Ashlie Hardway: Olivia At 7 Weeks
by ABC-7 Weekend Anchor Ashlie Hardway
It’s been a while since I’ve written, but as you can imagine, I’ve been pretty busy! Olivia is now 7 weeks old. It has gone by much too quickly. I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. It seems like she’s growing like a weed everyday! I swear, the other day I looked at her legs while changing her diaper, and it was like she grew these chubby little rolls overnight.
My last entry was about how her days and nights were confused. Well, I was wrong, I think. That little episode only lasted one night. What I realized about her sleeping habits was that when I laid her flat on her back, she would have a hard time sleeping because she kept choking. Once I propped her up on my Boppy pillow that I leave in her crib, she was able to sleep upright. Ever since I started doing that, she rarely put up a fight to sleep.
That little experience helped me realize something else, something much more upsetting: my little girl has Gastroesophageal reflux, or GER. Basically, it’s like heartburn in babies. Since their GI tracts are underdeveloped at Olivia’s age, it’s common for babies to get reflux. Her pediatrician said she should grow out of it between 6 months and 1 year of age. For now, I have to give her medicine four times a day. It makes me sad knowing I have to give it to her, but it makes her better. I have noticed she coughs/spits up less when she has her medicine. She also makes a really cute face when she takes it. It’s like this little grimace.
We’ve had a lot of visitors since I wrote last. My parents came down first and boy were they excited! It was really great to see them with her. They brought two suitcases on the plane, one of which was full of JUST things for Olivia! My mom also brought my FAVORITE sandwich from this place called Primanti’s in Pittsburgh. Eating that delicious piece of heaven made all of my stresses just wash away, well, at least for 15 minutes.
After my parents said goodbye, my little sister came down two weeks later for Spring Break. Instead of beaches and bikinis, it was bottles and binkies. She had a lot of fun getting to know her new, little niece. Olivia even went to zoo for the first time!
Our last visitors were my husband’s parents. We went to Marfa to check out the scenery (but mostly because my husband was craving pizza at this awesome little pizza joint). While they were here, I went back to work on the weekends. It was really hard to leave Olivia (I couldn’t WAIT for my lunch break!) but it was nice to get back into the swing of things and act like a working professional again. The best part of all was when things got stressful at work with breaking news and everything, after I got it all figured out and took my break, I came home to my little girl. Bathing and feeding her helped me totally relax before I went back to work so I could tackle the 10:00 show.
After my in-laws left, it was sad for me because that meant there would be no more out-of-town visitors. That also meant the days of Olivia and I spending all day together were dwindling down; soon I would be back at work full-time and my mother would be here to watch Olivia all day. I am so thankful my parents are making that enormous sacrifice so Olivia can have a proper upbringing, but I wish Olivia and I would never have to be apart. My husband offered for me to be a stay-at-home mom full-time, but I just can’t quit being a journalist. I truly love what I do. I can’t imagine not telling and researching stories anymore. As much as I adore my little girl, I want to be able to provide her a good life. I don’t want her to want for anything, but I don’t want her to be spoiled either. I want to have a good chunk of money in the bank when it’s time for her to go to college. I also want her to have a strong, positive female role model in her life. I know that if I quit my job, all of those things would be a little bit harder to accomplish. It’s not that stay-at-home moms aren’t strong role models; they’re incredible! But I want to show my daughter that she can be whatever she dreams. After all, I get to live my dream every day.
So now we are just enjoying our time together. She has some days where she’s fussier than others, but overall I can’t complain. She is just the perfect little baby. She sleeps about 6 hours at night before waking up to eat, then she sleeps another 3-4 hours before waking around 7:30 or 8:00. Earlier this week, she slept from 10:30 to 7:30! She’s amazing! She’s also really, really smart. She sucked her thumb at three weeks old. She started grabbing for things around one month, and she’s already doing things she should be doing at two-and-a-half months. She is truly a miracle.
I’ll write more soon. In the mean time, feel free to e-mail me! Ashliehardway@gmail.com.
