Oliver

I have always meant to tell Oliver's story but I guess now is the last chance to do it.
I started volunteering at PigHoppers rabbit and pig rescue in July of 2002. On my very first day, a bunny came in. We all discussed what to name him - and I thought of the name Oliver after Oliver Twist since this little bunny was an orphan. This is the story that we heard that day:

Oliver had been first owned by a photographer around Easter time. Shortly after, a neighbor found him in the trash pile out front. He had obviously been attacked by some sort of animal as his ears and nose were chewed up and he was missing some toes. This person took him home and stuck him in a hutch in the backyard. When she finally called us, she said she hadn't really been able to take care of him since she had ALS, so a volunteer went and picked him up.

The story doesn't end there, though. I already had a rabbit (Fuzzy) and wasn't looking for another one. A few weeks after he came in, Oliver was adopted by a family as a pet for there 5 year old daughter. They had him for a few months but returned him that fall because the daughter wasn't taking care of him. After all this, Oliver was still a sweet and spunky rabbit. I took him home shortly after he came back to the shelter. He was a great bunny - litter trained and very friendly. He loved to be held and pet.

Anyway, he had a great life with me (I hope). The past year, he's been showing his age and for the last couple months could no longer use his back legs. Even more recently he was drinking a full bottle of water a day (a sign of problems in rabbits) and sometimes choking when he drank. Scott and I have been agonizing over when is the right time to put an animal to sleep and we finally decided last week that he was most likely suffering (even though he would still come to the door to be pet and get treats), so Friday we brought him in.

I know he was just a rabbit, but I've always loved his story. He went through so many bad things and yet always had such a good bunny attitude (believe me, I have seen rabbits with bad attitudes!). Is it wrong to be inspired by a rabbit? :)

Fun stuff

Time flies! I can't believe Orrin is almost 4 weeks old. He is growing so fast. At our first ped appt when he was 4 days old, he weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces. Two weeks later he was up to 8 pounds 3 ounces. Who knows what he is now, a week later! His belly is getting noticeably bigger, and he is getting longer. He has outgrown any newborn outfits, especially the ones with feet.

A few fun things we've noticed about Orrin:

He has a temper! It shows up either at bathtime, during fingernail cutting, and if he is hungry (which is always!).

He has webbed toes (the 2nd/3rd toes on both feet, but the left foot is all the way up to the first joint). Apparently this runs in Scott's family as one of the grandfathers had the same thing.

He looks just like Scott's baby picture, but he has my crooked yawn.

He is just starting to have non poop/gas related smiles, but still pretty rare.

He is a very noisy sleeper. Not snoring, but little squeaking when he breathes. It was really noticeable in church last week!

The doctor said he is very strong and cautioned us to not leave him unattended anywhere as he will probably roll early.

He has been able to roll onto his side almost from day 1. He prefers to sleep this way.

He has really skinny legs! I've been putting him in cloth diapers during the day. Last week I tried the prefolds and he kept leaking out of them. I'm pretty sure nothing even hit the diaper, just ran right out the side. This week I'm using the ones that I made and they are working pretty well, although I have to add another absorbant layer inside. I had no idea how much someone that little could pee! (And a huge thanks to Cara for the newborn covers - we only had one that was small enough for him and obviously it was getting dirty everytime so having a few more has been so helpful!!)

Maybe Scott can think of some more...

Of course we've been taking tons of pictures!

Wow

I guess first I should introduce Orrin, even though I think everyone knows by now.

He was born at 6:23am on Sat August 8th. 7lb 9oz, 20in

Labor was not so bad, it went on all day Friday and we finally went to the hospital at midnight. It was much more calm and relaxed than I thought - of course the epidural helped. I gave in around 3 or 3:30 am and got it by 4. That wasn't my plan but I'm glad I did it, the whole experience was kind of fun after that.

He is very healthy and eats and sleeps so well! The past two nights, Scott and I have probably slept about 7 hours each (broken up into segments of course). Not bad, although we're still recovering from almost no sleep at all last weekend and early this week. We're still learning about diaper changes though. We've gone through about 5 outfits a day so far, and washed the changing pad cover many times. Orrin likes to wait until the diaper is off to do his business.

We really appreciate all the help and food so far! We feel very blessed that so many people love Orrin too and want to help us out!

Scott and I had fun taking pictures the other day, here's a few.

Another update

I went in for my second Non-Stress Test this morning. The baby is very stubborn, I could feel him moving around in the waiting room, but as soon as they hooked us up to the monitors, he decided to take a nap or something. They need to see the baby move before they will let us go home. So the nurse brought me a cup of coke and we waited. Still sleeping. After about half hour, I got another cup of coke and the dr. shook my belly. Finally he woke up and all was good! I'm glad b/c we would have had to go to the hospital for a Stress test if he didn't (I'm not entirely sure what that is but it sounds like less fun). I had a contraction monitor on too and it was kind of fun to see them all. Pretty much at exactly 6 min apart. Too bad that seems to mean nothing for me - they've been that way for 12 hours now. And we've had several other similar times that end with nothing.
So the plan is to show up Monday night for the first half of the induction and the dr. will decide Tues morning how to proceed (just break my water or go w/ the pitocin). Either way, it is looking like his birthday will be the 11th. I'm optimistic that it could be sooner but trying not to get my hopes up since that makes me a little crazy.

Update

Sorry to everyone who is excited for the baby, but I'm still pregnant. We really thought we'd be going in last Friday or Saturday, but this little guy is stubborn. Actually I think he wants out too, but my body just isn't cooperating.
I'm going back to the dr. today and we'll be discussing induction but I don't think that will happen for at least another week as long as the baby is doing well. So I'm just trying to not go crazy right now.

More Projects

Here's what has been keeping me semi-sane the past few weeks. More sewing!

This isn't anything I've sewn, but Scott and I sort of made these canvas things, I painted them and we put on the animal appliques. And as you can see, the crib is all ready for baby! (Even though he probably won't be sleeping in there for awhile after he is born. Like I said, I am bored.)

I made a cute little pacifier holder w/ a waterproof inside.

Since we are going to use cloth diapers, I made a wetbag to carry with us when we go out to hold dirty diapers. Again, it has a waterproof inside and is machine washable. Sewing the waterproof fabric (polyurethane laminate, or PUL) is kind of a nightmare, it sticks to the sewing foot and gets all bunchy.


And of course along the same lines, I made 2 diaper pail liners, only I didn't bother with any cute print on the outside.


After all the rectangles, I got a little more adventurous and tried my hand at making some diapers. There are a bunch of free patterns online so I tried one of them. I made 5 in the newborn size and am holding off on making any bigger ones until I can try these and see if they will actually hold anything. :) They're not so cute since I just used all the old fabric that I could find (the inner soaker layer is made of Scott's old t-shirts). And my sewing is pretty ugly, I haven't quite got the hang of curves yet. Or elastic. But they seem like they might work.
These are accessories to go with the above. There are microfleece liners (from what I've read they help the baby to feel dry, and poop just drops right off of fleece vs sticking to the flannel of the actual diaper), some inserts for extra absorbancy when necessary (3 layers of microfiber covered in flannel), and a couple of fleece covers. I made the inserts to fit in my g-diaper covers so they will work for that too. You wouldn't believe how many blogs and websites are dedicated to sewing your own cloth diapers and other related things!


I think this one's my favorite! I saw an ad for something like this that sells for $60 normally. I thought it was kind of cool, though, and seemed like I could easily make one. I just looked up the dimensions, then just tried to wing the rest. :) Again with the ugly sewing, but it is very funtional and I like it!
It is a tote bag that you can load up with toys/diapers/whatever:



But then it opens up into a soft blanket to play on! The outer fabric is water resistant nylon, and the inner is soft flannel, with a layer of soft batting in between. So it will be great for picnics, the beach, camping, etc. And it is of course machine washable.

And with that, I think I'm done sewing for awhile. My motivation for doing pretty much anything is decreasing by the minute! I'm just sitting and reading (loving the library!) and waiting at this point. I have decided, though, that if the heartburn/hair correlation is true, I'm pretty sure I'm going to give birth to a gorilla.

Last Vacation

First of all - congrats to Travis and Cara!! Now if Keely could just get her cousin to come out and play...

I can't believe its been a month already, but Scott and I went up to Traverse City for a visit and to see Griffin and Elena's soccer games.


This is my favorite one! Go Elena!

It was a little chilly that day!

Then on Father's Day weekend, we went down to the track to watch Ed race and Jet Wars. We had a good time although I hid behind someone every time one of the crazy jet cars went past. I could feel it reverberating through my belly, must have been pretty weird for the baby!

This is one of the jet trucks putting on his fire show before going down the track. These drivers are crazy!



The kids were way more entertained by Grandpa's new dart gun.

Then, over the 4th of July weekend, we went up to Cadillac for one last pre-baby mini vacation. It was nice and relaxing with the family and good food! And of course Scott got some fishing in, and even some chainsawing, his two favorite things, so he was happy.

I hope I have this right, but I'm pretty sure this is Lydia. Spot loves the twins! Daisy did too, unfortunately neither dog understands not to jump on people carrying babies (or just not to jump on people in general).


Jennalyn and Lydia w/ Marilee, enjoying the lake.
Of course, the dogs loved the lake too! Scott played with them a couple times a day, they slept for days when we got home!


Their ball had a huge hole in it so it kept sinking which Spot thought was great.

Unfortunately he usually didn't actually find it, so Scott had to get his boots on and go rescue the ball. But Scott loves his boots so I don't think he minded. :)

So that was our vacations! Now it is just waiting.... We are enjoying our weekend though. We had a date last night and Scott didn't even have to work today!