We survived!

Olivia smiling at her Grammy Cox during nursery duty on Sunday.

My Grammy is so funny she is always making me laugh.

This is the adorable outfit that Tyra one of our bus monitors bought her.

Olivia is smiling at Grandma Hedges. She had been asleep the whole time Grandma Hedges watched her and we woke her up just so Grandma could see her smile. It was well worth it seeing Grandma enjoy the smiles so much. This is the outfit that our neighbor Kim bought for her.

This is Olivia and I two Friday's ago after my first week back at work. As you can see she is doing her tired stare while I took our picture.

This is David Steele holding Olivia for the first time. He said it had been a long time since he had held a baby. He held her while Annie and I went across the street to see the gym that was used in the movie Hoosiers.

This is Diane Steele holding Olivia and talking to Kalleen(who is serving in Iraq). Kalleen called when Annie, Olivia and I were visiting the Steele's in Knightstown. Diane gave us the best afternoon. She had a special tea for us with great little sandwiches and desserts.

I love this picture of my baby girl getting ready to go run some errands with mommy.

This is Olivia and Todd at the last Upwards basketball game. She loves her daddy so!

Todd and Joe with the boys from their third and fourth grade basketball team.

This is Olivia and Daddy before we got ready for bed.

Olivia sitting in her bouncy chair while Mommy made dinner. This was two weeks ago and you can already see how much she changes.

Daddy bought Olivia this outfit when we went on our first date. She looks so cute in purple.

Well, we have two weeks down. Olivia loves "Grandma Mary's" her sitters house. They are so aware of what is going on with her when she is at their house. It means so much to be able to leave for work and know that your baby girl is taken care of. I get to drop her off in the morning. The first Monday that I dropped her off I boo hooed all the way to work. I didn't realize how difficult it would be. The great news is that I don't cry anymore and I am getting much more used to our daily routine. The other cute thing about the sitter's house is that there is always at least one little boy that is waiting to see Olivia when I drop her off. I just think it is so cute that he waits to see our baby girl. Olivia is so much fun! She is smiling now on a regular basis which of course just warms our heart. Our favorite thing is that after a night of sleep the first thing she does when she opens her eyes is she smiles at us. She really likes the Itsy Bitsy Spider song and just people singing to her in general (especially mommy and daddy). Olivia has the best pouty face ever, it is so sad.

I have enjoyed being back to work. My team at work has been so fantastic to allow me to pump when I have a break and help me plan some of the activities and get the classroom organized. I only have three days of work this week and then I get to be back with Olivia on Thursday and Friday. I did sign up to teach intersession for one week and they needed me so I will be teaching 4th grade. :( This is a tad unnerving, but it is only for a week and I will be back at Eagle Creek for that week. I will keep you posted on how this experience went. I will have two weeks off after the intersession. I have high hopes to get our house back in order and do some spring cleaning. I also have hopes of getting into the routine of working out. I have lost weight just from simply breast feeding, but know that I need to exercise for more energy and to lose even more weight. Overall, I am feeling good and enjoying the fact that I am getting much more comfortable with the routine of getting Olivia and myself ready on a daily basis.

We recently found out that Todd has mono. This has been an adjustment for our family just because Todd is needing to get extra sleep. He is feeling a little bit better, but he still is needing a lot of rest. I think that the worst part about him being sick is that he can not kiss on his baby girl's face. He is still working and thankfully he is able to take some breaks throughout his day to make sure he doesn't overdo it. This past Saturday he had his awards ceremony for Upwards. He was coaching a first and second grade boys team as well as a third and fourth grade boys basketball team at the church. Olivia and I went to watch Daddy coach, but now the it is over we finally get to have our Saturdays back and he gets to have his Thursday nights back. He really did enjoy coaching with Joe and is looking forward to playing basketball with Joe in the spring.

Lexie and Bentley just had their annual visit to the vet and they have a clear bill of health. They are still doing such a fantastic job with Olivia. They get really excited when we bring her home and check her out as soon as we set her seat down. Olivia is much more interested in the dogs and she follows them around the room with her eyes. She does not seem to be bothered by them sniffing her and occasionally kissing her.

5 weeks old!!!

This is a cute outfit that Aunt Tereasa got for her.
Aunt Becky and cousin Caroline feeding her at her cousin Kyle's basketball game. The first time that Grammy and Papaw watched Olivia for Todd and I's first date. They took pictures for us to know how she did without both of us. :)

Olivia loves this travel swing. She will sit and stare at the lights and the plastic fish. She even sleeps in the swing some nights. This is early on when Olivia got here, but Ryanna (my first baby) loves that fact that I had a really baby doll for her to play with. She does such a good job holding Olivia and she also tries to help with many other tasks.
This is her first Valentine's Day and we went to visit Daddy at his work. She is wearing a love bug outfit that we got for her when we went out for our Valentine's day date.

The girl has her daddy wrapped around her finger. :) She alwasys stops what she is doing and tries to track him with her eyes when she hears his voice. It is adorable.
Here she is just taking a little break in her Moses basket. I think she was looking at the wall which she does often where all of our pictures and art are.
This is her looking at mommy as I change her diaper. She is always very happy after a diaper change. Here I think she is giving me the look like why are you taking my picture when I am not completely dressed.

This is Olivia relaxing with her Grandma Hedges. She loves her so. Olivia loves when her grandma holds her like this because then she can fall asleep on her shoulder.

Wow, when they say having a baby changes everything they are not kidding. It has been a great journey the past 5 weeks with Olivia. She is such a joy in our lives. Todd was able to stay home with us her first week home which was fantastic, but then he had to reluctantly leave us to go back to work. Olivia and I have been able to manage very nicely. We definitely miss having daddy home with us all day, but we go visit him for lunch or just to hang out in between his basketball practice. Our babies (dogs) have been doing great with her too. They check on her when we let her cry for a while and often come over to sniff her to make sure she is okay. Having Olivia in our life has been a fantastic addition.

Olivia and I are down to our last week home together. That is right mommy has to go back to work on Monday! :( I really am excited to get back to work and see my kids there, but it has also been extremely sad for me. The thought of someone telling me a first that she has makes me a little sad, but I know that her sitter (Mary) will be fantastic. This week Olivia and I are busy getting things done around the house and I am getting doctors appointments done. I have my six week visit to my OB on Friday. That is enough about what we are currently up to. I would love to share with all of you how Olivia is doing.

Olivia had her 1 month check up last Monday and she is doing great! She is now 10 lbs 2.5 oz and is 22 1/2 inches. It looks like our little one is going to be tall. She did develop some baby acne which everyone including the doctor says is normal, however it makes us feel bad for her. It is drying up nicely though and we have high hopes for a clearer complexion soon. :) She still has a lot of hair and none of it has fallen out. We actually think it is getting thicker. She is so strong! She is quite the wiggle worm. Olivia constantly stretches and attempts to keep her head held up to see what is going on around her. She even occasionally will make a cooing noise when we are laying there talking. Her eye gaze is much more focused and her tracking is much better. The best part is that she has started smiling at us ! There is nothing more sweet then to have your baby give you a big grin because you are smiling and making silly noises or just simply talking to her with that silly voice we all use. She is really a content baby and she does well being passed around to many different people. Olivia has been to her daddy's basketball games on Saturday, grocery shopping, church on Sunday and of course Grandma Hedges and Grammy and Papaw Cox have been babysitting for us when we go on dates! (We are proud to say we have been out twice since she has been born.)

Thank you all so much for coming to see our beautiful girl and all of the gifts that she has received are so overwhelming! The cards and phone calls from people out of town or state have been great also. We love all the outfits that people have gotten for her. Here are some pictures so you can see how much our baby girl is growing. We will try to do better with posting info on her. We have just found out that it isn't as easy to do everything in the same amount of time that we did before she was here. However, we wouldn't change it for the world!

