It's been another tough week of Emily's milk intake. She's still not drinking much milk, and it genuinely concerns me. I don't want her to be a small baby, but genetically, I know she's likely to be small since I'm small myself. But it stinks that she won't even drink her milk to help the situation! I am dreading our 1 year doctors appointment because I'm scared the pediatrician will tell us that Emily is very underweight or under-height. But on the other hand, I also can't wait for the doctor to tell us it's okay to start Emily on regular adult food and stop drinking so much milk. The constant figuring out how to get more milk in her is exhausting!
This isn't a new development, but it's something I've noticed for a little while. Emily doesn't have a desire to walk anymore. We had a lot of fun using that big amazon box in the beginning. But for a while now, she hasn't had any desire to walk. She cruises just fine. She even goes from one big piece of furniture to the next all via cruising. But as soon as we try to hold her arms up to help her walk, nada. If we put her in front of the amazon box, she'll sit down. It's so strange how this happened. I had been so sure she would be an early walker. But I guess she's going to be a delayed walker after all. I guess it makes sense - she's been delayed with everything else. Why not this?
Also, another thing I forgot to record was the fact that Emily's 4th tooth finally came in! I think it happened during her cold. So it was a double whammy of being sick and also teething. Emily's teeth have been so delayed (in my opinion). She now finally has her top 2 teeth growing in, and is now finally starting to be able to bite down on things. It really caused us to have to delay the kinds of food we gave her since she was unable to chew for so long. I'm excited to finally be able to make her some more normal foods!
Some random developments: Whenever I go get Emily after she wakes up, she always grabs her duck stuffed animal and holds it up to me. It's as if to say, "look umma! it's duck!" It's so cute how she immediately grabs it to show me. She also grabs her lovey to show me that as well. It's really sweet.
We genuinely think Emily knows the word appa. It's her favorite word to say all day long. But I think she still knows that it means her dad because she says it when she hears him come home and open the door. I hope she does know this word bc it's really cute to hear her call him. But in general, we just think she understands us more now. When Sy says, Emily, I'm going to watch baby shark on my phone, she drops what she's doing and goes to him so she can watch it together. When we mention the word kkakka, she definitely starts looking for her snacks.
Even certain routines, I feel like she's starting to remember more. At night, before I put her to bed, she now knows to always wave goodbye to Sy as we walk down the hallway to her bedroom. For a small window of time, I felt like she started to lie down once I gave her her favorite pen for diaper change. It's like she knew that the pen meant diaper change time.
Although, there are some routines/tasks she is not enjoying anymore. 1. She doesn't like it when I brush her teeth anymore. She purses her lips and won't open her mouth. How on earth did she figure that out!? 2. She won't drink water anymore. Back around the 6 months period, she happily drank from her sippy cup. Then she one day just stopped. I recently bought her a new sippy cup, the kind with a small hole for her to drink water out of. She happily drank from that for a few weeks. And now she's stopped again. I'm so worried that she's dehydrated bc she keeps getting cracked lips that bleed. I feel like with her decreased milk intake, plus no water intake, she's gotta be dehydrated! Oy, this girl. It's always something with her!
Let's hope for some improved eating soon!
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Monday, January 14, 2019
Sick and tired - literaly - Week 45+46 Observations
It's been another crazy 2 weeks for the family! Emily and I got pretty sick and it's been a long journey back to health. Shortly after New Year's day, Emily had a small runny nose issue. She didn't have any other symptoms, so I thought she was mostly okay. But then her sleep became terrible! Emily had her first runny nose on a Wed. Then on Thurs, she refused to sleep all morning. I had an interview that day, so I was at her grandparents' house. Emily eventually slept at like noon - but only for 40 min. That was the beginning of her poor sleep stretch. For days, Emily had trouble sleeping during naps. At night, Emily would wake up nearly every hour either coughing or just crying. It was the most tiring time for me and Sy as we got poor sleep as a result of her poor sleep.
Then on Sunday, I started feeling pretty sick myself. I had inevitably caught her cold. I ended up sleeping several naps that day while Sy took care of Emily so I could sleep. Emily's mucus was pretty green by this point, and so was mine. On Monday, I lost my voice and it was such a struggle to take care of Emily. While I was physically mostly okay, just fatigued, it was so hard to not talk to her. She needs me to talk to her and play with her, but my voice just hurt so much. On top of that, Sy's sister had suggested that maybe we rock Emily to sleep since she's sick. And I began to rock her to sleep for naps. While it was sweet to be able to rock her to sleep like the old days, and see her drift off into dreamland and breathe so peacefully, it was also really tiring. Emily is like 18 pounds now, so rocking her steadily for 15-20 min at time was hard on my arms. My arms would go numb and ache. I was fatigued myself from being sick, so it was doubly hard. Finally, on Wed, Sy took a sick day and took care of us both of us so we could get better. Emily was still not sleeping well at night, and still needing to be rocked for naps. It was a very long week.
