Eight Months

It seems like a week ago that I was writing her 7 month update, but apparently that is how motherhood goes, you blink and you have an 18 year old.  I feel like a name for month Eight would be the month of sickness.  After starting daycare, Olivia got a cold, which she seemed to fight well enough; then she got a stomach bug, which she so lovingly shared with the whole family.  The best part about this is that Marc and I actually took her to the doctors and got the okay that she was likely just teething, so she should get over the slight fever and spitting up in a few days. Well then we had some family over on 4th of July and our whole family got it.  Another fun side effect is that her sleep has been all over the place.  It was only at her 6 month appointment that we got the go ahead to let her sleep through the night, and she started working up to that and last month she had just gotten to sleeping through the night from about 8pm-6am.  Well that got all messed up, so we have spent the last 2-3 weeks up multiple times a night with her.  It is hard to practice "cry it out" when you know the baby is not feeling well; so we are optimistic she will get back to being a good sleeper!

Little did we know, this happy smiley baby was carrying a nasty stomach bug!

Let's talk physical therapy!  We have meet with her PT four times now and she is making strides, we have been really practicing on rolling over (she still is not doing either tummy to back or back to tummy); it is funny when we practice cause she will throw her arm back in protest; so she is actually choosing to not roll (even when she hates tummy time).  We have also been working on sitting up and she is doing well with this. We can get a good 5-10 seconds of her sitting unassisted and she is learning to push up on her hands when they are in front of her. So it is nice to see her making strides there.  The PT is optimistic that by 18 months she will be fully caught up, so we are hopeful for that!

Our sweet baby girl is growing out of her 6 month clothes rapidly and we are slowly moving her into 9 month clothes.  It seems that as soon as I get her other clothes put away in the attic, she has then outgrown the next size!  Mostly this month has been a moth of adjustment, figuring out schedules with both Marc and I back to work full time, managing a baby drop off/pick up, how to cook meals and get Olivia to bed at a reasonable time.  It is a juggle for sure!  I seriously do not know how people do it with 2, 3, 4 or more kids!  TELL ME YOUR SECRETS!

Milestones:
* Sat up unassisted for 3-5 seconds on her own--we are definitely working on the balance!
* She now grabs EVERYTHING and puts it right to her mouth, so we are keeping a close eye on her.
* We went back to visit her NICU nurse and I love this side by side of her on the day of discharge (on the right) and last month (on the left), my how she has grown.

 * She still loves, loves, loves being stood up on your lap

Seven Months

I know people say it all the time, that the time goes by so fast when you have a little one, but it is hard to believe.  I even struggle now to think about how tiny Ms. Olivia was at birth and now I definitely know when she is around cause she gets HEAVY!  We could not be happier with this child, she is an absolute doll to be around, always happy and smiling.  It does not take much to get a smile or little laugh from her and she is seriously the best!  When she cries, which is few and far between, we know it is because she is either hungry, tired, or has a poopy diaper.  She is a content baby, loves to play on her play-mat, loves to eat, loves to be on her changing table, loves to be outside for walks, loves bath time.  Other than occasionally when we put her in the car seat, there are very few times I can think of when she is upset. 

This week she started daycare, which I thought would be the hardest transition to date and it was for me, however, Olivia has transitioned like a champ.  She babbles and talks all the way there in the car, then easily moves from the car seat to a bouncer, play mat or tummy time and no fuss when Mom leaves.  She is equally happy at pick up!  Here is praying this keeps up!

This was a picture of her on the way to daycare, she loves to cuddle up with her blanket, and she looked like a marshmellow to me here!

Her preschool sends us a daily picture and this was from her first day there!

This picture was from her second day at daycare!  Reading already :)

She has always been a pretty good sleeper, but especially since starting daycare, she has been sleeping like a real champ, so they are really tiring her out!

We begin Physical Therapy with her this Friday after suggestions from both Early Intervention and from her NICU follow up appointment a few weeks back.  Nothing major, but they just want to make sure she has all the advantages to help her in catching up to her 'term baby' counterparts.  The life of a NICU child (and parents) does not end when the baby leaves the NICU as we have heard over and over again.  Olivia's eye appointment last week went well and we do not have to go back again for another year, so that is nice!  The only additional risk for her now with her eyes is that she is at a higher rate of having glasses before kindergarten, so overall nothing too major.  The girl keeps growing, she is getting close to busting out of her 6 month clothes, so we fully believe she will be in 9 month clothes before she is actually 9 months old!  At her last doctor's appointment which was two weeks ago, she was 14lbs, 9 oz; so we think she is most likely about 15.5 pounds now (as a point of reference, when I was 7 months, I was 18 lbs, 8 oz). And lastly, we got the go-ahead from the doctor to try her on solid foods over the next month or two, so that is exciting!

She likes to watch me clean her bottles!

