Dear Brielle,
I can hardly believe you're already three weeks old! You're still a teeny tiny baby (which is obvious when I hold you up over my shoulder) and are still in newborn clothes (barely!) and newborn diapers, but you're changing so much every day. I noticed yesterday that your thighs are getting bigger... you've got little thigh rolls now! Over the past two days, you're really starting to look around and notice more. Yesterday, you really looked at your brothers for the first time. (They ADORE you, by the way. They are constantly asking to hold you. Eli is always giving you kisses and Liam likes to pat your head and show me where your mouth and eyes are. Both of them frantically search for your pacifier and put it in when you start crying).
You've been totally fascinated by the light from the windows in the living room and completely enthralled with the netting in your pack n play for about a week or so now. Last night, you noticed and were FASCINATED by the cabinets. When Grandma was here, she noticed you liked hearing the chiming of a little frog toy we have. Yesterday, you were able to track the frog back and forth!
Your routine these days is pretty much as follows: You sleep for 2 to 3 hours and then wake up crying. I change your diaper (and sometimes your clothes) and then give you a bottle. You're drinking 3.5 ounces these days. You either fall asleep while drinking your bottle or stay awake anywhere from 10 min to an hour. On rare occasions, you're awake for 2 to 3 hours, but that's usually only once a day. You're a really, really good baby so far and hardly ever cry. You really only cry if you are hungry, if your tummy is bothering you, or if you have a poopy diaper. You're pretty easy at this point to put to sleep. If you're really fussy and I put you in the baby sling/carrier and walk around with you, you're out almost immediately. Every time I've gone out in public with you wearing you, you've been asleep the WHOLE time.
You much prefer sleeping on your belly and I let you do that for naps when I'm able to keep close tabs on you. You have AMAZING head control....even better than your brothers did....and are well advanced for head lifting at this point. If you lay on my chest, you're able to lift your head up very high and look around. Laying in the crib, you're constantly picking your head up and changing the direction you look.
You're a very happy baby and it looks to me like you're smiling all the time. I love watching your little face as you drift off to sleep.... full of smiles and cute little expressions.
We don't swaddle you during the day because I don't think you really like it. You're able to fall asleep just fine without being swaddled, which is very unlike your brothers. We still swaddle you up at night, though, because we want to really make SURE you aren't woken up by any crazy arm/leg movements.
At your two week checkup last week, everything looked great! You were wide awake the whole time, looking around, quiet and happy even though you had your clothes off and were probably cold. The only time you cried was when Dr. Grant looked at your hips and straightened out your legs.... you much prefer to keep them bent and HATE people messing with them. You were PAST your birth weight of 7lbs 10oz and up to 8 lbs already!!! WOOHOO! Still, you're only in the 40th percentile for weight, so Dr. Grant said you were just perfect. Your belly button wasn't quite healing right, so Dr. Grant had to cauterize it with some silver nitrate. It didn't hurt you at all and seemed to do the trick!
I'm really cherishing every minute of you, little girl! :)
Love,
Mommy
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Brielle's Birth Story
I wanted to make sure I got this written down before the details started fading.... Brielle was due on Friday, February 15th, though I really didn't think I would make it that long. Thankfully, she didn't come that Friday the 8th or Saturday the 9th because there was a pretty big snow storm and I was worried about being able to make it to the hospital. I also really wanted to make it through my last weekend at work. I ended up not going into work on Saturday because of the snow storm... the last thing I wanted to do was fall on ice or get stranded somewhere and go into labor. It was a really nice family day and Mike and I had fun taking the boys out in the snow. Sunday, the roads were clear and everything looked good, so I decided to head into work. When I woke up that morning, I was having mild contractions.... they would last for about 20 seconds or so, but they were pretty far apart. Since it could have gone on for a week like that, I figured I'd better head into work while I could. There were two other therapists there who told me they could get me to the hospital if things progressed, and they were also there to help me lift the patients. All in all, it was a pretty smooth day and I'm really glad I was able to make it through my last day. (Thanks, Brielle, for staying put!). Around 1pm, the contractions started to get a LITTLE stronger and closer together, but nothing too painful. I had a feeling, though, that this was going to progress into the real deal. I left work on time and made it home with no problem at all.
