Four Months of Olive

After the Taupo holiday we had a breakthrough with Olive's day sleeps. She started to settle and sleep for 45 mins, three times a day! There was no real uncontrolled crying (thank god!) more of a grizzle for 20 to 30 minutes with silent patches before she drifted off to sleep. It was just as well as it was getting a bit ridiculous, buggying it and rocking the capsule everyday! Not to mention the weather had started to pack up so I didn't fancy taking a two and half month old baby out in the pouring rain.

It also gave me a chance to pack! We had finally found ourselves a house to call our own. (Well mostly the banks for now!) Sunshine Ave, in our new pad, just around the corner from our old flat. With the movers booked (no more trailers for us! again thank god!) and over the coming weeks as Olive did her 45 min sleep, I packed while Tom worked. I'm glad we kept all those boxes!  We had quite a short settlement day which was fantastic as we didn't fancy spending any more time in a slug, mice & mould infested 'cold old Hildreth' as winter was setting in again. To think we wanted to buy the place?! Our lease was easy to finish up with as it was on a 3 week notice period, so all systems go!

When moving day came, the sun was shining, birds were singing? hmm not sure but we were excited. All the boxes were in the baby's room which was never used for the baby as she slept in our room. Movers arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule and started the huge pack. With more stuff than boxes in the end we packed the rest in PITZ and our parents cars to do a load each. I managed to feed Olive and she had one nap in the bedroom with nothing but a bassinet and a lamp for company with the movers moving furniture down the hall. She was amazing that day. Once the movers had gone, with the last piece of furniture the bassinet. Trish bought lunch and mum drove another car load over while I walked Olive over in an attempt for another nap. Tom helped at the other end with Strinkle. 

After lunch Olive got to have her first nap in an already setup bassinet in her own room. Little did I know would be the beginning of Olive sleeping in her own room. The chick has left the nest. It was a bit scary not having her in the room with us, using the baby monitor and checking on her far too much but Tom was getting a better nights sleep as he is a light sleeper and woke with the hedgehog noises in the corner. I will admit I really enjoy it now as I can go into Olive's room at night and feed, nappy change all in one room and in the warm! Hildreth was a different story. Lounge for a feed, baby room for a nappy change, lounge again, and then our room for bed, all in the cold too!

We managed to unpack a hell of a lot in the weekend, the kitchen was fully operational in a day and we used our spare room as a box room to tackle when we could. It was wonderful, our own home! Man that was a long time coming, nearly one and half years of looking, now that was a lot of open homes. What will we do on Sundays now?

Just over a week of being in sunshine, Olive got her first virus. Olive's parents got no sleep for three nights straight. She had ulcers on her top gum which we first thought were teeth, but after some research, babies usually get their bottom two teeth first. The dinner feed was pretty bad since she wouldn't feed with a guard on which was pretty painful and there was lots of crying. We tried a bottle and then realised it must be quite sore so I had to endure the pain. Then she woke every hour on the hour for two nights, Tom and I took it in turns to settle her, I fed her and Tom patted her back to sleep. It was horrible. We gave her pamol and nearly overdosed her in the dark which didn't seem to help at all. We got bonjela but I freaked out about using it as it had 4 months on the packet and she was only 3! After two nights I took her to the doctors and when Penny (our doctor) looked her over she had a full body rash which wasn't there in the morning. It was pretty scary, so I hadn't over reacted by bring her in to the doctors. There wasn't much we could do but pamol. It was the worst feeling not being able to help my baby!

After the third night, I started to freak that we would never get a normal nights sleep again and realised Olive had been a great night sleeper up until then! We managed to get to cousin Alex's second birthday at Staglands in a bit of a sleepy blur, but really enjoyed the little kiddy party with all the lovely bird and farm life. Great place for two years olds! We started to get back to a normal nights sleep again with a few wakes during the night and then back to two around 11pm and 3am. I got my first Mother's day card from Olive with a big smile, very special.

At about 3 months we had Jeanette from Plunket come over to help with settling or really run through the basics again. But she did say she should only be taking 10 minutes on each side to feed, so the next day I started to cut Olive off by 5 minutes at a time, her usual feeding time at the zoo was 45 minutes. It almost happened in a day when she started feeding for 10min on each side, she just needed the push from mum and no comfort sucking! We also realised by following a sleep/eat/play routine she was getting a feed every two hours because she didn't sleep for longer than one sleep cycle and she was up for an hour, she had started snack feeding and pulling off all the time to look around. So we pushed her out to 3 hours which threw out the sleep/eat/play but she was more interested in feeding, I'm not sure how the demand feeding is meant to work!

When Olive was three and a half months we managed to pop out for our first dinner out to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary at CouCou, a lovely little French restaurant at the beginning of Karori Rd (not far from home). Nan and Granddad babysat with a small bottle of expressed milk as backup. Leading up to the Friday night affair Olive had been pretty consistent about going to bed around 7.30pm and waking around midnight so we thought it was a safe bet. We had a glass of bubbles while the grandparents had their dinner and we wined and dined and were home by 10pm so a big 2 hours away from Olive. Had to stop for petrol to pad out the two hours! We popped through the back door and saw the grandparents watching the monitor, thinking we were all good since we had no text or call but she had woken up, had the bottle by Nan and walked up and down by Granddad and was back in bed by the time we got home. She just wanted to see who was looking after her! All in all a good night.

Olive then caught her first cold off mummy. (I thought it wasn't possible!) It finally dawned on me what it meant to be a parent when you feel like crap, runny nose, blocked ears, sore all over but you have to get up for your daughter in the middle of the night. The cold made it quite hard for her to feed and she sounded more like a hedgehog than normal. She woke a bit more than normal but it wasn't bad compared to the virus!

Over the next few weeks Olive really started to laugh at us, talks and smiles all the time which was so rewarding. Myah the Peck dog came to stay while the Peck Grandparents had a holiday in Europe. I broke the oven by boiling a pot dry and burning a hole in the element, it was an old oven and when the tradesman came to change old to new, it had a huge hole in the back so it was a fire risk anyway. Olive's dribble started in a big way so maybe teeth are on the near horizon? Her tummy time has really improved, she actually enjoys being on her tummy!

Before we knew it, the Aussie Turner Uncles, Aunties and cousin Ali had arrived to meet baby Olive. It was lovely seeing them and a chance for Ali and Olive to meet! We managed to have a dinner at the Grandparents house, after feeding Olive for 45mins, I put her down for her sleep in the carry cot while we ate. She woke up around 9pm in time for us to head home. I fed her again when we got home and she went back to sleep which was amazing. We both managed to go out for dinner with separate boys and girls Turner parties while Aunty Jen babysat little Olive. I expressed a big bottle of 150mls and Olive paid Jen a visit around 11pm at night. I had a lovely time at Ancestral with the girls and felt like a normal person for a change! I did feel like I was a bit out of the loop with the nightlife though! Tom managed to crawl home at 4am and realised he had to function as a father the next day instead of feel sorry for himself in bed.

Olive has started sticking most things in her mouth but mainly her hands and has discovered rolling onto her side from her back. She hasn't quite got the roll from back to front just yet through.

G