Welcome Olivia Joy!

Well... our youngest child is apparently a very determined young lady (among other things). For some reason, we will probably never know exactly why, she decided on Tuesday afternoon that she wanted to get out of my belly. We worked pretty hard to keep her there - I was a great pincushion for quite a few hours trying to get contractions to stop - but it seemed like for every shot they gave me to slow labor down she got feistier and more determined to get out. Her punching and kicking and bucking was so extreme at times that they couldn't tell if or when I was having contractions.

Olivia was supposed to be born in Sault Ste. Marie so she could be a Yooper, but she apparently wanted to be a "Troll" like the rest of her family, so she decided to make her entrance early enough that our local hospital needed to send us somewhere that had a NICU available, just in case she needed it. I'm glad they did send us or she would have been sent after birth to Marquette and I would have been stuck in Sault Ste. Marie recovering without the ability to see her and most likely without having Steve around. As it is, she started out on the CPAP machine - all the hoses over her nose in the pictures - and with iv antibiotics and lots of monitors. This morning they switched her from the CPAP to an oxygen hood, which is a good step. Once her breathing stabilizes we will be starting feedings and if those go well and her tests keep coming back good we could be going home in the next few days. We are kind of anticipating being here 5 to 7 days, but with preemies, even big ones, you never know. They were able to take out her feeding tube this afternoon and Olivia and I had some quality one on one time, even though we cannot hold her yet. She was very alert and, like her big sister, was loving having her little feet and legs rubbed.
So here are the official stats, for the interested:
Olivia Joy Obreiter, 7 pounds 11 ounces, 19 inches long, born 3-10-2010 at 7:40 a.m. at Northern Michigan Hospital, Petosky, MI.

Big Sister Abby is spending a few days with Grammy Mary and is LOVING it and playing with the puppies. She hasn't seen Olivia yet, although she did stop by the hospital last night and visited Mommy before she left for Grammy's house. We didn't want Abby's first impression of her little sister to be one with tubes and hoses and scary noises involved. Hopefully they will be meeting very soon.

Making Progress

Abby and Steve helped me finish moving furniture and putting away baby clothes and things today, so we should be all ready to bring Baby Sister home when she arrives. We even set out the baby diapers and wipes. Abby enjoys helping, kind of... she really enjoys trying to test out Baby Sister's things. She tried to put on some size 3 to 6 month pants the other day. I'm sure you can imagine how well that worked. And based on the sinus pressure and congestion I'm getting (again) I'm hoping Abby will be helping with Baby Sister sooner rather than later so that I can take some real medication and get over this bug faster.

Abby has really gotten into playing with her little people and doll house in the last week. She sets them all up, makes them dance, eat, and do other things that little people like doing. It's fun to watch her imagination working. The only downside is that she often wants Steve or I to "play too" but she doesn't want us to do any more than sit on the floor next to her. For Steve that is one thing, but for me sitting on the floor right now causes my legs to fall asleep within about 2 minutes. And then there is always the challenge of getting back up off the floor. But Abby is too cute to not play with her, so we do it anyway.

The Great Melt

I've been racking my brains trying to figure out what to get Abby for her birthday. We didn't want to spend a whole lot on birthday presents, since a new swing set and play place is in the plans for this summer. Boy this girl is hard to shop for - she has everything a kid could want or need. Last night I took some well deserved personal time to go out and do some birthday browsing. I was met at the door by Abby, who could have cared less about what was in the bags and was only worried about the fact that I had princess wrapping paper with me.

Abby is acting like she feels better today, but her nose is still pretty runny and stuffed up. She's a tough little lady. In fact, I don't think she would have taken a nap today if I hadn't physically placed her into her bed and then laid down in "mommy's princess" bed (also known as the second twin bed in Abby's room).

Baby Sister is still trying to escape and Abby is still plotting and planning with her at every chance. I hope that Abby still thinks her little sister is cool when she is outside of my belly. Last night Abby randomly put her hand on my belly and got a nice, swift kick from her little sister. Unlike the last few times, when she was majorly freaked out, Abby thought that was pretty darn funny. So today she's been pushing on my belly hoping to get kicked again.

On a weather note, we are supposed to be above freezing for the next 7 days (at least) and we are having some major melting going on. I can almost see the whole deck again (and all the "presents" Maize left on it this winter) and the yard is getting some pretty thin spots where the grass will be showing soon. Now it's time to start planning where we are going to place gardens and swing sets and all of those fun things we couldn't do since we moved a little too late in the season last year. I'm even thinking a fire ring would be a nice addition... but then again maybe too dangerous for Abby.

Teamwork

I think my daughters communicate telepathically. Or maybe by morse code. Either way, they seem to have set up a system where one of them is driving me crazy, then the other. Yesterday was Baby Sister's turn. She apparently thought she could create extra space for herself if she just pushed hard enough. She seems to be giving me a break this morning, so I hope that doesn't mean that Abby is about to pick up the driving mom crazy antics.

Abby came to an amazingly funny revelation last night. She was rubbing my belly, which is one of her favorite pastimes (she likes to find the hard lumps that are Baby Sister). She looked at my belly, then looked at me and said "Baby Sister has stripes." Of course those stripes are the stretch marks that mostly came from Abby, although Baby Sister has added a few in the last couple weeks. It's a good thing I have a sense of humor, since Baby Sister has lots and lots of stripes.

We are really looking forward to Steve being home tomorrow. Abby keeps reminding me that her Daddy is in Chicago (pronounced chick-cago). I'm not sure she understands what she is telling me, but she has the facts straight. I'm looking forward to a few diaper changes off, a nice uninterrupted nap, and a break from being the 24-7 entertainment for the last few days. Thankfully last night we had a friend from church over and she was more than happy to read to Abby and provide some much needed adult conversation.

Here Kitty, Kitty...

It was cupcake day at Abby's play group and she got to bring two mini-cakes home for her afternoon snack. Her afternoon snack ended up being 5 p.m. after she took a three hour nap. And the best part is that I didn't have to lay down with her or stay in her room. I just took her up, popped in her c.d. and left. I love it when that happens.

I finished a kitten bonnet for Baby Sister today. I had to do a little improvising to get the chin strap the way I wanted it. And I had to do a lot of learning, since I hadn't knitted anything besides basic dishcloths. I can now say I'm a fairly decent beginner at knitting.