Making an Old House a New Home

We have been living in our house for a little over a year now and we have made a few changes. We thought we would share! Here are some before and after pictures.

First you should know that the previous owners loved GREEN!

Stoves Before:

 After! No more Green!

 Green carpet? In the kitchen!

If you look to the top right corner of this picture, there used to be a sliding glass door in the MIDDLE of our house. Anyone know what that would be for??? That was the first thing we removed.

Yes, that's a shovel. We're farmers! Would you expect anything less??

 And now...

I hated our countertops.

 This was actually in the mudroom... 

 But now they look like this!

These were just a few modification we have made with a ton more to come! Next project is to update those awful cupboards, paint the doors, and kitchen table.

Just Keep Swimming

Oliver seems to LOVE the bathtub, so we thought we would take him swimming. Grandma and Grandpa Walton are lucky enough to have a swimming pool!

If you didn't know it we are farmers... Therefore we must sport our sign: The Farmer's Tan

Thinking about liking the pool...

Still thinking...

Decision made.

And look who gets to calm him down!

Swimming with Oliver was unsuccessful. Maybe we'll try in a few more weeks!

A Chubby Boy

Oliver had his two month appointment this week.

He weighs 14 pounds 9 ounces (95th percentile)

and is 22 inches long (30th percentile).

 Basically we were told he is a short chubby baby

But as healthy as they come!

Pain In The Neck...

... And hip! This week Oliver went to the chiropractor. Who knew a baby would need to see one of these guys?! Apparently, it was caused by his "traumatic birth." Poor kid had to have his hip and neck put back in. 

Now he:
Lies flat on his back, before he would curve his back to one side
Moves his head to both sides
Lifts his head up when he is on his tummy
Sleeps much better
Doesn't projectile spit up, there were never big enough burp rags when that happened
No longer scowls all of the time
Smiles and talks so much more!

After seeing the chiropractor the change in this little boy has been like night and day. We now have a happy baby!

I'm Too Sexy For My Shirt

 

 

Megan Walker with M. Walker Photography took newborn pictures of our naked little boy. These were a few of our favorites! Thanks Megan!

Oh, those hiccups

When I was pregnant with Oliver he had the hiccups aaaallll the time. In the middle of the night, during the day, at my doctor appointments, and even at the hospital when I was in labor! Now that he's here, he still gets those dang hiccups. As if being a new parent isn't hard enough, we have to deal with this little factor that can ruin everything! He normally gets the hiccups in the middle of the night right after he eats. Of course, he eats about 3 times throughout the night, and right as we get him to fall asleep the hiccups hit and he's WIDE awake for the next 30 minutes, at least. Yes, they last that long! These hiccups seem to be pretty aggressive too. Maybe, they aren't but hey, this is baby number one for us so we think they are! I was able to catch them on video, but it was just on my phone so you can't hear the little squeak that comes along with those hiccups. We;ll work on getting a better video up!

Our Little Oliver

We finally have our little boy! Oliver Lee Walton was born on May 8, at approximately 4 pm. He weighed in at 7 lbs 15 oz  and was 20 inches long. 

His first photo!

 We had quite the time actually getting him here though... so here is our story!

First off, we decided to induce that morning. We headed in and got to the hospital at about 7:30 in the morning as directed by our Doc. Well, he of course didn't show up until about 9:00. Typical. We really do actually love our doctor! We finally get things rolling shortly there after and expected to be in labor for the entire day. Fortunately for us, or so we thought at the time, this baby was ready to come! I was dilated to a 6 by noon, and as our doctor was checking me he said he felt a little hand! We thought that was pretty cool, but then my water broke (while he was still checking me...) At that point my doctor told us that our little boy had actually grabbed his finger! Never expected that one, huh?

After all of that, I got my epidural, call me what you will, but those things are AMAZING! Totally recommend it to anyone. About an hour later, the nurse comes in to check me again. But this time she says that she doesn't think it's a hand she is feeling, but instead she thinks it's a foot! At this point Terry and I look at each other like, "This nurse is insane, how did we get stuck with her??" She immediately calls our doctor and much to our surprise... it IS a foot. Imagine this, our baby was trying to come out with his head, hand, and foot all at the same time! This is where it gets exciting. 

Our doctor then goes and calls a specialist. This specialist had never heard anything like it! Aren't specialist supposed to see every unusual case in the book?! Yeah, that's what we thought too. The specialist basically left our doctor with a, "Good luck" and that was it. Our doctor was able to manipulate his foot back up into my belly, but then his umbilical cord slipped! Every time I had a contraction, Oliver's head would push against his umbilical cord which caused his heart rate to drop, and would stop his body from getting what it needed from my body. 

"C-section" had already been thrown around a few times, so when I told my doctor to do whatever he thought was the safest, he looked at me and said we needed to go to the operating room. By this time, Terry was pretty frantic and I was doing everything I could not to cry. When we got to the operating room, they were poking and pinching me to make sure I couldn't feel anything, but of course, I had what they call a "window" where it didn't go completely numb. Our anesthesiologist told me later that he had never seen or heard of anything like it. We were just an extremely weird case apparently! They ended up having to put me completely out, so then they had to to get the baby out as fast as they could, it took them 3 minutes. We went in just in time, because he was blue when he came out. He is healthy now however, and that is all that really matters!

Even though, it wasn't our ideal delivery, or even close to any kind of delivery we would have expected, we couldn't be more happy with our little boy. We can tell from the way he was born that we have a lot on our hands with this little guy!