Tuesday, March 30, 2010

slumber party at popo's

Starting April, Makayla will be spending every Sunday night and all of Monday at popo's house while mommy and daddy go to work. We had a trial run last Sunday and everything went smoothly. Everyone got enough sleep and enough to eat. :) Mommy was more nervous than Makayla. Popo also invited Taipo (great grandma) to spend the night too! We are super grateful for everyone's help. Thanks for taking care of Makayla!


week 11

Makayla is growing so fast. She's now about 13lbs and 24in tall. She eats about 5-6oz per meal, 4-5 meals a day. Sleeping is going well...not sure how/why but amazingly, she's been sleeping 8-12 hours through the night and takes short naps (45 min-3 hrs) throughout the day. She's really alert and wants to look at everything. She smiles when you talk to her and coos occasionally as if she's carrying on a conversation with you. Lately, she seems to be more aware of her arms and legs, putting her hands together, staring at her arms and moving her limbs a lot (one at a time or all at the same time). Her legs are super strong...wonder if she'll skip crawling and go straight to walking?! She also has many different facial expressions.






















































are you blind?


So, ever since we started bringing Makayla to church at 1 month old, we've had plenty of chinese speaking people ask "Is a boy?" That is not a typo, that's how they ask. No, she is not a boy. And if she was a boy, why in the world would I purposely dress my son in a pink cap, white outfit with lavender flowers, and a pink blanket?!?!

This ranks up there with people calling me "Ab" or "Abby." Grrrr.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

goong goong and me

listening to goong goong talk during dinner...(click on images to see makayla's expressions)

"hmm...he looks so animated!"







"what is he talking about?!"







"he's boring me..."







"get me out of here!"







"zzz..."

Friday, March 26, 2010

surprises

Makayla never ceases to surprise us...

...holding her pacifier at day 5...











...lifting her head up for over a minute at 2 months...







...sleeping through the night at 2 months...







Thursday, March 25, 2010

back to work soon :(

A week from today, I’m going to be sitting in my office, catching up with 3 months worth of work emails. It’s amazing how fast time flew by. Where did the last 3 months go?! My 14-week ‘vacation’ is up soon and I have to go back to the working world. Before I had kids, I’ve always told myself I’m not going to be a stay-at-home-mom...I didn't think I would be able to stand staying at home and doing nothing but taking care of the baby and chores. I still can’t see myself doing that now... but now that I am a mom, to think that I’m going to miss seeing my baby grow up just breaks my heart. I’m really going to miss spending time with her, watching her grow, develop new skills, learn to roll over, take her first steps, speak her first words…I think I’m even going to miss changing her diapers…yup, even the blowout ones. The other day I was taking an afternoon walk with makayla and got all choked up when I told her I won’t be able to take walks with her like this anymore once I go back to work. *sigh* (my eyes are getting blurry as I type this). What if she forgets about me and thinks that I’m another relative that visits every night?! …this is going to be a tough transition...

first time at the park

Took Makayla to Bellevue Downtown park for the first time today! Here're some pictures taken with Abe's phone.





Monday, March 22, 2010

bedtime

Abe here...After Makayla's bathtime comes bedtime. We've tried to keep her on a nighttime routine, so she knows that it's time to wind down for bedtime. It begins with a bath, then feeding, bedtime story (if she doesn't fall asleep while feeding), and then sleepy time. Amazingly, Mak is now sleeping a good 6-7 hours through the night. She started doing this at about 2 months old, and we thought this wasn't possible for another 2-4 months! The first time it happened, Heidi and I woke up in the morning and thought we had slept so deep that we didn't hear her cry at night. We went to her room expecting her face swollen and bed sheets soaked with tears, but she was sound asleep with her arms sticking straight out the sides, just the way she likes to sleep.

