A Long Three Weeks, but Spring is Here!

Between Olivia's cough virus, mom catching it, then Olivia getting the runs and Kevin being gone for almost all of it, this has been a long three weeks.  Thank goodness Olivia is *almost* healthy and I'm back to normal!  On top of all that, my daffodils, mini hyacinth and crocuses are blooming or coming up and the cherry trees are all in bloom!  How pretty! :)  Sure makes me want to go hiking or camping.

After our fun at the emergency room, Kevin was here the night for the second fever spike and that was helpful.  Then he left and she continued to have a fever for the next several days, but fortunately not as high.  Shortly thereafter, Olivia developed a bad case of the runs, which led to very uncomfortable (and red) diaper rash!  We visited the doctor a few times and never determined the cause of it.  The main fall out is that we've totally stalled on introducing solids and working on sitting up.  But now that Olivia can have a diaper on for at least half the day, it's time to start working on that again.

 This past week, lots of folks pitched in to help.  Olivia had spent most of Sunday bare-bottomed in the family room and having the runs.  Kevin had an evening flight back to LA and I had forgotten to pick up Pedialyte.  Home alone with Olivia, I started getting nervous, she was crying and I figured I needed the Pedialyte.  Charlie came to help out and babysat while I ran to the store at 8:45pm.  Awesome!

Monday, Karen babysat all day and Olivia was a fussy girlie.  Again, bare-bottomed most of the day, the diaper rash was not getting worse, but not getting better either because her tummy was still upset.

Tuesday through Thursday, Patti babysat at the house and had an OK day, a Fussy day, and a Fun day!  I'm so relieved Olivia recovered a bit for Patti to have at least one fun day with Olivia.  Even Uncle Steven pitched in for a bit and covered a few hours when Patti had an errand to run!  After taking Olivia to the doctor on Tuesday for another appointment to be checked out, we started giving her some probiotics in her milk and attempting to feed solids again - all with the objective to give her something to make more substantial poo!  I guess the probiotics are helping because Olivia refuses to eat any food.  We're trying a modified BRAT diet (Banana, Rice cereal, Apple sauce, and Toast - but no toast for Olivia).  Oh, but on Thursday she did eat some cereal-milk-applesauce mixture for Patti and apparently they had fun!


Kevin returned Thursday and rode home with me - to find a happy baby at home.  What a relief!  Wednesday evening had been pretty tough with a really fussy baby, but Thursday she was all smiles!  Perfect timing!  Suzanne even came over that night for our last hangout before she departs for Dubai to start the next chapter of her life.  Very exciting!



Today, Kevin babysat all day - the first time he's been alone with Olivia for more than about 3 hours.  They had a lovely day - jumperoo, only a few diarrheas, smiles. :)  I got some work done, but man is my work life suffering big time.  It's tough to be worried about a little baby at home and feeling like I should be there taking care of her, but having to be at work.  I think things will get much better now that she's almost healthy again!

OK, momma's tired.  It's been a long day and a long week.  I'm looking forward to music class with Olivia tomorrow - it's always entertaining. :)

Recovering

Olivia is feeling much better today from the weekend's virus.  She drank all four bottles at daycare!  Yesterday she only had about 7 ozs of milk, today it was closer to 16, so clearly her appetite is recovering.  :)  Makes mom happy. :)

I have certainly contracted something, so while Olivia is better, I'm something of a walking zombie during the day when the oral decongestants don't do much.  At night, I cave and use Afrin, just one spray on each side, and the transformation is astounding!  The main advantage is that I can sleep when my sinuses are clear.  No idea what I'd do without the stuff.

So much for working a full 40 hours this week. Monday I left at lunchtime to come home and take Olivia to the doctor again.  Yesterday I only got in 8 hours before the congestion was really hitting, and today was a half-day before I came home sick and slept all afternoon.  There are several people out sick.  On the plus side, I was in the office for the important meetings today.  Tomorrow I plan to keep my germs to myself and work from home.  Maybe I'll sneak in some resume work as well.  The real bonus is that I'll let Olivia sleep in until she naturally wakes up around 7.

