Are we crazy?

Probably. We dragged Violet with us to...Italy for 10 days. Yes, our 7 month old who slept 11 hours in a row at night was forced to flip her schedule by her crazy parents. We also dragged her on trains, hiking trails, a boat, made her nap in the ergo, tried to dip her feet in the Ligurian sea and changed or fed her in the oddest of places. And she was a champ. She fussed on the plane only when she was tired and you know what, adults do too! We've been home 4 nights and she is back on track. She is better at jet lag then we are. I'll post more on what we learned and how to pack, but for now, here are some pics!

Daddy Time

This last weekend I had a conference at the coast and Violet and Bob joined me. He spends a lot of time with Violet, not just when I'm in classes and here is the proof :)

Happy Girl

 Just a regular happy day

 First day laying outside, in the shade of course.

 Chillin' with my dog

This is the tiny crib I used to sleep in!

6 months already!

Where has time gone! I can't believe Violet is 6 months already. Most nights she does a pretty good job and lets us sleep even. She has favorite toys, reaches for people, laughs, 'talks', tries to pet Lulu, but still does not want to nap! We've tried avocado and sweet potato and she makes terrible faces and pushes them out - we find it pretty funny. Last night I had to rock her to sleep, she had a stuffy nose and was very fussy, but oh how sweet she was falling asleep in my arms again.

Things I think about now

Some things I didn't ever think would cross my mind...That do now
Better go to the bathroom now, while she is asleep.
If someone broke into the house, would it wake Violet and would they steal my borrowed, but very expensive breast pump?
How long can a baby go with out pooing?
Why isn't there a drive thru for every restaurant, why just fast food?
How does ordering groceries online work?
Why is there expectant mother parking but not, 'small baby sleeping in a heavy carseat' parking?
Will I ever sleep in a t-shirt again?
Plus I think about my c--section and not so much the outside scar, but the inside one and wonder if it healed right and forever. (I recently had a friend that hers reopened after 4 years!)

And More Photos

Growing up a cyclist!











Got my Sheep Purse












5 months













Protect those ears!












Centering group!

More Photos

First Smile










Family Stockings









Family Photo











Hey Dog, Hey Baby













Go Ducks - 3 months

Waaay overdue!

I still don't have a new computer and Violet still doesn't have a nap schedule I blame the lack of posts on those two things mainly.
Ok here come a whole bunch of pictures of Violet..and if you've been on facebook, you've seen most of these already.










1 month

First Cloth Diaper




















My dad and Lulu at Thanksgiving

First Magazine (The Nation of course!)

Computer...

has given up. So for now I post from Bob's computer or my phone and that explains the lack of photos. Sorry!

I think I'm ready

To tell you about Izzy without balling.

Izzy was my calico kitty of 13 years, I'd had her since college. She was a nut! She loved stealing my hair ties and chasing bread ties. She loved catnip and people food. She broke several glasses in her life, simply pushing them off the table as if to see what happened. I always jept a purple collar and bell on her to know where she was and what trouble she was getting into . She slept in my feet, in Bob's chair or in her kennel. She made quite a few sounds from an almost chirp to a howl, but rarely just a normal meow. She snored as mych as she purred! She wanted to chew on plastic bags and always tried to run outside in the summer when you opened the door. Like most cats she loved laying in the sun and hated abrupt noises. She preferred to drink her water from a running source and ate diet food for years because she was a chunky house cat. She didn't care for other cats, ceiling fans or kids. She loved licking tuna cans and I wish I'd had the chance to put some on Lulu to see if Izzy would lick her. Lulu tried to lick Izzy on several occasions, some were tolerated, some ended with hissing. Lulu shared her water with Izzy which was a surprise and the closest they ever were to my dream of them liking each other. Izzy was an independent cat, didn't care much for interacting or lap sitting, but she kept us entertained, was a cutie and will greatly be missed. (this is from my phone, but I'll post pics soon)

Plugging along

Dear blog readers, the few of you that are still reading,

I will write again! I have happy posts, sad posts and milestones to imortalize here.

I had a wonderful birthday season. Someone special left me surprise gifts from afar, Bob and I went out to dinner alone and then we crammed 12 people around our dining room table (it has 2 leaves, but the room does not expand!) for a brunch. I love the holidays and I even love that my birthday falls in the middle if the chaos, so much so that I am almost sad I won't share that with my daughter. You see, my mom and grandma are also December babies. And the celebrating continues in Jan with wine tasting!

Coming soon: Christmas/New Year, Izzy Kitty, Violet is 3 months and Going back to work. happy, sad and milestones in that order.

Thanksgiving

This year there were two extra things to be thankful for on top of jobs, health, and all things good - Britta came to join us (we missed you Tobi) and Baby Violet. It was so amazing to have Britta here for almost two weeks and we packed in all sorts of things, the beach, Sunriver, cooking, eating, shopping, time in Portland...but it is never enough. I am always so sad when our time ends and it always goes too fast! I miss you middle sister! I am so thankful you could come and meet Violet. I look forward to the two of you getting to know each other as she grows.

She Smiles!

At six weeks she did it, gave us some glimmer of hope that we are doing the right thing - at least some times!