Being a big girl in her upright stroller!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

 Some milestones from this month:
* Olivia rolled from her tummy to her back exactly two times about 10 days ago and has not yet replicated it, but we take it as a win
* Olivia has started making moves like she is trying to crawl, knowing her she will probably get the hang of that before she learns to turn over
* Olivia loves being held up on her feet and has super strong leg muscles.
* She has now moved to just the stroller on our walks and no more car seat attachment, she seems to like it so she can look out better.
* She celebrated her first Father's Day with Marc!

If you want to see how she compares to previous months, click here for 6 months, 5 months, 4 months. 3 months, 2 months and 1 month.

28 weeks, 4 days in/ 28 weeks, 4 days out!

Olivia spent 28 weeks and 4 days in my belly.  As of today, she has officially been outside as long as she was inside.  It is crazy to think about that knowing that we only found out we were expecting about a year ago! 

Olivia at 12 weeks, we did not even know if she was a girl or a boy yet!

I did weekly pictures and this was the last one we took cause at 28 weeks I was in the hospital already. 

The day I meet my beautiful baby girl face to face!

And this beautiful girl today!

What a whirlwind this last year has been!  We are so thankful that God gave us this beautiful blessing and has overseen her success so far! It is hard to believe that we have enjoyed this baby in our life in the outside world as long as I was pregnant with her for. 

6 month update

Interestingly enough exactly one year ago we found out we were going to be having a baby and now we have a 6.5 month old.  Crazy how that works out!  A lot has happened in the last month, a lot of firsts for Olivia and I cannot express again how great of a baby she is!  It is funny, the first month or two that she was home, it was hard.  Like real hard.  She was fussy often, hard to console, and I felt like I was failing as a mother.  Now she is a wonderful baby.  She is constantly looking and smiling at me.  It is crazy what just a few months can do!  We finally got the go ahead from the doctor to let her sleep through the night, so in the past week, she has been going to bed at 8pm and waking up anytime between 6:15-7:30!  Before that I was waking her up every night at 4am for a feeding but the doctor is so pleased with her weight gain that we no longer have to do that!  This is such a wonderful praise; however, I still get the fun task of waking up at 4am to pump for her!  

Let's get into the nitty gritty:

At her 6 month appointment, Olivia weighed in at 13 pounds, 12 ounces and is now in the 10th percentile on the growth chart and that is the growth chart for FULL TERM BABIES.  Her head circumference is in the 22nd percentiles for FULL TERM BABIES, and her height is 24 inches, which is the 4th percentile.  It is amazing to us that she is charting at age in all categories for full term babies.  The doctor told us first to catch up is head circumference, followed by weight then height, so she is tracking perfect.  He is very pleased with her growth and she is begging to look more like a term baby in terms of size.  She is now in 6 month clothes almost exclusively!  She is still a little behind in a few age appropriate milestones for her actual age (of 6 months), but is hitting perfect for her adjusted age (3.5 months), so we are hoping to get her on some Physical Therapy soon to help push her to begin catching up to her actual age.  We also go the go ahead from her doctor to start her on solid foods in about another month or so, he would like us to wait until she is closer to 7.5 months actual (5 months adjusted to try them), but something to look forward to!

A few firsts:

MY FIRST MOTHER'S DAY with a child:

We are getting lots of smiles and her dad and I can often do things to initiate laughing, which has been amazing to hear:

Olivia celebrated her first CINCO DE MAYO:

Olivia finally got to meet her cousins, Corbin, Holden, and Garrett (and we tie dyed shirts to mark the occasion):

Another first, Olivia's first road trip fell on her 6 month birthday exactly, so I remembered the sticker, but forgot her lamb so we did two 6 month pictures this month.  The first is from the beach and the second is when we got back home.  We went to Myrtle Beach for the weekend with my mom, and she is pretty well, she is overall such an easy going child, but she is like her mom that you can push off a meal for awhile but once she gets hungry, she is hungry NOW!  So we made a few stops on the car ride home cause our screaming daughter wanted to eat NOW.  

This picture is back home with her lamb for scale.

As a point of reference, here is her picture from last month compared to 6 month, look how much longer she is now!

Our little girl has also somehow figured out a way to turn herself a complete 90 degrees while she sleeps in her bassinet, seems like a move to the crib will be soonish.

Olivia also got to celebrate her first memorial day twice, once meeting her first baby friend, Madeline, and second with family!  Check out that festive dress (Sorry Olivia this is now your life, your momma loves dressing for a holiday or really any good occasion)!

And just this past week, as Olivia is now 6.5 months old, she took her first trip to Busch Gardens and got to ride her first train there!  

