Family fun!

We had a fun Memorial Day weekend! Owen's brother, Bryan, flew in on Friday and we picked him up from the airport and then headed out of town a couple hours later to go to Brevard for the weekend. Owen's other brother, Charles Robert, and his wife, Michelle, were in town, too so it was awesome having everyone together! Plus Aunt Mary and Uncle Dave were there for a night and Aunt Sandra, Uncle Bill and Chris came over from Waynesville for dinner Saturday night. It was so fun!

Oliver did great on his first overnight trip. I packed for days in preparation.....but, those that know me well (or maybe not so well even :)) know that I do that for myself anyway so starting early is nothing new for me. When I was younger, we would drive out to Wyoming to see my grandparents..... I would start packing WEEKS before we were leaving.....of course that meant that I ended up taking clothes out to wear, but whatever, I was excited! And of course, especially with Oliver, I don't want to forget anything important. But, it all went smoothly. And, now that we have this trip under our belts, we are ready to go to Hilton Head soon for Liz's wedding, Wilmington and hopefully sometime in the next few months.....Colorado? :)

Oliver had his little pack'n'play set up in Owen's old bedroom and that worked out well.....he slept great at night and took decent naps. He wouldn't sleep as long as he normally would and that could be due to the extra people in the house or the fact that he didn't want to miss out on any of the fun! The baby monitor wouldn't go very far but no worries....between me, Nana and Uncle Bryan, we had a watch on Oliver :) Speaking of Uncle Bryan.....he was so sweet with Oliver. Clearly I already knew that he was a wonderful person anyway but he was so attentive and loving with Oliver all weekend.....he even helped distract Oliver while we did an ostomy bag change. And Oliver LOVED being around his grandparents and uncles and aunt. He was enthralled with Charles Robert and Bryan and he would also show off for Michelle and Aunt Mary and Nana......funny baby. The fun continues.....Bryan flies back home tomorrow morning so he'll be coming down today and the Charles Robert and Michelle fly out on Thursday so they'll be here sometime before then, too! Sadly, we won't get to see CR and Michelle again soon because they are headed off to Beijing (by way of California) for her final placement for the State Department. Hopefully they'll be back in a year but it could be longer. Here are some pictures from the weekend.....

Vote for Oliver!

and tell your friends to vote too, daily! :) This is your mission. I entered Oliver in a Parents magazine photo contest, I just couldn't resist. So if he gets the most votes this week he'll move on to the finals......so go to the link below, vote for oliver (you'll have to type in a phrase, etc to confirm you are a real person) and then go back every day and do it again (once daily) and tell your friends! :)

http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/301934

We have a beast on our hands...

But then we already knew that! We went to a check-up with the GI doc yesterday and Oliver weighed in at a whopping 17 lbs, 11 ozs. Geez! From the look (and weight) of him, you would never know that he was a kid with intestinal issues.....but he is doing great. We got the go ahe

ad to work him slowly up from 43 ml/hr of formula to 50ml/hr. That will increase his time off the food pump which is great! We also are going to try out giving him "regular" formula for bottle feeding. The elecare formula which is what he is currently "eating" tastes nasty, believe me, I tried it. It is FOUL! So, this is great that we can use enfamil or similac or something else.....of course we'll be tracking everything like always and see if he responds negatively to it with increased ostomy output. Also, we got the clearance to start trying rice cereal then veggies when he is 6 months (just a couple weeks) so that is huge. I told my mom that when they said that it made my stomach churn because that seems to be such a big step and in a lot of ways, it scares me because his intestines are so sensitive. But, he is getting bigger and older and this is the natural progression. But all in all, he is doing really well health-wise.

Oliver had a playdate with sweet Mackenzie this weekend :) Not sure he grasped the concept yet but he will eventually!

Oliver can sit up when he uses his arms to prop himself up!

Save the Date!

Save the Date for October 9, 2010.....that is the Hopebuilders 5K here in Charlotte. We'll be sending out information on how to join our team and/or donate in mid/late June (as soon as the website is set up to take online donations). This 5k is a fundraiser that benefits Levine Children's Hospital. We had such an amazing experience with Levine's and they took such good care of Oliver. The nurses, NPs, doctors and staff were all wonderful people with huge hearts and great minds. This is just a small way that we can begin to show our appreciation and help the hospital by raising money and therefore hopefully helping other babies and kids at Levine's.

