Ollie faces

Ollie morning

Ollie does his morning exercise in a genuine Turkish sleeper :) he's finally moving into 0-3month clothes.

Good morning, Ollie!

Getting Oliver to smile and squeal is pretty easy these day... But getting clear photos of his smile has proven difficult :)

"Wook! Dare's a Nockam paintin'!"

That's what Rockam said when he saw this picture if himself :)

 

After reading a blog post over at A Holy Experience, by one of my favorite Christian authors/bloggers Ann Voskamp, I was inspired to take steps toward forming a new Parrino tradition: Giving on our birthdays as well as enjoying a flood of gifts. So, Thursday morning, before my folks arrived with said flood of gifts, I decided to get them excited about creating and buying some gifts for Grammy and Gramps. Stephen jumped in with enthusiasm, painting a dinosaur, a map, a flower and other pictures. Then, after cleaning up from the art session, we headed to Dollar Tree, where the kids were allowed to pick out two presents each. Most of the gifts were purchased with the hopes of keeping them... but we're making steps toward finding joy in giving :)

 

 

Sleep smiles

These fleeting faces are the closest thing to smiles that we've seen flutter over Oliver's face. 

Eyes open

Surviving Rockam

Rockam's enthusiasm for his baby brother can be a little scary. It takes a lot of vigilance on our part to keep him from "loving" Oliver too much :)

Oliver faces

Oliver Ephraim Parrino

 

Our third little man, Oliver Ephraim, born July 5th, 2013 at 11:15 a.m. at Madisonville Regional Medical Center. Here's one of his few "bright eyed" moments, as he's been quite fond of sleeping these first days of life. Oliver weighed in between Stephen and Rockam, at 6 lbs 15 oz. He was born a week early, by induction because of my gestational diabetes (which I didn't have with the previous pregnancies.) I made the choice to see a midwife but give birth in a hospital setting because of my age and one of those gut intuition feelings.

 

Here's the happy, dazed family after a long sleepless night :)

 

Most of you know I had my previous son, Rockam, at home. While, in many ways, that was a better experience than my first hospital birth with Stephen, I'm glad I took the hospital route for Oliver. I was able to control my diabetes with diet and monitoring my glucose four times daily... and my midwife was able to keep tabs on Oliver's progress with weekly ultrasounds during my third trimester. It felt excessive at times, but it was comforting to know he was alive and well each Friday morning at my appointments.

 

So, a big shout out for Baptist Health/Madisonville/Trover whatever you're inclined to call it. The birthing rooms are super nice...almost as nice as the uber nice nurses. There's a jet tub in the room, birthing balls to sit on, a pull out couch for spouses to sleep on. And the culture of friendliness and can-do attitudes across the board really make a woman feel loved during her most stressful, under-duress-full hours. I'll probably share more of my labor/delivery story in another post. There are pros and cons to each scenario, but I think this was probably my overall best experience.

 

I love Oliver's rosy lips in this photo.

 

My parents came to watch the boys while Joe and I were at the hospital. We stayed from 3:00 pm Thursday (when I started the process of getting ready for the induction) until around dinner time Saturday, so it was a quick stay. The boys hardly missed us since they had so much fun with their Grammy and Bupps, but they were pretty excited to meet their new little brother. Stephen's ambivalent look is what he does when he's trying not too seem *too* happy-- almost like he's embarrassed that he can't contain his joy. Rockam, though he looks a little unsure in this photo, was really quite enamored with Oliver. He wanted to hold him and was on the verge of a tantrum when the brief holding session was over.

 

In fact, Rockam kept wanting to give him unprompted kisses.

 

Stephen has been very protective of Oliver and contemplative about the expansion of his family. When Rockam gets too close, which is about every time he gets near baby bro, Stephen comes to tackle him and reprimand.

 

A warm fuzzy moment this morning as Joe and Stephen were getting ready for church-- Stephen came in our room while I was getting dressed and informed me he had some things to talk about with Oliver, who was semi-awake in the pack n play.

 

"Sure, Steve," I encouraged as Stephen walked up to the edge of the crib and met eyes with Oliver.

"Oliver, I have some things to tell you. I want to talk about Transformers. Transformers are things that transform into other things. We have Heatwave... and Hookbot... and Blades... and Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. This is our house. Someone that we don't know built it. And God made us. We were all in mommy's tummy, but we came out.... You're going to sleep in the crib that used to be Rockam's bed...."

 

Stephen chattered on in complete seriousness with his little brother, who was by now wide-eyed and trying to determine the source of the words of wisdom :) It was just the dearest thing ever, and I had to record it here for perpetuity.

High chair hijinks

Guest Post from Joe: I had the day off Friday so Stephen and I had our first full day together. We played trucks and watched Veggie Tales. At lunch time, Stephen acted drowsy and just pushed his broccoli around the tray. It was time for a wake-up tickle and his feet were the easiest target.