Olivia Dell: 7 Months

Height/Weight: Since going back to cereal and eating 3 "solids" a day, Olivia gained over 1 1/2 pounds in a month and now weighs 17 pounds! Good Ollie! In addition, I think she's going through a growth spurt which has been giving her a good appetite. With my rudimentary measuring, I'd also venture to say she's at 28 1/4 inches tall!

Feeding: LW was eating a little 2 ounce bottle at the end of the day, but we cut it out and dispersed that formula to her 4 big ones. So, now she's eating 4, 8 oz. bottles a day in addition to cereal in the morning, a fruit for lunch, and a veggie for dinner. She also started drinking water from a sippy cup, but only intermittently. I'm hoping to always keep her water in a cup and not in a bottle so the transition to sippy cup makes sense. We shall see.

Clothing:  Since it's been cooler at night, Olivia has proven that 6 month footy PJ's don't fit so well anymore! She's still wearing 6 month onesies but PJ's are getting too snug. Just yesterday, we bought 3 new fleece pajamas in 9 months! I also tried to put on several pairs of pants and leggings in 3-6 months and they are all too short! They fit in the waist, but are way too small for her long legs. Next pay period, I'm going to have to go winter and pants shopping for my Ollie.

Sleep: my child has decided her own schedule for bedtime and now insists on going to bed between 7 and 7:15. She fusses a few times and just lately has a hard time waiting past 3am to eat her morning bottle. This is why I think she's going through a growth spurt, because she shouldn't be that hungry (and I know she is because I can hear her stomach growl!). Once she eats it, she goes back to sleep and doesn't eat another one until 8:30am, no matter what time she wakes up. Huh. The last few nights she's also given us some grief by waking up and sobbing her heart out, but I think I have an impending tooth to blame for that one!

Milestones: Olivia's biggest milestone this month has been her first baby tooth trying to make it's way through! As of now, you can feel it but can't see too much. She's actually been a VERY good baby by teething standards and basically just gets overly fussy if it's bothering her. She has mastered sitting by herself, and can now go from sitting, leaning forward, to laying on her belly. She can scoot backwards on the floor, and can pull herself up to her knees and sometimes her feet if she's got a good angle on something, usually in her crib. She has figured out that hitting or kicking something makes a noise, and loves to kick the mirrored closet doors. She also can now hold her own bottle when lying down, which has been amazing!

Firsts: Olivia was busy this month and had a lot of first: first vacation to Palm Springs, first time to Morton's (my favorite steak house!), first time drinking out of a sippy cup, first tooth on the horizon, met her Great Aunt for the first time, went to the RSM Lake, and wore her first pair of jeans!

First vacation!

First sippy cup

Meeting Great Auntie!

Walked around RSM Lake

First time wearing jeans

First time at Morton's- horrible picture!

Tooth is almost through!

Vacationing with bebe

If you've kept up with my blog, you know our lives have changed quite a lot over the past six months. New baby, new jobs, new home, you get the drift. I have been dreaming of a family vacation ever since Olivia was born. I have the BEST memories of vacationing with my family growing up. We were so blessed to be able to vacation to all sorts of places in all sorts of ways: camping in San Diego, Yosemite, Oregon, San Luis Obispo, skiing in Whister, BC, cruises to the Bahamas and Mexico, and close trips to places like Palm Springs. Trust me, I know it was a blessing.

Now that I'm my very own adult with my very own baby, I realize the financial hardships vacationing can present. Not only can it be expensive, but it's time consuming to plan, pack, and execute, especially with a baby on your hip. Dave and I spent the last 12 years (I can't BELIEVE we've been together that long) going wherever we wanted: Europe, Bahamas for our honeymoon, San Francisco, Arizona, Mexico, and Costa Rica. Again, a huge blessing. We love being jet setters and will bring Olivia up traveling as much as we can. We already have a list going of our first big trips.

