Pretty in White

Isabel was baptized on Sunday, November 23, 2008. She looked so cute in her white dress. Jaime's mom got it for her in the Philippines. We have already passed the dress to Emily for her baby's baptism next year to start a family tradition.

Isabel was so good at church. She only cried a few cries but smiled for most of it. While I am not religious, Isabel was baptized since it's so important to Jaime's family. Whether she will grow up religious remains to be seen. I hope to let her decide for herself when she grows up.

For her, it was just one big festivity, with relatives all around, lots of pictures taken, and good food at Grandma's house.

- Lei

Sleep Trained Angel

After much heartache, I think we succeeded in Isabel's sleep training of crying it out. It was so hard but so worth it. We tried 3 methods before it worked.

1. Cold turkey - no swaddle, no feeding, and the Ferber method (soothing her after a few min and waiting longer each time up to as long as 25 min before soothing her again)
   Result: We gave up after 6 nights. She was crying as long as 90 min sometimes. Then on the 6th night, she woke up every hour to cry for 30 min. We couldn't take it anymore and was worried that she was afraid to go to sleep, etc...
   
   
2. Middle of the road - no swaddle, no feeding, and gentle persuasion (soothing her as soon as she cries - until she went back to sleep)
   Result: We gave up after a week. She was crying a little less but still woke up 2-4 times a night. We gave up after visiting her pediatrician at her six months check-up. He suggested method number 3
   
   
3. Cry it Out - swaddled, wedged in (so she can't easily flip over), and cry it out (no soothing at all until she sleep again)
   Result: It has been two weeks. We definitely had challenges with this one too, but it seems to be working now. She can sleep at least 9 hours straight without crying now. Around the 6th night, she cried about 90 min once and I almost gave up again. But then I thought, if I gave up now, all the training is lost and she suffered for nothing. So although it really hurts to hear her cry, I toughed it out and just stayed up the whole time she was crying. I blogged, watched TV, and talked to Jaime while we waited it out. Wow, that was a tough night. But it all got better from there.
   

She cried about 10 min the next night once, and then only 1-2 min once each night after that. The last few nights - no crying at all from 9-6 and then even when she woke up, she didn't cry until she saw one of us or it's around 7am. We peek at her without her knowing and she would just play.

Moral of the Story - Crying it Out fully works

• Ferber method didn't work. As soon as she saw Agnes soothe her, her energy to cry was renewed. It's better and faster to just let her cry until she sleeps. It sends a clear method that she needs to go back to sleep on her own and no one is coming. We of course make sure she is safe. Agnes is a trooper and checks on her from under the bumper to make sure Isabel is safe, while avoiding being seen
• Give any method 2 weeks. Isabel is smart and stubborn. She will test us fully before giving up. If I gave in on the 6th night of our 3rd method, she would have won and know she can still get us in there with pro-longed crying. So glad I stayed strong.
• Crying is not bad for the baby. She may sound like she is suffering or hungry, but our pediatrician assured us she can take it and it's worth it to train her. Uninterrupted sleep is the best for her.
  
• She doesn't need to eat at night. We actually developed that habit for her by rushing to her at her first cry. At 12 weeks, she started flipping over swaddled and we freaked out and started rushing to her at her first cry every night after that. Little did we know, that ruined her sleep through the night habit and since then, she started getting up 1 to 2 times a night to feed. I think if we just thought of putting a pillow in her crib to prevent her from turning while swaddled and then let her cry a little instead of rushing to her every night, she probably wouldn't have develop the bad sleep habits that we then had to break with the method above. Oh well, c'est la vie. Such is the life of new parents!

At the end of the day, we are lucky she is so healthy and a good girl after all. I still get up to pump, but since she is sleeping through the night now. I feel comfortable pumping at 5 or 6am now instead of 3 or 4am, so I can sleep up to 7 hours straight now, maybe even 8. Ahhhh, such a blessing!!

- Lei

Carrots

Isabel loves her solid food. After starting rice cereal, we started her on carrots. Agnes made the carrots for her, so it's nice and fresh. Carrots are supposed to be good for her eye sight. Given Jaime and I are both near-sighted, especially me, Isabel can use all the help she can get. She is such a good eater, like her mommy and daddy :-)

She is now eating Solids twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. She can eat almost a full bowl like the one in the video during one of the feedings. Wow. She lovessss food!


-Lei

Daddy and Isabel time

Daddy loves playing with Isabel. Tummy time ... Frustration... You will see what I mean



- Lei

prepping to crawl fast

She is so strong now. She can get on all fours and put her butt in the area, prepping to crawl fast. She hasn't quite figure out how to put it all together yet. all is due time.

-lei

Isabel is 6 months old

Isabel is such a healthy, active, and happy little girl. She turned 6 months old on Nov 2 and had her check up on Nov 4th.

All is great. 100% breastfed; 27.5 inches - very tall for her age. 16.5 or 18 lbs we are not sure. When we weighed her at home, she was 18 lbs. At the dr office, she weighed only 16.5 lb. Maybe she was holding onto the sides. don't know. She is somewhere in between that.