Looks like Mak just fell asleep after feeding...no bedtime story tonight. Ok, nevermind, she just opened her eyes...

bathtime

One of Makayla's favorite time of day is her bedtime routine, namely bathtime. When we first introduced her to the tub about one month after she was born, she seemed indifferent, as if saying, "pshh...this is nothing, I used to live in water...." A week went by and she discovered that if she kicks the water really hard, water splashes everywhere and mommy and daddy get really animated while watching her have fun in the water. So since then, bathtime has become one of her favorite activities. The only problem now is that after her vigorous evening exercises, she almost always manages to squeeze out a couple ounces of #2. yup, mommy and daddy go crazy every time she does that too. Need to teach her bathtub does not equal toilet!!!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

my 1st blog posting













makayla - 2.5 months

We put Makayla in front of the keyboard and this is what she typed:

hgyfcccccccccccb bhghgbfgjhghgtvcccfddfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvfv dggggggggggggfffffffffjjmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Translation by mommy: "finally mommy and daddy (mainly mommy) got their act together and created a blog for me. Now I can tell the world all about my growth and development and all my favorite things!"

Friday, March 19, 2010

bathtime!

Monday, March 1, 2010

reflections

I tried to keep a diary after makayla was born but that only lasted 6 weeks. Hopefully I'll be better at blogging.

1.15.2010 Day 7, Week 1

Random thoughts from a one-week old mom:

Wow, what a weekend! Labor wasn't as hard as i thought! phew! The pain was tolerable and contractions weren't that bad. I wonder if I just have a high tolerance for pain or if my labor experience was just exceptionally easy?! By the time I got to the hospital I was already 5cm dilated (halfway there). I was still walking around and breathing through the contractions. My adrenaline was high and I REALLY wanted the baby to come out (as she's 6 days late already). I guess those childbirth videos really helped me to prepare for the worst.

Overwhelmed with thanks...too many things to count! Praise God for a smooth, drug free delivery, for friends and family who visited and supported/celebrated with us, for an amazing hospital and caring staff, for yummy hospital food, for letting me stay at the hospital one more day so I can recover from low iron levels (which meant more yummy hospital food), for a beautiful and healthy baby. I was really sad when they said Makayla has jaundice and had to stay at the hospital for treatment. But now that I think about it, it actually worked for the better. It gave Abe and I time to slowly readjust to life at home. We got to settle down and prepare the house for the baby's safe arrival. Praise God.

Finding the new ‘normal’...I keep wanting to go back to a 'normal routine' when i finally came to accept that life will not be 'normal' (as before) anymore. gotta find a new 'normal'.

My life now..."organized chaos".

Feeling guilty for doing nothing but sleep, feed, eat and repeat. Been having dreams about work (is that weird?) For now, i guess I just need to put my life on hold for awhile.

Little things make my happy nowadays. Being a new mom is definitely a learning process but there are many rewards and joys along the way. My milk is starting to come in and I went from getting 3cc – 70cc!!! Still work in progress but there is hope! :)

1.16.2010 Day 8

Searching for truth behind traditions...
I was getting tired of everyone telling me not to eat this, not to do that so I googled some of their advice and found this.

I guess i wasn't the only one wondering about the legitimacy of "no washing hair for one month"

1.22.2010 Day 15, Week 2

Can’t believe Makayla is two weeks and 1 day old!!! Time flies yet it goes by slow…I guess only when I’m breastfeeding. Bev, the lactation specialist said that I have to feed at least 30-45 min per feeding. So far, I’d be happy if I make it past 20 min. It’s not that I don’t have the milk supply. I have plenty to offer (as I’ve been pumping 5oz. It’s just that Makayla can’t stay awake long enough to enjoy the milk. It worries me that she’s not getting enough. We have another appointment with Bev today at 3pm. Hopefully, Makayla has gained some weight since Wed. I’m highly skeptical cuz she barely ate yesterday and when she did eat, she spit it all up. I really hope she’s getting the nutrition that’s in the little milk that she’s taking. Will update after appt.