After dinnertime, the contractions started getting a little stronger and closer together. I texted my friend Susan to let her know that she was on standby, and she told me she had a bag packed and could be here whenever needed. (I needed someone to watch the boys while we went to the hospital). I also called my mom to tell her to FOR SURE plan on coming up Monday morning and that I'd probably be going into the hospital Monday sometime. I tried to lay down when the boys went to bed around 8 or so, but it was a little hard to sleep... the contractions were getting stronger and I was realizing this was the real deal. I came out and hung out with Mike until about 12 or so when he went to bed. Before he went to sleep, he showed me there was a handy little stopwatch feature on my iPad that I could use for timing contractions. That ended up being a big help. Around 12:30 is when the contractions started really picking up in intensity. I started jotting things down and between 1 and 3, they really started getting more intense and closer together. I wrote this all down (to put in her scrapbook!) but I think it was between 2 and 3am that they started coming every 3 minutes or so, lasting 45 seconds. I was worried I was going to have to call Susan at 3am... of course she would have come, and happily, but I wanted to at least try to make it to the "decent" hour of 5am before I called. I laid down on the couch and tried to relax, and it worked... contractions, though very strong, spread out to 10 minutes apart and I was actually able to get some fitful sleep. I remember opening my eyes at 4am, happy that I made it, and being SUPER ecstatic to see that I made it to five. At five, I called my mom and told her to get a move on, that we were definitely heading to the hospital soon, and that I would need her to relieve Susan as soon as possible.
I laid back down and somehow made it til 7 before I called Susan and invited her over to breakfast. Ha. She said she'd be right over. Traffic was awful cause it was raining and the roads were a little icy, but it worked out well because by the time she made it at 8am, I had gotten the chance to get a shower and re-pack my bag (with a bunch of things that I didn't need!) and labor more at home. I didn't want to get to the hospital too early, because once you get there, they hook you up to so many monitors and don't let you move too much. I tried to stretch it a bit more, but by 9am, things were getting really intense and I was afraid that if I waited too long, I wouldn't make it to the hospital in time. At 9am, we said goodbye to the boys and started the trek to St. Lukes/Roosevelt Hospital. I decided against taking a car service there, because it was prime rush hour time PLUS raining and I was convinced we'd get stuck in major traffic. The last thing I wanted to do was be stuck in traffic and in labor. So we started the slow journey to the subway. It was raining and poor Mike was carrying all of my bags, but he did a great job of holding my hand and letting me walk REALLY slow, stopping when I had a big contraction. I made it to the train without problem and the walking probably made things progress along nicely. The train came into the station as soon as we arrived... good Karma...and we got seats despite rush hour. (Not that I wouldn't have demanded a seat anyway! lol). I only had about 4 or 5 big contractions on the train and was able to keep it together by breathing and squeezing Mike's arm really hard. The walk from Columbus Circle to the hospital was a little bit harder and the contractions felt like they were coming every 1-2 minutes, but squeezing Mike's hand while I stopped and breathed it out worked and we made it. My original plan was to hang out in the lobby for as long as I could to again avoid being strapped to monitors, and I actually considered it briefly. I asked Mike if he thought we should stay down there for a while and he was like...are you kidding? Ha. I was feeling really nauseous at that point and didn't want to throw up in the lobby (even though I was prepared with plastic bags!), so we headed upstairs.
When we got to the triage waiting room, we were the only ones there. A couple walked in briefly after us, a scheduled c-section, and she was probably counting her lucky stars when she saw the shape that I was in. Things went from bad to worse in that room and it was hard to not scream out in pain during my very frequent contractions. Sitting down in the waiting room chair was AWFUL and I couldn't get comfortable at all. I wanted to be standing, but it hurt too much to stand. Finally, after at least 30 minutes, they called me back to the triage area. The contractions were so strong at that point that it took me a good 2 minutes to even get into the room 10 feet away. When I got there, they wanted me to leave a urine sample.... that took all the strength in the world to do by myself. When I walked back over to the triage area, she wanted me to change into a gown and lay down in the bed. I told her I couldn't get my boots off by myself and she was like.... no problem, take everything else off and lay down with your boots on. Um, I can't get my pants over my boots, lady. Lol. She came over and tried to help me but couldn't quite understand how to undo the double knot, so Mike got to come back early (usually they don't let the husband in til after the first exam) and help. I was very grateful to have him there, because they took FOREVER to get to me. Dr. Moore (a resident?) came in to examine me and told me I was between 4 and 5 cm. Whaaat? I felt like I was at LEAST 8. But I wasn't TOO crushed because I felt like 5 (I completely ignored the 4 part) was a really good starting point.