First bath at home

Here are some pictures from her first home bathing experience, she didn't exactly like it, that might just be a real tear!

Fall Days

Another couple of photos. She is still very serious, although seems to laugh in her sleep.

3am

After a feeding husband says, "Let me take her and put her back in her kennel, uh I mean crib."

More photos

In her swing








birth class babies, Vi is the youngest (in blue pants)

















pumpkin patch






hanging out so mom can do things

Sleeping

Violet sleeps a lot. In fact, she eats, sleeps, cries and dirties her diapers. We look forward to the smiling, cooing and less demanding aspects of a baby soon...

Hospital visits

Just thought I'd post some pictures of the family when they came to meet Violet in the hospital.


Bob's parents





My family









My Grandma










Bob's brother Kris and our niece and nephew when Violet was 10 days old.

On a lighter note...

Violet had lost weight and we were having to supplement, so here is Bob feeding her.











And here is Bob weighing her on a kitchen scale!

She's here and this is how it went...

Violet Mae arrived after a very long labor followed by a c-section on October 6. I woke up around 1:30 am on October 5 and contractions were what I now know as mild and not too close together. When I thought they were closer to 5 minutes and I had to move around more, I woke up Bob. By 3:30 we were dowstairs walking and using a timer. Around 5:30 we headed out of the house and were at the hospital on a rainy night, by 6am. We were in a waiting delivery sort of room and they checked me, had me walk and checked again - I was 5 cm and admitted. We went to room 15. The midwife on call was Liz and our nurse was Tamara. By noon I was 8cm still walking around the room and using different positions to be comfortable, rocking chair, yoga ball and the jacuzzi tub and we had our first nurse change - Lisa. At 5pm pitocin was suggested because my contractions were not strong enough to move me past 8 cm. We declined and Liz went off duty at 6pm and Nancy was a our midwife. At 8pm we started the pitocin with an IV and I continued having contractions, now even stronger. What a trooper Bob was supporting me, encouraging me and a lot of times holding me up. I could not have gone as far as I did without him. Marilyn was our night nurse and she was incredible. She was helpful, encouraging and took care of the most embarrassing parts of labor lie they were no big deal - this was a huge issue for me to get past so a very important detail about her. At midnight I was 9cm and was told to 'bear down' basically pushing through to the 10cm mark. Around 2am I started pushing. We rotated positions every 15 minutes trying a total of 6, but sticking mainly with the 3 or 4 that had the best results. There was movement and eventually I was told that she had a lot of hair! Unfortunately, after almost 4 hours of pushing, the midwife called in the doctor for her opinion, which ended up being a c-section. I was exhausted. I hadn't eaten in over 36 hours, but was frustrated and sad. We had done everything we could, we fought so hard, I had no pain medicine, he hadn't eaten since lunch. He asked the nurses for a minute alone. We knew the choices, it just seemed so unfair, but neither of us could ask the other for any more, there was simply nothing left. At 6:30am on the 6th they dressed Bob in scrubs and started prepping me. I was wheeled around in what felt like a bad Disneyland ride. Bob had to stay outside while they numbed me and gave me a heated gown - both were really quite strange feeling. The anesthesiaologist stayed near my head the whole time and gave me some updates on the other preparations because now there was a screen between the nurse (now Sam), midwife and surgeon. Finally, Bob was able to come in and sit by me. He couldn't hold my hand because of the meds and there were tears in his already red eyes, but he held it together. At 7:35am we heard Violet Mae's cries and what a sense of relief it was, that small sound we'd been waiting over 24 hours for. They held her up, said she was beautiful, Bob said she was huge and how was she inside of me. Both of us now had tears in our eyes. They wiped her down and then brought her over to to me, took off the weird heated, inflating gown and placed her on me. I could barely see her because I couldn't move my head to tip it down and couldn't feel her because I was numb - but they tell me she pooped on me! (I guess that makes us even) The next 20 minutes involved what I like to guess was putting my organs back in place and stitching me up. Then things get fuzzy, I think Violet went with Bob and I went back to the room. Around 10am we'd already tried a little latching, more skin to skin time and the grandmothers were brought in for introductions. I was still numb waist down at this point.
The next days in the hospital are a blur of eating, sleeping, trying to get in and out of bed, and figuring out breastfeeding when you have no milk. We had 2 great lactation nurses and more regular nurses that we owe thank yous to as well. Lisa even took another shift with us and Marilyn came to see and meet Violet the next day.
Violet is now a week old as of this morning. We've been home since Sunday afternoon and Bob has returned to teaching. My mom and Bob's mom have both been a great help and our friends and neighbors have kept us supplied with food. I stopped taking pain medication in the hospital, but had to start taking it again at home, but am now off of it again although some times are more painful than others. Breastfeeding is going better, well for me, Violet is still struggling, but I am able to pump enough to give to Bob to feed her through a tiny tube (no bottle so there isn't nipple confusion). She weighed 7 pounds 4 oz when born and had dropped to 6 pounds 9 oz when we went home and we were having to use all formula then, even though I was pumping. Now she is up to 6 pounds 13 oz.
Soon we wont remember what life was like pre Violet, just like we don't remember what life was like before Lulu! Speaking of, both pets seemed to have adjusted just fine, thank goodness!