Growing up so fast!

My baby is getting so big so quickly, I can hardly believe it!  She is 6 weeks old as of Tuesday 7/23 and she is still such a joy to my heart.  She is so strong and alert, I can't get over it.  She is able to sit in her Bumbo and it really allows her to be where we are and see what is going on.  She often will sit at the dinner table with us while we eat and really likes to sit and watch daddy work in his office.  She had her 1 month appointment last week and came in at 9lbs 10oz (60%), 21.5 inches (50%) and 14.5 inch head circumference (50%).  She is doing fantastic and the doctor really doesn't ever have much to say about her other than that she looks great.  I am one happy momma as anyone who has children knows, you can often begin to worry about little things that in reality are not a problem at all.

She had a big birthday present for her aunt Alice, she smiled for the first time on July 17th.  It was possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen!  She woke up in the morning, looked right at me, gave a little giggle and smiled, dimples and all.  She has dimples like her daddy which I know her great-grandma will be thrilled about!

She has also begun to actually play with her toys.  She started recognizing her hands a couple weeks ago and now has been able to interact with her playmat and laughs at herself for quite a while!  I know I'm thrilled by little details but it's just so fun to watch their mind work and develop and see how each new day brings some new discovery for her.  She continues to interact more and more and is so fun!

A happy and slightly sad milestone has been crossed as well, we are mostly wearing 0-3 month clothes now, only a few of her newborn outfits still fit, and she has also transitioned fully to size 1 diapers.  I know that shouldn't be such a sad thing but it's the first of many milestones in her life and I am saddened at how quickly time passes.

On Wednesday morning, I woke up at 4:58 am to the sound of Alythia stirring.  The significance of this might escape you at first, but let me fill you in.  Alythia goes down at night around 10 pm after a final feeding and usually wakes me up around 3 am to eat again.  This gives me between 4-5 hours of sleep between feedings.  This night she slept for 7 hours all on her own!  She didn't even stir in the middle of the night.  I can't believe how good she is doing.  I was thrilled when I woke and then had to laugh to myself.  My daughter has done everything I asked at the exact time I have asked her to do it.  If only this was going to be the way she is in her childhood and teen years.  Before she was born I said that I thought I wanted her to be able to sleep through the night at about 6 weeks so that she could transition to her own room and her crib.  As has been the case so far, she did exactly as I asked at exactly 6 weeks.  Now to see if she keeps it up for a few nights and then to help her adjust her timing a little so that we are waking up at a more typical hour.  I have to say, she is really taking it easy on us as parents so far.  She may be one of the easiest babies I have ever encountered.  Such a blessing and joy she is to our lives.

~Becky

In other news...

Sorry it's been a little bit since I posted.  I made a commitment to myself that I would post two days a week to keep myself consistent and develop a habit... and then we moved.  As you probably know, moving throws a wrench in pretty much everything normal you have going on in life.  So a little catching up is in order.

We have been looking, for the past 4 months or so, for a house to purchase.  We stumbled upon a great realtor who has just been wonderful to work with.  We started out putting an offer in on a short-sale house in April.  It seemed like a great place for us at the time but as we got further into the process, we realized that it was more than we wanted to or really could handle at this stage in our lives, with so many other changes coming quickly.  Thankfully we had written into the contract that it had to close by June 1 or we were able to get out without any penalty.  Once we backed out of that contract, we found another home, this time a condo, that we also thought would be great, we tried to negotiate with the seller but he was a little unrealistic with what he wanted to get for the place and would not compromise on the asking price so we ended that.  About 6 days before my due date, we stumbled upon this wonderful condo a little further outside of town than we had thought we wanted.  It has 400 sq/ft more space than the first condo, comes with a garage, has a more open floor plan and was closer to the price we wanted to pay.  We negotiated a price with the sellers that we were both happy with and began the process of getting the loan approved and closing.  This is where things have gotten a little dicey.  We signed the contract the weekend before Alythia was born, and we are still fighting with the bank to complete the loan process.  In the meantime, we had a baby, we sadly did not come home to the beautiful nursery I had envisioned and hoped she would; though Rob reminds me regularly that she with neither remember, nor really care as the nursery design is mostly for me.  We had to move out of our apartment because we were paying an exorbitant amount in rent to be there month-to-month, and they had another family who was slated to move in the last week of July.  As the days got closer to having to be out, it looked more and more like we were going to be homeless, as the condo still had no closing date.  We petitioned the sellers to allow us to gain early occupancy of the condo and essentially sign a short-term rental lease with them until the contract closes.  We were blessed with a great group of guys who helped us move on Saturday of last week and are at least in the condo for now.  The unstable part is we don't know if they will give us the loan, for some various reasons outside of our control, so we might need to move again and thus are living out of boxes and unpacking as little as humanly possible in case we need to move quickly again.

