Since I'm too busy to start a baby book and this is the only place I keep vital stats, here are Olivia's measurements from her March 12th doctor visit and her May 12th doctor visit:
March:
Height - 25.75 inches
Weight - 13 lbs 13 oz
May:
Height - 27.25 inches (93rd percentile)
Weight - 15 lbs 4 oz (34th percentile)
So we still have a tall, thin girl. She's checking out healthy in every way.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Randomness
I have many things jumbling around in my head, and I'm going to put them in this blog today. Forgive the free flow of randomness coming from my brain.
Sunday was Mother's Day, of course, and my first time to celebrate as a Mom. As a gift, I asked my husband for one uninterrupted night of sleep. I don't really mind getting up with Olivia, but it does interrupt my sleep pattern, and I thought this would be a nice treat. He agreed to feed Olivia when she woke up on Saturday night so I could sleep through the night without getting up. Well, the little one must have heard my request and thought I was asking her to give Mommy this gift, because she slept straight through the night. 8:30 p.m. to 6:15 a.m. So Mommy and Daddy both got a treat, but I reserve the right to cash in on this idea again later.
Yesterday was Olivia's 6-month appointment, with FIVE shots. This is the third time she's had shots at the doctor, and it was by far the worst. Since she's more mobile, I had to hold her still. After the first shot went in, she just WAILED. It was the kind of surprise and shock that comes with a bee sting, only I was helping to inflict it on her...FIVE TIMES! I hate this. Her little tears were just streaming. When it was over, she was sobbing. I have never seen her sob. This was simply pain and surprise and the utter unfairness of it all thrown in together. I held her close for five minutes while she sobbed and intermittently looked me right in the eye and complained about her experience. Like a five-year-old would tell you about how she skinned her knee between sobs and tears, except without actual intelligible words. She calmed down after about five minutes and flashed a big smile to the doctor when he came in to examine her later. Thank God for short memories.
I've been thinking about Olivia's birthmom lately, with Mother's Day and Olivia's 6-month photos coming in soon. I've lost her...I think I mentioned that she moved back to the area and left a message at the agency where she first met us, saying that she had a new address and wanted to see Olivia. Well, I called that number, which turned out to be a local homeless shelter. I learned that she'd moved to another shelter. Then I tried that shelter a few times and now she's not there either. She wasn't in when I called, and now I don't know where she is. I guess I'll just have to mail photos to her mother (whose address I also have) and let her know that I am interested in contacting Sarah, but don't know where she is. I feel bad for her because obviously she's in a bad situation, and I wish there was something I could do to help her.
Well, my little one is up from her morning nap and wants to eat, so the randomness must end here.
Sunday was Mother's Day, of course, and my first time to celebrate as a Mom. As a gift, I asked my husband for one uninterrupted night of sleep. I don't really mind getting up with Olivia, but it does interrupt my sleep pattern, and I thought this would be a nice treat. He agreed to feed Olivia when she woke up on Saturday night so I could sleep through the night without getting up. Well, the little one must have heard my request and thought I was asking her to give Mommy this gift, because she slept straight through the night. 8:30 p.m. to 6:15 a.m. So Mommy and Daddy both got a treat, but I reserve the right to cash in on this idea again later.
Yesterday was Olivia's 6-month appointment, with FIVE shots. This is the third time she's had shots at the doctor, and it was by far the worst. Since she's more mobile, I had to hold her still. After the first shot went in, she just WAILED. It was the kind of surprise and shock that comes with a bee sting, only I was helping to inflict it on her...FIVE TIMES! I hate this. Her little tears were just streaming. When it was over, she was sobbing. I have never seen her sob. This was simply pain and surprise and the utter unfairness of it all thrown in together. I held her close for five minutes while she sobbed and intermittently looked me right in the eye and complained about her experience. Like a five-year-old would tell you about how she skinned her knee between sobs and tears, except without actual intelligible words. She calmed down after about five minutes and flashed a big smile to the doctor when he came in to examine her later. Thank God for short memories.
I've been thinking about Olivia's birthmom lately, with Mother's Day and Olivia's 6-month photos coming in soon. I've lost her...I think I mentioned that she moved back to the area and left a message at the agency where she first met us, saying that she had a new address and wanted to see Olivia. Well, I called that number, which turned out to be a local homeless shelter. I learned that she'd moved to another shelter. Then I tried that shelter a few times and now she's not there either. She wasn't in when I called, and now I don't know where she is. I guess I'll just have to mail photos to her mother (whose address I also have) and let her know that I am interested in contacting Sarah, but don't know where she is. I feel bad for her because obviously she's in a bad situation, and I wish there was something I could do to help her.
