baby A loves

My little guy (7 Months 3 weeks) loves...............

to stay with mommy. Sometimes that drives her a little insane esp. when it's an all day marathon.

to nurse and can do so for a good hour until he is asleep and even when is asleep.

(mostly) can't wait to come to mommy. His whole upper body dives forward, sometimes little too fast. But he'll go to daddy, sister and brother too.

to rip out tissue paper or lettuce or anything he can rip, he loves.

to have a taste of whatever it is we are eating.

to play with water bottle.

to handle and investigate a book.

to put things in his mouths.

to take a bath. He gets so excited when I'm taking off his clothes.

to play with stacking cubes. He like to bang them.

to clap his hands. He's got really strong fine motor skills.

to have someone in our family to hold him, esp. mommy.

Baby A's first long car trip

On Friday afternoon, we left for Chicago not realizing there's a snow storm warning there. So instead of 5 hours that it would normal take us, it took us 8 hours. There wasn't actually too much snow, maybe 3 inches or so but it was extra extra slow, the closer we got to Chicago. But baby A did pretty well; at least much better than we anticipated. He didn't cry or fuss too much, and in his normal fashion, only slept for 20 minutes after what seemed like a long time, 20 minutes. It was pretty much the same on the way back. J/W however asked what feels like a 100 times, are we out of MI yet? But the answer was pretty much always not yet.

We went to Chicago for the JUMP dance convention for J. There was a party on Friday that we had intended to let J attend, but given the snow storm, obviously we didn't make it on time. The rest of the convention J was there for. She was a real trooper, not complaining once about having to get up at 6:30 in the morning to get ready for JUMP. She was also very independent as we did not stay with her at the hotel. I did come to watch the closing show, but she wasn't even in it. It was only for dance academies who competed in the the convention. But at the closing show, J was surprised she was offered a scholarship for her excellent work in ballet during class. We are so proud of her!

During the time we stayed in Chicago, we stayed at a relatives' place. We didn't even knew we had such relatives until a little while ago. But they were very hospitable, and insisted we stayed with them. Lucky for us, they live pretty close to where JUMP was held so we commuted. They were very nice to us, making us meal breakfast, lunch and dinner. So someday, we hope to return the favor they showered upon us.

Of course, being in new place, baby A did not sleep well. So he had to sleep with us for the 3 nights on a full size bed the whole night and woke up to nurse many times. It was really tough and I feel like I have not slept in ages. Now that I'm home, I'm so glad. It is truly home sweet home!

crawling

Just want to put a quick note here that baby A has started trying to crawl. He is moving back and sticking up his butt high. It is really cute. He is also really strong on his leg and can stand holding to the edge of a chair/sofa for some time.

This last Sunday we were out all day, first meeting Grandma for lunch then going to a birthday party. Because of that, baby A slept very little. Ever since then, he's on a napping strike. For the last couple days, he naps 5-20 minutes for the whole day then wakes up numerous times at night. So it's been exhausting.

We will be out of town this weekend again so it won't help the matter much but hopefully when we come back, we'll try to resume normal schedule.

EC

I had accidentally read about EC before baby A was born. After reading the "Diaper Free Baby" by by Christine Gross-Loh, I was more than willing to try. When baby A was brand new, he signaled loud and clear whenever he needed to relieve himself and did not like to do it in his diaper. But when he was that age, he seemed to need to go too often, like every 10-15 minute that it was too much for us to deal with at the time so we gave up for the time being.

Fast forward 7 months and baby A is starting to eat solid food, and even though we use cloth diaper, baby A's bottom still seemed red, dry and chafe. I'm sure having more solid poop does not help. So I began thinking about EC again. But at this age, he is used to doing it in diaper. So the last few days, I have been letting him go diaper free most of the time and his bottom look much better. Today was the first day I had real success. I cued him and he went in the toilet while we were at archery. Hubby had success the last few days. It's really just about holding him for some time and paying attention. Hubby even caught a poop in the toilet. But later in the day, I got busy and didn't pay attention to his cues (fussing and kicking his legs), baby A went back to his old habits and went in his diaper. So I def. plan to continue EC and pay attention and communicate with my baby. To know that I can communicate with my baby is amazing.

Rolling!

At the close of baby A's 6 months old, he's finally ROLLING from tummy to his back (one way). Today is the first day he rolled 4 times, very smooth and very controlled. There were numerous times when he was half way there, but stopped himself on purpose. So hopefully, with continued practice, he will roll with ease. I was almost starting to think he might skip rolling altogether. :)

Oh, and he's got 2 teeth poking through so sometimes, it really hurts when I nurse him.

