Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Dear Lord,
Thank you for my mommy, daddy, granny, grandpa, pop, nana, gramps, uncles, auntie, cousins, blankey, jammies, paci, babas, musical computer, yodeling goat, xylophone, squeaky giraffe, bath time, stuffed monkey, car rides, books, lights, mobiles, hands, rattles, and hugs. These are my favorite things. Amen

Time to Celebrate

Yesterday, our sweet nephew Weston celebrated his 1st birthday. The 29th turned out to be a really good day because it is also the first day Hannah slept through the night! I am so proud of her and feeling wonderful that we have reached a major milestone. From the very beginning I heard from many people, "when they hit three months, it all gets easier." Well, Hannah will be three months next week so I guess all of you out there knew what you were talking about. Hannah went to sleep at 9:30 last night and woke up at 6:30 this morning. After our mini family celebration, I started thinking back on our sleep journey to get to this point and I admit there were many times I never thought this day would come. The journey first started on day two in the hospital when she was kicked out of the nursery. This was followed by two weeks of 24 hour round the clock entertainment via shifts completed by Granny, Nana, Mommy, and Daddy. I can't thank Granny and Nana enough for taking the difficult middle of the night shifts. I will always look back and laugh thinking of my mom watching about 300 movies on demand and Jayne changing diapers with a book light. Once our help left, we transitioned to Hannah sleeping on my stomach in our bed. Despite being against doctor protocol, it was the only way she would sleep. For the last month she has done really well, sleeping in her little yellow bed and only waking up one time for a small 2oz baba. And then last night for the first time she did it! My body unfortunately is so used to waking up, that I was up at her normal time and then couldn't sleep because I just kept thinking any minute she would get up. I hope this wasn't a fluke and the trend continues. We know she can do it. Oh and another milestone recently achieved is that she is holding her own toys. THis often results in her hitting herself in the face with things haha.

I can't believe it

I'm so depressed as reality is setting in and I know I only have two weeks left of being a full time mommy. Yes, the plan is for me to only finish out this year, but still, six weeks away from her just doesn't seem right. I miss her so much even if I just run to the store. I can't bear the thought of my maternity leave ending. However, it is what it is and I am so happy that family will be able to watch her while I'm gone. So since, I am facing the light at the end of the tunnel I have been thinking about how to make their time with Hannah as easy as possible. One big thing is that Hannah takes three naps a day and I hold her during all three. She sleeps in her bed full time at night, but during the day she just likes to be attached to me. This results in about five hours of being confined to the rocker. That's a lot of precious time that I'm sure our family members would appreciate. So, this week Hannah and I started on the journey of getting her to nap in her big crib. I decided to start with five minutes of crying and said to myself that if she was still crying after that, I would pick her up. The plan was to increase it to ten minutes next week but...that won't be necessary because she is doing it! It makes me sad to think that she is no longer the teeny tiny baby that needed to sleep on my chest, but it makes me proud that Tim and I are doing things right and she is progressing just as she should. Some people say they don't really care for the infant stage, but I absolutely love it and I know I will feel the same way at every stage because she is my precious baby girl and I couldn't love anything or anyone more.


She's so silly


She loves bathtime. She kicks her feet and splashes mommy which makes her smile


Here's my proof

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was Tim's 28th birthday so we did a quick one day trip to Orange County to see the family. We were also happy to be there to help celebrate our two nephew's Birthdays. Zane turns three tomorrow and Weston turns one on the 29th. Zane had a Buzz Lightyear park party. It was so fun to watch him with his little friends enjoying his special day. We drove home Sunday, which turned into Monday morning. Unfortunately for Tim, he spent the first part of his birthday stuck in a car. Like I said, Tim had to be at work, so we were only there for Saturday. On Sunday we started our trek home and got stuck on the grapevine for 7hours. Hannah experienced her first snow storm. They completely shut the road down and there was nothing around so we were all just sitting ducks with no where to go and nothing to do. It was snowing pretty hard and the cars were covered. After about two hours I called CHP to find out what was going on. The woman told me the road was closed until morning and to turn our car off to conserve gas and only turn it on for heat when you get too cold. When I told her I had a baby in the car, she replied, if anything happens to your baby in the middle of the night call 911. Oh that's reassuring. Our drive home ended up taking 14 hours, 7 of which we were parked on the freeway watching the snowfall and trying to entertain a newborn. Let me remind you, space was limited as every seat was filled with luggage, gifts, diper bags, hannah's bed, etc. In the end, we got many laughable moments out of the journey. Hannah was a superstar and played with mommy in the back seat. Tim and I joked that we were actually probably in better shape than most as far as supplies because we always pack so much. We finally made it home at 6 am. Crazy long trip, but we will certainly remember TIm's 28th and Hannah's first adventure with snow.


