baby ole :: 3rd week

i can't believe we've had trevor for 3 weeks! he's so awesome!! and i finally remembered that we got blocks from the burge's to take his picture with so i hope to continue those now.

he had his first diaper/peeing little boy incident this week; and actually ended up having a couple of them. momma & daddy quickly learned to cover that thing up at all times :) the first time was when i was changing him on the couch. he peed on my hand, all over himself including his face, and on the couch a little bit. the second time was on daddy, himself & grama's couch.

we got a ton more snow this week (9-12 inches) on top of the ton of snow we already had. when we were at mom's over the weekend, the piles along the driveway and the amount in the backyard were more than i had seen since i was little. and my brother actually said the same thing. crazy. it's also still very cold!! and will be this next week too. the average temp is 32, we're in the single digits most days and colder if there's wind. :(

we took our first "road trip" as a family and headed up to the cities on saturday afternoon. the big snow storm was on thursday and the roads were still not great by the time we left. saturday night al and i went to akita for sushi for our valentine's & my birthday dinner. then trevor and i went to bed early. sunday we ran to target and old navy (daddy's still got his sympathy weight and needed new jeans :]). then we went to kunde (the johnson's) house for the daytona 500 party. always good to see my friends! sunday night we went to papa's house so trevor could meet his great grandpa; papa was so happy & excited & just kept saying "thanks for bringing him over." we also got a picture of the 4 generations of francis's (middle names). papa also told me that he gives more money for the 2nd baby :) i told him it might be a while for that, to which he said, "gives me reason to stick around then!" :] then monday, gina took trevor's new born pics at her studio in downtown st paul, and they're so cute! even tho someone would not sleep for gina :) although he is older than she likes to do for newborn pics.

tuesday, we headed into eau claire to have lunch with my coworkers and so they could see trevor. since i won't be going back to work there, i also grabbed all the rest of my stuff. kind of bittersweet. i'll miss the people but definitely not working for menards.

trevor had some issues with being gassy this week too. both at mom's and then at home; monday night, he was up every 10-15 minutes from 2-5 am fussing. no good. turns out i should have done some more research on food i should avoid while breastfeeding because i had eaten broccoli and cabbage multiple times that week, and these 2 are on the top of every list i've seen for gassy veggies to avoid. i will be avoiding those for a while now. i've been avoiding dairy for the most part already and will continue to do that (i do that normally anyway) with the exception of yogurt. after just 1 day of avoiding the broccoli and cabbage in our fridge made a world of difference. tuesday night he slept in 4 hour increments all night, which meant i only had to get up twice and then at 8 am! so nice! i think that's partly from him being so tired too but i'll take it!

he likes bath time a lot more now that i figured out to put

a warm wash cloth on his chest/tummy to keep him warmer.

he splays out his hands/fingers like that when he's cold or

shocked by noise :)

skinny little legs :]

 in the hood

 we tried on uncle tyler's tux onsie; so cute!

 we're loving the octupus sling manda made for us!!

 4 francis's and a happy papa (1st time great grandpa)

 pics by gina zeidler

 grama's little giraffe

baby ole :: 2nd week

i'm sure at some point these posts regarding trevor will become monthly and then yearly but for now i'm enjoying documenting everything :) also, warning: this post is LONG.

this week we had our first in clinic appointment with dr sarumi, the pediatrician on thursday. everything checked out well with trevor. he was 7 lbs 11 oz and 19.5 inches long. he has lots of dry skin especially inside his diaper, which dr sarumi said was normal due to being in the womb and not used to things rubbing against his skin. so we've been putting lots of vasaline on and it seems to be approving.

then friday was valentine's day and my mom came down for the weekend. on saturday al and i ran into eau claire for some errands, my first time away from trevor. it was a little nerve wrecking but we survived (it wasn't so bad, but i did miss him). mom stayed for the weekend and helped clean, made some food, and took the baby in the mornings so we could sleep a little bit more. thank goodness for her; she's a lifesaver!

