Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Soothing herself to sleep

I forgot to mention that last Friday night, she soothed herself to sleep for the first time. I nursed her in bed (as usual hoping to get her to sleep), but she didn't stay asleep. I think it was bc she had a burp, so I picked her up, and she burped, but was now awake. I put her back down and turned on her seahorse and gave her a receiving blanket. She grabbed the blanket and started massaging it (scrunching it in her hands in various spots) and getting it all over her face. Her fountain was running and the lights and TV were off. Then she fell asleep!

Every night since then, I've done this, but she hasn't fallen asleep on her own yet. But she loves grabbing and feeling the blanket and she always pulls it over face (maybe she likes the feeling of having her face covered). This morning, I tried it and she fell asleep with the receiving blanket on her face. I carefully removed it, and then she woke up again. Oh, well!

Fuzzy wuzzy

Ever since I noticed Sierra liking blankies, I also noticed that she likes soft, fuzzy things now, like the little elephant and teddy bear rattles that she never paid attention to before. She now will hold them, put them in her mouth, shake them, and then as a grand finale, toss them onto the floor. I pick it up and give it back to her, and the process repeats.

SHE's matzah girl



Monday, March 29, 2010

Hidden Villa and Lesson Learned

So we finally made it to Hidden Villa. Diana was interested in going on a walk with us and we wanted to go somewhere shady and nearby. It happened to be Cesar Chavez day there so they had all the animal pens set up for viewing, arts and crafts for kids, and a mariachi band. We looked at lots of baby lambs, baby goats, and piglets (first time we got to go in the chickens and pigs area) and they were cute!

Then we started on the short bunny loop trail. We had the baby jogger and carseat in it. Sierra was asleep. It started out with switchbacks uphill and it was narrow, so Josh barely got the baby jogger up halfway. We should have turned around then, but the map made it look like it straightened out and flattened fairly quickly. We were wrong. First I helped guide the baby jogger up a bit more. Then Josh took out the carseat and jogged up to the top with her, jostling her head back and forth the with each step since he leaned the carrier against his leg bc the carseat was heavy to carry with one hand. (At some point, I was alarmed to see that her head was banging on the side with each step. I said to be careful, but I should have been more forceful and told him to slow down and use both hands if he was having trouble keeping her stable with one hand. I did not realize that her waist was strapped in but not her shoulders, which made it even worse.)

I pushed the stroller to the top with diana guiding it in the front. The trail flattened out but was on the edge of a drop down, and very narrow. So we decided to collapse the stroller and carry it. I carried it, Diana carried the diaper bag and orange bag, and Josh carried the carseat with her in it, leaning it against his leg and totally jostling her. She woke up at some point, at which point we decided to put her in the bjorn, which we SHOULD have just woken her up earlier to do, rather than be worried about waking her up - and avoided all the head banging! :( Diana had carried the stroller for part of it too and I had it most of the way (not good for either of us given that she was 3 mos pregnant and I had the c-section 4 mos ago) up until then. Then I said, for safety sake, we should just leave the stroller behind and Josh would come back and get it. We thought (or hoped) we were near the end, but it kept going and going. Finally we made it back down, where there was a bench for us to sit, and Josh went back while I went to the bathroom and then nursed her. Diana was a good sport about the whole thing. She's been going through a lot herself lately, so maybe it was a good distraction for her at least. We got home and I had it all out with Josh last night. I read about shaken baby syndrome on the web, which was not reassuring - some of the effects may not be seen for years.

This morning (Monday), I called Dr. Fong's office to ask if we should get her head checked, especially since it was at least 15 minutes of banging, and she wasn't strapped in fully. The nurse talked to him and he said to be more careful in the future but since there aren't any symptoms, there's nothing they'd be able to do. I asked about what to look for and she said:
1) eyes funny: one eye looking in the wrong direction or looking smaller than the other
2) non-responsive
3) vomiting (different from spitup in that there are stomach convulsions, like when an adult vomits, and it's bigger than spitup)

So far, thankfully, she is acting normal and even smiling a lot.

Lesson: We should have turned around. And then once we were stuck, we should have just woken her up and put her in the bjorn. Carrying the carseat was a big mistake bc of the way Josh carries it.

