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We just knew it. Our sleep karma was too good to be true. For the last week or two, Allison has been sleeping 6 hours (once even 7!) before waking up at night. Then she would sleep another 1.5 – 2 hours before waking up again in the morning, followed by a couple hours awake and another 2 – 3 hour nap at 10AM.

The “opposite” reaction started happening 3 days ago when Katherine gave up her afternoon nap. For non-primary caregivers, this may be surprising but not impactful. For those who spend all day with Katherine, this means 12 straight hours of managing very busy and somewhat cranky behavior. I tried several times unsuccessfully last Wednesday to put her down for her nap. This happened again on Thursday, and Friday we didn’t even try. Ironically she fell asleep in her jogger late afternoon on Friday, and then in the car on Saturday – but both days she had a lot of physical exercise.

So, on one hand, we’re lucky and optimistic about Allison’s sleep pattern. On the other hand, I’m a bit bummed to lose the mid-afternoon break with Katherine – at least for now!

Strawberry Season

Katherine and I went to a local patch two Thursdays ago with some friends. We had such a fun time that we decided to do it again last Thursday with the grandparents. (Say what you want about minivans, but we fit all 6 of us in the Odyssey!)

One of the main attractions happens to be a pair of enormous pink rubber boots that we bought for Katherine at Target to take to the patch. Katherine can barely walk in them but insisted on wearing them both times.

Allison went the second time – at first held by me in a Bjorn and then by Grandma Chang. Picking strawberries with Allison in the front pack was kind of like doing squats at the gym. ๐Ÿ™‚ Allison was a total trooper and slept through the whole thing!

We now have several pounds of frozen strawberries and freezer jam for the winter. Katherine loves both. She spent 15-20 minutes tonight eating 4 frozen strawberries. Grandma Chang has been making crepes or “special pancakes” up a storm for Kathering (and me).

Uh…why are you wearing that?

I woke up this morning to find Katherine in her blue swimming floatie vest and a pair of swim diapers, and nothing else! She informed me “I am going swimming!” We had asked her last night if she wanted to go, and she was sooo excited. She even remembered to ask “Can we bring doughnut and bumblebee?” (inflatable toys)

We met Grandma Chang at her clubhouse this morning and spent an hour or so at the pool. Steve followed Katherine as she would walk from one end of the pool to the other, drop in her inflatable doughnut and bob around in the pool. The rest of us (me, my mom and Allison) socialized at the end of the pool. I should say that Allison took this opportunity to take her mid-morning nap.

We headed off to a local teriyaki restaurant afterward to have lunch. Allison had perhaps one of the biggest blowouts ever. I must have spent 10 minutes in the car cleaning her up with wipes, putting her in new clothes while Steve and Katherine ate. While Steve bathed Allison at home, Katherine then managed to have an accident right in the bathroom (happens pretty rarely). Needless to say, it was an eventful morning.

Cooking Class

Katherine is a cooking enthusiast…to the extent she can snack on the ingredients. For instance, she’ll run to the pantry to get oatmeal and brown sugar for cereal and then surreptitiously put her hands in when I’m not looking. (She’ll also open the fridge now for snacks!)

Since many of her activities are winding down this summer (Toddler School & Gymboree), I enrolled her in a mini-chefs class. Katherine was very intrigued, as was I, by the concept of cooking in an old community schoolhouse in downtown Redmond. The first class was a pleasant surprise. The kids made everything from scratch in 45 minutes for strawberry shortcake – Bisquick biscuits, washed and cut strawberries and whipped cream!

She didn’t eat very much at school but insisted on “seeing it” in the fridge and having some for dessert. She didn’t seem to mind that it was a big mushy mess and almost polished it off with help from Dad.

Getting Stronger

Allison is getting much stronger. She can lift her head for extended periods during tummy time and grasp a shirt, finger with her little hands. When she’s really upset, she’ll arch her back and let out some really nice screams!

Unfortunately for the parents she’s still wheezing. While it’s cute during the day, she can get really loud at night and keep us up. Probably the only good news is that she’s learning to sleep through a lot of noise…not only her wheezing but also Katherine’s incessant talking. We’re so looking forward to the soft cartilage issue going away in a month or so…

Lots of people have asked if we think Allison looks like Katherine. If you check out the picture from Katherine at 6 or 7 weeks, it’s pretty clear that she was a bigger child. I think Katherine has a rounder face, but lots of the same facial features. Grandma Chang thinks both girls look like Aunt Sharon.

It’s Mine!