on monday night, i noticed trevor's right eye looked a little red and had a little bit of crustys upon waking. i immediately thought it was pink eye but decided to try to let him sleep it off. when he woke up on tuesday morning, it was really crusty (yellowish) and the lids were red and swollen. his eyes are so big, it was hard to see if the white portions were red/pink or not; they looked a bit red from what i could see. so i called the clinic and they said to come in. at the appointment we saw dr husain and trevor weighed 7 lbs 15 oz; almost 8 lbs!! dr husain thought it wasn't pink eye but instead a clogged tear duct, but she gave us a prescription for the eye cream that they put on babies eyes right after they're born (the name escapes me) because it is anti-bacterial just in case. after one application, his eye was already better.

also at this appt, we asked about his always having poop in his diaper, since the tracking sheet they gave us said he should be having about 3 poopy diapers a day. she said that especially with breastfed babies this is completely normal, that as long as he's gassy and eating and peeing, he's fine.

sleep: trevor is sleeping pretty well! he sleeps 3-4 hours at a time and usually has one 2+ hour awake time per day; which we try to have during the day! i'm still getting between 7-8 hours of sleep a night, they're just not uninterrupted. but that doesn't compare to the 10+ i was getting during the end of my pregnancy. :) i haven't napped all week and i think i'm getting used to the sleep schedule; i still have points of feeling really tired but usually only about an hour long or while feeding him at night.

feeding: after he lost so much weight, i was pumping and we were feeding him by bottle so we could know how much he was getting. i stuck with this for a while because i didn't want to be starving my child. but with this (not sure if because of this or not), i had an oversupply of milk and my boobs hurt most of the time. it was very uncomfortable. thank goodness for the internet!! i did some research on pinterest and the bump and realized that i had an over supply (which we don't want since we have a very small, already full freezer and thus no where to store much extra milk). i attempted to pump less often and less amount of time (i was only pumping for 10 minutes max at a time already), but it still wasn't helping ease my uncomfortable-ness. hard to say if this was from pumping so much early on or if it was just the normal body getting used to how much milk to make.

i was/am leaking a lot and having to wear breast pads all the time. but monday and tuesday i worked hard to get to a point of only nursing trevor and not pumping unless i needed to relieve some fullness. i also started the block nursing style where i only feed him off one boob at a time. this seems to have helped as i have a lot less pain/fullness and he still sleeps 3-4 hours at a time. also, i had thought i was saving time in pumping and then feeding him, but it's so much faster to just nurse him! which helps a lot at night! he's nursing between 15-25 minutes. the only bad thing is then no one else can feed him; so at night i can't have al take a feeding. but with the feedings being much quicker (was near an hour with the bottle plus the 10 minutes pumping time) it's not so bad.

al: al has been amazing! so much more than i could have even thought he could be. he's been so helpful, doing as i ask, and doing things around the house without me prompting. he's had off work (he has to go back in just over a week :( ) and has gotten a bunch of things done that we had been putting off. he's been changing diapers like it's no body's business, even though he'd never changed a diaper before. he allowed me to take naps and baths as i needed when i was recovering. he loves this little guy and constantly says how cute he is! :)

nicknames: we currently call him: wiggle worm, munchkin, billy goat (when he cries it tends to come out like a "nah"), lance armstrong (when he stretches his legs out and in it looks like he's riding a bike)

it's weird to me that i'm not pregnant anymore. i still have a bit of a cough from that darn flu, but it's not bad just coughing junk up.

he currently only has 3 fleece, one piece outfits that fit him.

 i love snuggle time!!

 big baby blues

 those squishy lips kill me!

 the left picture is me 4 days after delivery; and the right 2 weeks out (plus i can suck it in a bit now, weird to suck in after not for so long). i'm 12 pounds away from my starting pregnancy weight. hopefully this breastfeeding continues to help :) can't wait to workout/lift again.