I'm excited to restart Olivia's adventure into solid foods tomorrow.  Since she ate most of her cereal today, I think we can start with veggies again.  She hasn't really tried anything new since late last week.

I'm looking forward to the weekend.  Friday night Charlie & Delores will come over early enough to play with Olivia, then will babysit while I go out with my lactation circle mom-friends for a quick drink.  Saturday we should be getting more rain, we have our little Saturday morning music class, then will head to Jessica's for lunch (Jessica and friends/family are doing a 10k/5k... but I was too late to register and as it turns out, the weather will be poor, so we'll just join for lunch :) )

Sunday, Aunt Kathy will come to babysit and play with a healthy, awake Olivia!  Fantastic!  Monday, Kevin comes home!  Also fantastic!

First Trip to Emergency Room

Staying home from daycare on Friday with her Puppies cuddling in close

Not so sure about eating, and not feeling well

Little Olivia has her first Big Bad Virus... which sent us to the ER Friday night when I was worried that she was having trouble breathing.  Her temperature spiked to 103.4 while we were in the hospital and they gave her Ibuprofen and Tylenol at the same time.  Then she had a "breathing treatment" aka albuterol and oxygen.  A half hour after the "treatment" she was MUCH better and smiling all over.  I think by that time her temperature had dropped as well.  She was 99.8 degrees when we were discharged.  Scary night!  Kevin was on travel so it was just me and the girls.  I'm not super impressed by Washington Hospital ER, but they did take care of Olivia... eventually.

High on Albuterol with a lowered temp at 2:30 am in the ER!  Little trickster! 

Sleeping in on Sat after our late night (home at 4am)

Last night her temperature spiked above 103 again, after being around 99 most of the day.  At least this time Kevin was home to help with giving her the inhaler, her ibuprofen and generally cooling her down and soothing her.  Olivia has been fussy from not feeling well, poor thing.

Feeling much better!!!  But Sat night still had a Big Bad Fever. :(

Just cute -with the crab on her butt

Today she's still been not herself.  Her temperature started climbing around 4pm and I gave her ibuprofen again.  She's been having diarrhea a little and not eating/drinking much.  Tomorrow she'll stay home from daycare and I'm hoping she'll be back there on Tuesday.  With any luck she'll be all smiles tomorrow!  Kevin leaves for LA again and will be gone Monday through Monday this time.

While Kevin was gone, Steve and Patti came over for a little while - we basically finished the crown moulding and baseboards in Olivia's room - very exciting!  Now Kevin just needs to paint the window casing.  He's "forbidden" me from doing it.  So, during this trip I hope to finish caulking and filling the nail holes in the guest bedroom crown and maybe the hallways.  Sure would be nice to have that all done!

But, it's going to be a long week.  My first week back FULL TIME at work, and Kevin on travel... and the dog-walker not available, and Olivia sick.  No biggie, just another week. :)  I had hoped to have some time to myself today and to get a few things done, but with Olivia not feeling well, and the Super Bowl (or Dud Bowl) on TV, I had to sit with Olivia a fair amount.  Fortunately, I was able to cook my food for the week.

Sleepy sleep time! :)  It RAINED today!!!  Not nearly enough, but at least it's something in this terrible drought!   And, I'm in drought-mode, figuring out all sorts of ways to conserve water.  I also managed to do some weeding during the weekend when Steve and Patti were here.

Nighty Night.  Pics to be added!

Big Week! Solid Foods, Stroller, Sitting @ 6 Months

The Subject really sums it up!  Olivia turned 6 months old last Friday and had a successful checkup with the doctor.  But let's back up.

