Sunday, August 21, 2011

Happy Birthday Athena!


Athena turned 2 on August 21st. It is hard to believe that she is already 2 years old. We had an animal safari themed party at our house, which was a lot of fun.





Mommy made a lion cake that was as tasty as it was cute!Here is the album with all of the pictures

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

18 months and counting






Its really unbelievable the changes we have seen since the 18 month birthday. That proved to be a big turning point in Athena's development and she is now fully a toddler. There's no more baby left. We are having such a good time with her and she is such an awesome little person. Some of the highlights:

  • She now has all of her teeth
  • She knows more than 50 words and is saying new words everyday. She is also learning Spanish, so she also knows several words in Spanish, and can understand everything that's spoken to her in Spanish
  • She is sleeping through the night in her crib, in her room
  • She loves to play games, run around, and kick balls (we think we have a future soccer player on our hands)
  • She is silly and playful, thoughtful, and very smart
She is so smart, she problem solves very well. She is also the sweetest little girl. She likes playing with other little kids and is good at sharing toys. She is not very possessive or territorial, which we hope will last. She likes to give Marley treats and then will sit with him to make sure he eats it all. Its really cute.

She is also very strong willed and opinionated. She already has an opinion about what she wants to wear, where she wants to go, and how long she wants to stay there. She has very specific rules about how games should be played, and who can play (either mommy or daddy).

Sunday, September 26, 2010

She Walks!

Athena walked for the first time today. She had been doing a lot of assisted walking and just a couple of days ago, stood up by herself for the first time. This morning, she stood up and just walked down the hall. She was so excited and proud of herself.

We went on a walk to the park and she got to walk around some more. She's so cute!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Aquarium

We went to the aquarium with Jen and Theo. Athena loved looking at all of the fish. They had one aquarium that you could walk right up to.




Athena and Theo playing on the stairs.

Checking out the fish....

Hey, this is fun!!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

9 months and going strong

Its hard to believe that Athena is already over 9 months old. The time is going so fast. On her 9 month birthday (May 21), she got herself into a sitting position from being on her stomach, and she pulled herself up to standing in her crib. She is crawling much faster, but she still crawls "military style" where she uses her forearm to pull her body along the floor on her stomach. She practices getting up on her hands and knees and she'll rock back and forth, but then always goes back down on her stomach to crawl. I think she just needs a little more time to build up the strength. She likes to pull herself to standing. She is really wobbly, so she kind of looks drunk. :) We think she's going to move through the crawling stage quickly because she seems more interested in standing and walking than crawling.


She is very vocal and definitely communicates what she wants. I think we understand her pretty well. She is making the sounds of mama and dada, but we're not totally sure if she's applying them to us or if she's just babbling.

She is just the cutest, sweetest baby. We are having so much fun with her.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Happy New Year


Well, even though we are almost half way into January, I am going to try to post more often this year so that I can keep everyone updated about Athena and our family. It's amazing how fast she is growing and changing, especially the last two months. She is only 4 1/2 months old, but has flown to North Carolina and LA. Some of her other big milestones are:

November 21st - her 3 month birthday and first plane ride. We went to North Carolina for Thanksgiving
November 25th - she laughed for the first time. I was giving her kisses and she started laughing, which was the cutest thing ever!
November 26th - her first Thanksgiving.
She got to meet the rest of her family while we were in NC for Thanksgiving. Here is Athena with her first cousins Sawyer, Cassie, and Jaden.

December 12th - Athena and I flew to LA. So, that was a milestone for me because I traveled with her by myself. Thankfully, Athena did great on both trips and slept both ways to/from LA. She has slept through all of the take off and landings, which is good because we didn't have to worry about her ears. This was also Athena's first Hannukah, and she got lots of presents from Grandma.
December 14th - Athena rolled over for the first time. That was great! She has been turning on her side for a while and then she just made it all the way over. It was really exciting.

Here is me and Athena opening some of her Hanukkah presents. While we were in LA, we got to see the rest of the family, so everyone got to meet Athena.