Interestingly enough we don’t hear this very often when Katherine plays with kids her age. But it really surfaces when she’s with younger kids. Last night, she kept taking away toys from a 9 month old “it’s mine!!” At gymnastics, she’s been known to take away toys from a younger baby who comes with her older sibling. What’s amazing is that she understands the concept of sharing and selectively decides who she wants to share with vs. not. Even faced with the prospect of a time-out, she can be very stubborn and hold on to toys for dear life.

Next week will be a big milestone for Katherine. She’ll be attending preschool summer camp with older children in a Montessori environment. I hope we’ve armed her with the basic skills but know that the older children will definitely put her in her place!

Working Out

There are definitely benefits and drawbacks to being a stay at home parent. One benefit is that I can work out more than I did with Katherine. I started running about 3 weeks ago with the realization that I have a long way to go to get back in 20/20 (or pre-children) shape.

Running with Katherine this past Sunday really hit this point home. Somewhat naively, I put Katherine in her blue jogger and set out on my usual run. About half a mile into the run, I was really hating life – pushing a 28 pound child in a jogger that must weigh at least 15 pounds. Needless to say, I will be running sans child for the next couple months. Maybe I’ll try the jogger again then…

 

1 Month Checkup

Katherine and I just took Allison to her 1 month checkup. Katherine was a very helpful big sister, sitting on the examining table keeping an eye on her little sister. Allison howled from the moment I took her out of her car seat until after her Hep booster. The good news is that Allison is packing on weight. She’s now 7 lbs. 14 oz (25%) and 21.5 inches (75%). She’s following her sister’s dimensions very closely albeit a little lighter and shorter than Katherine at this point. The doctor predicted that her wheezing and chirping breathing would disappear between 2 to 4 months. We can’t wait for this to happen because she is a very noisy girl!

Allison now can keep her head straight for a second or two when we hold her up. She also looks straight at us or the mobile and doesn’t do the one-eye thing too much anymore. Her mobility is progressing – she can sort of rock herself, gain momentum and manage to roll on to one side before rolling back again. Bath time is still a riot; it sounds like we are torturing the poor child because she starts to cry as soon as she hears the bath running and we take off her diaper. It could be the water or the commotion next to the bath…

Sample Dialog:

Christine: “Katherine, can you please hand me the towel?”
Katherine: “NO. This my towel. Me have towel too…Me big sister.”

Sharing

Katherine has gotten more possessive of her toys of late. Family and friends remind us that “this is just a stage,” but it can be painful watching her grab toys from other kids. We’re trying to teach her how to ask and listen before she takes something from a friend. But, it’s slow progress…The irony is that I asked Katherine last night for something. And, she said “Say please Mama!”

Clothes Horse

Katherine is also turning into a little clothes horse. She loves to rustle through her new big dresser and find out what is clean. The highlight after dinner is finding clean Nemo PJs. She also adores wearing her Gymboree bike shorts – and will change outfits once or twice a day. (She would change more often if we let her!) Last night she spied a couple new shirts and shorts in the clean laundry basket. She rummaged through and, within a minute, had a new outfit on. Last night, she ended the evening with a short sleeve shirt, bike shorts and a tank top on top of it all. This morning she wore apple shorts, striped red dress and a Stanford sweatshirt to the doctors office! It was pretty ghastly.

Allison, Day 21

Happy Memorial Day! It’s hard to believe that Allison is already 3 weeks old. She’s filling out rapidly. Her face is getting chubbier and she’s starting to fit into her 0-3 month clothes. Just as importantly, she is establishing a more regular nighttime sleep pattern. She’ll typically get up after 3.5 hours and then 3 hours. So, if we put her down at 11:00, she’ll get up at 3:30 and then 6:30. We’re on a relatively sustainable sleep schedule – say 5 to 6 hours a night. Hopefully as she grows, she’ll sleep even longer.

Allison is also trying to hold up her head by herself. As we hold her, she’ll hold her head straight up for a couple seconds and then if we don’t catch her body will flop to one side. She’s more cogent – staring in the general direction of Katherine who often times will sit a foot away exclaiming “Hi Allison, I’m your big sister!”

We reached a wonderful milestone (for me at least) tonight. Steve fed Allison over an ounce of milk from a Gerber bottle. Steve suspects that we used Katherine’s older bottle nipple as Allison could barely keep up with it. But, we were super relieved that she took the bottle readily. My goal is to have either Steve, Patty or my Mom feed her at least once a day – so we don’t run into any resistance later like we did with Katherine.

Allison, Day 14

Sleep deprivation is taking its toll on our family. We had a couple tough nights this past week. For several nights Allison was getting up at 11PM, 1AM, 3AM and 5AM, and it was taking at least 45 minutes to get her back to sleep after an endless loop of nurse/burp/pooh/nurse/burp. As of Saturday night we’ve adopted some new tactics to get more sleep.

