Hannah's First Smiles and Whacks of Week 8

Dear Hannah, 

You have suddenly gotten so much more alert recently. You are able to hold your head up pretty well for awhile and when you are awake, you stay awake and alert for about 30 mins to 1 hour before you start to get cranky or fall asleep. 

You seem to love bath time. You like to splash your feet around in the water. In the picture below, you don't look very happy, but trust me, you love bath time. When you are fussy, you immediately calm down as soon as you are placed in the warm bath water. 

 This week I've been placing you on the activity mat while we watch Nathan play. You started batting at one of the toys! We all cheered for you and we are very proud of this milestone.

 Sometimes if you are awake when Nathan is getting ready to go down for a nap, he will read to you.

 Sometimes out of the blue, Nathan will hit you. I can assure you that he loves you so much, but he just can't control his impulses. Mommy always sends him into a time out and we talk about how it hurts you when he hits.

Here's that social smile that I was talking about. You smile when I sing to you.

 This is your gassy smile.

You actually like being on the swing. You love to look at the mobile that hangs above your head. You sometimes can sit quietly and entertain yourself for up to 30 minutes.

Your sleep schedule is falling into a more predictable pattern:
Wake up at 9 am
Down for a nap from 10:00 - 12:00, waking once for a quick feed.
Down for a nap from 2:00 - 5:00
1 to 2, 30 minute quick cat naps from 6 to about 8:30.
Bath time at 8:30.
Fall asleep from 9:30 to 10:00 for 3-4 hours. (One night, you almost slept 5 hours)
From then you wake up after 2 hours to nurse, but go back to sleep quickly.

For now, it's predictable, so it's nice to help me plan and schedule things to do.

Tomorrow, we go to the doctor to get your hips checked. You have 2 more weeks in the harness. In 2 weeks, you will get an x-ray taken of your hips to make sure that things are ok. I'm curious to see how that is going to go. Well, that's it for now. Stay sweet.

Now I'm going to write to your brother...

Dear Nathan,
You are starting to become quite the talker, and a demanding one at that too. You've also become quite the backseat driver. When I'm driving, you are constantly telling me to drive faster, slower, go, or stop. You have also started to request song tracks from our chinese songs CD.

At home, you are still obsessed with your trains. You want me to play with you. If I ever leave for a bit to get something, you will yell "Mommy, Lai (Come)" repeatedly until I am right in front of you once again. But you don't want me to play with your trains. I'm only allowed to build the track and watch you play. Lucky for me, I feel like building the track is the fun part.

Sometimes you randomly will hit Hannah and they say "Waah." You know that hitting Hannah hurts her and that it makes her cry, so why do you continue to do it? I wish you could use your words to tell me about how you are frustrated or sad about something. Here's a picture of  you hitting Hannah that I just happened to get while I was taking a picture of you spinning the butterflies for Hannah to look at.

 In the afternoons we are still doing some cooking. One day this week, we made cookies and on another, we made granola bars. I thought it would be fun for us to try to eat like Teddy, so I had you try to eat the granola bar crumbs without your hands. You thought it was pretty fun, but you prefer to use your fingers.

You continue to still drool a lot, especially when you are concentrating on something. I'm thinking about having you go back to using your electric toothbrush. It seemed like it helped when I had you use it about a year ago. But then again, I think your 2 year molars are coming in as well, causing you to be extra drooley.

On the potty training front, you still continue to use the potty for number 2. You are actually able to recognize that you need to go and run to the bathroom. (But you call it "pee pee") Lately, you have been trying to keep your diaper dry and will tell me that your undies or diaper is still dry. However, when you realize that you've gone number 1, it's often too late. I have a feeling that we are just going to have to do the no diaper boot camp over one of these weekends.

That's it for this week.

Love,
Mommy

Life with a 7 Week and 2 Year Old

Dear Children,
I feel like this past week we have finally settled into a pretty good routine. Life with 2 children is starting to work itself out and become less unpredictable. One thing for sure is that second time around, I am definitely able to really enjoy the blessings of a newborn without being stressed out about whether or not what I'm doing will pave the way for the next serial killer.

When Hannah wakes up in the middle of the night, instead of grumbling and desperately wondering when she will sleep through the night, I actually find joy in providing her with nourishment that only I can provide.

During the infamous (misnamed) "witching hour" I don't mind spoiling her with cuddles while being completely unproductive.

And while I stressed out about sleep schedules and feedings with Nathan, I find it surprising that I don't even think about those things anymore. She sleeps when she's tired and eats when she's hungry.

While I find many joys with being blessed with two children, there are also some challenges that come up occasionally as well. I think the toughest moments for me are when Hannah is crying and Nathan desperately needs my undivided attention for some reason. I'm still trying to find a balance between rushing to pick up Hannah while having Nathan wait and just letting Hannah cry while I work things out with Nathan.

Hannah's sleep schedule has started to become a bit more predictable. At night she will start sleeping around 8:30 for about 3 hours. Then from that point, she will sleep for 2 - 3 hour stretches until about 8:30 in the morning. In the afternoon, she will take a nap from about 2 to 4. The rest of the day is random. She takes about a 2 hour nap before lunch and then in the afternoon, she just takes short cat naps. She is just a little over 10 pounds at this point.

