For the past week or so, Keira has only been eating from one side for each feeding. Sometimes first thing in the morning, she’ll drink from both, but after that, it’s just one side. I definitely do not have an oversupply, so it’s not a normal full feed. She still has wet diapers and a few poops per day…but what is up? My supply has already slowly decreased since I don’t have time to pump the other boob after she feeds.

She also has been sleeping a lot. Both during the day and at night. She’s going about 10-11 hours straight at night (not complaining, just mentioning). Normally, she would do around 9 hours during the night, but just really short, half hour cat naps during the day. The past two days, she’s been taking really long naps during the day too. Yesterday, for T’s birthday celebration, we were out for 5 hours and she slept the entire time. I was wearing her, but even so, she normally only naps 1-2 hours when I wear her. It’s almost 4 PM and I think she’s only been up for like 1-2 hours total.

I noticed that she’ll appear to be starving and will attack the first boob. But when i switch her to the other one, she turns away and will just stare at my face. I tried moving to a dark room, but she still won’t eat.

Could she be teething already or is this just a random hunger strike? Maybe she’s distracted by the world around her now that she’s more alert (doesn’t explain the sleeping though). She has started to drool and I can sometimes catch her sucking and chewing on her thumb.

She’s currently about a week and half shy of 3 months (don’t bother asking me how many weeks she is. Poor child #2…I have no idea).

So after much research and thought, I ended up choosing these toys for Tyler.  We usually don’t get him too many things but there is a 90% chance that both Lenny and I will be working Christmas this year, so I wanted to do most of the gift giving on his birthday since we are both off.

I’m trying to buy a little bit closer to his age recommendation.  Before, I would buy way ahead thinking that he would just grow into it.  But for the most part, the toys sat untouched and by the time he was able to do them, he was bored with them and didn’t want to play with them anymore.

A great place for toys is a consignment shop.  We have one a few blocks away downtown and it’s GREAT.  It’s my big weakness.  They only sell kids stuff and a lot of the clothes and toys are unused.  I don’t really buy electronic stuff there, but things like puzzles,books, DVD’s, toy cars, etc are such a great find there. 

Little Tikes bowling set for the boy who loves to throw stuff.  At least it can be directed somewhere now!  The pins rattle loudly when they fall over so it sounds like real pins falling over at the bowling alley (I may regret this later).

Leapfrog Text and Learn.  This will be great for car rides since it’s pretty small.
 

Melissa & Doug Color Puzzle.  We must own almost all the Melissa & Doug Puzzles.  I LOVE them.  The puzzle itself is easy to do since all the fish tails are the same, so he can focus more on learning his colors.  We let him open this one early.  We’ve had it for a week and he’s already become more interested in colors…pointing out colors in the world when he knows them.

Mobilo.  I wanted something that he could use to create stuff without it being too frustrating.  I love that this comes with wheels and swiveling parts.


My First Remote Controlled Vehicle by Circo from Target.  I can’t find this online for some reason.  It’s seems super easy to use.  One button to go forward and one button to turn.  I like that the car itself has a soft plastic body since I know he is going to be slamming that car into things.

A pair of chucks for the fall/winter.  He wore these last year and we loved them.  We got the laces version last year and we won’t be making that mistake again!  The cloth uppers makes the really pliable and soft.

Tyler’s 2 year birthday is coming up and we can’t think of anything to get him.  He definitely needs new stuff.  All we have are the toys that make sounds when you push the buttons and he doesn’t touch them anymore.  We have the train set, mega blocks, puzzles and a bunch of cars.  That’s primarily when he’ll play with, but not for long.  Then he’s clamoring for TV since he’s bored. 

Is there anything else that a 2-3 year old would love?

I’m writing this a few days early since I know I won’t have time the day of.  Papa is working 3 nights in a row which means it’s just me for pretty much 4 days.  I hate when they schedule him for that many days in a row.  Sigh.  I will be one exhausted mama at the end of day 4.

