Angelisa

The other day Ava told me that we have been saying her name wrong. She told me she wanted to change her name to Angelisa. I told her that she could when she turned 30.

Olivia said Mama today. And I know she meant it, and I know she was talking about me. I was so happy. It was after work, and I walked into the playroom. She saw me and started crawling over and while she was on her way she said mama and everyone heard it.

We went on a camping trip to Lion Country Safari last weekend, and it wasn't the best. Olivia didn't handle the change in routine very well. She didn't want to sleep. I was up with her at all hours of the night/morning. Very glad to be home.

Olivia 8 months

Olivia turned 8 months on September 2nd. She is on the verge of crawling. She gets up on all fours and will push herself around, but she doesn't go very far before flopping back on her belly. Sometimes I will put her down in her room and a minute later when I walk back in, she will be across the room. She manages to get what she wants one way or the other. She is pulling herself up in her crib too. Today I put her down for a nap and when I peeked in her door, she was standing up and just talking to herself. It is very cute. She is so strong! She will grab my necl or my hair and pull so hard! That's how she gives "kisses." Pulling your face to hers and biting your cheek. She has 2 bottom teeth and it hurts when she does it! No top teeth yet but I think they are on the way.

We are still having some eating issues, where she doesn't want babyfood. She is just so into her bottle. She does okay for breakfast & lunch but dinner is usually a struggle. I usually have to give her the whole bottle first, and then give her th baby food. Otherwise she just cries. Last week she came down with diarrhea really bad, and I ended up having to put her on soy formula for a while. There were 3 mornings in a row that I woke up to a horrible mess. Lot's of laundry needed to be done. I took her the the doctor to make sure she wasn't dehydrated, and they said she was fine. The nurse thought she may have come down with a little bug and the milk in the formula was irritating her stomach. It was a mess because I had to try 2 different formulas before finding one that Olivia would drink. I can't wait to go back to her normal stuff. I haven't given her much finger food. I am terrified of choking. I have given her puffs a few times, and today I gave her a teething biscuit, which is a mess. She seemed to enjoy it though. She takes an interest in what Brent and I are eating, so I think she will be ready for more soon.

Olivia Laughing 4.30.10

Ava makes Olivia laugh by hopping around her room. We discovered this by accident when Ava was doing hopscoth outside. We had never heard Olivia laugh before.

Ramblings...

In the car the other day, Ava and I had this conversation:

Ava: "Mommy, when I grow up and get married, I want to marry Daddy too."
Me: "Well, you can't really do that Ava. You meet someone else to get married to."
Ava: "But I don't want to find someone else to love!"

She is such a Daddy's girl, to the point where I sometimes feel excluded. When she was 2 it was all about Mommy, but now it is Daddy Daddy Daddy! I think this continues indefinitely. He is still doing the fire school thing, so he isn't around much, which I think is the main reason for it. Mommy is like the couch - just something that is there all the time. Not very exciting. But when Daddy is home after work it's a treat and tickle time and shoulder rides and FUN.

I laid in bed awake last night thinking of all these good things to write about, but now when I sit down at the computer I go blank.

One thing is for sure - Ava will do just about anything to get my attention. It is me, her and Olivia all the time, and if I take 5 minutes to sit on the computer or even go to the bathroom - sure enough, she finds me. This morning I was on the computer typing a letter and she comes in - "I'm hungry." I reminded her that she had JUST eaten a whole bowl of cereal. "I'm thirsty." Okay, I get her a drink, then go back to typing. "Mommy, the dishwasher is leaking." I get up and take a look at the dishwasher - no leak. "Ava, where did you hear a leak?" "I don't know." She is such a bundle of energy and TALKING. It is non-stop. She is wearing me out more than the baby is. As I type that very sentence, she came in and began rubbing her head on my arm, like a cat. This is not an attention-starved child.