The Dish

Saturday was forecasted to be 74F and it actually delivered this time, somewhat surprising us (we would have picked a shadier destination for her delicate infant skin). We were originally going to do Little Yosemite with Nancy, but late Fri night, Nancy looked it up and decided it was too far for them, so we suggested the Dish instead (since I wanted to go to Day One). We decided to meet there at 11am, then Josh called Norm & Jen to see if they wanted to join and they happened to actually be available and ready to go, so they met us there too. Josh forgot the Baby Jogger carseat attachment so we took the Maclaren. It was sunny and felt kind of hot even! Sierra was good in her stroller but at the top decided she wanted out, so Josh held her. We made it to the Dish and then turned around, at which point everyone split up to tend to their various kids' needs (Jasper wanted a snack and so they stayed behind, it was feeding time for Sierra, so Josh rushed back to the car, and Norm & Jen just walked back normally). We put Sierra back in the stroller and then Josh got way ahead of me. I think rushing back to the car (which means jogging the stroller before she is 6 mos old, a no-no) was not a good idea, but Josh was way too far ahead for me to be able to say anything. I caught up with Norm & Jen and walked with them down to the bottom.

Afterwards we had lunch at Calafia with Norm & Jen (outdoor seating very nice in the shade) and shared a table with two couples with a 4 mo old (Paul Frank bugaboo) and 6 mo old (some other designer stroller). With Jaden's bugaboo (which was also Paul Frank, he just didn't have the bassinet on him), we looked like the trailer trash family with our MacLaren traveller (snap in car seat stroller). :)

Afterwards, we went to Day One (where we weighed her in at 15lb, 8oz on their baby scale - clothes is about 8oz, so she's about 15lb) and then home!

SHE's sleeping after a long weekend



SHE's the child too young to ask



Sunday, March 28, 2010

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Friday, March 26, 2010

Security blanket

I noticed this first in the car when she was crying in her carseat a few weeks ago on the way back from Uvas Canyon. She was crying and didn't want the pacifier, but when I put her pink bunny blanket in her hands against her cheeks, she grasped the blanket and calmed down. We had coincidentally just gotten on the freeway, so at the time, I thought it might have been the freeway (which she prefers over city streets). Then last weekend again, I gave her a receiving blanket against her cheeks to hold on to in the car, and it made her fall asleep too, but again, we had just gotten on the freeway. Last night, I was strolling her around the house to get her to nap and she was crying, then I gave her a receiving blanket to hold on to against her cheeks, and it made her fall asleep (lately she hasn't been falling asleep by strolling around the house). Just now Teagin was strolling her around the house and she was crying, and I gave her a receiving blanket and she fell asleep again! (I didn't want her to go outside since her hair was still wet from her shampoo.) It doesn't seem to be connected to any particular blanket, just any blanket will do!

SHE was sleeping when daddy got home



SHE's still sleeping (after 6:45am breakfast)



SHE's talking to Aunt Daisy



Thursday, March 25, 2010

Rubberband stretchy baby

Sierra loves stretching, even since she was a newborn. I almost think she did it more as a newborn, and a bit less now (but this might be bc she was woombied more before - more on the woombie below). She loves stretching after waking up and after being in the same position for awhile. She'll stretch her arms and extend her whole body from head to toe. She often sleeps with her arms extended straight up above her head. It's really cute and makes for great pictures.

I also wanted to write about our experience with swaddling her. As a newborn and when she was younger, we found that she slept well in the woombie, a zip up swaddle. (We never did a great job with the DUDU (down up down up) traditional hospital swaddle with reeiving blankets. We'd do it during the day to get her to sleep on us, but not at night, since it would come un-done when we put her down.) Whenever she was un-woombied, her arms would be free and she would flap them all over her face at night, waking her up. At the same time, she has always loved stretching her body, so when we de-woombied her, she would spend quite a bit of time stretching, making us feel conflicted about whether it was such a great idea to woombie her. We tried putting her in a sleepsack sometimes, but she would always flap her wings and slap her face awake, so we'd go back to the woombie. (Gran gran calls them angel wings. :) ) Recently, just before she turned 4 mos, Josh announced that he thinks she would do OK with the sleepsack, as he had been de-woombieing her and putting her in a sleepsack after her middle of the night feeding, so she could stretch, and this had been working well. Ever since then, she has been in a sleepsack and doing great. She can stretch to her heart's content, which just makes us all feel more comfortable for the little girl.