I had really wanted to go without an epidural for this labor since with both boys I had pretty bad epidural experiences. Not only was the process of getting them awful, but with both boys, the epidural slowed my contractions down sooooo much and really, really stalled things. I had been trying for the past several months to gear myself up mentally for going natural, talking to as many people who went sans epidural for motivation, but in the back of my head I knew that if I couldn't do it with both boys, that I probably wouldn't be able to make it this time, either. After I was first checked and told I was at 5cm, I did pretty good for about an hour or so. (Yes, I was in triage FOREVER). I was breathing well and was able to focus on relaxing as much as I could. I kept telling myself the pain was a GOOD thing and that it meant I was dilating. This worked for a while. I soon, however, got to a point where the pain was just awful. I was losing my ability to relax, breathe, concentrate... the duration of the peak of the contractions seemed to be increasing and I was quickly realizing I wasn't going to be able to do this for hours more. I yelled out to Mike that I wanted an epidural and thankfully, even though he knew I didn't want one, he didn't try to convince me otherwise. It took FOREEEEVER for anyone to come in and check on me and I finally made Mike pop his head out and go find someone. A male nurse came in (Filipino!), and quickly started my IV when I told him I wanted an epidural. (You have to get two bags of saline before the epidural). That experience was AWFUL. I have good veins and it's usually very easy for people to take blood, etc... but this guy could NOT get my IV in. He kept pricking my arm and missing....the pain was AWFUL. It took my mind off the contractions for a few minutes, but man was it awful. Mike said later that he was getting SO mad at the guy because he saw him keep stabbing me and missing. FINALLY he got the IV in and told me I'd be moving over soon to a room. Pffffft. Again, it took forever... easily another 45 minutes or so. In that 45 minutes, the pain became really unbearable. I was in a triage room with probably 5 other patients or so (separated only by curtains) and I had to become that patient who was screaming out in pain. I didn't want to be that lady, but I had no choice. Plus, I was getting annoyed and wanted to be in a room. I found that when I started screaming out in pain, they were a tad more responsive to moving me (and getting rid of me!). Finally, the nurse came back and told me there was a room and also told me that I had to walk there. At this point, I could barely stand, and no joke..it took about 5 minutes just for me to get to a standing position, even with both him and Mike helping me. It was SO. PAINFUL. I was about to request that they wheel me over in the stretcher (which would have been super annoying to everyone, I realized, because the space wasn't made for requests like that and I just would have been super complicating things)... but I had a small break between contractions and mustered up all my mental willpower to walk out to the triage desk and tell the nurse (who had gone over to print out my transfer papers) that I was ready to go... NOW....NOW NOW. Luckily, it wasn't that far of a walk and I made it without incident.
Once I got to my room, one of the nurses from triage came over and told me that my nurse would be Ms. Li and she was next door and would be over in a little bit. I believe my first words to everyone I met were "I need an epidural. NOW." She was very nice and I liked her a lot...sooo wish she could have stayed to be my nurse for the delivery! She was joking around with me and Mike and was very friendly and helpful. I just realized that I didn't even think to ask for a physioball....something I definitely used with the other two and really wanted for this labor. Ha. It didn't even occur to me until right now. Anyway... she said that the anesthesiologist was next door (with my nurse) and that as soon as they were finished, they would come to me. The pain was really awful at this point and I was yelling pretty loudly during the contractions. I was starting to get frustrated and angry and reached that point where I didn't think I was going to be able to do it. I felt better when Mike rubbed my leg during a contraction because it helped me to focus on something other than the pain. After FOREVER, my nurse finally came in, introducing herself and telling me she wasn't sure if she was my nurse. I was like - yes, you are my nurse.. PLEASE have someone check me. I was really curious to see how dilated I was at that point. At another point, when someone else came in, she told me to tell them right away if I was feeling rectal pressure. I remembered from friends and from reading things about labor that rectal pressure is a sign that the baby is coming NOW and that it should be considered an emergency of sorts. So even though I didn't feel it, I told the nurse - yes, yes, I feel rectal pressure - someone check me!!!! FINALLY, this did the trick. I felt a flurry of activity, with one or two nurses entering....and then finally a doctor appeared! He introduced himself as Dr. Jew (a name I recognized from my doctor's practice... I knew I wouldn't have MY doctor, because he's in his office on Mondays and I myself had a 7pm appointment with him that night!), and he was dressed in a suit. He grabbed a pair of gloves and was like... ok, let me check you. I was bracing myself for him to say I was only 7cm dilated and was wondering how on earth I would survive sitting still for an epidural. I was PRAYING that I was at least 8cm. The next thing I know, he was like... WHOA, you're 10 cm! You're ready to have this baby! You're going to have this baby in a few minutes. Let me just go change. I was SHOCKED and relieved and surprised and happy and scared and MAD that he had to go change... haha.
