I found my smile!

My sisters give me an awful lot of attention. I give them smiles often, but its hard to get it on film.

Grandma and grandpa are pretty good at getting those smiles out,

But I smile the biggest for my mom!

And then I get really worn out and I need to nap. Amelia turned 5 years old the day this picture was taken and I was just 5 weeks.

This is my "what's going on over there" face. Its my mom's second favorite face, second only to the big smile face.

Trip to North Carolina

People said we were crazy, I kind of agreed, but our road trip to North Carolina was actually quite pleasant. Olin turned 1 month old on the trip and he did a great job sleeping in his car seat for most of the drive. He looked awfully cute when we stopped and we got lots of attention. Before he turned 5 weeks old he had traveled through 10 states! I enjoyed the scenery and didn't drive a single mile! I offered, but no one else was willing to breastfeed.

Here is Olin the Smokey Mtn Nat'l forest on the Appalachain trail wishin' he had remembered his hiking boots.
t Here we are at the border of NC and Tennessee in the Smokey Mtns. I don't know why nobody told me to do something with my hair.

This is on the blue ridge mountain parkway. It was absulotely breathtaking!

Olin, chillin' in the Scamp.

This is the whole reason we made the trip--for an Ultimate 20 Regatta. Above is our friend Mark's boat. Nate raced with Mark. They were in 3rd place until the races on Sunday. Things didn't go quite as well, but they had a good time.

Halloween

Olin was a bumblebee for Halloween. He didn't stay in his costume long, but it was fun while it lasted!

We had some friends over. From the left; me and Olin, Jeannette and Jonah, Cousin Jen and Ella. Jonah is 1 day younger than Olin and he was born at the same hospital.
Earlier in the evening, Olin was disguised as a bumble bee. Here he looks a bit tired after trying to fly his chubby body around with those little wings.

What a cute little bee! Who would guess its really a baby: )

Olin at the cabin part 2.

Big sister Addison is warming Olin by the fire.

Great-grandma Dorothy rocking Olin to sleep.

Big sister Amelia giving her baby brother some love.

Olin thinking, "man, what do you do with all that hair??"

Olin at the cabin

We had a wonderful time at the cabin. Momma and baby had some time to lounge around and watch the moon rise.

Little Georgia Gulden came by to meet baby Olin. We all partied a bit. You can see Nate "double fisting" in this picture.

We did some hiking.

We did some napping.

Who left the baby in the sink?!?!?

Just kidding, this is Olin after his first sponge bath out of the hospital.

one day old baby

Olin is Here!!!

Baby boy Olin John Selstad was born at 2:59 pm on Oct 7th.......15 days late. He is adjusting to life outside of the womb very well. He has met alot of his family already and some friends. Nate and I feel very blessed to have such a healthy, handsome baby boy. We are really enjoying being parents.

41 Weeks + 4 days

I'm still waiting for Baby Olin to show his face to the world. We had an appointment today. If any of you don't want to think or hear about my cervix, stop reading now.

My cervix is almost completely thinned out and the baby is about as low as he'll get before I go into active labor. My midwife was able to strip my membranes and stretch my cervix to 2 cm. So I have some hope that I might go into to labor. If not, an induction is scheduled for Monday evening.

So we have continued with the walks. As you can see in the progressions of the pictures that the leaves are changing fast. Hopefully we'll see Olin before we see snow: )

Walking and Waiting

Mimi was kind enough to road test The Bob stroller for us. She gave it 2 thumbs up.

I have really enjoyed being off of work for 5 days. We are waiting patiently (sort of) for this baby to decide to come out. Its been wonderful to have Nate off with me for this time too. We have been going on 5 mile walks every day so far. It is a beautiful time of year to live by the river. We have been really enjoying the walks. The baby seems to like the walks enough to stay in my belly. We have tried a few other things that I won't mention on this blogspot to get the baby out, but as time goes on, I am resigning myself to the fact that maybe I don't get to decide when the baby is going to be born. Oh well, he has to come out sometime, right????

The big sisters are very excited to have a little brother.

Here is the baby daddy waiting for the baby.

(look closely at the proportion of head to body)

Dakota is waiting patiently for Baby Olin.

So are Edward and Sancho

The chickens don't really care.

Due Date

Today is my due date. I don't feel any different than I did yesterday, I really don't feel much different than I did 2 weeks before my due date. Except I'm bigger. And so is baby O. Although, two exciting things happened today that are related to the baby: 1. Today is the first day of my maternity leave. I don't have to go back to work until after Christmas unless I want to. 2. We had an ultrasound today that showed on my due date at 10:00 am, the guesstimated weight of Baby Olin is 7lb 13oz. We also learned some things about his body. His head is in the 98th percentile and his femur length is in th 28th percentile. He is already taking after his father.