Taking back bedtime

For some strange reason Olivia has been all over the clock when it comes to bedtime. I remember when I would brag about her being a great sleeper. Just place her into the crib, put num-num’s next to her, say “night time for little girls”, and push the seahorse on. Four steps was all it took. Oh, how we miss those days.

One night she started standing up in bed right after you closed the door. We tried to stay in our room watching the monitor, hoping she would lay down, but no luck. Once the bunny (num-nums) was tossed overboard we had to step in.

The hot evening heat must be getting to her because forget 7:30 bedtime. It became 10:45, 10:00 or 9:00 if we’re lucky. Four nights, of 3 hour rocking sessions on the porch swing, while singing lullabies, did the trick. Once she fell into exhaustion you could sneak her up to bed. This lasted until she realized what fun sitting outside at night could be. Why go to sleep ever?

After our second weekend spent trying to get her to stay in bed, Dada decided to take charge.

He said, “we can’t let her win anymore”.

“Oh, my hero”.

So, the first night he spent 45 minutes in her room humming to her and keeping her lying down. I must say he did a very good job. I would’ve lost my patience after 15 minutes and just picked her up.

It’s amazing how manipulative a child can be at this age. They can already figure out how to get their way. Olivia would place her foot in between the bars and whine as if it was stuck so daddy could help her. She continued to do this multiple times to keep him right by her. Smart little cookie.

The second night took 25 minutes. Finally the third night took 10 minutes. Happy to say she is now understanding who the bosses are.

“She is not the boss of me”. We have to remember that.

Thank you Dada we now have evenings to ourselves again...for now.

Almost Walking

I’ve scanned through several baby books and they all say the same thing about developments. You should never compare your child to others because they all develop differently. I agree, but I need Olivia to start walking on her own, like yesterday.

We always knew Olivia would be a little behind. It’s important for us to remember she did not have free use of her arms till 5 months old. Crawling began a week after she turned one so obviously walking would take sometime.

We’ve been given some assistance from Baltimore county school district. After having Olivia evaluated she did qualify for home assistance. Since January a therapist comes to our house every two weeks. Giving us guidance on how to help her gain strength. I sometimes wonder what their job really is. They come over and tell me, “Oh, she’s getting there”.

I should say, “of course she’s getting there, what else is she going to do”. I love my child so much but spending my day bending over and holding her hand to walk is not easy.

She just hasn’t gained the confidence to take off on her own. Not bending her knees doesn’t help either. Then there is the game of throwing herself backwards without any fear. Falling on her butt would be progress. Falling back and hitting her head would just be dangerous.

There is also the problem with her feet rolling inward. Finally, our therapist is going to order foot insoles to help. This could mean better support when standing. Hopefully, we are able to see the results. I did ask two different pediatricians about her feet and both said, “don’t worry she’ll grow out of it”.

“Really, because my daughter is 18 months now and I don’t see that happening anytime soon, smart people”.

I’m normally pretty patient when it comes to Olivia. Anytime you spend all day with a child, being patient is a must. The stressful part for me is, I’m now 30 weeks pregnant. If our new baby girl arrives in 7 or 8 weeks I need O to get moving. Two children in diapers I can deal with...two children not walking is a deal breaker. They’re not twins.

Like I say everyday, “it’s a good thing she’s adorable”. Love her. I really wish, I could hold her in my arms forever.

Time for mama to make friends

It’s been almost a year that we’ve lived in MD and I’m failing at making friends. I lived in San Diego my entire life and always had friends. When I worked it was easy to meet one or two new people to connect with. I must admit, I wasn’t always a very good friend. I was terrible at calling and staying in touch. I would flake out on more plans than I followed through.

Lucky for me, I had/have true friends in CA. True friends are there for you no matter what. When you haven’t talked in awhile, no problem, you just pick up where you left off. Thinking about not having friends near me never crossed my mind.

Well here I’am a full-time stay at home mom trying to make sure my kid gets out of the house to see other kids. What about mommy getting out and seeing potential friends.

