Slivers of sanity!

While Olivia continues to grow and explore her vocal chords and expand her lung capacity I often find myself locked in a closet with my lap top watching these videos as reassurance that truly, there is a reason I did this.

O's 2 minute workout:




Livie's Happy and She Knows It!





Happy Milk Coma

the Witching Hour

Help. HELP! I am reaching out to ask for your advice. I was in denial that my little bean was one of the poor unlucky babies to suffer from this very common (I'm told) trait of - yes people - unconsolable uncontrolable crying. I am here to tell you that it is horrible. It is heartwrenching. It is a wonder I'm not a full on drug addict already!!! Every night for the past 5 days on or around 5pm sharp, Livie kicks in to full on crying episodes that last until 8:30 pretty much on the nose. Some call it Witching Hour, (I'm too tired to explain what this is so just google it if you can't figure it out) others call is Colic. I don't care who calls it what I need some solutions! And no, throwing her out the window does not qualify.

Anyone? I'm exhausted over here.

PS She is sleeping right now and so cute. SO SO SO Cute. Must remember this tomorrow at 5.

6 week hump

So everyone kept telling me "don't worry, the first 6 weeks with a newborn is the hardest", "once you hit the 6 week mark you're in the clear". I'm here to tell you this is yet another lie that people tell you when you have had a baby. Whoever chose this 6 weeks benchmark as a guideline for being in the so-called clear is a) not a Mother, b) someone who is trying to talk someone else into becomming a mother c) a liar d) has mommmy-amnesia. These are the people who have already been through the newborn stage and have forgotten all the shit you actually go through.

Today, Olivia is 7 weeks old! I have been trying to write this post since last Sunday when she turned 6 weeks old! But, because the 6 week hump is a lie, I've been unable to complete it til now. Right now my prcious little princess is taking her third nap of the day. Oh, wait, no, no she is not. She is now grunting which means she is waking up for the 3 pm feeding. I'll make this quick then. Let's take a look at what we've discovered over the past 7 weeks together with Olivia.

Sleep. Olivia is a great sleeper. All she needs is a swaddle, soother and a little white noise and mostly, she's down for the count. I'm lucky that so far, she doesn't freak out when I leave the room (sorry Bella, you're guilty of this one!). Olivia has recently started to skip a feeding at night, so she sleeps from 10-2am, then up again at 5, then again at 9. Party. The middle of the night feeds are a killer. She screams her face off for about 20 minutes and refuses to latch. It's really not fun for anyone. But we're managing!

Smiles. Olivia is a great smiler. She's been smiling for weeks now as per my last post, but now she reallly puts on a show for me and Dad, and anyone else who says the word SMILE to her and looks right into her eyes while saying so. This, in itslef, is enough to melt anyone's heart. Her big blue eyes and big smile makes you completely forget what she's like when she's screaming bloody murder. This leads me to my next point.

Crying. Olivia, bless her, has found her cry. I really thought in the early weeks I'd lucked out and had created a little person who would just coo and whine when she wanted something. Not so. Seems as though Liv has her Mother's lungs and as of late, she has located the perfect pitch to drive me to insanity - and she now excercises it on a regular basis. Olivia, as perfect as she is, likes to cry. On the flip side, she really does have a beautiful voice. A singer in the making perhaps?

Tears. Oh my, this was a hard one to swallow the first time I witnessed it. Olivia has tear ducts and they work. The other day she cried and tears popped out of her perfect little eyelids. I just stared at her and cried right back. I've been told that when I was a baby I had tears that could pop out of my eyes and fly across the room. She clearly gets this from me too.

Witching Hour. I've heard about it. I thought it was a crock of shit. It's not. At 5pm sharp for exaclty 2 hours, Olivia screams, cries, wiggles, shrieks, and sheds many tears. At 7pm it's over. It's freaky. It's horrible. It's just a phase. Right?

Hands. Olivia has found her hands! She is satrting to figure out that there is more to life then boob, although not much, and likes to suck on her fist. It is probably one of THE cutest things she does. That, and playtime on her favourite play mat. If you have a baby and you don't have the Tiny Love musical play mat go buy it. Olivia spends hours on her back batting and kicking at all the little colourful do-dads. Her favourite is the musical triangle that plays POP GOES THE WEEZLE and other tunes that are now permanently tatooed on my brain. So what, I say, it keeps her happy and quiet.

So this has taken me so long to write we are now mid-way through week 7 and barely surviving. Yes, yes, it is true, week 7 is worse then week 6. But because I was smart and got knocked up just after my BFF, she tells me week 8 is awesome. If she's lying I'll kill her.

Hey - you just smiled at me!

The other morning I was burping Olivia and wondered when she was going to start smiling. And no, I'm not talking about the gas-smile. I'm talking about the full-fledged reactionary smile. One that is brought on by recognized emotion. After the burping session was over I decided to have a little chat with O about smiles. Olivia, I said...can you SMILE for MOMMY? S-M-I-I-I-I-L-E! I squeeled in a soft high pitched voice. Olivia SMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILE! I did this about 10 times while staring into her eyes. She was in one of her super quiet alert states where you can literally see her taking everything in around her. She gets like this about 3 times a day now. It's pretty amazing to watch her. You can just tell she is soaking it all in. She looked up at me with her big blue eyes (i wonder if they'll change?) and gave me the biggest most purest smile i have ever seen. It's permanently tattooed on my brain. Hey! You just smiled at me! I tried it again figuring it was a fluke and she just took a shit in her pants or something. Olivia, SMIIIIIIIIILE!!!!! The books say this is when they start to smile but really and truly, can she hear me in there? Does she actually understand me? I looked at her and she looked at me and she smiled again. HOLY CRAP! This is crazy! Are we really communicating? Olivia, SMIIIILE! Another one. Three in a row! She gets it! She knows what I'm saying! Or she likes the sound of my voice. The books say they start to mimic facial expressions at this stage. I remember this and create an O with my mouth and stick my tongue out at her. Slowly. Then I wait for her reaction. She is looking right at me and makes an O with her mouth and sticks her tongue out at me. OH MY GOD!!! This is incredible!! This is truly incredible. I could sit here all day and do this. In fact I would have, but she soon got bored and started to cry MORE BOOB PLEASE MOM.

Wow. And she is only 5 1/2 weeks old. I'm going to be beside myself when she starts to talk.

weighing in

We went to the doctor's this morning for a weigh in to see what kind of growht progress we'd made over the last 2 weeks. Because Liv was 6.1 at birth, we just want to make sure she's gaining and eating and progressing and well...on track so they say. At 3 weeks she was just shy of 7 pounds. Today, at 5 weeks and 3 days, Olivia Jane is at a whopping 8 pounds! She gained over a pound in 2 weeks! This made me so happy I welled up with tears and clapped my hands at the doctors. HOLY CRAP I screamed out loud as we read the scale. She is 8 pounds? This explains why she is popping out of her sleepers. Although sad to say that Liv has grown out of her first round of newborn sleepers, I'm so pleased! Way to go kid -- this also explains why my breasts are ready to fall off! It's Ok, I forgive you!