MARLEE IS BORN!! 


Born: July 24th, 2012 at 4:52 pm! She weighs 7 lb. 13 oz. and was 20 inches long!! She is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! Her full name is Marlee Talavou Ochsenbein (Talavou: Beautiful in Tongan) She looks just like her daddy, and loves it when he sings to her! She knows my voice and face, and knows I have the food (booby juice)! She has already changed our lives in such a good way! We are very PROUD parents!! 


Marlee is now 7 days old, and is home in our arms! She is doing wonderfully! She had a GREAT check up when we went in a couple days after delivery! She gained 4 ounces which is awesome for a newborn! She is doing great with feeding, and we are right on track! She is taking a nap with her daddy right now (they look so cute)! Marlee has so many facial expressions its wild! She definitely gets this from her father, as well as her eyes, mouth and forehead! She will probably get my hair, and my teeth ( I hope she doesn't get my vision, I have terrible vision. My husband on the other end has 20/20 vision, so I hope she gets that from him as well!) 


Breastfeeding: 
I didn't know breastfeeding was going to be this hard, yet so easy! Hard in the fact that it's such a sacrifice to feed Marlee every 1-3 hours night and day! Sleep is lacking, and nipples are sore, but Marlee is fed, and is happy, which makes this completely worth it! I've been getting better and better every time getting her to feed! It's awesome to think about how our bodies work to provide for our babies! I have found if you have sore nipples the best thing to use is "Lanolin" and/or air dry with breast milk on nipples. Hand expressing is also good before you have baby latch, so their not sucking so hard to get to the milk, it will already be there for them to drink. Marlee has been doing amazing at this, and continues to grow! (They grow so fast!) 


Sleeping:
Last night Marlee allowed me to sleep from 12:00 am-5:00 am which was AWESOME! I felt so well rested until she woke me up three hours after that to feed again, for some reason I was more tired at 8:00 am ha ha! She is doing better! I have found the more she is awake during the day the more she sleeps at night! I made the mistake tonight to let her sleep late, so now she'll be up soon, and probably will stay awake until midnight again! I need to change this schedule because my husband is going to be going back to work on Friday, so we will need to go to bed around 8:00 pm and Landon wakes up at 4:00 for PT and then goes to work at 7:00 am. He will need the sleep! As for me, I've been doing really good when she needs to feed at night! I either (depending on which side she's laying on) breastfeed her in bed, or take her over to our chair in our room and feed her there. Marlee sleeps with us, and I know the entire pregnancy I was telling everyone how dangerous that is, but our first night here at home, Marlee wouldn't sleep in the crib, or her rocker, she was too cold!  I turned up the heat, and everything, but she still wouldn't sleep. So I took her to bed with me, and she was out, especially with my body heat there to warm her up. So it has worked out ever since. I am a very light sleeper so every move she makes, I wake up to it. I also made a barrier between her and Landon so he wouldn't accidentally roll over. (We do have a California King bed, so we have a TON of room, it's not like he's squished off to the side, he still has a good amount of space over on his side) 


Anyway, I've gotta wake her up now to feed so she won't be too awake later on. Wish me luck! 

39 Weeks: 

Well, I didn't think I was going to make it this far. I was for sure thinking I'd have Marlee already! She must know I struggle with being patient, and must be teaching me a life long lesson. 

Symptoms: I have been having contractions every night for the last two nights that start off as consistent, and then when I get my hopes up, they stop! (So frustrating) I also get them randomly throughout the day, but never consistently.When I do have contractions, I've found it relieving to BREATHE, and move around and get my mind off of it. I cope better with pain when my mind is on something else. Another symptoms is, If I walk too much without resting, I CAN NOT sleep at night. My pelvic pain is too much for me to get some good shuteye. I am still hungry all the time, and need to drink WAY more then I do. I am deciding whether to put an alarm on my phone for every half hour reminding me to drink water. For some reason, I am terrible at remembering to drink water! 