SOLID FOODS:
Last weekend, Olivia started 'solid' foods!  Her first food was a tiny taste of banana, but for real was avocado mixed with breast milk.  Then she had baby oatmeal cereal, butternut squash, carrots (LOVED it!), pear and baby rice cereal.  Oh yes, and prunes!  She's such a good little eater.  Last weekend I made a batch of butternut squash, yam, and sweet potato purees and froze them in ice cube trays.  I didn't quite get around to making food for her this weekend but maybe tomorrow I"ll make some extra green beans and we'll try those.
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For most of the week we fed Olivia in the Bumbo seat on the kitchen table, but it's dangerous because she'll arch back and could pop out of that thing.  So yesterday I managed to get to the store and picked up a high chair - SO much better!  Olivia fell asleep in it this morning while breaking it in!
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This evening we had Gma Delores, Aunt Kathy and Great Aunt & Uncle Patti and Steve over for dinner to get to hang out and see Olivia.  They arrived while Olivia was still in the high chair for her little dinner and both Kathy and Delores had a chance to feed her.  Very fun!
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Last Friday Olivia ate cereal at daycare for the first time and they said she was loving it - just wanted more and more!  Her poops have definitely changed but still mostly smell like before since the bulk of her diet is still BM.  I'm so proud of myself for making it through 6 months of nursing and pumping.  After the nursing issues were finally worked out, I find I really enjoy it (at home), but can't wait to be done with pumping.  It's just not particularly comfortable.  I'm looking forward to being able to feed Olivia solid foods during the day when we're out and about - nursing in public is just awkward.  You just don't have pillows around to prop up your arms.

STROLLER:
The big news here is that his past week (Monday, Tuesday), we started putting Olivia in the stroller without her carseat!  Such a big girl!  I think she really loves looking around at the world!  Now I need to pick up a pair of sunglasses for the little cutie. :)  She's so funny - when she's happy, she'll absentmindedly kick her little feet around a bit.  So even though I can't see her face in the stroller, I can see her little kick-kicks.  Love it!
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On Friday, Kevin was supposedly working late (he came home at 1:30 am Wednesday night, 12:30 am Thursday night) and we took a long walk with the dogs. ( The weather has been phenomenally nice - but no rain so we're in severe drought territory.)  We ended up meeting neighbor Nani and her 3 month old schnauzer, Epsilon.  So cute!  We ended up letting the dogs all play in Nani's backyard for a little while.  Pretty cute. :)  When we returned home, Kevin's car was there - nice surprise!  So we fed Olivia and went out to dinner while she was fast asleep in the carseat.


DOCTOR APPOINTMENT:
At Olivia's 6-month checkup last Friday, she was given a clean bill of health.  Her head is in the 96th%ile, her weight at 14lbs 4 ozs is in the 16th %ile, and finally her height at 25.5 in is in the 35%ile.  She's tracking well and has a little pudge on her thighs and wrists.  So very very cute.  And, her dad's big noggin.  The doctor commented that she has fantastic leg strength (attributed to the jumperoo) but needs to work on her trunk strength for sitting.  It really is amazing how well she'll do assisted standing, before collapsing without warning! :)

Olivia received 4 shots at the appointment, including a flu shot, and slept most of the day (according to daycare).  She had a few flu symptoms over the next few days and is fully recovered now.
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SITTING:
I took the doctor's comments on sitting seriously and we practiced a bit yesterday.  Olivia sat on her own for about a minute with me on the floor.  That was fun.  Saturday was a good day of just us hanging out.  I read her books, we cuddled, we eventually bought her high chair.  All good things.  Bummer that dad had to work all day.  Suzanne came over in the evening for dinner and to celebrate her quitting Google.  Kev was home around 11pm or so and had a glass of wine with us.
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CAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES:
Last weekend we went to the Science museum with Suzanne up in San Francisco.  LOTS of happy kick-kicks from Olivia, so I'm sure she enjoyed it.  We pushed it a little through her nap time so Olivia slept soundly the whole way home and most of the way through the 49er game (which they lost).  Olivia seemed to like the fishies at the museum.  I can't wait to take her back up there!
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WORK:
I have one last week of "part time".  I'm not looking forward to "full time".  My days off have kinda been a joke anyway though because I've worked anyway or they expect me to dial in to meetings.  I simply am looking forward to moving on to another position.  This last week I'm going to be steadfast in not working on my days off.  I'll make up for it when I'm back "full time".  I need to finish my resume for absolute certain, and work on LinkedIn and start looking around / applying to new places.  I can't do that if I'm doing my LM job.