  • She’s now sleeping in her crib, so we don’t have to listen to her thrash, burp, pass gas, and make other noises in our room.
  • I’m modifying my eating habits – no more spicy or potentially gaseous food that will keep Allison up to all hours of the night.
  • We’re starting to employ the concept of shifts, where one parent is on shift with the baby monitor at any one time.

The good news is that she is putting on weight at a rapid clip. As of Friday, she was 6 lbs. 11.5 oz and 20″ long. This puts her in 75% height and 25% weight, a tall and skinny baby like Katherine. The doctor also said that her wheezing, sing-song breathing wasn’t a problem. It is likely caused by still soft cartilage in her nose.

Last night we finally got our first decent night’s sleep. Allison woke up at 11PM, then 3AM and then 7AM. ๐Ÿ™‚ To counter this, Katherine woke up at 1PM demanding “Allison sleep with Mama, Katherine sleep with Dada in guest room!” We’ve been telling Katherine today that Allison is now in her crib, and we expect her to sleep in her junior bed as well.

Katherine is adjusting to Allison as well as can be expected, although she still acts up and tests us. When in the minivan she’s told us several times “I have to go to bathroom. Dada, please pull over now so we can go to store” and then didn’t have to go to the bathroom! Or, she will ask for a food and not touch it at dinner. She especially pushes Steve really hard, knowing that he’s more likely to listen to her incessant demands. Katherine takes pride in being a big sister. She insists on “closing the strap” on Allison’s diaper, getting towels for Allison’s bath and even trying to lather her up! She is as gentle as possible with the baby – and knows that if she sits on the couch she can hold the baby on her lap.

I’ve reached some exciting milestones as well. As of Day 10, the doctor gave a thumbs up so I can now drive! Also, I’ve packed away ALL my maternity clothes for future donation, hopefully never to see or wear them again! It’s very exciting to actually wear my pre-pregnancy (albeit chubby) clothes.

Allison, Day 5

We’re starting to get a hang of Allison’s way of doing things. Christine and I settled into bed at 10PM (an hour after we got Katherine to bed) fully expecting Allison to continue her sleep and feed cycles of roughly every 2 hours. As the night pressed on, it was clear that Allison wasn’t going to follow this routine. She was power feeding and working through some major gas bubbles. Allison would feed, Steve/Christine would burp her and Allison would sleep for 10 minutes and the cycle would repeat. This went on until about 12:30A. Then a miracle happened. Christine fed Allison and dad burped her and she fell into a deep sleep that lasted until 7A the next morning. Christine had to wake her up. Hopefully, this will be the routine. Between the gas bubbles and the power feeding with no sleep, Christine and I were starting to get a bit worried about our ability to sleep for the next couple of weeks.

Katherine got up at 6:00A this morning and wanted her apple juice and to sleep with daddy. Allison was sleeping/feeding with mommy so dad took Katherine to the spare bed room and slept until 7:30A.

Allison and mom have figured out the art of feeding. Allison has this cute behavior of opening just her left eye when she’s sleepy or breast feeding to check out the world. She will nurse for a while and then fall asleep. Christine will ask “are you done?” Allison will peer at us using her left eye (or not) then start feeding again. The cycle continues until she passes out and we wrap her up in her blanket.

Allison is also a good sleeper. She has to be because Katherine sings her ABC’s at the top of her lungs to “wake up the baby” despite mom and dad’s attempts to have her use her inside voice. It’s all about testing boundaries. Fun to watch the interactions but adds a whole new dimension to parenting.

With all of her eating, Allison is starting to fill out – although she is still only 6 lbs! Her face is getting rounder, and she looks increasingly like Katherine when she was born.

Patty arrived at 8A and helped Katherine get ready for Gymnastics. We’re all going to meet up at the pediatrician at around noon for Allison’s checkup and Katherine 2 year Hep booster shot -Katherine doesn’t know this yet ๐Ÿ™ This afternoon, Allison gets a checkup and hearing test at the Overlake Women’s center. Grandma Dottie is coming over for dinner to visit and fix us dinner, yum.

Overall, Christine and I cannot complain. Allison is sleeping well and we have some time and energy to spend quality time with Katherine and document Allison’s first days. Katherine is adjusting as well as expected to having a baby sister. The novelty of having “the baby” is still there but Katherine is acting up more to attract our attention. When mom is feeding Allison, I’m trying to give Katherine some attention.

I also wanted to thank Grandma Chang for helping take care of Katherine while we were in the hospital. It’s great to have family around who can help us and pass on the family values to Katherine.

I’ll update with news and pictures later this evening.