Nathan's Last Few Days As a 23 Monther

To my dear children,
Hannah turned 1 month old last Friday. I can't believe how fast time has gone by.

 Things are still going pretty steady. Hannah is pretty much eating and sleeping with a few moments of alert time where she likes to look around or sit on the swing. It seems like Hannah is preparing for another growth spurt. Monday she was feeding like crazy. And then that night, she slept like a champ. In fact I got a few 2+ hour stretches of sleep. You can see from the chart below.

Since Hannah has been only sleeping for stretches of more than 2 hours once a night, I kind of think it is due to her not feeding as well during the middle of the night and then she gets hungry. It was a bit frustrating to be waken up, only to have her drink for 10 minutes and be out like a log. I would try to rub her back, her hands, her feet. I even tried a cold towel against her skin. So then I would put her back in the pack and play. An hour or so later, she would wake up. I tried something new last night to try to get her to get more of the fatty hindmilk: Start nursing her on one side until she starts to slow down. Then I switch to the other side. When a let-down occurs, I quickly switch her back to the first side so that she can get more hindmilk. Repeat a few times and then I put her back down to sleep. I'd say it worked pretty well. We'll see if it continues to work. 

Hannah and I visited a friend who also just had her baby. The baby is about 2 weeks younger than Hannah. We did a mini-photo shoot in their cool home studio. Two sleeping babies: A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E. 

Nathan has been interested with tools lately. He's been playing with Allen wrenches, screw drivers and hammers. He's actually really good with them too. He has the fine motor skills to actually unscrew screws with the tools. I'm surprised that we don't have a bunch of things falling apart.

There has been times where Nathan needs to have a time out. This happens when he disobeys what we tell him not to do or when he impulsively hits another person, or throws something at them. I'm pretty sure that he has no ill intentions, but he's simply trying to figure out what would happen if... Regardless, those behaviors are not OK and so we have him go to time out to help him understand what situations are not OK. Our time-outs consist of putting him behind a door, shutting it, and counting to ten before opening the door and explaining to Nathan what he should have been doing. When we started to do this a few months ago, he would cry and come out cuddly and sad. When asked if he wanted a time out, he would quickly shake his head. 

Now, things are different. When he does something bad and we tell Nathan to go to time out, he actually seems happy to go. He runs to the bathroom and shuts the door. We then count to ten slowly. Sometimes he counts with us. Then he opens the door and runs to us. We explain to him what he should be doing instead and most of the time he doesn't repeat the undesired behavior. I don't know how effective this will be in the long term, but for now it seems to work. 

Nathan is also into jumping. He can now jump, with both feet off of the floor at the same time. He's actually kind of obsessed with it. When we take walks or walk anywhere with curbs, he will jump. Sometimes he runs up a neighbor's uphill driveway and jumps, saying "tiao" ("jump" in chinese") as he hops back down to the sidewalk. 

Nathan is continuing to sleep from about 8 pm to 7:30 - 8 am and on most days, takes a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. He is still anti-veggies and will only eat them if they are pureed. 

Nathan can finally reach the pedals on his trike. He understands the process of pedaling, but he does a modified form of it; he will push forward about a half of a cycle and then pedal back and forth to go forward slowly. (It's not a fixed gear) Nathan is not very good at steering, but I'm sure that will come in due time. 

Nathan really enjoys playing with his Thomas the train set. His favorite engine is Henry. I don't know why, but he is always yelling "Hen-E" and looking for him. It's probably the toy that he is most attached to. 

 Nathan likes to help build the track, but sometimes Mommy and Daddy have more fun and start to help out as well. Daddy has printed out a few specialty pieces with his 3D printer so we can make lots of cool designs.

 Every day before nap time, we feed the fish. Lately we've spotted 2 snails and every day Nathan tries to look for them.

Sometimes I feel like I'm taking care of 2.5 children. For example, if I'm nursing Hannah, sometimes Nathan will want to "nurse" his Hannah doll. Of course, it doesn't last long for him and then he hands his baby to me, insisting that I nurse her as well. Some days he wants his big baby, some days he just has to have his little baby, so it's almost like I'm taking care of half of another kid.

