Playtime

Katie is near 6 weeks at approx. 10lbs and 21inches. No wonder our arms are starting to get tired rocking her these days. She’s a lot more alert and able to follow us around the house with her pretty eyes.

I sooo have Daddy wrapped around my finger :oD
I can find my toy staring at Mommy, can you?

We also practice belly time to help her exercise her neck and lift her head. Obviously she’s doing very well.

Hmm..wonder what trick they'll make me do next.

On a couple occasions when Katie was able to break free from her mittens, we found her screaming at the top of her lungs with one hand pulling on her own hair and didn’t know how to let go. Poor baby…too bad mommy didn’t catch it on camera…hehe…

Mom...tell them you're lying! Now!

Wednesday was my birthday and gosh what a difference a year makes from waking up next to a hot dude to waking up next to a hot girl...baby girl...haha… I wasn’t feeling too well that day but well enough to go out for a nice dinner at Ruth’s Chris (first visit). I had the best steak in a long time ‘melts in your mouth’ as advertised in the menu. Katie also had her yummy meal right next to us and was on her best behavior at her first fine dining experience.

We're ready for a nice weekend with plenty of birthday partying...

Off Probation

Time sure flies when you’re having ‘fun’ with a newborn. Katie turns 1 month old today and she's growing fast. Every time I take a picture of her, she looks different on the very next picture. Ah, we already miss her days old but we're excited to see what she does next...sleeping longer, eating more, a new stretch, a new koo, etc....there's lots to look forward to and enough technology to help us look back when we miss it.

This 1 month milestone means that we’ve been freed from house arrest! It shatters all kinds of Chinese newborn customs for Mommy and baby to stay home (except for doc appts) to avoid germs and recover. Of course, we had to find out the hard way how seriously our parents believed in these customs. We were reprimanded for going to Dos Coyotes for lunch one day so we attended a lot more doctor’s appointment (wink wink).

Our first stop today was Grandma’s house to have dinner and pay our respects to Grandpa at the altar. Yogi burnt and offered incents while Yogi’s Mom held Katie and took a few bows praying for Yogi’s dad to bless Katie in every good way. For whatever reason, I was not allowed to go near the altar (yet anyway).

Afterwards we ran a few errands quickly as Katie suddenly seem to have grown to not like her car seat. It could the jumpsuit she wore was too warm and made her sweat more than usual. She was probably uncomfortable. We’ll take another shot at it tomorrow when we go out to lunch with a few friends and then to the Rhythm and Ribs festival at Raley field.

Have a great weekend! We intend to.

Sleeping Beauty

Since Katie has been home, she's been a good baby (knock on wood). She has her usual crying times to be feed, changed or rocked to sleep - nothing too demanding where she'd cry for long stretches. Of course, there's always room for improvements.

My sister-in-law, Fil lent us the above DVD called 'The Happiest Baby on the Block, The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Baby Sleep Longer' by Harvey Karp, MD. The basic secret is to recreate the sensation of being in the womb from putting them in the exact position to making sounds that they're uses to. At first try, Katie calmed down instantly and soon fell asleep. The most useful technique for us is swaddling. We knew very early that she doesn't like to be swaddled and loves to have her arms out. Thus, we've let her hang loose but she'll whack her arms in between naps and wake herself. So according to the video, we swaddled her anyways, calmed her down and soothed her to sleep. Once asleep, she's less jumpy and able to sleep longer. The video seems to be working for us and wouldn't hurt for ALL OF YOU PARENTS (and parents to-be) TO WATCH THE VIDEO TOO! Anything for more sleep is definitely worth a try. Thanks Fil.

Closing in on week 3 with our little princess, this is her favorite position to fall asleep on Mommy and Daddy, probably because it was her first position on Mommy when she came out.

Her naps are going on 3hrs instead of 2hrs which means more sleep for us! She'd rather sleep than eat...hmm...wonder which parent she got that from. It's funny how she sucks on her lips during a nap.

Catching ZZZZs any way possible.

Nice that she has her own builtin pacifier.

Don't think she likes the idea of an arrange marriage.

2 Week Doc Visit

She gain 1lb and 1inch - woo hoo! Doc says most newborns loose some weight after birth and will gain back to their birth weight at 2 weeks. Our baby gain a whole pound beyond her birth weight exceeding expectations. Of course, since she's been eating pretty much every waking minute in her life thus far, it's hard not to gain. We're also trying to chase down her cousin, Tyrus (left in pix and Katie on the right) who's double her weight at 6 weeks older.

'Hey Cous, where's my diaper money?'

Otherwise all is normal for Katie - pooping, peeing and barfing on daddy on a regular basis, peeing on the scale at the doctor's office, and screams louder when mommy is around (or so I'd like to think...hehe). Nothing we can't handle thus far and doing what she does best at 2 weeks old.

Thoughts that have crossed our minds the past couple weeks:

What did we get ourselves into? - Yogi
She is easier being inside verses out. - Linh
Maybe we'll just have one kid. - Yogi
What's for dinner? - Yogi
Can't think that far. - Linh

What day is this? - Linh (thanks Joy for the reminder)

Faces

Katelinh is two weeks old and growing by the day. Besides sleep, eat and poop, there's not much else she does and pretty much the only reasons why she would cry. The trick is to keep her comfy then we'll be comfy :o)

Thank you to all the Aunties and Uncles for visiting over the holiday weekend. Yes she's tiny but not for long. We have a 2 week checkup at the doctor's office tomorrow so we'll see how much she's grown.

Enjoy video below of her many precious faces and poses as she tries to wake up from a nap...with a kiss from daddy of course.

Ya, no way we can swaddle those arms the way she swings them.