Happy 23 months Tyler!
I can’t believe he’s 1 month shy of 2!

He can take off his shirt and put it back on.  He usually needs a little bit of help getting the hole for his head lined up, but everything else he can do.  He can’t quite do pants yet…he keeps pulling up when I tell him to take it off.  I guess since he pulls his shirt up, he thinks he has to pull his pants upwards too. 

He can say a few sentences now.  They usually are of the same format though.  “It’s a _____”, “There’s a _____ there”.  Those are his favorite two phrases.  He will also respond with, “I love you too” when you say I love you.   He loves the word, “NOW” and will use it at the end of everything.  “mama, choo choo NOW.” 

He still is infatuated with Thomas.  His gong-gong bought him 3 Thomas shirts…size 3T.  They’re really baggy on them, but if he sees them, he insists on wearing it.  He also has this one shirt that my mom brought back from Taiwan a while ago…it’s the typical Taiwanese kids shirt with random illustrations and english words that don’t make sense.  Well, this one has cars on it.  So first he made us put on his Thomas shirt…then he sees the car shirt and insists that he wear that as well…but of course he didn’t want to take off his Thomas shirt.  So I had to squeeze the car shirt (probably around a 24 month size) over his Thomas shirt.  And he wore it like that for the whole day.

He’s still crazy about Keira and asks for her every morning.  He’s so wild with her though.  He loves to rub heads with her, but will sometimes accidentally smash his head into hers…or he loves to give her these HUGE hugs while laying on top of her.  His favorite time to snuggle with her is when I’m nursing her.  He’ll beeline towards her and just throw himself on top of us.  I guess he thinks we’re snuggling and he wants in.  We tell him to be gentle over and over and over again, but he doesn’t do it.  He loves loves to lay on the activity mat with her.

He does some crazy things with her.  Tonight, I was on my own since PB is working the night shift.  I put Tyler to bed first since it’s easier.  I usually have Keira in a bouncer nearby and I let Tyler run around the 2nd floor while I get the bath ready.  Today, he opens a bathroom drawer and grabs my hairbrush (he loves that thing).  I turn around for a few seconds to fix the water temp and when I turn back around, I see Tyler brushing Keira’s hair.  hahahaha.  I wonder how he knows that the hairbrush is for brushing hair since he never sees me brushing my hair (because I don’t do it).  And PB has a buzz cut, so he doesn’t brush his hair either.

We’re trying to introduce disciplining.  We’ve been doing time outs which don’t seem to be working so well.  Sometimes if I speak to him in mandarin, he’ll do what I say.  Maybe because the language itself sounds harsher than English (to me anyway).  So now I’ve been trying to speak more Chinese to him.

We’re working on 12 piece jigsaw puzzles.  We started out with 2 piece ones which he was able to do right out of the box.  I guess it’s similar to putting his train tracks together.  I looked for simple jigsaw puzzles and could only find 12 piece ones.  I thought there were like 4 and 6 piece ones, but I couldn’t find them.  He is interested in the 12 piece one, but we need to help him with it.  He can put together 2-4 pieces, but needs help putting the whole thing together.  I guess it would help if he had a picture to reference.  The one we got doesn’t…so once you disassemble the pieces, you don’t know what the final product should look like.

I think we need new toys.  Everything we have is for younger kids except for his train set, toy cars, puzzles and mega blocks (which he doesn’t really play with).  Any good toy recommendations for 2-3 year olds?

Happy 2 months, Keira!

She is our chunky monkey.  She had her 2 month appointment today.  She got her first round of shots.  The nurse was giving her the oral rotavirus vaccine and she kept making these awful faces.  Then the nurse noticed that she forgot to open the ampule, so Keira was actually getting nothing.  What a little faker!

She measured in at:
Weight: 13 pounds 3 oz (96 %ile)
Height: 23 inches (76 %ile)

The pediatrician’s office that we go to has several pedi’s that you can see.  We usually try to stick with 1, but because of our schedules, sometimes we just have to take whoever is available.  Today, we got this young pedi…probably not too long out of her residency.  Let’s just say we’re never going to her again. 