I also really need to start working out again for me.  It's tough with Olivia and the dogs - I can't take O out without the puppies because they need exercise too.  But I cant' handle all of them at once and actually run.  Since Kevin's not really going to be interested in running with me ever, or is on travel or working, and Olivia needs some outside time, I'm pretty much just stuck walking and wrestling with the dogs and stroller.  It'll improve.  I just need to keep trying and training the dogs.

Kevin's been working a ton, as I mentioned, and will be traveling a fair amount in the next month.  He promises that it will calm down in a couple weeks and there will be no work... but that's what he said at the end of last year as he worked through Thanksgiving and pretty much right up until Christmas, so we'll see.  I'm basically setting up a daily schedule that works independently of his work.  That was Olivia (and I) have some consistency.  Speaking of which, it's really time for me to go to sleep!

OTHER STUFF:
Olivia loves her Saturday morning Music Together class - lots of happy kick-kicks there.  She's so stimulated that upon being put in the car, she's asleep before I can hop into the driver's seat!  It really helps me to listen to the Music Together cd and go into the class with a clue about the songs.  It's all about repetition, so they say. :)  No pics or video in class, so nothing to post on that part.  Maybe we'll dance around at home and I tape it.  Speaking of which, I need to look for a tripod!

Okay, bed time.  I know I had more to say, but my mind is mush.

Precious Time

Yesterday morning at Daycare

I have three weeks, i.e. 6 days, of precious time with Olivia in daycare and me still working par-time.  Today is the first of the 6 days I have to finish off projects from maternity leave and before.  I'm off to a slow start.  Waking up to Olivia doing a little squirming at 7am, we started the day nicely.  But, I forgot her bottles and diapers, thus lost the better part of an hour doing an extra round-trip to KinderCare.  On the other hand, Olivia seemed pretty happy when I dropped her off.

And this morning.... I gave her a tiny taste of banana!  Very first solid!!!

This morning in bed - reaching for toes!

Today at daycare

I really wish we could figure out a way to drop her off a little later than 6:30am on work days and not have to wake the princess up out of her deep slumber at 6:00 am.  It just seems so unfair to mess with her sleep schedule so early in life.  There will be plenty of time for sleep deprivation later. At least I know she goes down for the night around 6:15 (very little time for Kevin and I to see her awake).  What's the point of having a child if you never see her?  All this thinking is making me want to find a better way.  Unfortunately, due to commute time and traffic, it still makes the most sense for Kevin and me to carpool rather than split up drop-off and pick-up schedules.  But something will have to give.  And the cost is ridiculous.  I can totally now see why people who have more than one child take time off of work.  Financially, it's almost a wash!  And, you spend time at a job you may not even enjoy, getting all stressed out, and missing out on the fun stuff.  (New) Age old questions, but now Kevin and I have to figure out our own approach to handling them.

Today I was supposed to clean my desk, and get a good snapshot of our finances together.  I struggled with the scanner for over an hour but finally got it working - success!  Thus the desk-clearing is finally enjoying progress.  But, before finances, I'm going to finally address and send out our New Year's cards (better late than never).  In the meantime, I have to take Kiwi all the way down to the vet for her Lyme vaccine booster.  Loss of at least 1.5 hours there.  Perhaps it really is time to switch to a Fremont local vet.

Oh, I did make the call to schedule LASIK for me, but haven't heard back yet on the date.  That's exciting!  With any luck, I'll get to the finances before bed tonight.

I hope to have some quality time with my little girl and husband in the mix!

