Diaper blowout #3 this week!

Okay. I am fed up with this! What's the deal?!?! I mean thank goodness for OxyClean. It does wonders for the stained outfits. I've decided that she's too big for #3's. I'm switching her to #4's. It wasn't even that much poo. Just a bit, but it all leaked out the back. She even went a whole bunch this morning. It's the diapers too. No more Babies R Us/Toys R Us brand for us. Too bad we still have a ton. I guess ideally I should be more vigilant with E.C., but this mommy's been a bit tired/lazy lately.

So I gave her the sippy today for the 1st time. She just chews on it. How am I supposed to teach her to suck on it? Hmmmmm...

Daddy is deep sea fishing today. Hopefully he brings home lots of fresh fish and fresh shrimp for us to devour! Mommy would've loved to go, but Hannah needs taking care of. Mommy just looks forward to the fresh seafood.

Somehow him going fishing...and me being at home nurturing the baby, makes me feel slightly "hunter-gatherer-ish" - like our family is regressing into a more primitive societal state... anyways...

I'm still doing my best to fight off the bug - it hasn't gone full-blown on me. Lots of fluids and rest. Sick mommies aren't very good or fun mommies. I just think of Hannah's snot/mucus with saturated viral loads, and I've been super vigilant about hand washing and disinfecting. It's like I'm in the lab again.

Baby Bullies?

We had some friends over today, and Hannah had a playmate about her age (only about a week apart). Both 6-month-old girls were sitting facing each other and cooing and squirming. All of a sudden, Hannah ended up head-butting Em. Through the course of sitting while facing each other, Hannah also ended up whacking her playmate with the stuffed monkey they were "sharing". Though they're the same age practically, Hannah's much larger and her mass causes more force in all of her motions. I just hope that she doesn't end up inadvertently or intentionally ever bullying other kids.

When we get together with another friend whose son is about 10 months old, he ends up head-butting Hannah while he's crawling around and trying to play with her. He also ends up taking whatever toy that she's playing with at the time, which is what Hannah did to her playmate today.

Of course none of it is malicious. All of this is just attempts at moving around and learning to grab things, and the babies really aren't even "playing together" persay. It's sorta funny/cute to observe for now, but it also makes me wonder about her future interactions with her peers. Don't want her to be a bully but also don't want her to be bullied. What's a parent to do? I probably need to read more books or something, since up till now, I haven't read any books about child interactions and issues. And of course I don't really remember my child development class from college either. But I know this is all normal stuff that's a part of development.

Oh...she had another blow out today! YUK! I couldn't believe it! It was another day of refusing to poo in the morning and early afternoon. So by evening she's sitting there playing, and I hear her let her bowels loose. It went everywhere - all the way up her back, all over her onesie, to the overalls. I blame it on the diapers. These disposables just aren't very good - or this particular batch. We've used the brand (Especially for Baby Supreme) before and we really liked them, but the glue used in manufacturing got everywhere in this batch and has made them stiff and unabsorbent.

I think I am getting the bug that Hannah and DH have. I'm starting to get a slightly runny nose.

Look-Alike Meter

I tried this out a bunch of times with different photos. It's a cool facial recognition program. The first time it said Hannah looked like me more by 7%. And then I loaded different pics of us, and it says it's perfect a 50-50%. Then it was Isaac by 3%. Then I loaded the 1st pics and it was me by 10%. The website has all sorts of other matching facial recognition things including morphing. I've spent way too much time on it playing around. Fun stuff. Thanks for the link Kensie!









What's the deal here? Oprah shows up in both. I think that's funny.

Sickness is spreading

So today DH is sick (sore throat, congestion & body aches)...and Hannah's gotten worse. I wonder if she too has a sore throat. Who can tell? It's not like she can tell us. She looks bad though. She has puffy eyes with bags under them and her nose is drippy. The clear drippy is now sometimes cloudy and becoming tinted with color. They are both in bed now as I post (have been in bed for awhile as I've continued with house chores & my wind-down time). They both need lots of rest. I hope I don't come down with whatever it is. My body has been feeling achy, but that's been an ongoing postpartum thing. I try to rest as much as possible in general and drink lots of fluids, so hopefully my immune system is up for the fight.

Hannah threw up all over the bed this afternoon. Poor thing can't breathe well b/c she's congested. She tries to nurse, but her nose only has partial ability to breathe. She'd fall asleep and then wake up due to not being able to breathe if she changed her sleeping position. So after an exhausting time of putting her down to sleep, I thought she was down. Then she cried for a bit, and then was quiet. Then she cried a bit again...nothing way too out of the ordinary, so I let her CIO. I checked on her after it was silent, and she was sleeping. Later on, when I checked on her again near the end of her nap, and I noticed a funny smell. She'd thrown up everywhere, and I guess I hadn't noticed earlier! It was all over the bed, on her outfit, in her hair. I felt totally bad and wondered it she'd thrown up when CIO. She's only thrown up one other time while we let her CIO and that was last month, and I didn't let her CIO after that very much. I felt so bad, and just babied her after that, holding her close and cuddling with her.

