Him: How baby doing? (Try to imagine a very thick Chinese accent)

Me: She’s great!

Him: Good! She no have hair huh? *chuckle chuckle* (Still imagining the Chinese accent?)

Me: Yeah *laugh* It’s growing in a lot more now though!

Him: Oooh *chuckle* She look better with hair, ya know (Are you laughing yet?)

The brutal honesty of their culture can either totally hurt your feelings or make you laugh hysterically. It never hurts my feelings because I just know how they are. The funnier part is that my husband already had this EXACT same conversation with him last time he talked to him, which wasn’t too long ago. So now we are wondering if they think she is going to grow up bald LOL!

By the way, I just wanted to point out that my husband was born and raised in the U.S. and (thankfully) didn’t inherit some of the more blatant aspects of the Chinese culture. Oh and I love my in-laws.. Just thought this was pretty hilarious!

Kiera is doing great. We started her on Prevacid about a month ago and it has helped her acid reflux tremendously. We have to open the capsules and dump the little granules into her mouth then quickly give her the bottle so she can drink it all down. It’s not that bad but sometimes it’ll gag her a little. I don’t know WHY my children have such weak gag reflexes (they’re BOTH pukers) but they do. Kiera is a little over a week away from turning 5 months old and the child is already taking 8oz bottles! I called my pediatrician yesterday and we are now introducing cereal into her diet. So far she has had a couple of tablespoons and seems to do pretty well with it. This girl is the definition of Chunky Monkey lol! She is getting really good at holding her head up. She LOATHES tummy time so we barely ever do it. She would much rather either be standing (with assistance, of course) or sitting up. Not a fan of laying down for long periods of time.

She is starting to love her Bumbo seat, which makes it easier for me to get things done or feed her the cereal. She is starting to laugh a lot, which I just love. She still loves seeing Zoey and she will laugh and smile at Gene or I, as long as we have an “Who can make the biggest ass out of ourselves” contest in front of her. She has Thunder Thighs and her general girth is… GIRTHY. But her little ankles and feet are so skinny. I know she has a neck but I have yet to find it. Her cheeks are too much for my heart. She is VERY high maintenance. She wants to be entertained during the day time and doesn’t want to be in one position for too long. She needs constant attention and it feels like I am CONSTANTLY feeding her. At night you feed her and lay her down wide awake at 8:30 and she goes to sleep on her own. She doesn’t get up until 8 or 9 AM. So even though she wears me out on most days, I can’t complain because HELLO SHE HAS SLEPT 12-14 HOURS AT NIGHT SINCE SHE WAS 8 WEEKS OLD! Her gums are all swollen, especially the canines and I am always seeing little white nubs/spots at the surface. She is drooling constantly, everywhere!

Zoey is great. Talking more and more every day. Starting to repeat a lot of things we say (Um, we better start watching ourselves!). She is such a big helper with Kiera. She gives her a paci when she cries, she helps feed her, she brings her toys and blankies. She takes her diapers to the trash can for me. She brings me clean diapers. She is just generally a GREAT big sister. While she is helpful with her and I know she loves her, she is also a very independent kid and usually just does her own thing. Plays and talks and plays and talks and plays. Movies and cartoons don’t really keep her attention for very long anymore like they used to. She’s too busy for that stuff! She is best friends with our dog, Emma.. She plays with her ALL THE LIVELONG DAY. Well, she DID.. She messed with Emma’s bad leg a couple of nights ago and Emma snapped at her. I think she either bit or scratched her eye. It’s been red for a couple of days.. So now I am keeping them separated when I am not in the room to supervise them. Emma was just defending herself the only way she knows how, she wasn’t being viscious and Zoey was just playing and despite me CONSTANTLY correcting the way she plays with her and teaching her to be gentle with the dog, it was bound to happen. I’d like to say she learned her lesson but this morning I caught her messing with Emma’s leg again. Gah!

