olive LOVES the water, just like her mommy.  Once again, here is daddy protecting her modesty.

Olive's 1st Accident

Today Olive spit up all over her cute outfit and mommy.  I was burping her and whoooosh!  Believe it or not, I still haven't changed out of that top. Now that I have the cutest little baby girl, clothes don't seem quite as important.

Baby Bump - 41 Weeks (with baby)

Yesterday was the 41 week marker.  Granted, we had the baby on Saturday so there is no more baby bump!  I thought it would be cute to post a picture of mommy and Olive for our weekly photo op. Andrew and I are both so happy that she is here.  We find something new to love about her every day.

Chilling at Sunlight Place

It's been 3 days since we were released from the hospital and we are so happy to be home with Olive.  Andrew and I are still trying to figure out what works best for us so that we are rested and happy.  So far it seems to help when I take a nap during the day.

Basically we are just loving Olive all day long.  It is hard not to hold her 24 hours a day - she is just too cute.  Thankfully Olive is breastfeeding away and everything seems to be working!  It is pretty amazing seeing her look up at me with her pretty blue eyes.  I'm hoping they stay blue!

Daddy is in love with her as you can see from the above picture.  It is so nice having him around to help.  I can't imagine doing it on my own!

Daddy Lending a Helping Hand

Our second night in the hospital was a little more rough than the first. Olive wanted to be held the entire time so Andrew and I took turns with her. I, of course, couldn't sleep at all because I just wanted to make sure she was ok the entire time. Andrew didn't have that same problem as you can see from the video above. Listen to his snores!! I was actually worried he would wake the baby.

Home Sweet Home

Monday afternoon we were discharged from the hospital.  It was nice being taken care of by all the nurses, but I was happy to be going home. Olive passed all of her tests and I was given a clean bill of health.

Here we are leaving the hospital.  I still can't believe they sent us home with her.  Neither Andrew and I have any clue what we are doing, but I'm so glad we are doing it together!

Believe me when I say that the car ride home was the longest ride of our life.  Andrew would normally call himself an excellent driver, but even he admitted that he was scared driving us all home.  Thankfully we made it safe and sound.

Unfortunately we ended up at the ER that night.  Olive spit up a little blood around 11pm and of course Andrew and I were worried sick.  We called our pediatrician and he recommended going to the emergency room. Being in a room full of sick people with a 2 day old baby is a mothers worst nightmare.  I somehow convinced them to let us wait in a separate room. 3 hours later we finally saw the doctor.  He couldn't pinpoint the exact problem, but thought it was most likely from breast feeding.  There were no other problems after that and Olive has been happily feeding away!  Surprisingly, we were all able to sleep for 4 hours after our crazy night.

Introducing Olive Harper Cahn

Introducing Olive Haper Cahn.
Date of Birth: October 16th, 2010
Time: 7:01pm
Weight: 7 lbs 5 oz
Length: 19 inches

Birthing and other Adventures

It is hard to describe exactly how amazing the whole birthing experience was.  Even with the few things we had against us - I wouldn't have changed a thing.

It was apparent at dinner on Friday night that I was having consistent contractions.  I still wasn't positive that it was the real deal, but it certainly seemed like it!  After arriving home we decided to just chill out and see what happened.  Around midnight the contractions grew stronger and I could no longer sleep.  I even had to start using my breathing techniques! The only comfortable place was in Olives room so I rocked in the glider while daddy slept on the floor.  After about 3-4 hours, with the contractions coming every 2 - 3 minutes, we thought it was best to head to the hospital. I took a shower and couldn't even be bothered with picking out an outfit so I settled on something comfy. (For the record, I never wear sweats)

After checking into the hospital, we called my mom and Andrews mom so they could head over.  We weren't sure how long or short the whole thing would last, but wanted them to be there.  The contractions at that point started coming long and hard so I used the one breathing technique that worked for me - eyes shut and slow easy breaths.  Of course our nurse thought I was crazy for not doing an epidural right away, but I wanted to see how far I could get.  It didn't take very long since around 9am I was utterly exhausted and only at 4cm.  Between the lack of sleep and the consistent pain of the contractions I finally couldn't resist.  Thankfully our anesthesiologist, Eduardo, was amazing.  He was the sweetest man and continued checking on me throughout the entire day.  Let me just say this: I do not know why anyone would NOT go for an epidural.  I could still feel my legs and feel the tightening of the contractions - but without any of the pain.  It was truly amazing and I would recommend it to everyone.
(note: the nurse that thought I was crazy for not doing the epidural was the same nurse that we had when we were first admitted into the hospital for the induction 2 weeks ago.  She was the one that told our doctor that Olive's heart rate was decelerating which in turn lead to the pitocin, etc etc.  Carolyn and my mom referred to her as "Nurse Ratched")
(note 2: when push came to shove "Nurse Ratched was actually very good and had our best interest at heart)

Thankfully after the epidural I was able to relax and rest up for the big event.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to relax completely because the nurse kept commenting on how Olive's heart rate wasn't ideal.  In the back of my mind I was worried I would end up with a C-Section and my birth plan would go out the window.  Granted we ended up doing quite a few things that weren't in our birth plan. Our main thing was to go with the flow and that included being flexible.