So, if you are interested in joining our team, go ahead and mark your calendar for October 9th and I'll be posting more information soon. You can also email me and I'll mark you down as a team member!

This past Saturday, we went the the NICU Family Spring Fling and it was HOT! But, it was nice to go and see some of the wonderful people that took care of Oliver for 2 months.....we also went by the hospital to say hi to the nurses that had to work that day. It was good to see everyone!

Finally, here's a Happy Birthday shout-out to Blake! :) Happy Birthday to my favorite brother who is 2 years younger :)

Big Boy Crib!

So.....guess who has slept in his crib in his own room UPSTAIRS for the past 2 nights!? That's right, Oliver! YAY! He is 5 months old and we could have put him up in his own room a long time ago (especially since being off the TPN) but there is something so nice about having him with us all the time downstairs. However.....I just don't sleep as well and it is time for him to be in his own room so we finally bit the bullet and moved him up.

No surprise here but not only have we slept better but so has Oliver. His room is darker than ours and so that helps but it is also a lot more quiet. He doesn't have people walking into the room where he is sleeping, to get dressed or a crazy cat (Bella) walking around in his room "quacking".

The night before last (the first crib night), we turned off the lights to go to bed and were surprised at how dark our room was. It hadn't been that dark in 3 months due to the glowing of Oliver's feeding pump.....ah....heaven! I prefer total darkness and would put up blackout curtains if Owen would let me.....he likes the morning sun coming in. Ugh!

Oliver is always happy when he wakes up in the morning but the past 2 mornings he has been especially happy. I think it is because he is more rested and so that just makes for an even happier baby! And clearly that is good for everyone.

Where have these 5 months gone?

Welcome to our new blog! I have enjoyed posting on caringbridge but wanted a little more control and some more flexibility so I have decided to continue posting about Oliver and everything he is up to on this blog.....

We have had an exciting and eventful last 2 weeks.....My mom and I took Oliver uptown and had lunch with my dad. It was so much fun and such a glorious day to eat outside and enjoy the time together. We stopped by my mom's old office and saw some of her former co-workers. It was so nice to meet them, they are such nice people, plus, any opportunity to show off Oliver is fun! :)

Owen and I took Oliver on his first out of town trip the first weekend in May. We decided to make a day trip over to Brevard to see Owen's parents and so we packed Oliver up and hit the road. It was nice to get out of town and hang out with Owen's parents.  It was a great visit and we got a lot of cute pictures of Oliver!

Last Thursday, Jack arrived back in Charlotte from his semester at sea! It was awesome to see him and he was surprised at how big Oliver is.  We went out to eat at Loco Lime to celebrate.  Jack was so sweet and brought Oliver a stuffed toucan and a tshirt from Brazil! Oliver loves his toucan, especially chewing on his beak. 

We also took Oliver out to the park for our friend Allison's son's birthday party. It was a beautiful day and a perfect day for a birthday party.

Sunday was of course Mother's Day - my first! My sweet Owen brought me coffee from Caribou (decaf, sugar free hazelnut with soy, thank you), some pretty flowers and a sweet card. It was so thoughtful and I appreciated it so much. We then went to Brio to celebrate with my family and it was delicious!

So Oliver is 5 months old today (the 12th)....how did that happen? He has been home from the hospital for 3 months now and it has just flown by. It is so scary how quickly time is passing....he is so hilarious and has such a little personality. He draws attention everywhere we go (which is a good thing and a bad thing)......we went to speech therapy last week and while waiting for the elevator this sweet couple was there with us. Of course Oliver drew their attention so they were talking to him but then......the guy squeezed his cheeks! NO! The momma bear in me came very close to clawing his eyes out.....of course I didn't because the elevator arrived just in time but people, really.....don't touch baby faces when you don't know the baby! He could have been sick (we were in a hospital after all) and even if not sick, that just isn't appropriate.  They didn't mean any harm and Oliver is hard to resist but still.....

We are working with Oliver to practice taking a bottle, he isn't super excited about it but we'll get there! He is getting so big too, he is up to 17lbs and is about 27 inches long.....what a big kid!