Baby Grins and Baby Trains of Week 12

This was the first week where I couldn't remember how old Nathan was. Crazy how quickly time flies. Soon, we will be referring to his age in months and even years! This week Nathan went through a major growth spurt. He was hungry every 2-3 hours, even during the night and I was starting to worry that he was regressing in his sleep. I was definitely brought back to the rough nights of the first weeks. But overall, I'm very thankful that he has had his feeding frenzies during the weekend when I have some extra help around the house. We had just weighed him on Friday and when we weighed him on Monday, he had gained 0.7 pounds. Crazy.

On a good note, last night he slept for a long time. He slept for 5 hours before I woke him up because my boobs were painfully engorged.

For awhile I've been wondering if I was producing enough milk. Sometimes I feel Nathan gets frustrated when he's nursing and gets nothing. So, I've been trying this herbal tea called "Mother's Milk." It's got fennel, anise, and fenugreek and pretty much tastes like herbs. It's not as bad as I thought it would be, considering that I'm not a big licorice fan, but I think it's helping. Nathan is feeding for less time (30-40 minutes as opposed to 60+ minutes) Apparently you just need to drink it to increase your supply and your body will sustain it, granted that the demand is there.

This week he has also started to smile a lot more. (Not just when I talk in a country accent) Other than when he's tired or hungry, he pretty much just smiles when you look at him. The moment that I've been waiting for has finally arrived.

I discovered this new game that I like to play with him. I kind of have him do sit ups. He holds on to my fingers as he starts out laying on his back. I then pull him up a bit, and then he uses his arms to pull himself upright and then slowly lifts his head up. I think he really likes it because after he is successful  he gives me this biggest smile. It almost seems as if he knows he accomplished something and is proud of himself.

Speaking of exercise, today, a few of the moms and their babies from our birthing group met up to go hiking at the greenbelt. There was a total of 5 moms and 5 babies. Half way through the hike, we stopped to nurse our babies and then we traded babies by passing each baby around in a circle. I kind of liked the feel of the bigger babies as I felt that they kind of fit a bit more snugly against my body, but I was glad when my light baby was returned to me.

The hike was exactly what I needed. We pretty much chatted about things from how we met our significant others to the sensation of breast feeding let downs. Since most of us had our babies in September, I really like being able to share the joys and trials of motherhood with other moms who were at similar stages with their babies. As each mom shared their experiences, I felt a sense of admiration in how strong and yet graceful these moms were for their babies.  (Perhaps strong and graceful aren't the exact words I want to use...maybe empowered and loving.)  It was such a neat experience, an experience that I hope to continue to have. I think our next event will be a pot luck.

As people passed us on their mountain bikes, someone in the group commented on how the baby train was coming through. Baby Train... I like it.

Week 11

During my run this past Saturday, I thought about how relatively stress free my life has become. Unlike my school days, I no longer have the stress of completing homework or studying for tests looming over my head. Nor do I have any of the teacher stresses such as thinking about students' problems or pesky administrative tasks to deal with. And no more grading! Yeah!  Has planning what to eat for lunch become the most stressful part of my day?

So recently, I've realized that I often wake up with my hands numb, sore, or asleep. It turns out that I have been clenching my fists as I sleep. My google-crazy self looked this symptom up and many have suggested that it is due to stress. At first I was like, no way. I have never been this stress free in my life! But then I thought about it some more and I realized that perhaps I am stressed, just in a different way. In the past, I have really only dealt with mostly external stressors. Family, school, and work issues were things that I faced, but really had little control over. The stress that I now face is more of an internal one, one that I've imposed upon myself; to raise the perfect child, and to do so, I must be the perfect mom.

I know that kids are really resilient, but a part of me thinks, why not create the most optimal environment? I feel like I'm doing a fairly good job, but I find myself always second guessing myself and I turn to the internet or parenting books to see what others suggest. Then, when I find that other moms have done it different ways (and their critical opinions on how others do it), I suddenly become a bit overwhelmed as I evaluate my own execution of the method.

