Wednesday, November 21, 2007

turkey day tomorrow and misc

tomorrow will be your first thanksgiving! daddy is basically single handedly preparing the entire meal for a dozen people. we're bringing out the fine china..and have been prepping since tuesday! daddy always loves looking for new recipes to create each year's thanksgiving feast.

we went to try to take holiday pics today... alas- no success. you cried and fussed and wouldn't smile for the camera... you'd only cry! :-( well.. we rescheduled.. mommy really wants some cute photos of your for holiday cards.. your little outfit is so cute!

you've given us some of the roughest nights we've had so far in the past several days... of course, there was one day that was the best we've had... you only woke up 4 times!! then yesterday, i think you cried and woke up like a dozen times! mommy always hopes for a good night each time we put you in the crib... please let it be a good night tonight...! we realized that some of the roughest nights were due to your teething... you're not even four months yet.. but you're definitely teething! poor baby girl.. first you have a cold for almost a month.. and now teething... it's no wonder you haven't been sleeping well...

on that note, you were pretty funny last night! you normally fall asleep while nursing.. but yesterday, you seemed wide awake! you would pull off and look at mommy and just smile. :-) then daddy took you to try to get you to sleep... but you'd just smile and laugh at him too! well.. at some point, daddy decided to put you in your crib wide awake... and then of course.. do the daddy thing.. which is to turn on every gadget in the crib.. you got the mobile going.. the vibration.. heartbeat sounds... and lo and behold.. you fussed for a few seconds.. and then closed your eyes and went to sleep! wow! mommy and daddy were stunned. of course.. you then woke up an hour later.. and then every hour after that for the rest of the evening... bleh. :-)

it'll get better.. i know it will...

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

you rolled over!

mommy decided to play more tummy time with you... i haven't been working your developmental skills much by carrying you around all the time, or putting you in the swing or bouncy seats! mommy put you on your tummy.. and guess what.. you rolled over! you did it a few times today... sometimes with some help... and i caught a couple on video for daddy to see when he comes home.. yay! :-)

Saturday, October 27, 2007

the magic 3 month mark...

you are three months old today! so many people talk about the 3 month mark... you are smiling more.. you are starting to grab at things... you love watching tv! everyone says you are such a beautiful little baby... and so alert for 3 months. sleep is still challenging.. but you've been sick. looks like you caught a cold back to back.. and have been sniffling and sneezing for what seems like several weeks already. mommy is so sad to hear your decongested breathing... and it's not like you can blow your nose to feel better. :-( i think that's why you've been so sleepy these past couple of days.. you've been sick. you slept a lot today as well. we just bought some vaporizers that will hopefully clear your breathing at night. and mommy is hoping for a repeat of last night... let's get some long sleep stretches baby girl!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

it's all about the sleep...

oh baby... you made mommy cry 2 nights ago.. you just wouldn't sleep anywhere except in mommy's arms... no crib.. no swing.. no cosleeper... not even next to mommy.. i had to be holding you... then you slept practically all the next day! and guess what... last night, you gave us the best night ever! two 4 hour stretches, and then a 2 hour stretch.. all in your crib! well actually, the first 3.5 hours was on mommy's chest... but we've never had such a great second stretch! i guess it's true... more sleep begets more sleep! or maybe, things really do change at tge 3 month mark.. you are exactly three month old today! oh.. i best knock on wood.. who knows what tonght will be like!

4.5 hours.. and a laugh!

oh baby.. you gave us 4.5 hours in the baby carrier swing that night! but then last night.. daddy wanted to put you in the crib to start... we need to get you into that nursery! alas.. in the crib... you gave us 2.5 hours... and then mommy kept you in our room and put you in the baby carrier swing.. which you did for another 2 hours... then mommy put you in the play swing... and i think you did another 2 hours.. and then mommy put you in a sleeper in bed with us.. for another hour and a half... and then the downward spiral...

on a happier note, mommy thinks she heard you laugh for the first time yesterday! you've been much more smiley.. especially in the mornings after a good sleep.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Back to Car Seat Swing

Ahh.. for the past several nights, Mommy was sleeping in the nursery while we tried Baby in the crib... but you would wake up every hour.. and stir and fuss in between so much that tonight, since Daddy was going to be home late, Mommy decided to put you in the car seat swing. You've been there a half hour so far.. so good.. we'll see how long it lasts. Mommy is hoping you'll give her a 5 hour night like you've done a few times already... but haven't recently... oh when oh when will you be able to sleep through the night in your crib...!

