Miss Olivia is already turning three months old and it’s this period where she’s growing the most. She continues to be an eating champ and gaining weight, we’re all sleeping through the night, and I unexpectedly experienced the untimely return of a monthly friend. This month Olivia got to experience camping (actually…glamping) for the first time – which brought her on her first road trip to the Austin area – and is beginning to giggle, which is the most euphoric sound ever. Now that she’s a little older and family members and friends are getting vaccinated we’re finally able to visit more with others, which is something we’ve missed out on for a while.

Here’s what else our Little Miss was up to this month…

Olivia at 3 months

According to VeryWell Family, it is typical to see these milestones by three months old. Here’s what we’re observing in Olivia:

• smiles spontaneously and is beginning to giggle!
• sleeping through the night and on a more regular (and predictable) routine
• sucking on her fingers constantly – drool everywhere!
• holding her head up when sitting upright and sitting on her own with support
• beginning to bear weight on her legs and “standing”
• her vision is improving and seeing further away

Regurgitation Update

Ever since she was born, Livie had some serious spit-up issues. It seemed no matter the amount of milk she’d drink almost immediately after she’d spit-up. I was told that it could be due to overeating or that the ring of muscle between the esophagus and the stomach — the lower esophageal sphincter – isn’t fully developed. Reflux like this can be very common since newborns are on their backs and have liquid diets.

I am happy to report that she’s spitting up less, although it still is a regular occurrence. Sometimes her burps or hiccups can cause spitting up, laying on her belly too long, or just simply from breathing. We aren’t concerned and neither is her pediatrician because she’s putting on weight no problem.

Enjoying

• she absolutely LOVES being upright. Whether you’re holding her in a sitting position or she’s sitting on her own in her swing or high chair…she wants to see it all!
• she also loves to be held – facing outwards. Don’t think about putting her down for too long otherwise she’ll fuss until you pick her back up!
• her favorite movie at the moment is Soul. She loves the high contrast scenes of the dark with light blues when they’re in the “great before.”
• she continues to love to suck on her fingers and explore with her mouth. She’s a drooling machine so we’ve had to utilize her bibs to help save her clothes and under her neck with the rolls can get “drool rash”
• she loves interaction of any kind. We’ve noticed that she’s always been so observant and now that she can see more and farther she demands you to interact with her. She becomes fussy when she sits too long and not getting attention.
• …and as always, she’s in love with her Dada. There’s definitely something to be said about daughters and their dads. She can’t get enough of the snuggles and attention from Philip!
• She’s completely enamored with Greyson – she loves watching him and just the other day he got her to giggle!

Disliking

• she hates laying flat on her back
• she’s becoming bored these days. We got her an activity bar that can clip onto her swing, stroller…etc. She enjoys it for a period then she’s ready for the next thing…
• we’ve tried to do tummy time the traditional way (i.e. on her belly) but with her regurgitation it just doesn’t seem comfortable for her – she hates it. Our pediatrician gave us approval that another way she can practice tummy time is by holding her upright and she works at holding her head up on her own.

Celebrated

• we celebrated grandma’s birthday!
• she also went on her first little camping trip thanks to Getaway!

The return of my period

Dum, dum, dum…

Something I was NOT anticipating this soon after delivery was what appears to be the return of my period. I noticed bleeding about mid-month and it was heavy at first but lightened up like a typical period. I was a little nervous when it started simply because I didn’t get my period back with Greyson until after I was done breastfeeding. Apparently it’s fairly common for women to experience their periods again and can be as early as 12 weeks – even if your exclusively breastfeeding like I am.

This has to do with a few factors:

• Olivia is sleeping through the night, which means she isn’t nursing around the clock anymore. Prolactin is the hormone that tells my body to create breastmilk and suppresses ovulation. However, we all should know that just because you don’t ovulate doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t have a period.
• During my period my breastmilk supply can experience a dip and the taste is less sweet. However, Olivia never seemed to mind.