2011 holiday letter

Dear family and friends,

2011 has been a wonderful, miraculous, and challenging year for our family. We started the year knowing we will have a new baby boy added to our family. Wanting a different and more holistic birth experience, we researched our choices and initially chose to work with midwives through a hospital. But eventually, due to some issues with our midwives, we chose to give birth to A in our home with just the four of us. When I was not convinced that A will come that night/morning as a result of castor oil induction, J and W were convinced and excitedly decided to “camp” in our bedroom with their sleeping bags. Of course, they were right. At 12:29am of 6/6, they witnessed the water birth of their little brother. He came out with his water bubble still fully intact and eyes wide open. Daddy had to pry the amniotic sac open to get the little dude out. Oh, the little boy was so red, like Esau from the bible! And he had just as much hair as his sister J except for the first few months, his hair stood up like magic with long sideburns making him look like a “Chinese Elvis”.

Ever since the birth of A, our lives have changed dramatically. Let’s just say this boy is a real little character and is too much like the energizer bunny. W called him “red hot head” for the first few months. Even now at close to 7 months, putting him to nap is such a challenge and our lives revolve around it. He doesn’t fall sleep anywhere like J and W. Then there is still the frequent night waking and feeding. I have just read about all the baby sleep books and tried all the recommended methods with no lasting success. But we still all absolutely adore him. Balancing a new baby who sleeps little and homeschooling is really hard. As a result, I changed our homeschool curriculum so the kids can work more independently. They are such troopers and rose to the challenge with much grace.

As a result of visits to the midwives, J added MIDWIFE to her long list of future career choices. From the beginning, she is a natural little mommy and a great help. She lavishes love and attention on Alex while learning to care and diaper change him (even the poopy ones). For W, there has been a learning curve but he has come a long way and can now be counted to hold/entertain A w/o getting too excited or crazy. It’s truly a joy to see how much they love A.

This year has been an exciting and busy year for J. There were dance classes and rehearsals in preparation for dance competitions, raising sponsorship fees and competing in National American Miss (winning in talent for her dance) in the spring/summer, auditioning, rehearsing and dancing in the Broadway style show of CC Christmas Spectacular in fall/winter. The best part is she loves every minute of it and works very hard at her art. We are really seeing her blossoming in many areas including a knack for working with technology. Who Knew? Daddy calls her “little techie”. J also enjoys playing piano, drawing/designing beautiful clothes and writing/illustrating short stories. This year she also tried weaving through her homeschool class.

W is also discovering who he is. This year, he has narrowed his career choice from artist to COMIC ARTIST. There’s not a day that goes by without him working on some kind of comic drawing or reading some comic book. Some of his favorite comic includes Tin Tin and Stone Rabbit. He continues to participate in soccer and Boy Scout. He also participated in archery and tried his hand at clay this year and enjoys them very much.

Daddy's company got bought this year so he’s now working for a new company. We’re thankful for all that God has provided and just an amazing year.

Wishing you and your family the very best in 2012!!

Baby A - 6 months update

Thanks to " The Sleep Lady's Good Night, Sleep Tight" book by Kim West, we have made some progress in getting baby A to sleep through the night. The book made me realize that baby A shouldn't need to eat during the night and he was probably waking up simply because food is available.

The first 2 nights were really rough, with A screaming for a long time numerous times wanting to nurse or maybe even have a bottle. I think he was really mad that we had decided to stop feeding him at night. Daddy was really great and stayed with him and didn't get much sleep. We almost gave in numerous times and I actually did once.

But by the 3rd night, baby A slept mostly through the whole night waking up only one time around 6 o'clock. Last night was the 3rd night he has slept through the night. Weeks before that, he was waking up multiple times a night and won't go back to sleep until I nursed him making me a very tired mommy. Now before we stopped the night feeding, we did up his day time feeds by giving him more cereal and more baby food. We watched our home video of when J was A's age and realized we gave her a lot more cereal (2 -3 tb spoon) than we had given to A (1 tb spoon).

We are also watching the clock really closely and putting him to nap every 2 hours. So far, baby A has been sleeping much better. His naps are more like 1 1/2 hours - 2 hours like how they should be. Previously, I was luck if he slept for 45 minutes. Now putting him down to nap is still a big struggle. He really fights it and usually won't sleep unless he cries for about at least 20 minutes. And it doesn't matter if I hold him or not. It's like he really wants to sleep but just don't know how to settle himself. Poor baby. I'm trying to get him to get attached to a lovie but so far he's not attached to anything. Pacifier also stopped working a while back.

Other than that, he is doing well. He's getting better with tummy time but still refuses to roll over. We got an ONYA carrier and use that when we are out shopping and sometimes around the house. He does really well in that. He loves to hear me sing the alphabet song as well as the Chinese phonetic song. He's always got a smile when we blow his hair. And he absolutely loves bath time, esp. if he takes one with me. We always give him an infant massage after bath and he really enjoys that. Baby A is also a good eater. So far, he likes all the food we gave him and is very interested in what we are eating.