Welcome Oliver Henry Damko

Oliver Henry was born on December 26th at 3:25AM after just 11 hours of labor!  He weighed in at 8 lb 5. oz and 21 inches long.  A head full of dark hair and dark brown eyes rosy cheeks and an exhuberent personality! 

The last few weeks have been a struggle for sure between the physical trauma of birth (I really should have read up on what to expect the first few weeks) and the emotional rollercoaster of emotions, but I finally feel human, we've pretty much got nursing down and Owen is handling his new role as big brother very well.

Christmas at the Damkos

Here are a few pics from Christmas this year.  Because of my pregnancy we have been blessed with family in and out of town since Thanksgiving.  These last few months have been a whirlwind as we prepared for the birth of our new son Oliver (more to come on that).  I've been out of the blogging world for so long, its a little overwhelming getting back into it, but there's only one way back right?

Due to a non-pregnancy related complication at the very end of my pregnancy (starting with a very very painful cerclage removal and ending with a RECURRING but finally healed abcess) the weeks leading up to Christmas were filled with a lot of physical pain, not to mention I was also 40+ weeks pregnant!  Thankfully through it all, our baby was not affected while in utero by my ailments.

My ONLY baking this Christmas season:-(

None the less, I was very excited to celebrate Christmas with Owen for the first year he was really truly aware of presents and everything else.  Eric and I were exhausted but excited putting out everything under our tree for our little munchkin to discover the next morning!  Owen was a delight, loving all the santas, and other decorations during the season, and especially loving opening up his two advent calendars throughout the month of December.

The Party

This year we did a red wagon/fall harvest party.  Here are a few pictures:

My sister in law put together the wagon and haybales . . . way better than I could have ever done for sure!!

Favor table with homeade apple pie caramel apples, kettle corn, and pumpkin shaped rice krispie treats

Dessert table, iced sugar cookies, icebox cookies, spanish cookies, spicecake pumpkin cakepops, chocolate cake with salted caramel frosting, and orange dreamsicle cupcakes with orange vanilla buttercream frosting

The little man blew out his own candles:-)

I'm 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very hard for me to believe that my little baby is two years old!  These last couple of weeks we celebrated his actual birthday and had our big birthday bash as well.  Owen was much more into his gifts this year and really enjoyed playing with all of his little friends.  We were so lucky to have so many friends and nearly all of our immediate families come out to celebrate this special time with us.  I TOTALLY had prego brain and forgot to get a picture of Owen and Emma when they were fresh in their birthday outfits, and I'm still bummed about it since I love seeing how much they change and grow everytime they get together.

We started Owen's actual birthday by going in together and singing happy birthday and taking a picture when he woke up . . . . I'm not sure what he thought of that:-)

That afternoon my parents showed up and were able to spend his actual birthday with us.  We got Owen a wagon for his birthday and to be honest the motivation behind it was for decoration for his birthday party, but he love love loves going for rides in his wagon!

Seriously, don't even ask about this cake, it was delicious but seriously the ugliest cake I've ever made.

It was a wonderful day, everyday I think about Owen's beginning and how truly lucky we are to have him in our lives, still sometimes there is a little empty spot where I imagine Liam growing and thriving as Owen is and wonder what it would be like what would his personality be like. . .I try to use these thoughts as something positive so that I never ever take for granted what I do have.  I have to take a second and just say thank you to my husband for working as hard as he does to allow me to spend every precious moment I can with Owen.  I am also so thankful to God for giving me Owen and my family and for never losing patience with me as I continue to try and be a better person through his image.  I think I'm one of the luckiest people on the planet. 

25 weeks

Okay, 25 weeks and 1 day pregnant!  I can't believe it, it truly feels very surreal.  I just had another ultrasound and the baby is measuring about a week bigger and my cervix is still long and closed.  This week was a little weird for me because I passed up the 24 week 5 day mark which was when my twin boys were born 2 years ago.  After such a traumatic pregnancy and delivery and first three months of life, I am so grateful and thankful and filled with happiness that this pregnancy has been such a night and day difference from my last pregnancy.  I still have a VERY long way to go, but I wanted to express some excitement about surpassing such a meaningful milestone to me.

