This is mama Kat

Arwen Symone

2010-09-07T22:50:00.000-07:00

This is the birth story of our newest addition, Arwen Symone

I had sorta made peace with the fact that we were going to be induced on September 7, since Arwen's estimate due day came and went. My mind was set that she's going to come that day. At 1:10AM Sunday morning. While asleep, I felt this funny drizzle feeling, kinda like I was about to wet my bed. I got up to the restroom and there's a small gush of water came down. I thought, "hrmmm, does this mean my water just broke??" When we had Noelle, my water didn't break until I was well into labor and having lots and lots of strong contractions. My water broke when I was lying in the hospital bed and it felt like a water balloon popped. So I was very confused with this one. I called labor & delivery. They told me to wear a pad and walk around for 30 minutes. I did and nothing else happen. No more leakage nor any sorta contraction. So I called again. And they told me to keep an eye on it and that's it. I decided to go back to bed. Just then I felt another small gush of water. I knew it had to be my water. So I called the hospital and they told me to come in. Actually the rep told me the hospital may be full. After checking with someone, she told me as long as no one else show up before me, I should have a room (eeek!). I've never heard of hospital being full!! We quickly woke up my mom, so she can go watch Noelle for us and we headed out. As I was walking out the door, I had another small gush of water, it was rather interesting. Anyway, so off we went. I had no contractions at all. Got to the hospital checked myself in. They sent me to the observation room. They basically did some tests to make sure my bag of water did break and we'll go from there. A few hours later, I was admitted. They moved me to one of the birthing suite with me lying in bed. We waited and waited, I didn't feel any contractions. A doc came in and told me that they usually give the patients 6 hours from the moment her water breaks. If no contraction starts, they suggest using Pitocin to get things going. Or I may run the risk of infections. So I was like, "Let's go for it!" I was tired of waiting anyway, lol. They gave me Pitocin around 7AM. I started to feel little bit of painful contractions, nothing major tho. The nurse at the observation area found out that I didn't get to use epidural with Noelle because it was too late for me. So she highly encouraged me to ask for it as soon as I feel anything or feel uncomfortable. Same with the nurse in the birthing suite. So I asked for epidural right away. The anesthetic team came very quickly (they told me sometimes it takes 1 hr to get someone, so I should ask early) and the head doc was very smooth. I got my epidural in no time and it felt sooo weird, but in a good way. I then felt asleep and when I woke up around 11:30AM, they told me I was already 9cm dilated. I didn't feel a thing! That was the best part, lol.

The doc who checked me told me that I should be fully dilated soon. She was going to check on me again in 1-2 hours, but told me to speak up if I feel any pressure or have urge to push. I felt something pretty soon right after, so I told the nurse, Michelle, who was our fav birthing nurse. She asked if I want to start trying (was fully dilated), of course I said yes. I want this kid to be out, lol. We pushed for about 1 hour, nothing happened. They said the baby was still pretty high up. So they suggested me to take a break and try again later. 30 minutes later, we started pushing again. Still nothing, but at least the epidural helped me not feeling any pain. Around 3:30, the nurse changed shift, we were sad that Michelle didn't get to see our baby being born. And this time, we had Carol as our nurse. She's an older lady. We pushed some more, still nothing. They found out that the baby's head was not in the right or ideal position, which was also why all this pushing didn't progress much. Her head was sorta "stuck" behind the bones. Then Carol suggested that maybe we should turn off the epidural, so I can push more correctly and have more urge to push. At first I didn't want to do it, I meant that's why I chose epidural, to not have to go thru the awful pain. But Carol said that if I don't give up temporarily on epidural, I may have to have c-section. Since she put it that way, I agreed to turn off the epidural. She did say that we can turn it back on so I won't feel too uncomfortable. The epidural was off and pretty soon I started to feel the real deal. At first they weren't so unbearable. We tried different pushing positions and it seemed to work to my favor. The pain started getting real strong tho, and they had to give me oxygen because I had been pushing for so long and baby didn't like all these pushing too much (her heart rate dropped every time we pushed). So the doc asked me to push every other contraction. It's not that easy to do. When I had those strong contractions, it's a lot easier for me to push, if I don't, the pain was excruciating. But I had to follow their lead to keep Arwen safe, so I gave my best. I guess the doc and the nurse really knew what they are doing, all these things we tried brought Arwen down and soon her head started to show. I had to stop pushing for them to get the doc (Dr. March) in to deliver the baby. The final step was the worst. They had already turned the epidural back on, but I don't think it kicked back fast enough for me. My energy was pretty much drained at that point too (close to 4 hours pushing). I had to use every last drop of strength that's left in me to push this kiddie out. I was this close to ask for help, to have them suck her out or something. I really didn't think I could make it. Finally at 5:33PM, I felt this baby on me and that's how I first met our newest addition, Arwen Symone. When we had Noelle, she decided to poop while still in me. so as soon as she was born, they had to take her and clean her up, be sure she didn't suck in anything. Cuz of that, I didn't get to hold her until much later and Dave didn't get to cut the umbilical cord. This time around, I got to hold our baby the very moment she's born and Dave got to cut the cord. It was awesome. After a few minutes, they took Arwen to get her cleaned up and measure her size. We saw some black poo-poo on her baby butts and then I realized she had poo-pooed on me!!!! What the heck?! My 2 kids, one pooed in me and the other on me :-P Arwen was 8lb 2.8oz and 18.5 inches long. She's 1 lb heavier than her big sis' birth weight, but also 1 inch shorter. We've got one short and chubby kid, lol.

We are so thrilled to finally have her in our lives, our family is now complete :-)

Noelle's sayings 2

2010-07-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I totally forgot to mention this on my previous entry. That's the whole reason I updated, lol. I blame it on my pregnant mommy brain.

Noelle loves to repeat things that she learned. So when she had hard poo-poo one time, we told her that she needs to drink more water, then her poo-poo won't be so hard. So guess what she does now that she goes #2 every time? She says "it's hard poo poo, need to drink more water, poo-poo won't be so hard." LOL, every single time!! And she always looks very serious when she says this, haha.

