Lori's Space for Goofy Cats

David turned one month old on July 3rd. This month had been the darkest time for me ever. It had gone from bad to worse and I don't know how long this will continue. I had been weepy and constantly regretted my decision to have a second baby (Yes, it was that bad).

Week 1: David had a major nipple confusion because we fed him formula with bottle while my milk hadn't come in. When we got home, he wouldn't latch on and kept crying. My breasts were engorged and hurt a lot. Finally we had to use finger feeding to let him get back on breast feeding. David wanted to feed every 2 hours.

Week 2: David still wanted to feed every two hours. At least we could get 2 hours of sleep at a time regularly.

Week 3: This was where the downfall started. David seemed to be hungry all the time. He would want to feed an hour after one feeding session. He started to spit up a lot. Sometimes he would wake right up crying when we put him down on the crib. We tried to let him cry but it seemed that he didn't know how to stop once he started crying. He would cry to the point of being hysterical. We took him to the doctor and discussed the possibility of David having acid reflux. Since he was too young, the doctor didn't want to prescribe Zantac for him yet. So I was to change my diet to exclude all milk products to see if that helped.

Week 4: The crying and crankiness continued despite my change of diet. We gave David Mylicon to help reduce the gas. He got a bit better for a day but the crying spell continued the second day. Anyways, we got the prescription this week. The medicine helped some but everyday David still had a time of inconsolable crying.

David, Mama loves you but Mama is really depressed now. 

David, Bo and I's second child, Katelyn's little brother, arrived on June 3rd, 2009 2:03 AM.

It seems that David is determined to be a trouble maker the day when he started to grow in my tummy. During my pregnancy, I had:

- A CVS test around week 12 or 13.
- A preterm delivery scare around week 33 that landed me in the hospital for 4 days.
- My dear doctor had a bike accident the weekend right before his induction appointment with me. Of course, that was not David's fault but it is just to emphasized how difficult this pregnancy had been.

Anyways, Bo and I headed to the hospital on schedule at 7:30 PM, June 2nd. We waited an hour before they put me on induce medicine. My contractions were kicking in but they were there everyday. Plus, I didn't feel any pain yet. After an hour or two, I told the nurse to please increase the dosage to speed things up.

The contractions were happening more frequently since then. But still no pain.

Around 11:30 PM, the doctor came in and broke my water with a stick. Now it started to hurt.

Around midnight on June 3rd, I asked the nurse if I could just get epidural even though it was not hurting that bad. Later, an anesthetist came in and put me on epidural. She said she would come back and check my status after an hour or two. I still felt some pain on my lower ab and later it changed to pressure. The nurse said it was normal.

After 1:00 AM, another nurse came in and flipped me to lay on another side. Then, I felt a lot of pressure on my vaginal area. I thought it might be the change of position and it would go away but I was wrong. After a while, we called the nurse and told her about this. She came in, checked my cervix, then smiled at me and declared that my baby was coming.

Then I started to push. After three rounds of pushing, the nurse told me to stop and waited for the doctor to come. "We need the doctor to be here when the baby comes."

The doctor came in after a while and with another couple rounds of pushing, baby David arrived. Yes, it was that quick! I still can't believe it.

David came out so fast that his little face got bruised all over. He was 7lb 14 oz and 19.5 inches. Unlike Katelyn, who took a long time to catch the skill of latching on, he latched on immediately. David cried really loud and I could see all the trouble ahead.

David, Mama loves you!

Katelyn will turn 41 months this coming Saturday. We are all expecting a huge change in our family -- a new baby. The baby is coming in these few days.

Katelyn has been very sweet toward the baby during my whole pregnancy. She has been offering to share her dresses and toys with the baby even though a baby boy can never wear her dresses. She has been running to me, slapping her tummy, and telling me that she had a little baby in her tummy as well. The most incredible thing was that one day, when her friends were talking about their mommies were going to have babies, she told her teacher, "My mommy has a baby in her tummy too!" We have been keeping quiet about this for a long time so her teacher was quite surprised. When her teacher asked her if it was real, she said "Yes. Just 1 baby!"



As to me, I have been enjoying every moment of our three-member world. A couple weeks ago, the daycare had another music show. We arrived there 30 minutes earlier. Katelyn was so happy to see us and she just danced and danced the whole 30 minutes to the music while we were waiting outside for the show to begin. Last time when the daycare had this music show, Katelyn just stood there without moving her lips or dancing. But this time, just four months later, she sang and danced with the other kids, having the best time of her life.



Katelyn, Mama loves you! 

Yesterday when I picked up Katelyn, her teacher informed me that Katelyn didn't like the cheese lasagna lunch and didn't touch it a bit. Consequently, Katelyn didn't have a nap because she was hungry.

Being hungry and deprived of sleep, Katelyn was actually behaving pretty good. She didn't throw those terrible fits she used to throw. However, there were still crankiness here and there. Her best buddy Claire, unfortunately, became a target.

Claire: "Do you want to play swing with me someday?"
Me: "Of course! We will play swing together someday."
Katelyn: "No!!! I don't want to play swing with you!"
...
Claire: "Do you want to get together someday? Take a bus?"
Me: "Sure! That is a great idea!"
Katelyn: "NO!!!!!!! I DON'T WANNA!!!!!!!"
...

And the conversation took a 180-degree turn from here:

Claire: "When it is my birthday, do you want a cupcake?"
Me: "You would invite me to your birthday party for a cupcake? That is great! I love cupcake! Thank you!"
Katelyn: "I WANT SOME TOO!!! CLAIRE, I WANT SOME CUPCAKE TOO!!!!!!"

Katelyn turned 40 months yesterday. Despite her occasional meltdown, she was very sweet this month. Now that spring comes, she would come home with a flower, a pine cone, or a little leave for Mommy.

This month also marked the invasion of princesses into our family. Since Katelyn's birth, I have been really careful trying to shield her from these always-dressing-up, always-wearing-a-dazzling-smile, pretty ladies. I refuse to buy her any princess books, switch channels if there is even a shadow of princess appearing on the TV screen, and never tell her any princess stories. However, I underestimated the power of peer influence from the daycare. Katelyn's girlfriends all know about princesses and bring princess story books to school. After a few months under D influences, Katelyn comes home and declares herself a princess. When she puts on a dress, she is princess. When she gets a ponytail, she is princess. When she wears a bathing suit, she is princess. She has two princess titles -- Princess Katelyn and Cinderella Katelyn.

Now I have to admit that the princesses sometimes do help when Katelyn has a meltdown. On an unusually hot day in April, Katelyn refused to wear hats before going to school. I tried to reason with her with the scientific theories. If you would not wear hats, the sun would be too hot for your little head and you would get sick. Would you want to get sick and not be able to go to school to play with your friends? Your teachers stated on the report that you had to wear hats today, otherwise you would not be able to wear your bathing suit and play in the water. Would you rather staying dry when everyone else have fun? No matter what reason I presented, she would not listen and started to cry. Desperate, we told her that all princesses wear nice pretty white hats with flowers. That did the job! She zapped her tears and put on the hat without a word. Then, smiling broadly to us, she declared, "I am a princess! I am Princess Katelyn!"