Hellobee

Now that Olive is a little bit older and not hitting milestones as frequently as she did her first year of life, I’ll probably do monthly updates every 2 months. Poor second child — Charlie got a monthly update every month of his life until he was 3! But she’s used to not getting as much attention as a first child, and I think that’s a good thing in many ways because she’s so much more independent than Charlie.

We recently spent 11 straight days at home together over the holidays, and though we were going a little stir crazy since we were stuck indoors most of the time due to the cold, it was really the first time we had so much consecutive time together as a family. Though they’ve always gotten along well, I really feel like Charlie and Olive bonded, and they play together better than ever now.

We filled our Breeze Playard with balls and they had an absolute ball in there!

In my last monthly update, I mentioned that we finally night trained Olive at 13 months and it was ridiculously easy. She was sleeping 11-12 hour stretches at night then going back down for another hour or two after nursing during the first month, sleeping about 13 hours total at night. But her first stretch of sleep has slowly been creeping down to 9-10 hours. She’s been waking up between 4-5:30am, and then going back down until 7:30-8:30am after I nurse her so she’s still sleeping around 13 hours, but her first wake up time is earlier. I guess I’m so used to waking up in the middle of the night at this point that it really doesn’t faze me anymore.  Olive has always been a sleepier than average child, but I wonder how long she’ll sleep at night without the magic of nursing to get her back down, which is one of the big reasons I’m reluctant to wean. I hate waking up early!

Transitioning from 2 Naps to 1

Over Christmas break, Olive started fighting most of her naps. I think her routine was thrown off because she was home over the holidays, and since she was with me, she just wanted to nurse all day. So Mr. Bee took over putting her down for naps, and she started going down much better, but they weren’t perfect like they used to be when we could just plop her into her crib and she’d put herself to sleep.

I think Olive needed one nap some days, and two naps other days because sometimes she’d go down without a fuss and sometimes she’d roll around in her crib for 30 minutes before falling asleep. Even though I knew Olive wasn’t completely ready to transition to 1 nap, we’ve been trying it the past couple of days. Charlie transitioned to one nap at 15 1/2 months, but she’s always been a sleepier child than Charlie. Still she’s also been able to handle being overtired much better and usually doesn’t get cranky if we push her to stay awake. Today is day 4 of 1 nap and it’s been going pretty well. Being on one nap will make our lives significantly easier because she’ll finally be on a similar nap schedule to Charlie. I’m going to write a full post on how we transitioned both Charlie and Olive from 2 naps to 1 soon!

Schedule

Olive finally had a shift in her schedule after being on pretty much the same schedule from 10-14 months because she was able to stay awake a little bit longer in between naps. Of course if transitioning her to one nap is successful (it took Charlie weeks to adjust), then her schedule will be completely different soon.

8:00am – Wake up
11:00am – 12:30am Nap 1 (1 1/2 hour)
3:30pm – 4:30pm Nap 2 (1 hour)
7:30pm – Bedtime
Total Sleep: 15 Hours

They’re finally at a stage where they build together instead of Olive just knocking Charlie’s blocks down.

Breastfeeding

Olive is going to start daycare next month, so I really need to get her drinking milk. Up until now she’s only had breast milk. I’m just undecided about what type of milk to give her, and if I’m going to start mixing milk with breastmilk to get her used to the taste, I’m going to have to start pumping. My finicky little girl will only drink freshly pumped milk and refuses to drink any of my frozen milk since Christmas break when she didn’t have any frozen milk.

I’m still pumping once a day during the week because I want to day wean her and only nurse at night and in the morning, but I’m only getting a couple of ounces and I really want to quit soon. She’s still nursing 5 times a day on the weekends and I haven’t pushed her to cut back because she’s been eating so little lately. My mom wants me to wean her because she says it’s only going to get harder the older Olive gets, and I believe her. But Olive still feels like such a baby to me because she’s still crawling and she is my baby!

She loves the slide!

Eating

Olive used to be a good eater, but after being sick for a long time, she never went back to her good eating ways. She is eating so little lately… even less than when Charlie was at his pickiest!

Feeding the kids is my biggest source of stress right now. I cook an obscene amount of food daily because Olive isn’t eating well, and she eats better when food is freshly made. This girl knows what she likes and she doesn’t like leftovers! Even though we did everything completely different with Olive than we did with Charlie, she still ended up picky. We do baby led weaning, she feeds herself, we’re gluten-free, she doesn’t get sweets/snacks (I recently gave her a snack cup filled with some raisins for the first time and it blew her mind), she gets a huge variety of healthy proteins, vegetables, and fruit every day… maybe pickiniess really is hereditary. I really hope this is just a phase, even though it has been going on for the past two months.