I know everything seems all bubbles and rainbows and there is a LOT to be thankful for, but as we are continually warned, Olivia is not out of the woods yet.  Her immune system is still compromised and that takes much longer to catch up, though it is not something easy to see.  In addition, we still have follow ups for her sight and hearing and next week brings a follow up with the NICU, they don't even check in until 6 months old, so we will hopefully get a bigger picture from them.  Our doctor, obviously, gave us the go ahead to get out of isolation and be out and about, but still warns about taking her around people who are or have been sick and still warns about hands on with other kids.  Adults tend to carry less germs than children.  So we are happy, but still cautious!  We did our first Sunday back at church this morning, but it will likely be weeks or months before she can stay in the nursery.  So we still feel like the NICU parent a lot when we think about things like that.  Even just the other day, a lady in this NICU group I am in posted a video of her holding her son for the first time since he was born.  I was feeding Olivia as she was falling to sleep so I was watching the video without sound and I could feel it all rush back.  The mother looked to the son, then instinctively looked up and without hearing the sound of the alarms or the beeps of the machine, I just knew what she was looking at.  She was looking up to her son's monitor to see why his stats were going low or heart rate going high.  And I very vividly remember those days.  Now my head is filled not with worry about her heart rate, but about when Olivia might catch her first cold?  What will that look like?  I read a story the other day about a former NICU baby who got a cold at 18 months and was hospitalized for it.  So yes, the fear is not over, but we move forward with hopeful caution and embrace all the firsts!  And am waiting patiently for her to roll over that first time...

5 month update

I thought about titling this blog post: 5 months--the real honeymoon period.  Because in the last few weeks our sweet baby girl has come into her own and with a better routine (notice I did not say schedule cause she is still super unpredictable), bubbly personality, better sleep habits and the ability to start communicating, it has made this whole mom thing a delight (most of the time).  We have made a few changes in the last month that has helped this too, but I think it is mostly due to Olivia becoming more independent, thus easier to put down for play time and more interactive as well.  Either that, or I am just finally nailing this whole mom thing--hahaha!

I did a comparison of her monthly pictures below, it is fun to see how much she has grown.  Obviously we do not have month 1 cause we were not able to bring her stuffed animal into the NICU, but its still amazing to see:

For other monthly updates, here is month four, three, two, and one.

Olivia is a girl of many faces and personality, in a matter of minutes, I captured the following 4 pictures: 

It makes me laugh, cause I feel like looking at those you could think it was at least 2 maybe 3 different babies, but nope it is all our sweet baby girl.  

A few milestones we met this month: 

* Began talking in coos

* While doing tummy time, she pushes up on her arms and holds her head up

* Started grabbing at things other than my finger

* Recognizes mommy and daddy with a smile usually

* Sucks on her thumb (or her whole fist as her mood allows)

* Tracks us with her eyes as we move

* Blows bubbles with her spit

* Moves her head to different sounds

* Started teaching simply sign language

* Slept for over 6/7 a few nights--this is only in the last week so I am not holding my breath

* Olivia is now supporting her head most of the time, so we have been doing some time in her "Sit me up"

We have also been enjoying the beautiful weather much much more with nightly walks and cute summery outfits!

Auntie Tiffany finally got down to meet her sweet niece and I think they are pretty smitten with each other!  She told me she is looking forward to more snuggles soon, Auntie Tiffie!

She continues to amaze us with her growth!  She still loooooves to eat and is now taking in about 28 ounces a day of breast milk.  She has now officially surpassed what I make in a day, luckily we have a deep freezer full from her time in the NICU when she was taking just milliliters, so we just thaw a bag or two a day.  (This of course gives me anxiety as I want to hopefully make it to a year on breast milk, but Marc assures me that once we starts eating solid foods, she wont need as much milk),  I definitely still struggle every time a bag leaves the freezer.  But I hope we will manage okay.  As with most NICU babies things work on adjusted time, so we wont know for another month if we can try solid foods at 6 months or if we will need to wait closer to 8 or 9 months for her.

One things is for sure, this Momma is in love with those chubby cheeks after starting so little!

We met with her early intervention case worker who suggested a few things we can work on with her.  Apparently Olivia is pretty rigid throughout her torso and prefers not to bend at the waist, so we are working on some stretching for the time being but may eventually need to look into PT/OT services (this is totally normal for preemies).  At her last Doctor's appointment, she weighed in at 12 lbs 3 oz and 24 inches long.  This officiailly puts her on the chart in all categories (head circumference, weight and height) for a full term baby.  She may only be in the lowest bracket but she is catching up and fast!  So we are pleased with that movement.  Also a milestone as she is now almost 10 pounds and 10 inches more than her birth weight/length.

Upcoming appointments:
* She will have another RSV shot the week of May 21st, followed by...
* Her 6 month shots on May 25th--pray for me as I hate taking her to the doctors twice in one week for shots--it breaks my heart but they said they would prefer to not do them all on the same day.