The One…

Happy New Year, everyone! We hope you had a wonderful holiday. Ours was filled with lots of memories, but of course, it did not go as planned. I threw out my back the morning of Christmas Eve, so Jer took Liv to church on Christmas Eve solo and had dinner with his family, while Mom stayed home and rested, hoping I would be able to participate in the Christmas Day festivities. Luckily, I was well enough to do all that we had planned. It was fun to watch Olivia open her first Christmas presents. Then we got ready and headed to Jer’s parents to have breakfast and open presents. It was fun to see Reese and Lucas have fun with Livy. Cousins are the best. And then we headed over to my sister and BIL’s house to hang out and make pasta for dinner. It was our third year making pasta, and we learn something new every time. Olivia and Ilaria are starting to be more playful with each other, and it is only going to get more fun as they get older.

Livy did get her first official cold, but she handled it pretty well. No breathing issues. But the fun thing is, she, of course, passed it on to us. And it has been lingering for me. I am going on Day 13, so I am hoping that it will be over soon. This one has been weird for me because I feel fairly fine during the day, but at night, it is awful.

We had a low-key New Year’s at home. And in true new-parent fashion, we were in bed before 10 and slept through the midnight celebrations. Which was OK with us.

Speaking of sleep, that is one thing we have been on the struggle bus with Liv. She used to be a great sleeper, but in the last couple of months, things have changed. She wakes up pretty frequently throughout the night. She is still in our room in her own crib, but cry-it-out does not work for us. If she is in our bed, she does not wake up, so I am thinking it has to do with separation anxiety that happens around 12 months, but we are hoping this is not a long phase. But by talking with parents who are much further along than us, we could be in for the long haul. This is when I think having kids is a “young person’s game.” I was better with less sleep when I was younger, lol.

Here are updates on the appointments Olivia has had since our last update:

PT/Child Development: We are still having regular appointments, every other week, with them. They are loving Olivia’s progress. We are still working on walking, but I feel like she is really close.
Speech: We are working on eating more volume in solids and are still working on the straw cup/open cup. If anyone has any secrets on how to help, please share.
Eye Appt: We finally had Olivia’s eye appt. The good news is that her eyes look good so far. No need for glasses yet. We will follow up with them yearly until she is five. And then if there are no other issues, she can start going to our optometrist.
15-month check-up: The Doctor feels like she is doing well. So good news all around!

The latest milestone for Liv was on January 1, we celebrated Olivia’s adjusted birthday! We can officially consider her a one-year-old. At the end of next month, we will be coming up to a year since we have been home, and that seems shocking! It does not seem like it was that long ago that we were still heading to the hospital every day. Here are some recent pics to enjoy: