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This was a Mother’s Day of firsts for me.  The most significant first was that I’m actually a mom this year.  I guess I was a mom last year too, but Noah was still cooking in the womb.  This year, I got smiles, kisses, and coos from my son.  Our church gave a flower to all the moms that were there, and I got one!  That was really exciting.  It was also my first Mother’s Day in Seattle, which meant it was my first one without my own mother.  This was hard as I miss her a lot.  At least we still can talk on the phone.

We had a pretty packed weekend.  On Saturday morning, Phil, Noah, and I went to a coffee shop in the U district to just enjoy the morning together.  In the afternoon, I really wanted to get out and do something, so we thought that it would be fun to go downtown and visit Sculpture Park.  Loren came with us then and we took the bus all the way down.  However, we had to walk through Seattle Center, and on the fly, decided to go to the Pacific Science Center instead.  We had an amazing time.  Noah is really engaging with his surroundings now and was interacting with the exhibits as much as a four-month old can.

Some highlights:

Noah looking in the concave mirror

Loren being a “twin”

Noah in dinosaur footprint

Looking at the water

Playing in the bug exhibit

On Sunday, we went down to Southcenter Mall to meet up with Phil’s aunt, uncle, and grandma.  We went to the Cheesecake Factory, and I have never seen a place so busy.  The waitresses were great though and loved to flirt with Noah.  We had a great time of conversation with Phil’s family, and we were definitely glad to see them again.

Loren moved out of our place on Sunday night.  He’s renting a room from a family that goes to our church who lives much closer to his workplace.  He seems to be enjoying it there, but we are going to miss having him here… especially Noah.

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It’s the never-ending saga.  The joyful new parents bring home their tiny infant.  As the infant adjusts to his new surroundings, he takes his time doing what all babies do - eat, sleep, and poop.  The new parents are especially excited about the sleep part.  Then, something crazy happens.  He gets older.  After about a month, he’s not sleeping the 20+ hours a day.  Supposedly, he is now in a regular schedule of 3-4 naps during the day and sleeping a lot during the night.  Of course, he wakes frequently during the night, but the joyful parents have read all the books.  They’ve read that their baby will be sleeping through the night by the time they are four months old.  How exciting!  But, then, what’s that?  Sleeping through the night means five hours at a stretch.  What kind of cruel joke is that?  Well, okay, then.  Five hours is better than getting up every hour.  We can handle that for a while.  After all, it’s just going to get better, right?

Well, as Phil and I have found out, it doesn’t always.  It’s a good thing that Noah is so cute and that he rewards us with lots of smiles and giggles because it’s so difficult to get him to sleep now-a-days.  In an earlier post, we mentioned that he was “sleeping through the night”.  You know, getting those amazing five hours at a time.  When he was doing this, he’d wake twice during the night, feed, then go right back to sleep.  Notice that I wrote, “When”.  That’s right.  He doesn’t do that anymore.  I don’t know what it is.  He is now much more dependent on us to sleep than he used to be.  Could it be that we’ve messed with his schedule so much since he’s been born?  That’s definitely true.  We’ve taken him on two big trips, had lots of company here, and moved him into his own room.  I’ve also changed his sleeping schedule so many times hoping that he would sleep more.  I should have been content with what I had!  He is now sleeping, at most, two hours at a stretch.  He almost always would like to nurse at those wakings, but he really isn’t hungry.  He just wants his mommy time.  And I really do enjoy my Noah time.  But I miss my sleeping time.

So, what’s a parent to do?  Well, as we re-read through all the books, we find that we have a few options.  There is the Ferber method, aka the Cry It Out method.  This involves letting the baby cry for increasing amounts of time until they learn to self-soothe.  It usually only takes a couple of days before the baby learns to sleep through the night.  Although seemingly a quick fix, I’m definitely not a fan of this option.  I know that many parents use this method or other modes of CIO, but I feel that this would be hard on our family.

On the other hand, there is the longer option of putting your baby down in stages until they feel comfortable with their crib and with going to sleep by themselves without the help of mom or dad as portrayed in the book, The No-Cry Sleep Solution.  This one appeals to me, but it can take months to get to that final stage.

