Akemi's 1st Dentist Appointment

Akemi had her first dentist appointment today. I splurged and researched for a pediatric dentist in Pasadena. The reason why I wrote 'splurged' is because the dentist isn't 100% covered under our insurance plan. I didn't want Akemi to have a bad 1st experience.

The dentist office had dinosaurs everywhere. On the walls, doors, a dinosaur clock with it brushing his teeth, stuff animals, etc. I felt as though I was in a kids indoor playground. They had flat screen tvs on the ceiling, but Akemi didn't really care for it. She was more intrigued by the dinosaur clock. She kept saying "look, brush teeth'.

Dr. Sumalee (her dentist) was amazed that her teeth was full set and very clean. I shared with her that I use to have to hold her down between my legs to brush her teeth. She was glad to hear that I did that since most parents don't want their child to cry when they're getting their teeth brush. I guess it paid off.

Akemi didn't struggle when the dentist counted her teeth, polished them, and removed a few plaque. The dentist was surprised at how well her 1st experience went. Unfortunately Dr. Sumalee shared that Akemi's front teeth is going to start protruding forward because she sucks on her thumb. She recommended that I get Akemi a thumb guard or start weaning her off.

My mom and I tried 'wasabi' today but Akemi didn't seem phased by it. She kept sucking away.
We're going to try 'Malava Stop'. It's a little ointment that you paint on the nail and it has a sour taste. Two of my girlfriends recommended it. They rave that it works wonders! We'll see!!

I wish I took pictures of Akemi's first experience. Maybe next time!!

Ayumi

Ayumi hanging out with her daddy at dim sum.

Ayumi smiling for the first time. She's 8 weeks here.

Akemi slept through the nite

Whoo hoo! Akemi slept through the nite! Now I just need to sleep train Ayumi. She wakes up at midnite, 2:30am, 5:30am. I'm trying to get rid of the 2:30am feeding.

One step at a time right?

Mother's Guilt

It's been a whirlwind of 10 weeks since Ayumi's birth. The 2nd time is definitely easier. I know what to expect and I'm found that it was easier to get into the routine of diaper change, nurse, burp, swaddle, and rock to sleep. I definitely was not stressed about breastfeeding, but was surprised to find out that it still hurts when you get started on breastfeeding all over again.

One thing that I expected but did not realize that I would have such a hard time is the 'mother's guilt'. It's the guilt of not being able to give all the attention to Akemi. It's the guilt that Ayumi needs to cry a little bit longer because I'm pre-occupied with Akemi. It's the nervousness of whether I'm being a fair and loving mother to both of my girls.

Towards the end of my pregnancy, I started to dose off to sleep in Akemi's bed as I'm putting her down for bed. I find myself waking up at midnight and staggering off to my own bed. Knowingly that this creates a bad habit and routine for Akemi, this routine continued for months. I was too tired to not fall asleep.

Luckily Akemi continued to slept through the nite. However, after Ayumi's birth, Akemi started to have night terrors. She would wake up at midnite, 3am, and 5am screaming! At first, we would go check on her, only to find out that it made the situation worse. She would wake up and want one of us to sleep with her. We learned quickly that it was best to let her night terror pass through.

We asked the doctor about it and she shared that she was 'subconsciously' jealous of the new baby and didn't know how to display her emotions when she's awake, so it happens when she's sleeping. Jonathan was sad to hear that his baby girl was sad and wanted more attention.

After hearing that, I felt guilty and went back to letting her sleep with us in bed.

It's been weeks and it's starting to take a toll. So TONITE was THE nite! We started Akemi's sleep training AGAIN.

I continued with the bedtime routine but this time, I read stories to her in a chair next to her bed. She resisted and wanted to sit with me, but I kept telling her that she needs to lay down. After bedtime stories, I turned off the light and that's when she went ballistic. She never did this before, but she started to stand on her bed screaming. I kept telling her to lay down and said if she starts screaming again, I'm going to leave.

I left the room and shut the door. I could hear her run towards the door and her little hand trying so hard to turn the knob. A sleep solution book shared that I need to leave the door closed for 5 mins. It was the longest 5 mins I ever experienced. It was aweful to hear her pounding on the door, crying for me. 'Mommmmeeeeeee'. I could only imagine her kneeling on the floor, crying.