As Hannah becomes more alert during the day, I'm going to have to find some activities that we can do to entertain both Nathan and Hannah. If there are any moms reading this, please feel free to comment below.

It seems like Nathan talks non-stop recently. I just realized how vocal he was today while we were at the play ground. We were on the swings and he was the only one talking and screaming joyfully as he swung back and forth. He's also mastered the phrase, "Mommy, Lai! (Come)" and will repeat it constantly when he wants my attention (even if I am right in front of him). He also called me "Mom" for the first time this week. I'm not sure where he got it, but I prefer Mommy for now.

Nathan finds so much pride and joy with helping me out. He can now get water by himself from the fridge, turn on light/fan switches (which are all super helpful for a nursing mom) and pull out laundry completely by himself and pull it to a specified location.

He is also more adventurous in trying out new phrases and words. Things like "poo poo boo boo"
(pain from being constipated) only have to be said once before Nathan picks it up and knows what it means. Nathan is starting to develop a sense of humor. He knows when things are socially funny and sometimes he will join in the laughter during an adult conversation.

Nathan doing the "Wei Baby" (Feed Baby) 

Two weekends ago, we went to the museum at Camp Mabry. Nathan was pretty intrigued by the different military vehicles. While we were at goodwill, I found this plane and showed it to Nathan. He immediately took it and handed me me the other toys that were in his cart quickly and said, "all done." He played with his new $.59 plane the rest of the day. 

 Nathan still really likes to play with his train set. Today he overcame his fear of the battery powered Percy and actually included it during his play time.

So, ever since Nathan was born, I secretly wished that I could put these huge flowery headbands on him. Luckily, Hannah came around and  now I can publicly parade her around in cute headbands and bows. I saw a few tutorials on Pinterest and decided to try it out during my rare free moments. I was able to use the fabric from clothes that I was going to throw out to make all of these bows (except for the top left one). They are surprisingly easy and don't take much time to make at all. Plus they are super cute.

Can you believe that these were all made from old shirts? (except for top left corner)

Well, that's all I can remember to write about for now. Oh, we are getting ready for Halloween and I'm getting the family costumes together. I already have Nathan's completed and will work on Hannah's next. Daddy and my costume will come later. I can't wait.

Until next week,
Mommy

Nathan Turns 2 and Update on Hannah's Hips

To my dear children,
 This week has been very eventful. The big news is that Nathan turned 2 years old. We've been working on having Nathan answer the question "How old are you?" with this:

 Instead of the traditional peace sign-style "two," Nathan does it stick-em up style. Nathan's actual birth day fell on a church pot-luck night so we celebrated with our friends at church. Everyone sang "Happy Birthday" and Nathan did this cute dance with his 2 pointer fingers. When the song ended, he blew out the candles and exclaimed, "yay!"

I can't believe how quickly these 2 years have gone by. This really makes me realize that I need to treasure every moment with little Hannah. I find that being a second time parent I know what to expect so instead of wondering when she will sleep through the night, I have more of a "this is time for us to bond" attitude.

Nathan has been handling being a big brother pretty well. One day this past week he repeatedly would hit Hannah. We tried time outs, re-directions on what we should do instead and it seemed like a lost cause. I brought this to the attention of my Facebook friends and pretty much got the unanimous advice to spend more quality time with him. Well, along with positive reinforcement, it worked. Nathan is back to being loving and gentle when it comes to interacting with his little sister.

We tried painting for the first time. It was a success. Nathan really enjoys painting. When Daddy came home, Nathan was so proud to show him what he had done.

 We've also spent a lot more time reading and singing songs. Nathan really likes this Thomas book that he received from his great-grandparents.

 We've even tried our hand at jewelry making. We made bracelets for everyone in the family. In the picture below, Nathan is making one for Daddy in U of I colors.

On the day after Nathan's birthday, we all drove up to Burnett, where we met up with a friend to ride Thomas. Nathan was so excited when he first spotted Thomas that he didn't even know what to say.

 We even snagged a picture with the conductor.

The train ride was pretty short. Nathan was afraid of the loud track noises. He liked it when Thomas tooted. 

 Afterwards, there was a guy who was leading the little kids in song and dance. Here they are doing the hokey pokey, one of Nathan's favorites.

Oh, and Nathan can now say "Thomas" instead of "doo doo" which is what he used to refer to the little blue engine. 

We have decided to turn Nathan around in his car seat. He now faces forward and really likes the view. Going on a car ride is one of his favorite things to do. (Unlike 1.5 years ago)

Nathan is really into jumping these days. In fact, on our daily walks to the mailbox, he will jump the whole way there. Of course, it takes forever, but he jumps, takes a few steps and jumps again. We;ve been working on landing a jump down. He's gotten pretty good at it, but he needs to have his shoes on. 

 We took Hannah in for a follow-up visit for her hips. After looking at the ultrasound, the doctor has determined that her hips are now in the normal range. She still has to wear her brace for one more month, but for only 12 hours a day. He's also loosened the straps a lot more so that when she has it on, she has more mobility. Yay! This means more cuddles.

 I think I've gotten handling two children. Now, I just need to start figuring out how to get chores in as well.

That's it for now.
Love,
Mommy

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

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