Thank you mom!!!

Oliver's asleep, for how long I don't know! But I thought with the few minutes I have right now, I should definitley give a shout out to my amazing mom!! Not only had she stayed with us while I was on bedrest for 3 months (switching in and out with Nich's truly awesome mother!), she also spent over 4 weeks with us AFTER Oliver arrived to help us out! Who does that?? That's absolutely the best gift I could ask for :) Being a new mom is scary enough, then add on trying to recover from 12 weeks of bedrest and a C-section on top of that...but then the emotional stress, left from losing our baby boy, Julian, of constantly worrying if Oliver was going to survive the nights and waking up every 30 minutes to make sure he's still breathing! I am so glad she was able to stay so long, not only for the always clean laundry, clean dishes, clean and sterilized bottles, and delicious and inventive dinners (yes, I stole a few of the recipes to help fill in my now-bored-of meals), but also for the emotional support Nich and I needed when I came to the conclusion that I just wasn't going to be able to nurse my little boy, running myself ragged trying to make sure I was feeding him "right" (trying to follow the "how to" guidlines in a book of feeding and sleeping babies) and it being ok to just listen to my baby instead of a dumb book that mysteriously found it's way into the garbage :), and the long nights where I was afraid to let other people take care of him, but again I was a MESS.

All of us knew things were going to be ok if my mom, now "Omama" (a cute variation of the German "Oma" for "Granny") was able to take him for the night and me not freak out. The last three nights she was here, she took Oliver ALL NIGHT LONG for 3 nights! Amazing!! Again, who does that?? Nich and I recovered most of our sanity back - taking some from Omama I'm sure - and I only checked on him maybe 4 times in those three nights - hey, that's a huge step! It sure helped the transition to him sleeping in the living room now-days...he's moving steadily closer to his own room :)

Now, our little family of three has a pretty good rhythm going where life is a new comfortable-normal...well, pretty comfortable...it'll be even better when Oliver sleeps a little longer at night and his little digestive system is mature enough to stop the silent reflux which brings him to tears nearly every night for a good 2-4 hours :( So, a HUGE thank you to an amazing mom who I grow more respect for with each new phase in my life. Having an infant is a lot of work, and I am so greatful she decided to do it 4 times! (and to Nich's mom for 6 times...especially since my wonderful husband is that #6!)

Here are some of my favorite pictures of Oliver with his Omama

Thank you mom, now, Omama ;)

Something's wrong with Facebook

On Sunday when I tried to login to my Facebook account, it came up with a screen that said my Facebook account had been disabled...upon looking at the FAQ as to "why was my account disabled," I had to have been reported for having pornography or extreme violence on my page. Umm, ok...anyone who knows me is laughing right now at the thought of that!! So I went down to the link that said to email them if I feel it was disabled wrongly.

Of course I wrote an email saying I couldn't imagine why my profile was disabled without so much as a warning and got an email back the next morning (5:00AM!) that said the account associated with my email address had NOT been disabled. I thought, woohoo! and checked my account. It's still disabled. And on top of that, I don't show up on any of my friends' lists, and have gotten emails asking why I "unfriended" them (is that the correct terminology? I have no idea)

I wrote Facebook back saying, yes indeed it is still disabled, my friends can't see me, but my page shows up as being there, just not able to get to it...NO ONE can. I also asked if someone could have hacked into my account, if there's a virus somewhere that affects Facebook (but it couldn't be since I can't access my page from any computer), or if all the changes they've been making to the privacy settings totally messed up my profile. I haven't heard back and have sent them another email telling them I haven't forgotten, and I'm very concerned someone has hacked in. So, basically, if I don't show up under your FB friends, I didn't change anything and I hope it will all be restored again...if I DO show up on your FB friends and you can look at my page, PLEASE let me know! I'm about ready to pull my hair out since I have so many pictures I love on that site :(

Things I now know...

So, we heard it all before having our little boy - all the horror stories of "real life" when bringing home a cute little bundle of joy from the hospital! We kept thinking, "why are these people trying to rain on our parade?" even though we knew everyone was good intentioned and trying to prepare us for the less glamorous side of having a baby. While our little Oliver is a beautiful, cute, pretty quiet, little guy with only the occasional outbursts where he can't be comforted, I can only imagine how rough it is to have a baby with colic who can't be soothed for hours at a time (I hear I was that baby, yikes!) It is amazing to me that even though he is such an easy-going, awesome little man that there are a few things we now know about having a little baby that I never truly understood before but are oh so clear now!!

I now know...

1. why they use sleep deprivation as torture

2. why parents have so many pictures of themselves sleeping with their sleeping or awake baby strewn across their bodies

3. there aren't enough under-eye treatments and highlighters to hide these dark circles!

4. why new parents are never able to get anything done, including showering and basic hygiene

5. why microwave dinners were invented

6. why the microwave was invented...add to that list - washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, pacifier, and giant vibrating baby swing!

7. grandparents are my best friend

8. a baby's cry has everyone running to the source to make sure everything's ok, including dogs

9. baby poop comes in a variety of colors and consistencies, the colors were the coolest

10. The weirdest and cutest sounds come out of babies, and sometimes you never know from which end...or maybe it was from the middle...

11. you can't get enough baby pictures because they grow too fast!

Our little Oliver is so worth it and as my mother correctly says, "Time with a baby flies, but the hours can drag!" That is so true, especially the night time hours ha ha ha! A big thank you to her for taking Oliver last night so Nich and I could sleep (woohoo!) and a big thank you to Nich who took him the night before so I could sleep after 5 nights of sleep in 30 minute increments :)

Couldn't resist!

My little Longhorn!

He can already Hook 'em! :)