For example, recently, I have Nathan on a pretty good sleep routine. One that I am happy with. I check out Dr. Karp's baby sleep book and I start to read it. Suddenly phrases like never have your child sleep on their backs and have your child sleep with white noise in the background the whole time or you can rock your child to sleep, just make sure you wake them a bit before they fall asleep are going across my mind. So last night when I put Nathan to bed, I held him until his eyes were closed. I put him down on his back and woke him up a bit and then turned on the white noise app on my phone (in airplane mode). This happened at around 9:45. Nathan did not fall asleep until 11:15, after Steve turned him on his stomach.

A part of me really just wants to say screw the expert. I'm going to follow my instincts.  But then another part of me thinks, well, he is the expert and I pretty much have no experience, so I should trust him. 

I guess that I just need to be more confident and trust my instincts. If we mess up, there's always number 2 right?

As far as Nathan goes, things are pretty steady. Nothing much has changed since last week, although I have discovered that speaking english in a country/western accent makes him laugh. It doesn't work with chinese, which was a bit weird for me to try in the first place. But almost without fail, if I speak to him like a country hick, he gets this huge smile on his face. It's really adorable.
This past weekend we took our Christmas and fall pictures. (Isn't it weird that we can take them during the same weekend?) It was pretty difficult to get both baby and dog looking at the camera at the same time. But we succeeded.


Enough leaves have fallen from the trees in the front 5yard for us to take a fall picture. He was a bit squinty from the sunlight...or it could be the Asian in him.

 I've been taking advantage of the child care at the gym I belong to. It's nice to get back to working out. I'm lifting weights, doing yoga, working on my core and of course, continuing with zumba! I really enjoy the exercise and it's also nice to have an hour just to myself. The ladies in the nursery are pretty awesome. They have been at the same gym for 11 years. They tell me that compared to many of the babies that they see, I have a really good boy. I'm so proud of him :) 

The first true smiles of week 10

Yay! Nathan is finally smiling. He smiles at me when he first wakes up and realizes that I'm in front of him. He smiles when I make funny noises, and he smiles when I contort my face to express what I would look like if my nose just suddenly fell off.

Sleeping is still going well. In fact, for the first time, he actually slept 4 hours and 52 minutes last night.  He sleeps one long stretch and then sleeps for 2 hours, and wakes up hungry. I expected a 3 hour stretch, but now that I know to expect this short stretch after the long one, I will be a bit more content.

According to the Wii, Nathan is finally a little over 10 pounds. He has about a month and a half to gain 2 more pounds (to double his weight by 4 months). I really hope I am producing enough milk for him. Sometimes after a long feed, he gets frustrated as he sucks. I find that when I relax and take a few deep breaths, a let down occurs. So, I guess I will just try that more often.

Yesterday, we attended the Baby love massage class again and I'm proud to say that Nathan made it through the whole class tears free. We even had a cute photography session where we took pictures with some Christmas props.

As you can see, he can hold his head up, but not his body. There were so many cute babies in Santa and elf outfits. I kind of wish we took a picture with all the babies together. Those seem to turn out really well. Oh well.

I've also started to read chinese children's books to Nathan. I borrowed 2 from the library and we are just reading and re-reading those before his afternoon naps.  I can tell that he really enjoys our reading time because he focuses on the pictures and he coos occasionally in response to what I read. I enjoy our reading sessions too.

In my spare time, I'm currently reading 2 books, which I recommend to anyone who has a young child. Here's my brief review of each.

The first one is Welcome to Your Child's Brain. By Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang.

It's very scientific in nature in that portions of it reminded me of my college human physiology book, but I like it because it helps me understand the physiology behind my baby's behaviors. Each chapter (out of 30) covers a different of development such as play, reading, and socialization. In addition, in each chapter is a short snippet of an article that give you practical applications of the information. Occasionally, the authors explain the studies that have been conducted to learn about the child brain.  It's not necessarily a "how to" book, but a "why" book. I kind of like this book better than other "how to" books because there are so many philosophies of thought out there and I like to know the facts and make my own choices on how to raise my son.