After 5 mins, I took her back to bed and turned off the ceiling lights. She managed to turn it on during the 5min timeout. As we headed back to bed, she started screaming for daddy. 'DAddeee....nooooo mommmeeee....dadddeeee'' I almost broke out crying. I kept feeling that she hated me and didn't want me anymore.

'Akemi, if you keep screaming, mommy is going to leave again. I'm here right now. Please lay down and go to sleep'. I rub and pat her back as she whimpered off to sleep.

What seemed like 30 mins to an hour, only lasted 15 mins.

7:40 Lights out

7:45 Left the room after Akemi's rants

7:50 Back into the room and dragged Akemi back to sleep

8:10 Akemi fell asleep

8:15 Left the room

This is day 1. I have 13 more days to go! We're crossing our fingers that she won't wake up in the middle of the night.

Ayumi is 6 weeks old

Ayumi is 6 weeks old today. Time just fly by! It's been a busy 6 weeks since Ayumi's birth. I caught a cold for a week and on my birthday, I got the 24 hr stomach flu. It was not fun hugging the toilet and vomitting for 24 hrs. I thought I was going to die!

Thankfully Ayumi didn't catch it and she was fine. I was glad that I had some supply of milk to give her from the freezer.

I feel bad for Ayumi at times. Being the 2nd child, I'm noticing that I don't rush to her right away when she cries and she seems to get carried less. We also didn't celebrate her 1 month bday like we did with Akemi.

I'll try to make it up to her at her 3 months. =)

Akemi's Vocab

1. Dadoo = doggy
2.lei daw= Lay down
3. Tis tis = This
4. Webt = wet
5. Haut = Hot
6. Aghwa = Water
7. Mauk = Milk
8. Apple Juiw= Apple Juice

She's starting to string some words together. Like 'Daddy please more aghwa'

My baby girl is growing up. I can't help but to stare at her as she sleeps. We're trying to sleep train her so that she doesn't get accustomed to us laying down next to her, but I can't help it. It only seems like yesterday when she was as small as Ayumi.

Totally Unprepared

Earlier this month, I've been feeling extremely tired and my belly was cutting off the circulation of my left leg. I was having difficulty in walking but couldn't really take it easy with a toddler around the house. I started to feel what I thought were braxton hicks contractions. My belly would stiffen up and felt hard like a basketball. It didn't feel like contractions at all. It felt as though my belly was too small for my growing baby!

By Tuesday, as I was having lunch with my good friend, Jen, I was exhausted. I am so thankful that Jen was persistent and told me to start preparing. With alot of convincing, I finally went out and got some newborn diapers and started on my hospital bag. I still figured I had 3 more weeks till the due date!!!

All of our baby stuff was shipped to Shanghai and just arrived to Jonathan's company warehouse that week. We haven't gotten around to pick it up since we've been busy with Halloween stuff and figured we would have time to pick it up that weekend.

Little did we know that I will go into labor Wednesday nite. I started to feel pain earlier in the day and thought that maybe I had digestive problems. Every day I usually pick up Kyle (Jonathan's youngest brother) from football practice and on that day, I told him that starting tomorrow I wouldn't be able to pick him up. I was too tired carrying Akemi into the car seat and driving the short 15 min to school to get him everyday. Ironically I didn't think it would be my last day to get him anyways.

By 10pm, I started to realize that the 'gas' pains were not going away. I took a hot shower to see if it would subside and it didn't. By the time I realize what was going on, my contractions were 5 mins apart. It only took an hour or so to be at that rate.

It is definitely not easy packing the hospital bag in between contractions!!!! I called my doctor's office and the on call doctor asked me to wait till the contractions were 5 mins apart for an hour. From the 1st pregnancy, I was like 'no way, I'm not waiting till then'. We went right to the hospital.

I thought I was 37 weeks already into the pregnancy, but after calculations, the oncall doctor said I was 36 weeks and 4 days. Because I didn't make the 37th week, the baby was considered preterm and he was wanted to hold off my delivery. He blabbed about how if the baby came early, she might have to go to the NICU and I won't see her for 2 weeks. He basically scared me to delay the delivery. I agreed to the medicine to try to subside the contractions but after 4 hours of the stuff, AYUMI was determined to still come!!

The nurse convinced the doctor that was I was 2 cm dilated and I was admitted into the hospital. 6 hours later after the medicine subsided, Ayumi arrived screaming into the world!