January 23, 2012

I was pleasantly surprised that Olivia slept soundly after I posted yesterday's blog. (I'm hoping it works the same magic tonight!) Woke up about every three hours, but only to the soft burblings of a baby starting to wake up - not the shrieking I had anticipated. Excellent!

We started the day with a daring maneuver, one that I feared might be a tactical error, but since Olivia was so agreeable I charged ahead with...a bath! Don't mistake this to mean we haven't been keeping clean. Olivia's been getting her sponge baths and her hair & face are washed daily (no more baby acne break-outs, knock on wood!). But this is her first, all-out, immersed in water, tub bath since her umbilical cord stump fell off. I know I've been mildly dreading it since the last bath gave her a conniption. She was enjoying some 'naked time' - who wants to always be in a diaper?! - and I suddenly got up the nerve.

It was a success! And by that I mean she didn't hate it. She didn't enjoy when her head was on the real plastic-y parts of the tub, but she didn't cry about being in the water. She even seemed to enjoy holding onto the washcloth when I was through with it. It didn't help me dry her off, though, to have her clinging to a sopping wet washcloth. So there were a few tears as I took it away and navigated the transition to a towel. (In revenge?) Olivia peed on me for the first time, but fortunately all she got was the towel.

Today we wore an outfit that had cherries all over the pants and ruffles on the bum. Although the outfit was a size 0-3months, the top was a little short and the bottoms were so long that they kept falling off of her rear. The result was we had a bare midriff most of the day. Scandalous!

We spent a lot of the day in the nursery. Olivia laid on the blanket that Pop made her and looked around the room. She snuggled with the 'lovie' that Nana gave her. And she watched me put away laundry. We nursed and rocked in the glider and afterwards she slept in her big crib for a bit. But not too long!

We moved into my bedroom, so that I could watch a show 'with' Kari and Olivia would only be calm in she was lounging on me. That was fine. She stayed calm when Franziska stopped by with dinner (a yummy lasagna!) and had fun swinging in her swing. After Olivia & I both ate we talked on the phone with Uncle Grant and Olivia chimed in with a discerning grunt every now and again.

Since then we've been nursing & rocking & bouncing & singing for about three hours. Olivia does not want to go to sleep tonight. After I had almost given up hope for any peace, she seemed content to lay in my lap and listen to George Winston and stare at the screen. But it couldn't last. I've finally set her down in the pack 'n play and am going to try to let her calm herself down. [*Didn't work - have now nursed another 40 minutes and am trying again.] I hope that the walls are as insulated as, at least up til now, I've assumed they are. I may owe the neighbors a coffee cake...or two. Wish us luck!