So, speaking of baby, she is sleeping right now, which is very nice. I don't dare talk about her night-time sleep, because it seems that every time I do, I jinx myself. She could go 6 nights in a row sleeping through the night, but I tell someone about it and sure enough - that night I am up at 4am. She is a good baby. She had her 2 month check up on Wednesday and she is doing great. She weighed in at13.2 lbs and I think she grew an inch and a quarter. I didn't get all the percentile info. She had to get shots too, which went ok. It was just like Ava - happy as can be, then cried her head off as they gave her the 3 shots, and then calmed down quickly after. Ava had her 4 year check up too, and she was a very brave girl. No shots, but they had to prick her finger for blood. She weighs 36.5 lbs and is 40 3/4" tall. She had a huge growth spurt between last year and this year. She is tall and thin.

Olivia - 6 weeks

The past 2 nights Olivia has slept from 12am - 6 or 6:30am. Love it! The only bad thing is that she is usually really tired around 10pm but fights sleep. Then she becomes over-tired and has to cry for a little bit before settling down for the night. Last night was rough in that area but Brent seems to have the magic touch to get her to settle. He just has to go in there a few times before it works. Since she is doing 6 hours at night at 6 weeks old, maybe she will do 7 hours at 7 weeks, 8hours at 8 weeks, etc. I can dream, right?
She has started to smile at us a little bit - at least we think so. Sometimes it is hard to tell if it is a smile or a gas pain making her grimace. Either way it is cute. She is such a big girl, she looks older than 6 weeks.
Ava is doing great, being a big help. I could be in the bathroom putting on my make up and Ava will entertain Olivia. If Olivia is crying and my hands are full Ava will put her binky in or give her a stuffed animal. I can take a shower and Ava will tell me if Olivia wakes up. I am glad that there is an age difference between them where Ava is old enough to do stuff like that.
On a side note, Thursday 2/11/10 was Brent's graduation from the fire academy. We went with his parents, and we are all so proud of him. It was a challenge for him and for me, as it took up so much of his time. He'd be gone 4 nights a week until 11pm and ALL day Saturday. The day we brought Olivia home from the hospital, he literally had to drop me off, change his clothes, and go to school. Luckily my sister came down to give me a hand that night. It isn't over yet; in March he starts EMT class, which will be 2 or 3 nights a week until June. Hopefully no Saturdays. I had to learn to juggle handling Ava and the baby, doing bathtime and bedtime. It was almost like being a single parent. I give them TONS of credit, because it is not easy.

Olivia Part 2

So I kind of ended that last post abruptly, but I knew I wouldn't get it finished all in one sitting. So here are my other ramblings.
Olivia loves bath time. We gave her her first one after almost 3 weeks, because it took that long for her belly button to fall off. She never cries. She loves the water being poured on her and she sits there very content.
Last night was our best night sleeping. I think I mentioned that I started off by having her sleep in bed with us. I knew that couldn't go on for long, because I am not a fan of the "family bed" and I don't think it provides good sleep for anyone, baby included. I wanted her sleeping in her crib. We've been working on it for over a week and she is doing very well. Last night she went to bed around 10pm and fussed for a while. Brent went in and rocked her a couple of times. She fell asleep around 11pm, and didn't wake up for food until 4am. I fed her, rocked her for a couple of minutes and then put her back in the crib. I only had to go in once to put her binky back in, and she went back to sleep. I actually had to go in and wake her up at 7:30am. Not too bad for 5 weeks old. The other night I out her to bed around 9:30pm, she woke up at 1:30am and was wide awake. It took me almost 2 hrs to get her back to sleep, and then she went until 7am. I keep the lights off, and don't talk to her. After eating I put her back in the crib and put her mobile on. I go back to my room, and if she fusses I let her go for a few minutes before going back in. When I do go back in, I just put her binky back and rub her head or pat her belly. Then I walk back out. If it goes on too long I might pick her up and rock her a bit again. During the day, Olivia spends most of the morning napping, and spends a lot of awake time in the afternoon. That just seems to be her normal pattern. Car rides make her fall asleep.
Ava is an amazing big sister. She adores Olivia, and kisses her almost too much. She is very helpful, I call her my "Diaper fairy" because whenever I need to change Olivia Ava runs in and puts a diaper on the changing table. I pretend I don't see her do it, and it's like the Diaper fairy put it there for me. She has not shown any signs of jealousy. She understands that babies cry a lot of have a lot of needs, and it doesn't phase her. I knew she would be great.

