multi-tasking..

Well for the second time in a month, Ben is in Barstow for work :(
It's only for a few nights but I definitely a little overwhelmed!! Olivia has been having some really bad teething pains lately and some growing pains too!! I think we are all feeling the growing pains :)
She asks for Daddy about a hundred times a day. I don't know if she understands what I mean when I tell her that he will be home in a few days, but she seems to accept the answer I give her! Since turning 1 she has started to do so many things that we couldn't wait for.. one being walking!! She walks so good now (all we need is one of those leash things) :)
She also tries to copy our mannerisms, words we say to her like: bath, dirty, night night, banana (sounds more like 'nanana')!! Along with the usuals: Mama, Dada, hello, wa wa... these are all I can think if at the moment.

Olivia also has a few new teeth!! She now has 3 front bottom, 4 front top and 1 pesky molar on it's way down.. this one just started coming through the gums the other day.. pain pain go away!!
She is learning how to use crayons and pens!! That has been loads of fun :)
Her bedtime has even changed to 7:30pm instead of 8:30 like it was before the time change!!!

We are looking forward to Christmas with our families!! Everyone will be here this year, even Olivia's little cousin Cassidy!!! It's gonna be so awesome watching the two of them opening gifts together on X-Mas!!!

I can't believe little girl let me write for this ling already, better go check on her!

My baby's 1!!!

Today was Olivia's 1st Birthday! The past year has gone by so fast, it really didn't even feel like a year at all.. ok, maybe sometimes it felt like the day was never going to end, or 3 days melded together to feel like one really loooong day! But, we got through it. We survived!
We started off the celebration with a party at our house on Sunday (the night before) and will continue our week-long Birthday week tomorrow by going to Olivia's one year doctors appointment and then, if she is feeling up to it we will go out for Sushi with Ben's Mom! Then, on Thursday for my and Ben's Birthday we are taking the little girl to Disneyland!!! We got lucky this year with all 3 of us getting in for free!!
The party went great! Olivia had a blast! She learned how to open presents and that she doesn't really have a taste for cake yet, though she did LOVE the Pumpkin Pie we gave her after she rejected the cake! There were no meltdowns or tantrums :) The thought didn't even cross my mind that it could be a possible scenario for a meltdown until after the party when she had the BIGGEST one she's ever had! She was still in bed for the night by nine-thirty, not too bad!
Here are some photos!

Olivia

It's been way too long since my last post. So much has been going on these last few weeks.. We have been out looking at houses up here in North County, very exciting!! In the baby department, Olivia has started letting go of the furniture and getting ready to start walking soon :) It's a little scary but, I guess it's necessary ;)
She has also been very vocal, she will try to say words like Bella, Kitty, Tigger, Mama, Daddy!! So very cool. Her hair is getting longer, it comes past her ears already. One side has a curl and the other is straight, just like Mommy's :)
We are also starting to scout locations for the big 1st Birthday party coming up in October!! Can't believe it is only 7 weeks away!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are taking ourselves to Disneyland on Ben and my Birthday. The two of us will get in for free (through the B-Day club thing) and Olivia will get in free for being under 3!! Now we can buy her some little stuffed animals or dress-up stuff!! I am so excited, Disneyland is my favorite place :P

Well, until next time..

My Big Girl

Dear Olivia~

You were such a big girl today.
I can't believe you are 9 months old, already...
I was so proud of you
for not crying for your shot today.
I remember the first one,
when you cried for an hour after.

I remember the day you were born,
you weighed 8 pounds and a few ounces.


You were perfect.

Now at nine months old,
your weight,
almost twenty pounds...

You are very long.
You have grown ten inches!
I love when you kick those long legs!

Your little patch of hair
has grown out to be so long!
You have two teeth,
and more on the way!

The silly little voice you started using yesterday,
it's sounds so funny,
like a little 'valley girl'!

I Love

The way you try so hard to stand up,
even when you are already so tired.

How you get so excited
when you see your Daddy.

The way you chase after the kitties,
and scream at them to let you touch them!

I love how big you are getting...
everyday.

Happy 9 Month Birthday

Love~
Mommy

Poo Poo In The Potty!