Well, my little one is up from her morning nap and wants to eat, so the randomness must end here.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Six Months (*Sniff!*)
My baby is six months old today. Here are some of the things she can do...
*Move around via rolling and a little bit of scooting.
*Sit up on her own...almost.
*Carry on a conversation with her plastic spoon.
*Wake up happy and play in bed for awhile before getting Mommy and Daddy up.
*Pull her hair out...she twirls the tiny bit of hair under her right ear and pulls at it. That will be a problem.
*She can go down for a nap without actually being asleep when she gets in the crib. She puts herself to sleep. Usually without crying.
*She can now scream like she means it. Not just the fussy baby cries, but an all-out, angry kind of scream. The kind you see in a temper tantrum. Oh boy.
We're off to the doctor for her six-month check-up (and shots). I'll leave you with a photo of the princess with her oh-so-elusive mommy on Mother's Day.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Transitions and changes
When we first brought Olivia home, everyone says "she'll get into a routine, and then just when you think you know what that routine is, she'll change it on you."
This has turned out to be mostly true. I use the term "transitioning" to describe any of these changes in behavior or routine. Seemed to want to eat more food less often...transitioning. Sleeping longer intervals at night...transitioning. Having more happy playtime and less fussy playtime during the day...transitioning.
Now, I fear, we are entering the first period of transitioning that I've truly been dreading...the regular two-nap-a-day schedule. I've heard many moms tell how their babies, at some point, began taking one regular morning nap and one regular afternoon nap. I thought to myself...not my baby. She insists on at least a short nap between every feeding cycle. After being awake two hours, she simply MUST lie down. She usually did this willingly and usually had at least one long nap a day (2 hours).
For the past week, Olivia has been more alert and playful and interested in everything, and I've noticed that, although she will easily go down for a nap when I determine that she's tired, she's not sleeping nearly as long. So far today, we've had two 40 minute naps. And now she's up again, complaining in her crib to be picked up. And it's not time to eat yet, but she will want to eat.
Transitioning? Or growth spurt? I'm sort of hoping for the latter because I'm not really ready to give up my nap time yet. That's when I get things done. And since I decided to pick TODAY to finally pull out all of her photos for the last six months and organize them into piles ready to be scrapbooked, I'm a little frazzled. Maybe I can get her to play in her exersaucer for awhile so I can clear all of this stuff off the coffee table. Ha! Fat chance of that happening.
In the meantime, we've started leaving soft rattles and other little toys in her crib so she can entertain herself when she wakes up in the morning. I don't know if she's playing with them, but she has been waking up happy. In the morning, at least.
This has turned out to be mostly true. I use the term "transitioning" to describe any of these changes in behavior or routine. Seemed to want to eat more food less often...transitioning. Sleeping longer intervals at night...transitioning. Having more happy playtime and less fussy playtime during the day...transitioning.
Now, I fear, we are entering the first period of transitioning that I've truly been dreading...the regular two-nap-a-day schedule. I've heard many moms tell how their babies, at some point, began taking one regular morning nap and one regular afternoon nap. I thought to myself...not my baby. She insists on at least a short nap between every feeding cycle. After being awake two hours, she simply MUST lie down. She usually did this willingly and usually had at least one long nap a day (2 hours).
For the past week, Olivia has been more alert and playful and interested in everything, and I've noticed that, although she will easily go down for a nap when I determine that she's tired, she's not sleeping nearly as long. So far today, we've had two 40 minute naps. And now she's up again, complaining in her crib to be picked up. And it's not time to eat yet, but she will want to eat.
Transitioning? Or growth spurt? I'm sort of hoping for the latter because I'm not really ready to give up my nap time yet. That's when I get things done. And since I decided to pick TODAY to finally pull out all of her photos for the last six months and organize them into piles ready to be scrapbooked, I'm a little frazzled. Maybe I can get her to play in her exersaucer for awhile so I can clear all of this stuff off the coffee table. Ha! Fat chance of that happening.
In the meantime, we've started leaving soft rattles and other little toys in her crib so she can entertain herself when she wakes up in the morning. I don't know if she's playing with them, but she has been waking up happy. In the morning, at least.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Almost 6 months old
Olivia had her 6-month photos yesterday, just a few days shy of 6-months old. Even with the snottiness (which is still in full force) she was quite cooperative. Unfortunately, she had a lot of watery eye shots and drooliness. More photos are on her photo blog, but here's one of her sweet shots from yesterday.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Road trip
Now that I'm finally finished with the adoption story, I return you to our regularly scheduled programming...