First of all, she tells us that Keira’s weight %ile has skyrocketed since her last appointment and if it continues, we would have to discuss dieting. Okay, her last appointment was at 2 WEEKS OLD.  You can’t even base anything on that weigh in since that’s when babies are putting back the weight they lost at the hospital.  And really?  Dieting?  It’s not like she’s eating cookies and ice cream.  What exactly should we cut out of her diet?

Then I bring up Keira’s reflux issues.  She told us since keira is gaining weight, she wouldn’t be concerned about reflux unless she’s throwing up blood.  Uh…you’re going to wait until a baby develops a bleeding ulcer before becoming concerned?  Even if she’s gaining weight, I’m telling you that she is presenting with the classic signs of reflux, including fussiness during eating and when she spits up, which indicates she is experiencing some discomfort. Then she told us that if sitting her up doesn’t work, to just add rice cereal to her bottle!

Anyway, Keira is much more alert this month.  You can see her looking around, taking in the world.  She also cries less now, I guess since she can see stuff.

She sleeps very well at night. 9 PM until 6 AM. Yay for me!  During the day, it’s just cat naps. 1 hour max.  Oh well, 1 out of 2 isn’t bad.  I’ll take it.

She’s not really a fan of tummy time.  She can lift her head, but she hates it.  I think it’s because of all the pressure on her big old belly!  She can, however, sit up sort of on her own if she’s being supported on her side.  She can’t keep herself from toppling over sideways, but she can hold herself upright.

She’s still eating an average of every 2 hours.  She’s probably making up for all the time she spends sleeping at night.  My supply has gone up a little after taking fenugreek caps and drinking Mother’s milk tea. I still need to supplement a little, but I throw in an extra pumping session every night, so I use the milk from that to supplement.

I don’t even remember what she should be doing at each month.  I think I have to reread my What To Expect The First Year book.

So far, I’ve been just wrapping and slinging Keira.  I love wrapping, but in reality, I can only do it if I know she’s going to be in there for a while and if it’s not too hot out.  It’s hard to wrap with Tyler around because he thinks it’s hilarious to take off with one of the tails while I’m trying to wrap.  Plus, it has just been disgustingly hot and humid and even my thin, linen wrap feels so hot.  I’m not a big fan of the ring sling since I have to wear on my left shoulder to feel comfortable, but too much pressure on that shoulder gives me migraines.  So when the Beco Gemini got released, I HAD to try it.  The Beco Butterfly is a popular choice, but I hate having to fiddle with the infant insert.  The rest of my carriers are insert-less, so the way you put your kiddo in is completely different compared with having an insert. 

The Gemini doesn’t have an infant insert since the body is small enough to not need one. You can cross the straps in an “X” behind your back, which you can’t do with the butterfly.  My preference is to cross the straps, so that worked out better for me.  (A lot of people prefer having an insert especially when they start doing back carries since it feels more secure having them already clipped into the carrier)

The bottom part of the body can fold it, making it even narrower so that very young infants can ride with their legs out while being in the correct sitting position (knees above the butt).  When the baby is bigger, you can just unfold the body to make is wider on the bottom. The Gemini has a 4-5″ headrest which you can flip up for head support and it extends the body for when your baby is bigger.  But honestly, I put tyler in there and I felt like the body was too narrow for him…I like my carriers to fit knee to knee for better support.

You can do front facing if you want and the baby will still be in the correct position.  But I probably won’t since it kills my back to do front facing carries. 

I think this carrier really shines as an infant carrier.  Keira can peek over the top at 1 month (as opposed to be swallowed up in the more standard 16″ tall carriers) since it’s about 14″ tall with the headrest down.

Here are some (terrible) mirror pics:

You can sort of see on the bottom where I’ve folded the body back and snapped them in place.  Normally the body would extend further out on the bottom.  Her legs are supported well and they aren’t dangling.  The headrest is just tall enough to provide head support without completely covering her head.