baby ole :: first week

once al returned from getting his prescription and getting us jimmy johns (yum!!), trevor had been bathed and i had showered, we began to get ready for bed, hoping to get some sleep. as i was snuggling into bed, i looked over at trevor in his crib and saw some moisture coming out of his mouth and he was funny colored. al was up about to go to the bathroom, so i asked him if trevor was choking? al quickly sprung to action, picked up a purple/blue trevor and started the infant cpr he had been taught. i pushed the nurses button but knew that it wasn't the emergency button, so i ran out into the hall to yell to our nurse at the time, jean (grama's favorite nurse). she quickly came, saw that al was doing what needed to be done and grabbed the suction thing to get stuff out of his nose and mouth. he then started to get his pink color back and cry. jean said, "yeah, he was blue." it was so scary!! luckily al was there with me!!

after that (and having to sleep in the delivery bed which was hard), it was hard for me to sleep. the couple times i did fall asleep, i'd wake up drenched. i was sweating while sleeping; my clothes and the bedding was all soaked, every time i woke up. we originally thought i was getting fevers from the flu but after the next night of the same thing while feeling ok during the day, we realized it was probably night sweats from the hormones. luckily, they didn't continue much after we got home.

monday night, tyler stayed at our house with tator. then tuesday night mom did and wednesday night peter did. so very thankful they did; tator loves his grama and grandpa!

wednesday was a long day; we were stuck in the room and had to ask the nurses to get me everything, whereas normally al or mom could have just run to the kitchen room to get me water or ice or whatever we needed. trevor's pediatric doctor, dr sarumi, came in to see him. she said he looked good but because he hadn't had a pee diaper yet (lots of poopy diapers tho) she couldn't do his circumcision until thursday morning. we had lots of nurses, and worked on breastfeeding; he had a good latch and desire to suck so it wasn't bad.

mom, peter and al ran to sams club during the day to get al's prescription. when they returned they had a diary queen birthday cake for me and trevor! :) we also got our free pizza party food and drink from the hospital. afterwards, mom headed home to work thursday since we'd be in the hospital anyway. and we napped and just hung out until bed time. had night sweats again and didn't sleep a whole lot, but felt better.

thursday was a busy day. we knew we'd be going home but had to wait for him to get his circ and then he had to stay for 2 hours afterwards. we were shooting for leaving at noon and we did just about that. his circ went good and he wasn't too cranky afterwards. we also had a carseat check before we left. it was good to get home but i still didn't feel great. we breastfed, slept, changed diapers, repeat.

friday mom came back down, which was very helpful! we hadn't established a routine yet and i was getting just a little sleep while having some bottom pain and a cough. a couple of those days just flew by and i barely remember them.

saturday we had our first appointment. they usually don't do appointments on saturdays but wanted to see us especially with the flu and such. we'd be seeing kris the midwife and had to call prior to leaving to see if she was at the clinic or at the hospital. upon calling we found out she was at the hospital but had 2 laboring mom's coming in for which she was the delivering midwife. so we waited around for her call back to let us know when to come in. she finally called about 3 pm and said things had slowed down. so we headed out. mom took the vehicle over to shopko while we went to the appointment. it was supposed to be a lactaction appointment and since we'd waited so long, i'd considered not going since he was latching and feeding well (or so i thought).

i'm so glad we went. they ended up weighing him and figuring out that he'd lost 11% of his body weight. he weighed 6 lbs 7 oz. anything 10% or less is ok, so he'd lost too much. we then did tests to make sure he was latching, sucking and swallowing, and that i was producing enough milk. he was latching and sucking well and i was definitely producing milk. so we figured that he was probably doing a lot of pleasure, leisure sucking and not nutritional sucking and swallowing. so we rented a pump from the hospital since my free one from insurance hadn't come yet and probably wouldn't for a week. we were showed how to use it, and given instructions to write down every diaper and every feeding, and to feed him at least an ounce every 3 hours if not more. we also then had to come back in monday to weigh him again.

