funny nap

How Olivia fell asleep the other day! She was playing in her crib before her nap, and then I didn't hear her anymore. I looked on the monitor and she looked like she might be laying funny. She fell asleep sitting up with her head on her doll! Too funny. She stayed like that for probably 15 minutes or so before she layed down on her tummy and finished her nap. She is such a funny girl!

sleep

Just had to update that not only did she put herself to sleep last night (with no crying), she slept 12 hours straight too! Then she also put herself to sleep today for her nap this morning with absolutely no crying also! My little girl is growing up!

nap time fail

whoops!

lately

I have been busy lately, finally worked 3 in a row! Unfortunately I have only 2 days off before going back for 3 more... it has been getting really busy at work, which is good (and bad). Here are a couple pictures from when I got home Saturday morning. Olivia had just woken up so she looks different- more sleepy! She sleeps on her tummy now. Pretty much rolls over as soon as you lay her down. I too a couple pictures the other day of that.. I will have to dig those up. Anyway here she is eating breakfast with us. Such a nice day too!

And doing a little naked tummy time. She is finally really enjoying being on her tummy and can bee there for long persiods of time. I put her on a bunch of towels and let her air out her lady parts. She had been getting a bit of diaper rash and now it seems to come and go. I think this helps a lot. I took some really cute pictures but I don't think I need the internet seeing her buns!

Anyway she is doing great. John is doing great at being with her in the evenings too! She usually goes to bed between 7 and 8pm and sleeps at least 6 hours. Tonight she slept for 8 but I can't go back to sleep so here I am... anyway I think she is getting hungry at night (since she is eating) and we are going to try out rice cereal tonight to see if it makes any difference. The pedi suggested 5 months but I think she is ready. She is very interested in our food now!

little sleeper

Olivia has been consistently sleeping really well now! I know there will still be difficult days ahead but it is so nice to have her go down for the night and know she should be ok for the majority of the night! Two nights ago she slept 11 hours in a row! I worked last night and she slept 9 hours in a row. She goes to bed fairly early though so that meant she was up to eat at 4 am! Thats ok though because John said she was back in bed around 5 and slept until 730. She needs to sleep at night now to make up for her lack of napping! She now naps for about 30 minutes at a time. Usually 3 to 4 times a day. Makes it hard for me to get anything done, but as long as she sleeps at night that is just fine! She usually ends up laughing and talking in her crib which is so cute. Anyway, tomorrow is Valentines day and I will be sure to post some more special pictures!

She did great!

I am so glad I started Olivia getting used to putting herself to sleep during naptime yesterday because she did great putting herself to sleep for bed! She maybe stayed awake for 10 minutes before falling asleep. She also is de-swaddled! We did it all in one day and she seems to enjoy her space. She slept about 4hours then woke up wanting her paci. She never ate all night, just wanted the paci replaced a few times and turned her head and went right back to sleep after it was replaced. I watched how much she ate yesterday to make sure she would not need to eat during the night. In the past we would've just picked her up and fed her- which I'm sure she would've done last night too- but the paci seemed to be all she needed!

For her 1st nap today she literally turned her head and fell right asleep as soon as I laid her down. AMAZING. Her naps aren't as long as I would like them still, but I am hopeful she stretches them out! They are between 30-40 minutes. She ends up needing about 4 a day when they are this short. Anyway she is down now for her 2nd nap, I hope it lasts a little while!

wish us luck

After a night where John was up almost every hour with Olivia last night, we are going to have to start helping her learn how to put her self to sleep/self soothe. She has never been a great sleeper but was finally doing better- only up once maybe twice a night, which was totally fine with us. Anyway she has been really bad this last week and doing equally bad at napping. I am thinking it is time to de-swaddle her too so she can have her hands if she wakes up and needs something.