Last Wednesday, the three of us packed up the car to travel many, many hours North to visit my husband's 92-year-old Grandpa. It's a trip we have always enjoyed and try to do at least once a year. Grandpa is quite a character and gets around much better than most people in their 90s. We'd been planning this trip for awhile because we wanted to introduce Olivia to her great-grandpa.
Well, traveling long distances in a car with a baby pretty much beats the desire to travel right out of you. Olivia actually did pretty well, considering. We cut the drive in half because it's about 10 hours straight through and CAN YOU IMAGINE A BABY SITTING STILL AND HAPPILY FOR THAT LONG? Me neither. But she slept much of the time and could be entertained for quite a bit of the rest of the time in the car.
Nighttime sleep was another story. Spending hours and hours in the car threw her off her sleep pattern. Besides that, there was this pesky little problem of being stuck in the same room with our noisy baby, who kicks and talks to herself in order to get herself back to sleep. Needless to say, none of us slept very well or very much. Hats off to those of you who can stand to sleep in the same room as your baby, but it has just never worked for us. Olivia likes her quiet space, and so do we.
As you can imagine, several days in a car isn't all that fun for anyone, but she did OK. All in all, Olivia had a chance to meet her Great Grandpa, her Daddy's cousin, her Aunt J and a friend of Daddy's from college. Lucky for them, she was all smiles for most of our visiting time. Must be due to all the car napping she was doing.
Unfortunately, all the sleep disruption and hotels and excitement wore us down, and now Olivia and I both have a nasty cold. Ugh. And with 6-month portraits scheduled for Wednesday! I hope Her Snottiness can cooperate with the nice photographer-lady, despite her cold.
Last Wednesday, the three of us packed up the car to travel many, many hours North to visit my husband's 92-year-old Grandpa. It's a trip we have always enjoyed and try to do at least once a year. Grandpa is quite a character and gets around much better than most people in their 90s. We'd been planning this trip for awhile because we wanted to introduce Olivia to her great-grandpa.
Well, traveling long distances in a car with a baby pretty much beats the desire to travel right out of you. Olivia actually did pretty well, considering. We cut the drive in half because it's about 10 hours straight through and CAN YOU IMAGINE A BABY SITTING STILL AND HAPPILY FOR THAT LONG? Me neither. But she slept much of the time and could be entertained for quite a bit of the rest of the time in the car.
Nighttime sleep was another story. Spending hours and hours in the car threw her off her sleep pattern. Besides that, there was this pesky little problem of being stuck in the same room with our noisy baby, who kicks and talks to herself in order to get herself back to sleep. Needless to say, none of us slept very well or very much. Hats off to those of you who can stand to sleep in the same room as your baby, but it has just never worked for us. Olivia likes her quiet space, and so do we.
As you can imagine, several days in a car isn't all that fun for anyone, but she did OK. All in all, Olivia had a chance to meet her Great Grandpa, her Daddy's cousin, her Aunt J and a friend of Daddy's from college. Lucky for them, she was all smiles for most of our visiting time. Must be due to all the car napping she was doing.
Unfortunately, all the sleep disruption and hotels and excitement wore us down, and now Olivia and I both have a nasty cold. Ugh. And with 6-month portraits scheduled for Wednesday! I hope Her Snottiness can cooperate with the nice photographer-lady, despite her cold.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Adoption Story, Part Four
Olivia was born on November 12th, a Monday. The laws of the state where she was born required a 72-hour waiting period before the birthmother could sign papers relinquishing her parental rights, and she would also be required to do this in the presence of a judge, in court, after a period of questioning to be sure she knew what she was doing, etc. Because our birthmother had just endured surgery and required some recovery time before she could reasonably be expected to appear in court, her attorney scheduled our hearings for Friday, November 16th. Olivia would be required to remain in the care of the hospital until after this hearing, so we camped out in the hospital for the week.