The weather is finally cooling down so I foresee lots of afternoons spent outside in the next few weeks. For now, I'm probably going to update the blog on Tuesdays because Nathan goes to school on that day, which allows me to get a few moments of extra sleep, eliminating the need for an afternoon nap. Once Hannah starts sleeping through the night, I may switch back to Wednesdays. 

That's it for now. 

Love, 

Mommy

Week 103/4 Hannah is (almost) 1 Month Old

To my dear children,
I bet you've had a blast this week with both grandma and grandpa. Once grandpa arrived on Saturday, we were busy riding trains and seeing wild animals. We were looking for something to do on a rainy Saturday afternoon and grandpa suggested that we go ride the new-ish commuter train. (For those of you who don't know grandpa, he's an uber train enthusiast) While Hannah pretty much slept the whole way, Nathan loved it!

In fact, grandpa started to train Nathan to pick up time tables. In a few decades, they'll be worth a few bucks.

We had a freak cold front come in this weekend, bringing the temps down to the 60s and 70s. A few years ago, we were sweating like pigs in 100+ degree weather. So we took advantage of the cool weather and went to visit the Austin zoo. Last time we went, Nathan was fearless. This time around, he was a bit more cautious and loud lion roars now scare him. We had a nice picnic (except for the ravenous peacocks who were trying to snatch our food) and then headed home just before the clouds cleared up and warmed up the weather.

Even though there are no elephants at the zoo, Nathan came up with the idea of imitating an elephant.

 Nathan's English vocabulary has gotten tremendously better just this week. He's starting to say more words and use expressions like "alright." In chinese, he's starting to speak in phrases.

Hannah can't talk yet, but she can hold her head up pretty well in the baby bjorn. I can actually fold the top flap down and she can hold her head enough not to flop backwards.

It's so crazy that in 2 days, Hannah will be a month old. Wow, what they say is true, time with the second one whizzes by.

And in about 2 weeks, Nathan will turn 2. I actually picked up Nathan for the first time this week and was shocked at how big he has become. Maybe it's just that I'm used to carrying a little newborn, but his legs now dangle down around my thighs when I carry him. [sniff] he's getting to be such a big boy.

So, we decided to celebrate Nathan's birthday early since your granparents were in town.

 I was pretty surprised when you blew out the candle without prompting after we finished singing the "Happy Birthday" song. You did it quick too! And then when we ate the cake, I was pleasantly surprised to find that you, like most kids your age, ate all of the frosting before you ate the cake. (In the past, you preferred cake to frosting)

 Then we opened up presents. Nathan has been opening up lots of presents lately for Hannah, so when presented with a box wrapped with sesame street characters, Nathan knew right away that his task was to rip open that paper to uncover the surprise underneath.

Grandma and grandpa got him some new trains and track for his Thomas collection. Nathan's favorite new train is Henry. He can sit down and play with the trains for hours. I'm not kidding. Hours.

On Monday we went to a park nearby and Nathan got a chance to ride his new scooter around. He was able to ride the scooter all around the (what we think is) 1 mile loop. Daddy helped him steer since Nathan hasn't quite gotten that down yet, but I'm sure soon he will be whizzing around our neighborhood in no time.

Today is my first official day being alone with you guys. I'd say things have gone pretty smoothly so far. Hannah is still pretty much sleeping and nursing every 2-3 hours. Around 4-5 in the afternoon Hannah will stay awake for the most part and take lots of small catnaps until around 9-10. During that time, she is also constantly wanting to feed. At night, she sleeps for about 2 hour stretches on average. They say that at about a month, babies start to sleep longer. Let's hope that it is true.

 If you look at the picture below, you can see where Hannah was preparing for a growth spurt. She was feeding every hour! And sure enough, a few days later, her harness was a bit tighter. Luckily we had an appointment on Tuesday where the doctor readjusted her straps.

