Olivia's Big Day

So Olivia had a very big day today! Last Thursday night she had an overnight oxygen test to see if we could finally take off her oxygen tubes. Her first 2 tests didn't go well... she failed them quickly. So I wasn't very optimistic about her passing this time. But about 20 minutes into the test she was still holding her oxygen rate in the 90s! I was feeling relatively hopefully that this might finally be the night. And sure enough, we got the official word from her doctor that she passed the test "with flying colors"!!! So as of this morning, Olivia is wireless! It was weird carrying her around today without having to drag the oxygen cord behind me, making sure I didn't step on it, or keeping the cat from playing with it. And, she's even cuter... I hardly thought that was possible!

We also had a pediatrician visit today. In the last 2 weeks Olivia gained a full 1 lb!!! Her doctor was very impressed... she went from being in the 3rd percentile to the 10th percentile which, according to her doctor, is a huge jump! She also had her first round on vaccinations, which I wasn't ready for. I thought that we'd have to make a separate appointment for her shots... one that I was not looking forward to. But her doctor said we could do them today or make an appointment for next week. I figured it would be better to just get them over with... and this way I would only have a short period of time to stress and freak out about it! She did so amazingly well... she did cry pretty hard with each of the 3 shots in her thighs... it made me tear up! But in about a minute she was done crying and within 5 minutes she was back in her carseat asleep! So impressive... such a rock star today!!!

6 Week Doctor Visit

Last week I had my 6 week follow up visit with my OB. I was anxious for this visit because I actually wanted to get on the scale... which is a first for me. But my pre-pregnancy jeans were starting to feel a bit big on me so I wanted to find out how much of my pregnancy weight I had lost. Not only have I lost ALL of my pregnancy weight, but an additional 6 lbs!!! I was thrilled! Now I just need to continue this and lose some more weight! I just wish the weather was a bit warmer so I would have more opportunities to take Olivia out for a walk.

My doctor was still able to feel my fibroids that I developed during pregnancy so I decided to get an ultrasound to see what is going on with them as well as the cyst that is on my ovary. So this week I had the ultrasound. Unfortunately, the fibroids have grown in size. Although my doctor (and I) are not that concerned about them since they are on the outside of the uterus (and therefore should be an issue when trying to get pregnant again). But the cyst on my ovary should have disappeared by now and instead it grew in size. I'm a bit concerned about this, so we decided to re-do the ultrasound in 2 months and see what's going on. If it gets larger, then we may have to remove it. So we'll see what happens!!!

The Flowers Visit!

Bethany, Ryan and Shaye came to Colorado Springs this past weekend to meet their niece/ cousin Olivia! We had such a great visit! Shaye is growing so much and was so much fun to have around (except for a few meltdowns!) Shaye loved seeing Nate again... although I'm not sure the feeling was mutual. Last time they visited she was 10 months old and only crawling, so he could escape her by going upstairs. Now she's running all over the place and could follow him upstairs, so Nate had to get more strategic in his hiding! She did great though, and was so cute when she would pet him or let him smell her hand.

We had a pretty low key weekend, mostly just hanging out at home. But we had a few outings to Downtown and Manitou Springs. Shaye got her first look and feel of snow and she loved it! She even got to sled down the driveway! It was so much fun!!! On Saturday night, Bethany's former roomate from San Diego (who now lives in Aurora) came down for dinner. It was great seeing Julie and getting to catch up! Bethany and Ryan made a fantastic dinner and even bananas foster for dessert! Julie was kind enough to take a picture of all of us...

It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone... I get so emotional now when my family leaves. It's really difficult being far away now that Olivia is here. I wish we could just see eveyone whenever we wanted! Maybe someday... in the meantime, we'll have lots of web calls and since I'm not working, I'll try to visit as often as possible! I can't wait to see them again!!

1 Month Old!!!

Today Olivia is 1 month old! I can't believe it! It seems like much longer since I was delivering her! She's doing so great... at her pediatrician visit a week ago, she had gained 8 oz over the previous week which is awesome! The doctor had anticipated 3-4 oz so she was thrilled with 8 oz! She's also grown 1/2" since birth putting her at 20". She's doing a great job feeding... we still are doing a combo of nursing and formula. I'm still waiting for my full milk supply to come in... both my doctor and the lactation woman at the hospital said it could be until her original due date (which is this week) before my milk comes in, so hopefully sometime soon!

