Christmas Card Birth Announcement

Christmas will be extra special this year since we have our sweet Olivia to celebrate with. Christmas cards are usually something I make by hand, but this year my time has been limited and I wanted to incorporate a picture of Olivia and her birth announcement into our Christmas card. One of my favorite websites, Tiny Prints, had a great selection of birth announcements that also worked as a beautiful Christmas card. I loved being able to multitask and send one card for two very special occasions. I am thrilled with how they turned out and the picture of Olivia is just precious!

I mailed our cards last week and hopefully they have arrived to our family and friends. I can't wait to celebrate Christmas with our little girl!

One Month Old

Our sweet baby girl is one month old today and I can't believe how fast she is growing and the past month has felt like a blur. I love reminiscing over the day we brought Olivia home from the hospital and the last few weeks of time at home. Even though the last month has brought some tough moments (lots of crying, endless feedings, and little to no sleep)... I am still so incredibly happy and blessed to be this little girl's momma. 

Olivia loves her tummy time, her pacifier, eating lots, cuddling with mommy and daddy, holding her head up a bit, smiling, and she has even started making some adorable baby noises. Her oohs, aahs, and cooing is so adorable!

Awhile back I ordered some adorable monthly onesies for our sweet girl to have her picture taken in. The pictures below show the first of many cute monthly onesies that Olivia will be wearing for her pictures. She is so beautiful and we are so blessed!

4 Weeks Old

It is amazing to me how fast and slow the past 4 weeks have gone by. I have so many moments of thinking that I just had Olivia yesterday and other moments of feeling like it was forever ago that we brought her home. The past week has been a bit challenging (and sleep depriving) with Olivia being fussy and crying lots. She is still eating about every 3-4 hours and even had a stretch of sleeping for 5 hours the other night. We are trying to not spoil this little one but she loves being held and sleeping in our arms.

This week's milestones include Olivia almost holding her head up and moving her head around to look at things, spending a little bit more time in her swing, enjoying bath time until we take her out, and smiling lots. She has even started to make some adorable cooing sounds and her smile is just precious.

This weekend my Dad visited us and cooked up a storm. It is such a relief to have lots of great meals in the house for the coming week and I love seeing my Dad with his little granddaughter... so sweet!

Here are a few more pictures of Olivia, the first one is her funny face when she is pooping and the second one is a close up of her sweet lips while sleeping on mommy's chest. She really is the sweetest!

3 Weeks Old

This past week was filled with lots of ups and downs. My mom was visiting for the week and was a huge help in getting Olivia on a better schedule, sleeping in her crib, and being there for me. There is nothing better than having your own mommy there for support and encouragement when you become a new mom. Olivia is still eating great and sleeping about 3 hours at a time but has also had several moments of pure fussiness. She gets so darn tired and won't let herself fall asleep and just becomes hysterical. It has definitely been challenging on the new mommy to hear her little one cry so much, but it does get easier each day. 

This week's milestones have included Olivia sleeping in her crib (instead of the car seat), enjoying her swing for about 10 minutes at a time, holding her head up at times (she is so strong), and having some tummy time. I can't believe how big she is getting and she has already grown out of a few outfits. The days seems to blur together and 3 weeks has gone by in a flash. I am reminded each day of a quote from one of my favorite bloggers Gretchen Rubin, who says 'the days are long but the years are short'. I have to keep telling myself that even though the days and sleepless nights feel long, our sweet Olivia will be growing up before we know it. 

Here are a few more pictures of Olivia... the first one with her chubby cheeks and the second one with her sleeping soundly in her beautiful crib.

2 Weeks Old

Just two short weeks ago we welcomed our daughter into this world and it feels like the time has gone by so fast. The second week home has been a bit more challenging with Olivia wanting to feed every couple of hours and having some moments of pure fussiness. She has a hard time in the evenings when she is just so tired and doesn't want to let herself fall asleep.

My favorite moments over the past week have been when she will snuggle on my chest and fall asleep for a few hours and when she smiles. Our daughter already is forming a sweet personality and loves to look around and take in her surroundings. 

We celebrated Olivia's first Thanksgiving and she reminded us all of how thankful we are for this sweet little baby in our lives. We are still trying to catch up on sleep whenever we can and hopefully get a routine down in the coming weeks. Parenthood is a journey that no one can truly prepare you for and you just have to take it a day at a time.

Here are a few more pictures of Olivia... the first one with her Gobble Gobble onesie on Thanksgiving and the other one of her sleeping soundly on mommy's lap...

1 Week Old

I am in complete denial that our sweet Olivia is already one week old today. The past week has gone by way too fast and I already feel like she is changing and growing faster than her momma wants her too. The first week has been great but the adjustment to the lack of sleep her parents are experiencing has been a bit tough.

Olivia is a great eater and feeds every couple of hours and sleeps a lot throughout the day. She is not loving sleeping in her bassinet, so some nights she sleeps in her car seat or with either her mom or dad holding her. I am hoping we can get her into the bassinet soon and have her sleeping at least 3 hours at a time. 

When Olivia is awake, she has these bright eyes and some interesting expressions. I can't imagine what she is thinking trying to take it all in and observe her surroundings. She already has a sweet personality and is overall a great baby. 

Here are a few more precious pictures of her, one with her sound asleep and the other where she is very much awake. Enjoy!

Sleeping Beauty

We have been home for a few days with our little Olivia and have settled in nicely in the comfort of our own home. Olivia has been doing great and is feeding a ton and sleeping lots. We are so blessed with a happy baby and love holding her and just looking at her. I know each mom says this, but she really is the most beautiful baby! Here are just a few pictures of our sleeping beauty from the past few days...

I am so blessed to be taking care of this little angel and want her to stay little forever! The time already feels like it is going by way too fast and I want to slow down every moment and not miss a thing with Olivia. We are just so in love with her...

Olivia Claire Gagliardi

On Sunday, November 11th at 8:50pm, we welcomed into the world our precious little girl, Olivia Claire Gagliardi. She weighed 8 lbs 5.5 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long.

 

We are so happy to have our little girl here and incredibly blessed by her arrival. Here are a few pictures of our sweet daughter on her first few days in this world...

Here is a shortened version of her birth story...

We were surprised by how quickly my labor progressed on Sunday and how fast our baby arrived. I started having contractions Sunday morning and they quickly progressed by mid day to about 5 minutes apart and we decided to head to the hospital around 3pm. We checked into our room close to 4pm and things progressed quickly. Once my contractions were a few minutes apart, I had an epidural which felt great for about an hour or so. Things changed quickly as my contractions became more intense and my epidural stopped working. I progressed from a 5 to a 10 in less than 30 minutes and by the time 8pm rolled around it was time to start pushing. At this point the pain medication had worn off and they were not able to get another epidural started, so I ended up delivering naturally. I pushed for close to an hour and shortly before 9pm our daughter arrived!

Olivia is doing fantastic and we are so relieved to be home and comfy. Our hospital stay was nice but I was eager to bring her home and look forward to fewer interruptions throughout the nights. We are excited for the coming days of enjoying parenthood and hope to adjust nicely to the new routine and caring for our daughter!

New Book Club Selection - Origin

Book Club last night was great yet again and it was fun to hang out with the book club group and discuss the book The Dog Stars. A few of us did not enjoy the book while a couple of other ladies really loved it. Each time we review and discuss a book and have approvals/disapprovals, it reminds me that each book lands differently on each reader. Some books we will love and some we will not enjoy at all and sometimes, that is half the fun in seeing what everyone else thought. It was great to discuss the book even though I did not enjoy reading it.

Our next book club selection is Origin by Jessica Khoury and here is a short summary of the book:

• An electrifying action-romance that's as thoughtful as it is tragic. Pia has grown up in a secret laboratory hidden deep in the Amazon rain forest. She was raised by a team of scientists who have created her to be the start of a new immortal race. But on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home—and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life. Free in the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Together, they embark on a race against time to discover the truth about Pia's origin—a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever. Origin is a beautifully told, shocking new way to look at an age-old desire: to live forever, no matter the cost.

This book was recommended by one of my girlfriends that works at the library and she is usually the reader that challenges us to try something different. This book is never one that I would have picked up on my own, which is one of the reasons I love book club... it challenges me to read books that I might have never had the chance to experience.

I am not sure how much time I will have for reading in the coming weeks, but I do hope to dive into this book soon and see if I enjoy it... I might be surprised. Happy Reading!

Book Recap - The Dog Stars

Since I am still very much pregnant today, I will be going to book club tonight to hang out with my girlfriends. I just spent the last few hours finishing up the book club book because I just can't stand not finishing a book before we discuss it as a group. 

This month we read The Dog Stars by Peter Heller and to be completely honest, the book was awful! It takes a lot for me to give a book the grade of an F, but this book was a struggle to get through and a storyline that did not at all interest me. The best way I can describe this story about a lonely pilot in a post apocalyptic world is that it is a total guy book and not really that interesting for the ladies. I am curious to see if anyone actually enjoyed reading this book when we discuss it tonight. I am relieved this book is finished and ready to move on to the next book club selection... which I will post soon!