Also, in the past week, she's been sleeping in a medium weight (compared to warmer the Halo fleece sleepsack) Aden + Anais cozy (4-layer muslin) sleepsack that is 100% cotton and feels softer and more breathable. I'm not sure if this is a coincidence, but she has been sleeping through the night since she started wearing it!

Babylicious

I thought I'd title this entry with one of the nicknames I have given her. Like all the pets I've had, Sierra is getting a lot of random nicknames, depending on our and her mood at any given time, like "little girl", "little miss", "fussy fussbucket", etc.

SHE's happy to see Uncle Ken



Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Petting Naya

Sierra's still sleeping straight through until 5 or 6am. :) Last night (or 6am this morning), she woke up after sleeping since 10:40pm. Josh didn't change her diaper before bringing her to me (she seemed quite dry then! -josh). However, over the morning she slept pretty fitfully until 8:30am when she woke up wiht a SOPPING diaper and then pooped in it, making a leaky mess. :( I had to rinse her off in the sink.

Last night, Josh was holding her and I was holding Naya by her. She reached out and pet Naya a couple times. :) I don't know if Sierra was really noticing after the first pet. Naya didn't mind at all.

More behaviors...

When we read books to her, she likes to grab the pages and turn them (or play with them, more likely). She's been doing this for awhile, but I forgot to note this before.

When she gets bored lying or sitting by herself, she starts making screechy noises. They're not loud at all, so I call them squeaky noises. Josh and Teagin say she sounds like an opera singer. Everytime I try to video this, however, she notices the camera and stops. Camera shy, I guess!

She's also taken to grabbing my hair and not knowing to let go. This is pretty standard baby behavior though.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Email from daddy

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Josh Elman
To: Clover Huang
Sent: Tue, March 23, 2010 9:37:51 AM
Subject: today

2) Sierra really is sleeping through the night now. She hardly needed the 10:40 feeding and would have still made it I think. Next step is to wean her off of sleeping with me and getting immediate attention when she wakes up (I'm trying to slow down how quickly I respond). Yay!!! Then we can move her to her crib and be done :)

-Josh

SHE's bubbly



Monday, March 22, 2010

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Santa Cruz

Today was forecasted to be a nice and warm 72F at the coast (and in Mtn View), so we headed down to Santa Cruz to walk along West Cliff Drive right along the water, one of our favorite "urban hikes". First we stopped in downtown Santa Cruz to have lunch. Sierra nursed in the car and then we walked down to the food booth that I really like. There are these 2 food booths (for lack of a better word) in the middle of the sidewalk. One serves really good vegan food. The other serves homestyle Mexican with lots of vegan choices. It was very Santa Cruz. I got the paella and Josh got the cactus and potato gordita, which turned out to be really good! Anyway, Sierra sat in the stroller and watched us eat. I think she enjoyed the change of scenery from sitting in our kitchen watching us eat. I held her in my lap after I finished eating too. Then we went back to the car and drove to West Cliff Drive. It was a cooler day than forecasted. More like 65F and kind of windy by the ocean. Oh well. We walked for a bit and then Sierra got fussy so Josh baby bjorned her the rest of the way. She had her purple sunhat on, which is still a bit oversized on her, which makes her look really cute. A woman walking by exclaimed, "how cute!" and grabbed her hand as she walked by. I immediately wiped it off with baby wipes. When we got back to the car, I nursed her and then we drove home.

Sleeping progress

Thursday night she ate at 9:30, then slept from 10-6:40am! It was not the most restful sleep though bc she insisted on sleeping in daddy's arms. When Josh tried to roll her over (and out of his arms) at 1:30am & again at 3am, she started screaming, but when he rolled her back, she went back to sleep.

Last night she ate at 7:30 and then slept from 9-5:15 on and off in daddy's arms until 1am, and then on her own until 5:15am! Much more restful.

SHE's missmiley



SHE's Santa Cruz



Thursday, March 18, 2010

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Rolling over (front to back)

Teagin said she just rolled over from her front to her back. It was not reproducible though. She fussed on her tummy when we tried it again just now.

More laughter

Last night, Josh held her up on the cat condo so she was looking down at him from above and she laughed several times. Then later I zerberted her tummy during a diaper change and she laughed a couple times too. Very cute.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Slow weekend

Last weekend was a slow weekend. Saturday was sunny but chilly. We stayed home except for a walk out for lunch. Sierra had her Saturday morning bath and didn't cry through the shampoo for the 2nd time, which is great. She is becoming a shampoo pro now.

Sunday was the first nice day (65F) in awhile (since Uvas Canyon day). We to a first birthday party that day.

The weather is finally turning a corner and getting warmer and sunny.

SHE's liking the spring weather



Saturday, March 13, 2010

Friday, March 12, 2010

75 75 75 and rolling

Sierra had her 4 month checkup yesterday. She is 75 75 75 (height, weight, circumference)! She was such a good girl during the checkup and only fussed a little after her shot.

Last night, Josh said she rolled from back to front a few times!

SHE survived a stressful day



Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Hiccups

Sierra hiccups a lot. I think this is an infant thing. She does not like hiccups, especially when she was a newborn, but I think she is getting better at dealing with them.

SHE's got a big mouth



Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Sierra humming

Here is a clip of Sierra humming the other day. I played it back for her a few times and each time, she quiets down and listens with interest.


(Note that the photo doesn't correspond to the audio clip - the photo was required to be added by blogger in order to upload audio. Go figure.)

SHE's strolling indoors



Monday, March 8, 2010

Smiling with her tongue

Sierra likes smiling by opening her mouth in a big grin and sticking her tongue in the middle. It is very cute.

Capturing this moment in time

Last weekend I made an attempt to start filling in Sierra's baby book. There was a lot more to fill in than I realized, like stuff about what mom and dad did before she was born, stuff I didn't even write down (like the date we found out I was pregnant) and dates I didn't even note (as a tired and lazy parent). This last one I expected, but whatever, better late than never, right?

Anyway, I realized this blog would be a better means for capturing Sierra's highlights given that we hardly have the time and energy to do anything. And it would be far less "digital" about filling out things like milestones, where it has blank spots for certain milestones, but not others. For example, the book doesn't have a place for first day she noticed Naya. :)

I wanted to capture this moment in time and what she can do so far and first dates, if known. (Inspired by Chris' Facebook post where he captures a list of Max's vocabulary)
Smile (this is captured on the Flip camera a few days after her 1st smile - but I have to look up the date on the Flip video)
Grabbing a plastic ring connected to a toy (1/25)
Blowing bubbles out her mouth (1/25)
Reaching for hanging objects from blue bouncer chair (1/28)
Giggle (2/2)
Noticed Naya (2/5, up until now, Naya was just part of the background scenery. Even today, she hasn't shown any interest in the cats yet. Mudder thinks she might not be a big animal person, but she loves the picture of the baby seal (Mr. Seal) in the baby animals black and white book and will stare at it for hours. She did this in the first week she was home from the hospital. She also hasn't shown interest in the baby faces book that Max really liked (though I don't know at what age). She prefers her other books, especially books with busy pages with lots of things on them). She also now likes looking at her color books now (when she was very young she was more interested in black and white).
Stand (3/6, leaning against the green husband. Actually she could have done this awhile ago, as she loves standing while we support her under her arms. If she cries, and you stand her (e.g., on a counter or on your lap), she'll stop crying. She especially likes standing on the bathroom counter where she can observe herself in the mirror!)

She loves humming (for lack of a better word) in different tones and will do this when she's happy and also when she's trying to fall asleep (and daddy is walking her around wrapped in the rabbi blanket at night). She hums by opening her mouth and letting out a soft ahhhhhh or uhhhhh or ohhhhhh in various tones, one after another. It's very sweet.

Definition:
rabbi blanket: soft, double fleece blanket that we received from rabbi bruce kadden and his wife. It's bigger than a receiving blanket and Josh wraps her in it and it helps her sleep.

Uvas Canyon

Sunday (2/28) was a sunny warm (for this winter) day. (It's an El Nino winter so rainier and colder than normal.) We took Sierra to one of our favorite waterfall hikes in the bay area - Uvas Canyon. It's her first official hike in that Coyote Hills and Rancho San Antonio were closer by and this was more of a drive and more "wild". The whole hike you could hear the water rushing down the canyon and Sierra enjoyed being held up and looking around. She didn't enjoy lying in the Baby Jogger bassinet though. I think we are gradually concluding she doesn't like lying flat. She would probably have done better in the carseat stroller or baby bjorn. Her dad was very proud of her as we walked around and someone commented on how cute she was. You could see daddy gleaming with pride at his little girl. :) Afterwards, we stopped at El Pollo Loco and ate in the car before continuing home.

SHE's welcome home dad!



Sunday, March 7, 2010

Friday, March 5, 2010