2 Months old!!!

I have a very talkative 2 month old and I am loving her expressiveness! She loves to kick, smile and talk. Olivia is such a doll baby, or my Babydoll as I affectionately call her. I can't believe two months have passed already......wow....time sure flies when you're having fun!
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Crocodile tears

No one ever believes me when I tell them the fight Olivia puts up to avoid sleep. She has been affectionately tagged: "The Supreme Sleep Fighter" and "Sleep Ninja" because she will fight until the end......for hours....literally!

This picture was taken after she's been fighting sleep for approximately 3.5 hrs in the form of crying and fussing. Can you just imagine how much fun I had?????????
**deep, long, exasperated sigh**
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The Balance

Tomorrow I'm due to report back to work from maternity leave. No, I'm not ready. No, I don't want to go back to work, especially not that work. Given that my daughter has a head cold and now G is suffering from similar and worse symptoms, I seriously doubt that I'll make it to that dreaded (albeit necessary) place of employment. My plans were to have won either the Power Ball or Mega Millions lotteries by now so that the thought of returning to work would not have even formed in my brain. Alas, I have not yet won, but I'm not giving up!

G's Mama (otherwise known as Granny Ma) will be caring for the little one once I officially return to the workforce (unless of course I win the lottery or come into some other financial endowments which allow someone such freedoms...yet I digress...). It honestly does not seems natural to leave your child while you go and work. No, I haven't actually taken that action yet, but I anticipate that it will feel wrong...just WRONG! This day has certainly crept upon me. Yes, I knew it was coming but damn, so soon?

The other concern is clothes! I have a few pairs of slacks that I can still wear....barely. It's like my weight has shifted. The baby weight is gone (with no effort on my part)...the weight that remains is weight that I needed to lose even before becoming pregnant. So....I can't blame it on Olivia. I have ideals of making it to the gym, but that's so far fetched these days. If I didn't make it when I was childless, it's going to really take a concerted effort, a team effort even for me to get there now. Happily though, LA Fitness continues to debit my account monthly regardless to whether or not I ever step foot in one of their facilities again. I thought them taking $ out of my account would make me go during pregnancy, but it didn't. I just wanted to sleep and relax. And now guess what....all I want to do is sleep and relax! Ah yes, sleep.....I do have memories of what has become a phenomenon to me.

I'm all over the place in this post. Thoughts are rambling. Mentally attempting to prepare to depart from my child while also running a mental checklist of all that I need to get done today in order to comfortably leave her in her Grandmother's care tomorrow (if I go to work). I thought I'd be more ready for this, but I'm not. I'm sure Olivia will be just fine without me for a few hours, but I'm not so sure I'll be fine without her for 8 consecutive hours.

While I've miraculously managed to remain the only well one in the house, I feel sick at the thought of leaving my family tomorrow. This is just not right! I've got to find the home, life, work balance....and I guess it begins tomorrow.....**deep, long, exasperated sigh**

**Editors Note**
I have decided not to return to work until next Wednesday, June 2nd. I've bought (literally w/vacation days) myself another week so that I can care for my sick and shut-in.

Trying out some new fits, so please stay tuned!

When you hurt, I hurt

My sweet little girl has a head cold. She has been sneezing and snotting since yesterday and I think.....I know its more disturbing to me than it is to her. She's such the little trooper b/c she still manages to smile even though her nasal passages are congested. This is ripping my heart out I swear. I would have a million colds if she could avoid them all together. She's still so little and too new to be going through all this, but Olivia's such a big girl. She endures the bulb suctions that I must do each and every time that she sneezes. I am happy that the snot is clear which means that there is no infection, but I still feel so bad for my baby.

I'm not sure what I can give her since so many of the kids medicines have been recalled....so I'm going to go old-school with a remedy and put some Vicks vapor rub on the soles of her feet and cover them with socks. The Vicks is much to0 strong for her face, but her feet should be just fine. I hope this works so my baby girl can breathe easy. Her little face looks up at me with an expression that says, "I don't feel good mama....fix it." and I plan to do just that!

Mommy's Big Girl!