After the epidural my contractions weren't getting much stronger so the nurse wanted to move things along and recommended starting a bit of pitocin.  I was opposed to it at first and convinced her to let us see if the contractions got any stronger after an hour.  After an hour or so of trying things on my own and not getting any further, we decided to go with a little pitocin.  As soon as we started it my contractions kicked in and things started moving along very quickly.

Another unexpected thing was that we hadn't met the doctor on call.  She was one of the only doctors we hadn't had an appointment with since she works primarily at Cedars.  There is something a little nerve racking about not knowing the doctor who will most likely deliver your baby!  When she came to check on me around 2pm, I knew we were in good hands.  She was very sweet and gave me some good news - I was 6 centimeters dilated and thought I would deliver before 7pm.  I decided to save up all of my energy for the delivery so I tried to rest some more.  Even though I had the epidural I could still feel the contractions starting and stopping, just not the pain.  And even better - I could still feel Olive moving inside of me!

At  around 5:45pm the nurse checked me and asked us where we thought we were?  I, being the more positive of parents, thought maybe 8 cm. Andrew thought 7 cm.  It turned out we were almost at 10 and would be pushing in no time!  I have to admit I was a little nervous but 45 minutes later we were ready!  Since we didn't have any drama throughout the entire laboring process, Andrew thought it would be funny to do a picture where I was choking him.  We took the above picture between pushes. Thirty minutes later Olive was out and in my arms.  The doctor couldn't believe that it didn't take longer. She had told me only hours earlier that first time moms could take up to 3 hours to push.  Um...not an athletically inclined Oliveira.

After holding her for a little while she had to go to the nursery to get cleaned up.  Normally they do that in the delivery room, but there was an emergency with another baby and the nurse needed us to go to the nursery.  Thankfully Daddy stayed with Olive and they assured me that they would be back soon.  Unfortunately it took a lot longer than expected and after more than hour I wanted both Olive and Andrew back with me. The night nurse went to see what was taking so long and came back with both!  I had already moved into my postpartum room and had anxious grandparents that wanted to see the baby.

Here is Grandma Carolyn and Grandma Rufer with Olive.  They were both so excited to finally meet her!  They had been patiently waiting all day.

And here I am with my new daughter.  It seems so crazy that I am officially a mom.  Olive is absolutely perfect.

better living through chemistry

no one has ever questioned kim's pain tolerance or her athletically inclined-ness.  well, people may have questioned both of those assertions, but let me tell you, she has a very high pain threshold. earlier today her contractions were about 3 minutes apart lasting 45 seconds.  she went on like that for 5 hours.  that is 60 contractions that she rated 6-7 out of 10 on her pain scale.  and didn't complain about it once.

when we were in the hospital they were concerned she would be over-tired for having to deal with that for another 10 hours.  so they recommended she get an epidural.  kim was against it because she knew she could stick out the pain, but eventually decided that saving energy for the end of the day was a good idea.

after making a new bff with the anesthesiologist, edwardo, kim was amazed by the epidural.  i think her exact quote was, 'why would you bother with the pain when you can just have this?  it's awesome.'

and there you have it.  pain thresholds are great and all, but when you have chemistry on your side - you can't lose.

the anointed hour has arrived!

as it turns out, there is some truth behind the salad myth, because almost exactly 4 hours after finishing it, kim went into labor!  we were at dinner with kim's parents when it became apparent that the contractions weren't a passing bit of indigestion.  kim wanted me to note that we took a picture to commemorate the dinner, but it was so badly out of focus that it was not-blog-worthy.

the plan was to try and sleep through the night and go in first thing saturday morning.  it was a good plan - but nature didn't exactly cooperate with our wishes.  around midnight kim woke up with some pretty strong and consistent pain.  the sort of pain that you can't sleep through or really tolerate lying in bed.  so we got up and tried to make the best of it, but at 4:30am we decided to go into the hospital and start the magic.

that is kim's best hospital gown glamour pose.

Labor Inducing Salad?

A few months ago I started researching natural ways to induce labor.  I'm a planner and I just wanted to know all the old wives tales and other methods that worked for some people.  Upon researching I found a restaurant in the valley called Caioti Pizza Cafe that has a salad that pregnant women swear by.

After passing my due date yesterday I figured, why not?  So Andrew, my mom, and I trekked north to try it.  There were two other pregnant ladies there doing the same as me!  

Here I am shoveling it in.  I tried to eat as much as I could and even took the left overs home, just in case I needed it later.

The craziest thing is that around 5:45pm I started having consistent contractions.  Nothing major, but I am thinking that something is brewing.

More updates to follow...