Oliver said MAMA!!

On April 9th, I had a few errands to run so I left Oliver with Donna. Brice's mom happened to stop by while I was gone. Long story short, they both heard Oliver say "mama, mama, mama" and they were very excited to tell me once I got home. My dad didn't believe that's what he was actually saying since he didn't hear it.
Fast forward to today, it's almost bedtime so I leave Oliver in my bedroom while I go fix his bottle. My dad came into the kitchen and told me to hurry because Oliver is getting cranky and hollering for me. I said how do you know he wants me? Maybe he wants you! He said "no, he's saying mama, and it's very clear, too!" My dad was just as excited as I was. Oliver will be 5 months old at the end of April. I just love him:)

belated easter bunny....

Oliver's 1st Easter

Oliver Call Photography

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Kiss Me....

Not because I am Irish, but because my mommy taped this hat to my head!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Love,
Oliver Call

Oliver's newborn pictures-

With Oliver being born 5 weeks early and staying in the NICU for 2 weeks, we brought him home a week before Christmas and things were crazy around the house. I thought I would never find the time to get his newborn pictures done. Finally at the age of 6 weeks I was able to get in touch with Robin Maxwell and she told me she normally doesn't do newborn pictures past the age of 2 weeks, but we could give it a try. I think they turned out perfect.

An Oliver fix

Here's a recent picture for those that choose Oliver as your drug of choice:)

I had posted on Facebook before Oliver was born that my dad was teasing me over the expensive things I buy Oliver. He wanted to know if we would be able to buy Oliver's formula from WalMart or if it would need to be specially ordered from Paris. Well come to find out, we are in fact having to order his formula off the internet! He has to drink the EnfaCare for preemies which I can't find anywhere in the ready-to-use cans so we have been ordering it from the Enfamil website every week. Shipping is free so it's no big deal, but I'll be glad when I can switch him to the Enfamil Premium.
We attempted to weigh Oliver last night on our kitchen scale:) I have pictures of that to post as soon as I upload them. He's almost 6 pounds now.

One month old

Oliver is one month old today, and yesterday was my official due date. Never would have dreamed he would arrive this early!

My cousin Ashley was due January 20th. And I say "was" because she just had her baby girl Ava on December 26 which is our grandfather's birthday. She weighed 6 pounds 9oz. I think they must have had her due date off. Here is a picture of Ava. She is already home and doing great!

And speaking of sharing birthdays, I don't think I ever mentioned that Oliver was born on my uncle Thomas' birthday. Thomas is my dads brother and likes to ride Harley Davidson motorcycles with my dad. I guess we all know what Oliver is going to be doing when he's old enough:)

3 weeks 3 days

Oliver is 3 weeks and 3 days old today. He's such a good baby and doesn't even cry when his diaper is wet or dirty. He hates cold wipes on his butt, though! But he loves when I put his eye drops in his eye. He has some clogged tear ducts right now.
Here is another sleeping picture. I promise to start taking better pictures with his eyes open. I'm sure I'll get plenty on Christmas day.

Oliver's first night home

He didn't cry one time last night! But waking him up every three hours for his feedings was pretty easy because he's on a pretty good schedule and he's hungry right on time. The minute I would wake him up, he would start crying and "eat" his hand. He does this when he's hungry.
Here are some pictures from 2am:)

Home At Last

After two weeks at Texas Women's NICU, Oliver is finally home. It's 11pm and time for his feeding, and he's sound asleep. Time for me to go wake a sleeping baby. My blog is about to get CRAZY. I can't wait to write everyday about all our new adventures.

xo

Who does he look like?

Today Oliver had his feeding tube removed. Yay! I can finally see his face better. I think he looks so much like Brice, but all the nurses tell me he looks just like me. What do you guys think?

Oliver & Santa

So, Santa Claus came to visit Oliver and all the other babies in the NICU and take pictures with them. Notice his latex gloves?? He changed his gloves after holding each baby. Now that's one germ free Santa Claus!

Birth Story Part 2

After the nurses let me hold Oliver for about 2-3 minutes, they had to take him to the NICU. Now it's time to deliver the placenta and sew me up. This was very uncomfortable and worse than pushing Oliver out. I didn't like this part at all!! So the entire time that was happening, I was texting all my friends telling them "Oliver is here. 4 pounds 6oz and 17 inches long!"


I did a great job staying relaxed and calm. Maybe that's why my labor went so quickly? But when the nurse told me it was time to push, I totally lost it and broke down. I kept saying I can't do this without Brice. This isn't the way it's suppose to be. The nurse started crying and had to step back for a moment and calm herself down. As sad as I am that Brice chose to miss Oliver's birth, he has now been sitting with Oliver every night in the NICU and feeding him. And that's all that matters right now. Sadly, it won't be that way once I get Oliver home with me. It breaks my heart, but those are the choices Brice made. He knows I love him and that he would have made a wonderful daddy, but I have to do what's best for Oliver and me now. And I say "would have" because it won't be the same as us being together as a family everyday in the same house.

Oliver has now been in the NICU since November 29th but today they are taking his feeding tube out and he's suppose to come home tomorrow or Tuesday. Please pray nothing changes. I can't wait to get him home on my own turf, and I need to stop letting people run over me and stick to my "rules".

Since my sister couldn't be here, I want to thank Jennifer for staying the night with me at the hospital two nights in a row, and for being there for me and helping me to the bathroom and holding my hand during all the uncomfortable "down there" checks. I don't know what I would do without you Jennifer, I love you!