Just a bit...

Well, it is difficult to find time to get anything extra done around the house. Todd, Olivia and I are getting along very well. It is nice to be home as a family. We love her so much. She is so beautiful and really a content baby. There are so many fun stories to share, but I will do that later. I did send out a photo show that my mom put together, but I wanted to send a couple of pictures right before I have to feed her. I am to the point that my body shows me signs when she needs to eat. :) Here are some of our favorite pictures. The picture of her in the hospital is one of my favorites. The picture of the two of us in our matching night gowns that Amber gave us. I wanted to get her daddy on the blog too.

SHE'S HERE!!!

OLIVIA CHRISTINE HEDGES WAS BORN ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2008 @ 2:10pm.
She was 8 lbs. 6 oz. 20.5 inches long. She is a great eater and a beautiful girl. She has a head full of black hair. We will send pictures hopefully tomorrow. We are home now and really tired. Keep posted!

STILL WAITING FOR OUR BUNDLE OF JOY

Sorry it has been so long since we have updated our blog, but things have been a little busy at our house. We had a fantastic month and a half. Abby and Liz threw me a family shower in November. It was a lot of fun and we of course got some great gifts for our baby. I will post some pictures of this occasion it was very festive and Abby was the hostess with the most est. :)

December was a time of preparing my classroom for my maternity leave. Who knew how stressful and busy that would be. I have never had to leave my classroom before and it was a tad nerve racking. I finally prepared as much as I possibly could and have to just have faith that it will be taken care of. The last Monday before winter break my great coworkers gave me a shower at school. These ladies are amazing almost every one of them has their own personal struggles going on, but they took time out to celebrate Todd and I and our new baby. It was a lot of fun and the amount of things that we got for our baby was ridiculous. We will most definitely be able to use everything and they gave us lots of diapers which of course will come in handy. :)
Christmas holiday was so much fun. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the Hedges Christmas because of the snow storm, but we will get together after the baby comes. Todd and I had a great time with his mom. She took us to lunch and then we spent some time together at her house. Josh got to come home for a great stay. He took the entire family out to Stone Creek where we had good food and of course lots of laughs. Dad looks so great having lost over 150 pounds. We had a fun time with our white elephant exchange at Aunt Mary's house and it was fantastic to have the whole family there to celebrate Christmas this year. Jan had the Corcoran Christmas and we all enjoyed watching the little ones open their gifts and play. Todd and I are excited to have our little one around for next Christmas.

Todd and I started our own family tradition this year by staying home all day on Christmas. We enjoyed it and so did Bentley and Lexie since we were lazy all day long. Our Sunday School class had a shower for me at the church on December 29th. It was so great with good food and great people. The ladies did a devotion to remind me of things that are important to remember when you have a baby. Things like wrapping your child in prayer, being purposeful in having dates with Todd, teaching our child that everything they get and earn is from God and so on. Todd and I once again have been amazed by the amount of love and support we have received through this entire pregnancy.

Todd and I have been frantically getting things ready for our baby's arrival (namely the nursery). We had some great success yesterday. Todd hung the curtains in the nursery. We finished getting the nursery together and the only furniture that we are waiting on is the dresser, but hopefully it will come soon. Todd used the new camera that Josh bought him and he filmed what we had done with the nursery. We brought in the new year using the Tiffany glasses from Kalleen and her parents and the sparkling grape juice that Annie gave us to bring in the new year. We are excited about 2008. We thought we might have the baby before the new year, but it just didn't happen. Yesterday was the first day that I have felt anything close to cramping and mild contractions. Todd and I go back to the doctor on Friday. We are still expecting Baby Hedges to come close to January 10th.

Enjoy the pictures! Hopefully the next blog will be introducing our baby to everyone. We are delivering at Clarion North and look forward to finding out when our baby will get here.