So here we are, in what we hope to be our new home very soon.  We thankfully are not homeless and though things are uncertain at the moment, we know that God will continue to be faithful in providing for us, both physically and spiritually.  He is teaching us daily to trust him and believe him when he says he will take care of us, not only when we see how, but also when we can't and the situation seems impossible.  God is faithful and his timing is absolutely perfect.  We continue to pray that we will hear good news soon but we know that if is not the news we want to hear, it will still be good because it is what he has for us and he will make a way.  God is good, all the time.

~Becky

She has arrived! (Birth Story)

It's finally written, I apologize in advance that it is so long but there is really now way to quickly document the whole process.  (For any who don't want to read all the details, this is a birth story so I'm sharing it all.  Skip if you would like.)

Alythia Grace Ozburn has arrived!  She arrived at 4:40am on her due date, 6/11/13.  She weighed in at 6 pounds 9.2 ounces and was 20 inches long, born at Clark Memorial Hospital in Jeffersonville, IN.  She's an absolute doll and is doing amazing.  As you can imagine with her birth time, we did not get much sleep between Monday and Tuesday but we were able to sleep some the next night.  The hospital staff really worked hard to respect your need for sleep and give you as much uninterrupted time as possible.

I began having contractions at 9am on Monday, 6/10, but they were only about 20 minutes apart and not very intense.  I was certainly grateful for that because I had some work that I had to finish up on Monday.  I finished up around 5pm and had started fairly serious contractions at around 4:30pm, about 5-7 minutes apart.  I got home and had Rob draw a bath so I could try laboring there for a while as I wasn't convinced that I was fully in labor yet.  Contractions started getting closer together and more intense though still manageable with some concentration.  Around 7 we finally decided to call the midwife to see what she recommended at this stage.  We had timed them and they were consistently 5 minutes apart.  She agreed that we should head to the hospital and called ahead to let them know we were coming.  We got checked in and were taken up to labor and delivery to be assessed before they officially admitted us.  My contractions were now about 2 minutes apart and becoming more intense.  They checked me and found I was 4 cm dilated and 60% effaced so we went ahead and were admitted.  I still didn't believe this was really happening but I figured they must know what they were doing.  I sent Rob out to the car to get all our stuff and the real work began.

