Picture update

Here are some long overdue pictures :)

Lunch with my parents 

Pulling himself up already

Snow for the first time

Haha so sad!! Was smiling 10 seconds before I took this picture.

<3

Long overdue update!

It's been quite a while since my last update. The last week of CVICU (end of January and beginning of February) was terrible; I caught a nasty virus which I'm pretty sure was the flu, Simon also was sick and throwing up every night around the same time, and Jeff also got sick sometime after I finally started feeling better. I actually ended up taking two consecutive days off work while on the CVICU rotation. This is in the context of me never taking a single sick day my entire residency prior to this. I always managed to drag myself to work no matter what, but it was just so awful...so glad that week is over, even now, as I'm writing about it! Also, the week after I recovered from the flu I got a regular cold (probably from Simon/daycare) and I just felt generally deconditioned for some time after that. Getting old and not sleeping enough sucks. As a consequence of all that illness (and during the week with the flu I had no appetite and lost almost 5 pounds) my milk supply took a huge hit and has still not quite returned to what it was before. Simon's appetite has also been quite good, so it's been difficult to keep up. Luckily he is eating a lot of solids now so at least he's not 100% dependent on milk anymore.

Speaking of Simon, he just amazes me every day with how quickly he's learning to do things and how fast he's growing. This is a list of what he does now:

• crawls with his stomach off the floor (and consequently is very fast)
• goes from crawling to sitting up with ease
• pulls himself to standing in his crib (we had to lower his pack n play and crib due to an unfortunate incident where he stood up and then fell out of his pack n play...that was not the best moment of parenting)
• is eating solid chunks of food now, and can pick it up himself and shove it in his mouth (doesn't always make it there, but he's getting better :))
• babbles "ba ba ba" 
• holds his bottle by himself for feeds (has actually been doing this for a while now)
• is basically a big troublemaker now anytime we put him on the floor -- pulls opens drawers, picks up stuff and sticks it in his mouth, makes a mess

I'm probably forgetting stuff now since it's late and I'm pretty tired, but yeah...I love watching him figure things out. Sometimes I just look at him and can't believe that there is a little person there and he is my son! And he's so cute! I can't get over his cuteness :)

He's also getting really big. My mom just got him some clothing which is sized for 9 months, and he has almost outgrown them already (after wearing each outfit only a handful of times...yikes). I'm curious to see how much he weighs at his next appointment. He's maybe slightly chubbier than a month ago, but he's so active I don't think he'll ever be a super fat baby. He is very strong, though. And he is very curious - he actually makes some of the other babies in his class cry because he likes to pull their hair and/or touch their face. O__o

I will post some pictures from my phone when I get the chance. Until next time!

Updates

It's been busy and I've been forgetting to update. I also started my CVICU rotation so there is a lot going on with work and nailing down job stuff so those are my excuses :)

Simon's been doing well since his little illness with hand foot mouth. After that week his appetite seemed to just go through the roof and he started eating a ton of solids. I don't know how they get him to eat so much stuff at daycare, when he's at home we can't get him to eat that much...anyway he is really loving the fruit purees esp anything with apple or pear in it. Sometimes I have to try different purees with him - the other night he was actually quite hungry but refused to eat this butternut squash mix but gobbled down apple/pear/blueberry. Overall he's an enthusiastic eater, though :). It's pretty fun being able to feed him foods that I make for him. 

His 6 month checkup went well. His growth took a small dive at his endocrinologist appt so we upped his meds a bit and now he seems to be back on track. Sounds like she still wants us to push his weight gain a bit more and add olive oil to his purees (sounds gross to me). 

The biggest change with Simon is now he is so observant and interactive. It's really a lot of fun right now. He sits up by himself really well, can crawl now (!!) by dragging himself on his tummy, recognizes faces (always gives me a heart melting smile when I come home). I love it. It really seems like he knows who I am and he's such a happy little guy (except when it's time to nap and then he cries a little bit before passing out). He likes to play with all his toys and he loves the TV remote and my cell phone. 

Hand foot mouth disease

Simon broke out in a nasty rash all over his entire body Monday and got sent home from daycare. We had to bring him to urgent care because they wanted a dr's note to ok him going back. (In retrospect, total waste of time and money.) The ped at urgent care thought it was a viral rash, and he didn't have a fever so she ok'd him going back yesterday. He was fine only to be sent home again due to blisters on his hands and feet! :( so annoying. I know HFM is highly contagious but he's actually acting pretty normally except for a slightly lower appetite. Oh well. Lesson learned, I guess. Hopefully he doesn't get worse and can go back soon.

Finally, some pictures

Stuck in the OR so I might as well post the pictures I meant to post a week ago. Oops...