On a sour note, I failed my glucose challenge test which means I have to do the 3 hour glucose tolerance test to determine if I have gestational diabetes.  Thankfully only 1/3 of people who fail the 1 hour test actually have diabetes and I am an incredibly low risk (it was probably that totino's pizza I had for lunch), but I will be  a little anxious until I have the results from this longer test.

Finally September

I'll admit, I put up all this decor 2 weeks ago:-)  I couldn't help myself, fall means so much . . . . my husband's birthday, my birthday, my son's birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving all leading up to Christmas and our new baby's birthday!



I think that I will make a table runner for fall, I found some dark brown fabric and I have a bunch of burlap so maybe over the next few weekends I will take that on so I can bring some more texture and warmth to this table.

Middle pumpkin is soooo pretty in person all silvery in some light and gold in others, I love it! (a gift from my sister in law)



I love the colors for fall, everything is so warm!  I can't wait to go get my pumpkin candles for the season, its almost time to start baking!

This mirror needs a wreath for sure and maybe some cool letters or a framed sign for the table?

No halloween stuff out yet, that waits until October:-)  I'm already gearing up for Owen's 2nd birthday!

Can it please be Fall?

This weekend I put up my first fall decorations, I'm hoping that cooler weather will follow . . . . . except this week it is supposed to top out at 115:-(  Oh well, I'm bringing out the fall decor anyway I know I'm not the only one out there:-)

I made these wreaths in January they are normally all white and ivory flowers that I got at Michael's for 50% off, and I just add accents for the different seasons.  There is more red than I would normally do for fall, but it goes with the theme for Owen's upcoming fall birthday so I left the red up from July 4th.

Summer Travel

We've been out and about to Palm Springs with Eric's side of the family and up to the Bay Area to visit mine.  Owen continues to amaze us with how much he grows and changes everyday!  His vocabulary is increasing, and he is now wanting to use a fork and spoon for everything.  The fork is a very new addition and you should see how happy he gets when he is successful at stabbing food with it.

Some of Owen's favorite activities right now are "pretend mopping" with the swifter, coloring with his washable crayons (which come off tables, outlets, chairs, floor), playing keep away and peekaboo with Linus

My belly is getting larger and I have started telling Owen that there is a baby inside . . . but I think the concept is a little too abstract for him still:-)

Thoroughly enjoying the slide . . .

. . . and the swing

. . . and the pool . . .

Traditional Japanese play outfit from close family friends

Sharing with my cousin Emma

Loving the waterfall in Palm Springs . . . and the watering can!

Status Update:-)

Okay, I am nursing the remainder of a cold but I am on my way to feeling human again!  We are in between little getaways, after getting back from La Quinta (near Palm Springs) for a Damko family vacation, we are getting ready to head up to the bay area to visit my parents for some much more enjoyable weather!

I'm now 19 and a half weeks along, and its a boy!  We are very excited to be bringing a brother home for Owen.  From my experience, growing up with sisters, I can really appreciated having same sex siblings and look forward to watching the brother's relationship develop!  We went in for my first cervical length check and before my doctor even looked at it (this is the maternal-fetal medicine specialist), he brought up putting in a preventative cerclage (suturing my cervix shut) because with my past, he wasn't super happy about just doing the hormone shots and extra ultrasounds.  Although this is surgery, I was actually relieved to have that option available to me as we tick along through these weeks I have felt my anxiety building a little bit about every little feeling etcetera, so to have even a little peace that at least I am not silently dilating is reassuring.  So we had the surgery of which I will spare you the details, and have had our first two week cervix check which was good, so we will just keep hoping that everything keeps progressing normally.