After a few minutes, Dr. Jew came back with Dr. Moore (the resident who had interviewed me/checked me in the triage room) and my nurse and all of a sudden, I was ready to push. They changed my bed position and explained the logistics of what Mike and the nurse would be doing. Mike was to hold my right leg and the nurse my left leg. Dr. Moore was the one actually delivering the baby and Dr. Jew was hanging out in the back...the boss, the overseer. Here came the part where I began to really hate the nurse, Mrs. Li. She was on my left, frequently preoccupied by something (something to do with me? Someone else? i have no idea) on the computer and would disappear between contractions. She'd then appear and tell me confusing things.... She was counting differently than Dr. Moore and kept telling me to hold my breath...something that was really distracting to me. After about 5 pushes or so, I made eye contact with the doctors to let them know she was annoying me and told Dr. Moore that I much preferred HER to count. After another push or so, I finally made a motion for the nurse to STOP TALKING and Dr. Jew jumped in with "No more speech from you, Mrs. Li. No more speech." HA. I loved that. Having her silent was SO much better and I could focus better. I was still a very big wimp with the pushing, though. I thought I'd be SO much better, but the pain was SO bad during each contraction that it was really hard to focus on pushing for 10 seconds. I would end up pushing for about 3 seconds and I could tell I wasn't pushing hard enough or the right way. After about 15 min of this, I could tell Dr. Jew was getting really frustrated with me, and I was getting frustrated with myself. During one contraction, I only pushed for about 2 seconds and then told everyone I needed a break. I think I just needed to regroup and find that inner strength. I finally realized what I needed to do to push more effectively. I needed Mike and the doctors to be yelling "GO GO GO" or "PUSH PUSH PUSH" instead of counting. Then I could focus on counting myself at my own pace. That worked MUCH better. After about 3 pushes of her ALMOST being there, I finally was able to dig deep and just pusssssh push push push.
She came out and I remember looking down and seeing the doctor almost drop her... lol..she was slippery!! They cleaned her off and let Mike cut the cord. What a different experience than the other two. As soon as she was out, I felt SO much better and was even able to take pictures as her cord was being cut. They handed her to me right away and I got to hold her for a while before the nurse took her to be cleaned up.
This delivery was SO much less chaotic than the other two. After she was born and I was taken care of, the doctors left and it was just us and the nurse. She cleaned her up a little bit and did her footprints and weight and then Mike and I got to take turns holding her. We stayed in the delivery room for two hours and it was very low key. It was so nice to be able to spend that time with her! She was looking all around and was very alert for a newborn. She finally fell asleep for a little when Mike was holding her.
In hindsight, I'm SO glad I didn't get the epidural. But maaaan was that tough! :) Welcome to the world, Brielle Calai!
After dinnertime, the contractions started getting a little stronger and closer together. I texted my friend Susan to let her know that she was on standby, and she told me she had a bag packed and could be here whenever needed. (I needed someone to watch the boys while we went to the hospital). I also called my mom to tell her to FOR SURE plan on coming up Monday morning and that I'd probably be going into the hospital Monday sometime. I tried to lay down when the boys went to bed around 8 or so, but it was a little hard to sleep... the contractions were getting stronger and I was realizing this was the real deal. I came out and hung out with Mike until about 12 or so when he went to bed. Before he went to sleep, he showed me there was a handy little stopwatch feature on my iPad that I could use for timing contractions. That ended up being a big help. Around 12:30 is when the contractions started really picking up in intensity. I started jotting things down and between 1 and 3, they really started getting more intense and closer together. I wrote this all down (to put in her scrapbook!) but I think it was between 2 and 3am that they started coming every 3 minutes or so, lasting 45 seconds. I was worried I was going to have to call Susan at 3am... of course she would have come, and happily, but I wanted to at least try to make it to the "decent" hour of 5am before I called. I laid down on the couch and tried to relax, and it worked... contractions, though very strong, spread out to 10 minutes apart and I was actually able to get some fitful sleep. I remember opening my eyes at 4am, happy that I made it, and being SUPER ecstatic to see that I made it to five. At five, I called my mom and told her to get a move on, that we were definitely heading to the hospital soon, and that I would need her to relieve Susan as soon as possible.