She loves to ask questions too and I guess that's how she learn and observe. She sees me putting on makeup every morning. At first Noelle said, "Oh no, boo-boo!" I'll tell her it's not boo-boo, it's makeup! Now she plays with two makeup brushes that I gave her and pretends putting on makeup, lol. She also likes to pretend washing her hands at her kitchen set. Of course she'll wash her mouth too, cuz that's usually what we do when we wash her hands at the sink.

Noelle goes to her summer Sunday School with the older kids (ages 2-5) and they watch this DVD series. She now says "sooooo much!" cuz she learns that God loves you soooo much that He listens to your prayers. Or she says it when it means she loves you soooo much.

She's no angel 24/7 tho. Miss Noelle still throws temper tantrum when things don't go her way. She'll say "No! No!" and either hits the things around her or herself. When it gets out of hand, we'll send her to time-out. It's just any corner. She knows she's in trouble and she'll say "no yelling screaming, time-out!" when she gets over her emotions. Now she even sends us to time-out! Yesterday I was throwing something on the ground, not in a mean way or anything, I guess I was just lazy :-P And Noelle saw it said, "No throwing things on ground! Mommy time-out!" LOL We also aren't supposed to hit each other (mommy and daddy, even if we were totally joking around), Noelle will be the police and said "no hitting!"

Ah, I love my silly daughter.

Noelle's sayings and soon to come little sister

2010-07-22T15:47:00.000-07:00

Just to think we used to worry that Noelle is going to be a late talker. She's now talking non-stop and is learning new words/things everyday! Sometimes she'll say something that neither of us have taught her or say to her. Like she'll say "Cool!!!" when she sees something neat, and that totally threw me off the window, lol. I was all like, "Where did you learn that from?!" :-P

It's super sweet when Noelle wakes up in the morning and tells me, "birdies singing!" when she hears the birds chirping outside. :-) Or just seeing her big smiles when I open up my eyes in the morning. Yes, most of the time Miss Noelle wakes up before us (around 6:30). But she doesn't come bug us like she used to do. She'll either lay on her bed or just sitting on the top of our bed (without poking us).

Last week was our church's VBS and even tho Noelle is still a year too young to be attending it, she went to all the singing times and hung out with the college/high school kids. She had a blast! I caught her singing and doing motions to some of the songs, it's the cutest thing. She actually sings the words! I can't wait for her to be part of it next year.

I think Noelle is slowly getting out of her shy self. It usually takes her a while to warm up to people, but it's gotten better these days. She loves her papa (Dave's dad) and always smiles and plays with him whenever she sees him. She had such a good time last night at papa's house that she didn't wanna leave!

Miss Noelle likes to joke around now. And you can totally tell when she's doing that. She'll say something and covers her mouth and says "noooo" while giggling. For example, for some reasons she likes to say "daddy's home" And when I said "no, daddy's still at work, but we'll see him soon." She says "daddy's driving" I say, "yup" Then she says "daddy's driving....milk!" and quickly says "nooooo" (while giggling). It's so odd but very funny. Or she'll pretend not wanting to give you kiss, but in the end she'll come and give you a big kiss. Sometimes she even kisses my arm or shoulders :-P And she can give pretty good massages.

We worked on the baby room/guest room/office very hard last few weeks and it's coming together rather nicely. Now we uses the changing table for real and it was a nice change, haha. I think it makes it more real for Noelle to see a crib in the room and knowing it's for her little sister. I'm telling her and showing her things that are for "mei-mei" (little sister in Chinese), and hopefully it'll help her to understand having a younger sibling soon.

Potty training on the other hand was a bust. Miss Noelle won't get on her little potty or the kiddie toilet seat, and she refuses to wear pull-ups. My mom said she's going to help us potty train Noelle when she comes (in a few weeks, yay!). So hopefully we can start soon. I think it's just hard that we are going in and out most of the time and it's probably easier if we do it when we are home for a long period of time. Ah, I don't know.

Baby girl is doing well. She's active, but she likes to stretch and pushes out her feet instead of kicking/moving more. When she kicks tho, it's so forceful that sometimes I literally moved forward, lol. Our next dr. appointment is next week and we get an ultrasound!! I was so excited when they told me last time. It's just to check the baby's position. And I thought we don't get any more ultrasounds. I just want to have one more peek at the baby before she comes :-P It still shocks me that we'll be having a newborn again soon, but I hope this time it'll be more enjoyable for us.

Our funny girl and baby #2 updates

2010-06-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

Miss Noelle is 28 months old now and she is definitely more fun these days. She loves singing, cleaning, reading, climbing, dancing, and cracking us up. She loves her Disney princesses, even tho she's never seen any of the movie or tv show. But she knows their names. Yes, we've got some dinnerware and outfits with those princesses and that's how she learned. Miss Noelle loves it when she wears a cute outfit or PJ and she'll look down randomly thruout the day and say "That's a cute outfit!" She also likes to compliments others about their outfit too, lol. The only beef we have with her is that it's getting pretty hard to have her change, from PJ to outfit or outfit to PJ. I guess toddlers really don't like changes. And she also refuses to wear socks on days when she's going to work with the mommy. We are too afraid to have her wear her crocs again tho, she adores those so much that we don't think she'll take them off at the end of the day.

Miss Noelle loves to sing. She has this one song that she keeps on singing, the same tune and same "words". We don't really know what that song was, she may have made it up herself. But it's fun to sing along with her, we both know the tune and "words" very well by now :-P And she gets a kick out of it too. She loves her daddy's iTouch and always listening to songs on it. She's got a playlist with all the fav songs of hers. She knows exactly which song it is just a couple of notes into the song, I say she's got great ears! She can sing a few words of most songs now, she also likes to dance to the radio sometime. Her dance moves are kinda funky tho, sorta like a chicken dance mixed with something of her own creation.

Noelle likes to clean or help clean. She helps me empty the dish washer every morning and almost always picks up her toys when she's done. Of course, we have to sing the "clean up, clean up, everybody clean up" song. She also likes to find random trash on the ground, usually it's a minuscule size of a lint and gives it to the mommy to throw away. I guess she got that from her mommy, she's always picking up little pieces of crumbs on the ground :-P

Miss Noelle loves to read. Her current fav book is "I'm a big sister". She asks us to do "storytime" with her and wants to read this book over and over and over. Never gets tired of it. Her previous fav book was "The tale of the three trees". We are hoping that by reading "I'm a big sister", it'll really help her to learn about becoming a big sister soon. We shall see. There are times when she thinks "mei-mei" (Chinese for little sister) is in her tummy instead of in mommy's. She goes to the library storytime every Wednesday with the mommy. Noelle loves the story time, but she never wanted to participate (when they have the singing time and middle stretch). She'll do all the motions and songs at home tho.

Coloring is one of her fav things to do at work. She usually colors on my desk (she's literally sitting on my work desk), and uses markers/pens/pencils from the cup. Noelle is very good with keeping the lid to the markers. She usually crumbles the paper and then throws them away when she's done.

Noelle loves to climb. She can now climb out of her playpen at church and climbing onto the mommy's work desk. She also likes to challenge the climbing walls/rails at the play structures. We are definitely NOT ready for her to be climbing on the play structures yet.

Miss Noelle is learning and picking things up really fast now. She remembers people's names and what their cars look like. She always says "Isha" whenever we hear the neighbor's little baby girl cries. And say "she's all better" or "playing with toys", when we told her Isha doesn't always cry :-P Miss Noelle tells us when she gets an owie and we'll kiss it or she'll kiss it to make her feel better, sometimes she'll say "bye bye" to the owies.

Noelle loves Micky Mouse and she can actually say it together. Some of the words/phrases she still has a hard time saying it together, but not Micky Mouse. She'll put her little fists to her head and pretending she's Micky Mouse. It's really cute :-P Of course, her daddy taught her to do that in the first place. She likes to agree with you when you tell her something. She'll say "mmmm, OH, yeah". Or repeats if you ask "what happened?" She gets super excited when she sees her mommy or daddy. She's equal-opportunity-ist, she cries when either one leaves the house.

We are not quite on track of potty train yet. We have put her on the regular toilet (with the little kiddie seat over it) and she'll go number 2 sometimes, but not all the time. And she's still a little afraid of the idea of sitting on the big toilet. But she tells us before she starts going number 2 and tells us when she has number 1 and needs to "change diaper" (her exact words). I guess we just need to keep on trying. Noelle now uses regular dining chair when she eats dinner (breakfast and lunch are usually eaten by her kiddie table in the play area). She knows whose chair it is but sometimes she likes to kick you out of your chair, by switching with you :-P She eats pretty well most of the time. Her current fav veggies are broccoli, cucumber (she calls it cabbage) and cabbage. Loves pizza and is nuts about donuts. Funny thing is that we've only let her eat donuts (mini size ones or donutholes) 2-3 times so far. She'll ask us to go get donuts at the store randomly.

Miss Noelle still loves to sleep in her "house" (little tent from IKEA). She'll go in there by herself and falls asleep by herself. When she wakes up, she stays in there as long as we want her to. She doesn't get up until the mommy or the daddy goes in her tent and asks if she's all done with her nap. Then she'll help bring her pillow/blanket/George back to her own bed.

I think I can go on and on and on with what Noelle's been doing lately, she is just really a joy to be with. I love my girl to pieces!!

Baby girl on the other hand is very active these days. She was kicking and moving all day yesterday, I don't think she had napped at all! I guess she really can hear the outside world now, because the other day I turned on the washer and she jumped. I guess the unexpected noise startled her :-P She also likes to kick around when Noelle is playing near me. I sure hope these two will get along well when baby #2's out. Just under 3 months, we'll be able to bring home another baby. Physically I'm totally ready to have this child now, it really is getting more and more uncomfortable. But if you ask me if I'm ready to be a mommy of two, the answer is NO! I don't know if I'll ever be ready, but we'll definitely work something out along the way ;-) It took me 8 hours to have Noelle, from start to finish (the moment I felt contractions to her came out). I think it'd be even shorter if Noelle didn't have a large head, haha. I sure hope I'll get another fast labor with baby #2.

*Edited to add*

Noelle is our Miss Independent. She likes to do things herself. She constant says "self", which means she wants to do it all by herself. This includes taking off her shirt, laying down to be changed, climbing, and so on.

Happy birthday song

2010-04-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

We have a 2nd birthday party to go this Saturday, so I thought I should practice the Happy Birthday song with Miss Noelle. Little did I know, she already knew it! But after singing it a few times, she has the words down clearer now and has been singing it all day, lol. This is what she sings:

"Hav burday to you, hav burday to you
hav burday.....CJ (the birthday boy's name)
hav burday to you!"

Hopefully she'll actually sing it tomorrow at the party. Miss Noelle is known for stranger shy.

On the other hand, baby girl has been kicking a lot lately and is getting heartier. But she's only a little over 22 weeks. I wonder if she's gonna be running or walking around in my tummy later on. Oy!

And we are having...

2010-03-31T14:28:00.000-07:00

Well, by now, most of you already know what we are expecting :-P but I still feel obligated to write a post about it. We are having a....

GIRL!!

Yup, a little sister for Miss Noelle. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little disappointed when I was looking at the ultrasound. I knew it's probably a girl, since I didn't see any "pointer", lol. And then the technician confirmed it. The husband was more excited than I am. Bless his heart :-P I just really want to see a mini-him running around. Granted, Noelle looks very much like her daddy, but you know. We did only plan on having just 2, so don't mind me for wanting to have one of each!

So the appointment was on Tuesday morning. We both took the morning off, so we can go to the hospital together. We ended up having to wait a little bit and I really needed to use the restroom for the 2nd time since arriving at the hospital. But I had to wait in case they call me in. Anyway, finally went in and the technician was very friendly. She lets us film the session, as long as we don't include her. Of course we wouldn't! This is all about our child! lol. So the baby was doing very well, everything looks good. We even get to see her little feet, nice and clear. At one point, she was even looking straight at us, we could almost see her face. She was upside down, a most common positions for the babies. It must be comfy or something being upside down for them. Her profile looks very much like Miss Noelle, but we'll see how much the sisters look alike when the baby comes.

They moved up our due date from September 1 to August 31. Our due date with Noelle was moved up a whole week, so I was kinda sad that the due date didn't change much this time around :-P I remember how uncomfortable I got toward the very end of my last pregnancy. And this time it's gonna be in the summer heat, OY! Hopefully baby #2 will come at a good time. We have a wedding in mid-August, let's see if I could make it with my huge baby bump and the possibility to pop at the wedding, haha.

Still enjoying the 2nd trimester, I'm 18 weeks as we speak. I can feel the baby's moving more often and clearer now. The movements are still very gentle and light, but I know soon enough it'll be more forceful and stronger.

::Edited to add::
Sorry, my bads, totally forgot to include this little youtube video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsUwXSIgeEo

hungry girl!

2010-03-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

I guess Miss Noelle was really hungry this afternoon. We were playing around outside and she started asking for cookies. We came in and I gave her the snack cup and she was chowing down. Then we headed home and she downed 3/4 yogurt and 6 Costco Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets. 6 nuggets!! those nuggets are not small and 6 is about what I'd eat in one sitting. WOW! Yesterday she also finished her entire bowl of rice and pot roast and the other day she was eating a couple bowls full of pasta. I guess she's finally having her growing spur? Whatever the case is, I'm loving it when she eats so well :-)

Noelle is quite picky about her yogurt tho. At home all she wants to have is her yobaby yogurt. But she'll eat whatever brand of yogurt we pack at the daycare. I don't even know why. We've tried a couple brands of kiddie yogurt and yokids yogurt, no luck so far. But I must say, some kiddie yogurt are real nasty, very artificial. Yobaby definitely tastes a lot better.

Still no tv for Noelle, well at least at home it is. I know sometimes they put on some kids show at the daycare. But since Noelle only goes there a couple of days a week, it's fine with me. But I'm so glad it seems like she's no longer needing tv to entertain her. She can play with her toys better now and is more interactive. She still asks for tv once in a while, but it's a lot easier to distract her with some toys or activities. Noelle is most certainly an outdoor girl. She loves going outside. Running, jumping, and climbing. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do when it gets much hotter and warmer. Because she always want me to go play with her. She'll ask me to go upstairs and then she'll push me down the slide. Lot of running around!! It's getting harder with my growing belly :-P

We just got the VBS song CD last Sunday and Noelle really loves it! She says "dance!" when the CD starts and we'll just do some silly ballroom dances together, I'll twirl her around and she absolutely loves it. Too bad she's still too young to be in VBS this year. But I know she'll at least have a blast during the music time.

We still go to the library story time every Wednesday. Noelle loves it there, she always says "library" every week on our way there. However, she won't ever participate the activities. They start with this rhyme for the story time and Noelle doesn't want to do it and won't let me do it either. And when they have the middle stretch time, she just want to sit in my lap. I hope she'll open up and feel more comfortable there soon.

I'm considering signing Noelle up for the gym class. It's just more things to do for her and there's a free play time at that gym during the week. We've been there for a couple of birthday parties and we all enjoyed it. Too bad the gym class is about $80 per month (meet once a week plus a free play period). If I give up my cell phone plan, then I can totally afford it, lol. We shall see.

Less than 2 weeks until we find out what we are having!

3 + 1

2010-02-16T15:01:00.000-08:00

So most of you already know that we are expecting again :-P We found out on December 25, Christmas day! I had the suspicions a couple of days before Christmas. But I decided to wait until Christmas to take the test. I got up super early and sure enough the test came out positive. I pretended there's something wrong with the toilet and woke the husband up, telling him "Can you help me? I think the toilet is leaking!" He went to the bathroom and saw the test laying on the toilet seat. The husband told me he knew something was up and didn't think it was the toilet problem, lol. We told my parents and sister when we went visit them the day after Christmas. The first prenatal visit was later in the January. The husband went with me to the visit and we both saw the little baby and heard the heartbeat. The baby was already 8 weeks by then, and he/she actually looks like a tiny baby! When I first saw Noelle on the ultrasound, she was just a little dot (6 weeks). But the doctor was moving the baby around to get his/her measurement, so the ultrasound pics didn't turn out too clear.

This is definitely a much different and difficult pregnancy. With Noelle, I had no morning sickness or feeling at all sick. But this time around, I have morning sickness at night time. I'd felt really nauseous, sometimes even felt like I was about to puke. My appetite was not that great at night time. Most of the time, after I made the dinner, I was not in the mood to eat it. I guess that's why I haven't gain much weight, I think my weight may have stayed the same so far. I'm definitely showing already tho, that was kinda sucky and shocking, haha.   The first pregnancy I couldn't wait to start showing and look more pregnant. And this time around, I think I looked pregnant just a few weeks into my pregnancy. I guess your body has some kinda memory thingy built in and went right into where they were :-P

I didn't have any craving last time. But if you really want count it, I'll say I loved Sprite a little more. However, baby #2 made me having all these crazy cravings!! I've gone thru a phase when I want to put vinegar in everything I eat, a phase when I want tangy things, a phase when I absolutely love Safeway's blueberry muffins (still like them tho, but not as crazy now, haha), and now I'm in the ketchup phase. I want to put ketchup in everything I eat. If I could get my hands on some ketchup chips, I think I'll be eating them all day. Any food aversion? Oh yea, big time. Chicken is out, unless it's McD's nuggest, cuz they don't taste like chicken. And pork is on the fence. Sometimes strong food smell still drives me nuts, I guess it all depends on my mood. There's nights when I get really hungry but I had no idea what I want to eat, or should I say, what I can eat without making me feeling sick afterwards.

Today was the 2nd prenatal visit. I thought I'd get another mini ultrasound to see the baby, but I guess that was last time with a different Kaiser campus. They only used the fetal doppler to listen to heartbeat. The nurse practitioner was moving around trying to the baby. And she found him/her at the lower left side of my belly. The heartbeat was definitely strong and healthy. The NA thought the baby kicked the fetal doppler because there's a couple of non-heartbeat noises. She asked if I could feel the baby kicking already? At this point (when the baby is still really small), I really couldn't tell if it's the baby or gas, hahahaa. I can't wait to start feeling the baby moving and kicking tho, that's one of the best part being pregnant!!

