Saturday, January 18, 2014

Olivia - Three Months

Three months. This is when we no longer count her age in weeks, but in months. She is getting so old! The older she gets, the more fun she is. I am loving this age. We can still tote her around everywhere (like to new years, and she came to a bar with us for the Panthers playoff game. Yes, we brought our baby to a bar - parents of the year), but she is much more interactive. 


Weight: 12 pounds 6 ounces (40th percentile)
Height: 23 inches (70th percentile)

Sleep: She's always been a pretty good night sleeper - but her naps are still a struggle. We started not swaddling her and moving her bed time earlier all the same week she started daycare and I went back to work. It was a lot of change at once, and she seems to be doing very well. She goes down at 8:30 (we're still working on moving that back to 8). She usually wakes up once or twice where Dan hands her her paci and she immediately falls back asleep (although these are dwindling - yay!). She gets up at 5 to eat and goes right back down -- I'm talking like 5:08. And she is up for the day at 8 am.

Naps are a horse of another color. Just before daycare we were getting 3-4 solid crib naps everyday. We thought we were miracle workers! Well that stopped a few days before daycare, and its been hit or miss ever since. She skips her entire morning nap time to watch the other kids play and usually falls asleep about 15 minutes before I pick her up. Picking her up and putting her in the car wakes her up and that nap is OVER. The past two weeks I have been resorting to the swing, where she will nap for 2.5 hours after daycare. It's ideal for me to get work done. I know I need to get her back in the crib, but she's usually so overtired at daycare that the swing is the only thing that will work. Then her evening catnap before bedtime is in my arms. It such a short nap, my arms are a safe bet, and I like cuddling her. So I'll risk spoiling her :). I can also finish work at that hour - I save the things I can do one handed. 

Eating: She's always been a good eater. She has a 4 ounce bottle at 8, a 4 ounce bottle at 10:30, I nurse her around 1:15 and again at 5ish, and then we try and get as much in her as possible before bed (around 4-7 ounces). Most days there is another feeding thrown in there, whether at daycare, before bed, etc - it's just the inconsistent one. 

Best Moment of the Month: Christmas. Even though she was too young to really enjoy it. I loved seeing her eyes when she looked at the Christmas lights, and putting together the toys from Santa. Just thinking about how she will love Christmas in the years to come made me so happy.

Parent of the Month Award: This one goes to Dan for two moments. 1) I had a video that was going to be perfect to put here, but apparently I deleted it. :( He was trying to get her to roll over for the camera, so he lifted her up on her arms pretty high - she leaned back, head planted and you can hear him burst out laughing. (It wasn't quite as dramatic as I made it sound, and she wasn't hurt at all, but it was a pretty funny video). 2) I picked up Olivia from daycare and she was wearing tights and a t-shirt. No pants. Sister had no pants on. If it were preschool, she would have been sent home for indecency. 

Milestones: She found her hands so she's holding toys and putting them in her mouth. She grabs at my shirt and necklaces. She started rolling from belly to back a few weeks ago (thus ending tummy time whenever she wants) and a few nights ago started sleeping on her side. She braces herself, lifts her legs high in the air and uses the momentum to flop herself over and falls asleep. I don't think she'll ever roll from back to stomach because she hates her stomach so much. So back to side might be the closest she will ever get. She is also figuring out cause and effect. She pushes buttons to make noises (although sometimes is quite uncoordinated). 

Clothes / Diapers: She is still in 0-3 month clothes and size 1 diapers. She's getting close to being too long for some of her footed sleepers. 

Favorites: She is loving her swing now. She will sit content in it (if she isn't already fussy) for almost 30 minutes - usually falling asleep. She never liked the swing before. 

She loves her playmat, Jaques the Peacock, her Baby Einstein Take Along Tunes, and her rings hanging from the playmat. She also loves her walker that people thought I was crazy for getting a two month old. She loves sitting in my lap and kicking at the buttons. Or me pushing the buttons for her. 

Its hard to get non-blurry pictures of the wiggle worm, but these are my two favorites from her 3 month pictures:



And a few more:





And, lastly, a good shot of the bow clipped into her hair. 

Friday, January 17, 2014

Our Schedule

I am currently doing 5 hours in the office, and the rest of the day working from home for January and February, and it is Dan's busy season. Our schedule won't look like this forever.