Monday, October 22, 2007

first time with pacifier!

you used the pacifier for the first time today! you never took it.. but today.. you were fussing.. and i tried it and voila.. you started sucking.. you loved it! you were even smiling at mommy while you were sucking.. so content! but then mommy and daddy worried that you would get too dependent on the pacy... so i don't think we're going to offer it to you again... we survived almost three months without it.. i guess we can keep toughing it out... sorry!

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Lots of Poop!

Wow... little girl has lots of poop! She's leaked out of her diapers 3 times already! Once out the front.. twice out the back... Jason says I put her diapers on too loosely... but she's even leaked out of the ones he's put on. I don't understand the physics of how she can shoot her poo out like that! I think the max has been 8 or 9 poopies in a day. Little Audrey particularly likes to poop in a fresh, clean diaper...

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

A Sleepless Night...

Ok.. so we didn't end up swaddling.. Jason is no fan of it either. I think he's got a softer heart than me for the little one. :-) In fact, he even has a hard time deleting the blurry, not-well-taken pictures of Baby Audrey... he says he feels like he's deleting a part of her history to do that. So I go in and delete all the out of focus bad shots - the 'good' pictures already take up a ton of space.. no room for bad ones! Anyhoo.. so we were able to get her to sleep in her little sleeper for about an hour at a time... so i was up every hour to hour and a half. Well.. I'm just happy that she actually slept without having to be held! I hear it should start getting better... we'll see...!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Update - Last 3 weeks...

Hmmm.. I haven't been very good at updating this thing huh. No reason why I shouldn't.. not much I can do while holding little baby Audrey but work on my laptop! Well.. she's 6 weeks and 4 days old today. We had a Red Egg and Ginger party for her on August 26th (coincidentally, also the date of our first wedding anniversary!) Going out for long stretches of time is always difficult... but she slept through most of it.. waking up only once to take a bottle (I still can't breastfeed without my comfy chair and feeding pillow at home). She got all sorts of gold jewelry.. from little piggy necklaces, to bangle bracelets, and even several teeny tiny gold rings (as tiny as they were.. they were still too big for her itty bitty fingers!) Of course, it's not like we'd ever have her wear them... she'd likely swallow them while sucking on her fingers! It's all going straight to the keepsake box!

Baby seems to be sleeping less and less well... unfortunately for us. :-( She's in the bed with us, and she still just wants to be held. Jason ended up holding her for 2 hours last night.. and I followed with another hour or so. She did end up sleeping on her own for about hour.. woo hoo! That, combined with feeding every 2 hours makes for quite a sleepless night.. bleh. I just realized that it all started going downhill when we stopped swaddling her.. I just hate to see her squirm in a strait jacket.. but we'll try it again tonight. Of course, I also think that Jason's sporadic snores that suddenly bellow and break the silence startle little Audrey. Although I do think that his lighter, more regular, deep breathing snores are soothing to the little one.

That's about it for the last 3 weeks... oh - and at her one month check up, she weighed in at almost 9 pounds and grew almost 2 inches in length! She's certainly getting bigger.. I think she's over 10 pounds now!

Oh.. and here's a picture that we took at Crushpad, where Jason and I bought a barrel of wine. We were there to watch the bottling... and taste the wine from our barrel... very neat. We now have our very own label - "Tsai Family Vineyards" - and it's quite yummy! :-) We'd like to buy another barrel.. but 300 bottles is a lot more wine than we want.. so if anyone is interested in splitting a barrel.. let us know! Ideally, we'd like a 3-way share... 100 bottles is perfect. And we'd like to buy a 2007 harvest.. which will probably be ready for bottling in 2009. Alas, little Audrey did not have any wine.. 21 more years for her! (Although Jason wants to start her early... like on her 1st birthday!) :-)

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Baby Audrey is 3 Weeks Old!

Baby Audrey turned 3 weeks old on Friday! She's been pretty mellow so far... doesn't cry a whole lot.. if she does, we can typically soothe her by feeding her, changing her diaper, or just picking her up. She sleeps through 2-3 hour, sometimes 4 hour, stretches. She spends a lot of time sleeping on Daddy's chest... totally a Daddy's girl!

Janna and Woody came to visit on her 3 week old birthday. Janna inspired to finally get moving on updating the website.. and even getting little Audrey an email address! Yes, you can email Audrey at audrey@thetsaifamily.com. I promise she'll write you back (with Mommy's help!) :-)