The picture doesn't do it justice. I tried to roll the window down to get a better one, but snow flew into the car so I had to shut it quickly.


Hannah and mommy in the back seat. I was keeping her warm.


FInally home

Luck of the Irish

Hope you all enjoyed the first day of March Madness and had a happy St. Patrick's Day. Hannah Did!

It's the Little Things

One of my favorite things about being a mom to Hannah is watching her get so much enjoyment out of exploring her surroundings. It's amazing to watch a little baby learn about the world. Each day brings a new discovery. For awhile it has been the fascination with her tongue. Just this last week, she has discovered her hands. She would choose staring at her fists over any toy we own. It really is hilarious. She loves looking at her hands. It entertains her for hours. This discovery has also led to her batting at her toys and attempting to hold things. I think she is getting close.

Give me a H!

Well, we officially have a talker, baby talk that is. Hannah is now cooing daily. She says 'aaahhh' and 'eewww' The funniest is that she has this yodeling goat puppet that granny gave her and Hannah talks back to it. It's really cute.

Another new development is that she finally seems to have three distinct nap times during the day. Before she was just snoozing off and on throughout the whole day, but now she naps morning, afternoon and evening, in mommy's arms of course. It is nice to have more predictability with her though. Hannah and mommy have also started being 'work out partners.' You all now I am not one for exercise so I figured I needed an accountability partner (aka Hanney). Each day when she does tummy time working on her neck and arm muscles, I do some sit ups. So far it has been successful. We have made it through about 5 days in a row. Yeah!

Final update is that we have a future Laker girl in the house. This year Tim is coaching a fourth grade girl's basketball team. Today they had a game so Hannah and I went. She wore her Laker cheerleader outfit and looked so stinking cute. Everyone there loved her. The whole time watching I just kept wondering if someday she will choose to be on the court or on the sideline with pom poms. Sadly, the Dragons fell short tonight, but Tim was a great coach and gave the girls a lot of encouragement. I did see him cringe a few times though, particularly at the girl who shot at the wrong basket and the one who threw the ball up at the basket underhand granny style. I know he'd prefer working with high school boys who can run actual plays, but I realized tonight that when baskets are few, each one means so much more and the girls had a lot of fun. I am proud of Tim for giving up his time and his Friday nights to work with them. Well I guess he gave up his Friday nights about two months ago....

Future Laker Girl and coach Tim




So Happy


Beautiful Girl

Kiss Me I'm Irish

Today Hannah and I went back to the ENT to meet with the doctor. Hannah does have fluid in her ears, but no infection which is good. He said that her hearing loss is currently at 30%. To know what that is like, he said to plug both your ears with your fingers. Okay now that you all tried it, you should know that the loss is not permanent. Once the tubes are in place, she will be as good as new. He does not however want to put the tubes in yet. So what does this mean...we should just all talk a little bit louder when talking to her. No, you don't have to shout, but we just want to make sure she can hear so she continues to get practice listening to speech sounds. He said that if she starts getting infections or if the fluid increases he will put the tubes in sooner than her palate surgery. So at this point it is a watch and see kind of thing. We meet him again in two months. As for the milk coming out her nose, he said this is inevitable with kids with cleft. In fact he said, some babies have such a bad cleft, that the milk comes out their ears. Yikes!