so the rest of saturday and sunday were spent pumping, feeding, and creating a routine; and thank goodness we did, because that routine and writing everything down made me feel so much better and in control. sunday also was the day that we would stop wearing masks!!! i got to kiss my boy!! mom headed home on sunday and we watched a lot of olympics.

monday we were called at 815a and asked to come in for an appointment at 930; we were still in bed so we hustled to get going. we got to the appt right at 930. he gained 5 ounces in just about one day!!! i had also noticed that the whites of his eyes were yellow and his skin looked a little yellow. anne, the nurse we saw, wasn't too concerned about jaundice but because his eyes were yellow she ordered blood work to check his biliruben. (we got a call shortly after leaving that his levels were good). after the appointment, we went to the bank and target, then to al's work to get trevor added to the insurance. while al was filling that out, i got a call from the tax guy saying our taxes were done and we could come sign them and then he could submit them. so we drove over to do that. we got a lot done, but i was beat and hurting (still having some bottom pain). monday night i also got breast pain in the right boob that i originally thought was just engorgement since my milk was coming in large amounts now (2-4 oz in every 5-10 minute pump). but when it didn't go away on tuesday, i realized it was probably clogged ducts; it was painful.

our beautiful blonde baby :) 

 i LOVE his little face, especially when burping him like this!

 all dressed and ready for his first appointment

baby ole :: birth story

here's the first little blurb from my week 38 post followed by the rest of the birth story:

Monday night 2/3/14, after feeling sick and icky for almost 2 days:

i decided to go to bed. i went upstairs to put my pajamas on and felt something run down my leg. i went into the bathroom and it was bloody. i freaked out, not knowing if the amoxicillon had affected the baby or my infection or what. i ended up coughing from freaking out and threw up my chicken noodle soup. i called for al to get my phone so i could call the midwife and then he cleaned up after me. with my sore throat i could barely talk but i eventually got to becky the midwife and explained to her what had happened. she said since it was more pink than actually blood, it could be my water breaking and that we should come in. my thoughts were: there's no way it's my water breaking (11 days early) and we were just there in urgent care!

al grabbed our bags and the carseat just in case, we said bye to tator, and headed out with full intentions of coming back home that night. well, we were wrong. we got to the hospital about 9 pm. after vitals, conversation and some testing (lasting about an hour), it was confirmed that it was indeed my water breaking (at 1015p) and we were staying. even though i felt like crap and hadn't slept in 2 nights, i was in labor. i called mom, who left st paul to come to the hospital at that time. we sent the text to the remaining family members and work people, and attempted to let it settle in that we were going to have a baby very soon!

my water had broke at 8:30pm, meaning that due to the risk of infection, i would be having him one way or another within 24 hours. this meant that he would be born on my 30th birthday!! becky checked me and i was dilated to a 2, 50% effaced and he was in a 0 position. due to my infection and how crappy i was feeling and having a fever, they decided to give me an iv so that they could get some antibiotics into me. it took 3 unpleasant tries to get the iv in; they said i have good veins, they're just wiggly.

mom arrived just before midnight and we chatted a bit then decided to try to nap: al in the chair, me in bed, mom on the couch in the waiting area. i slept off and on from 2-4a with some occasional contractions but couldn't feel most of them. once i could feel some (mostly in my back) i decided to try the tub. it felt good but i really disliked not being able to move during the contractions, so i didn't last long in there.

about 7-730a my contractions were about 5-8 minutes apart and i was only 2-3 centimeters, 90% effaced and he was at 0 to -2 position (still high). at about 830a, nanette (the next midwife on, the only one i hadn't met out of the 6) came in and discussed that we needed to take action to get labor going because i was moving too slowly to get him out within the 24 hours necessary. this meant pitocin and no water birth, but i was fully ok with that since i had been forcing myself to keep a very open mind about the birth plan. they decided to have me switch rooms so that if someone else came in wanting the water birth room. i also had another fever somewhere in the morning.