Thankfully, as a stay-at-home mom, I’m able to catch up on my sleep when Noah takes his naps during the day.  Even if they are only 35-45 minutes long, that is something!  There is something appealing about cuddling with your baby as they drift off to sleep.  Something that I’m sure I’m going to miss as Noah grows up.  So, right now, I’m just going to be content with the short time I have with my infant, and enjoy the time I have with him… even if it is 2AM.

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We had Noah’s four-month check-up last week with his doctor.  I was sooo nervous about it since it meant that he was going to get his shots that I asked Phil to take the morning off to help me with it.  But he did great!  We are going on a slower vaccination schedule so he only got his Tetanus.  (He’ll be getting a few more shots in a couple of weeks.)  He fussed just a little bit and was fine again in about 30 seconds.  So much for all my fears!

He also got all checked out, and he is one healthy “little” boy.  He’s still in the 95th percentile for height at 27 inches, and he weighs 16 lbs. 4 oz. putting him in the 75-90th percentile for weight.  His head has grown a bit so now he’s at the 75-90th percentile in that as well.  He had been in the 50th percentile for head size and 95th percentile for height so he was sort of disproportional.  He’s been wearing 6-9 month clothes for a while now, so we have hopes that his growth is stabilizing.

All the books say that you can start giving your child solid foods somewhere between 4 and 6 months.  I had really wanted to wait the six months before introducing foods, but I wasn’t sure if he needed it sooner because of his size.  The doctor assured me that six months was fine and even preferable if at all possible.  Noah still doesn’t have any teeth which is one of the indicators that his body is ready for more than just milk.  So, we still have some time to wait on foods.

Overall, it was a great appointment.  He’ll get his next few shots in a couple of weeks, but now I feel much more optimistic about going in alone without Phil.  Noah’s a great kid, and it’s great to get a feel for how he’s progressing.

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In April, Noah and I took a trip down to Southern California to visit family and friends.  It was a whirlwind of a time, and Noah met so many new people.  Here’s a brief summary of what we did.

We arrived in San Diego on Tuesday afternoon.  We had been on a very full flight, but Noah did great with just a few fusses as he took his naps.  The ecstatic grandparents were at the airport to pick us up, and Noah took to them very quickly.  He loved all the attention.  They took good care of Alisha, too, making sure that she got her fill of In ‘n Out before they even made it home.  Later that afternoon, he was visited by his great-grandparents and his Uncle Loren.  He talked a lot to them all.  His cooing is sooo cute!

On Wednesday, we went to visit Noah’s great-great-grandmother and got five-generation pictures. Can you see the resemblance?

That evening, we went up to San Clemente to visit Uncle Nate’s apartment and to spend the evening with all of Alisha’s immediate family. The boys all coordinated clothes (oh, how embarrassing!), but it made for a great picture.

Thursday, I got to see some friends from the church that I grew up in. It’s just amazing to me how much things have changed since I attended there over 6 years ago. I guess that’s what happens after time. I guess I didn’t think about how much a baby changes your life and what you think about.

On Friday, my parents left to go to a memorial service in Michigan so Noah and I went up to the Biola area to visit friends there. We began our trip by going to my old workplace at Biola and having Noah meet many of my former co-workers. It was hard to believe that I worked there a little over a year ago. I wasn’t even pregnant yet, and now, there’s Noah! It’s amazing.

We then had lunch with the Gorras at one of my favorite fast-food places, Rubios. Their son, Sam, was a newborn when I left a year ago, and now he’s talking and walking and so cute! We had a great time catching up and sharing stories of our boys.

That evening, I spent with my cousins, Kelly and Jason, and their now active daughter, Aubrey. It was great to see them again. They still live in the apartment complex that Phil and I used to live in, and they are just amazing hosts. Aubrey and Noah were able to meet, and Aubrey learned to call him “Noah” instead of just “Baby” in the short time we were there.

On Saturday, I travelled up to Pasadena to visit a high school friend, Kara, and her husband.  They just had had a baby three-weeks prior, and were learning what life looks like with a toddler and a newborn.  It was interesting to see how the new siblings interacted.  Right now, it is hard for me to imagine what life would look like with more than ONE kid.