Many people have recommended a book by Ferber as working for them. I am going to start with naps today and tonight is the big night. I think it is going to be a loooooong night. It is my turn to take care of her too since John so nicely let me sleep from 8 pm until I got up around 430am (He got to go to bed and sleep for 2.5 more hours at least and he said it helped a lot)

A few minutes ago she started rubbing her eyes and telling me she was sleepy. I put her in a sleep sack (like a blanket you wear) and turned on her sound machine with her binky. She fussed and cried for maybe a couple minutes, then I came in, gave her the paci that fell out and rubbed her cheek and tummy. She was still awake when I walked out but quiet- and she is now asleep! That is TOTALLY amazing. I'm not sure how long she will sleep for but that has never happened so I hope we are off to a good start! She just needs to associate her crib with sleeping, and not being rocked to sleep. I've read that they wake up and it is scary for them since they somehow went from being rocked in your arms and wake up in a different spot. Anyway, like I said wish us luck! I hope it goes well! :)

4 month check-up

Olivia had her 4 month check-up yesterday morning. She did so good and barely cried after her shots like a big girl! Her official weight is 14lb 3 oz (63%) 25 inches long (77%- where did this come from?! ha ha) and head 16 1/4 inches (59%) So I guess she is pretty proportionate!

He suggested that we wait on rice cereal until 5 months and start on little bits of solids at about 6 months. Sounds good to me! He also suggested that if she would let us, that we try the de-swaddling process since when she starts teething it may be a pain. So far last night and today she has done pretty good with one arm out. I also bought a book on sleep training her, since I think she can probably handle it a little at 4 months old. I haven't read the whole thing, but he suggests kind of doing a modified cry it out technique where you go in after 3 minutes, then soothe if crying, then comfort for 2 minutes, then don't go back in for 5 minutes if still crying.. etc. I also have to work on getting her to fall asleep on her own and not being rocked to sleep. That will be HUGE I think. SO far today though she woke up twice from her nap but I didn't pick her up, only replaced her binky and patted her tummy and rubbed her cheek. She really responded well to that and fell right back to sleep. Maybe she will start taking some better naps soon by working on this with her! I wouldn't mind rocking her to sleep every time, but I think this has crated a bad habit since she will almost never nap in her carseat now if we are out running errands and has a ginormous meltdown which is no fun for anyone! I wish she was one of those easy going babys that you could take anywhere and get errands done. Unfortunately the world sort of revolves around her napping schedule at this point which can be difficult!

Anyway that was what we have going on lately. Oh and the dr mentioned that her head is starting to get slightly flatter on the right side so we have to work on playing with her more on her left. So far we just put her on her activity mat so she looks at her monkey on the left and we put her facing the other direction when we change her now too, to help. Unfortunately I can't make her face a certain direction when she is sleeping (I try and she turns) and the girl LOVES to turn her head to the right!

working girl

So I ended up working Wednesday night after first getting a mandatory, then not... then I get there and I am only working 6 hours. woo-hoo! I wasn't going to shoot that option down. 6 hours is like a freaking walk in the park. I have never worked a 6 and it is seriously like not working at all. SO easy- flies by. So my first night back was great. It took a while to remember all the little things we do on nights... but hopefully I remembered them and charted decent. I got home a little before 2 am where John greeted me at the door and we had english muffins. :) I guess Olivia woke up sometime between 2 and 7 but John didn't wake me- I woke up to her babbling in her crib though and I don't think she even noticed I was gone that night. :)

Thanks to dad and Sandy I got a little more of a nap in later yesterday so I felt pretty good after that! Olivia went to sleep at 6pm because she was so crabby and never woke up again until midnight. It felt weird not having her up but she must've been exhausted so we just let her sleep. She is such a good girl! Hopefully we can get her bath in tonight before she conks out!