Gene is well. Working and taking care of two kids and we have no time to breathe sometimes. But we love our girls and wouldn’t change a thing. I’m personally having some struggles. I think maybe either PPD or a birth control pill dosage that isn’t working for me.. Not sure. Right now I am trying to help myself with herbal supplements and other things before resorting to seeing a doctor and possibly getting on some real medication. Last week was a downright miserable week for me. I was in pain in so many ways. It was emotional, physical, mental. It was awful! I cried a lot, I lost my temper, I yelled, I cried more. I’m working on it. I’m working on myself.

Sooo… I’m really trying to keep up with this thing. I want to. I want to post about all of the fun we are going to have this summer. Pictures pictures pictures! I have not been very good about taking my camera out, due to the issues I’ve been struggling with lately.. but I am hoping things will lighten up and I can get back to myself and get my life back.

Because I can’t. At all. Wasn’t she JUST a month old? Like, YESTERDAY?

Everyone warned me that having baby number two would make time start speeding along at an infinite rate. I shrugged them off but hey what do you know? It’s actually true and they were being serious.

Kiera is amazing. Sometimes fussy, sometimes finicky, always beautiful and always my love.

How can you NOT fall in love with this beautiful face and those chubby arms?

One of the main things we are learning about this little potsticker is her temperament. She gets pretty upset if you hold her the wrong way, don’t lay her down gently enough, bend her arm in a weird way while putting clothes on her, etc. She definitely isn’t the laid back baby that her big sister was, which in all honesty, I love. I love that I am already noticing some major differences in the two of them.. It just means that they will have two very different personalities!

I’ve found myself walking on egg shells around her in the last few weeks. Scared to make her erupt. Her cry is SO loud and startling. I had a realization a few days ago that I just needed to stop worrying about it so much and if she cries, she cries. It’s not going to kill her! So, today I had to let her cry while I helped Zoey with something and you know what, NEITHER ONE OF US DIED. She was fed, she was in a clean diaper and she safely strapped into her bouncy seat. Oh the fun of juggling a 23 month old and an 8 week old! Thankfully, Zoey isn’t a demanding child and has patience most of the time and will wait for me to deal with Kiera before I tend to her.

She’s eating about 5oz at a feeding these days. Sometimes she finishes the entire 5oz, other times not so much. She is sleeping 3-4 hour stretches at night, which helps. I have to be honest, I much prefer the 4 hour stretches over the 3 hour ones. I’ve been able to get both girls down for naps around the same time this week and accomplishing that alone makes me feel like Mother of the Year.

I still have a hard time believing that I am so lucky to be the Mommy to these two amazing people. Yeah, I get a little frustrated when I’m changing diapers for a solid 30 minutes (thanks to a baby who likes to poop in a clean diaper and then pee all over herself during diaper changes) or when, although rare, my toddler is melting down at the EXACT same time that the baby is inconsolable. At the end of the day, none of these things matter and all I can think about is how absolutely perfect and amazing these little girls are and how I am the luckiest person on this earth to be their Mama!

Kiera, I love you so much. You are an amazing little person. Your eyes are stunning and I love staring into them. I know I make funny faces and I know I say the most absurb things in a stupid baby voice but I do this because I LOVE YOU and I so badly want to see what your smile is going to look like. I love to cuddle you and I love to smell your head. Thank you for being my baby, thank you for expanding my heart in a way I never knew possible. You are amazing!

Here are some photos from our weekend:

She is quite the chubby little girl. She is eating 5 oz at a feeding now.. Zoey wasn’t eating 5oz until she was around 15 weeks old! I call her my little oinker! I love her chins. All of them!

This is my new favorite picture. Her little grin, her chubby face, her little nose and those big eyes. She is just so gorgeous!

Her head control is getting better each day and I was amazed tonight by how long she sat up and looked around without the inevitable head drop. It was so nice to see her little tongue. We never saw Zoey’s because she was born with a tongue tie. This little girl sticks hers out from time to time and it’s so cute!