after we switched rooms, they gave me the pitocin in a very small dosage (8) and that's all i needed. hard, quick contractions came fast and they were predominantly in my back and hurt a lot!! i was also very tired which made me extra whiny during the back contractions. i said multiple times that i didn't want anymore contractions. when nanette came in after a couple hours, she was fantastic in gently reminding me to breathe and be calm. i am so thankful that nanette was the midwife on and that i got so lucky that she was great even tho i hadn't met her before. about 1130a (after 2 hours of these contractions) the resident midwife came in to chat with me and mentioned an epidural. i said yes. she said when. i said as soon as possible. to which she replied ok i'll put in for it, but it could take half an hour to an hour to get someone up here and to get it in place. i sighed as that seemed like forever but at least relief was in sight. at the same time they sent for the epidural, nanette decided that since i hadn't had the flu shot and due to my symptoms (lots of fevers) she'd like me to be tested for influenza. she thought i didn't have it but wanted to be sure; so i got swabbed for that through the nose. that was one of the most unpleasant things i've ever experienced.

they were a lot faster than that though, thank goodness!! about noon i got my epidural and thank goodness once i sat on the bed my contractions switched to the front because there is no way i would have been able to sit still that whole time with back contractions. once the epidural was in place, nanette checked me again. i had quickly come to 5 cm, 90% and 0. once the epidural kicked in, i felt amazing and such relief! i was able to finally get some sleep; about 45 minutes. i could still feel everything, my legs were just tingly and i couldn't feel the contractions.

nanette checked me again at 1:20p and i was 8 cm, 100% and a 0; which was great progress for just an hour! especially since i had only needed 8 mm of pitocin. they shortly after turned the pitocin down to 6.

at 2:40p i was 10 cm, 100% effaced and he was at a +1; so they decided i was about ready they just wanted him to drop a little bit more, "labor down." at this time, nanette came in to tell me that i did indeed have the flu. :( which meant we'd be on quarantine throughout the rest of our stay. this included: us having to stay in the delivery room (with the hard delivery bed) our entire stay, everyone having to wear masks, gloves, and gowns that came and went from the room, baby and i were not allowed to leave the room, and i would be masked as soon as he crowned before he came out. they sent down immediately for some tamiflu for me and nanette worked on a way to get al tamiflu as well.

the sign on our room door. 

the nurses and midwives kept saying how sorry they were that i had to deal with this as they hadn't heard of a laboring person having the untreated, unknown flu at the same time before. they had to look up hospital protocol and call the infection specialist in to figure out what all had to be done. this was the only point during labor that i cried. i was worried for the baby, extremely sad that i wouldn't be able to kiss him, we'd have to wear masks around him even at home for 5 days, and i felt like a science experiment with all the covered up people around me.

i ended up having another fever at 245p; at this time they gave me tylenol for the fever and my first dosage of tamiflu. and then we waited to labor down more, which i was very happy for since i felt so icky again. i was supposed to sleep some more but couldn't with all the thoughts running through my head.

the epidural was fantastic! i could still feel everything including my legs except they felt tingly, like they were asleep. at first i couldn't feel any of the contractions but then eventually i could feel pressure from some of them. around 430p, nanette started to describe pushing to me and thought i was about ready to push. she also indicated that my epidural had run out and she'd like to turn it off for pushing in hopes that would help me to feel the contractions and have effective pushing. i was fully ok (i told her i liked a challenge :]) with that also because then i'd be able to get up on my legs afterwards to get out of bed and shower.