The fun parts of labor that I wasn't expecting... They hooked me up to the fetal monitor to get a reading, the nurse left the room for a few minutes and I promptly threw up.  I was trying so hard to get somewhere before it happened but they had me strapped to the bed and nothing around to use so on the floor it was.  Not exactly how I wanted to start but it was the first of many new experiences.  They quickly had housekeeping come in and clean it up.  They got me all set up and gave me the birthing ball to try as well as some other tools and in we started.  Rob was a fantastic coach and was there every time to massage my back or apply pressure and sat for countless hours just holding my hand and encouraging me in whatever way he could.  I asked to use the labor tub as soon as we got there but they said I had to be at least 5 cm dilated before they would let me get in as it sometimes slows down labor and they would probably send me home if I slowed down that early.  I worked for about an hour, laboring on the bed, trying sitting, walking, leaning on the ball, etc.  About that time the midwife arrived and I was in so much pain I thought I was going to rip in two.  I had thrown up a couple more times by this point just because of the intensity of the contractions, but at least they were prepared and got me a bag to use.  At this point my contractions were consistently 2 minutes apart or less and I already had had it.  She asked what my pain level was and I said 9 at least, she finally agreed to let me get in the tub.  What a relief!!  As soon as I got into that glorious hot water, contractions that I was barely able to work through with a lot of couching outside of the tub, were almost completely manageable and I was even able to relax into them and allow them to work rather than every muscle fighting it like I was out of the tub.  It was about 9 or 10 by this point and this is where I stayed for the next 6 hours.  At one point Rob had me get out of the tub and try to walk around a bit but immediately the pain became unbearable again and back in the tub I went.  I cannot tell you how much of a lifesaver that was, I would not have been able to make it without it.

Around 1am my contractions began to intensify even more and transitioned from one contraction every 2 minutes or so to 3 contractions, back to back, with a 2 minute or less break afterward then straight into another set of 3 contractions.  This lasted for about 2 hours and then they seemed to slow down.  I was grateful for a little reprieve but the midwife was not as pleased.  She told me that if my contractions did not pick back up in another 20 minutes I would have to get out and labor in a different position to make them get going again.  Rob decided that since I had a break he would run out to grab something from the car that he had forgotten earlier.  While he was out I hit a wall with my labor.  It's funny how you have talked about transition so many times in class and think you know what to expect but when it happens, you are convinced it's not really transition and you are going to be doing this forever!  I told the midwife that if she made me get out of the tub and continue laboring, I was going to need some drugs because I could not handle any more of this without the water.  She suggested that we wait until Rob got back and then she would check me to see how far I had progressed.  Around 3:30am she checked and found out that I was 10cm dilated and 100% effaced and was ready to go so she suggested breaking my water since I wasn't feeling any urge to push.  On my next contraction she told me to bear down and she broke my water.  She let me go through a few more contractions in the tub, working on trying to push with the contractions rather than relaxing through them as I had been most of the time.  After a few of those we moved to the bed to finish out the process (you are not allowed to have a water birth at any of the hospitals here so as much as I would have liked to have one, the final stage had to be in the room).

Once I was up and on the bed we found out that baby girl was presenting face down, ideally they are face up which causes you to feel the need to push.  This is why I hadn't had any urge even though I was completely ready to deliver.  She informed me that I needed to work to get her over my pelvic bone and see if we could get her to turn her head so that she would go through the birth canal on her own.  This was what the next 40 minutes consisted of.  I had no urge still so I was trying to manufacture what I thought that might be and push, sometimes it worked well and sometimes it did nothing.  Eventually the midwife pushed her fingers down hard right where she wanted me to focus my effort in an attempt to give me some guidance.  That seemed to help because I could figure out what muscles to use to actually make things progress.  At this point they were holding the fetal monitor on me constantly, which meant I had a nurses arm reaching across me for an hour, but it ensured that the baby was doing fine still through this part of the process.  After 40 minutes of pushing with nothing really happening, I finally was able to get her to turn her head and she began to crown.  Once she got over my pelvic bone, things went rather quickly.  As soon as she entered the birth canal her heart rate started to drop and got down into the 90's.  I wasn't really having any contractions but we needed to get her out rather quickly to make sure she wasn't in danger so the midwife had me push as much as I could every time I had a contraction.  It was quite a scene, Rob holding one leg, nurse holding the other, midwife yelling at me to push, me yelling back at her that I was trying and that I had nothing to push with...  Serious drama going on at that moment.  Finally it was getting critical so the midwife just starting pulling at things and stretching them in ways I did not know were possible.  Let me tell you, I did not know a person could be in such pain!  I let out the most blood curdling screams you have ever heard.  Rob said they sounded like they were from another world!  The final few pushed I had no contractions but we needed to get her out so I had to do it without anything helping me.  I pushed as hard as I possibly could and finally after 3 or so pushed, she was out.

