Hellobee

Happy Halloween! Olive was originally scheduled to be born via c-section one year ago today, but she had other plans and arrived early on October 5th instead. Being her mom this past year has been so amazing and incredibly fulfilling. I share such a special bond with Olive, perhaps because of breastfeeding, perhaps because she’s my youngest, and perhaps because she’s a girl. As a much more relaxed second-time parent, I was really able to enjoy every moment of Olive’s first year. I love my little girl so much!

We had a cake smash photoshoot in our apartment with the lovely Brooke from Brookelyn Photography, but alas Olive was feeling under the weather that day, hardly napped and didn’t crack a single smile or show any interest in the cake! Something always seems to go wrong before a photoshoot or big event when it comes to kids (Charlie was sick at his one year shoot and his first birthday party). Note to self — she also hated the flash. But we still got some great shots and I think they’re pretty hilarious even if Olive wasn’t a fan!

One Year Wellness Appointment

Olive received her scheduled vaccines as well as her flu shot at her 1 year wellness appointment. I’m always worried about the flu shot because I got really sick the first time I got one when I was pregnant with Charlie, but neither Olive nor Charlie had any reaction. Olive also spiked a fever after her 2 month vaccines, but has been fine after her 4, 6, and 12 month vaccines. These were her stats:

Weight – 18.4 lbs, 10%
Height – 30 in, 75%
Head – 46cm, 75%

Our pediatrician said she has the best of everything — she’s thin, tall, and smart haha.  Olive and Charlie are so different in every way. Charlie was chubby from birth while Olive was a peanut when she was born and has never been chubby. Charlie is short so he fits 18-24 month bottoms. Olive is tall with long legs so some of her 12-18 month bottoms are too short, and she fits some 18-24 bottoms. They’ll be wearing the same size soon! In fact I think Olive may very well end up being taller than Charlie. She already eats better than him!

Questions our pediatrician asked about Olive’s development included:

Is she walking?
Does she say any words?
Is she babbling?
Does she clap?
Does she wave?
Does she throw objects?
Does she bang two objects together?
Does she pass a toy from hand to hand?
Is she feeding herself finger foods?

Even though Olive is way behind Charlie pretty much in every single milestone except eating, she’s still developing normally and has hit all the milestones our pediatrician asked about. That’s all that matters to me!

I put the cake in Olive’s mouth so she could taste it, but she still wasn’t interested.

Sleep

It was a really tough month health and sleep-wise. Poor little Olive had three colds over the past month and a half, as well as her first ear infection. She was congested for most of the month, so I’d stand with her in the bathroom with a hot steamy shower running before every nap and bedtime. It’d loosen up all her snot and ease her congestion. Then I’d Nosefrida her, and the amount of snot I could get out of her nose was insane! She was not a fan but it definitely helped her sleep better for that first stretch of night. She was still waking up at least 3-4 times a night though because she was so congested. Olive always wants extra snuggles when she’s sick, and wakes up often. Isn’t it funny how babies sleep perfectly fine in your arms but not in their cribs?

Olive was getting close to sleeping through the night before she got off track with all these colds. She was waking up once at night, and sometimes woke up as late as 5:30am after going down at 6:30pm, which technically is sleeping through the night. It’s been a long month with all the night wakings so this is one tired mama! Mr. Bee says we should sleep train her by Christmas before my mom comes to visit. I just baby her so much though, I don’t know if I can!

Charlie couldn’t wait to get a taste of Olive’s three cakes that my friend Angie baked for her.

Schedule

Olive’s schedule is the same it’s been for the past three months.

7:30am – Wake up
10:00am – 11:30am Nap 1 (1 1/2 hour)
2:30pm – 3:30pm Nap 2 (1 hour)
6:30pm – Bedtime
Total Sleep: 15 1/2 Hours

I wake her up at 7:30 every morning to keep her on schedule. If we let her wake up on her own in the morning and after naps, her bedtime would be closer to 8:00pm. Her maximum awake time is 3 hours, and if she’s going to drop her morning nap in the next couple of months, she’s going to have to be able to stay awake much longer than that. We’re planning on enrolling her in daycare when she drops to one nap (Charlie did it at 15.5 months), but I think she might drop her nap later than Charlie did because she is a sleepier child. It would be much easier to have her on one nap though because she’d be on the same schedule as Charlie, so when she’s close, we’ll push her to one nap.