Brief Trip Outside, and Observations

While Mom & Dad are fighting some sort of cold (Kate being totally congested and out of it), the 49ers succeeded in winning today against the Carolina Panthers and Mom took Olivia out for a brief walk jsut to get out of the house.  We went to the little neighborhood park and had our first experience on a *real* swing!  Very cute!  Olivia didn't quite know what to make of it.  But she was definitely enjoying looking around at the world.

Not much else happened this weekend.  I've been really feeling icky, so no chores were accomplished, just a little progress on filing music files on the new computer.  If I can concentrate for one more night I might just about finish that project finally!!!  What a relief that will be.  Hopefully any subsequent computer moves will be much easier.  Kevin blames our cold on daycare.  Olivia starts fulltime this coming week.  I'm not super thrilled about that.  I wish part-time was a real option, where the tasks would also actually be part-time.

Still not much rain to speak of.  Oh, check out Kevin's new look :)  Like a ROCKSTAR!

Wearing our replacement Christmas sock from Gma B

Observations:
- Likes to stare at her fingers while she holds hands in front of her and plays eensy-weensy spider, touching each finger with each of the other ones
- Lots of chewing on Sophie the Giraffe
- Reaching for Trixie and Kiwi, and occasionally grabbing some hair/fur.  Dogs tolerating well, and are curious
- Harder to put to sleep at night
- Tending toward one long nap around 10:30.  Not doing much of an afternoon nap, but then again, she goes to sleep fairly early
- Grunts a lot, less babbling/cooing, more grunting of frustration it seems
- Cute smiles and laughing.
- Likes putting cloth books in her mouth, and really just about anything she can get ahold of goes into the mouth.
- Much better at tummy time, but still doesn't really like it.  Can do a great upward-facing dog yoga move!  Mom's jealous.

Starting to Laugh! Trixie losing Teeth :(

Out cute little Olivia is starting to laugh and it's heart-melting!  Little chuckles here and there, BIG smiles when Kevin or I pick her up - all good things.  She passes toys between her hands, still sucks on her left thumb and pulls at things with a purpose!  My favorite part is how much she seems to recognize us.  We received the replacement Christmas sock from Mom Bellenger, and it's adorable of course!

Trixie had 22 teeth pulled on Tuesday!  Poor little girl!  Apparently that's why you have to brush their teeth!  Fortunately, she still has her big teeth, and... I signed up for pet insurance on her which should cover some of the extraction bill.  Trix is feeling much better already and her breath is MUCH better even just a few days after the surgery.  Her tail is wagging and she wants to play tug of war, though we will refrain for another few days.

Olivia starts full-time daycare next week, and I will start full-time work the first week of February.  I am *not* looking forward to that change.  I plan to work on my resume during the days I have in January with Olivia at daycare and to do some of the projects around the house that linger from the start of maternity leave.

Fighting diaper rash

Today I worked a little in the morning, then tried to get Olivia to take a nap with me in bed.  I think you can tell how that went in the photos below!

This weekend should be nice and relaxing.  Tomorrow morning while my eyes are measured for lasik, Kevin will take Olivia to music class.  I'll bet it'll be really fun now with how much more aware she is!  Then we'll have brunch with Megan, Chet and Katy, and finish off around the house, perhaps doing a few little chores.  I'd like to touch up the caulking I did on Olivia's window and perhaps start caulking her crown moulding.  I'd like to get just one room completely done in the house.  That would feel good.  Besides, that window needs to be finished so I can put together the bookshelf that'll go under it (still in my car). :)

Tasty alphabet!

Sunday, we're watching the 49ers playoff game and also doing things around the house.  I may just make it to church for the second week in a row.  I'm thinking it would be good to have Olivia baptized.  Hmmmm...

Oh, last night Kevin commented that he thought we started bedtime routine too early (at 5:15ish pm).  But Olivia slept from ~6:15pm - 5:00 am when I woke her to feed because I was getting worried!  She was a sleepy girl!  Momma was smart though and also went to bed at 8pm!  I could've gone at 7, but that was too much like an old fart!  Actually, I'm still pretty tired tonight so I think it might be about that time...  Nighty Night!