Thankfully it didn’t seem any different than my pre-pregnancy flow. Because I wanted to err on the side of caution, I continued to use maxi pads and only tampons at night during my heaviest time. Within 5 days or so it lightened up then stopped. I’m curious to see if this is something that will recur every month…

Also, I received a low hormone birth control from my routine 6 week checkup but I have personally decided to wait to take them. I don’t want anything to stand in the way of me breastfeeding and although there’s little proven affect of birth control on breastmilk, I still want to steer clear for the time being. It’s just my personal choice and we’re practicing safe sex in the meantime.

All in all she’s had yet another amazing month of growth – here’s to Olivia at three months!

Our sweet Olivia was born on February 17, 2021 at 1:15 am. She was a day shy of 41 weeks and even then she never seemed to want to arrive. Much like Greyson (who was born at 40-41 weeks, too), Olivia was just happy as could be in mamas womb yet I, on the other hand, was more than ready to get this show started.

I had a routine weekly appointment with my OB – who wanted labor to start naturally. Every appointment she’d check my cervix and time and time again I would show little signs of progression. Finally, we discussed the option of inducing should labor not start on its own. Thankfully, we agreed that if by our following appointment labor hadn’t started she would admit me and we would begin labor – and that’s exactly what happened (you can read more about her birth story here).

During the final stages of my labor with baby girl, my nurse had checked my dilation and became slightly concerned when she detected meconium. Meconium is a black tar-like substance that is baby’s first bowl movements. Because Olivia was almost 41 weeks, it’s common for it to be present. However, it also raises the risk for infection – especially if she ingests it.

After laboring for about 15 hours and pushing for little over one hour, our sweet Olivia Pierce was born. NICU was present because of the meconium, however upon her initial screenings she seemed fine. She did have a slightly elevated temperature at birth (mine was normal), but other than that she checked out beautifully. We had our golden hour of skin-to-skin and even tried to nurse. When we were admitted into our recovery room, our nurses continued to monitor her with the routine temperature checks and such. I began to notice that the nurses were coming fairly regularly to check on her, which was a little out of the norm for me since I don’t remember them doing that when I delivered Greyson. I could tell they didn’t want to alarm us, but eventually a nurse came and told us that her temperature had dropped and that they wanted to do blood work to determine if there was an infection. This, paired with her lack of appetite, caused our care team to be concerned enough to run some tests.

My husband accompanied Olivia the entire time while I recovered and rested in our room. I hated being away from her so early on, but I knew she was in the best of hands. After all, it was just out of precaution, right?

After some time my husband came back to our room without Olivia. My heart sank because I knew that there was something wrong and this wouldn’t be a typical delivery experience for us. He told me that they detected a sepsis infection and that she would be taken into the NICU for observation and to begin IV antibiotics. Surprisingly enough, I wasn’t scared or worried. I knew that, again, she was right where she needed to be and I was grateful the nurses and doctors caught her infection early. Olivia would receive the best of care and I told myself should anything happen, nurses are right there to address it.

That was the beginning of our NICU stay.

Welcome to NICU

When your baby enters NICU it becomes a controlled environment. Feedings are scheduled and the time/amount is recorded, wires are applied to monitor everything from their heart rate to oxygen levels, and it’s one of the most secure area of the hospital. There’s a regulated check-in and out process parents have to go through every single time they visit and breastmilk is treated like medication – you use unique stickers with your (the mama) barcode and patient info along with writing the date and time of your pumped milk. We were able to visit with her 24/7 and encouraged to nurse and bond. Even though our stay looked and felt completely different this time around, I was grateful to her care team and nurses who not only made it comfortable for us, but for Olivia as well.

She remained on her IV antibiotics for a few days then her blood would be retested. Thankfully her temperature began to regulate itself without the use of the heat lamps. After her test came back with better numbers she spent a day or so coming off her IV. Before she could be discharged, Olivia had to show signs that her temperature could remain normal (which it was) and her labs clear of any infection. After the typical three days post-delivery, the hospital was preparing to discharge me as a patient and it was difficult to go home without my baby. Olivia would stay overnight and labs would be run one more time before she could come home – we were happily anticipating the following morning when we could pick her up.