I love how he’s opening his mouth and saying, “Ahh” when feeding Olive.

Breastfeeding/Weaning

Olive shows absolutely no signs of wanting to wean or reduce nursing sessions. She will pretty much take the breast any time I offer it. Even if I don’t offer, she often paws at my chest because she wants to nurse. Because she isn’t close to walking yet, she still seems like such a baby to me. Maybe I’ll feel differently when she’s a walking and talking toddler, but for now I’m not pushing her to wean anytime soon. We’re still at 4 nursing sessions during the day, and for any night wakings.

Breastfeeding truly is such a special bond that I share with Olive. Sometimes I stare down at her while she’s nursing, and she just seems so happy and content. I really have no idea how and when I’m going to wean, and I hope it’s not going to be as hard as I think it might be.

Of course he couldn’t resist feeding himself some cake.

Milestones

Talking – Olive says a couple of words, but I’m not sure if they’re really her first words because she doesn’t use them consistently. She says “uh oh” and “wow” regularly and in the appropriate context, but do they count as first words? She’s said “bye” a couple times and “dada” more often, but I’m still not sure. Charlie’s first word was ball, and once he said it once he kept saying it over and over again so it was easy to determine that that was his first word (his second was mama).

Stranger Anxiety – Olive has been going through a little bit of separation anxiety. She’s always been a very friendly baby that let anyone hold her. Even now she’ll give anyone a smile. But sometimes she doesn’t want anyone to hold her except me. Charlie went through a similar phase at the same age, so I’m sure this too will pass.

Comprehension – Olive can do the following on cue: wave, stick out her tongue, clap, and bark like a dog. Olive used to wave bye, but she started expressing bye by opening and closing her hand. That’s really funny to me because it’s not something we taught her, and Charlie did the exact same thing! He started waving and then switched to the hand opening and closing. You can see a video of it here (one of my favorites)!

Physical – As far as physical milestones, she finally started real crawling after belly crawling for the past 5 months! She also stood in her crib for the first time, and has generally been pulling herself up to stand a lot more often. She’s such a cautious baby, she’s only fallen twice, whereas Charlie used to fall multiple times a day. I think her tentative nature is partly why she is hitting physical milestones slower than Charlie did. I think these big physical milestones have also been affecting her sleep because she’s been waking up a lot at night even when she’s not sick.

Olive loves using a fork.

Personality

I asked Mr. Bee the other day if he thought Olive was an easier baby than Charlie, and we both agreed that she wasn’t. Charlie was actually a much more mellow baby, but because we are more laid back second-time parents, Olive was still much easier. She is a little spitfire that will let you know when she doesn’t like something. I’m glad that she has a strong personality! But overall I think both Charlie and Olive would be considered average or easier babies.

Mama!!!!!!!

Eating

Olive did love her bread and pasta, but she is doing very well on our new healthy lifestyle. She eats less meat and veggies than she would bread and pasta, but that’s ok because what I’m feeding her is so much more nutritionally dense. We regularly rotate beef, chicken, pork, salmon, and a white fish like halibut. We eat eggs almost every day. Olive eats a wide variety of vegetables including squash, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, zucchini, pumpkin, onions, bell peppers, peas, sweet potato, and her favorite – mushrooms. We don’t give her too much fruit since I’m really trying to buy local, organic, and seasonal, and there is much less variety in the winter. But Olive loves grapes, cantaloupe, avocado, banana and Asian pear.

I’m determined not to have two picky eaters on my hands, so I’ve been cooking like a fiend offering Olive as much variety as possible. So far so good!

I’m a baby… get me out of here!

It’s hard to remember what our lives were like before Olive came into it, because our family feels so complete with her. I thought the baby stage was so hard when Charlie was a baby because I was such an anxious first-time mom. But now that he’s well into toddlerhood, I think there are easy parts and hard parts to both the infant and toddler stage, and I’m not sure which is harder!

Olive’s first year flew by, and though I loved her baby stage in a way that I didn’t with Charlie, I still can’t wait for what the second year will bring. Olive is still too young to really play with Charlie, but once she’s walking and talking, it’ll be amazing to witness them becoming even closer.

I feel truly lucky and blessed for my wonderful, beautiful family. Happy first birthday Olive!