So over the last few months, since starting solids, Olivia has been having bouts of constipation :(
She will go a few weeks passing poop just fine, then she will have one really bad one. We tried 'helping' the poo out by bringing her knees to her belly while she pushes, but it takes almost 10-15 minutes for it to come out that way + so many tears :(
It's the worst thing to see your baby cry like that.. Recently Ben was at the store and decided to take a chance and purchase a training potty for her! I thought this was funny, because there is no way for her to let us know when she has to go? Then, today I noticed that while playing she got really quiet, I looked over at her and she had this look on her face, i've seen that look before.. she was trying to pass a hard poo :(
Just to see how she would react, I first checked her diaper to make sure there was still time, then I sat her on the potty. In 2 minutes, it was over!! I looked in and sure enough SHE WENT!
No tears this time :)
She was so happy when it was all over! It is so relieving to know that I can stick her on there and try to get her to get use to it (I totally thought she would try to get off the pot and go all over the floor!!) I think it will work especially well for those times when she gets a little backed up :)
Yay!! Well, that's my rant for this week!!

Sore Throat

So yesterday Olivia woke up from her morning nap with a fever of 102.4.. Yikes! So, I gave her some Ibuprofen and teething tablets (since she has been shooting teeth out since last week)! After that didn't work I gave her a cool bath, it seemed to do the trick. After the bath she had a bottle and took an hour and a half nap :)
Though when she woke from said nap, her fever was back to over 101.4 :(
I gave her more medicine (since the last dose was long worn off), and the temp never seemed to go below 100.4.. this went on all night long! She slept from about midnight til 2:30am, then she went back to sleep at 5:30, then woke up at 7am! Still feverish (101.3), I called the doctor and made an appointment. We saw the Doc. and he said her throat looked red (no bumps!) But did a STREP TEST anyway.. it came back negative!! So, back to not really knowing what it could be?
If she is still having fevers tomorrow morning, I will take her back again for more tests!

How do you get an 8 month old with a really bad sore throat to eat?

Oh Wow!

Olivia just pulled herself up into standing.. ALL BY HERSELF!!!! She did it twice!! I knew this was coming, though not so soon :)
I wasn't even prepared with the camera.. By the time I got it out she was done and wouldn't do it again, figures :(

Beware Of The Killer 1st Tooth

Well, it's official, Olivia's first tooth has broken through her little gum :(
It all started about 3 days ago and doesn't look like she is going to have any relief anytime soon... I try everything I can to sooth her pain, including ice to suck on, teething biscuits, soft & hard teethers, Orajel, Ibuprofen, though I only give her that once maybe twice a day.. should I give it to her more? Anyone have any other remedies? Preferably homeopathic.. I will listen to any advice given.
I never know how tired she would be during all of this. She has been taking one 2-2 1/2 hr. nap in the morning and a second one in the mid afternoon.. it's nice for me, but I know how much pain she is in, so it's nice to know she is still getting enough sleep!
Well, off to work on some photos from this past weekend with Olivia's Cousin Cassidy & Auntie Ariel!!

Botanical Gardens

On Tuesday I decided to take Olivia and myself to the Quail Botanical Gardens, for free day! It was a complete 180 from the last time we went (when she was 3 months old), and she pretty much cried, no screamed the whole time.. This time we went with a few friends from our Beach Babies Playgroup :)
Olivia and I got there about an hour before they arrived, but it was cool. We walked around and looked at some cool little waterfalls, and pretty flowers. She loves to have her picture taken! I am always so excited to do photo shoots with her, because I know she will look beautiful!
She sat in her stroller so quiet and just took it all in! She met another little girl, named Finn, who really liked all of the toys Olivia had on her stroller! Finns Mom said how good Liv was being by keeping her hat on! and sitting in her stroller. Then she asked "oh. how old is she, around a year?" !!!! No way, I said "no, 7 1/2 months!" She was awe struck! Olivia is a little big for her age, she is almost as big as some 1 year olds in the playgroup :)

Anyway, i'm rambling..

crying it out...

Well, it's been a few months since we sarted the 'cry it out' method. It is still hard for me to listen to her crying in her room, but in the past few weeks I have noticed that if I just wait a few more minutes she will fall asleep.. she's so tired... This works really well for naps. She takes a nap for 2 hours everyday! Lucky me!! It wan't always that way. It was really hard to get here, and all I can keep thinking is it will get better.. and it does , everyday.. thankfully :)

One thing I can't understand, again she does this really well..for naps, but come bedtime, no way. She can only fall asleep if I give her a few more ounces. Why does she do this? Anyone have any ideas.. think I need a new approcah to this!