My tiny little precious baby girl was born!  She had the fullest head of dark brown hair and was covered in this thick white chalky stuff but she was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.  They laid her on my chest and instantly it was all worth it!  Every single second of pain culminated in me holding my own baby girl in my arms.  We both just laid there after all that work and then she let out the cutest little cry.  You should have seen Rob's face, he was instantly in awe and head over heels in love with her.  They left her umbilical cord attached until it had stopped pulsing and then Rob got to cut the cord.  After the nursery nurse cleaned her up a little bit I was able to try and feed her while they waited for the placenta to detach and be delivered.  Man once you have birthed a child with all their bones and pointy elbows and knees, the placenta is nothing, just one little push and everything is done.  At 4:40am Alythia Grace Stoming-Ozburn was born.  The whole process is so surreal to me still!  I can't believe I actually grew and gave birth to a child.  We were left alone after a little more clean-up to have our "kangaroo care" time.  This is something very much supported and encouraged by our hospital, named for the way that kangaroos carry their young close to them.  You spend an hour or so with direct skin to skin contact with the baby.  This allows your body heat to help the baby learn to regulate their own body temperature and it is a wonderful bonding experience.  I held her for about 30 minutes and then Rob spent some time with her resting on his chest as well.  As soon as she was on my chest she started lifting her head and pushing up with her arms trying to look around, crazy girl has no idea she's not suppose to be doing that yet!  We officially decided that her name was Alythia Grace and just marveled together at the wonder and blessing she was.  That God would chose to allow us to be the parents, the ones responsible for raising and teaching this precious creation of his is more than I can believe but I am so blessed that He did choose us.  I pray that we are able to be the parents she needs and that she grows up to know and love our Savior like we do.

After our kangaroo care the nursery nurse came in and took down her official stats, 6lbs 9.6oz and 20 inches long.

Being weighed

Rob helped her give Alythia her first bath and kept close eye on everything since I was still stuck in bed.

My first bath

 After that was all done the had a nurse come in and help me into the bathroom.  It felt amazing to be able to stand up again but they didn't want me walking around too much until I got into my room upstairs.  I was able to get up almost completely on my own and was able to walk with fairly little pain.  I did tear a little bit during delivery so I had one stitch that was causing some pain, other than that I really felt great!  Yay for medication free!  They left us alone for a little while and I was able to eat again and drink.  I was so thirsty!!  Around 7:30am a nurse from upstairs came in and helped transfer me to the wheelchair and took us to our room on the postpartum floor.  Pilled high with bags and pillows and my precious new bundle of life, we were off to our new room for the next two day.  Once there they asked me not to get up until my nurse could come in and help me, so I waited.  Finally she came in and told me I could take a shower and clean up.  What a wonderful feeling to stand on your own and take a shower after all of that.  I felt like a new woman!

daddy has the magic touch to make it all better

Alythia was tagged and security banded and we finally were able to rest.  She took to eating very quickly and has been a champ at it.  She also started sleeping on a schedule fairly quickly and has been pretty consistent ever since.  Such an easy child, happy, good eater and sleeper and so alert!  Who could ask for anything more.

               

We had many visitors while we were in the hospital, so many people excited to meet our little girl!  Grandma was able to come down that day and was here with us for 10 days afterwards.  Such sweet time with us and with her first granddaughter.

Luke and Sara stopped by to meet Alythia

Snuggles with Grandma Mahan

We were in the hospital Tuesday and Wednesday and though we wanted to leave Wednesday night, the pediatrician asked us to stay the night to allow her to be observed and with the promise of returning first thing the next morning, we agreed to stay.  He kept his word and was there to do her 48 hr check at 7:30 am , my doctor came in to discharge me around 8:30 am and by 10:30 am we were home!

All ready for my first car ride!