While I miss sleeping for stretches longer than 2 hours, I keep trying to remind myself that these precious moments will come and go. And this time around, the disrupted sleep schedule doesn't bother me as much. 

She seems to be snacking for many of her feeds in that she will nurse for about 10 minutes and then doze off to a deep sleep. It's difficult to wake her. The baby whisperer suggests that I start nursing for about 5 minutes on one breast and then have her finish her feeding at the other. This way she gets the good hindmilk. I'll continue to nurse on demand for a week longer to see if she starts to sleep longer on her own, but if not, I will try something new. 

When not nursing, Hannah doesn't mind hanging out in the swing for 5-10 minutes. Any longer, she starts to fuss. Like mommy, Hannah falls asleep anytime she's in the car. This was not the case with Nathan. Other than that, I'd say there aren't really any other major milestones yet. Although in a few weeks, that will not be the case. 

Well, that's it for now. I love you both lots and pray that things continue to go smoothly as the three of us spends our days together. 

Love, 

Mommy

a

Family Photo Shoot

About a week before Hannah arrived, Steve took a picture of the bump. It's crazy how this little girl used to be all cramped up inside the womb. Life is amazing. 

Since it was a nice day, I decided to do an impromptu family photo shoot. While Hannah had some unflattering shots, everyone else did a good job.

Big Brother

Big Brother + Little Sister

Big Brother <3 Little Sister

I finally get to put beautiful bows on my little baby. Here's a first of many.

Considering that we used the timer on our camera and a step stool, I'd say these turned out pretty good. Maybe one day we'll get a professional photo shoot in.

Week 102/3

Dear Little Honeybuns,
It's been an exciting week for Nathan. Last Thursday, was his first day of toddler preschool. It was an exciting morning: parents and children running around with their new backpacks and lunch boxes. We took a few pictures outside of the church and proceeded to go inside.

 Bam. The little guy trips and falls. It was like something out of a movie, when the nerdy kid trips on the first day of school. But Nathan took it all in stride, stood up, brushed himself off and continued on. He didn't even want me to kiss the boo boo.

When we picked him up from school, he was very happy. The teachers even said that he did the best out of the whole group and asked if he had ever been in school before. Of course, we said, "no" but perhaps being in the same room for church and mops meetings help a bit. Afterwards, as we walked towards the car, he seemed to have a sense of pride as he carried his lunchbox all by himself. I'm glad we decided to have him start school.

Today was his second day. Things went well again. We figured out that he is the oldest kid in the class. The next oldest kid is only a day younger than he is. It's so crazy how a few months can make a huge difference in a toddler's development.

Taking advantage of multiple people staying at home this week, we allowed Nathan to open his birthday present early. Immediately, he started scooting around the house.

 After we felt that he had a pretty good grasp of pushing himself, we went outside. Nathan really enjoyed scooting around. Even after a big lip bonk on a curb, he still wanted to ride his scooter home.

 Last week, Daddy was able to stay home and play. Unfortunately the boys got sick towards the end of the week, but in turn, they were able to spend some quality time together as the girls tried not to get sick. Luckily the cold was short-lived and in a few days, they boys were back in tip-top shape.

Hannah has gone through a major growth spurt this week. For about 3 days, she was feeding every 1 - 1.5 hours. In about a week, she has gained 1.4 pounds. At 3 weeks old, she is over 8 pounds. (It took Nathan 2 months to reach 8 pounds)

 We took Hannah to get an ultrasound of her hip on Thursday. The doctor determined that her right hip socket has not developed completely, so she has to wear a harness for a few months. He thinks that after a month of wearing it for 23 hours a day, she will be able to reduce the time to about 12 hours a day afterwards.

I actually hate the harness. The material that it is made out of is quite rough and abrasive. It's so awkward to cuddle with Hannah when she has the harness on. I value the hour where I get to hold her sans harness and I look forward to the day does not have to wear it anymore. Nursing is quite awkward too. I'm finding that the football hold and the across the body hold works the best. The days of side-lying while co-sleeping are over. It just doesn't work with the harness. Here's a picture of Hannah in the harness. It's amazing to think that pretty soon she will grow to be larger than this baby doll.