So proud

My big girl is sleeping in her crib tonight!! She took 3 naps in it yesterday. (one loooong 3 hour uninterrupted one!!) She did wake up earlier that usual (at about 1 am after going down at 8pm), but that is still GREAT! She only wakes up briefly to eat her bottle, which she does with her eyes closed, and goes back to bed easily. I never thought the day would come where she would sleep in the crib without waking back up as soon as we set her down (those were some long nights...) Anyway, now the problem is with me sleeping rather than O. Every time I get up now I either never go back to sleep (230 am wake up yesterday) or am up for hours (currently up at 0320 since 0100) John tries to get up with her now since I have such a hard time and she is such a breeze usually to feed now. Tonight he must not have heard her. She wasn't really crying much though. I laid in bed for an hour afterward and finally decided that it wasn't helping just laying there- I might as well look around on the computer! Anyway I just had to share that she is doing better and better in her room!

update

Sorry I haven't had any time to update on our Christmas or put any pictures up, but we are still trying to get Olivia back into a routine and are trying to put away everything/ clean up everything from our long trip. I think Olivia got used to being held during naps so unfortunately for me I cannot get anything done around the house. She is slowly getting better, so I think I will have to start enforcing a "no holding once she's asleep" rule- otherwise she will have to be held for the rest of her life! Also I feel like I started coming down with something last night- sore throat, congestion, etc. This makes it not easy to get anything done around the house either- between holding Olivia and not feeling well. Luckily John came home a little early and brought me some medicine so I am hoping it kicks in. Also, our big news....we got a new camera!! John took Olivia this afternoon to run a couple errands and came home with the camera we have been dreaming of for a while now. We were able to get it with Christmas money from my mom and John's grandparents! We ended up getting it at Costco. The battery is charging now so hopefully I will be able to try it out tomorrow! Well, I better go- Olivia is awake for the THIRD time since we laid her down for bed. This gets exhausting!! We can't hold her while she sleeps all day and night...

sleep

Olivia has been sleeping really good in her carseat the past few nights. I think she just likes to sleep more upright! Maybe she does have a bit of reflux that makes her grumpy when she lays down to sleep, I don't know! It is now 7 am and I have been up since 4. Not because of Olivia- she went right back to sleep by 430 agfter eating! I am just not sleeping that well these days once i get up with her. At least she is sleeping longer stretches so I am getting 5-6 hours at once now. I will probably try and take a little nap later! I love the weekends- John is home too so I can relax a little more!

getting bigger sleeping better

Olivia is growing up! I wish she would stay little forever but she can't. I am going through her clothes and boxing up most of her newborn stuff which doesn't fit anymore. :( So sad!! I'm hoping that they can be used by someone again someday, they are just so cute! They bring back a lot of memories from who gave them to me and being in the hospital with little Olivia. I remember sending John home to get little outfits with hand covers so she wouldn't scratch her face and now none of them fit. To show how much she is changing, look what she does all by herself on her mat now! She starts out straight up and down and turns herself until her feet touch her monkey machine!

Pretty new hair clip. Maybe she can wear it to the strawberry festival next year! (I will have to remember to request that weekend off from work!)

I think this is her favorite time of day- bath time. She has bath every night to prepare for bedtime. I hope someday she associates the two! She LOVES her baths.. still kicks, splashes and laughs the whole time!

Daddy playing with Olivia during her bath last night.

Someday daddy's hands won't look so big in comparison to Olivia!

This morning playing on the mat together. Don't mind me- no makeup, hair not done, etc. I guess this captures what our mornings are really like though!

Happy!

Last night Olivia slept GREAT. She slept 7 straight hours and then 4 more hours after eating! The trick was her carseat. I had a feeling she would sleep well in it since that is the only place she seems to take any decent naps. We swaddled her and put it in the crib with the monitor on her. I couldn't believe I got to sleep (getting up once in between) until 9 am!! I never sleep in that late so it felt really nice. She is currently napping in her carseat now. I know it may be hard to transition her to her sleeping in her crib, but I feel like we have tried absolutely everything to get her to sleep in there, and it just isn't happening. The girl has had a sleep positioner, warmed her crib, a lullaby white noise machine, projection on the ceiling, a soothe and glow lullaby seahorse, swaddle, pacifier , and a humidifier. We have held her, she has sleep in her swing, in her bassinet... We seriously tried everything. At almost 11 weeks old it is nice to have her sleep somewhere good and actually get some rest. Also maybe this means she will sleep ok on our trip to Seattle next week!