This is my own personal writing space, and if anyone has a problem with me talking "openly" about my personal life, then don't read it. A lot of people didn't realize how stressed I have been since I moved back home, and I truly believe that has a lot to do with why Oliver came 4 weeks early. No one is to blame for that except me. I should have been able to handle things differently. It helps me to write my thoughts out and read everyones comments. Everyone keeps telling me that Oliver will be able to sense when I am stressed and sad, and that's going to make for an unhappy baby. So I'm going to keep doing what I do to make myself feel happy. And reading all the support I get from you guys, and sometimes complete strangers, means the world to me.

xoxo

My birth story

The past week has been a complete blur because everything happened so fast. I was suppose to be on an airplane coming home from visiting my sister in Kansas. At the last minute I decided not to buy my plane ticket because my sister had a bad feeling about me flying so close to my due date. I really wanted to spend Thanksgiving with her, but we have a close bond, so I knew if she thought I shouldn't come than I better not.

Saturday November 28th, I went to dinner with my dad and Donna at Cafe Anice. I had a hard time eating and getting comfortable. My back was hurting. Didn't sleep too well that night. Sunday November 29th I woke up with bad cramps. Which were actually contractions, but I thought they were cramps from not sitting on a toilet in the past 5 days! So I tried to use the restroom and noticed I was bleeding a bit. I thought it was from my infection so wasn't too worried about it. An hour later at 1pm I am still cramping and still bleeding so I decide to take a bath. While in the bathtub I felt what felt like I was peeing in the water and more blood came out. I thought man, that infection I have is bad! It never clicked that maybe my water had just broken. So I got out of the bathtub and wrapped myself in a towel. The cramps are still coming every 4-5 minutes and by this point I started to think maybe they were actually contractions and not cramps from being constipated. Right about that time, I felt more fluid drip down my leg, and when I looked down, to my horror, saw a huge puddle of water on the bathroom floor with blood mixed in it. Okay, now my brain starts to work- maybe I should text my dad? No wait, can't do that, he's on his motorcycle an hour away. So I texted my mom and Donna and we decided it would be best for Donna to drive me to the hospital while my mom tries to get ahold of my dad.

The entire way to Houston my contractions are coming every 4 minutes. Donna wouldn't take me to McDonalds eventhough I was starving, so she agreed to stop at a gas station and let me get a snack. So we went inside and I got some chocolate milk and a snicker bar all while having contractions and grasping the aisles as I walk. But hey, I knew once I got to the hospital I wouldn't be allowed to eat! When we get to the hospital and I get out of the car, more fluid soaks my pants the minute I stand up. Yup, positive now my water broke. During all this I am texting my sister who is texting Jennifer, who is hauling ass from the deer lease back to Houston so she can be by my side. It's a 4.5 hour drive she ended up making in 3 hours, and still ended up being 5 minutes too late for Oliver's birth.

Anyways, I get a room and the nurse checks my cervix. I'm not dilated at all!! That's when the nurse told me it would be 24 hours from the time my water broke at 1pm before anything would happen. Okay great, just great- this is gonna be a long ass labor. My dad finally shows up in his black leather motorcycle gear. And now here comes my mom freaking out. Okay everybody calm down, we got 24 hours to go.

At 6pm, five hours into my labor, I'm starting to feel like a wuss because I need that epidural- like now! But isn't it too soon if I still have 24 hours to go? The nurse said if the pain was too bad I could have it now. Yes please get that damn anesthesiologist in here as soon as possible. I think I was 4cm dilated at this point. So finally what felt like an eternity, the freakin anesthesiologist finally decided to end my suffering. Such sweet relief. Well sorta. It wouldn't work completely on the right side and I was having bad back labor, but at least I was numb on the left side. An hour after I was given the epidural, I decided to take a nap while my parents and Donna eat good smelling food right in front of me, laughing and joking having a good ol' time. The nurse comes in before I can even shut my eyes and says she wants to check my cervix. Ok, just hurry so I can take a nap. She checks me and her eyes about pop out of her head. You're ready to push she said. O.M.G I'm ready to what? Push? No, I'm not ready for that yet. Yes you are. But I've only been here for six hours and you people said it was gonna be 24 hours! I'm sitting here thinking okay just calm down and breathe and do what the lady says. So we do about 3 practice pushes and she yells at me to STOP! "I can see his hair" she said. Well go get the doctor then! So since he was going to be a preemie they made everyone except my dad leave the room and warned me the minute he comes out they have to take him out of the room to make sure he's breathing and then they'll bring him back to me.

So the nurse gets everything ready. The on-call doctor takes her sweet time. All while I am laying with my legs spread open and my sons head about to pop out of me. By this point it's 8:30pm (remember my water broke at 1pm) the doctor finally comes in and tells me we're gonna push with each contraction which I could still feel on the right side so I didn't even need to be told when the contractions were coming. So right before my first push, I decide to text Amber, my sister-in-law, and let her know I am pushing that they better hurry up and get to the hospital. So I push once for 10 seconds. Relax. Oh wait, gotta text Kristi before my next push. So I text her and tell her Oliver's almost here. I push again on the next contraction for another 10 seconds. Now I gotta text my sister before the next contraction because the doctor is telling me this is going to be my last push. The last and final push I gave it every bit of effort I had, and saw the doctor grab the nasal aspirator and I knew that meant his head was out. I looked up at my dad and his eyes were kind of teary. Next thing I know I see Oliver screaming bloody murder at excatly 8:55pm. My dad puts his fingers in his ears and says "He's crying, I'm never gonna get any sleep!!" The entire room starts laughing and they rush Oliver out the door. Five minutes later he's finally in my arms and breathing on his own. He's so alert. His eyes are wide open. He's looking me up and down, and left to right. He knows I'm his mommy.

To be continued....

Oliver pictures!

Snug as a bug!



Oliver!!



Still sleeping



What BIG feet you have!!



My little holler'



Soo funny. He's thinking "Okay, now what am I suppose to do?"



5 minutes old. He knew excatly who I was and was looking me up and down with his eyes.