It was so nice to get back into our own space and feel like we could be normal again.  It's amazing how stir crazy one can get when you aren't allowed to leave the hospital floor for 2 whole day.  We are happy to be home and adjusted to life as a family of 3!!

 
~Becky

One Month Old

I can hardly believe that it has already been a month since my precious girl made her appearance in our lives.  It has flown by like a whirlwind and even though I am trying to treasure every second, it seems like they just keep slipping through my fingers like sand.  She is such a joy to us and this momma's heart feels like it's going to explode with the love I feel for her.  How can you love someone so much?  I didn't know my heart had any more room and yet she has made a space all for herself in there, never to be moved.  I have decided to follow suit with what I have seen some others do for their kids and I am going to write her a letter on the blog at each of her month milestones.  I am also writing in her baby book, which I am determined will be filled completely for her, but I feel like this is a bigger space to write out my thoughts, and you all might want to read it.  If not, then you'll just have to skip these posts. :)

1 month old with mommy's teddy bear from when she was a baby

Alythia,                                                                                                                                     7.11.13

My dear sweet child.  You have brought so much joy into mommy and daddy's life.  We are so blessed to have you as our daughter and can hardly remember what life was like before you were here.  There is evidence of you everywhere and we are overjoyed to be your parents.  You are so much fun!  Today your are one month old, I can hardly believe it.  Per mommy's measurements, you weigh 9lbs 6oz and are 21 inches long today.  You don't go for your 1 month dr. visit until next Thursday.  At one month you are on a pretty good sleep>eat>play cycle, though mommy can't take much credit for that as you did this virtually on your own while still in the hospital.  It does require a little monitoring and structure to keep it consistent but you are a champ.  You are eating so good and have gained almost three pounds! You are still able to wear your newborn clothes and diapers which makes me happy because I am able to get some good use out of them and won't have to waste any of the diapers I have already bought, so far I'm right on track with those.  You continue to get stronger and have been holding your head up on your own since about week 1, you are able to sit in your Bumbo without falling over but are still working on sitting on the couch without any issues (no worries, you have plenty of time).  About 2 weeks ago you started making crawling motions during your tummy time and really get frustrated with yourself when you can't manage to move anywhere with all the effort you are putting in.  Slow down!  You seriously do not need to graduate every level before your 6 months old. :)  You have all of these cute little faces that make mommy and daddy laugh!  You were born with a little faux-hawk and rat-tail and it continues to get more pronounced.  It's adorable.  You constantly make noise when you are awake and sometimes when you are sleeping, most of the time it's a squeak of some sort, you have so many different squeaks!  They constantly keep us entertained.  I never knew babies could be so noisy! You have always been so alert and inquisitive, you make and hold great eye contact and seem to be processing absolutely everything around you.  You love to be outside; going on walks, swimming in the pool, napping in the lounge chair (in the shade).  You have gone swimming 3 times now, once at play group with your fellow birthing class babies and twice with your friend EV and mommy's friend Bethany at their pool.  I am very much looking forward to getting into our new place so we can go to the pool more often and swim.  You are very relaxed and comfortable in the water and only have had a few issues, mostly because the water is still on the chilly side.  You celebrated your first Father's Day and your daddy was so proud that he got to celebrate being a daddy because of you.  You wore a pretty pink dress that Miss Jody gave you and you looked so beautiful.  You were able to spend your first 10 days of life with your grandma Mahan and your aunt Alice as they came to help momma and daddy take care of things around the house and help make meals so that we could focus on you.  It was so nice having them here with us and you really loved spending time with them.  We celebrated our first 4th of July as a family as well.  It was a really rainy and ugly day so we decided to take a drive down to Mammoth Cave and do a little hiking/spelunking.  You got to go on your first cave tour and the guide was so impressed with you that he made you an official "Junior Ranger" of the National Park.  Sadly, you had no idea any of this happened as you were so very content in the Baby Katan and slept the whole time.  We will definitely go back though as mommy and daddy really liked it.  You have spent your first month in our apartment because we have not yet been able to move.  We found a nice condo that we will be moving into in the next couple of weeks and you will have your own room and bathroom there!  Mommy is so excited to put your nursery together and get it all decorated.  I really hope that it will turn out like I have envisioned it.  You will be taking your first little road trip in a couple of weeks up to Michigan where mommy and daddy's families are.  You are going to get to meet your grandpa Stoming, your great-grandma and grandpa Stoming, so great aunts and cousins on daddy's side and lots of mommy's family (there are too many to write out who they all are) as well as some of mommy's oldest friends.  Everyone is so excited to meet you!  When we come home you will finally get to meet your grandma and grandpa Ozburn and your aunts.  So many people are anxious to meet you and tell you how much they love you.  You are so loved and treasured little one and we pray every day that you will continue to grow and that you will one day soon come to know Jesus and how much He loves you too.  
                                                                                     