5:00 am
  • I feed Olivia
5:15 am
  • Olivia goes back to bed
  • I shower / get ready for work
6:00 am
  • Our glorious coffee pot turns on and starts making the only thing that can get us through the day
6:15 am
  • I drive to work
  • Dan gets up, makes his breakfast, watches the news, etc.
7:30 / 8:00 am
  • Olivia wakes up
  • Dan feeds her a bottle, gets her dressed and heads to daycare
9:00 am
  • Olivia is dropped off at daycare
12:00 pm
  • I leave work after a seemingly short five hours
1:00 pm
  • I pick Olivia up from daycare
1:15 pm
  • Feed Olivia
  • Play with her
2:00 pm
  • Olivia naps
  • I continue working
4:30 / 5:00 pm
  • Olivia wakes up
  • I feed Olivia
  • Play with Olivia
6:00 pm
  • Olivia naps
  • I finish working
7:00 pm
  • Olivia wakes up
  • I keep her happy until bed time
7:30 pm
  • Olivia's bedtime routine: bath, bottle, rocking, bed
8:30 pm
  • Olivia is down for the night
  • I clean up the TORNADO of Olivia things that somehow happened in less than a day
  • Clean the kitchen
  • Make bottles for daycare
  • Do dishes
  • Prepare coffee for the next morning
  • Pack my car
9:30 / 10:00 pm
  • Wash my hair and dry it (no one wants to do that at five am)
  • Let the dog out - hope I didn't lock her in a room, inadvertently, hours ago
  • Get ready for bed
11:00 pm
  • Dan is home from work! (hopefully)
  • Set my alarm
  • Cry a little because my phone just said "alarm is set for 6 hours from now" or "5 and change"
5:00 am
  • Groundhog day
It makes for a busy day but it is such a wonderful mix of seeing Olivia and getting my work done that I don't want it to end. I would enjoy Dan coming home a teeny bit earlier, but we know this is temporary.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Nine Months of Pregnancy

Just got around to putting this together. 



A few notes:

Monday, January 6, 2014

House Tour: The Upstairs

Now my house ain't much to talk about. But it's filled 
with love and grown in Southern ground. -Zac Brown Band

I found a few pictures of our old apartment the other day and I loved remembering what it looked like. Rooms have already changed in our house since we bought it: namely, a guest room turned nursery.

I know many more things will change, as we upgrade furniture, move Olivia to a big girl room, Dan's mancave turns into a playroom, etc. I know I will love having these pictures.

Our house isn't perfect. I would live out of the pottery barn catalogue if our budget allowed. Instead we have some Pottery Barn, a bit of Home Goods, and a lot of Goodwill, garage sales, and my parents basement. We love it, and it's what we call home. 

These are the unedited, 'lived in' pictures. I didn't remove furniture to decrease clutter, add lamps to improve lighting, or strategically place vases of fresh picked flowers (here's a secret, all flowers you see are fake). 

Come on upstairs.


I got more frames for Christmas so we can add some Olivia pictures!



The landing "before." Patio furniture, lovely.



The "after" isn't much better. We love the Kentucky cupboard that my parents shipped from their house. The storage has been wonderful. We just haven't put much thought into styling it.


I'm not sure why my mom put those hydrangeas up there. And I haven't moved them. The Destin picture is hiding to the side, and the cabinet can't be centered because of the attic stairs. You win some, you lose some.


The first room on the right is the guest bed room. 



The second room on the right was another guest room, but is now Olivia's room. I'll share nursery pictures shortly, but here is the before.


By the way, the lighting upstairs is awful, so these pictures don't look nearly as good as the downstairs ones. I'm no pro, so you get what you get.


We didn't put much thought into it, knowing it was the eventual nursery. 



The first door on the left is our bedroom.





You cannot see anything on that TV, so we never watch it. Above my hamper is the frame we used as the wedding guestbook.




Beyond this door is our bathroom.



My mom painted that picture. She's embarrassed. I love it.



Dan's side:



Toilet and closet:


My side:



The second door on the left is the guest bathroom. 


I hate this room. I would gut it if we had the money. I could have made the towels look pretty, but I think it adds to the hatred.



At the end of the hall is Dan's man cave.





Packers stock. His prized possession:


That ends the tour. Maybe I'll do one of the outside of the house: porch, backyard, greenway where our pool is. I'll probably wait until spring for better pictures.