The next book is How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm by Mei-Ling Hopgood. The chapter titled "How the Chinese Potty Train Early" got me to check out this book. The author herself is an adopted child and examines how different cultures tackle different issues on raising children. The chapter titles such as "How Asians Learn to Excel in School" and "How the Japanese Let Their Children Fight" have some sort of a shock factor and are intriguing. I have one more chapter left and I've found a lot of the methods interesting. I agree with a lot of the reasoning behind why certain civilizations choose to their children the way they do, I would even prefer to follow their ways myself, but, I'm not sure if some of those methods would be feasible in the American society that I live in.

Compared to many of the babies in our centering group, I think Nathan is a pretty mellow guy and fairly easy to take care of. I've heard of what other parents are going through and I'm thankful that this baby is a good one. A super cute one too!

And we have a self-soother!

As you know, I have to train Nathan so that he can fall asleep on his own and not in our arms. After a week, I think we have success!

He's a drooler. Just like his mommy.

I'm not sure exactly how I did it, but I'm thinking it was the combination of the following:

1. No more bed sharing and having him only sleep in his pack and play.
2. Teaching him that he can fall asleep on his own using the white noise machine for a week.
3. Letting him cry it out, with a pacifier while returning to comfort him every 5 minutes. But not pick him up. And I only did this yesterday afternoon. He fell asleep after about 30 minutes of crying on and off.

Last night, Steve put him down drowsy. I was about 10 feet away, and reading in bed. He stirred a bit, but slowly, and quietly fell asleep on his own. I couldn't believe it. I actually got up to check if he was breathing.  Today when I put him down for his first nap, he also stirred and fussed for a few seconds, but then quietly soothed himself to sleep. No white noise machine, no pacifier. I was also reading in bed a few feet away. I'm not sure if my proximity made a difference in this process so, for the next nap, I will read again in bed, but periodically go out of the room and tomorrow, I will try to not be in the room as he falls asleep.

I also got 8 hours of sleep for the first time in over 2 months. Even though it wasn't consecutive, I am happy to have gotten that much sleep at night. This is how it happened. I hopped in bed at around 9:45 to read while Steve walked Nathan around for about 10 minutes. When he got drowsy, Steve put Nathan down in his pack and play. Steve left and took a shower. During his shower, Nathan was a bit squirmy, and whined quietly, but never really started to cry. Occasionally, he would get really quiet. When Steve was finished with his shower, he went to the office to surf the net. No noise coming from the Nate. I crept closer to him and he was asleep! This was about 10:15. I stayed awake to read until about 10:30. Steve joined me in bed and lights out for the night. 10 minutes til 3:00, I woke up and Nathan started to stirr. I waited a bit until he started to whimper more and I ended up picking him up at 3:00 for a feeding. I fed him, changed him and we were off to sleep by 4:00. 3 and a half hours later, Nathan woke up at 7:30 and I woke up refreshed with 8+ hours of sleep. I hope this trend continues.

First set of shots of week 9

The Best Gift Of All

This week Nathan is becoming more and more  interactive. I am really enjoying our short bursts of play time. He likes to look in the mirror. We also sing, dance, talk and imitate each other's facial expressions. Having a baby is starting to get more and more fun. As far as other milestones go, he is drooling a lot and can hold his head up. He's also gripping onto things as I put them into his hands.

As far as sleep goes, we are no longer bed sharing. He is now sleeping in his pack and play at night. I have also started to transition him into sleep training. By transitioning, I mean that I'm starting off by having him not fall asleep in a human's arms. When he's starting to nod off, I put him in his crib or pack and play. Most of the time, I put on some white noise to help soothe him, but there's been a few times when he does not need it and will fall asleep on his own. I'm going to keep this up until Christmas. In the new year, I will start sleep training him.

Every week, we attend a class at the birthing center called "Baby Love." It's basically a group of moms and their babies. We share frustrations, thoughts, and ideas while we massage our babies. The lady who teaches the class is really cool and each week she brings some signs to teach us. (Sign language) One thing I've learned so far is "just put some breast milk on it." Apparently, breast milk has antiseptic properties and is good for baby acne, cradle cap, cuts and stuffy noses. When I first heard about it, I thought it was a bit hokey, but sure enough, when I put the stuff on his baby acne, it was gone in about 2 days. Now, I'm working on his cradle cap and have seen significant improvements already.

