Sitting up Straight

Brief one tonight, but it's been far too long!  Ever since Mum-Mums came to visit, Olivia has been much healthier!  We still put some cereal in her bottles and she get probiotics daily.  The little one continues to be a fussy eater occasionally, but at other times she's all for it!  Olivia is sitting up very well on her own now, and reaches for things, but is not quite interested in moving around yet.  I think that's a saving grace for the parents since our house is not yet baby-proofed!

Today was a big day - she clapped her hands!  Apparently she did it yesterday too, but I saw her and caught it on video this morning!  Olivia was fussing as I was leaving daycare and the teacher came over to sing and clap hands with her - so adorable! 

I think she's starting to look a bit more like her Momma. :)  Olivia still loves the jumperoo, and she's just so very interested in everything around her.  Constantly checking things out, watching the dogs, she knows when I'm in the bathroom and Kevin's holding her in the bedroom - she tries to look for me.  Adorable!

We have her first "school pictures", soo much cuteness! 

Olivia's way of giving Momma kisses is to open her mouth real wide and almost 'eat' my cheek.  So endearing :)  She now reaches for me with both hands to be held too.  Adorable. 

Mostly, it's fabulous to have a happy girl after February's sad girl. 

We mounted the "OLIVIA" letters on her wall and hopefully will get to hang some other pics soon.

Next week I go on my first work trip since having Olivia.  This will be tough - hard for me to be away from her, and tough for Dad to be the single parent for the first time.  We're taking steps to make sure it goes smoothly.

Big news is that Aunt Annie and family are moving out to Berkeley for Joel to be a Berkeley professor!  They were in town this past week and we were fortunate enough to see them a couple times.  Annie and Walter spent the night Friday night, and joined Olivia and I for "Music Together" Saturday morning - fun time!!!  (Olivia now 'dances' with the music, at daycare too!  Apparently she get upset when they turn the music off.  Too much!)  Then Kevin, Olivia and I hopped in the car and drove to Santa Rosa for a 3-year-old's birthday party.  Lovely day.  Olivia slept the whole way up, and the whole way back, and didn't go down for the night until like 9:15pm.  Not good.

Sunday, Aunt Kathy came to play while Kevin and I rented a trailer and picked up 3 Japanese Maples from the Calaveras Nursery and shimmied 2 of them into the backyard.  Slowly but surely, at least one project is semi moving along.  Next step is to take the jackhammer and dig the holes!  Yikes!  But Sunday night, we restarted sleep training and got Olivia go bed much earlier.

Since she was getting anxious as soon as I would taker her to her room, we changed approaches and now feed her the last bottle/feeding in her room and read books there, then put her straight in the crib, give a kiss, and leave the room. She cries for 2 - 20 min and is asleep.  Olivia is finally sleeping through the night again - thank goodness!  And now she likes her room better.  We're also sat out on the back patio while Kevin worked in the yard and looked around at the trees and birds and dogs.  She's so observant and loves it!

I'm not sure how much longer I'll keep up the nursing.  Tonight it was almost a wrestling match!  I'm also worried that my supply will be basically gone by the end of next week's travel.  But, I'm bringing my pump so we'll just have to see how it goes.

Okay, bedtime.  Will have to add pics later.  These days I'm exhausted and usually in bed with lights out by 9:45, so this is pushing it!  I have to make sure to get Olivia up tomorrow around 7 to keep her on a schedule!

Happy! Happy! Happy!

Olivia is feeling MUCH better and is the happiest little girl on the block.  Such a relief!  She still has the occasional green goo poo, but the diaper rash (especially the oozing wounds) is gone and she no longer seems in physical pain with tummy aches!

A couple weekends ago, when Olivia was having a bad Saturday night, Mum-Mums Bellenger decided it was time for a visit.  Lo and behold, Sunday morning after our visit to urgent care, Kevin, Olivia and I were picking up my mom at SFO for a three day visit!  I think Olivia decided to recover as soon as Gma bought her plane ticket!  Mom being out here allowed Kevin to relax a bit after all his crazy work travel, and gave me the opportunity to work for 7 hours and semi catch up from the last several weeks of single-mom'ing it with sick kiddo.  I really appreciated the help.

Olivia stayed home with Mum-Mums for Monday and Tuesday.  They went for walks, Olivia refused to nap, she showed off her trick of holding the bottle, they read books and did LOTS of jumperoo.  At one point, they had so much fun, Mom's tooth fell out!  Mom made us beef stroganoff and beef stew.  We really had a lovely, relaxing-ish time.  The big thing is that I was finally able to concentrate a little bit on work.

 
 

 

Wednesday through Friday, Olivia was back at daycare and while she had a few green goo poos, the diaper rash remained at bay.  Thank goodness!  The solution seems to be putting rice cereal in her bottles to firm up the poop.  Olivia is temperamental on whether she'll eat purees, so the best way to make sure some "solids" make it into her tummy is via the bottle.  We are also adding probiotics to her food to help her gut. 

Last weekend, Olivia and Dad spent lots of time together at home while I ran a number of errands, including finally joining a gym!  Now I have to figure out ways to get there and workout!  Poor Kevin came down with a head cold, but it seems to be lifting now.

Okay, time for sleepy sleeps time.  Just a quick update for now and I'll add pics later.

Fun tricks:
- Blowing raspberries, especially while eating puree :)
- Reaching for the spray from the faucet while taking a bath
- Just about rolling over, reaching for things all around her
- Holding her bottle
- Still jumperooing, but even higher than before!
- Teradactyl screech
- Baby-Led-Weaning on a few things, pizza crust was tonight, cantaloupe yesterday, carrots
- Sat up in a restaurant high chair last Friday night for the first time
- Just about sitting up on her own.  She'll do it for awhile, then flop backward
- First school picture!!!

Nighty-Night!