So our dating ultrasound is scheduled March 30. I'm really hoping we will get to find out what we are having. I don't like surprises, so this is killing me :-P And I can't believe I won't be seeing my doctor until sometime in May! I guess 2nd trimester is nothing to worry about, either that or they aren't worrying about me too much since this is my 2nd time.

We continue to teach Noelle the concept of being a big sister and having a little baby around. Now if I ask her, "Where is the baby?" She'll say "baby" and come plant a kiss on my belly. It's the cutest and sweetest thing ever. Miss Noelle also loves and is very interested in other babies. She'll stick around to look at the baby, if we get any at the church nursery. I'm still not sure if she'll get jealous with a new comer tho. The other day I was hold a friend's son's hand (he's about Noelle's age), and Noelle had to hold my other hand. Well, I guess we'll see.

So far the estimate due date is September 1, 2010. Last time they moved up the due date after the dating ultrasound, so they may do it again this time. And Miss Noelle came a week early too. So my guess is that baby #2 will most likely arrive sometime in August. I cannot believe I'll be at my biggest, the most uncomfortable stage when it's the hottest of the year. Lovely!

ABCD

2010-01-15T11:45:00.000-08:00

So Miss Noelle is almost 2, in fact, she'll be turning the big 2 in 15 days!! Woo-hoo! And she's definitely more vocal nowadays. We took her to visit my folks in Houston for 10 days. And during those 10 days, she has gotten so close to my parents and my sis. I think cuz she got more people to play with and interact with (on a regular basis), Noelle has become more outgoing and vocal. She loves to play drums with my dad, singing with my mom and goofing around with my sis. Noelle also learned her alphabet! We've been writing it on her magnetic-doodle, and she'll recognize the letter and say it to us. For a while, she kept saying "A-B" or "B" when it's actually "A". She's finally down with "A" now tho, lol. She's still having some trouble pronouncing "W", but it is a hard letter to say. We'll practice on the magnetic-doodle, in the bath tub (alphabet toys, btw, she's in the regular tub now, no more baby tub!!), or whenever we see letters. She really enjoys doing that. I think she recognizes some words too, like "happy", "horse", "toes", etc. And she'll try to spell "elmo" when her Elmo's World is on.

Miss Noelle also learns words from us now. Yesterday, I told her I was going to "pause" the Sesame Street, so I can change her poopy diaper. She said "pause" and sorta got the idea (I showed her the picture on tv isn't moving). And then I told her I was going to "continue" the program, she said "'tinue" :-P I think she got the concept. Or she'll say "open" when she's opening the little coupe car door. She also likes to say and point to the different body parts on herself or others. For example, she loves to dig in my mouth while saying "teeth!"

Over the Christmas, Miss Noelle got loads of great gifts. She's got a kitchen set, leapfrog reader thingy, a coupe car (mind I said it's her FAV toy?), a big magnetic doodle, and some more toys. She's better playing by herself now, I'm not sure if it's cuz she's got so much more to play with or what. But I sure am glad she can entertain herself, instead of asking to watch dvds (she says "dds" too!). Oh and she loves to talk on her cell phones or phone (one of our old cells, and a phone that came with the kitchen set). She says "'llo? hi! bye" over and over. And when I ask who she's talking to, she'll say "Wy-Wy". Wyatt is a little boy that goes to her daycare ;-P not sure what's going on with those two, lol. I think he's just one of her friends. But often time she'll say other kids names too, it's just Wyatt that comes up a lot more frequently.

happy horse

2009-12-18T16:49:00.001-08:00

Man, I was hoping this post will have some fun pics. but seeing I'm at work right now, it's not gonna happen. Anyway...

Noelle is getting cuter and cuter each day!! And she's definitely more in the learning mode. She'll listen to what you are saying and copy or repeat the words. She still watches and loves her Baby Can Read dvds. And is now following what they are saying in the video and learning words. Noelle's current fav words are: happy, horse and baby. She'll even say "happy" on her own, just randomly with a big smile. We think she know what happy means.

She also learns to kiss with her little mouth now. Before when we tell her "kiss kiss", she'll put her forehead on you and said "mmmmmuah". It's so fun to get kisses from her. This one time I switched side with Dave, so I was closer to Noelle's bed. She woke up in the morning, saw it was her mama on the closer side to her. She smiled and gave me a kiss. It was sooooo sweet!

Miss Noelle also loves to clean and likes keeping things tidy. She'll take things to the trash can on her own or turn off the radio/light when we are leaving. What a good citizen, lol. She always wants a napkin while eating, so she can wipe the table, her hands or her mouth. However, she prefers using her little fingers over utensils for eating and absolutely refuses using bibs. So mealtime is still kinda messy.

She tells us when she poo, but sometimes chooses not to if she's watching her dvd or playing. At work she'll walk over to her diaper bag and "talks" to me and pointing to her diaper. That's how I know she poo. And she gets really excited to be changed. I guess it's kinda rewarding for her that her mama understands her.

Miss Noelle is going to turn 2 very soon, I'm hoping she'll not become one of those terrible 2s, but a terrific two.

Dinner schedule

2009-11-20T14:56:00.000-08:00

When we first got married a little over 4 years ago, I was very excited to cook meals everyday. Before we got married, it was the husband (the boyfriend/fiance back then) who did the cooking. I'd come over after work and either him or his dad will make the dinner for us. So when we finally got married and had gotten all those wonderful kitchen-related wedding gifts. I started trying out different recipes, different cuisine. Heck, I had even gotten into baking and making breads!! But it all changed after Miss Noelle was born. At first it's cuz I was so tired from the lack of sleep. So I tried to whip up something simple and quick. But when she started eating solid food, I try to cook something she can also have. That way, I don't need to prepare 2 different dinner for the 3 of us. That means no spicy food or things that Miss Noelle can't have yet (i.e. shrimp, peanut butter, things that are tougher, etc.) I had also stopped making meals that require reading recipes. First of all, some recipes require different ingredients and I try to purchase similar things when we do our weekly grocery shopping. It's just easier to manage. Secondly, recipes may also means I need to spend a little more time in the kitchen. And that's just not happening nowadays. I try to prep the food during our lunch time and cook the dinner when Miss Noelle is watching her Sesame Street (which gives me less than one hour of time to cook, and that is if she absolutely doesn't need my attention). So this year, I decided to have a set dinner schedule for Monday and Wednesday. For us, Monday is spaghetti night and Wednesday is pizza night. And I've just added broccoli chicken over rice for Friday night about 2 weeks ago. It has been a win-win meal in our household. So 3 days out of the 5 (weekends are my off days), we have something planned already. It's sad that I can't be more spontaneous, however this is the plan I'm willing to stick to for a little while.