Grandma has been visiting this week and Nathan has been really enjoying time spent with her. Grandma is very impressed by how coordinated Nathan is.

Thanks to Grandma, I've actually been able to catch up on sleep. I've been able to sleep in a bit later, and get an hour or two nap in during the afternoon.

I am actually able to get about 6-7 hours of sleep each night. Hannah does a pretty good job of going back to sleep after she nurses. Some nights are better than others: sometimes she takes an hour to feed, sometimes it's only 30 minutes. But I'm just thankful that the growth spurt is over...for now.

I'm thankful that Hannah doesn't need to be swaddled to sleep well. She is happy on her back with a blanket over her. We are also very fortunate to still not have to pace around the house to get her to fall asleep. Most of the time I can lay her down as she is drowsy and she will fall asleep on her own. Some nights, that doesn't work and I just hold her or nurse her until she falls asleep and then I put her back in her pack and play. Steve has been fortunate to be able to sleep through the night. Thank you Hannah.

Well, that's it for now. I'm off to get some much needed sleep.

Love,
Mommy

Week 101/2

Dear Little Honeybuns,
This past week has been quite memorable, with a visiting grandma and extra Daddy time during the day. Nathan's been quite the silly one, wanting to be like baby sister.

 But sometimes he has been quite the big boy. Like in the picture below, he's eating his 3rd piece of corn on the cob! Nathan really liked the meals that his Ama made during the week. Seems like he's gone through a growth spurt. When I change his diapers, I can't help noticing how big he is getting.

I received a phone call from our church pre-school yesterday. Nathan has a spot for this year and he starts tomorrow! Talk about quick and big change. We scurried to get all the school supplies, his lunch is packed and ready to go. We'll see how things go tomorrow.

Hannah is getting pretty big too! At her 2 week check up, she weighed in at 7 pounds 4 ounces. (She started out at 6 pounds 6 ounces). At her first check-up (3 days old), she had dropped down to 6 pounds. So, in a little over a week, she's gained a little over a pound!

Proud Ama and Hannah

We've been very blessed this week to have meals brought to us by my MOPS (Mothers of Pre-schoolers) group.

One day, when we were saying good-bye to one of the moms, we found this little guy on our door step. Later on, he was gone.

Mexican Free-Tailed Bat

One morning, Nathan suggested that he and Daddy do some vacuuming. So they traveled from room to room, vacuuming.

 Everywhere we go, people comment on how small Hannah is. I didn't realize it until I saw Daddy holding her one day. She is tiny!

Things are going pretty well. Hannah is still sleeping a lot. She nurses every 2-3 hours and sleeps in between. I've figured out that she can fall asleep on her own without being swaddled or held. This was not the case with Nathan. I wish I was able to save Nathan's sleep log (had to reset my phone), so I am saving Hannah's on here for future reference. Her daytime sleep still seems a bit erratic, but at night, she is waking up at fairly regular times (around 1 am and 4 am). I am nursing her for about 45 minutes and then she goes right back to sleep.

Hannah is an eating machine and a pooping machine. I've read that once they reach 1 month, they start to poop closer to once a day (as opposed to 8+). It's funny how I don't remember much of these days with Nathan. Hannah seems to be generally much easier to take care of. According to Tracy Hogg, the "baby whisperer" Nathan was more like the "textbook baby" and Hannah is more like the "angel baby." Of course, this will probably change in a few weeks, but for now, I am enjoying this time with both of my little babies. 

Tomorrow Hannah has an appointment to get an ultrasound taken of her hips. When she was born, her hips were a bit loose in the sockets and the doctors could hear a clicking sound when they moved her legs. We went to see a pediatric orthopedist and he seemed pretty confident that her condition is pretty mild and would not need too much, if any treatment. Apparently, 50% of babies born with hip dysplasia correct themselves by 2 weeks.  Let's hope things are ok. 

Well, that's about it for now. Both of you are up from your nap. 

Love, 

Mommy