I guess it's a time for lots of messy firsts. Yesterday she had her first official blow-out since her 1st or 2nd week of life. The blow-out in that 1st month was a tiny leak and because we were trying some diaper samples - White Cloud, and they weren't very good. Yesterday, she didn't poo in the morning or even later on when I took her to the toilet. In the afternoon, I left her in the disposables, and just let her crawl around. Then I guess due to fact she was on her belly crawling around, and the mass of the poo, it squished out the front. Yuk!

So yesterday I started disinfecting all her toys, and today I've continued disinfecting toys and other Hannah touched and touchable stuff around the house. I've washed all of the covers on the car seat, the jumperoo, the rocking seat, the baby carrier etc. Still a lot more to disinfect. I'm upping my normal vigilance to "code red" and will probably disinfect/wash everything again throughout and after the sickness.

So she's gotten better at crawling just in the last week. Here's a video of her from Saturday.

Poor Stuffed Nose

She's sick. I think she caught a bug from a friend that we visited on Friday. It developed over Saturday night (restless night for the whole family b/c of Hannah), and she was totally drippy from the nose on Sunday. Sunday night, the congestion started getting progressively worse. She doesn't like it when I suck her nose with the bulb - who would? But I try to show her the bulb, and let her touch it. Then she's more calm and will let me stick it in her nose to clear out the mucus.

I have some more posts that I started from last week and never finished...so I need to post those, but I'll leave them as the date that I started the post.

Shoes & Feet

Hannah's not used to wearing shoes on her feet. I usually don't bother because either they don't stay on, or they're a bit binding. But the little shoes for little girls are so cute! And she was given some really cute ones. I put shoes on her the past few days.

She's started the 'eating her feet' thing while sitting the past few weeks. And so with the shoes, she likes to eat them too, whether they're on or off. She started grabbing her feet around 5 months while on her back and feet in the air. Then she started wanting to get them closer to her mouth while laying on her back, and sucking or whatever with them.

Well, when I put these shoes on her, she bent forward and tried to eat them. She did this for awhile, but then got frustrated when she couldn't get them completely into her mouth. (This was Thursday).



She also been playing around with her tongue and exploring. She consciously sticks it out more often than before and also likes to explore the kinds of sounds she can make - making raspberries or the "phhhhbt" sound or other concoctions- however one would like to describe it.

















These videos are of her making noises and grabbing her toes while on her back (on the left), and of her sticking her tongue out and then trying to eat her shoes while sitting (on the right).

Stroller Walks

Hannah loves to go outdoors. When she was younger and got fussy, DH would take her outdoors, and she'd calm down. She likes to look around and take in the new sights and sounds. She's always chill when we take her out. She doesn't fuss, vocalize or anything. She just enjoys it.

Here's photos from a stroller walk last week (a bit over 6 mos old) and also from her 1st stroller walk at 1 month. Look how she's grown!










On one of the walks last week, a ladybug landed on the stroller. It crawled on the stroller, flew around, crawled on Hannah. It was pretty neat.

Happy Hannah - laughing

Hannah is such a cheerful child. She's always smiling and rather easy to entertain. She started laughing in June (the week that we were preparing to move). Here's a video of her 1st few laughs.

1st baseball game

Hannah attended her 1st baseball game last night - the Hooks. She even had her 1st twizzler (courtesy of daddy) - not consumed of course. She had a nice nap before we got there and then stayed up waaay past her bedtime. We went with friends and all their kids. Dollar hot dogs, dollar drinks, peanuts, candy - it was a ball game - fun stuff for kids to do. Our little friend Ryan got hit by a homerun ball, but he got to keep the ball & even got a baseball cap. We all had a good time, and the Hooks won.

First Word?

When I was changing Hannah this morning and buttoning up her outfit, I could swear I heard her say her first word. She said "bao" very clear, precise and by itself. Not "bao, bao, bao" or "ba, ba, ba" over and over like her coos and babbles, but "bao" singly and clearly with tones, nothing else afterwards. "Bao" is to hold or hug in Mandarin Chinese. It seemed to be said with the intent to be picked up. She already reaches up with her arms when I reach out to pick her up, and the word seemed to be very clearly said in conjunction with the action. Hmmmm... so far the occurence hasn't been repeated yet. I know, I know... language development takes awhile. But there are things we as adults can do to help them progress and to be aware of delays.