February 9, 2012

Olivia slept in her car seat for a little while last night, until I finally got up the courage to move her. I waited until it was close to time to nurse, so that if she woke up it wasn't a 'wasted' opportunity. Fortunately, she did not wake up. I put her in the pack 'n play and she continued to sleep. I turned on the Sleep Sheep, and I think it knocked me out too. Olivia woke up at normal intervals, ate, and then went right back to sleep; each time in the pack 'n play. No fussing. I was so glad. It meant I got a lot of sleep, too. We stayed in bed until ten when Olivia joined me for some cuddling, and we snuggled for about an hour.

It was incredibly warm today! 37 degrees...positive! I really wanted to get some work done outdoors - the driveway needs to be shoveled - but couldn't decide what to do with Olivia. I got some great suggestions from friends, but I was still a nervous Nelly. I didn't want to bring her outside, even though it seemed warm to me, to just sit in the car seat. Had our replacement video monitor been here, I probably would have settled her & let her sleep. Instead, I shoveled the deck & part of the backyard because I'm able to see her in her swing through the window. I even left the back door open a crack so that I could hear her if she cried.

After shoveling, I did a lot of chores inside. I discovered that Olivia likes the sound of the vacuum. She became drowsy while I was vacuuming and when I turned it off, she started to fuss. So, I left it on while I did some other chores. She really does like those white noises!

Since we'd had such a busy couple of days, and since she had seemed a little fussier than usual the past couple nights, we decided to stay in and have a quiet day. So other than chores, I didn't really do anything except focus on Olivia. We got a visit from Jessica Abel, who played & snuggled with Olivia and made her laugh. (One of these days I'll catch another laugh on video!) Jessica brought a very sweet St. Patrick's Day outfit for Olivia, with shamrocks leggings. Too cute! We also got a Pajama Gram today. Two pairs of footie pajamas, one for me & one for Olivia. There was no note, or packing slip so I was left to wonder who our mystery admirer was...until Adam fessed up. What a nice Valentine's Day present! We also got dinner from Tamara - thank you! So even though we stayed in, the adventures seemed to come to us today!

Olivia got dressed up for our Skype date with Daddy. She wore a dress that had been Kari's Valentine's Day dress, once upon a time. She looked very sweet. And, happily, the outfit lasted all the way through the date and through some facetime with Mimi...but not much longer. Apparently we are in the explosive diaper phase. That's okay. I put it to soak and it was time for us to start getting ready for bed anyway.

We moved upstairs to the nursery and nursed & rocked for a while (an hour plus) until it seemed like we were getting closer to real sleep. Then we moved to the bedroom. We only had to wait until around 11 o'clock until Olivia was ready for bed. By that time so was I and I didn't want to risk disturbing her by going downstairs to fetch the laptop. (Hence the lateness of this post.) A very restorative day for both of us!