Since the trips, we have stayed close to home, but Athena is growing everyday. She is very active and physical. When she is awake, she wants to be moving. She likes to spend time on hr play mat with her toys, and she loves to roll over onto her stomach. She doesn't roll back onto her back and we think its because she doesn't want to. Once she rolls onto her stomach, she wants to move forward. She will flail her arms and legs and in the last few days has started pushing up. We think she's going to be an early crawler.She grabs things and gets them into her mouth with precision. She seems to be teethings since she is showing the classic signs of excessive drooling and chewing on everything, but it doesn't look like a tooth is imminent. The books says that can show that behavior months before a tooth actually comes in.
Athena has also finally discovered Marley. As you can see, she will now try to pet him and reach out for him. When we take him for walks, she will watch him. It's really cute. Marley has been great since we brought Athena home. He doesn't bother any of her stuff and leaves her alone when she is on the floor playing. They are going to be so cute when they can play together. Below is a video of Athena and Marley.



We are having such a great time with Athena. She is a happy baby and is very alert, interested, inquisitive, and whenever we go out, she just takes it all in.

I have every intention of posting regularly, especially now that its easier for me to find a few minutes to get online.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

It's been too long




Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted. The time just goes so fast!
Athena is already 2 1/2 months old. She had her 2 month check up recently and she is doing great. She weighed about 10 1/2 lbs and she was 22 1/2 inches long. She is developing at a good rate. She also had her first vaccination, which was the DTaP. She cried when she got the shot, but didn't have any reaction, which we were happy about. She goes back in a few weeks for her 3 month visit.

In the last week or so, Athena has gotten much more interested in the world around her. She is tracking things with her eyes now and has gotten really into her mobile. She will really watch it and follow it around, and she will get excited by it. She is also smiling a lot now, which is adorable! She really looks around when we are walking around. She likes looking sat the trees and is really interested in what is going on around her. She tends to get overstimulated quickly and will get a little cranky, but a little nursing and she falls right asleep.

Here's the link to the latest web album. http://picasaweb.google.com/nicwolfe/Athena_month3?authkey=Gv1sRgCKeukMSrpNeHfQ#

We are getting excited for the holidays and are so excited she is here to celebrate them with us. She gets more amazing everyday. Wat's great too is that Joe is off the month of November before he starts his new job, so we all love the extra time we get to spend together as a family.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Update and Pictures


It's been a while since I posted because it turns out its hard to find the time to get on the computer with a little baby. :-)

The last few weeks have been an intense time of enjoyment and adjustment. After Athena was born, Joe took 3 weeks off and has now been back to work for 2 weeks. Being on my own with Athena has been great, but has also been challenging. I think we have gotten into a pretty good rhythm - some days are easier than others.

We have been to the pediatrician a couple of time since she was born and she has been doing well. She is gaining weight a little slower than average, but nothing that the Dr. or we are worried about. She eats well and poops enough to prove it. She has grown an inch since she was born. She is the cutest and smiled intentionally for the first time this past weekend.

She has been sleeping pretty well and we have the nighttime into a somewhat regular schedule. I will feed Athena until about 10-ish and then I go to bed and Joe takes the baby, so I can get some sleep without the baby. He'll bring her into the room about midnight and then she'll usually sleep until about 2 and then I'll get up and feed her. Usually she'll go back to sleep fairly easily and will sleep for another 2-3 hours. So, at least I'll get about a 4 hour block of sleep a night plus the other 2-3 hours. Some days I'll nap when she sleeps, but not always.

I am going to try to post more regularly. I included more pictures.

Athena - Week 3

Athena - Week 4

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Pictures

We have made a couple of web albums of Athena. Check them out.

Here is the album from her first few days, http://picasaweb.google.com/nicwolfe/AthenaSFirstFewDays?authkey=Gv1sRgCN6YoJ2Mx8KcogE#

Here is the web album from her first week, http://picasaweb.google.com/nicwolfe/AthenaSFirstWeek?authkey=Gv1sRgCOHWpv71qOCBOQ#

We'll be taking lots of pictures and will post as often as we can

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Athena Rose Barefoot is here!



Athena Rose Barefoot was born on Friday August 21st at 6:50 am. She weighed 7lbs 6oz and was 20 inches long. She was almost 2 weeks late. She is healthy and we are so thankful to finally have her here.

The labor and delivery were long and it did not go according to how I had planned, but having her here and healthy makes it all ok.

