Olivia @ 2 weeks old

Cece on her first day of 2nd grade:)

Selena Gomez Concert

Grandma and Papa Culver got Cece tickets to the Selena Gomez concert for her B-Day! What a great present. Cecelia was so excited to be able to go. The concert was at the Werner Park and Aaron and Aunt Christina took the ladies to the show. We decorated plain Black tank tops for the concert. Each tank top says I heart Selena. The girls were so proud of their shirts. Thanks Hobby Lobby for having all the supplies for the girls to come up with really creative ideas for their tank tops!

Oh baby:)

Olivia had her 2 week check up. She is now up to 7 lbs, 4 oz. Breast milk is doing this baby good. She is starting to really fill out and even some of her newborn clothes are getting snug. They did hear a clicking in her right hip when stressing it so we had to go up to Bergan for an ultrasound on her her hip. We anticipated that a sonographer would do the ultrasound and the radiologist would be reading it and then we would have to wait for the results, but fortunatley, the radiologist came in and actually did the ultrasound herself and walked us through the ultrasound and we were pleased that her hips came back as perfect. Aaron assured me for days prior to the test that she was fine (always the optimist) but I was pretty scared. She is such a good baby. She loves to snuggle and cuddle and she's starting to make more eye contact and Aaron can get her to smile as well. He gives her kisses and she loves it. Her favorite place to be is sleeping on your chest or eating) which requires her to be on my chest. Aaron got her to take her first bottle of pumped milk. I'm in a wedding next weekend and will be away from her for over 12 hours so she needs to be able to take a bottle...not only for the wedding but for when I return to work as well. We had tried about 4 different bottles and nipples before I realized that my breast pump came with a bottle and nipple that is supposed to mimic the breast. It's a First Years brand "nurser". I'll admit it looks a little wierd but she takes it and that's whats important.

Cecelia started at her new school and loves it. We all love her teacher and principle, she's making friends already and she is happy. And that makes me happy. I went to curriculum night last night and her teacher told me what a strong student and joy Cecelia is in the class. Cece starts gymnastics next week. She's really excited. I can't wait to see her doing what she loves again.

They are making progress on the house!!! The basement is dug and poured. Our curb grind is done and the driveway and plumbing should be done this week. And the lumber is being delivered in a few days. Once the lumber arrives, the house is going to fly up. We already met a few of our neighbors and we really like them. The couple next door have a few kids and a baby that is just a 3 months old so Olivia should grow up with a friend her age right next door. So excited to move! We obtained a few boxes and I've started packing what were not using. But we have a lot more to do.