On a different, note, some of you may know, that March is Tim's favorite month. Not only is it his birthday and march madness basketball, but he absolutely LOVES St. Patrick's Day. So in the holiday spirit, Hannah has already been sporting her clover jammies from Daddy. He did ask if we can die her milk green, but that was vetoed. (He was obviously kidding...I hope:)

You be the judge

Just this last week we have started to attempt a bedtime ritual in hopes it will help her learn that at night, you sleep. This consists of a bath, lotion, diaper change, jammies, reading books, bottle, and then songs. She doesn't always sit still for the books, but I still think she likes it. I bring this up because we have a nursery rhyme book and I'm realizing just how awful so many of them are. So you be the judge, should we really be reading these to children? On the pro side: Kids seem to like the rhythmic pattern and kids have been read them for years (including myself) with no apparent damage being done. On the con side, the words speak for themselves:

1. There was an old woman says "She gave them some broth without any bread, then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed."

2. Goosey Goosey Gander says "There I met an old man who would not say his prayers so I took him by the left leg and threw him down the stairs."

3. Old Mother Hubbard says "She went to the baker to buy him some bread, but when she came back the dog was dead. She went to the undertaker to buy him a coffin, but when she got back the dog was laughin. She took a clean dish to get him some tripe, but when she came back he was smoking a pipe."

4. And then there is the classic rock a bye baby which I never quite got, seems like it would scare a child half to death, the thought of falling out of a tree.

Ok, this post was mostly for comedic relief to show how truly ridiculous some of these are. I am not some crazy mother that is going to ban nursery rhymes. After all, they make Hannah happy. And speaking of happy here is another smile picture:

In the Pink Corner

(Cue announcer voice)...In the pink corner, at two months of age, we have Hannaaaahhhh Tatuuuuummmmm. Weighing in at 10 lbs. 15 oz with a height of 23 inches. She is in the 50% for weight and has daddy's height in the 70%. Her head circumference is 15 inches which is also 50%. Hannah got two more shots today and an oral vaccine. She did great!

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

As for the title of this blog, yes, it is raining in San Jose and yes, I commonly now think thoughts in nursery rhyme form. Well, today Hannah and I journeyed out in the pouring rain for her ENT appointment. This is not an easy task. In addition to timing her feeding just right so that her belly is full thus resulting in a sleepy baby come time to see the doctor, I have to walk through the rain to get her in the car. This means in addition to a heavy baby, car seat, purse, diaper bag, and garage door opener I also have to hold an umbrella over her so she doesn't get wet. Sometimes I wonder why God didn't create women to have four hands.

Anyway, we got there only to hear that the doctor was behind in surgery so couldn't see us. Awesome, I thought, it was totally easy getting here. So yes, I'm frustrated because now I have to wait until Monday to hear the doctor's opinion. We were however able to get her hearing tests done with the nurse. Hannah has had two hearing tests in the past and passed both with 100% accuracy. I know she can hear because she LOVES all things musical. First she had to get little rods stuck in her ears to measure fluid. She didn't like this test, but who would. Unfortunately, the results did show that there is fluid in her ears. How much? We won't know until Monday when the doctor can examine her. Then Hannah and I had to go into this sound proof room, I got her to sleep and then the nurse played really loud white noise. Hannah was supposed to startle demonstrating she hears the noise. Well, Hannakins slept right through it. What do you expect, as soon as I heard the noise, I knew she would. This is after all the baby that is put to sleep by the hair dryer. The nurse seemed concerned saying that most babies startle, to which I replied "my baby likes white noise. Half of the toys she owns make the white noise sound because it simulates the mother's womb." Clearly she has never read "Happiest Baby on the Block." WHat does she know? Hannah CAN hear, I assure you. Ok, my rant is over. I will know more on Monday when we meet with the doctor. He will let us know if tubes are necessary yet, or if we keep waiting. Fluid is a precursor to hearing loss so we want to stay on top of it. Tomorrow we have her two month check up and more shots with the pediatrician. Hannah is so tough and brave. Poor little thing has so many doctors to see and she is always a good sport.