                                                                                     Love always,
                                                                                                 Mommy

A few more of my favorites from this month

Chilling with daddy

July 4th looking patriotic

Momma's favorite face you make

snuggles

So precious!

I guess that's enough for now.

~Becky

3 weeks old

My precious and beautiful child is already three weeks old today.  I can hardly believe how fast time is flying by.  She is already such a joy to our lives and we can't really remember what life was like without her.  I find myself often just sitting and staring at her beautiful gray/blue/hazel eyes and the wonder that is found there.  She looks at everything so intently, in wonder and awe at what it might be, trying to take it all in as fully as possible.  She has not really every been a sleepy baby.  I don't mean that she doesn't sleep, she certainly does that, on a fantastic schedule none-the-less.  She is just very committed to whatever she is doing.  If she is eating, she it pretty focused on the task, if it is time for her to be awake, she does not want to miss a single second of the world she is just beginning to be a part of.  She has been such an easy baby for the most part. She put herself on a pretty good schedule while we were still in the hospital, she has been eating like a champ and had gained 12oz at her first week doctor's appointment.  Even the pediatrician was surprised and thought maybe the numbers were incorrect.  I assured him that I saw both scales when she was weighed and could confirm that she was 6lb 7oz when we left the hospital and she was 7lb 3oz when she was weighted at the ped office.

We have been so blessed in our first few weeks home with her.  My mom was able to be here for the first 10 days of her life and I am so grateful not only for her help around the house but that she was able to spend those precious days with her granddaughter.  Our church has been providing dinner for us every other day for the last week and will be continuing that for another week as well.  We have been so blessed by our church family in so many ways since we settled there a year ago.  They truly are the body of Christ, lived out as scripture commands, hands and feet: loving and serving one another.  They have been so welcoming, loving and supportive of us individually and as a family and we cannot say enough how grateful we are to be a part of the unique community that is Kenwood.  We have felt at home from the first Sunday we visited.

We have finally settled on a home for our little family and we are slated to close on it July 17th, pending everything goes well with the last few steps of our mortgage approval.  We are planning to move on the 13th so that we can have time to get settled and hopefully at least get the nursery painted before we move in.  I am so excited to have our own place, where we will be staying at least for a few years, and to be able to actually personalize my home!  I'm also looking forward to being able to put all of Alythia's things up in her room and decorate.  I have been looking at all of the things I have picked out for her, stacked in her crib or packed away in boxes for months.  I want it to all go in it's place and see if I can really make my vision a reality!  I am hoping to have her sleeping through the night in time to move into her own room but we will see how that goes.

Alythia has hit her first milestone today.  She has started on a growth spurt.  The last couple days she has been unusually fussy and has not wanted to sleep as much as she typically does but day she has started with needing to eat every two hours and having such a hard time being content.  It's so hard for a momma to see her little one crying and upset and not be able to do anything about it.  She gives me such pathetic little faces when she is upset and it breaks my heart!   I have begun to learn, fully for the first time, what it means to love unconditionally and love someone so much it hurts.  She has captivated my heart and I am overjoyed!

A few of my favorite pictures from this week

~Becky