Unfortunately that wouldn’t happen.

That night we were able to spend some quality time with Greyson for one more night before his world would change forever. I actually enjoyed being able to be home and have a night where I could shower and rest in my own space after being in the hospital where the water was out due to the freak winter storm. Another reason to be grateful and to see our circumstance as a glass-half-full. The following morning we woke up and were leaving our neighborhood when we received a call from Olivia’s doctor. She was concerned that her numbers after being off her IV antibiotics continued to be slightly elevated – which meant a bit of the infection was still present in her blood. In efforts to be cautious she wanted to keep Olivia one more night for observation. We were devastated and our hearts completely sank, but we understood that it was in Olivia’s best interest and health to stay.

My husband and I visited her anyways and as strong as I had been throughout this whole process, it wasn’t until we were walking down the hallway to the NICU I completely broke down in tears. I was upset that I couldn’t bring my baby home with me as planned and I was upset that I had to walk this walk once more. However, once we got to her pod and could hold her and nurse her those feelings dissipated and feelings of gratitude and grace once again took over. Olivia’s doctor came to us and explained her blood work and that out of an abundance of caution she wanted to keep her one more night and that was confident that her next lab would be clear. I appreciated the doctor’s ability to meet us where we needed and explained everything in a way that reassured us but was also honest. She told us that it would be far more traumatizing for us to take her home to then have to come to the ER and readmit her due to complications – I knew she was right. While Olivia was awaiting her final blood test they wanted to give her a dose of photo-therapy for her jaundice. It was a little jarring to see her under the light, but if it meant it made Olivia the healthiest she could be then we were all for it.

The following morning we were on our way to the hospital when our doctor called us with the good news that Olivia could be discharged. Prior to that call I realized that I needed to change my perspective. We were both so devastated the day before when we couldn’t take her home as planned, so I kept telling myself (in efforts to not repeat the feelings of the previous day) that we were going to see her, but it wasn’t guaranteed we would be bringing her home. That helped me prepare for the worst-case scenario but thankfully her labs came back normal and we received the news we wanted to hear. Olivia was coming home.

I was relieved to see her off her wires – it was as if she were a typical baby and everything was going back to normal for us as a family. We were able to spend some time with her – I had a session with the hospital’s lactation specialist to help find my groove to breastfeed Olivia. Afterwards we dressed her, spoke with the doctor once more, got her discharge paperwork and were finally clipping her into her carseat.

Since bringing her home we had our regular wellness checkups for her. We did an additional blood screen around 4 weeks old to make sure her infection was, in fact, gone – and it was. Now, our sweet Olivia is almost three months old and I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect soul.

One Month Update | Two Month Update

Grace & Gratitude

During our experience with Olivia in the NICU I had to remain positive because that was about the only thing I could control about our circumstance. I gave myself grace through this knowing I was not only physically healing from childbirth, but emotionally going through it as well (you know, hormones and all). I hated not having her by my side but I continued to have grace on the nurses and even through the disappointment of not being able to bring her home when I was initially discharged. The gratitude I felt 100% goes towards our nurses (both mine and Olivia’s), doctors, my husband, and family for getting us through it all. So, if you find yourself in a similar position just remember there is a light at the end of the tunnel – your tunnel may be longer or shorter than other families, but it nonetheless will come to an end. The important part in all of this is bringing home a healthy baby!

What a month it’s been for us as a new family of four. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to get on here consistently and that is large in part due to our overall adjustment and enjoyment of this new phase. I’ve been really soaking up these moments with Olivia because, much like Greyson, it seems she’s constantly changing and growing and I have yet to invent a time slowing device to keep her this small forever. With that being said, you can always catch me on my Instagram where I photo-dump my life with Olivia and if you’re so inclined, be sure to give me a follow. I love connecting with fellow mamas out there – especially as I am navigating this new life with two kids!