 GOOD NEWS:

 My Mom, and my sister arrived on Sunday and have been helping me out for a good whole week! They have been absolutely AMAZING! I don't know what I'd do without them! Just yesterday my mom massaged my feet for a good 30 minutes relieving them of the swelling I'd caused by not massaging them earlier. They have been helping me out around the house, and getting me OUT of the house (which is GREAT!) they have also been great supporters! I feel more at home then ever, especially being far from home, and feeling like that was impossible, I am super happy! I know my husband realizes how much more happy I am now with family around, because he is now more happy! First of all he doesn't have to deal with me as much ha ha and also I have other "females" to talk to, so he isn't stuck with my daily vent of girl things! (I'm just happy he is happy :D ) 

Monterey:

So an update on Landon's Military duties:

Landon was given an award yesterday, and has collected another coin for his collection! I'm SO PROUD OF HIM!!! He has been put through a lot lately and has been under a lot of stress, and he has been handling everything SO well!! Now that my mom and sister are here, he has become less stressed because he knows I'm being taken care of, and that's one of his big stresses, making sure baby and me are taken care of. Overall, Landon has been doing SO well with everything! I am extremely lucky to have him as my husband, as the father of my children and as my eternal companion!! :) I love him so much! 

Doctor news:

I will be induced (stripping of the membranes) Tuesday July 24th, and will hopefully be having Marlee shortly afterwards! Hopefully she hasn't grown much because I am super nervous that she'll be a nine pound baby. I'd much rather not have to push out a 9 pounder for my first baby! ;) 

So I'm now just waiting for Marlee to arrive. Trying to jump start labor on my own by walking, and letting gravity take it's role. But she still hasn't budged :/ I am feeling a little sick this morning, so we'll see where that takes us! Hopefully we'll be on our way to the hospital in no time! I'm ready to have this baby!!! My mom and my sister are finally here and my husband is doing great! So now is the perfect time for baby to come!! I just hope she comes into this world healthy and strong! My mom and Hallie have been such a HUGE help around the house lately, and I couldn't be more appreciative of them!! They have made the last couple days really soothing for me. It's nice to know people out there care for you! I've known this of course since day one :) My mom is my ultimate HERO! :D She has the biggest heart, and is always there for me! I can't wait to have her join us in the labor room where she'll see her FIRST grand daughter be born!! Oh the adventures we're gonna take soon are going to be amazing!!! 


Symptoms: 
I have been having small contractions that are probably Braxton Hicks contractions, so I'm not too excited when I feel them because I know they'll just stop in a few minutes and won't come back until later. So I'm just waiting for those consistent painful contractions....I never thought I'd be looking forward to contractions. I'm sure all those women out there who have already had a baby are looking at me like I'm crazy! ha ha But I'm sure they went through this "waiting" process and hated it as much as I did! :) Anyways, I'm going to go do some more research on how to induce labor at home, wish me luck! 

Well we have some GOOD news and some bad news. I'm only 38 weeks along, but we found out today, that Marlee is 8 pounds 6 ounces already! My doctor is a little worried on her size giving me trouble for a vaginal birth, so we might be inducing next week, or the following week depending on what they think. She is sending our ultra sound to the hospital to get a second opinion, and then she'll be contacting us to let us know if they want us to come in to induce labor, or if we can hold off and just have a normal labor. I'm betting we have to induce, because Marlee is still growing! So in another week, she probably will gain another pound! It's crazy to think that I have an 8 pound bowling ball in my tummy right now! People were commenting on my belly just the other day saying how small it was and how small my baby was going to be! I was sure they were all right! But now I know that Marlee is taking all she can from me ha ha ! I'm super nervous as to whether she'll fit into her newborn clothes or not! This will be interesting to find out! Let's hope so, because I bought her a ton of newborn clothes (Probably a mistake I'm not going to make again!) Tip of the day to new mothers: DON'T BUY A TON OF NEWBORN CLOTHES You never know if they'll come out BIG or small...but you know they will continue to grow, so getting clothes that are around the sizes 0-3 is smartest! :) 

Anyway, lets hope everything goes well! I'm really praying hard that she comes safe and sound and is perfectly healthy! I wasn't expecting a BIG baby, but I'm COMPLETELY FINE as long as she's healthy and strong! :) I hear bigger babies are healthy babies, so I'm fine with that! :) 

Week 38: (2 weeks left) 


Well it's almost here and I can hardly believe it! My mom and sister will be joining us this Sunday night and will be staying with us until August 8th. I am so excited they will be here for this big adventure I'm on! I'm mostly excited that I will have "girls" to talk to about this instead of my husband (No offense to you men out there, but you just DON'T KNOW what we're feeling ha ha ) I am confident though that my husband knows a lot more then the typical guy about pregnancy, birth and parenting! Now this will all be tested when she arrives of course! We will see...