at 440p i told nanette i felt a contraction and she said ok let's try pushing; it blindsided me a bit, i didn't know she wanted to start so soon. so i started pushing even though i still had a fever and felt like crap. but i actually really liked pushing. i felt like i was finally working for something other than just dealing with the contractions. as soon as i started pushing, i forgot about feeling like crap and focused on pushing in the correct place and feeling the contractions. mom held one leg while al held the other. pushing felt a little like a crossfit wod :) after a while he was finally crowning and the last 2 rounds of pushing/contractions where the only ones that i didn't enjoy but it was more the pressure than pain. i didn't really feel any pain while pushing, only a small amount of burning/"ring of fire." once his head was out, i was preparing myself to push out his shoulders when all of a sudden the rest of him slipped right out with both mom and al watching. they both said it was cool to see. he was born at 540p after exactly an hour of pushing.

i got to do almost 2 hours of skin to skin with him directly after he was born. during this time i pushed out the large placenta and got my stitches i had torn on the inside a bit. i got a bunch of stitches but only because i had little tears in multiple spots. the stitches took about half an hour and then we tried breastfeeding. it didn't work all the way but at least he was interested and sucking. at just before 2 hours out, i gave him to al to hold so i could get up and go to the bathroom (i had pushed out my catheter in the first push), change gowns and stand for a while. i really liked standing at this point as i felt like i'd been in bed for a while and i had no pain in my bottom since i was numb from the stitches. they cleaned up the bed and room at this time too.

we then decided on his name: trevor francis oleson.

then my brother and al's dad came in to see him. and al had to run down to the urgent care before they closed at 10 so he could get his tamiflu prescription. i was anxious to know his stats, so i asked the nurse to weigh and measure him. he was 7 lbs, 4 oz, 19 1/4 inches long; just a little guy :) we tried breastfeeding again but he was so tired (and was for the first 24 hours as they all are). he then got a bath and got wrapped up for bed about 9 or 930p.

i will continue the story in the next post: first week.

daddy holding trevor for the first time. 

 grama and trevor

 grandpa peter

 uncle tyler

baby ole :: week 38

this week, saturday late night (2 am) i woke up with horrible heartburn in which i had to sit in a chair so it would move down. it left behind a bad sore throat which then moved to my ears. so sunday i didn't feel real well, but we went up to shane and jodi's to watch the super bowl. i attempted to nap once we got there but couldn't and then ended up trying to sleep in chairs and propped up on the couch; again didn't get much sleep. monday morning i really didn't feel well, so when we went back to wisconsin we stopped in eau claire at urgent care. i had an infection in my throat or lungs somewhere so they started me on amoxicillon. then, when we got home i still really didn't feel well, so al, tator and i all napped or attempted to for a couple hours.

after the nap i ate and decided to go to bed. i went upstairs to put my pajamas on and felt something run down my leg. i went into the bathroom and it was bloody. i freaked out, not knowing if the amoxicillon had affected the baby or my infection or what. i ended up coughing from freaking out and threw up my chicken noodle soup. i called for al to get my phone so i could call the midwife and then he cleaned up after me. with my sore throat i could barely talk but i eventually got to becky the midwife and explained to her. she said since it was more pink than actually blood, it could be my water breaking and that we should come in. my thoughts were: there's no way it's my water breaking (11 days early) and we were just there in urgent care!

al grabbed our bags and the carseat just in case, we said bye to tator, and headed out with full intentions of coming back home that night. well, we were wrong. it was indeed my water breaking and we were staying, even though i felt like crap and hadn't slept in 2 nights....

to be continued in the birth story.

so this will be the last week of belly pictures and updates. the last preggo pic...

How big is baby: size of a pumpkin (via the bump) or a celery bunch (via my app)

Weight gain/loss: 30-34 pounds

Stretch marks: on my sides, and i can see one or two starting under my belly button :(

Sleep: still flip flop a lot but sleeping well. i'm usually very uncomfortable upon first getting into bed: heartburn, hip aches, body hurts, can't get comfy. but i still sleep pretty well.

Diet/Cravings/Aversions: nothing really

Movement: just the normal sporadic movement, lots of butt pushing out :)

What I'm loving: showers

Symptoms: heartburn, hip ache, some joint pain, constipation, hands falling asleep