TV shows

2009-10-15T15:17:00.001-07:00

What are the tv shows everyone's watching nowadays? I don't watch that much tv thanks to Miss Noelle, we now only watch tv when she goes to bed (8:30). But luckily most of our shows are on later at night anyway. This is the list of what I'm watching/obsessed with:

Grey's Anatomy - have been watching it since season 2 (already caught up with season 1)
Glee - this is new obsession, the music is GREAT and the characters are very interesting
Top Chef - this is probably the best season so far, I love Jennifer!! she for some reasons reminds me of Meredith from Grey's, lol. the 2 brothers are really talented too. but Robin needs to go!
Desperate Housewives - I didn't watch it consistently until 2 seasons ago? It's quite addicting

I wanted to watch Fringe again, but it's the same time as Glee. That's about it, not that many shows huh? We do flip the channels when our shows aren't on.

Talking girl, part 2

2009-10-12T17:50:00.000-07:00

So Miss Noelle is definitely talking more and more!! Today, she says "ugg", which is really "bug". And she points it out and says "ugg" when she sees a fly. So I can kill it, haha. She also says "nooo", which is nose. We took a video of her at lunch time today, it was very entertaining. Miss Noelle decided to play peekaboo...

Noelle's first youtube

I'm going to see how youtube works with upkeeping videos, we shall see.

Talking girl

2009-10-07T16:30:00.000-07:00

Noelle is now 20 months old and she is starting to talk more and more. She has mastered saying "mama" (and it's for me! well, most of the time) and "no" (ever so very clearly). One new thing she enjoys doing is making us go thru the ipod songs, she'll shake head and say "no" if it's not the song she wants. She basically goes thru almost her entire song list, sheesh. Noelle sometimes actually says "what's dat?" or "ooooh, what's dis?" but not very clearly, or at least her words aren't clearly separated yet. More like "whatsdat?" and "oooooo, whatsdis?" But very close! Oh and she loves balls. This little girlie will spot a ball miles away and she'll start saying "a ball" or "ball" while walking toward the ball to get it. Sometimes I think she says "bowl bowl" for her snack bowl, and "ba-ba" for her bottle. She doesn't say it all the time, so it's not official yet.

I love having a talking kid!

She also knows some of her body parts, like eyes/ears/mouth/nose/head/arms/belly button. I may have to start teaching her those in Chinese, just so she can be a little bit bilingual. My parents are on my case to teach Noelle Chinese. But I don't like to use it when her daddy is around, so he doesn't feel left out. And they use only English at the daycare. So it's not much opportunity for me to use solely Chinese with her. But I guess I should try harder.

18-month check up

2009-09-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick update. Miss Noelle had her 18-month check up last week (I know, almost a whole month later). And she's now almost 22lbs (our skinny chick) and is 31 inches tall. Her weight and height percentile is around 10-20th, not bad but wish she could be a little bigger. However, her head, OMG, is off the chart!! On the doc's monitor, her head measurement is over the percentile. We've got a big head baby :-P Now we just need to tell the rest of her body to catch up, lol. She also had two shots, but she did good. Well, the mommy was too chicken to be there, so the daddy took Miss Noelle for her appointment.

Picky eater

2009-08-20T15:20:00.000-07:00

I'm getting lazy with updating my blog!! Well, I was really hoping I can have some pics on this post, but I guess not. So we have a little picky eater!! It's getting harder to figure out what we shall give Miss Noelle. Well, she's not THAT picky, but to the point we hope she could be a little better with her choices. She really likes pasta and rice, everything else is all up to her mood. She also is a miss independent. Miss Noelle wants to feed herself. It's good that she wants to work on using the utensils to eat, but it also gets pretty messy. She'll eat from my forks tho, so that works. I've been trying to give her more veggie and fruits, but she usually will just spit it out or eat very very little of those. And apparently she doesn't like L&L's BBQ chicken either :-P But we had jamba last week and she LOVED it. She was a smoothie nazi and took my jamba and won't give back. She likes Orange Dream Machine (my fav as well). We are thinking of making our own smoothie and maybe toss in some fruits and veggie and see if she'll drink them. We don't have a juicer tho, I want to make veggie juice for her. I don't think blender works as well, cuz you get the pulps and I bet Miss Noelle will shake her head at the pulps :-P

And yes, she loves to shake her head. She nods her head once in a blue moon, but shaking her head is her fav. Sometimes she'll shake her head too fast and regrets it right away, lol. Today the daycare called me up and they told me Miss Noelle had bit her tongue while playing. She bleed quite a bit but was all better. She apparently had lunch and was napping, so I guess it didn't bother her too much. My little brave girl!! She is now more active and loves to run around, that means chances of her getting hurt increase tremendously. We just gotta keep an eye on her. She also loves to "talk", still no actual words yet. But boy does she love to yap! There's this one time, we were just sitting by her big girl bed and talk. Miss Noelle held the whole conversation, she "talks" and "talks" and "talks" to the daddy (without much stopping in between). It was sooo cute! But if she doesn't start saying actual words soon, I think I may have to worry. Her 18-month check up is next week, so we'll see what the doc says.

We are also on the process of helping her to get rid of bottle. We now offer her milk in a Elmo sippy cup and give it to her at every meal. She still doesn't drink much milk from it, but hopefully this will help her to get used to the cup. We still can't get rid of the bottle completely, cuz otherwise she won't get much milk. She doesn't need as much milk now, but does need enough in her system each day. Miss Noelle decided not to like brushing her teeth as much now either. She used to love brushing her teeth with the little kiddie toothbrush. Now she'll shake her head and won't open her mouth. I had to use this little rubber thingy with the brush on the top and it fits on my index finger. I basically just stick my finger in her mouth and brush that way. She actually lets me do that, but she'll bite me every now and then. And have I told you she's a hard biter? It HURTS! Ah the joy of being a mama.

