We had a success with the crib this weekend, so the pack-in-play has been put away for the time-being until we can make a trip down to see family sometime in the next month. She’s still a bear to get to sleep the first round at night, but she at least stayed in the crib once she was asleep. In fact, she slept sounder in her room, since Daddy’s snores and Mommy’s inability to keep still while sleeping weren’t keeping her up. It had the same effect on us as well. This is important, since I go back to work in two weeks. Yikes… two weeks!!! It’s hard to believe that we’re already reaching the end of the 12-week maternity leave. It goes by so quickly. She will start daycare at that point, which saddens me, but many people have to do this, so at least I’m not alone. I’ll be returning not to just a software engineering position, but a lead software engineer position with reports. In other words, I’ll be managing and turning into one of THEM…

Maurice was kind enough to pose for the camera with Olivia yesterday. These pictures are priceless I swear to god she’s a clone of him.

Olivia’s been recovering from the “trauma” of the shots the other day. Her eating habits are completely out of whack right now. She usually eats 5oz, plays 30 minutes, then passes out for a 30-60 minute nap. The past two days have been awkward, not bad, just weird. She’s just worn out and freaked out by the whole experience. Now she may eat 2oz and pass out or scream at me but refuse the bottle (gas most likely). It’s just not like her, so we’re waiting for this weekend to come before we try anything dramatic. She’ll be moving to her crib tomorrow night. I’m biting my nails over it, because I haven’t slept away from her since she was brought into this world. I’m a little nervous, especially with the inclined mattress. She tends to slide down around her pack-n-play at night a lot. I have to get up and move her back into a proper position at least two times every night. Send happy thoughts our way for this daring task we’re taking on this weekend… we’re going to need it! I don’t know how she’ll react to being in her room at night.

Lately though she’s been much happier (aside from the aftershock of the shots). She seems to have figured out how to turn on the bouncy chair toy bar after it’s automatically cut itself off after 10 minutes. If you rattle the hanging toys, it turns back on. I witnessed this not once, but twice today. It cut off while I was in the middle of crushing the hopes and dreams out of some Order players that stole my team’s flag when the thing cut off. Olivia grunted, then squeaked… then she proceeded to flail her arms and legs so furiously that the bouncy chair really did bounce quite a bit. She finally knocked one of the rattles and calmed down with a smirk on her face. I’ll be damned…

Picture: Maurice and Olivia watching Everyone Loves Raymond on the TV (she wouldn’t look away… woops!)

Olivia and I decided to take it easy today and not go out anywhere considering the ordeal she went through yesterday with shots and a little vomiting in the middle of the night (thanks rotavirus treatment!). She actually did sleep pretty well yesterday and last night. She went down at 10pm, slept til 1:45am, ate, vomited and passed out at 2:15am until 5:45am. Then she ate again and went down until 9am. I got about 9 hours of sleep all said and done, which made up for yesterday’s fiasco of a sleeping schedule. We’re also trying a new bottle type, because unfortunately the bottles we have use very small nipples and she’s taking almost an hour to eat in some instances. That’s a little long for someone so small, so we moved to another bottle just temporarily. Apparently the next size up nipple is too large for her, so the formula just spills out the edge of her mouth. She’s in between sizes, and that sucks. We’ll live.

She woke up quite happy this morning. We most likely have hand discovery coming soon. She’s been sucking her left hand hardcore for the past two days whenever she’s approaching hunger. She used to never do this. Instead, she’d just wake up from a nap and scream at us. The hand is fascinating, but it is also a lint trap since she usually keeps them clenched so tightly.

I have a few pictures to make up for yesterday. On a side note… my picture mail through the phone isn’t working anymore for some reason. I have been trying to send pictures for 2 days now

Poor Olivia… she got her two month old shots today. That’s four shots (two in each leg) and then the rotavirus mixture they literally shoved down her throat. I think I cried more than her. All in all though, it was a good checkup. She’s grown leaps and bounds since she was born. The doctor we saw today was very impressed with her growth. She’s in the 50th percentile for both weight and height now, instead of 75%, so she’s regulated.

Today’s Stats:

• 11 pounds, 10 ounces
• 22.5 inches long
• Able to be pulled up to a sitting position by holding onto her hands
• Able to hold head up for a minute without flopping around
• Can push against the ground with her feet and legs
• Produces enough gas to power a small nation (had to slip this one in there)

We were going to spread out the vaccinations a bit so she wouldn’t get slammed with so many at once, but honestly… I don’t think vaccinations cause Autism. There has to be something more sinister at work there. Additionally, I don’t believe I ever went to medical school and earned a degree in children’s medicine, so I don’t think I’m qualified to make a medical decision on what shots are good to give to my daughter. I’m letting the doctor’s decide. The best I can do is educate myself on all of the shots so I know what she’s getting stuck into her.

I’ll try to get more good pictures up this week, but after she peed herself around 6:30am and leaving me with only 5-6 hours of sleep, I’m running a little ragged today. I’m wondering why I can’t get a Starbuck’s put in next to my house… like right next to it, not down the street or something.

Olivia is two months old today, and as promised, I have some wonderful pictures of her! We have been so busy lately helping Maurice cope with odd work hours to get Warhammer launched, so we haven’t had much time to really post anything until today. She’s been having some good days and bad days lately. It comes and goes as it would for any human I suppose. On a good day, she sleeps a 5 or 6 hour stretch at night, but most of the time she gives us 4 hour stretches. It’s getting better, one day at a time. She’s smiling a lot more, cooing, and follows us with her eyes as we talk to her from different parts of the room. I love watching her face light up when Maurice gets home from work. As my father put it: “He’s the fun guy!” and not the person that makes her take naps or do tummy time. She’s becoming much more alert about her environment, so nap times have been turned into quiet times in the house. She can’t sleep well with the television on anymore, but seems to be able to withstand a little Warhammer background noise at least. We’re trying to put her to sleep sooner than usual. When she was 1 month old, she wouldn’t go to bed before midnight, but now she wants to go to bed sometime between 9 and 10pm. That’s reasonable. That’s when I head to bed anyway!

Things we learned in the second month:

1. Poop comes in all different colors… green is odd, but not alarming.
2. Acid reflux in infants sucks. Zantac doesn’t always work, but Prevacid is a miracle worker.
3. Bouncy chair goooooooooood… swing baaaaaaaaaaaaad (we don’t understand the switch in preferences).
4. Baby carriers are not fun to use when baby is pooping (especially when you’re in the middle of Wegman’s and her farts turn heads — not to mention the smell… my god, the smell).
5. Putting a warm, wet cloth over her belly while she’s in the bath stops her from screaming bloody murder when getting one.
6. On the other hand, now that she likes the bath, taking her out of it does make her scream bloody murder…
7. A rolled up towel under the knees stops small fries from sliding down inclined mattresses.
8. Sleep positioners are not the devil. Just don’t be an idiot and put your kid’s head face-down into it.

Here are the raw images from the composite above: