We be Parents

Wowzers, a half year goes fast.  The Shins sing that “the years have seemed short but the days go slowly by” – for my last half year I’d say that the minutes have gone slowly but the days are just flying by.  The days have gone fast enough that I’ve neglected to write anything here since the 5 month milestone and I’m even a few days late on the 6 month mark which Hazel hit either Monday or Tuesday….since she was born on the 31st I’m not sure whether she should get credit for 6 months on 11/30 or 12/1.

Hazel has changed a lot in the last month, but it is hard to point to any single thing.  She hasn’t learned too many new tricks, but she’s improved quite a bit in the old ones.  She’s a lot more focused, she’s able to entertain herself with her toys, and she’s gotten a lot stronger.  Her eating habits have changed quite a bit as well as she’s caught on to eating the solid foods.  The solid foods have been great for me because it means she actually eats when I’m taking care of her while Yenari is working.

The solids have had a downside though…the switch from breastmilk only to rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, veggies, and fruits has brought her digestive system to a screeching halt, going from many dirty diapers a day to none for many days.  It got bad enough that we even brought her into the doctor because she hadn’t gone in about 5 days!  Her doctor checked her out and said that she didn’t seem to backed up, but that we she start her on some prune juice or prune solid food and proceed on to child suppositories if that didn’t work.  She actually seemed to like the prune baby food (gross!) but it didn’t quite ‘clear the road’, so the suppositories were the answer after she hit the 8 day mark…and once we went for it the action started up in seconds!  She still hasn’t quite figured out pooping with solid food, so hopefully we’ll be seeing more stinky diapers soon.

In the last few weeks we’ve been busy taking Hazel on many social engagements.  Hazel and I had a great time and Jeff and Sarah’s place for Thanksgiving – Yenari was working, but everyone there was really helpful in playing with Hazel.  Luckily I’ve gotten quite good at eating while holding Hazel, so I was able to enjoy an incredibly tasty meal! Here’s the little lady all dressed up in her Thanksgiving outfit before we headed to Jeff and Sarah’s house:

That same weekend we stopped by to see Rebecca, Troy, and Ewan at there house.  Rebecca took some great photos of Hazel and Ewan playing together – this was definitely the most interaction Hazel has had with another baby.  Hazel was busy grabbing Ewans hand, checking him out, and wondering how a 4 month old could be bigger than her!  Ewan was playing hard to get, or maybe just a little preoccupied with trying to jam his whole hand into his mouth! Here are the two lovebirds:

This Monday we took Hazel to the doctor for her checkup.  She is moving right along in the growth department, measuring in at the 90th percentile for height and head circumference and the 75th percentile for weight.  She was only at the 50th percentile for head circumference at her four month checkup, so her head has done some serious expanding!  Though they’ve made mistakes in measuring her head many times, so maybe her head didn’t get so much bigger.  She got a bunch of shots which she really didn’t like, but otherwise survived the visit without too much trouble.

And to finish it off, a couple more photos from the last month:

This past Saturday Hazel turned 5 months old – it’s amazing how much she’s grown and changed in the past 5 months.  It’s kind of cliche to say that she changes so much, but she really does – from day to day and week to week she’s gotten so much more active, interactive, and loud…screams, squeels, farty noises, and something that sounds a little like barking.  She’s seeming more and more like a little kid and much less like a newborn.  She stares at things intently, studying them to figure out what’s going on.  She’s started to become very interested in toys…especially now that she has the skills to grab them and bring them straight into her mouth.

Saturday was also, of course, Halloween.  Here’s the babe in her bunny costume:

Doesn’t she look so big?!?! Hazel did remarkably well with her costume and never got pissy or angry about it.  She laughed big time when she first saw herself in the mirror wearing it.  She was in and out of the costume so many times: we had a couple Skype sessions with both the grandmas, Yenari brought her into my office wearing the costume, trick or treating at Yenari’s former landlady’s house, Halloween dinner with Yenari’s aunt and uncle, and a birthday party for one of Yenari’s coworkers’ kid.

On the eating front, she still hasn’t fully caught on to bottle feeding.  She doesn’t scream when she sees the bottle, but she seems to prefer to hold out until Yenari gets home or at least until she’s really hungry.  We did start the slow path down the solid food front – we’re still on rice cereal…she seems to enjoy it but isn’t eating too much of it yet.  Maybe we should try carrots next – she couldn’t keep the toy carrot that came with her Halloween costume.

She’s moving around a lot more though hasn’t fully caught on to rolling yet.  She did roll over from her tummy to her back once on the floor, but just once.  She’s done it on the bed several times, but that’s a bit easier.  She’s gotten strong enough that she can sit really well, prop herself up, and is able to hang out in her highchair now – here she is:

In sad news, it seems that her mohawk has subsided and no longer stands on end…her hair is still heavily focused right down the middle so she’s got a mohawk vibe, but its not the same thing.  We’ll have to break out the hair gel and hair spray soon to keep the mohawk alive.

And lastly, some photos of my girls playing together…these are from about two weeks ago…

Four months have flown by quickly and the last month has given us a huge number of changes.  Hazel has changed a lot and is becoming more and more dynamic and interactive by the day.  While she laughed and smiled before, now she seems to be genuinely engaged by toys, songs, and staring at herself in the mirror.  Her occasional laughs and smiles have turned into excitement, infectious smiles, and cracking up.  She’s making a lot more noise, babbling to herself, squealing with excitement, and showing a wider range of emotions through her voice.  She’s getting a lot more control over her hands – grabbing toys, holding onto them, and studying them closely.  She’s almost like a real person!