Olivia Camille

Our precious little girl has finally arrived as scheduled:) She arrived at 5:58 P.M. on August 4th, 2011. She weighed 6 lbs, 9 0z. and was 21.5 inches long. The labor and delivery couldn't have been easier. We had not 1 but 2 of the best, nicest nurses. We went in at about 7:00 A.M. for the induction and by 8:00 A.M. I was all checked in, hooked up to the monitors and the pitocin was started. Contractions were totally manageable and our nurse began asking me about getting an epidural by 10:45. I told her I wanted to wait it out and kind of see how bad they would get and how much I could handle. She just advised me that they would get worse after my water was broken and that she didn't want them to get so bad that I was cursing at her. LOL. Within 15 minutes the contractions got so bad that I was asking out loud why anyone would want to do or could do this without an epidural. It was pretty bad back labor and there's no "breathing through" back labor. In fact it hurts to breath so all I wanted to do was hold my breath and lay very still and that obviously wasn't going to work for long. So by 11:15 I was getting my epidural and right after that my Doctor came in to break my water. My goodness was there a lot of amniotic fluid. It's the weirdest sensation too because I was numb but could still feel a sensation of water coming out. The afternoon was spent hanging out with Aaron and my two older sisters, Nikki and Charity. At about 4:00 I began to feel some pressure. This of course was right about the time that Sara and my best friend Karissa came up to see me. So everybody left the room while the nurses emptied my bladder and checked me and sure enough, I was complete and ready to push. It's so weird how quickly everything happens from there. Residents came in, 2 nurses for the baby came in, my sister Charity and Aaron were in the room and every one else waited outside, apparently with ears to the door. My doctor was called but was in rush hour traffic so we started pushing and did some practice contractions. The baby's heart rate was dropping with some of the contractions and since we had time they would have me push once and the breath through the rest of the contraction so we had extra time to go slow, and this also helped me so to prevent any tearing or the need for an episiotomy. All together I pushed for less than an hour, probably even less than that, maybe through 10 contractions? Aaron joked and told me that I made labor look easy. Olivia came out with her hand next to her face and her umbilical cord wrapped around her feet. She is so funny because every single ultrasound we got, we were unable to get a good picture of her face because her hands were right up by her face, then she comes out with her hand by her face, then with her first pictures, we couldn't get her to keep her hands down!!! My sister Charity cut the cord since Aaron can't handle that kind of stuff. We hadn't picked out a name but we talked about that if she came out with dark hair, that we would name her Olivia, and sure enough she has dark hair so I knew as soon as I saw her that Olivia was her name. She does have dark hair but in the sun light it looks lighter. Cecelia was also born with dark hair and turned out blond so who really knows what hair color she will have in a few months. Her eyes look the bluish color that all newborns have but they look pretty dark underneath so either brown or hazel I'd say. I'm absolutely smitten with our new addition. She is so stinkin cute and looks exactly like Cecelia did when she was a newborn. I'm astonished at how similar they look. Breastfeeding is going so good! I stressed about my ability to do this but Olivia has made it so easy for me. She's such a good little eater and has latched on so easily from the very beginning. I hope that it continues to be this easy! Aaron is in love with the baby and was able to take several days off of work last week and this week in order to be at home with all of us girls. If Olivia is not being breastfed and held she is being held on Aaron's chest. She's so precious and so far is turning out to be an amazing baby:) She is pretty sleepy all day and is awake for about an hour in the mornings taking it all in and then wakes up about every 2-3 hours to breastfeed. We went to the pediatrician when she was 4 days old (2 days after discharge from the hospital). She weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces, so she had lost 7 ounces since birth which was within normal range but her bilirubin levels were slightly elevated. So they had us come back the next day to recheck bilirubin levels (which had gone down so there was no reason to continue to recheck bilirubin again. Well, this little sweet pea had gained 5 ounces overnight and was up to 6 lbs, 7 ounces. She will be seen at the pediatricians again in 2 weeks for her well baby check up as long as we don't need to be seen before then. All of our family has been so supportive and loving and I can't believe how truly blessed we are! The day that Olivia was born, they broke ground on the house! We will be so happy to move in...3 months!!! Can't wait for the baby to have her own room. She's fine for now in her bassinet in our room but she will need a crib right around the time we move in to the new house. Cecelia is so excited for all these changes. Both the girls are such good big sisters and want to help so much! They love their little Liv:) Nothing slows down with a new baby though:) Lots of friends and family coming over. Appointments to make and go to, pictures to be done...It's endless. Cecelia got a new pair of glasses and she looks adorable in them. We got her back to school supplies and are finishing up her back to school clothes shopping this weekend. We got supplies and decorated tank tops for the girls to wear to the Selena Gomez concert on Friday. The shirts are so cute and the girls are really excited! Kiley goes home on Saturday and it's always an adjustment when she comes and goes...the house suddenly gets very quiet. Of course we all miss Kiley terribly:( Hopefully, the adjustment is a little easier this year for Cece because the new baby is here to keep her occupied. School starts next Tuesday for Cece. There is an open house on Monday night. I'm nervous for her but Aaron keeps reassuring me that she is going to be just fine and I will be too after the second day. I love Aaron, he is always so positive! Cecelia will be doing gymanstics again this year. She moved up from beginners to intermediate so I'm excited to see her push herself and do more, she looks at the older girls who are doing the complex moves and flips and she really wants to be like them:) Life is good these days!

39 week appointment

Well, it looks like I will be pregnant forever! Just kidding:) No but really, I haven't made any changes from last week...still dilated to 3 cms and 75% effaced. Luckily our induction is scheduled for Thursday morning at 7 A.M. The girls will be staying with my sister Nikki overnight on Wed. so they don't have to wake up early like we do. I'm excited to not be pregnant anymore and have my body back and to meet our new baby, but I also know that I will miss being pregnant too.

Happy Anniversary

Aaron meant to buy me 2 dozen roses (for our 2 year wedding anniversary). But somehow managed to buy 4 dozen roses:) Very sweet but something only a man would do and not notice! LOL! I love him! Needless to say, I told him he didn't need to bring flowers to the hospital when this little pumpkin in born (like I knew he would do and like he did when Cecelia was born). We had a pretty low key anniversary. We were planning on a dinner out and a movie but Aaron's grandpa is unfortunately pretty sick and his family decided that Sunday was going to be a good day to make it up to South Dakota to see him before anything happened to him. I spent the day shopping and hanging out by the pool with my cousin and Aaron and the girls spent the majority of the day in the car driving to and from South Dakota...poor Aaron had to endure hours of the girls listening to Cece's new CD's that she got for her birthday: Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez. In the evening when we all got home we ordered Chinese food and Aaron and I watched True Blood. A perfect Sunday evening if you ask me. We ended the night with a few regular intense contractions before we laid down and I was able to fall asleep so they apparently stopped at some point because we are still without a newborn!!! Officially 39 weeks pregnant:(