Emily and I are feeling better. We may not be 100% better still, but at least we're no longer with green mucus. Emily is sleeping through the night without crying or waking up to coughs, so that's good. We've been able to get some more rest. I'm trying to retrain her to nap without the rocking. That's a tough one to overcome. It becomes a mental struggle of trying to figure out what's more important - getting more sleep throughout the day by helping her to fall asleep or to train her to sleep on her own.
Oh and on top of all of this, Emily went back to eating SOOO poorly again. We've had to supplement all of her leftover milk with oatmeal and it's been so stressful to make sure she's getting enough milk in her day. She just hates milk now. While she didn't do the screaming she did the last cold, the lack of appetite for milk was tough to deal with. We're still dealing with the aftermath of it. I hope she starts drinking all her milk soon.
In terms of development, Emily has learned how to ask us to do things repetitively. There are 2 crinkle books she has, and she has figured out how to ask us to read it to her over and over again. While the repetition is annoying - it's really sweet to see her want to do something again and to ask us to do it. I also got her a baby shark book that has buttons to play songs. She has learned how to ask us to help her push the buttons. I somewhat regret buying this book bc it's so annoying to listen to the songs. But I also love seeing the joy in her face.
Emily has sadly now realized we put pins her hair and she hates it. She is constantly trying to pull out any hair pin. She even pulls out phantom hair pins and is constantly grabbing her head to make sure nothing is there. This is concerning me a lot bc a) she needs to have the hair out of her face! and b) what are we gonna do when it's her birthday party and I want to put a nice pin in her hair?? I really hope she grows out of this!
Despite being sick, I've been furiously working and prepping for Emily's dohl party. It's been an exhausting time of making dohl towers. The first tower only took 3 days. The 2nd tower took much longer bc I was sick and also bc I was painting the beans and that was a huge time suck. Planning the rest of her party has been a non-stop task. I've been researching everything and it's tedious work. While I'm glad that I am unemployed so that I can party plan, I also wish that this wasn't so much work period! Well, just a month left to plan out all the details!
Okay, time to go and rest up before my little monster wakes up!
Then on Sunday, I started feeling pretty sick myself. I had inevitably caught her cold. I ended up sleeping several naps that day while Sy took care of Emily so I could sleep. Emily's mucus was pretty green by this point, and so was mine. On Monday, I lost my voice and it was such a struggle to take care of Emily. While I was physically mostly okay, just fatigued, it was so hard to not talk to her. She needs me to talk to her and play with her, but my voice just hurt so much. On top of that, Sy's sister had suggested that maybe we rock Emily to sleep since she's sick. And I began to rock her to sleep for naps. While it was sweet to be able to rock her to sleep like the old days, and see her drift off into dreamland and breathe so peacefully, it was also really tiring. Emily is like 18 pounds now, so rocking her steadily for 15-20 min at time was hard on my arms. My arms would go numb and ache. I was fatigued myself from being sick, so it was doubly hard. Finally, on Wed, Sy took a sick day and took care of us both of us so we could get better. Emily was still not sleeping well at night, and still needing to be rocked for naps. It was a very long week.
Emily and I are feeling better. We may not be 100% better still, but at least we're no longer with green mucus. Emily is sleeping through the night without crying or waking up to coughs, so that's good. We've been able to get some more rest. I'm trying to retrain her to nap without the rocking. That's a tough one to overcome. It becomes a mental struggle of trying to figure out what's more important - getting more sleep throughout the day by helping her to fall asleep or to train her to sleep on her own.
Oh and on top of all of this, Emily went back to eating SOOO poorly again. We've had to supplement all of her leftover milk with oatmeal and it's been so stressful to make sure she's getting enough milk in her day. She just hates milk now. While she didn't do the screaming she did the last cold, the lack of appetite for milk was tough to deal with. We're still dealing with the aftermath of it. I hope she starts drinking all her milk soon.