I'm such a proud Mommy! Olivia slept in her crib for the first time last night for a total of6 hrs!! She only woke up to eat and then back to sleep.....and..she didn't cry during her morning bath like she normally does. So since the goal is to fully transition her into her crib this week, we went out today to get a baby monitor.

This should save me from jumping up and dashing across the hall 1,200 times like I did last night. Its kinda weird not having her right next to my bed, but I know her being in her own room is ultimately best. She's only a few feet away anyhow. Tonight I'll have the monitor to reassure me......that is, after I've rigorously tested it first...LOL.

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Who's Training Who?

As the harsh reality of returning to work looms in the near future, I've renewed my commitment to get us in a daily routine. Because my Precious One is a lot fussy, it's been a huge challenge. I can admit that I don't like to hear her cry; what parent does right? Well I especially don't. It's very unnerving for me, specifically her top-of-the-charts shrills. She belts out like someone is trying to kill her. Little body, BIG voice!

Olivia psyched me out a couple days last week by sleeping nearly through the night. I hopefully thought that we had turned the corner on this up-all-night girl time she and I shared. Alas, not so. It appears it was all an illusion, that, or we've seriously regressed. From birth, Olivia would not really take a pacifier, which was ok with us b/c it was one less habit to have to later break. Well, in the last few days we've been relying more heavily on the paci b/c she's rooting a lot more and seems to get frustrated that she can't open her hand enough to get it into her mouth. She mostly keeps her fists clenched unless she's eating (and getting full) or asleep. I've tried to help her open her fists but by reflex they just close right back up. This frustrates her to no end. So we've been giving her the paci and it's been working.....until she pushes it out of her mouth and then gets mad b/c its no longer there and she wants it. Then we hop up and replace in her mouth and within 5-10 mins, repeat this cycle x 5 and I'd had enough. The last thing I want is her to have a dependence on the pacifier! We were only using it to help her self-soothe, but it doesn't appear to be working.

I have two books that are supposed to give great insights into how to soothe a fussy baby and get them to sleep through the night as a newborn. The Happiest Baby On The Block and Babywise came highly recommended by a number of parents on TheBump.com. It feels as though we've out phased THBOTB b/c Olivia won't stay in her swaddle. The shushing works sometimes and sometimes not. With that, I've moved on to Babywise. It's premise is that the feed/waketime/naptime cycles should be set by the parent and not the infant. Easier said than done, I know. What baby doesn't either fall asleep immediately after eating or want to do so? I thought I could push this philosophy off on Olivia today cold-turkey.....her response...ABSOLUTELY NOT! LOL

Last night was really rough. She was sound asleep in her Pack-N-Play crib in my bedroom while I was downstairs. The minute I walked into the room she started to stir and within 2 minutes was wide awake screaming! This, even after I did my best attempt to tip-toe in MY bedroom and get what I needed and leave. I picked her up and tried to soothe her by rocking her and patting her back. She went fast to sleep. As soon as I tried to put her back in her P-N-P crib her eyes popped open and she had a major meltdown! Rinse and Repeat x 7.....worn out! After several failed attempts I decided to try and slip her into her own crib in the nursery. EPIC FAIL!! Around 6am I threw up the white flag, left her asleep up on my shoulder and got into bed and propped myself up. Did I mention that I didn't get any sleep last night? Oh..ok, just checking.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day from me and my favorite girl!!!

1 Month Old!!!

I can't believe that my baby cakes is already a month old yesterday! We were out and about yesterday and finally got to break in her stroller. First, we visited her new baby cousin Ava at Northside Hospital. Olivia and Ava are nearly a month apart. Ava was born April 28th.

Next, we went to dinner at Copeland's. This was our first real outing with Olivia and she did really well. She basically slept the entire time.

Now we're taking a nap (hence yet another picture of Missy Pooh asleep. I assure you, she does have eyes and she occasionally shows them to us ;-p). I was laying here thinking that I needed to do a 1 month old post and put a pic up. I'm going to do a better job of catching her awake, but she's sooo adorable when she sleeps. I love this little girl soooo much.

My baby is a month and a day old.......man, time is flying!!
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