Charlie is always trying to use Olive’s baby bathtub.

Milestones

In my 13 month update I said Olive could say 5 words – mama, dada, bye bye, uh oh, and wow.  She stopped saying bye bye and mama (tear), so that makes me wonder if she really ever knew them at all. With Charlie it was so clear when he learned a new word because he would use it nonstop and on command. Olive is a lot more stubborn and will never say a word if you ask her to. She does still say uh oh, wow and dada, and now she’s added daddy and hi, both of which she says all day long, so I’ll say that she has 4-5 words. By 15 months, 3-4 words is average (Charlie could say 7), so she’s right on track.

We never got around to teaching her how to sign, but Olive has always been a pretty great communicator. Lately her favorite thing to do is thrust her arm high up in the air while holding her hand open whenever she wants anything. She is such a persistent, determined little girl, and it’s always been clear when she likes, hates, wants or doesn’t want something.

Another thing Olive has become obsessed with lately is her lovey. Her lovey has been this burp cloth since she was 6 months old, and lately she holds onto it for dear life when she’s in her crib, especially when she’s fighting a nap. I really think a transitional object is important for babies because it does seem to provide them with a lot of comfort.

Charlie’s favorite toy at 15 months. Olive… not so much.

Daddy’s Little Girl

The biggest change in Olive’s little life is that she’s become such a Daddy’s girl! She says dada and daddy alllllll the time! When she hears his voice in another room she says, “Dada!” She stands at the top of the stairs calling for “Daddy! Daddy!” It didn’t really bother me when Charlie started showing a Daddy preference once Mr. Bee became his primary caregiver. But it does hurt a little that Olive is doing it because I still nurse that girl 5 times a day! I think it’s because Mr. Bee has been spending a lot of time with her lately… she’s definitely on Team Daddy!

To make up for it, Charlie is on Team Mama big time. I’ve been spending more one on one time with him, going to the playground and taking him to music class on the weekends since Olive is usually home in the mornings taking her nap. He gets mad when Mr. Bee gets him in the morning and asks for me instead. He tells me he loves me at least a dozen times a day. If I ask him a question, no matter what it is, the answer is usually, “Because I love you.” But he has always been an extremely affectionate little boy, and has been generous with the “I love yous” since he learned how to say them.

Maybe there really is something to this whole daddy’s little girl and mama’s boy!

A doorway jumperoo at our friends’ house. Olive loved it so much we’re considering getting her one. 

Olive is such a cautious baby — the complete opposite of Charlie. By this age Charlie was running, climbing, and making all kinds of mischief. Once he started standing at 8 months, I constantly had to be close by to catch him because he’d fall and hit his head multiple times a day. I remember how hard I thought that stage was because he got injured so often, and I had to follow him around all day long. He was so eager to stand then cruise then walk then run, he didn’t care about falling.

Olive is the complete opposite. She didn’t start standing until she was 11 months old, and belly crawled until she was 12 months old. She’s only fallen 3 times ever in her life (by accident) because she’s so cautious. When you hold her hands and try to get her to walk, she immediately curls her legs up and tries to crawl. We had a walker on wheels but she never used it so we gave it away. I highly doubt that she’ll be walking before 18 months, but it’s honestly made my life way easier because she’s not that mobile. Plus because she’s cautious, I don’t worry about her because I know she’s not going to be standing on the dining room table like Charlie did when he was her age. I know I would have been worried about milestones if she were my first child, but I’m actually glad that she’s taking her sweet time and letting me enjoy her babyhood just a little bit more. She is so independent, she can entertain herself for long stretches ever since she was a baby.

We just started a weekend music class with both Charlie and Olive yesterday, and she just crawled into the middle of the circle right away as if she owned the class. Though she’s a cautious girl, she’s not a shy one.

I love this baby girl so much even though she loves her daddy best right now. I can’t believe she’s starting daycare next month… I’m not ready! I’ve had a child home for 3 years, and it’ll be so weird for both of them to be gone all day. But Olive has an independent streak in her, much moreso than Charlie ever did, and I’m confident that she will be just fine. I know I won’t be though!