Everyday, Nathan is a bit fussy from around 4:00 to around 7:00 pm. Around that time, we go on a walk. So far, everyday this week when I run into this old chinese lady, Nathan is crying or fussing. She always looks into his stroller and says "ay-yo" and walks off. She must think I'm a horrible mom. Other than this "witching hour" when he does not sleep and just whimpers, Nathan is a great baby.

Since Nathan was born, I've been trying to speak strictly Chinese to him. For awhile, I was failing miserably because I would forget and resort back to English. Well, this week I've done a better job and pretty much have spoken Chinese to him all week. I really hope this works and we can raise a bilingual (even trilingual) child.

Monday, he received his first round of shots. He handled it as well as a baby could and I handled it well too. I've heard of parents bawling, or feeling bad, but I had no such feelings and kind of feel guilty about it. This time, he had no reactions to the shots. His next round of shots will be in 2 months, so I hope he will have no reactions as well.

The meet and greets of 8 Weeks

Photo Credit: Michael Steiner

This week has been an exciting one for our little Nathan. First of all, he endured a long 6 hour car ride to Plano, and then he had a chance to meet a bunch of new friends.

The picture to the left is of my group of friends from high school. We started out as 6 band nerds, and over the years, we've lost and found loved ones, most of us got married, and a few of us have popped out some little ones. We had a get together over the Thanksgiving break and got a chance to catch up and have our little ones meet. It was truly a special event. Probably one of the highlights of my year. I hope we can do this more often. It will be neat to take the same picture over the years to see how the babies have grown (and how we have aged).

Nathan is getting to be so big! When I woke up one morning this week, I could have sworn that he had grown a bunch during the night. No big smiles yet, but more often, I am seeing little grins coming from his little mouth.

Steve and I are both better (from having colds) and we sure are glad that Nathan didn't catch any of our colds.

Also, how could I forget to mention that earlier this "week" my friends from Paredes (the school I used to teach at) came over to meet Nathan. We ended up having a potluck dinner and had a good time visiting with each other.

As far as sleeping goes, Nathan is mostly sleeping for 3 hour stretches, although he is sneaking in one four hour session each night...which is great for mommy. In a couple of days, Nathan will go in for his 2 month check up and....shots.

Trailor Food, Movie Theaters, and Sick Parents

Zilker Park Walk

Yay! We made it past the 6 weeks growth spurt and we are well on our way to week 7. This week was a tough one, although it didn't start out too tough. Steve's parents came to visit this past weekend so we had a chance to sneak out for our first date night since Nathan was born. The date night was very romantic. We had planned on trying out the new brick-and-mortar Gourdoughs (a gourmet doughnut shop on steroids) for dinner and then going to watch wreck-it-ralph. Well, the directions to the restaurant took us instead to the original Gourdoughs, which is in a trailer food park. So we braved the chilly night and shared 3 tacos from a taco stand and a mother clucker doughnut.
I don't know if it was the ambient lighting of the trailer park, or that it was just that long since we've had a date night, but I felt tingly feelings from back when we were dating. So, overall, we really enjoyed our time together, but at the end of the night, we looked forward to seeing our little honey bun again.

The next day, I felt cold all day. We went out to lunch with the parents, and when I got home, I was having chills, felt exhausted and a bit nauseous. I decided to take a quick nap. 30 minutes later, I hear the garage door open and suddenly Steve comes home. He was feeling sick too, but his symptoms were sinus pressure and drippy nose. We got everyone's temperature and I was the only one with a fever of 102.

We slept through the afternoon and I was dreading the night. How could we possibly take care of a baby when both of us are sick? And if I had the flu, it was going to be a tough week. But most importantly, how do we keep Nathan from getting sick?

There were times that night where I thought that I could not go on any longer. That I would just put him in his crib and go to sleep myself. My body was sore all over and I was exhausted. The feeling was almost worse than labor. Then, the sun came up and it all seemed a bit better. I expected to wake up sniffly, but my airwaves were still clear. I really had no symptoms, but my fever still lingered at 100 degrees. It turns out that I had the stomach virus. Perhaps it was something I ate. But I am thankful that it was just that.

This week really made me realize how different our lives have changed now that our little guy is in our life.