I did join a couple of mom groups through Meet-up.com. In an old posting I wrote about that experience. Not always so great. Honestly, I did meet one host who I connected with. So, now I just need to step up and put in some effort.

Making new girlfriends can be compared to dating. There is a list in your head of what your looking for in a potential relationship. When you click with that person you’ll know. Just because some woman gave birth to a child, or two, does not make her a new BESTIE.

Maybe my problem is, I REALLY miss my CA friends! Being able to follow them on Facebook doesn’t always help. I love seeing new photos and keeping up on their life. Following online can’t take the place of sharing a bottle of wine, looking cute when we go out, complaining about silly things, laughing out loud, and hearing their voices in person. Love you ladies.

Hemangioma update- Laser time

Our sweetie pie had her first pulse dye laser treatment two weeks ago. The procedure didn’t even phase her but made us a complete wreck. Isn’t that how it will always be? Parents are the ones who will stress about all the what if’s, while the child won’t even know what’s going on. I started stressing and crying about it three weeks before the appointment.

Having this treatment was a huge deal for us. It’s been something we’ve been waiting to do since she was diagnosed with the hemangioma. Her Propranonol was stopped in November and we had to wait six months before we could begin the laser treatment. The dermatologist told us he could take care of the whole area in 90 seconds.

Our thought was, “Really? Then do it now”. Over the past six months the hemangioma did start to regress on it’s own, but without laser, it would be years before it would significantly lighten.

When the appointment was scheduled, we asked a lot of questions. We wanted to know if this was the right procedure for her. We were hoping they would anesthetize her, thinking that it would keep her from being traumatized. But the associated risk was not worth it, considering the length of the procedure.

The doctor told us to order a special numbing cream, lidocaine, from Florida. It has a 12% strength vs 2% we’ve used in the past on her lip ulceration. We were instructed, by the doctor, to apply it 2hrs before the appointment. However, it came with a scary list of warnings and directions. Enough to make us think we shouldn’t be applying it ourselves.

Since Olivia was born we have faced a lot of frightening times. Perhaps the toughest part is not having people around you that are familiar with hemangiomas. Most people have never heard of it, can’t spell it or even pronounce it. Our only option is to completely trust our dermatologist, pray and have faith everything will be fine. I have to say, knowing we’ve made it through the toughest part, when she was younger, makes things bearable.

Very happy to say the procedure took less than two minutes. The anticipation, and expectation, of it being terrible, was far worse than the event. Our sweetie was wrapped up with arms at her side. Her favorite word to say is, “hi”, to everyone. Without fail she said it the entire time, only stopping when the nurse covered her eyes with gauze. Luckily, not being able to see was the only part that made her cry. The numbing cream worked so well she never felt a thing.

The moment the laser ended, the doctor handed her to us and with her bunny blanket, “num-num’s” in hand everything was fine. I was thinking the recovery could be rough, but I was wrong. Her face did have some bruising that lasted a week. There wasn’t any blistering or pain. I can see some lightening to the whole area and hopefully over time it will lighten up even more.

We are now scheduled to have our consultation with a plastic surgeon in August to discuss the scarring above her lip. Our next laser treatment will be in October. Hopefully two or three laser procedures should be enough.

Annoying mom comment

I have to say I really love when mom’s offer their opinion without being asked.

There was a new mom at our morning activity group who I thought could’ve been a possible friendly aquatiance until she made a comment to me while I was feeding Olivia her Gerber yogurt (Gerber’s doesn’t need to be refrigerated). Sure it’s not the best choice in a snack, but it keeps her full till we get home.

So, this sweet mom decides to chime in with her two cents. “Oh, you feed her Gerber yogurt?”

“Yes, I do when we are out, I have Yo Toddler yogurt at home.”

Her nice response, “I don’t buy Gerber because it has so much sugar”.

All I could say was, “OK”.

Really, who feels they need to say something as your child is eating it? I wanted to be rude and say, “great and I care because?” But I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. All I could do was place her name on my annoying mom list.

Unfortunately, my annoying mom list is getting longer all the time.