We also had a cardiologist follow up appointment this week. All of the issues she had in the NICU are resolving themselves on their own either closing up or already closed. I can't remember all the acronyms of all the parts that were issues, but the cardiologist was pleased with her progress. He also suggested increasing her oxygen in hopes of getting her off it sooner. So in talking with him and the pediatrician, we have increased her oxygen level and will be testing her off the oxygen more frequently... I'm hoping it might only be a few more weeks before she's off the oxygen, but who knows! The doctors don't seem to give us any idea up front which is frustrating! I'll just be glad to have her off so that I don't have to tow around the cord all the time, and try to keep Nate from playing with it like it's a toy!

I'm so thrilled she's doing so well. She's such a sweet and calm baby which is great! She seems to sleep through most anything, and she's been doing pretty well sleeping at night and going for longer stretches between feedings, which I appreciate immensely! Our next pediatrician visit is next week for a weight check so we'll see how much bigger she's gotten!!!

Olivia is Home!

So I'm a little behind on the blogging... but understandable because Olivia is HOME! She was able to come home one week ago after spending her first 2 weeks of life in the NICU. She finally got a hang of the feeding thing and started gaining some weight. Maggie and my Dad helped me get her home from the hospital and then it officially began!!!

So far Olivia's been great... very content, a great sleeper and really improving on her eating! She really only fusses when she's hungry... doesn't even fuss when she's got a wet or dirty diaper! I'm so thankful to have my parents here to help with her and help with things around the house. It enables me to catch a nap on many afternoons which really helps!

So now my days are filled with feedings, diaper changes and my favorite... holding my daughter! We've introduced her to a few people who have come over and of course they all think she's adorable... who could disagree?!

Olivia's Nursery

We've got Olivia's nursery about 90% done now. Thanks to my parents help (it couldn't have been done without them!!) we got the crib, dresser, changing table and glider put together. We also got some cute decorative items put together today, so it's got more of it's "beach" theme. We didn't get the chance to paint or put up the wallpaper border I had hoped, but with Olivia's unexpected early arrival we decided to just skip it. I might order the wallpaper border later and put it up. In the meantime, I think the room turned out pretty cute. We still need a few more decorative items (we need some items for inside the boxes above the crib, her name in wood lettering for above the changing table and some organizing baskets), but I finally feel comfortable bring Olivia home to her room.

Here are pictures taken today of her room:

Our First Family Photo

Here is our first family photo taken by my Dad in the NICU... Olivia temp was a bit low that day so she's got the hat on!

Olivia Update

Olivia is doing really well! We finally have her actual pediatrician looking after her now... she's been out of town over the holidays, so yesterday was the first time she was able to examine Olivia. She said she's actually doing better than expected for her age, which made me feel great! I've been frustrated that things are taking longer than expected... I thought for sure we'd have her home by now! All of her issues have pretty much been resolved... now we are just working on getting her feeding exclusively from a bottle or from me. Our pediatrician says that there is a "Feeding Fairy" that visits the hospital... babies tend to go from being a bit lethargic about feeding to "getting it" and taking everything down practically overnight.

So we feel that the Feeding Fairy has done a fly-by on Olivia because she officially nursed for the first time yesterday! It was amazing!!! I had been trying to breast feed her several times and she would just latch and give maybe a handful of sucks, but that's about all I could get out of her. Then suddenly yesterday I tried again, and she just continued to suck and suck! I was thrilled!!! She nursed for 10 minutes in the afternoon and then 20 minutes that afternoon! Today she nursed again for nearly 20 minutes! I feel like she's finally got this nursing thing figured out. Now we just need to get her to be able to nurse from me and also finish the remaining amount she needs from the bottle. My milk has not fully come in yet, so I'm not able to provide all the milk she needs yet. Now that she's nursing I'm hoping it'll come in soon, although the pediatrician said that it could take until her original due date (February 1st) before she is really nursing full time. So my patience is being tested and we just pray that she won't have to be in the NICU much longer!

What's in a Name?

I realized after I posted my last blogging announcing the arrival of Olivia that I forgot to tell how we finally arrived at a name. Matt and I had been talking about potential baby names for a couple of years actually and never could agree on a single name. So when I got pregnant we suddenly had to get serious about names. Still we really didn't agree on any names... there were a few we each chose that the other "didn't hate". I had brought up the name Olivia at one point and it was one he "didn't hate", but at the time he wasn't in love with it either.