Because we are in the midst of just a few transitions, we decided to utilize the time off between Dave's two jobs to take a close vacation. I have to admit, I really wanted to go to Hawaii (one of the places we've actually never been together), but after our moving costs, etc., we didn't want to spend the extra dough. Plus, Dave was terrified to take a 6 month old on a plane. So, we used my father-in-laws time share connection and headed to Palm Springs this past week.

First off, I just want to give mad props to Marriott's Desert Spring Villa's. They MADE this vacation. We've stayed here before when we were young and careless, but having a baby and staying here was so much better. If you've ever stayed in a timeshare, you know it's set up more like a condo than a hotel room. Before kids, I thought that was cheesy: I am on vacation, I don't want/need a full kitchen, I'm going to eat out in the lap of luxury! Now, the thought of eating out all the time makes my stomach hurt and sets my nerves on edge. Taking a baby out to a restaurant all the time is a pain in the rear. Not to mention, I need a fridge for leftover baby food, a plug for a bottle warmer, sink for washing, etc.

This Marriott property is newly renovated, so not only is it beautiful, it has everything you need. The "basics" include full kitchen accessories like plates, cups, wineglasses, silverware, bake ware, pots & pans, full knife set, DISHWASHER, tea kettle, tupperware, toaster, oven/range, microwave, full size fridge, even dish soap and trash bags. The family room has a flat screen TV and Blu Ray player. And the best part of all is a washer and dryer! Even I don't have one of those yet since we moved! You pretty much only need to bring yourself, clothes and go grocery shopping once you're here. Although, if you were us, you'd also bring the Wii and a bunch of dorky, sci-fi Blu Rays ;)

Because our Villa had all the amenities of home, it really made our vacation relaxing. If we needed to do a load of laundry because Olivia spit up over everything, we could just do it. If we wanted to BBQ out by the pool instead of dragging a baby to Flemings, we did it. If we just wanted to sit out on the back patio with a beer and watch the golf course, done. I don't think I ever want to vacation another way again. At least not till LW's older.

This property also had some amazing pools. Since we vacationed after Labor Day, we nearly had the resort to ourselves. We went to the pool 6 days in a row, and also had access to the main JW Marriott amenities which we hit up on the last day. We took Ollie swimming, which she LOVED, and enjoyed Miller Lite's in the heat of the day.

Main Pool at the JW

We BBQ'd our fair share:

We gave Ollie quite a good first vacation, in my opinion ;)

 I really took the time to enjoy this time away with our little family. I didn't feel rushed and was truly sad when it came to a close. Most of the time I'm ready to go home, but I could easily have stayed another week. My Ollie has been a dream baby this entire time (even in the heat!) and I couldn't have asked for a better first vacation.

Olivia Dell: 6 months

 

Height/Weight: Olivia weighed 15 pounds, 6 ounces at her 6 month appointment. I thought she may be a wee bit heavier than that, because I weighed her about 2 weeks before the appointment and she was already 15 pounds. But our Doctor told us that since she's becoming more active now, she is burning more calories. So, back to rice cereal we go, since it boasts more calories and girlfriend needs them. I didn't pay enough attention to her height, but I think the nurse said she was 27 3/4 inches (I had food poisoning that day and it was a miracle I even made it to the appointment).

Feeding: LW is now eating regular helpings of solid foods daily. I tried to mimic what I would want to eat and give her fruits in the morning and vegetables at night. She LOVES vegetables and it's usually more of a battle to get her to eat the fruits. maybe they are too sweet? I've heard this is a good problem to have. She is still eating 4 bottles, at 7.5 ounces each, and I've started giving her sips of water which she seems to like.

Clothing:  Olivia has nearly outgrown all 0-3 month clothing fits quite well into 6 month, and is even growing out of some 3-6 month Gerber onesies and PJ's. I'm excited for this hot weather to be over so she can wear some cute winter clothes, especially because she doesn't fancy hot weather at all.

Sleep: the past few weeks Olivia has started waiting til 4-6am to eat, and her fussing has subsided to about 2x per night. She has even weaned herself from swaddling, although we still put her in the sleep sack. She's starting to outgrow it in length, however, so we'll either have to get the next size up or start wearing proper pajamas. Her napping is a little inconsistent, but if we don't have a crazy schedule, she takes at least 1 GOOD nap a day. Since she's been more active, she is getting tired earlier in the evening and it going down between 7:30-8:15. Sounds good, until she wakes up at 6:30 with 11 hours of sleep!