Olivia at 2 months

According to the CDC, there are common milestones babies hit by the end of two months old. Here’s what Olivia is already showing us:

• Smiling at people (including familiar faces like ours!)
• Begin to self-soothe by bringing her hands up to her mouth to suck
• Beginning to appear bored by turning away or fussing to change an activity
• Turns her head to track objects or people
• Beginning to coo and make gurgle sounds
• Making smoother movements with arms and legs; more control
• More control with holding head up

Eating

Weight: 13 lbs

Baby girl has put on quite the poundage since we brought her home in February! She’s eating on a more regular schedule now and after our first well check-up our pediatrician gave us the go-ahead to nurse/feed “on demand” since she’s happy with the weight gain Olivia has made. Around the 6 week mark, however, I noticed she demanded to eat almost every 20 minutes or so. I was nervous my milk supply may have taken a dump, but I quickly went to the internet and found out that she was actually “cluster feeding.”

Cluster feeding is simply natures way of prepping my body for more milk production. As Olivia grows so does her stomach and appetite. It was completely normal for her to have been cluster feeding for about 2-3 days – she was simply gearing up my body to produce more milk. Now, at two months, she’s back to her eating schedule but definitely nursing longer.

Bring on those insatiable chubby thighs!

BioGaia Probiotics to help with regurgitation

In addition to her milk, we have been using BioGaia probiotics. It was recommended to us by our pediatrician in case Olivia began to show signs of colic. Thank goodness she hasn’t, however I did notice that she seemed to be straining to poop and uncomfortable until she passed gas or eliminated. In addition, she spit up almost every time she ate. I made sure she wasn’t being overfed but when it continued I had to investigate the cause. Apparently the term is regurgitation and it’s common in newborns since their GI tracts are still in development. The tiny flap that opens and closes when she breaths and eats is still under construction and therefore can cause her to spit up. Eventually the spitting up will stop, but in the meantime I wanted to provide her some relief. Just 5 drops a day in her milk is all it takes and I’m happy to report that her spitting up is all but gone and she’s passing gas/pooping much easier!

Sleeping

Thank goodness this girl is beginning to sleep through the night!

When we first brought her home it seemed like she slept all of the time. During the day it would be hours on end she would nap. Now, she’s definitely awake for longer during the day and naps here and there or after nursing. At nighttime she’s awake until about 10:30-11pm and sleeps until about 3-4am for a diaper change and to nurse before going back to sleep.

Something that has been extremely helpful for ensuring good sleep for both her and us is our Halo Sleep Sack. I swear by it because it makes swaddling a breeze – especially at those 2am feedings. She enjoys being swaddled tight and the velcro makes wrapping her up so easy. Couldn’t recommend it more!

Enjoying

• Olivia has really begun to smile this month and my heart melts into tiny little pieces every single time.
• She’s also taking notice of Greyson and smiles at him all the time. I look forward to their budding sibling relationship.
• She loves being held (especially by Dada) and it can sometimes be a little pain for us simply because it makes it difficult to do other things like work, pee, or eat.
• Her favorite Wubbanub is the unicorn (Dada got the sloth, haha). Somehow she knows the difference and we’ve learned she has preferences of pacifiers.
• Like magic she falls asleep to Post Malone’s “circles” but the instrumental version. So, we have our Alexa play it to calm her and put her to sleep. It’s worked every time.
• Warm baths are comforting for her. She especially enjoys bath time when I’m in the tub, too.
• She enjoys walks in the stroller around the neighborhood.

Disliking

• She’s not entirely a fan of being dressed. And we’re not sure we’re a fan of dressing her in dresses. It just doesn’t fit her personality. However, we’ve received gifts and it’s important for us for her to wear those outfits at least once before she outgrows them.
• Being put down or not paid attention to.
• Being buckled into the car seat.

Happy 2 months, baby girl!

Olivia ONE Month