With the headrest up. She didn’t like this very much, but when she’s taller, she’ll need it if she falls asleep to prevent her head from falling back.

You can see with the black carrier the difference in width between having the body folded down vs. not.

I just realized that since Tyler and Keira’s birth dates are 2 days apart, I’ll probably combine their monthly updates.  I actually completely forgot it was Keira’s 1 month. Oops.  I probably won’t even get to take her monthly pics until DH comes off of night shift since Tyler beelines for the camera as soon as he sees it.  He is obsessed with it since he figured out how to turn on the flash unit and will literally climb me to get to it.

TYLER: 22 months
This past month has been a big one for him since Keira came into our lives.  He has adjusted very well, which was a big surprise to everyone since he was acting so clingy right before she was born.  He lights up when he sees her every morning and greets her by rubbing his head against hers.  He loves to help me burp her and will go over to her voluntarily to give her hugs and kisses.  He is also quite “helpful”…so helpful that we usually have to intervene.  If she cries, he’ll grab the paci and put it in her mouth (aka shove it in her mouth repeatedly).  He’s seen us bicycle her legs to relieve gas, so he will do the same.  If he wants to hold her, he’ll climb on the couch and shout, “MORE” and point at his lap.  He calls her, “shee-sha”.  It’s very cute.

He started to put words together.  Yesterday, he asked where Papa was.  I told him at work.  Then he said, “papa hooome”.  It was so sweet.  Then he put on my flip flops today and said, “mama shoes”. His pronounciation is still pretty off, so no one really understands him except for us…when the grandparents are over, we are the translators.  We have to give them the run down of his most common words because he will order them to do something and they will have no idea what he’s saying.

He sings along to songs now…with the words sung at the appropriate times.  We have a 3 CD rotation that we play the entire day (at his request of course).  We can hear him sing a word/phrase here and there as he’s listening.  Do kids develop singing on key, or do they start off singing on key if they have the ear for it?  Because from what he’s singing now, he is not going to be on American Idol. hahaha.

Still train obsessed, especially with Thomas which is THE worst kids show around.  It is SO boring.  Lenny now refuses to be in the room when T’s watching it because he only wants to watch this one DVD and we are so sick of it.  At the end of every episode, they show a bunch of the trains with their names posted next to them.  T makes us read the names aloud EVERY time he watches it.  This is what he looks like when he watches Thomas…he doesn’t move the entire time.

He can put together the train tracks by himself now. So now he is capable of doing everything train set related. WOO HOO. I’m not a fan of playing trains. It is totally a boy thing. Now he can play trains by himself while I read a magazine

He’s starting to get into toy cars. He has a small fleet of cars/trains that he will line up all over the house. It’s pretty entertaining to watch since he’s so meticulous about it.  The line has to be perfectly straight.  Sometimes he’ll arrange them so the cars are all lined up in a semi circle around him, all facing him.
 

I got him a box of 2 piece jigsaw puzzles since he can do the wooden peg puzzle easily now. He was able to do them right out of the box (I guess it’s similar to putting train tracks together). Although he always tries to carry the finished puzzle around, which of course comes apart. Then he gets mad and runs back to me with them screaming, “BROKEN…BROKEN.”

We have finally titrated him up to whole milk.  It took us almost an entire year of slowly going from all soy to whole milk.  No constipation issues now.  We can see the difference since he looks chubbier now.  It’s almost 3 times the fat compared with 1% milk.

I gave him a haircut.  It looks awful.  He’s petrified of the buzzer, so I had to really quickly buzz the sides.  He wouldn’t let me do the top and Papa couldn’t restrain his arms and hold his head still at the same time.  So I decided to try scissors.  Um….bad idea.  I cut off the sideburns and cut straight up from the ears to the bangs.  He was thrashing around the whole time so I coudln’t even tell what was straight and what wasn’t.  We had thomas on and his favorite snacks, but that didn’t work.  We like the bangs long on him, but they grow so fast so they’re in his eyes in a month.

