Everything is fine...

Olivia is still doing really well. She is eating everything we put in front of her. We have developed a little routine. She has fruit (pears) or fruit juice (apple/prune with water) every other day. Every other day she also has some cereal. The juice helps keeps her regular. She likes prunes too, but they can upset her tummy. I read somewhere that it is the yellow or white fruits that she should be on first (pears, apples, bananas) so we will stick to that for a few more weeks.

We have to have her weighed soon for our last medical report. It will be exciting to see how much she has grown. Someone actually said that she was big today, so that was nice. It was a first! She still wearing 3-6 mos clothes, so she is right in her target area.

It has been really cold here this past week or so and we have no heat in our house. Sometimes it is colder in here then it is outside. So poor Olivia sleeps with a onesie, a blanket footie sleeper, a swaddle blanket, and a woolly blanket her Nana sent her from New Zealand. All of her cousins used it--it is nice that she gets to use it too. The swaddle blanket is the only thing that makes her settle down for bed and it keeps her from rolling all over the bed. She is a funny girl. If we don't swaddle her she ends up with her head down at the bottom of her bed. Her mattress is on an incline to help with the reflux, so she ends up backwards.

We are still waiting to hear about a court date for our finalization next month and our date for our last home inspection. I can't believe it is almost over. It seems unreal. We talked to Olivia's birth mother last week. She had moved to a new apartment and had a new phone number. She wanted to make sure we had her new details. It was really hard for me to talk to her. She wants to see Olivia next month when we finalize the adoption. My instinct tells me to avoid this, but I know that it will be better for Olivia if we maintain an open relationship with her birth mother. I just can't hardly stand the thought of sharing her. Then I have these totally irrational thoughts like what if she tries to steal her or something. I know it is crazy--it's just that I finally feel as if I have totally, helplessly, fallen in love with my daughter. She is a long time dream come true and I couldn't stand to lose her. But I know that holding onto her too tight will not help. Andy's mother is a great example of an adoptive mother. I know it had to have been hard for her to share her children with their birth parents, but when that time came she did it with love and without question. Her children simply loved her even more for it, his father too. I hope that someday Olivia will feel the same way about us.

Andy had a little accident today and cut his hand reaching into the dishwasher. He is fine after nine stitches, a nicked tendon, and a soft cast. But this will mean three weeks of no help with baby from Daddy. He can't lift her. I am really going to miss his help! I haven't even figured out yet how he is going to pull up his pants and fasten his belt when he goes to the bathroom. Oh boy!

I'll work on more pictures this week!