We went into the hospital on Wednesday August 19th to start the induction process. Our midwife did not feel comfortable having us go too much longer, and I was afraid that the longer we waited, I would be at risk of more aggressive interventions. We got to the hospital at noon on Wednesday and they did not have a labor room, so they put us in one of the recovery/post partum rooms. The labor and delivery rooms are bigger than the other rooms. Luckily, we were assured that no one was in a rush for the baby to be born and they were happy to take things slowly. We probably waited about 2 hours before anyone came in to check me out and start the process. First, they hooked me to the fetal monitor and it turned out that I had been having contractions. It felt to me like Athena was just stretching out, so I wasn't interpreting those feelings as contractions. They checked me out and I was effaced, but not dilated at all. We talked about the options to start the induction process and because I was already having some contractions, they did not want to start with the prostaglandin gel. The gel is applied to the cervix to help "ripen" it and can cause contractions. So, we decided to start at the lowest level and work our way up.

We decided to start with the foley bulb. This is a catheter that is placed up past the cervix and is inflated with saline to help the cervix dilate. The bulb falls out when the cervix is 3 centimeters dilated. Joe and I had brought Scrabble with us, so once the bulb was inserted, we started a game. Joe also went out and got us some food and we just hung out and waited. The bulb took several hours until it was finally ready to come out. The next step was to start the Pitocin.

When we first got to the hospital, the anesthesiologists came into talk to me about medication options. I knew what my options were and really wanted to do it unmedicated. We talked and I told them that I was committed to doing this as natural and unmedicated as possible. After the foley bulb came out, they started the Pitocin. I told them I wanted to start at the lowest amount, which was 1 miliunit. They started with that and increased it by 1 every 30-60 minutes. Once they started the Pitocin, the contractions started pretty much right away. After they had increased it a bit, the contractions got stronger and were coming closer together. This was already the middle of the night Wednesday/Thursdsay. It got to the point where the contractions were coming one on top of another and there was not much of a break between them. On top of that, Athena was facing the wrong way and the back of her head was pressing against the base of my spine, so I was having really bad back labor. Once the Pitocin was up to 6, I was in a lot of pain and we talked to the doctors about stopping the Pitocin so I could get some rest. They cut the Pitocin in half and Joe and I made it through the night. At about 9am, we called our doula to have her come to the hospital. By that time too my mom and Elana had driven up from LA and were at our house.

By the time Judith, our doula got there, they had started increasing the Pitcocin again and the contractions were strong and coming one right after the other. My mom and Elana got to the hospital by the early afternoon. By later that afternoon, I had not dilated anymore and was in a lot of pain because of the back labor. At that point, the doula and the midwife both suggested that I get an epidural because I was not able to relax enough to open up. After about 15 hours of labor, I agreed to the epidural. They came to administer the epidural in the late afternoon/early evening on Thursday. I was nervous about the epidural because I didn't like the idea of something going into my spinal area or of my lower half being numb. They did a great job and while I couldn't feel any of the contractions, I could still wiggle my toes and my lower legs were kind of tingly. Once the epidural kicked in, they started to increased the Pitocin more rapidly.

By about 2:30-ish that morning, I could feel the pressure of her coming down. I couldn't feel the pain of the contractions, but I could feel the pressure. At that point, I started to push. I pushed for about 2 1/2 hours and the baby could not make it past the pubic bone beause she was facing the wrong way. Somewhere in the 5am hour, the OB came in to talk about assisted delivery using either forceps or the vacuum extractor. We weren't too happy about either, but knew she needed some help getting out. We talked about all of the risks and benefits of each and decided to start with the forceps. They also wanted to do it in the operating room just in case they had to do an emergency c-section. I told them that more than anything, I did not want a c-section and they assured me they did not want to do one, but had to keep all options open and wanted to be safe. So, Joe got suited up and we went into the OR. There were no less than about 12 people in there. There was also a lot of meconium in the fluid, so they told us when she came out, she needed to go straight to the pediatricians for them to suction her lungs to make sure she did not inhale any of the meconium. So, in the OR, the group of pediatricians were in the corner at the warming table waiting for her.

They tried to place the forceps, but couldn't get around the pubic bone, so had to go for the vacuum. The placed the vacuum and in two pushes she popped right out, thankfully. Joe got to cut the cord and they handed her over to the pediatricians. It took them about 5 minutes with her until I finally got to hold her and see her face. Joe was over there with her.

There is truly no way to express how it feels to see and hold your baby for the first time. It was definitely one of the most powerful moments in our lives and we just marvel at her everyday.