KEIRA: 1 Month
Not much to report yet.  She sleeps, eats and poops!  She started sleeping well at night starting around 2-3 weeks (I won’t write the magic words since I don’t want to jinx myself).  She had a stretch of 8-9 hour nights, but now is back to about 5-7 hours.  It depends on her pooping schedule.  It wakes her up when she has to poop.  Stupid poop.  She doesn’t really have a daytime schedule, but I’m trying to follow a rough EASY schedule (eat, activity, sleep, you time -except there is no you time when you have 2 kids) but it’s so hard to follow any kind of schedule at all.  We’ve managed to keep T’s schedule pretty consistent so we don’t have to worry about him.

She loves to be held.  All day long.  She cries when you put her down.  Tyler was the opposite.  He hated being held.  He just wanted to lay on his back and kick his legs like a madman.  I basically wear her when she’s awake when Papa isn’t around.  You’re supposed to froggy a newborn’s legs in a carrier, but of course, she hates that.  Luckily, the Beco Gemini just got released.  I’ve been eyeing it for a while, but didn’t want to pre-order it since no one knew when the release date was.  It’s perfect for newborns since it has a small body (sort of like the Baby Bjorn), but it has a wide base so the baby sits in the proper position.  I was considering the Beco Butterfly and the Olives & Applesauce carriers again, but I just have no patience for infant inserts.  I’m so used to carriers without inserts that they totally throw me off (but Papa loved the inserts when he first started wearing and needed help with the back carry).  The base of the body folds in so that you can start wearing the baby legs out at a younger age.  It should be arriving this week. YAY!  It’s been SO hot wrapping the baby, even in the cooler wraps.

   

She has a pretty strong neck and can hold her head up if you put her in a sitting position and she can lift her head up during tummy time.  I can’t wait until she has head control so I can wear her on my back.  It’s hard to do stuff with her in front of me.  I have stepped on many a Mega Blocks that I couldn’t see (and they HURT).

My parents with the grandkids:

We just realized today that Keira has the same signs for hungry and sleepy!  I think I’ve been feeding her more often than she actually needed!  Maybe she wasn’t unlatching because there’s no milk…maybe it’s because she wasn’t hungry.

For the most part, I’ve been able to get to Keira pretty quickly once she starts fussing and rooting, so I’ve fed her.  Because of her cranky brother, there were a couple of times when I wasn’t able to get to her that fast.  By the time I did get to her, she was either already asleep, or would fall asleep within seconds of nursing.  (and would stay asleep for an hour or two, meaning she wasn’t truly hungry).

This could be a little tricky since the signs are exactly the same…there’s no way for me to tell if she hungry or if she’s just tired.  I think because she usually falls asleep at the boob, she probably things nursing = feed AND nursing = sleep, so she just does the same thing for both situations.

I think I need a few more days to figure this one out.  I think even with the mama/baby misunderstanding, I still need a big boost in my supply, but a big A-HA moment today.  It’s funny how every kid is so different…I feel like a first time mom, trying to figure things out!

I ordered a few boxes of Mother’s Milk tea from Amazon.  I should get it on Saturday (I love Amazon Prime).  I hope it works because I read that it tastes like black licorice, which I HATE.  I started eating a bowl of cereal with regular milk plus a can of soy milk right before bed. (Or should I say “bed” since there’s no real bed time for a while)!

When I feed Keira, a lot of times, she’ll still act hungry afterwards, she’ll root around, cry, etc.  I usually burp and hold her for about 20 minutes afterwards to see if she’s truly hungry and usually she is…she’ll still be rooting around, sucking on my shoulder, etc.  I know there’s nothing left since I’ve pumped before and I got a few drops. 

What should I do in that case?  I know she’s still hungry, but she just nursed and I have nothing left.  Usually that’s when I’ve been giving her the extra oz of formula.  I’ve tried re-latching her, but after a few sucks, she’ll unlatch since there’s nothing coming out and she’ll just cry.  We used to hold off Tyler with the paci, but Keira won’t take one.