In terms of development, Emily has learned how to ask us to do things repetitively. There are 2 crinkle books she has, and she has figured out how to ask us to read it to her over and over again. While the repetition is annoying - it's really sweet to see her want to do something again and to ask us to do it. I also got her a baby shark book that has buttons to play songs. She has learned how to ask us to help her push the buttons. I somewhat regret buying this book bc it's so annoying to listen to the songs. But I also love seeing the joy in her face.
Emily has sadly now realized we put pins her hair and she hates it. She is constantly trying to pull out any hair pin. She even pulls out phantom hair pins and is constantly grabbing her head to make sure nothing is there. This is concerning me a lot bc a) she needs to have the hair out of her face! and b) what are we gonna do when it's her birthday party and I want to put a nice pin in her hair?? I really hope she grows out of this!
Despite being sick, I've been furiously working and prepping for Emily's dohl party. It's been an exhausting time of making dohl towers. The first tower only took 3 days. The 2nd tower took much longer bc I was sick and also bc I was painting the beans and that was a huge time suck. Planning the rest of her party has been a non-stop task. I've been researching everything and it's tedious work. While I'm glad that I am unemployed so that I can party plan, I also wish that this wasn't so much work period! Well, just a month left to plan out all the details!
Okay, time to go and rest up before my little monster wakes up!
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Week 43 + 44 Observations
The past 2 weeks have been busy because it was Christmas and New Years. It's crazy how the holidays have come and gone. They were busy and full of developments for Emily!
1. Emily does this strange but funny thing with her arm these days. She outstretches it like she's reaching for the stars or something. We couldn't understand what it meant for days, and we still don't! Sometimes she holds objects and thrusts her arm in the air with the object in hand. So we wonder, if she presenting the object? Sometimes we wonder if it's her way of pointing? And the funniest part is that sometimes she makes a really "ugly" face when she does this arm thing. She scrunches her face and mouth and we laugh so hard when she does that. We're like, "what's with your face??" It's been super funny. We don't know what it means, but it's cute as heck!
2. Emily has recently figured out how to click her tongue. She does it all the time now. It's so fascinating because how did she learn to do that? We never do that in front of her. So it's not like she's mimicking us. Babies are fascinating!
3. We've discovered that Emily is scared of dogs. For christmas, we were at Sy's cousin's house, and there were 2 small dogs roaming the house. Emily was curious about them and would watch them carefully. But if they got close to her, she would start swatting at them to get away from her and would start whining/crying to beg us to protect her. It was pretty cute to see. I've never seen her afraid of anything. So it was really interesting to see.
4. Emily has become a cruising and climbing machine. For Christmas, Emily got her first little monogrammed arm chair. She has been absolutely loving climbing this chair and climbing onto the shelf next to it. But even without this chair, she spends her day just climbing and cruising one thing after another. She cruises along our dining bench, the sofa, the ottoman, the rocking chair, her walker, any bookshelf, etc. It's been a bit exhausting watching her now bc we move around so much now. But I'm glad she's an active girl and is getting better and better at walking.
5. Emily has become such a giggly girl. She just giggles by herself at nothing. It's so infectious! When she laughs, we can't help but laugh. And vice versa too! If she hears us laughing, she joins in and giggles and laughs along with us! It's been such a sweet and fun 2 weeks of laughing together as a family.
6. We think Emily has figured out how to wave hi and bye now. She's not super skilled at it yet, but I think it's stemmed from her ability to mimic us. So now when we wave hi and bye, she does it back. She doesn't do it every time, but getting better and better!
7. We also think Emily can understand the word "no" now. It's been really funny to see her react when we say No Emily! She immediately stops what she's doing and looks over at us. I would say most of the time, she stops doing what she was doing and moves on to something else. But it's hard when it's something she really wants to do - i.e. eat snacks. But either way, it's SOO crazy to me that she can understand us now. I mean, I know she was always able to understand us this whole time. But the fact that she can react and respond in a more cognizant way is so mind blowing. Watching her turn into a little person is so incredibly fascinating to me.
Overall, it was nice to experience our first Christmas with Emily. Poor girl was put through a lot of tough days and nights bc of the holidays. She basically had her sleep interrupted for like 5 days straight. She got so little sleep for so many days. But she was a great trooper as usual and was in pretty good spirits with family and friends. It was sweet to wake up Christmas morning and have Emily join me and Sy in our usual Christmas morning tradition. She may have third wheeled us, but she was so welcome. It was adorable to watch her open her gifts, rip wrapping paper, smile at us when she tried out her new toys. It made me realize that Christmas truly is a holiday for children - not adults. I've never felt happier than watching Emily play with new toys than any gift I've ever received for myself.