Obsessed with this bell from Isabel (ha ha)

With great grandma for the first time

Lunching 

Meeting Kayla for the first time! She's 4 days older than Simon :)

Sporting his Santa gear. :)

In the car on the drive home. Keeping him entertained with my water bottle.

My cousins Joyce and Grace and our three boys :)

Playing with a toy airplane he got for Christmas.

Christmas, and our trip to LA

We went down to LA to celebrate Christmas with both sides of the family this past week. It was Simon's first trip :). He did pretty well, except for a little whining/crying in the car when we hit traffic in LA.

Here's a summary of our trip, day by day:

Dec 22 - drove down to socal. We originally wanted to drive down at night so that he would be sleeping, but decided that would be too tiring so we opted to drive during the day. Simon spent a lot of time napping in the car, which was pretty good. In between naps I sat in the back and entertained him. It was a little tricky nursing him in the car and he didn't really eat much that day. When we got to LA we hit traffic and he got kinda fussy, didn't want to be in the car seat anymore. I can't really blame him.

Dec 23 - visited Esther, Jason and their daughter Kayla! Kayla is 4 days older than Simon (they basically had the same due date). She's a little bit shorter than Simon but chubbier and very cute :)

Dec 24 - Dinner at Jeff's parent's house. Simon met Jeff's extended family for the first time!

Dec 25 - Dinner in Arcadia. Lots of mahjong was played.

Dec 26 - drove back up to norcal. No traffic this time, so less crying from Simon.

Dec 27 - not part of our trip but had more visitors - Grace & Joyce (my cousins on my mom's side) and their babies Owen (11 mon) and Sinjin (14 mon).


Overall the trip was really great except several things. First, Simon didn't sleep that well in his pack n play and basically slept with us in bed the whole trip. Which was ok except he woke up multiple times at night and made us both kind of tired. Second, Simon came down with this weird rash which, after consulting with my pediatrician friend, was probably a viral rash. I ended up catching whatever virus he had and got sick on Christmas day...only started feeling better today. Simon also seemed a little under the weather and threw up twice the day we got home. Seems better now though.

Simon also hit so many milestones this week. Must be a wonder week. He suddenly became very interested in everything he could get his little hands on, so he would constantly be grabbing stuff and looking at it, shaking it, etc. One of his favorite items this past week was a little bell on a red string (except when he would swing it around and hit himself in the face with it :P)

He also is very motivated to try to crawl. He can't yet, of course, but he sticks his butt in the air trying to scoot forward.

Lastly, and most entertaining of all, is that he started babbling. It just started out of nowhere and now he won't shut up :). Soooo cute. He just starts saying what sounds like "bah bah bah" and looking at you as if he's talking to you. He gets the best expressions on his face when babbling. He also learned to scream/squeal - very high pitched and loud!


Anyway, I will post pictures in the next post but it's time to go to sleep. To be continued!!

December already

The last two weeks have sure gone by quickly. The end of the year, with all the holidays and get togethers, always seems to fly by. 

For me, November/December always brings up lots of time for reflection and conflicting emotions-- regret (for another year gone, and things left undone, goals not accomplished), anticipation (for the new year and things to look forward to), and excitement (for quality time with family, a break from work).

This year there have obviously been lots of changes with Simon. The holidays seem to matter a bit more with family time. Besides that, though, I've been thinking a lot about finishing residency and work next year. My mind constantly wanders to what I'll be doing after graduation. Again, a mix of emotions - excitement to be finally done with residency and long work hours, but also apprehension and a sense of uncertainty about what I'll be doing, focusing on. It's uncharted territory for me since I've had a pretty clear path since college. Get into med school. Get married. Get into residency. Have a kid.

 I just don't really know what I want. I know what I don't want more clearly than having an idea of what I'll be doing. I suppose it will be part time work and part time mom. I suppose I will have time for extracurriculars/hobbies again? Everyone tells me it gets "so much better" after residency so I guess I should be excited. And I am, for sure, especially on those days where I've been in the hospital for way too long. 

Anyway. Enough rambling on my inner angst :) time for some Simon pictures! 

Simon is getting more and more aware of his environment now. He loves to look around and gets bored with the same stuff. He is really good at rolling back to front but sometimes get stuck on his belly and can't roll back. This happens almost every night now where he gets stuck and then starts fussing, which wakes me up. Hopefully he gets better at rolling himself back so he can go back to sleep by himself.

His two favorite things to reach for now are my phone and my water bottle. Haha. Can't believe he's already into screens! 

I've tried several purees now trying to get him started on solids, since he's really into what we're eating. So far I've tried apple, pear, oatmeal and avocado. He doesn't seem to be that into eating but he does a decent job of swallowing. So I'm just taking it slowly until he really starts picking up his interest. 

Laughing at me saying "ahchoo!!"

Getting so big now. I remember when this outfit was way too big for him. Now it fits just perfectly.