Bev the lactation consultant said that Makayla is not gaining as much weight as she should be…that she needs to feed at least 30-45 min per feeding. Right now, she’s only feeding 15-20 each time, mainly cuz she falls asleep really quickly. The good thing is her wet/stool diapers are still normal. I’ll try to feed her longer…

1.30.2010 Week 3

This week started a bit rough. On Monday, Mak started these crying spells that just would not stop. We changed her, fed her, burped her, rocked her and repeated all of the above and she still wouldn’t stop crying. It was heartbreaking to see her cry and not know what to do to make her feel better. Tuesday – same thing. Abe got fed up and googled “colic remedies”. He got some gas relief ‘not medicine’ medicine (Safeway version of Mylicon) and found a way to help her fart. She showed some improvements on Wednesday. By the end of the week, Mak was doing much better. Unfortunately, she broke out in baby acne this week also. It looks really bad and so uncomfortable. According to Dr. Rudnick and sites online, baby acne doesn’t really bother the baby and it usually goes away after a few weeks. Hopefully her skin will clear up by her one-month birthday party in 2 weeks.

Other than that, baby is doing well. She seems to be maturing every day, being more alert than ever and showing signs that she actually recognizes us. She’s attracted to the blue/yellow/black/white poster upstairs and she likes looking at the corner of her crib. She still doesn’t like to be swaddled up and always sticks her arms out when she sleeps…just like Abe. Mak’s already wearing 3-month old clothes!
Oh, and today, I went to Marcia’s wedding and Abe had his first day (most of the day) with Mak all by himself. It was my first public appearance after Mak’s birth. It was nice to see so many adults!  I made it past 5 hours and went home…boobs were engorged plus I miss the baby (and Abe too). Funny…of all days, Mak chose today to get on her super growth spurt. She woke up every 1-2 hours to feed and ate at least 2-3 ounces each time! She’s definitely a big eater! Anyway, Abe was pretty frustrated by the time I got home! He needed a time-out!

2.4.2010 Week 4

Life’s little rewards for a new mom:
• LONG (until the hot water runs out) hot shower after a 5:30am feeding
• Six hour stretch through the night (although we cheated and co-slept)
• Giant burp after a big meal
• Giant burp after a big meal NOT followed by projectile vomiting
• Two days worth of poop coming out all at once after suspicion of constipation
• Having time to type this up at 7am!

2.11.2010 Week 5

This week’s highlight has definitely got to be the blowout ‘two-man’ poop that happened right on our bed! Makayla was changed and fed at 2:30am but for some reason (which later we know why) didn’t fall back to sleep. After much time of rocking, singing, bouncing, mommy was getting tired and frustrated and decided to call for help from daddy. From previous spit-up episodes, we made sure to put a burp cloth under Makayla’s head to protect our sheets. Little did we know that the problem came out the other end! We heard a couple of bubbly farts followed by ‘OH NO!’…Makayla made another giant poop! This time it soaked thru her diaper, two layers of clothes and right onto our bed sheets. Gave her a bath, did laundry, fed her again, spit up again, changed her again…and finally went down after 3 hours of craziness. Needless to say, we didn’t go back to sleep until the sun came out!

We celebrated Mak’s one-month birthday on 2.14.2010, Saturday at Super Buffet with almost 70 family and friends. She slept through the whole thing! She fell asleep getting ready (including a bath) and didn’t wake up until the party was over! Went back to sleep after we got home. Didn’t participant in opening presents and slept through the photoshoot afterwards! Not sure why she was so tired. Maybe she was just pretending…to avoid socializing with so many people?!

2.18.2010 Week 6

Can’t believe Mak is SIX WEEKS OLD!!! She’s more alert than ever, looking around with her big eyes and head bent backwards. She’s so curious and wants to see everything around her. She’s sleeping about 4 hours now and staying up more during the day. Now the next challenge is training her to sleep through the night!
Today I fit into my pre-preggo jeans for the first time! YAY!