Here she is holding one of her favorite toys:

She’s still giving us (at least me and the nanny) trouble in the bottle feeding department, but she does cave in and eat from the bottle when she’s really hungry, but still not nearly as much as she should be eating.  We’ve also caved in a few times by bringing Hazel to the hospital to meet Yenari on her dinner break for a quick feed, though we’re trying not to make these emergency feeding sessions a regular affair.

Today Hazel had her 4 month checkup.  We were especially eager to see how she was doing on the growth front since she obviously hasn’t been eating as well this past months due to her battle with the bottle.  The growth charts and the doctor’s comments comforted us – she’s growing just fine: she’s still at the 75th percentile for weight (14 lbs, 14 ounces), around the 97th percentile for height (26 inches), and the 50th percentile for head circumference.  On this visit to the doctor Hazel wasn’t the only one facing down the needle – the whole family got shots…Hazel got her next round of vaccinations and Yenari and I got flu shots…so while we don’t have matching clothes we were wearing matching band-aids today.

Here’s another shot of her from almost 2 weeks ago:

Lastly, congratulations to new parents Joe and Sophia, who welcomed their beautiful baby girl Vera Elizabeth Lampe about a week ago – welcome to the club!

Today marked an important milestone for Hazel – her hundredth day since birth!  The hundred days celebration is popular in Korean culture and dates back to the times when infant mortality rates were low and making it through 100 days was a sign that the baby was likely to survive and thrive.  Nowadays the hundred days celebration carries is both a celebration of the baby and the parents…survival is a two way street!  Some people have a big party to celebrate the hundredth day, but we decided to take it easy and enjoy the day with Hazel.

Yenari did, however, dress Hazel up in her fanciest princess dress:

In addition to this being a celebration of her age, today also marked the last day of Yenari’s time off of work.  Tomorrow Yenari heads back to work at her full schedule of 4 days a week at the hospital.  She works the evening shift from around 2:30-11:30pm, so her going back to work will also mean some big changes for me!  On the weekdays we’re going to have a nanny taking care of Hazel until six and then I’ll take over until around midnight when Yenari gets home – scary!

The major part of the preparation over the past several days has been trying to get Hazel used to eating from a bottle.  Shouldn’t be too hard right?  How hard could it be for a baby to eat from a bottle?  Ummm….apparently quite hard!  This has been one of the most difficult times we’ve had in the last…100 days.  As soon as a bottle comes near Hazel the screaming and crying begins.  She’s gotten a hold of it a few times and eaten a few ounces, but she doesn’t seem to remember or want to eat the next time around.

On Saturday we fed her only with the bottle until 9pm…she probably drank a couple ounces of milk over the course of the day – a tiny amount compared to how much she normally eats.  On Sunday we tried to follow the schedule that she’ll have once Yenari goes back to work – breastfeeding until 2pm and then the bottle until midnight.  We all survived it, but there was lots of crying and Hazel only ate a few ounces.  It’s really difficult as a parent to watch your baby cry because she’s hungry and to not give in and let her breast feed.

Over the last week we’ve done our part in supporting the economy by purchasing just about every bottle and nipple on the market…from the local Babys R Us to the local Japanese market…we’ve seen them all.  None of them have provided the miraculous breakthrough we were hoping for, and I’m guessing that we won’t find one that will provide that miracle.  Hazel seems to be able to eat from a bottle when she needs to, she just doesn’t seem to want to do it too often.  My hope is that with more practice and with the reality of no mommy in site, Hazel will resign herself to eating from the bottle and overcome this challenge for all of us!

So, here’s to Hazel’s hundred days, a good return to work for Yenari, productive eating for Hazel, and me surviving with Hazel at night 4 days a week!

Double post Sunday!  Today Hazel celebrated her 11th week…or maybe it was we who celebrated – she pretty much just tagged along with us all day.  She slept in late and let Yenari get some rest while I caught up on some work in the late morning.  We decided to celebrate with a lunch at Yenari’s favorite sushi restaurant in the Bay Area: Pink Godzilla in Santa Cruz.

So we made the not so long, but long for lunch trip down to Santa Cruz for our late lunch and Yenari ate like a champ, taking down all of the sushi that she couldn’t eat when she was pregnant (still staying away from the high mercury stuff).  Lunch was excellent and Hazel slept the whole time, allowing us to devour the food without having to keep her happy.

After eating, we drove up to Felton to visit Rebecca, Troy, and their 4 week old baby boy Ewan.  We hadn’t met Ewan and they hadn’t met Hazel, so it was a big baby fest!  Ewan’s a big boy – despite her 7 week head start, Hazel is just about the same weight as Ewan and his feet are even bigger than hers!  Here they are together with their mommies followed by the foot comparison shot!

Yenari thinks that in this picture Hazel is checking her watch to see if it’s time to wake up Ewan!

In the foot comparison Hazel’s on the left and Ewan’s on right.  Though they’re about the same size, it’s amazing what a difference 7 weeks makes – Hazel feels a lot more ‘solid’ and obviously has much better control over her head.  On holding Hazel, Rebecca said that Ewan is a lot more ‘floppy’.  Amazing how much they change over the course of a few weeks.  We had a great time visiting with Rebecca, Troy, and Ewan…trading baby stories and just catching up.

Normally when we go to Pink Godzilla we stop at the nearby A&W to pickup some root beer floats.  We hadn’t done that earlier, and Yenari was eager to fulfill our eating destiny, so we decided to stop in Campbell to pickup our root beer floats (and a bacon cheeseburger for me!) before heading home.  Tastey tastey.

We topped the evening off with a visit from my mom and Duncan who had just gotten back from their weekend excursion in Monterey.  Here they are, playing with Hazel on the couch:

And lastly, here are a couple nice smiley photos I took today:

So, it was a very fun-filled day for us today…we’ve finally realized that we can actually go places and do things and she doesn’t go wild and crazy, so here’s to more fun-filled and exciting days to come!