I have supply issues again. Ugh. It’s so frustrating and annoying.  Unlike Tyler, Keira nursed like a champ from the beginning.  I was hopefully that I would have less issues with my supply with her eating so well.  I think I actually produced more when I was exclusively pumping with Tyler for his first 2 months.  She feeds every 2 hours during they day and still have to give her an extra oz or two of formula after each feed.  The only times I don’t have to is the middle of the night/early morning feeds since she goes longer without eating.

I no longer feel engorged at all.  I don’t remember when the engorgement is supposed to go away.  She’s about 2.5 weeks…is that about right?  It’s either that my supply has stabilized or that I have nothing.  She also nurses really fast…like 5 minutes each side.  So either she’s VERY efficient or again, I have nothing.  I guess I could pump to find out, but after exclusively pumping with T, I forever hate the pump.

I am drinking the recommended 3 Liters of water a day, but I think I’m not getting enough calories in.  With the frequent feeds, chasing around Tyler and the normal daily stuff, I think I get in 3 quick meals and an occasional snack here and there.

The recovery is going slow.  I still can’t sit down without feeling like a have a cactus shoved up my behind.  I think I actually felt better at this point with my c-section recovery.  It’s not really so painful anymore ,but it just feels prickly and very uncomfortable.  So I spend most of my day standing since lying down isn’t really an option when you have a toddler.

I think once I feel better and can sit down normally…and once I get my routine down, I can maybe squeeze in more meals and relax a little bit.  Maybe it’ll help.  I’m so tempted just to go all formula since it’s so time consuming to nurse AND bottle feed at each feeding.  Sigh.  Why can’t the man nurse?  It’s so unfair, they don’t have to do anything.

We’ve officially completed our first week having 2 under 2.  I did have help around, so it’s not really a fair assessment of how hard it can be. My parents stayed home with Tyler while I was at the hospital and my mom will be around for about 3 weeks.  PB also took these 2 weeks off, so he’s around as well.  We procrastinated a little too long on a lot of things and we are just starting to get things done (diaper pail, changing mat, nipples, sleep sacks were all shipped out yesterday).    We were so certain that she was going to be late, so we thought we had at least another few days to get things done.

Keira is doing well.  She was discharged from the hospital with slightly high bili’s.  It wasn’t high enough for them to keep her for bili lights, so they let her go home.  They told us to give her extra formula on top of my BM to flush out the bili.  So as much as we wanted to avoid formula, we’ve had to give her an extra ounce or two after each feeding.  She already looks much less yellow than when we first brought her home.  It’s okay…at least she’ll get a few extra calories.  The main reason we wanted to avoid formula is because we HATE washing bottles!

She sleeps extraordinarily well.  Starting around day 2, she has been sleeping 5 hours at night, usually followed by another 3-5 hour stretch.  My mom gets Tyler in the mornings, so I’ve been able to sleep 8-10 hours with getting up just once in between.  I think one night she woke up twice in between and I was like, ” OH NO, what is going on” since she had spoiled me so much.  This is actually the most sleep I’ve gotten since Tyler was born!  Let’s just say that PB is a deep sleeper, so lots of night wakings and early mornings for Mama with Tyler.  She also sleeps most of the day, crying only when hungry or pooping.  She does have a little evening fussiness, but that’s usually cured by holding her upright.

Tyler has been amazing with her.  We are all extremely surprised.  We thought for sure he would have problems adapting to a younger sister.  Maybe his age plays a role since he isn’t entirely in that terrible 2 phase where everything is mine mine mine.  He doesn’t have a problem with her being in his rocker chair and will tell everyone to Shhhhhh if she’s sleeping in it.  He will also bring her a doll and blanket and place them on top of her (ok fine, he sort of throws it on her, but with good intentions).  Then he’ll turn on the music and the vibration on the rocker for her.