Hellobee

Olive turned 5 months old on the 5th, but I’m just now getting around to writing this monthly update because I haven’t been taking any pictures of our kiddos lately. It’s been a hectic couple of weeks in the Bee household, and we’ve just been too tired! Olive was waking up a lot at night for a little while, and Charlie hasn’t been sleeping well the past 2 months. Then Charlie was really sick and wide awake in the middle of the night, and the two of them have pretty much had nonstop colds for the past 3 months.

When everyone is healthy and sleeping well, life can be so much fun as a family of four. But invariably one child is sick, or one child isn’t sleeping, and sometimes both children are sick and both aren’t sleeping, which makes for very tired parents! It’s hectic, it’s hard, and it’s tiring, but we love Charlie and Olive so much and would do anything for them!

Olive put on over a pound since her 4 month update, so she’s gaining weight nicely! Maybe she would gain weight faster if she didn’t take such big poops. Almost every single poop is an explosion that goes all the way up her back and requires an outfit change. That very rarely happened with Charlie!

5.5 months – 13 lbs 14oz (+1lb 4oz)
4 months – 12 lbs 10 oz (+1 lb)
3 months – 11 lbs 10 oz (+1 lb 8oz)
2 month – 10 lbs 2 oz (+2 lbs 14oz)
1 month – 7 lbs 4 oz (+2 lbs 5 oz)
Birth – 4lbs 15oz

In other weight news, I lost all the weight I gained with Olive. It took me the same length of time to lose the Charlie weight, although I gained 20 more pounds with that pregnancy!

Charlie loves to tell Olive, “Hold my hand, Olive.” But he can’t say the “l” sound in her name so he calls her”Orive.”

Olive’s Sleep

Olive’s sleep is not bad, but definitely not great. She goes to bed between 6:00-6:30pm, and wakes up at 8:20am on the dot almost every morning. She usually wakes up 4 times in the middle of the night, which is every 3-4 hours. I know she can sleep through the night because she has slept anywhere from 8-11 hours straight in the past. Even though she doesn’t sleep long stretches, when I’m awake for the first two wakings, it’s not that bad. She usually goes back down pretty quickly after a feeding, and she is in her crib for 14+ straight hours, which makes it easier to focus on Charlie.

Olive’s naps are not good, but overall she is getting at least 15 hours of sleep a day. Still I’d love for her to be a better napper. She typically takes 30 minute naps, unless she’s in her stroller. Once in a while she will take an hour+ nap in her crib if she goes into her crib drowsy, but awake. Sometimes she’s fine with being put in her crib awake, other times she protests.

I really want to nap train Olive, but the thought of it pains me, only because she was born early and I’m just extra protective of her! It’s also tough to stay home while nap training, or avoid stroller naps when you have an older child and need to be out and about.

With Charlie, I felt like we had no choice but to sleep train. He was waking up 10+ times at night and sometimes he’d be up for hours in the middle of the night. We couldn’t even function. But while I am tired with Olive, it’s bearable so I keep putting it off. I’m going to tough it out a little longer because some babies magically start sleeping better around the 6 month mark. Here’s to hoping!

Personality

The first two months of Olive’s life, I thought we had the mellowest baby ever. She never cried! But the older she gets, her stubborn little personality is really starting to reveal itself. She can go from 0-60 when she’s hungry and really start wailing. I now think she’s more of a sensitive and fussy baby than Charlie was, but she’s still not a difficult baby.

Olive also started exhibiting stranger anxiety as soon as she turned 4 months old. It seemed to go away for a couple weeks — she even let everyone hold her at Little Marbles’ birthday party. But at another birthday party this weekend, she started crying if any strangers were making googly faces at her. Charlie started showing stranger anxiety around 6 months, but it eventually went away around 10  months, so hopefully Olive’s stranger anxiety goes away soon.

Olive absolutely adores Charlie!

Milestones

I’ve been a little worried about Olive’s milestones. Babies that are born early are more likely to be behind on physical milestones, and not so much when it comes to cognitive milestones. But even adjusting for her being born a month early, she seems behind. It also doesn’t help that Charlie was probably a little faster in hitting his milestones, so the disparity seems even bigger. By this age, Charlie was sitting in his bumbo and almost sitting up unassisted, he was so good with his hands, rolling over both ways, and he was babbling mamama. Olive kind of slumps over in her bumbo, she’s not very good at holding toys, she’s not babbling, but she does seem to be on the verge of rolling over. The only thing she has mastered is chomping on her fingers and toes.

I know all babies hit milestones at different rates and hitting them faster or slower has no impact on your long-term intelligence, but the only reason I do worry is because she was born early. I can’t help but wonder if anything is wrong! She turns 6 months old in 2 weeks (5 months adjusted), and I don’t know if she’s ready for solids when she still seems like such a baby to me!

Charlie’s Sleep

Charlie has been a bit of a challenge the past two months. His favorite phrase is, “I want to play,” before naps and at bedtime. He used to have a strict 7:30pm bedtime, but lately it’s closer to 9pm. I think he’s just older, more aware, and wants to spend more time with us after he gets home from daycare. But it’s been getting better the past two weeks. We can leave him awake and he is generally fine. Sometimes he’ll call out for Daddy for a couple minutes, but there are no tears involved. And the super early morning wake-ups (5:00-5:30am) he had for a while seem to be gone too. He’s still a champion napper though… thank goodness for that!

Tickle, tickle, tickle…

Bilingual

Even though I’m fluent in Korean, I haven’t made any effort to teach Charlie Korean. But this past week, Charlie called water “agua” (Spanish for water… his daycare teaches Spanish), so I knew that I really needed to get serious. I’d always planned on sending Charlie to Korean school when he turned 3, but I really need to incorporate Korean into our daily lives. He will know a lot about Korean culture since he mostly eats Korean food, but I have to do so much more to preserve his cultural heritage.

Speaking of talking, here is a video of Charlie singing his ABC’s (he skips n & m)! We’re under a blanket inside his tent. Charlie loves to sing to himself, and makes up songs about anything and everything.

Eating

I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence, but Charlie has been eating better since we transitioned him off cow’s milk onto soy milk. Perhaps he did have a mild milk allergy. He still hates eating, but it’s less of a battle lately, and he’s eating a lot more than he has in the past. We recently introduced these children’s chopsticks, and Charlie eats so much better when he uses them.

Feasting on blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs.

Big Brother

Charlie is truly the center of the earth for Olive, but while he has never shown any jealousy towards her, most of the time he’s also off playing by himself instead of paying attention to her. I’m hoping that when she can sit up, crawl, walk…. that she’ll become much more interesting to him. She would love nothing more than to hang out with her big brother all day long!

Charlie kept calling the flower on Olive’s headband a cupcake.

Sometimes I can really see Charlie’s face in Olive when she smiles, but I don’t think they look very much alike.. People tell us that Olive looks like Mr. Bee, and that Charlie looks like me, but I have no idea!

Another month under our belts as parents of two. I think we’re getting the hang of it, but it’s still a work in progress.