On Sunday morning, we had Lem take a bunch of professional pictures of Noah.  He’s still touching them up, and we hope to get them soon.  Noah did great, and he seemed to enjoy all the attention.  We then all went to church at Grace EV Free in La Mirada.  I put Noah in the nursery, and was SURE that I would be called out to come get him.  Halfway through the sermon, I knew that my pager must be broken since it hadn’t gone off yet.  However, after the service was over, I went to the nursery, and he was doing great.  Once I picked him up, though, he immediately fell asleep on my shoulder.  He was exhausted, but happy.  It was relieving to know that I could leave him for a while.

After having lunch with Kelly and Jason, we went over to the Guenthers to make it to the end of Grace Group and spend the rest of the day there.  We had dinner with all the guys from Phil’s old accountability group and their wives or girlfriends.  It was great to see them all again, even if they did enjoy tormenting my son!

We spent the night there, and on Monday, we had the pleasure of hanging out with Katie all day. We cruised around the Biola area and got some much needed Frappaccinos since it was sooo hot there that weekend. We also learned that there is a nursing room in the Talbot building. Who would have thought?

We travelled back down to San Diego that evening and spent the rest of our time with my parents. We did get to see Nate one more time on Wednesday night, and we saw his girlfriend, Sheila on Tuesday. Loren was around a fair bit too, although he was working a lot on an art test for a company up in Seattle area. (He got the job, and is now living with us for a while - yay!).

We definitely enjoyed our time down there. It was especially great to see my parents and watch them be grandparents for the first time. They’re naturals!

We got back on Thursday afternoon, and Phil picked us up from the airport.  He had carnations waiting for me in the car (my favorite!) and it was wonderful to be home.  It snowed the next day which was a welcome relief from the 90-100 degree weather we had in L.A.  I still miss everyone down there though.  Can’t wait to visit again!

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Check this out.

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Saturday was a beautiful day.  The sun was shining and the temperature was warm (for Washington).  So, we decided to take advantage of it and go to the beach.  Richmond Beach park is only about 10 minutes from our home, and it sports beautiful views of the Sound.  This was also Noah’s first visit to the beach, and definitely worth recording.

Of course, Noah wasn’t able to stay awake for very long, and soon he was fast asleep. He used to fall asleep to the sound of waves crashing, but considering that there are no waves on the Sound, he had no real excuse this time.

On Sunday, we enjoyed our time at church, and then headed down to Graham to visit with some of Phil’s family. Although it rained the entire day, we had a lovely time with his grandma, aunt, uncle, and cousins. We always enjoy our time down there! We still need to teach Noah the response to “He is Risen!” (”He is Risen Indeed!”)  I guess we just need to be a bit more patient.

Another noteworthy fact is that Noah is now 3 months old!  He’s still growing a lot, and is now wearing 6-9 month clothes.  He grows about 2 inches every month, but I’m hoping that he will slow down soon or else he’ll be in 3T by the time he’s 9 months old.  He’s a very happy little boy, and we are enjoying every milestone.

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- A Hairdryer (the white noise makes Noah calm down almost instantaneously)
- Baby Swaddler (what are we going to do when he grows out of the large size?)
- Pacifier (slowly being replaced by his fist)
- Baby Swing (yay for longer naps)
- Moby Wrap (free hands!)
- Burp rags (equals cleaner clothes for mom and dad)

In other news, check out Noah’s movies.

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Noah recently had his two-month check-up with the doctor.  He is now (as of last week) a whopping 25.5 inches long and weighs 13 pounds - putting him in the 90-95th percentile for each.  (His length wasn’t even on the doctor’s chart for a two-month old.)  His head isn’t growing quite as fast, but it is still in the 75th percentile.  We knew the kid was growing quickly as he has been wearing 3-6 month clothes for a while now.  The crazy thing is that his infant car seat is supposedly only “safe” until he’s 26 inches long, but I thought it was supposed to last him until he was almost a year old.  Our little boy is growing up so fast!  My dad is convinced that he is going to be an NBA star.

He’s also been developing in other ways as well.  We are enjoying all of his coos and giggles, and he’s been sleeping at least 5 hours pretty consistently now.  (Mom is SOOO glad!)  On Monday, he began to roll over from his tummy to his back.  The first time he did it, he looked at me with big eyes that seemed to say “What happened?”  It was great.

Noah and I also now have tickets to come down to Southern California in April.  We’ll be with my family in San Diego for a lot of it, but we should be in the Orange County/Los Angeles area from April 11-14.  Unfortunately, Phil won’t be able to join us, but I can’t wait to see everyone and show off Noah.

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