Although I was a little disappointed with the wait, it really was a great week for us. Olivia was born in a Catholic hospital that had a wing of rooms they used for guests who wanted to stay to be near a patient. The rooms were in what was probably once a residence for nuns who ran the hospital. They were like little monastic cells, with a couple of twin beds, a sink and a little closet. There were communal bathrooms, showers, kitchen area and TV room, but as far as we could tell, we were the only ones staying there. So this little residence worked out nicely for us. The worst part about staying in this wing was that it was a good 15-mile hike (just a slight exaggeration) through the maze of hospital halls to get from our room to the baby nursery, but it was a small price to pay for staying in a cozy, on-site room for just $10.00 per night.
We spent much of our time in and out of the baby nursery. The nurses always let us take Olivia out of the nursery to an unoccupied maternity room, where we would feed her and rock her and change her and stare at her for long periods of time. We spent some time visiting Samantha as she recovered from surgery. Mostly, we just sat and enjoyed this new sensation of being parents of this amazing little baby.
On Thursday, Samantha was discharged at around noon, and shortly before that she shuffled (slowly, with much pain) down to the room where Olivia and I were staring at each other. She sat with us and held Olivia for awhile. Just before she left to go back to her room to change and pack her things, she held Olivia up and said, "Well, I sure am glad I got to meet you, little girl. I know you are going to have a great life and great parents. And I sure am happy about that." It made my heart break and leap at the same time.
On Friday at noon, we sat in the waiting area at the courthouse for our turn to do whatever was required of us to complete this process. Samantha was a little late and walking very slowly...still very sore from her surgery. But she managed to get into the courtroom. After about 20 minutes, she came back out with her attorney and said to us, "Take good care of that little girl." We assured her that we would.
Then it was our turn in the courtroom. We sat as an attorney read the papers we signed and kept asking questions like, "Is that correct?" to verify that we had understood what we signed. Then the judge said something like, "This court finds that this couple is well suited to be adoptive parents of this child, Infant Female LastName, and recommends that the child be released to their care and custody, pending finalization of adoption..." blah, blah, etc. Then he turned to us and congratulated us with a smile. My husband turned to me, hugged me and said, "Let's go to the hospital and get our baby." At which point I started to cry.
So, we went back to the hospital, dressed Olivia in her "leaving the hospital" clothes, strapped her into her carseat for the first time and waited for the attorney to bring the papers to the hospital so they could let us leave. While we were waiting, the nurses gave us bags and bags of goodies...several packages of infant diapers, cases of nursette bottles of prepared formula, a diaper bag with samples of this and that...they were so good to us. I'm sure this is built into the cost of her hospital care, but still.
Waiting to be released from the hospital.
The attorney finally came and we were escorted out of the hospital by the social worker. We all piled into the very packed car and headed out.
Just the first of many, many car trips.
I wish I could say that we were headed home to happiness and joy, but we were stuck in Olivia's state of birth (not our state) for another five days. For those who are not familiar with adoption law, there's this interstate compact thingie where the birth state's office of adoption affairs (or something) has to review the adoption paperwork, make sure everything was completed according to that state's law, and then forward the paperwork to our resident state's adoption affairs office, where they have to review to make sure their state laws were satisfied. We were informed that it was against the law for us to take this baby across state lines until this paperwork was approved by both states and we received permission to go home. After spending five nights in hotels with a newborn, I don't think the internet should have to hear what I think of this law.
In retrospect, those five hotel days weren't the hell I thought they were at the time. The hotels we had were nice. We got to visit some very generous friends. We got to spend more time staring at our beautiful baby before the onslaught of visiting family members began. But at the time, I was crippled by the incredible lack of sleep, which fed my insecurities about my ability to care for this tiny human, and we were also anxious about the timing of the paperwork. Since Olivia was released on a Friday, the paperwork processing didn't start until the following Monday. And if it wasn't finished by the end of Wednesday, we knew that we would be camping out for at least another four days because of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Please take me home so we can find some clothes that actually fit!
Thanks be to God, we got a call from our lawyer on Wednesday afternoon, November 21st (my birthday), saying that the paperwork had been approved and we could come home. This was just about the best birthday news I could have received at the time. We arrived home, at our house, around 9:00 p.m. that night. We were welcomed by a few family members, including my parents, who volunteered to take the tiny sleepy baby home with them so her physically and emotionally exhausted parents could get some sleep. We were too tired to refuse.
The next few days were a blur of Thanksgiving celebrations, and it was a lot of stress (to be honest) with a little tiny baby who was overstimulated, but we were so elated to be home that we didn't care.
Finally home! Take me out of this carseat already!