Olivia has been doing much better in her crib with our heating pad trick. I think she likes being warm and cozy, who can blame her? It has to be hard to adjust to being warm and curled up to laying down on a hard flat cold bed. This is her yesterday during her nap. I had to take a picture because she actually napped for a while unswaddled! That is pretty amazing for her.

After her nap we went and ran some errands. Here she is wearing a super cute flower hat that our neighbor knitted. It is just SO cute!! She has some room to grow in it, but that is nice because I don't like putting tight hats on her head.
Then last night we went out to dinner with my coworker, her husband and baby who is exactly one month older than Olivia. She is so cute- you can see her smile at Olivia! Olivia wasn't the greatest at dinner, but we managed without too much stress. It was also nice to get out since John and I very rarely go out to eat now. I think we only did for breakfast once? I can't remember....

And today Olivia is currently nappping on my shoulder snoring away. I had 2 failed attempts at laying her down for her nap so finally I decided I would hold her. I want her to get in a good nap so she sleeps ok tonight! Plus how long will I be able to cuddle with her before she becomes a "big girl" and won't want to! It feels good having the fire on next to our christmas tree lights glowing sitting on the couch with my laptop! If only John were here with us!

best $11 I ever spent

Well for some reason I have been up since 230 am and it is now almost 5 am. Luckily Olivia has not been up with me! She has been doing SO good tonight so far sleeping in her crib. I think it is due to the heating pad I bought yesterday to warm her crib up. John told me it wouldn't work and he then said last night that he is eating his words. It is really amazing laying her down and having her lay there peacefully instead of squirming and waking back up right away. We put the heating pad where she sleeps while she is nursing or for a few minutes before bedtime and then take it off right before we lay her down. I think it makes it feel warm and cozy and tricks her into thinking we are holding her still until she is in a deep sleep. She has also not needed her pacifier as much tonight. In fact when we laid her down 2 hours ago now we never put it in since she was sleeping so good and she hasn't woken up needing it! She did wake up needing it the time before around midnight, but it was too funny to watch. John went in and gave it to her since she was wide awake and crying probably 15-30 minutes after falling asleep. He put it in and she literally shut her eyes and turned her head back down and went right back to sleep! It really was like a magic switch. John saw it too in the dark and couldn't believe it! She never woke up again after that until she was hungry. She hasnt slept all night by any means but even though we are getting up every 3 hours or so it is making SUCH a huge difference that she lays down good in her crib right away. Also we started doing a nightly bath a couple nights ago and I am hoping she will associate her bath time with bedtime. So far it seems to be working out! She LOVES the bath more and more. We were laughing so hard last night because she kicks and splashes and smiles now the whole time. We were getting water everywhere from her splashing but that was ok, she was having fun!

photos I was going to post yesterday

Madeline holding Olivia on Thanksgiving

Matching cousins and aunt Julie

happy morning girl with crazy bed head

looking a little confused that same morning

Olivia was up A LOT last night. I would say every 1-2 hours all night long. It is dissapointing since she was starting to get better and better at sleeping at night. She seems like she has gotten worse and worse since this past weekend. John worked all night last night and didnt come home until almost 5 am so that didnt help the situation. He ended up going back to work at 8 am and home again around 1130 since I was so tired and Olivia decided she would not nap today!

pictures from today

Here are some pictures from today. This is the onesie John and I bought the day I found out I was pregnant. I put a bow in her hair so you can tell she is a girl- otherwise her outfit would make her look like a boy! Anyway Olivia had quite the night last night- she screamed/cried for over 4 hours. She was probably upset because she hadn't gone to the bathroom. John took her the last 1.5 hours of her fussiness and she finally went potty. After he said he gave her a bath and she was asleep by midnight. Then she slept until 7 am! Pretty unbelievable. I woke up at 53o and stared at her wondering when she would get up. She was sleepy all day today too, took along nap in her crib which was nice! Anyway so far she is happy tonight but I'm a little nervous she is going to get worked up again tonight!

before her outfit change- happy on her mat!