Big girl bed and apple juice

2009-07-24T14:43:00.001-07:00

OK, now that it's been almost 2 weeks since Miss Noelle switched to her "big girl bed". We can say now that she's definitely enjoying it. Every night after her last bottle, she'll walk to the bathroom sink to have her teeth brushed (while the mommy holding her of course). And then she'll carry her George with her and walks over to her bed. She doesn't lay down on her own, but when we put her down, she'll just hold her George and drifts to sleepyland. She still wakes up a couple of times some nights, but that's about it. In the morning, I don't really know when she usually wakes up. But she's always up before my alarm goes off. Cuz I'll hear noises from her side (little feet walking on the mattress). Sometimes she'll stick her binky in the daddy's mouth (he's on her side), hahaha. Miss Noelle actually sleeps in her bed sometimes for naps too. She actually wants to take her naps in her bed, cuz she'll carry her George and reaches for the bedroom door in the afternoon. But most of the time I have to head back to work, so we can't let her nap in her bed. We do that on the weekends tho, if we are home during her naptime.

Gah, I really need to start loading pics here too. I just uploaded pics from past 3 months to facebook two days ago. :-P

OK, this is a little overshare. But Miss Noelle has not been regular for the past few days. She's always very regular, ever since she was born. Wait, even right before she was born :-P This little girl pooed right before I delivered her, so we didn't get to cut her cord. Because they don't want her to cry to suck in anything (ew), and that the moment she was born, the med crew took her away to clean her. Anyway, so she's always been regular. She somedays even poos a couple of times. So the past few days she has not had any #2. We just read that having too much ice cream may cause constipation. Ooops! We've been giving her ice cream quite a lot lately. And she sure enjoys that :-P She loves holding the ice cream cone too, and it's so messy. So I was getting worried that she may be constipated and I don't really know what I should do. Then I remembered someone said that they gave their kiddies apple juice whenever they have poo poo problem. So I gave it a shot this afternoon. Miss Noelle drank a tiny bit of apple juice. Right after she watched her video, homegirl had a big, glorious #2!!!! I was so happy to see 'em, lol. Things you never thought you'd be glad to see before you become a parent.

Big girl bed!!!

2009-07-10T11:05:00.000-07:00

OK, it's not really a big girl bed. But we took her crib mattress out and put it on the floor last night, and Miss Noelle slept in it the whole night! She did wake up a couple of times crying, but that's pretty normal for her. The daddy fetched her binky and she's back to the dreamland. She went to sleep around 9:20 and woke up around 7:10, not bad!!! Miss Noelle really likes her "big girl bed" tho, she keeps going up and down on it, laying on it and all. I hope this is a good start.

She's also really enjoying the VBS music, lol. It was last week and she's still listening to the music and dances to it. It's not cool when the mommy or the daddy turns it off, she gets mad.

OMG Blood!!!

2009-06-26T14:50:00.000-07:00

Miss Noelle was having a really hard time sleeping last night. She felt asleep around 9 which was normal. But she woke up a few times in the middle of night and was crying and crying. Finally she went back to sleep. Around 5:10-20, I heard the daddy yelled, "Kat, we need to GO!" Well, at least that's what I thought he said, you see I was totally asleep when he said that. And then he said, "she's bleeding!" That definitely woke me up, so I quickly turned on the light. And sure enough, Miss Noelle's got blood in her nose and all over her mouth, it was such a frightening sight to see. We couldn't figure out if she's having nose bleed or what (she was coughing on and off all night). So we cleaned her up and turned out it was her nose. Since we are the first time parents and Miss Noelle has never had a nose bleed before, we called the peds advise line. I continued to clean Noelle (she started to bleed again soon after we cleaned her the first time) while the daddy talked to the nurse. Miss Noelle was back to normal right away tho, she started to play with her toys and was "talking" again. According to the daddy, the nurse wasn't very helpful, she basically read the "what to do when there's nose bleed" pamphlet to him (which he knows from work). However, since Miss Noelle was all better, we just emailed her doctor and see if she has anything else to say.

This ordeal ended around 6am and I was ready to go to bed. The daddy told me to sleep and he'll watch Miss Noelle. I didn't argue with that :-P But they both came in soon after I laid down. Miss Noelle actually slept too (good girl!), I guess she realized it's not her awake time yet.

I'm so thankful that she was not in any more discomfort and that the bleeding has stopped quickly. And for the daddy to notice it, otherwise we'll be washing our bed sheets (Miss Noelle still co-sleeps with us). But what a way to wake up! Don't ever do this again, baby girl!

Temper Tantrums

2009-06-23T14:32:00.000-07:00

Our precious angel is not even 2 yet (almost 17 months), but I think she may be heading toward the much feared "terrible 2" already. Miss Noelle now throws temper tantrums when things aren't going her way. She'll either lay down (face on the ground), or she'll throw herself down and won't let you pick her up. Ahhhhh, whyyyyy?

They said the best way is to ignore them when they are having their episode. But it's not that easy to do when you are in public. And normally that's when they'll have the tantrum thingy going on (in public). So what we've been doing is just pick her up and tell her it's not OK. Miss Noelle knows "no", she'll shake her head when we say "no". Her fav thing to do is to shake her head when she doesn't want to eat certain thing or that she's done eating. It's pretty good actually, so we don't have to guess. She kinda signs, but definitely has the "all done" and "more" mixed up, lol. Her "more" means "all done" in her book, luckily mommy and daddy understand her perfectly.

I also gave Miss Noelle her very first hair cut last Thursday. Her bangs are getting really ridiculously long, it's past her eyes and it makes it really hard to see. So when she was sleeping on Thursday night, I went in and chopped her bangs. I just grabbed and cut, and it actually turned out pretty even :-P She looks really cute with the new bangs.