Symptoms: 
Well I can't sleep anymore! Heart Burn and Pelvic bone pain, and just pure anxiety is eating at my sleep time. Although it's a good practice run before Marlee arrives, I would like to have a few weeks off before all the chaos hits me! I'm pretty sure Marlee has "dropped" because I can certainly breathe better, and walk easier for some reason. Although the pee breaks have stepped up a notch. Instead of every 30 minutes going to the bathroom, it's now around every 5. One other thing, I'm getting hot flashes all the time, and they are no fun! You start to sweat and look like crap when you were just fine 5 seconds before that. It's great fun...not! 


Now I'm just waiting for her to come! Every morning I wake up thinking, Is this the day? And every night I go to sleep thinking, will I wake up tonight with contractions/water breaking? It's all a mystery now! I believe I am ready for her to come, but at the same time I am a nervous wreck! I'm scared about giving birth, and if my water breaks in public, and I'm also scared that something might go wrong. As any mother in her final weeks of pregnancy, I feel like I'm at a norm when I say I'm worried about everything! 


Monterey: 
Well, Monterey has stayed the same. It's really foggy here, and thank goodness too because these hot flashes that I keep experiencing would be 10x worse if I was in a hot area! Although Monterey is finally growing on me! I have made some wonderful friends, and have met so many amazing people! I am looking forward to spending more time with everyone here! :) 

Week 37:


3 more weeks and now considered Full Term! 


Symptoms: It's getting harder to sleep now! Not only because the relaxin in my hips is kicking in, but the anxiety and nervousness, and excitement that the baby could come any day is weighing on my mind all the time! As for the pelvic pain, I've discovered it's most likely SPD, and so I have to take a few precautions for baby and me. 


I have enjoyed having her in me these nine months, but I couldn't be more ready to greet her into the world! She has already blessed my life in so many ways, and I can't wait to see her little face!! I am mostly curious on what she'll look like, and her personality and her attributes that make her who she is. I am excited to see her grow up and become a wonderful young woman! Although my husband isn't ready for that "dating" stage she'll encounter, I am super excited to watch her choose the man she will spend eternity with! 


Monterey: 
Well Monterey is still Monterey. Just this week I had the chance to participate in Monterey's "4th of July event". (FYI: Fireworks are illegal here in Monterey) They held a concert with a band, and did a laser light show...There was an illegal firework off in the distance, let's just put it this way, that firework was the high light of the night. The laser light show was terrible! Enough with the bad stuff, I have GOOD news! My mom and little sister will be arriving here in Monterey next Sunday!! So 9 more days! I'm so thrilled and can hardly wait for them to arrive. It has been super lonely here, especially when my husband was at training from 7:30am-8:30pm. Now he is on what they call "casual" status! It has truly been a blessing in disguise!! He goes onto base at 8:00 am and returns home around 4:00 pm, and then I get him the rest of the night! It's great! Another bonus is that he (instead of receiving only one day when Marlee comes) receives two weeks off!! I'm so thrilled that he'll be there the first two weeks of Marlee 24/7. This will help me out as well, just being able to have that extra support from him is crucial! This great news has kept me positive through those hard days and nights! 


Anyway, that's my update for now! I have to get back to planning my birth plan, and getting together everything for the BIG day! Hope I have everything! Thank goodness my mom is coming into town, what would I do without her! 


HUSBAND: This is a Shout out to my wonderful husband!! He has been working so hard to provide for Marlee and I and I want him to know how appreciative I am of him and the hard work he puts in every day for this family! I love you so much and am so lucky to have you as a husband!!