Our other issue was the middle name. Matt feels that a middle name should be a family surname. I don't have an issue with that, but feel that a family surname seems to fit better on a boy. How many girls do you hear with a family surname as a middle name? I don't know any. I really wanted to have Mae as a girl's middle name for many years. My maternal grandmother's name was Bettymae... I think that is a bad "old lady" name, but have always liked the "Mae" part of it. She passed away in 1996 and is the only grandparent of mine to have passed away. Shortly after she passed away I decided that someday I would love to have Mae as my daughter's middle name in her honor.

Finally in October I brought up Olivia again, and when I said it outloud with Mae, it sounded really nice together. We both suddenly thought that was really beautiful and felt right. We sat on it for a day or two, but decided officially on our 1st wedding anniversary to name our daughter Olivia Mae. We have been so excited at the response people have had to her name. I can't wait to tell Olivia all about her great-grandmother and what a very special person she was!

Olivia Mae Bowdish Has Arrived!!!

Matt and I are THRILLED to announce the arrival of Olivia Mae Bowdish on December 30, 2010 at 7:17am. She arrived 5 weeks early much to the surprise of her parents and family! She weighed in at 6lbs, 2oz and was 19.5" long.

On Wednesday, December 29, my mucus plus came out about mid-morning. According to my book, that meant that labor might start as early as a few days or a few weeks. So I called my parents and warned them that I probably wouldn't make it to January 19th, which was when they originally planned on flying out. But much to my surprise that night, my water broke! I was using the bathroom when I noticed I couldn't stop or control liquid coming out. So I yelled down to Matt to come upstairs and said, "So what happens when your water breaks?" I think the question threw him off... especially once he told me and I told him that I'm pretty sure my water was in the process of breaking! So we called my doctor, and she agreed that it probably was breaking.

So after a quick call to my parents and Matt's Mom, we packed a quick bag and headed off to the hospital. Luckily my doctor happen to be the doctor on call that night which was a great relief to me. She decided that we needed to induce labor because once the water breaks, the baby is exposed to the outside world and the higher the risk for infection. After being induced, I started feeling contractions about half an hour later... but thankfully I really seems to move along! When we arrived at the hospital I was 1cm dialated, but not long after being induced, I was suddenly at 3-4cm! At that point, I was ready for the epidural. What a wonderful drug... expect that after about 2 hours it wore off for me and having the doctor come back in to give me more didn't really do anything at that point. So the last hour or so was really hard feeling those really strong contractions and then pushing Olivia out. Poor Matt really had a hard time watching me in so much pain. But finally (and surprisingly more quickly than I had anticipated), Olivia arrived about 10 hours after my water broke.

I had always said that I didn't want to see the baby until they cleaned her up and everyone thought I would change my mind. They set her on my stomach, but true to my word, I didn't really look at her. I wanted my first true look at her to be when she was cleaned off and wrapped up! She was just beautiful and it was so worth the wait!!! Matt and I were full of tears finally getting to see our daughter in person! I only got to hold her a few minutes before she needed to be taken to the newborn nursery.

On her way up to the nursery her breathing became more labored so they decided to move her to the NICU where she has been since. At first she was on oxygen, which is very common for premies in altitude. But she has been off the oxygen the last couple of days now. I remained on the Labor and Delivery floor for 24 hours because they needed to watch my blood pressure levels which got elevated during delivery. So I had to wait until I was moved up to Maternity to see Olivia. In the meantime, Matt spent lots of time with her and talking with the medical staff about her progress. Getting to finally hold her was so special...

Olivia's main issues now are her high biliruben numbers, which is a waste product for red blood cells, and is common in premies, especially in high altitude. She needs to be under 9, and as of this morning she was up at 16. To remedy this, she is put under bright bili-lites which she didn't like because she had to be unswaddled and couldn't be held. She loves being held, so thankfully the last day or so she's had a smaller bili-lits that can be put across her back and that way she can be swaddled and we can hold her.

The other issue is her feeding. She has to be able to feed exclusively from either the bottle or breast and so far that's been a problem. Mostly because babies with high biliruben numbers that are put under the lights are made to feel sluggish and therefore don't feel like feeding. So once her bili numbers come down, I think she figure out this feeding thing and hopefully will come home!!! We can't wait to have her home and are so thrilled that she's arrived!