Some more shots

School has just kept us too busy and I haven't had time for an update. So for now, have some more pictures added to the Oct - Dec '09 album, including this gem of a video:

From Oct - Dec '09

I'll also add some pics from when cousin Mikey and Uncle Eric were here, as well as more stuff from the hospital when I get around to it.

Checkup

We took Freya to the doctor today to find that everything is going great. She was 8lbs (30%) and 19.25 inches (10%) and doing better than ever.

Yesterday Odin brought home a pumpkin from his hay-ride pumpkin patch field trip with his school. He told us about throwing small pumpkins at scarecrow targets and looking around for a good pumpkin.

School has been going well for us. We're keeping up and Freya is behaving enough. The Moby Wrap is really helping us carry her around without lots of extra stuff.

More astronomy homework to do....

Halloween Carnival

Last night we took Odin and Freya to the carnival at Odin's school. They had lots of games and treats and Odin had a great time for almost an hour. His favorite games were doughnut dangle (in which he had to eat a doughnut off a string without using his hands) and pumpkin bowling which he played waaaaaaaay too much. Odin picked out a Thomas bucket in the Halloween store but was too scared to look for a costume so we put him in the outfit Nana got him and called him an engineer. Freya wore a gown that was all orange with a face on it and said "'lil punkin" on the front. We'll have pictures later.

Oh, and Odin just reminded me that he finally got Duke the train! I forgot to mention it, but when Mikey came to town, he gave Odin the Duke and Duke's Coal Car set which he and Uncle Eric found! We thought it had been discontinued and they found it for us! Really rare. It was Odin's favorite when he was a year old whenever he played at Barnes and Noble.

Campus

Today Alyssa and I had some minor business affairs to take care of on Campus so we took Freya with us and I've been sitting around reading homework with her while Alyssa does some stuff she needed to finish. It's been pretty good, and I'm glad we did it because we needed the dry run to see what things we need to think about while we're doing it for real next week.

After we meet back up again (in about half an hour or so) we're going to Paula's house where Odin is playing with Mikey and we'll all play for a bit. Then I think the plan is that Odin is going to have a sleep-over with them there and I don't know what beyond that but it'll be fun!

Eric and Mikey!

Cousin Mikey and Uncle Eric came to town today. Odin got to go play Thomas trains with Mikey and we all ate Mucho Gusto together!

I've put some pics up in a new album.

Oct - Dec '09

Pictures of our family

I finally got some pictures up from our camera. These are all of the first few days. There are a few video's as well, but they aren't up yet because I need to edit them, though there is this one:

From Freya!

The pictures, as always, are linked on our Picasa Albums which, as always, is linked on the right.

Yay! Home!

We checked out of the hospital yesterday (Friday) at noon, which is pretty speedy if you ask anyone. At home, we just spent the afternoon with Brandy and Paula and Kellie and sat around relaxing, and watched a movie together in the evening. Odin is really great with Freya; he knows how to be gentle. When I picked him up from school, I took him to the doctor to see if she though he should stay away from Freya while he's sick. Dr. Dzubay said he just had a mild cold or something and he just needed to wear a mask around her or else be careful about coughing on her (which he is) and wash his hands a lot (which he does). We also got him a flu shot, just in case, but not the H1N1 stuff because that's gross. Today he's really coughing bad and seems really sick, but he isn't actually; he just has symptoms from the shot.

Freya slept really well; she only got up to eat a few times (normal) and it was only hard on both of us because Alyssa can't move much yet, but we still got about 6-7 hours of good sleep and woke up feeling fine.

Uncle Jake is watching Odin right now so we can get a little homework done. But first we went out and got a sun-shield for Freya's window of the car (Odin never cared, but she hates the light in her eyes), and a bouncer for her to sit in and some really discounted clothes that are warm and cute.

Speaking of which, better get back to it.....

Things going well.

So far everything has been fine. The pediatricians have come and looked at Freya, the nurses and doctors have looked at Alyssa, and everything is going great. We only had some trouble with a lot of gas during the night but other than that Alyssa and I actually got to sleep quite a bit. Alyssa has been going to the bathroom on her own and Freya is nursing really well.

Freya had her pictures taken also, and they're now up on the baby @lbum which I've also added a link to on the side.

Freya's song

Well we spent last night cleaning up the house and doing all the dishes and taking out all the garbage and doing all the laundry and everything else we could think of so that a) our house wouldn't get smelly while we were away and b) it would be nice to come home to and c) we wouldn't have to do anything while we were sleep deprived with a new baby. We tried to sleep that night but couldn't so watched the latest episode of House on iTunes and then fell asleep half way through. We got about 4 hours of sleep and woke up to get ready. Everything was packed, so mostly we just had to get dressed and head out.

We got to the hospital and were shown to where we need to go. The nurses refused to allow Brandy (our Doula) in with us while Alyssa was getting prepped, and we later learned they were upset we even asked. Oh well. Brandy also wasn't going to be allowed in after Freya was born. Our plan, and request, had been that when the nurses take Freya into the antechamber to be examined, that I go with her and Brandy be allowed in to stay with Alyssa so she wouldn't be alone. They only allow one in at a time, so we figured Brandy could just step in when I left with Freya, but the nurses said no again (even though our doctor had said Yes) so I told them that they can look at Freya but I was going to hold her and sit with Alyssa until she was done, which I did. Dr. Katz assisted Dr. QB to make sure there was no accreta problems and confirmed that nothing at all was wrong.

In the recovery room we were taken care of by the nurse who had prepped us, Yvonne Lai, and she was really nice and very helpful, as was Tamerah the baby nurse who helped me to bathe Freya. We stayed there for a while because it took Alyssa some time to regain feeling in her lower half but were then moved to our room. I left to get Odin and bring him in and we had some great family time. Odin is very gentle and nice with Freya; he kisses and hugs her with just the right amount of pressure and he's careful around her and was good when we taught him how to hold her.

We spent the rest of the day sitting around our room entertaining and being entertained by our numerous guests and now Freya is nursing again while I write this and we're just relaxing. Thankfully we will have more visitors tomorrow, including my father and brother who are bringing their dinner to have with us, and hopefully we wont get too bored with all the homework we brought with us. (I know, lame, right? That's the life of a student.)

Dr. QB did visit us about an hour ago and said that Alyssa seemed great, especially considering she was on no pain medication again (just as she was with Odin's birth), and told us that we'd be fine with discharging Friday afternoon or evening, so we get to go home one day earlier than we thought!

She's so beautiful and wonderful. It's amazing how quite she is, especially compared to how Odin was (is). She's sleeping a lot and we'll soon see how day 2 goes.

I took lots of pictures but I have no way of getting them off the camera, and lots of other people took pictures as well so as soon as I get them all together I'll put them online for everyone.

Thanks to everyone who was here today and helped us out!

Freya Shannon Aska
Born October 7th, 2009 at 8:11 am
7 pounds 2.2 ounces, 19 inches and 13.25 inch head. 50th percentile in all categories.

All clear

Both our kids got their pictures taken today.

At Odin's school they had a photographer come by for Picture Day. Don't worry, we made sure to comb his hair.

We also had an MFM appointment for Alyssa and Freya. The doctor said that everything looks fine and there's no risk of accreta as far as he can tell so Wednesday morning we will have a normal c-section.

We're counting down the days!