Mini Play Date

The week went by fast. Monday was rainy. We checked out the library's kids corner. Tuesday we hung out with Xiaoying quite a bit and got the SunDance daycare application (likely to go there in September). Wednesday we spent the afternoon with Rebecca and Tristan after their Snuggler class. We chatted a lot about experiences of being new moms. Then the summer came as it got closer to the weekend!

Saturday was the first of the summer baby play date at Shelly's. We stopped by Brian's first, then Rebecca's, and finally Shelly's, so we got to visit lots of babies today. It's amazing how fast babies grow when you haven't seen them for a while. Shelly just moved to a beautiful new house recently. Sophie (9 mo) has made amazing progress in her motor skill. She walks pretty well with a hand on the coffee table, and gets up by herself after a fall now. Her stair climbing video was very cool. She and Andy were the loudest of the bunch. They shouted back and forth as if they were conversing in their own language.
Here is a slide show of it:

First Mother's Day

It felt strange that people were wishing me a happy Mother's Day. I was even putting down my mom's name on the line for "Mother's name" without a blink on the daycare application. It was only recently that I came to understand the feeling of motherhood better. On a jog one day I realized all of sudden how much I love this kid, how powerful the feeling of I'd do anything for this kid was. Before it was more of tending to him on a day-to-day basis and that it's been fascinating watching him grow. It's after 6 months now I started to think more about the next 18 years. I also came to understand my mom and other moms better and realized I shouldn't take her love for granted.

It was a little rainy at first and then turned sunny. My friend Bill at the drawing session even got me a gift and a sketch he did when Andy got on the model stand! We went to the Olympic Sculpture Park after drawing and discovered a community garden while walking from the parking spot to the park. Andy got carried away touching the flowers and wanted to pick the tulips and Calla lilies that we had to pull him away. He was also fascinated by the fountain at the base of the park. Pictures here.
Joe got me some coasters with Andy's pictures on them that were very special to me.

7 mo Observations and Misc

Andy turns 7 mo and we have a couple of visitors to come to see him for the first time. Alice and Fred are long time family friends from WI who have been like grandparents to me (so Andy qualifies as their first great grandson). We walked around the Kirkland marina and galleries, and had lunch at work. It was really nice to catch up with them!

Last weekend we also had a couple visitors for Andy. Li gave Andy a cool puzzle matt to learn walk on; Andy has been playing with the colorful pieces already (not all chewed up yet). Monica came with the high chair so Andy started eating at the same height as us at dinners now. He likes to bang on the big tray vigilantly for joy, and for more.

I finally got around to learning the sewing machine so refitting a summer hat was the first product of it here.

Rebecca (has a 1 month old Tristan) swings by after her Snuggler class sometimes so here is a picture of the two (Andy seems so much bigger in comparison).

7 month observations
- He likes to beat one leg in rhythm when he's eating.
- He still drools and spits and likes to chew on things more now (teething soon?).
- Stronger grip.
- He distinguishes between familiar and unfamiliar faces now. He used to smile at any stranger, but now he would study the unfamiliar intently for a while, and then curls up and buries his head on me as if he was getting shy, and then decides to smile or retreat.

Rock Solid Sleep in the Crib

Joe put together his crib so Andy moved out of his almost outgrown bassinet to his real bed. I was anticipating a few days of long hard cries for adjusting to the new bed and his own room, but much to my surprise, Andy adapted right away. He woke up once the first night, and then I learned he could go back to sleep on his own quickly the next night so didn't go in any more. He has been sleeping through the night for the last few weeks. Sometimes he wakes up once or twice around 12 or 1, but can always go back to sleep after a few minutes of crying. Sometimes he wakes up between 6 and 7am then I'd feed him and he goes back to sleep for a couple more hours usually. I get up to pump a couple times at night to make him a couple extra meals for the next day (supply is all caught up with demand now). He seems to sleep comfortably on a real mattress: all stretched out (see pictures).

Solids and Waste

The recent addition of real food seems to have created some changes in the waste department. Andy used to go about once (or 2 closely timed ones) every 5-7 days. But he just had 4 poops in 3 days here! Thursday was day 7, so he went as usual. It was a small hard one and that usually means there is more coming. So more came on Friday, but twice! Another small hard ball in the morning, and then a medium soft in the evening. Usually the bigger one is the runy yellow, but this time it was soft solid. Finally came the real one on Saturday, the big runny yellow one from drinking milk.
As he eats more, he's producing more waste too. I guess we'll have to add this to his 6-mo changes :-)

Sleep Training

This has been a difficult task, but I'm finally reaping the fruit of it. Now that he's trained, I don't have to nurse him to sleep, resulting immobilized since he's sleeping in the lap, and actually have a little free time at night. He sleeps in longer stretches too (4 hours) so we all get more rest.

After the 4 month checkup, the doctor said it's time for him to learn how to sleep on his own. I did it half way by transferring him to his bassinet after he's sound asleep from nursing. Well, it only made me more exhausted since now I had to wait long enough for him to be in a deep sleep state before transferring. And half the time he woke up right away so I had to feed again as that's the only way to sooth him. There were nights I was getting up 5-6 times with <1.5 hour sleep per lag, and the next day he would be cranky too from not enough sleep.

After the 6 month checkup, a second try at sleep training. We learned it is beneficial for him to develop the association of his own bed and sleep and that he is mature enough to sooth himself instead of relying on nursing all the time at this stage. It was very hard to bear his 45 minutes long crying the first time. But once it actually stopped and he was asleep, it felt like a miracle. Then the next feeding came 4 hours later, and this time I made sure he was awake when put into his bassinet. He made a small cry and was out again. The next day was easier, he didn't cry much at bed time or night feedings. After a couple days of training, he got it. Next was to train his napping. We don't force him to nap at regular times, but tried to make him fall asleep in his bed when he is tired. It was met with more resistance than night training sometimes. Maybe he's not tired enough at times.

I learned the key to sleep training is not to pick him up once he's put into his bed, as long as you are sure he's well fed and needs sleep now. Otherwise he'll only cry longer the next time supposedly. To my surprise, babies seem to learn much quicker than expected. The cry time reduces dramatically after he falls asleep on his own the first time. The other key is reinforcement. Keep up the routine and he will go to bed without a struggle habitually.

The next step in training is to eliminate the night feedings. Will wait on that until we are sure he can eat enough during the day.

6mo Observations

Andy had his 6 month check up on Wednesday, April 9. His new stats:
13 lb 5 oz,
25.5 in,
head circumference 43.3 cm.
Some recent pictures here.

There are some visible differences around the 6 month mark.
- He's feeding less frequently now, content with 2-3 hours in between instead of the 1.5 hours before. So he has more leisure time to explore.
- He's got better hand coordination now. He enjoys grabbing laundry when I fold.
- He makes his intention more clearly known. For example, he makes high pitched scream for things he wants (food mainly), and holds his arms out when he wants to be picked up.
- The most exciting difference, is that he is becoming more responsive to learning now. I showed him the talking blinking number buttons on the Exersaucer, and he just watched wide eyed, too timid to try. I turned around to make tea leaving him in the saucer. And guess what I heard? "Five", "Three", ... The talking buttons! It's like that with the jumpster Irene gave us too. I helped him bounce around and danced with him. He smiled and giggled. When I stopped, he started his own dance in it.