Milestones: Olivia is now a solid sitter and only wobbles or falls backward when she gets too distracted. If we hold her hands when she is standing, she knows how to take steps like she's walking, but I'm not ready for that just yet! She is starting to put consonants and vowels together (dadadada) but not all the time. she also knows how to fake cry to get our attention, and likes to grab EVERYTHING off the table if it's within arms reach.

Firsts: Sitting on her own, Dad feeding her for the first time, celebrating both mom and dad's birthday, and sitting in a shopping cart like a big girl are all some firsts. She also fell off the couch, which I don't have a picture of, nor am I proud of. She went to beach for the first time and also got sunburned too :( (Rough month for mom!)

Getting her first feeding from Dad

Sitting by herself

Celebrating Mom's birthday for the first time!

First time in a shopping cart

first "real" time at the beach

First sunburn :(

just a week

I'm not one to usually brood about and feel sorry for myself.  I see the cyclical nature of things and know that they can't stay bad forever, and I'm generally a positive person and laid back in many ways. Maybe I've also been blessed with God just giving me a little nonsense scattered throughout my life instead of all at once.  but I have to say after this last week, both Dave and I agreed that we were feeling attacked by some spiritual force.

for the past six weeks we've been preparing to move in one way or another, be it trying to find a new place to rent, rushing to get cashier's checks delivered, trying to make hiring movers work in our budget, trying to find a washer and dryer, and of course, my all time favorite activity: packing. I thought that having so much time would ease the burden of moving, because I hate it so much. But I was wrong. It turns out that having so much time just dragged out the process to the point where I was living and breathing packing, scouring Craig's List for boxes, and trying to pick through our belongings in constant search of things I could get packed and out of the way.

before we could even move, messes started to rain down.  the Friday before, I was driving to Dave's going away party when a rock bounced off a gardening truck, hit my windshield, and proceeded to leave a crack over a foot long in my stupidly expensive windshield. two days later, on Sunday, Olivia started developing a major diaper rash (and her first one ever) that caused her to buck and arch away from me anytime I tried to change her diaper. oh, and throw in a good case of diarrhea for good measure. it turns out the new diapers I tried were not conducive to her poor little behind.

finally, last Tuesday arrived and with the help of a friend who referred some very affordable movers, we moved! of course it was a horribly hot day. that night, we walked to a restaurant across the street to eat dinner because of course we had nothing to eat in our new house.  while getting ready for Olivia's 6 month appointment and my work meeting on Wednesday morning, I started to feel awful. before the day was over, I had spent half the day in the bathroom or leaning over bushes to expel whatever demon was inside of me from the new restaurant, which I will never be visiting again. We made it to Olivia's appointment, where the doctor proceeded to tell us that her head circumference was in the 90th percentile and he wanted to send us for a head ultrasound to make sure she didn't have any excess fluid surrounding her brain. I don't remember much of the appointment after that.

on Thursday, I asked Dave to move his car out of the garage so the windshield repair man could get inside. his car wouldn't start. so we had to call Triple A and buy a new battery.  then, I made it to CHOC Hospital where we had LW's head ultrasound. The tech told us "everything looked good," and while it isn't an official diagnosis, at least some of the weight for the past week lifted from my burdened shoulders. and on Friday we scurried around packing so we could finally get a move on and get to our much needed vacation (as if we could relax!?).

now that we've been here a few days (separate post to come, I promise), we have finally be able to start resting. we have no plans except to go swimming, watch movies, and give Olivia a good time.  there were a lot of things that happened this past week that could have derailed us from this point, but God is faithful.  I feel it in my bones that He is incapable of leaving us or unloving us. He has brought us to this place and will carry us through. I have to say I'm elated this week is behind us. We've been waiting for a long time to be in a new place and see where our life takes us. now we can start.

p.s., Happy 100th Post to me!