For New Year's day, Emily participated in her very first saebae. And she did great! She was able to somehow do the bow despite not knowing what the heck she was doing. She just kind of did it on her own! Normally, I kind of hate the saebae tradition. I find it really degrading to bow to someone. But I gotta say, when it's small children like babies or even a 5 year old, it's pretty cute. It's more funny than it is traditional.
This holiday season will probably be the most memorable bc it was our first with Emily. She developed so much in the blink of an eye in the past 2 weeks. I wish I could bottle all of this up and remember it forever. Hopefully, this blog entry will keep it alive for me.
1. Emily does this strange but funny thing with her arm these days. She outstretches it like she's reaching for the stars or something. We couldn't understand what it meant for days, and we still don't! Sometimes she holds objects and thrusts her arm in the air with the object in hand. So we wonder, if she presenting the object? Sometimes we wonder if it's her way of pointing? And the funniest part is that sometimes she makes a really "ugly" face when she does this arm thing. She scrunches her face and mouth and we laugh so hard when she does that. We're like, "what's with your face??" It's been super funny. We don't know what it means, but it's cute as heck!
2. Emily has recently figured out how to click her tongue. She does it all the time now. It's so fascinating because how did she learn to do that? We never do that in front of her. So it's not like she's mimicking us. Babies are fascinating!
3. We've discovered that Emily is scared of dogs. For christmas, we were at Sy's cousin's house, and there were 2 small dogs roaming the house. Emily was curious about them and would watch them carefully. But if they got close to her, she would start swatting at them to get away from her and would start whining/crying to beg us to protect her. It was pretty cute to see. I've never seen her afraid of anything. So it was really interesting to see.
4. Emily has become a cruising and climbing machine. For Christmas, Emily got her first little monogrammed arm chair. She has been absolutely loving climbing this chair and climbing onto the shelf next to it. But even without this chair, she spends her day just climbing and cruising one thing after another. She cruises along our dining bench, the sofa, the ottoman, the rocking chair, her walker, any bookshelf, etc. It's been a bit exhausting watching her now bc we move around so much now. But I'm glad she's an active girl and is getting better and better at walking.
5. Emily has become such a giggly girl. She just giggles by herself at nothing. It's so infectious! When she laughs, we can't help but laugh. And vice versa too! If she hears us laughing, she joins in and giggles and laughs along with us! It's been such a sweet and fun 2 weeks of laughing together as a family.
6. We think Emily has figured out how to wave hi and bye now. She's not super skilled at it yet, but I think it's stemmed from her ability to mimic us. So now when we wave hi and bye, she does it back. She doesn't do it every time, but getting better and better!
7. We also think Emily can understand the word "no" now. It's been really funny to see her react when we say No Emily! She immediately stops what she's doing and looks over at us. I would say most of the time, she stops doing what she was doing and moves on to something else. But it's hard when it's something she really wants to do - i.e. eat snacks. But either way, it's SOO crazy to me that she can understand us now. I mean, I know she was always able to understand us this whole time. But the fact that she can react and respond in a more cognizant way is so mind blowing. Watching her turn into a little person is so incredibly fascinating to me.
Overall, it was nice to experience our first Christmas with Emily. Poor girl was put through a lot of tough days and nights bc of the holidays. She basically had her sleep interrupted for like 5 days straight. She got so little sleep for so many days. But she was a great trooper as usual and was in pretty good spirits with family and friends. It was sweet to wake up Christmas morning and have Emily join me and Sy in our usual Christmas morning tradition. She may have third wheeled us, but she was so welcome. It was adorable to watch her open her gifts, rip wrapping paper, smile at us when she tried out her new toys. It made me realize that Christmas truly is a holiday for children - not adults. I've never felt happier than watching Emily play with new toys than any gift I've ever received for myself.
For New Year's day, Emily participated in her very first saebae. And she did great! She was able to somehow do the bow despite not knowing what the heck she was doing. She just kind of did it on her own! Normally, I kind of hate the saebae tradition. I find it really degrading to bow to someone. But I gotta say, when it's small children like babies or even a 5 year old, it's pretty cute. It's more funny than it is traditional.
This holiday season will probably be the most memorable bc it was our first with Emily. She developed so much in the blink of an eye in the past 2 weeks. I wish I could bottle all of this up and remember it forever. Hopefully, this blog entry will keep it alive for me.
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