Livs Dress

Olivias Grandma Harris bought her this beautiful dress. It's for 12 mo., she is almost out of that size.. already! So we did an impromptu photo shoot last week, she looks so pretty :)

First Sign!

I have been showing Olivia this Baby Einsteins Video- 'First Signs' almost everyday since she was 4 months old, and yesterday she did her first sign!! It was the sign for Milk, it was so cute, she was sitting in my lap watching it and it got to the part where they do all of the meal time signs.
I noticed her little hand, she was doing the milk sign!!
It was so awesome to see she learned to do it so soon, I thought it would take longer than that for her to do her first one!
Now at each bottle time she does her little hand movement, it's so great to know what she wants when she gets fussy.. well, now she doesn't get as fussy anymore because she can actually communicate with me!!
Wow, she's so cool :)

4 Days without Daddy

So Ben went to Canada for work last week, the first day was not so bad, the second day... a little harder, but by the third day, I was dead on my feet. It was the hottest 3 days of my life, my baby was miserable (being it was her first experience living excessive heat), we tried to enjoy the Fallbrook Avacado Festival on Sunday.. think it was 100 out that day :(
Then Monday we stayed home (in Oceanside) and it registered around 98 that day! So we decided to go swimming! Olivias first time in a pool :) Think she had a good time, it is still hard to tell when she is genuinely having a nice time! Though I don't think she liked the mouth full of water she choked on! Mommy decided that was the end of our pool day!
After that we had a bath and a bottle, man did she sleep great that night :)
Tuesday, which was a much cooler day.. thank god! My Mom came down from Temecula, we went to the mall, it was great. Olivia was such a good girl, she sure loves to people watch :)
We found her the cutest little outfits, Mommy also found some cute stuff too!
Then, finally the day came.. it was time for Daddy to come home! Though, he wasn't due back til after midnight :( But, the day went by fast, Olivia went down without a fight, thankfully. Then just before 1am, Ben woke me up (I had fallen asleep on the couch waiting for him)! We went to be and Liv woke us up at 7am, that's my little girl!!

This is getting exhausting..

We have been waiting for our maintenance man to fix the leak and mold problem in our bathroom wall. He finally started today, ripped out the wall behind the toilet and in the closet (we also have a leak behind the shower). So, that's going to be at least a week or two we can't use the front bathroom :(

On a happier note, Easter is this weekend, it's Olivias first! I know she won't remember it, but we're still excited anyway! We will also be spending Saturday afternoon with the family downtown at the Old Spaghetti Factory! We are very excited that they decided to re-open it downtown (eventhough there is one close to us here in NC). Spaghetti Factory has always been the meeting place for our familys celebrations.. Especially Birthdays!

I am so proud of our little girl this week. She has now slept through the night 3 nights in a row!! I thought I would never remember what it feels like to sleep 8 hours in a row, at least not so soon :) She is so awesome!

Welcome

This blog is picking up where my babyjellybeans webpage Journal ended.

Well, here it goes... Olivia was born on Sunday October 19, 2008 three days before My & Bens 28th Birthday! It was a pretty intense 14 hours of laboring and ended with an hour and a half of pushing her out.. no drugs for this first time Mama!!
My whole pregnancy from the beginning, I told everyone I wasn't going to use any epidural, they all thought I was crazy. For some reason most women think they 'can't do it' without 'help', whatever that means? I think I did just fine, and I felt great afterwords!
All I have to say is that Hypnobirthing really did work for me, I will do it again (not for 3-5 years though)!
Olivia is now 5 1/2 months old and doing great! She sleeps through the night (thankfully), she babbles so much, it almost sounds like she is saying 'real' words :)
She is finally accepting belly time, I remember how she would cry and cry when we would put her on her belly. Now she is so much stronger, it's crazy to see her roll over and try to hold her bottles!
The time from birth til now has gone by so fast, I look back at photographs from then to now and am amazed at how much she has grown! Her hair is getting so long, I love that when I give her a bottle, if she is tired, she will twist her hair around in her little chubby fingers.. so precious! At her last weigh in she was almost 17 lbs.
She already wears a size 3 diaper and eats the purees I make her, that's right, I make her food. It's really not that hard and takes maybe 2 hours total to do, I only have to do it once every 3 months. http://wholesomebabyfood.com/index.htm

That's it for now.
Not sure how often I will write, still keep checking back for more..