Although I was a little disappointed with the wait, it really was a great week for us. Olivia was born in a Catholic hospital that had a wing of rooms they used for guests who wanted to stay to be near a patient. The rooms were in what was probably once a residence for nuns who ran the hospital. They were like little monastic cells, with a couple of twin beds, a sink and a little closet. There were communal bathrooms, showers, kitchen area and TV room, but as far as we could tell, we were the only ones staying there. So this little residence worked out nicely for us. The worst part about staying in this wing was that it was a good 15-mile hike (just a slight exaggeration) through the maze of hospital halls to get from our room to the baby nursery, but it was a small price to pay for staying in a cozy, on-site room for just $10.00 per night.
We spent much of our time in and out of the baby nursery. The nurses always let us take Olivia out of the nursery to an unoccupied maternity room, where we would feed her and rock her and change her and stare at her for long periods of time. We spent some time visiting Samantha as she recovered from surgery. Mostly, we just sat and enjoyed this new sensation of being parents of this amazing little baby.
On Thursday, Samantha was discharged at around noon, and shortly before that she shuffled (slowly, with much pain) down to the room where Olivia and I were staring at each other. She sat with us and held Olivia for awhile. Just before she left to go back to her room to change and pack her things, she held Olivia up and said, "Well, I sure am glad I got to meet you, little girl. I know you are going to have a great life and great parents. And I sure am happy about that." It made my heart break and leap at the same time.
On Friday at noon, we sat in the waiting area at the courthouse for our turn to do whatever was required of us to complete this process. Samantha was a little late and walking very slowly...still very sore from her surgery. But she managed to get into the courtroom. After about 20 minutes, she came back out with her attorney and said to us, "Take good care of that little girl." We assured her that we would.
Then it was our turn in the courtroom. We sat as an attorney read the papers we signed and kept asking questions like, "Is that correct?" to verify that we had understood what we signed. Then the judge said something like, "This court finds that this couple is well suited to be adoptive parents of this child, Infant Female LastName, and recommends that the child be released to their care and custody, pending finalization of adoption..." blah, blah, etc. Then he turned to us and congratulated us with a smile. My husband turned to me, hugged me and said, "Let's go to the hospital and get our baby." At which point I started to cry.
So, we went back to the hospital, dressed Olivia in her "leaving the hospital" clothes, strapped her into her carseat for the first time and waited for the attorney to bring the papers to the hospital so they could let us leave. While we were waiting, the nurses gave us bags and bags of goodies...several packages of infant diapers, cases of nursette bottles of prepared formula, a diaper bag with samples of this and that...they were so good to us. I'm sure this is built into the cost of her hospital care, but still.
Waiting to be released from the hospital.
The attorney finally came and we were escorted out of the hospital by the social worker. We all piled into the very packed car and headed out.
Just the first of many, many car trips.
I wish I could say that we were headed home to happiness and joy, but we were stuck in Olivia's state of birth (not our state) for another five days. For those who are not familiar with adoption law, there's this interstate compact thingie where the birth state's office of adoption affairs (or something) has to review the adoption paperwork, make sure everything was completed according to that state's law, and then forward the paperwork to our resident state's adoption affairs office, where they have to review to make sure their state laws were satisfied. We were informed that it was against the law for us to take this baby across state lines until this paperwork was approved by both states and we received permission to go home. After spending five nights in hotels with a newborn, I don't think the internet should have to hear what I think of this law.
In retrospect, those five hotel days weren't the hell I thought they were at the time. The hotels we had were nice. We got to visit some very generous friends. We got to spend more time staring at our beautiful baby before the onslaught of visiting family members began. But at the time, I was crippled by the incredible lack of sleep, which fed my insecurities about my ability to care for this tiny human, and we were also anxious about the timing of the paperwork. Since Olivia was released on a Friday, the paperwork processing didn't start until the following Monday. And if it wasn't finished by the end of Wednesday, we knew that we would be camping out for at least another four days because of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Please take me home so we can find some clothes that actually fit!
Thanks be to God, we got a call from our lawyer on Wednesday afternoon, November 21st (my birthday), saying that the paperwork had been approved and we could come home. This was just about the best birthday news I could have received at the time. We arrived home, at our house, around 9:00 p.m. that night. We were welcomed by a few family members, including my parents, who volunteered to take the tiny sleepy baby home with them so her physically and emotionally exhausted parents could get some sleep. We were too tired to refuse.
The next few days were a blur of Thanksgiving celebrations, and it was a lot of stress (to be honest) with a little tiny baby who was overstimulated, but we were so elated to be home that we didn't care.
Finally home! Take me out of this carseat already!
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