Her weight is at 60 percentile which just means she is a very active girl and is digesting her food well. She got 4 more shots, only cried a little. Jaime, Agnes, and I also got shots too - T-dap (whopping cough) and Flu. We usually wouldn't have, but for the protection of the baby, we did.

Now we are starting solids with her - rice cereal first. She is loving it.

- Lei

I have never been so happy to see....

Poop! Isabel has been constipated for 10 days. Her Pediatrician said everything seems fine since she is 100% breastfed and she is active and smiling everyday. He just recommended that we give her 4-8oz of water starting yesterday to help her out.

I was starting to worry today since she still didn't poop. Well, I didn't have to. At 8pm, she started to poop about 4 times, including pooping while Agnes and I were changing her. You think we would be grossed out or something. Instead, Agnes and I were both cheering and laughing when it happened. We were so happy and relieved. I think Isabel was so confused why we were so happy.

I guess this is what happens when you becomes parents. Seeing Poop from Isabel has made our day!

- Lei

I am proud to be

an American! I can't believe I am even saying it. Don't get me wrong. I am also proud to be Chinese, but yesterday for the first time, I am proud to be an American to witness the ultimate American dream - our first black president.

Not only does this symbolize that anything can truly happen in America, but also, for the first time I was inspiring by our President elect. I don't actually care what color he is. What I care about is he is direct, personable, gracious, inspiring, and action oriented.

Jaime and I even went to a celebration rally in Oakland because of the excitement in the air. It was great to be there and watch history in the making. To my surprised, I was for the first time moved by a political speech. I thought I was watching a movie because the only time I have ever been moved by a President was ones played in movies like Dave or American President.

You can feel the hope and inspiration in the air after Obama's speech. For the first time, so many people who have been apathetic about politics, like Jaime and I and many of our friends, were glued to the TV for the debates and the voting results. It's time for a change and I am so glad we finally will have a president that is eloquent and inspiring and will make us proud to be Americans.

- Lei

Sailor Moon and Clark Kent

Jaime and I are not big Halloween fans. We skipped it last year since I was pregnant and was planning to skip this year too - too lazy to go buy costumes.

We were planning to stay in, but at the last minute decided to go out Halloween night since it was not raining. That's the beauty of living in downtown SF. So many clubs and bars within walking distance.

Since we were going out, we didn't want to go without costumes, too conspicuous and not fun. So we looked into our closets and whipped together two costumes from what we had.

I am Sailor Moon - a sexy Japanese Anime and Jaime is obviously Clark Kent (my favorite hero). That t-shirt has come in good use. We had fun out seeing other people's costume and had a drink at Bubble Lounge (only 3 blocks away from our house). My favorite costumes were this guy in a full on baby sleep outfit, another guy who is a shower complete with shower curtains, and Mr. T.

- Lei

Isabel's self-made costume for Halloween

We decided against getting Isabel an
costume for Halloween this year since she is still so young. Well, she had other ideas and made her own. :-)

She is so strong and tall now that she reached out to the hanging musical carouselabove her crib and yanked on the hanging dog super hard. It broke the bar holding it up completely.

We decided then just to put the carousel on her head as her hat and costume - Baby Carousel :-)

How cute!

- Lei

Isabel's new toy

Who said babies need expensive toys? That's just the result of marketing to nervous new moms. As you can see in this video, Isabel is perfectly happy with her new toy, that cost mommy nothing :-). She is actually fascinated by it. Enjoy!



-Lei

Cold Turkey - night 4 and 5

Isabel did well for night 3 and 4 - slept from 10pm to 7:15am. Then last night, all was erased it seemed. She had trouble going to sleep. Didn't sleep until 10pm, then woke a little at 10:30pm, then 12:45pm (we had to feed her), 4:30am, then 8am.

While we would like for her to sleep through the night, we don't have the heart to have her cry night after night. We also don't want her to feel scared in the dark. So we have a new strategy starting tonight.

Not all was lost as we accomplished two goals with this training so far: 1. have her sleep unswaddled and sleep with no milk until at least 6am. Both were successful. Yeepy. I still have plenty of milk again for her to be 100% breastfed. She looks so cute sleeping with her arms spread out.

Our new strategy is to have a routine for her at night that is gentle. First a bath around 7:45pm, then feed her, then read or play with her for a bit before she goes to sleep. If she wakes up in the middle of the night, Agnes will try to soothe her without picking her up (she won't leave her though). We will still try not to feed her before 6am. This way I can pump some milk for her and have a chance to sleep as well. After 6am, I will feed her or Agnes would feed her the bottle if I need to sleep.

We will see how this goes. Every baby is different I guess. Isabel is a good girl. She will learn all in time. She still haven't learned how to sleep on her tummy. She always seems to freak when she is tired and happen to flip herself on her tummy. She doesn't know how to flip back to her back to sleep or sleep on her tummy. This may be why it was hard for her to be sleep trained. Whatever the reason, we are making adjustment and see. What's really important is she is a very healthy and happy baby. :-)

- Lei