Catching Up

     Time is seriously flying by and two weeks from today I'll be back in the office at work.  Looking back at the past few months, I can barely remember life before Olivia joined us.  The hospital stay feels like a blip on the radar and the past seven weeks seem like they have been an entire lifetime.  That's right, seven weeks here at home!  I hate to speak as to how well Olivia's doing because I don't want to jinx anything or raise our hopes to an unrealistic level, but she is really great.  We go to more doctor's appointments and give out medicines more than the average parents, but other than that, our lives are not so different.  We are thankful for this normalcy.  In fact, I think that I had prepared myself for worse up to now that I still call all my cousins who are veteran moms to ask if something is normal baby behavior or is it something I should be worried about as a heart mom. 

   9 times out of 10 they tell me everything is completely normal and I go on with our day.  Now that she's awake more, Olivia is taking everything in.  She has a fascination with lights and fans and will look at them for extended lengths of time which is great for Brian and I since we can get a lot done when she's distracted.  When I'm driving, she's staying awake for longer periods of the drive and when we're stopped at a light I see her eyes looking around and studying herself in the mirror that we have above her car seat.  Yesterday I held her up to a mirror and was talking to her and she burst into tears.  I like to think she was jealous of that other baby her mommy was holding in the reflection.  She's very generous with her smiles and is really cooing up a storm in her good moods.  7-9 PM in our house is still a very taboo time, but hopefully she will outgrow this witching hour soon. 

   Currently she's sitting in her bouncer next to me periodically opening her eyes to look around and deciding that I"m too boring to be blessed with her attention so she goes back to sleep.  I'm sure she'll wake up screaming in a little while while I'm cleaning bottles.  Her new favorite thing to do is start having a hissy fit when she's awake and there's no one in her line of sight.  Oh well, as for now I can only celebrate the fact that she slept from 10:30 PM until 6 AM today.  Brian was so wide awake and perky that I thought I was going to have to tell him to take it down a notch.  Amusing, as it turns out he realized that he spent too much time talking with Livvy before he went to work that he completely forgot a lunch.  Oops!