I changed our bed linens and the dirty ones are in the dryer as I type. Does anyone else find changing bed linens a big chore? It feels like SO much work. I just love slipping into bed on clean bed linens though. I always make an effort to shower RIGHT before bed on Clean Linens Night. I also cleaned/dried/put away our laundry and I cleaned out a big portion of my clothes and put a bunch away to donate and trashed some others. I’ve just done a lot of picking up crap all over the house tonight and that alone feels like a BIG chore.

Having time to myself is something I am slowly but surely working on. I haven’t talked about it but I had a panic attack, my first one ever, a couple of weeks ago and it really scared me. I think all of the mess I’ve dealt with ever since Kiera’s crazy birth had finally caught up with me. It’s amazing how much better I am feeling these days, both physically and mentally but I have caught myself with early signs of a panic attack coming on and have to work hard and focus to get control. Editing and posting pictures of my girls is something that ALWAYS puts a huge smile on my face.

Today we just hung out around the house, didn’t do anything big. We took the girls outside for a short while but it was just too chilly to stay out long. I took a few snap shots of the girls.. I just love them so much! Every single day I catch myself staring at them and admiring their beauty. Every single little feature.

Zoey’s big, almond eyes. Her pouty and pink lips that pucker so perfectly that I find myself begging her for kisses on a daily basis. Her cute little nose and puffy cheeks. Her short and stubby fingers and her short and chubby (and I mean CHUBBY!) feet. Her stubby and crooked toes (thank Grandma for that one!). I cannot get over how absolutely perfect she is.

Kiera’s small and dark almond eyes. She looks at me with those glossy eyes and I am lost in love. Her flat nose, just like Daddy’s. Her cheeks are most definitely puffy and I love to kiss them. She has a wider mouth with smaller lips that sit right on top of the cutest little indented chin I’ve ever seen. Right below her chin is another chin, which I love JUST as much as the first one! Her hairy ears just make me giggle and I often find myself stroking them. She is perfect in every way.

These are my girls and I can’t imagine my life ANY other way. I cannot believe how lucky and blessed I am to be THEIR Mama.

Balancing time though has been difficult, especially for my husband. He comes home from work and Zoey is all over him. She is the definition of a Daddy’s Girl. We eat dinner, he plays with her and before we know it, it’s time for him to either give her a bath if it’s bath night or put her to bed. They head to the bedroom at 8 PM and read books and she is asleep by 8:30. Then he spends the rest of the evening with Kiera.. Feeding her and snuggling her as much as he can because before you know it, it’s time to get in bed and start the next day. He is a VERY involved Daddy and puts his girls before anything else, so all of his time is spent with them these days. I know he feels like he isn’t getting as much time with Kiera as he did with Zoey when she was a newborn, but things are a LOT different this time, understandably so! I just hope my girls grow up knowing that their Daddy loved them with all of his heart and did absolutely everything he could for them.

Did you know that I’ve only done the bed time routine with Zoey a couple of times since she’s been born? And I’ve only given her a bath a few times, as well. Not because I don’t want to but because these are Daddy & Zoey times. I spend quality time with Zoey all day, every day and these are two little things that the two of them do together and have always done together. I hope when Kiera gets older she can share special moments and routines with her Daddy like Zoey does.

Having said all of that, I am proud to say we made it to Week 6 of Kiera’s life with full sanity in tact. Well, maybe 90% sanity. Kiera is a big little girl. It is so weird having a NORMAL (or big?) sized baby this time around! Zoey was always so tiny and took a while to get up there on the charts. This time, we are here at 6 weeks old with a 9 1/2 to 10 pound baby. She is chubbing up quite nicely and I absolutely adore her. She’s currently eating 5oz at each feeding. She’s sleeping about 3 to 4 hours between feedings.

No real smiles yet. I got a small one yesterday but I’m not counting it as an intentional one. She’s still in newborn diapers but needs to move up to a 1 or 1-2. Cheapo mommy is trying to use up the last of the newborn sizes before moving up. She is about out of newborn clothes too. The length just isn’t cutting it anymore, so we’ve moved on to 0-3mo. The 3mo sized sleepers are way too big and it’s hard to find 0-3mo these days, so we’re making do with what we have!

She sleeps swaddled in a fleece SwaddleMe blanket at night to keep her warm and once or twice during the day. Other times, she naps in her bouncy chair or the swing. She absolutely hates to have her clothes changed and is starting to tolerate diaper changes a little better, as long as you are quick! She likes baths but hates when you take her out. Her cry is SO much louder than Zoey’s ever was and it startles me every time I hear it.

She’s working on head control and slowly but surely getting there. She has a huge noggin, so I can’t blame her for struggling with it a little bit. She is taking the Soothie paci but not very often. Basically only every now and then when I’m trying to get an extra 30 minutes of sleep and she’s crying because she wants to eat. right. now.!

What an amazing little person. I love her so much and I look forward to watching her grow up. She’s so beautiful, her whispy hair makes me smile and her dark eyes melt my heart. When she holds my finger so tight while I feed her, I feel so complete.

Zoey is finally starting to come around and it makes me full of joy and pride when she looks at Kiera and says “Bebe!” or when she points to her eyes and says “Eyyyyeesss!” and her “Noooooohhh” (nose). She holds her hand, points to her toes and tries to tickle her belly button (I laugh on behalf of Kiera, of course). I hope they have an amazing relationship and grow up having lots of fun together. I’m sure Zoey will just LOVE to boss her little sister around.

Kiera is doing quite well. Tummy issues seem to be under control. She’s pooping and tooting regularly (you’re welcome!) and we’ve got her fussy time nailed down to 9-12 PM. The last couple of nights have been a lot better.. I’ve realized she needs to eat a LOT in the evenings and we haven’t had screaming episodes the last few nights. Thankfully! I think she was over tired and hungry and I think really paying attention to her signs of tiredness and hunger are helping keep McScreamy at bay.

She was awake for an hour twice already today so I am so happy about that! I love looking at her beautiful eyes and watching her look around. She is absolutely precious.

Kiera likes the swing! Woohoo! That means our money spent on a swing didn’t go to total waste (or was that Grandma’s money? hee hee). Zoey hated it and would cry every time we put her in it and even to this day, she only likes the swings at the park in moderation. Kiera? She sleeps in this swing for HOURS! It’s so sweet and so adorable, too.

Zoey is doing wonderful. A thriving 22 month old. We’re nearing her 2nd birthday and it blows my mind that she could possibly be two years old. Blows my mind and scares me about what is to come! She is full of life. Little Miss Bossy is her newest nickname.

She LOVES nanas and bapples! Even the fake toy varieties. She isn’t a real girly girl. I honestly don’t know if I can ever even imagine her playing dress up but I sure can hope she does. She loves to chase Daddy around the house, she loves to be thrown into the air, she loves to be silly, she loves to DRIVE US CRAZY! She is one amazing kid and as she gets older, it gets more and more fun (and frustrating)!

When I had Zoey, my catheter was out that evening! This time? My catheter stayed for over a whole day! My catheter bag continued to show radioactive orange pee. Dehydration was obvious, even though I was hooked up to IV fluids and even though I was drinking a TON of water. They ended up giving me a ton of bags of fluid quickly while they were giving me blood and it helped a lot. I think they were FINALLY able to take my catheter out the next day, late. After they took out my catheter, one of my nurses started a little chart on the back of a sheet of printer paper and wrote “Input” and “Output” and started recording my water intake and my urine output.. it totally made me laugh. Every time I would pee I would overflow the little hat they put in the toilet to measure my urine so she eventually gave up and tossed her fancy hand written chart.

Going to keep this short.. I am currently battling a VERY UNFUN UTI. It hurts and it sucks! There is more to come though.. A few more posts.. ER visit, Breastfeeding, Spinal Headaches and my Shoulder Pain / Hematoma. Oh and a tire blowout, just to add a little spice to the story!