The First Four Months

Oliver is now four and a half months old and I haven't done an update post yet! So I thought I would do an all in one type thing and then hope I do better for the rest of his monthly posts!  This picture with his tie onesie is his one month picture.  I can't believe how skinny his legs look!

 This next picture is his two month old picture.  It's amazing how fast they change!

 Brandon was able to bless him on September 25th and it was absolutely amazing he did such an awesome job!  I realized after we were all done and had changed him out of his little outfit that we forgot to get a picture of the three of us (talk about feeling like I had a little Mommy fail moment) but at least I remembered to get a picture of each of us with him!

 This is his three month old picture.  His little smile gets me every time!  He is such a little cutie!

This is his most recent picture at four months old.  I can't believe how big he is getting already!  At his four month old checkup he weighed in at 16 pounds 10 ounces and was 26 inches long!

A few little fun facts about Oliver right now

• He rolls over every time you lay him down on his back.  He used to roll from his tummy to his back but now that he has figured it out the other direction he can't quite remember how to get back to his tummy!
• He is still very serious about everything but has the most adorable giggle ever when you can get him to laugh!
• He is starting to figure out that if he can pick something up he can put it in his mouth and he sucks on just about everything!
• He's getting more cooperative about taking a binky but he still prefers his hand or his binky clip or the back of his binky or his blanket

Well there is a quick update on our little man (who's not so little anymore).  We love him so much!

Year #3

Can you all believe that we've been married for 3 years already? I know I can't. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting in the celestial room with Brandon holding hands while we were waiting to be sealed. It's gone by so fast and I wouldn't change a minute of it! This year has been a big year for us, we've had a lot of changes, all of them good! The biggest change that this year brought us was our little buddy, Oliver. Being parents changes your whole life but we love it. This little guy has become our whole world and I'm so glad he's part of our family. It's different being a family of 3 with a dog instead of just the two of us, but different is good! Another big change this year brought was sending both of our brothers on missions. I'm so proud of the two of them and the choices they are making. We still managed to make it to the state fair this month and had just as much fun as ever! We also took our first real vacation with just the two of us this year to Hawaii and we had so much fun that we can't wait to take Oliver back when he's a bit older :) I can't believe how fast this year went by, it's seems like every time I blink another month has gone by. I've loved our crazy, busy, changing year and hope that this next year brings just as many adventures! (With Oliver around I'm sure we'll have plenty of adventures in store for us) Happy Anniversary Brandon, you're just as awesome of a Dad as you are a husband! I love you!

Oliver Daniel Phillips

Introducing our little peanut Oliver! Oliver was born on July 21, 2011 at 12:54 p.m. He weighed 9 pound 9 ounces and was 21 inches long. He was exactly a week overdue and we had quite the adventure getting him here! Because I was a week overdue my doctor and I decided it was time to induce labor. We went in to the hospital on Wednesday (the 20th) at about 9:00 at night. We were prepared to be there for quite a while because that's what my doctor had said. She was hoping that by having me go in the night before then he would hopefully be here by dinner on Thursday. When we got to the hospital I was dilated to a fingertip (so basically nothing :) ) and at 9:30 they got me started on a medicine called Cytotec which helps prepare your body for labor and can also start labor more naturally as if you had just gone into labor yourself. The nurse had told me that they would keep me on this giving me a dose every 3 hours until morning and then they would start me on pitocin. So at 12:30 in the morning the nurse came in to check me and give me the next dose, well surprise I was already dilated to a 3, which is normally when they like to start pitocin and break your water. Everyone seemed really surprised because normally it takes people all night to get to that point. So I was really hopeful, especially because I hadn't been feeling any of the contractions that I had been having. So at 1:30 Thursday morning they broke my water and started pitocin. About an hour later my contractions were coming right on top of one another and were really painful so I decided to get an epidural. They checked me again after the epidural had set in and I was already dilated to a 5 and feeling much more comfortable :) At about 3 ish in the morning I was finally able to fall asleep until about 6 when Oliver scared us because his heart rate kept dropping during contractions and then wouldn't recover back up to where it's supposed to be. They put me on oxygen and we were finally able to get him stabilized again. When they checked me at 6 I was already dilated to an 8 so they decided to help him stay stable and since I was progressing so good they would take me off pitocin. The next time they came and checked me was at about 9 Thursday morning and I was dilated to a 10 and it was time to push! I couldn't believe it had gone that fast, since I had prepared myself to be in labor for almost 24 hours. At 9:30 we started pushing and kept pushing for 2 hours. At this point I was completely exhausted since I hadn't slept much the night before and hadn't eaten anything since dinner. When my doctor came and checked on us she was really concerned because Oliver hadn't made any progress in the birth canal since we started pushing. So at this point we decided it was time to head in for and emergency c-section. I was terrified, I had no idea what to expect and to be honest the thought of a c-section had never even crossed my mind. By this point though I just wanted him here safe. We started the prep for the surgery and headed in. Oliver was born at 12:54 and hearing him cry for the first time was the most amazing sound I have heard. Brandon of course was awesome through this whole process and was right there with Oliver from the second he was born and was able to sit there with me and hold him the rest of the time I was in surgery. Everything went well and we both are doing awesome. Recovery was hard at first because I couldn't even get out of bed for the first day, but I've been getting better every day and even though I'm still sore every once and a while I feel a hundred times better.