Olivia - 1 month

I don't have much time to write with a 4 year old and a newborn, and I won't be paying attention to grammer and spelling, but I wanted to write about baby Olivia. This blog has been invaluable in the past few weeks, as I went back to the beginning to refresh my memory about what you do with a baby. For some reason, I glossed over the not so fun parts of having Ava, and only remembered the good stuff.
In these first few weeks of getting to know Olivia, I would have described her as very tempermental, a bit ornery, and "fussy." I hate calling a baby fussy, because what does that mean exactly? She cried a lot, and only wanted to sleep at night with me, in our bed. That describes most newborns, right? I attempted to breast-feed, and even though I had tried and failed with Ava, I was determined that this time it would work. It lasted all of 3 weeks. I gave it everything I had, talked to lactation nurses, my obgyn, pediatrician, other moms, etc. I pumped and got nothing. Once again, I beat myself up over it, but we ended up going to formula. I think that is the hardest part about having a baby. She spits up a ton, which bothers me and makes me feel guilty for bottle feeding. The pediatrician didn't seem to concerned, didn't think she has reflux, just thinks the bottle makes her eat too fast. hopefully she will outgrow it.
Olivia is a big baby. She was 8 lbs 15oz and 22 inches long when she was born. That lead to me having to have an unplanned & unwanted C section. I went in to natural labor early Saturday morning. Contractions started around 5:30am, and by 7am we were in the car on the way to the hospital, 45 mins away. When I got there I was a good 6 cms. They figured I would have the baby within and hour or 2. I tried to go all natural, figuring if I didn't have an epidural with Ava I could do it again. After 2 hours, the pain was so intense I couldn't take it anymore. Sweet sweet epidural. I never experienced pain like that and don't want to ever again. Also, the Olivia was face up, giving me back labor, and also halting labor. At 8 cms I stopped dialating, and instead my cervix started swelling. They gave me pitocin, had me change positions, but nothing was happening. THe doctor said C section and I started crying. I didn't want it at all, but the chance that I could rupture my cervix, or have to use forceps to get her out made it necessary. All in all, it wasn't horrible. My recovery wasn't too bad. I do wish I had stayed in the hospital that extra day though. Instead I had her on Saturday and went home on Monday.
As is to be expected, the first few weeks were rough. Brent and I were thinking that Olivia seemed extremely fussy and cried more than usual. However, I went back in this blog to the very beginning and saw that everything we were saying about Olivia, we had said about Ava too. Ava seemed fussy in the beginning. That made me feel much better and let me know that it is just normal newborn behavior and it would get better with time! Now that Olivia is a month old, she is starting to spend more time alert and calm. I read the book "On Becoming Baby Wise" and that helped me get her on somewhat of a schedule. She is eating about 4 oz every 3 hours, and naps 3 or 4 times a day. We don't really have a schedule for nightime. If I put her to bed at 9 or 10 pm, she will wake up twice. Last night I put her to bed around midnight and she woke up once at 3:30, ate, and then woke up at 7am. Ava started sleeping through the night around 8 or 9 weeks, so we are hoping that Olivia follows that too. If we could be so lucky! My biggest thing was getting Olivia to sleep in the crib. Ava took to the crib pretty easily, but Olivia did not like it at first. There have been a couple of nights I have had to let her cry for a while and it kills me. She liked to sleep in our bed right up next to me. It is a bad nthing that I started when I was trying to nurse. It was just easier and we both got sleep. Now I am determined to not let it get worse, and that she only sleep in the crib. If I let it go on any longer it will only be harder to break her of it. Might as well start early.