I think I need to start loading pics here, I bet you are tired of all text entries. haha.

Whole day!!

2009-06-10T15:30:00.000-07:00

So most of you know by now that Miss Noelle goes to daycare twice a week. She let the caregiver fed her last week, so we thought it's time to let her go to daycare whole day instead of just the morning. Of course the mommy was very nervous about it. Not seeing her kiddie for a whole day? And not knowing whether she'll take her naps/eat the food. It's just a brand new experience for the both of us. The cell phone was right by the finger tip the whole day and of course the mommy never gotten any calls from the daycare. She was quite nervous when it's time to pick Miss Noelle up. This little girl fake cried when she saw the mommy walking in. And according to the caregiver, Miss Noelle didn't cry at all, not even when the daddy left (which she usually cries a little). She only really cried when it was her time to nap. But c'mon now, napping at a new environment without any fuss? You are asking too much, lol. She still slept for an hour, which isn't bad at all. The parental was very impressed with Miss Noelle's first whole day at the daycare. We can say that from now on, it's pretty much always going to be whole day at the daycare!!

Miss Noelle also learned her toes/nose/ears. If you ask her, she'll point to those parts most of the time. Before she only knows the belly button, and boy does she love the belly buttons. She'll yank your shirt up to find your belly button, so beware!

Eating like a big girl!

2009-05-28T16:54:00.000-07:00

Now that we are finally over the teething from hell (thank God!), Miss Noelle is acting more and more like a big girl. Yesterday at lunch, Miss Noelle grabbed the spoon off her daddy's hands and fed herself. We had to watch and help her out, since she's still not very good with the spoon. But she loves doing that. Yesterday at dinner, she didn't want to eat. So I handed her the spoon and she gave me this big smile. And she ate the entire dinner with the spoon all on her own (of course we helped her out here and there). What a big girl!! This morning at breakfast, she again didn't want to touch her scrambled eggs. So I gave her the baby forks, and she once again ate the whole thing. I hope she'll never grow tired of feeding herself, lol.

Miss Noelle also loves to see me sign to her, but she isn't signing back much. She'll copy some signs tho. Let's see if she'll sign them back to me one of these days. She starts to "talk" more as well. Or making noises for that matter, haha. Even tho she's pretty petite for her age, this girl is loud! Miss Noelle however, is throwing more tantrums. If you take something that she's holding, boy does she get MAD. It really doesn't work well especially at the stores. Man, I really don't want to have to deal with temper tantrums. EEEk.

Teething from hell

2009-05-25T22:09:00.000-07:00

This long weekend has been really really interesting.

Friday night at the dinner table, Miss Noelle was really fussy and didn't want to eat. I thought she was just tired, since she didn't have her regular nap in the afternoon. So the daddy put her down and she felt asleep. I went in to check on her in a few minutes and thought she felt kinda warm. Took her temp and she was 102. So I let her slept until she woke up on her own. She was just really out of it for the rest of the night. I'll hold her in my arms and she'd fall sleep, kinda in and out. Finally I put her down at 8:30 and she almost passed out immediately.

Saturday we woke up and Miss Noelle seemed to be much better, back to her silly self. So we went to IKEA cuz I need to get some cabinet and organizing stuff. We spent a few hours there and towards the end, Miss Noelle was getting fussy. We took her temperature again when we got home, she was getting warm again. And then for the rest of the night she was just crying none-stop. It's not the normal fussy cries either, it's the loud why-are-you-leaving-me kinda panic cries. She was chewing on her binky so we thought maybe she was teething. But she never act like this when she teethes. And she won't touch her milk either, luckily she'll drink some water from her sippy cup. But it wasn't much either. And eating was basically out of the question. That night, she'd sleep for 30 minutes or 1 hour and woke up crying, freaking out. We barely had any sleep, it was very exhausting and frustrating. The daddy decided to take her to see a dr. to figure out what's wrong. And turned out, she was having some molars coming in and it's probably the worst kind of teething for them kiddies. Molars are the largest teeth in your mouth and picture having those cutting thru your flesh. Yea, not very fun.

The doctor suggested us to use children motrin, it's much stronger than infant tylenol. We also found this teething tablets that you can get at most drugstores. The combination of these drugs really eased Miss Noelle's discomfort. She fell asleep last night and was able to sleep thru the night. We were sooooo thankful! She is still going thru the teething part, but she's really getting back to her normal self. She is drinking and eating more again, hopefully she'll get those pounds back. Miss Noelle kinda lost some weights since she wasn't eating or drinking.

We were reading things about teething online when we were trying to find home remedies. And I read it somewhere that it's normally around 15 months that you get your first sets of molars. Miss Noelle is 15.5 months, so I guess it's about time. Wish I had known that earlier tho, lol. It's really scary to see your kid suffering and not knowing exactly what's going on. Being a parent is no easy task and I think it's supposed to get harder. Oy!

Where is George?

2009-05-19T18:29:00.001-07:00

To help Miss Noelle adjust to the daycare better, we thought having her bring something familiar from home will help some. She has a curious George and he has became her companion to daycare. She's so close to him that she knows him by name!! If we ask Miss Noelle, "Where is George?" She'll start looking the much loved monkey. And when she finds him, she'll give him a big hug or kiss.

The first toy she knows by name!

Mama bear moment

2009-05-11T15:10:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I had a mama bear moment.

So we were driving to our fav store, Target :-P On the merge to 87, the car in front of us was slowing down and moved to the left lane. That kinda made the car behind it slows down. I was thinking, what was that car doing? Why is it slowing down while merging? And just then it swiveled to our lane and took the exit. It came so sudden that Dave had to slam on his brake, hard, to prevent hitting the dumb car. Of course we honked at that car (unforunately a female driver). But I was absolutely fuming!! She could've hurt us, and Miss Noelle was in the car with us! What if Miss Noelle got hurt?? So I rolled down and window and yelled, "ARE YOU CRAZY?!?!?!" I think I was this close of having Dave to chase after her and give her a piece of my mind. What the heck. When I get road rage, I usually keep it in (inside the car, lol). But this time I really wanted that woman to know how furious I was.

I think it's definitely a mama bear moment for me, need to protect my baby.