As for Oliver, he is absolutely wonderful! We couldn't be happier with him. He's absolutely adorable and is such a good baby. He makes the cutest little facial expressions and is already holding his head up. He is such a little cuddler and already is doing really good at sleeping through the night. Although I have to say that I can't think of anything that makes being up at 2:30 in the morning more worth it then looking down and seeing that little baby grin!

Well, here are some pictures for you all. I can't believe he is already 2 weeks old today, it's going by to fast already!Our first family picture.

This last picture is from today. He really is a little heart breaker!

Hello there due date!

Well, today is my due date...and still no baby! Oh, well. I guess he's just going to be stubborn like his Mom :) My doctor does say that everything is still looking really good and that we both seem to be doing just fine. Good news is that if he hasn't decided to make his appearance by next week I'm scheduled to be induced on the 21st so he'll for sure be here next Thursday! Woo Hoo! It's nice to finally have an actual real date to look forward to, it makes the "I'm going to be pregnant forever" feeling not quite so bad. I'm working on just staying positive and trying to get as much done as I possibly can before then and just enjoying being pregnant. I told Brandon that I'm surprisingly not that uncomfortable, and most days don't mind being nine months pregnant, but that the really hard part is just that I want him here so I can snuggle him and take care of him and get to know him. I want to see what he looks like, I feel like he has such a little personality already, and I know it will just become more pronounced once he's actually here. We have the nursery all put together and ready to go, I'm going to take pictures and get them posted in the coming week, it's one of the things on my list of activities to keep me occupied until Thursday :) I guess that's all for now, just figured I should update everyone! Hopefully my next post should be introducing our new little man!

35 and 35

Well folks, 35 weeks down, only 35 days left to go! Although I know that is being extremely hopeful that he actually comes on his due date...which probably won't happen but I'm staying optimistic that he'll just be a very punctual little guy :) ! I know the blog has been pretty much lame and nonexistent for two months, but I think growing a human being is a pretty good reason to slack a little bit in the blogging world. Everything is still going really good, in fact I would almost say abnormally normal. I think I could probably be a textbook example of a normal pregnancy, which I'm pretty happy with! I haven't had any contractions, I'm not dilated at all, Oliver's heart rate sounds awesome, and my blood pressure is the same as it always has been. I had a doctor's appointment today and she said she thinks he weighs about 5 1/2 to 6 pounds and that I should just get ready to expect a 7 to 8 pound baby. I really think that the closer you get the slower the days go, it seems like each day has just been dragging on the past couple weeks! We're getting so excited though and just need to be patient I guess.

25 Weeks!

Well today is officially 100 days to go until Oliver will be here! I can't believe it. It seems like it's gone by fast but that we also still have a long time to go. I finally took my first picture of my belly to show you all :) I took this last Thursday when I was 25 weeks. (And I'm just getting it posted even though I'm almost 26 weeks!) I don't feel like I look that big in real life but who knows, maybe I do! I'm just grateful that we're both healthy and doing good. I have another doctors appointment coming up this week and I get to have my glucose test done so hopefully that all goes good. We also got the nursery started. It's still empty pretty much but at least we got that far and we were able to get the walls painted. We painted them a really soft gray and then I'm going to make a crib skirt/bumpers from a really cute fabric that is bright blue and green with gray accents.We've also been starting to work in our yard, well at least we were until it decided to snow this weekend. Getting this annoying tree out was Brandon's latest accomplishment. It's been growing right up against our fence and sidewalk since we moved in. The little thing was stubborn though, he ended up breaking his shovel and having to use a pocket knife to finally get it out! After all that we just had to take a victory picture! Well that's about all we've been up to recently! We loved watching general conference this weekend, like always, and it seemed like it had just the right messages for me. It's always so uplifting to hear from our wonderful leaders! I can't wait for it to start getting warmer, I'm hoping Missy and I can start going for walks after work soon, I'm craving the spring weather!

Well...

We're having a boy! We're excited to announce that we will have a new little man of the house come July. We couldn't be more happy and excited! Brandon was a little shocked at first (he was convinced it was a girl) but then he got the biggest grin on his face! Everything looks healthy and is going good. Our due date is still July 14th and once I can scan our ultrasound pics I'll post them on here. We're going to name him Oliver Daniel Phillips. Can't wait to meet our little guy!

I still feel like it's January...

So this post should count for then! I'm still going to try to get at least one post each month just like I did last year so I suppose since it is technically now February you will just get to hear from me at least twice this month. First I want to start out with the quote I was going to share with you in December but didn't get around to. I really like this one and feel like even though I'm a slacker you all should still get to hear it. It says...

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." -Eleanor Roosevelt

Love the message of this.

We have been having a really good 2011 so far. I have been feeling much better and I'm excited to have my energy back :) Brandon has been so awesome, without him being so willing to help, our house would be a disaster zone! We have our "big" ultrasound coming up next week and we can't wait to know what our little peanut is! Tomorrow is the halfway mark, and I'm finding it really hard to believe. Even though July seems so far away it also seems like it's going by so fast. I'm really starting to get a baby bump so tomorrow I'm going to start taking my belly pictures! I'll be sure to post them on here periodically. Lots of new adventures are headed our way this year and we can't wait!