Bathtime Fun

WARNING:  Obnoxious, overly excited Mommy.  Luckily, the cute kid makes up for it.

Earrings

It was much more of an internal struggle to pierce Olivia's ears then I ever imagined it to be.  I always imagined that the minute my daughter could get her ears pierced, we would pierce them.  And then Olivia was born, and she was this perfect miracle, without any imperfections.  I could not imagine puncturing two holes into her ears.  Shots were bad enough for me, that I continued to delay the ear piercing; making excuses to everyone that asked.

At her follow up flu shot appointment I pulled the trigger and have not regretted it since.  She looks beautiful, not that she didn't beforehand, but we love the earrings.  She looks like our little beautiful Mexican baby girl. 

It is such a cultural norm in the Hispanic culture, so I clung to that as my reason to get Olivia's ears pierced.  Everytime I would see a baby with her ears pierced I would get a pit in my stomach, and usually ask her parent's when did they pierce her ears, and how'd she do with it.  I knew I wanted to have them pierced, but I had no idea I would be so conflicted leading up to getting them done. 

I am forever trying to identify with being Mexican-American in any way that I can.  I know that this may all sound silly, but I really struggle with feeling Mexican enough at times.  I don't speak Spanish and my last name is Copeland.  I am blessed that I at least look the part, so many will at least give me the benefit of the doubt.  So mainly for cultural reasons, and some vanity, and some "right of passage" jazz, I decided that I wanted to pierce Olivia's ears at an early age. 

Happy Birthday, Dad!!!

There is not a single person in the world that loves me quite like my dad does.  For those that know my father and I well, know that we are very much alike.  Growing up my mom used to call me my dad's twin, and I would get so upset, because there was no way that I was like my crazy old man.  Now it's an honor to be called his twin.  We are both crazy, and loud, and passionate, and hot-headed.  We are both quick to get angry, but even quicker to forgive and forget.

My dad would take the shirt off of his back for anyone that he loves.  I have worked hard my entire life to make my dad proud.

I'm blessed to have this wonderful man as my father.  Olivia is even more blessed to have my dad as her Grandfather.  He shows an enthusiasm for Olivia when she is in the room like no one else does.  I am so grateful that he loves her so much.

Thank you, Dad.

Happy Birthday!  We love you.  

Blogging Fail Due to Sick Child

A three day weekend can fly right on by when taking care of a sick baby.  Poor Olivia.  She just wasn't feeling well, and were pretty sure that it's just a nasty cold coupled with the possibility of teething. We took her in to the doctor anyways, and they said it was just a virus.  We took her in again on Sunday because we had such a horrible couple of nights, and fever spiking pretty high, but still they said just an infection. Monday, more of the same but she stayed at Gammies house and we really thought she was on the up and up, until we discovered a rash all over the trunk of her body. Great.

Well, Monday night into Tuesday morning was a true test to my motherhood.  It had already been decided that I would be staying home with Olivia on Tuesday, so that was a good thing.  She woke up every 1.5-2 hours screaming.  Not just crying, full-blown screaming.  That has never happened to us before.  We have had fussy nights, and wide-awake nights, but never screaming.  We knew she had to be in pain, somewhere and she was not running a fever.  We thought maybe it was her teeth, so we gave her teething tablets, and ibuprofen, which didn't really seem to help.  All I could do was try and rock her and comfort her, which she hated and loved.  I would hold her tight, and she would scream and try and get out of my embrace, and so I would lay her back down, and she would look at me with shock and scream so more.  It was such a hopeless feeling.  I just kept saying, tell me baby girl what's wrong?  I know that's silly, but would that be nice?!  At one point, I was walking her around the upstairs trying to soothe her, and went into the bathroom, and flushed the toilet.  Surprisingly, that worked to stopped the screaming just long enough I could stick her pacifier in her mouth and rock her back to sleep for another couple of hours.  Seriously, who would have thought repeatedly flushing the toilet would help???  There needs to be a better handbook for these sort of things.

Tuesday morning I was able to take her to her regular doctor and Dr. P discovered an ear infection in her right ear, which explained the screaming, and the virus called roseola, which explained the rash.  Thank God for modern medicine. In the evening by time Olivia had her second dose of antibiotics, she was slowly becoming her happy self again.  Plus, her appetite returned and she ate a really hearty dinner of tortilla soup and avocado that I had brewed in the crock pot all day.

Olivia did a lot of this yesterday:

Last night was amazing and almost felt like normal.  She "woke" up 2 or 3 times, but only to nurse and to feel around for me to make sure I was still there.

So that is why I failed at blogging everyday for the past couple of days.  I hope to hop back on and finish up strong, but who knows.  Life is crazy.

Olivia is sick

Yesterday, Olivia really seemed under the weather when I visited her at lunch.  I took her temperature, and it was a little above normal, so I just gave her some teething tablets, and lunch and lots of cuddles.

After school she really seemed tired, so while we were at the daycare we took her temperature and it was 101.4.  We took her to the after hours clinic and were told that she just had a cold, and it was peaking.  It was a relief to rule out an infection, especially an ear infection.

Last night we just gave her a warm bath, and dinner, and took turns holding and rocking her to sleep.  The fever finally seems to be coming down this morning.  Olivia just went down for her morning nap, but  has been in and out of feeling well all morning.  I also think that she MAY be cutting the top two teeth, but I have regularly thought Olivia has been cutting teeth, with no luck.  She currently has about a tooth and a fourth on the bottom.

I was so glad that this cold peaked when it did and we are able to have these three days to be with her.  The doctor said if the fever doesn't go away by Monday we should bring her in again to rule out infection.    Hopefully this is just a cold and Olivia begins feeling 100% soon!

Happy Birthday, Gammie!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANNETTE!

We all love you very much.  Thank you for being such a wonderful grandmother, mother, mother-in-law, wife, and person to all of us.

Olivia is 11 months old today.

I kept thinking last night, maybe if I don't go to sleep tonight, my baby won't turn 11 months old tomorrow.  If only it were that easy.  My mom used to beg us, and annoyingly ask us all of the time to stop growing up.  She would drag her feet at all of our birthdays and say, "No!  You aren't turning ___ years old."  I would roll my eyes and try and wiggle from her death grip.  I used to never understand what the heck she had against us getting older?!  Now, I know.  I completely understand.

I can honestly say that it literally hurts my heart to think that my baby girl is one month away from turning one year old!  While she is growing more amazing each day, I hate the thought of her growing up. 

11 months have flown right on by.  Whew!  What the heck did we do with our lives and our time before Olivia?  She has given me such a purpose in this world, and such a drive to be a better person.  I want to do better for her, and for our family, and it amazes me that someone so small can motivate me so much.