I laid back down and somehow made it til 7 before I called Susan and invited her over to breakfast. Ha. She said she'd be right over. Traffic was awful cause it was raining and the roads were a little icy, but it worked out well because by the time she made it at 8am, I had gotten the chance to get a shower and re-pack my bag (with a bunch of things that I didn't need!) and labor more at home. I didn't want to get to the hospital too early, because once you get there, they hook you up to so many monitors and don't let you move too much. I tried to stretch it a bit more, but by 9am, things were getting really intense and I was afraid that if I waited too long, I wouldn't make it to the hospital in time. At 9am, we said goodbye to the boys and started the trek to St. Lukes/Roosevelt Hospital. I decided against taking a car service there, because it was prime rush hour time PLUS raining and I was convinced we'd get stuck in major traffic. The last thing I wanted to do was be stuck in traffic and in labor. So we started the slow journey to the subway. It was raining and poor Mike was carrying all of my bags, but he did a great job of holding my hand and letting me walk REALLY slow, stopping when I had a big contraction. I made it to the train without problem and the walking probably made things progress along nicely. The train came into the station as soon as we arrived... good Karma...and we got seats despite rush hour. (Not that I wouldn't have demanded a seat anyway! lol). I only had about 4 or 5 big contractions on the train and was able to keep it together by breathing and squeezing Mike's arm really hard. The walk from Columbus Circle to the hospital was a little bit harder and the contractions felt like they were coming every 1-2 minutes, but squeezing Mike's hand while I stopped and breathed it out worked and we made it. My original plan was to hang out in the lobby for as long as I could to again avoid being strapped to monitors, and I actually considered it briefly. I asked Mike if he thought we should stay down there for a while and he was like...are you kidding? Ha. I was feeling really nauseous at that point and didn't want to throw up in the lobby (even though I was prepared with plastic bags!), so we headed upstairs.
When we got to the triage waiting room, we were the only ones there. A couple walked in briefly after us, a scheduled c-section, and she was probably counting her lucky stars when she saw the shape that I was in. Things went from bad to worse in that room and it was hard to not scream out in pain during my very frequent contractions. Sitting down in the waiting room chair was AWFUL and I couldn't get comfortable at all. I wanted to be standing, but it hurt too much to stand. Finally, after at least 30 minutes, they called me back to the triage area. The contractions were so strong at that point that it took me a good 2 minutes to even get into the room 10 feet away. When I got there, they wanted me to leave a urine sample.... that took all the strength in the world to do by myself. When I walked back over to the triage area, she wanted me to change into a gown and lay down in the bed. I told her I couldn't get my boots off by myself and she was like.... no problem, take everything else off and lay down with your boots on. Um, I can't get my pants over my boots, lady. Lol. She came over and tried to help me but couldn't quite understand how to undo the double knot, so Mike got to come back early (usually they don't let the husband in til after the first exam) and help. I was very grateful to have him there, because they took FOREVER to get to me. Dr. Moore (a resident?) came in to examine me and told me I was between 4 and 5 cm. Whaaat? I felt like I was at LEAST 8. But I wasn't TOO crushed because I felt like 5 (I completely ignored the 4 part) was a really good starting point.
I had really wanted to go without an epidural for this labor since with both boys I had pretty bad epidural experiences. Not only was the process of getting them awful, but with both boys, the epidural slowed my contractions down sooooo much and really, really stalled things. I had been trying for the past several months to gear myself up mentally for going natural, talking to as many people who went sans epidural for motivation, but in the back of my head I knew that if I couldn't do it with both boys, that I probably wouldn't be able to make it this time, either. After I was first checked and told I was at 5cm, I did pretty good for about an hour or so. (Yes, I was in triage FOREVER). I was breathing well and was able to focus on relaxing as much as I could. I kept telling myself the pain was a GOOD thing and that it meant I was dilating. This worked for a while. I soon, however, got to a point where the pain was just awful. I was losing my ability to relax, breathe, concentrate... the duration of the peak of the contractions seemed to be increasing and I was quickly realizing I wasn't going to be able to do this for hours more. I yelled out to Mike that I wanted an epidural and thankfully, even though he knew I didn't want one, he didn't try to convince me otherwise. It took FOREEEEVER for anyone to come in and check on me and I finally made Mike pop his head out and go find someone. A male nurse came in (Filipino!), and quickly started my IV when I told him I wanted an epidural. (You have to get two bags of saline before the epidural). That experience was AWFUL. I have good veins and it's usually very easy for people to take blood, etc... but this guy could NOT get my IV in. He kept pricking my arm and missing....the pain was AWFUL. It took my mind off the contractions for a few minutes, but man was it awful. Mike said later that he was getting SO mad at the guy because he saw him keep stabbing me and missing. FINALLY he got the IV in and told me I'd be moving over soon to a room. Pffffft. Again, it took forever... easily another 45 minutes or so. In that 45 minutes, the pain became really unbearable. I was in a triage room with probably 5 other patients or so (separated only by curtains) and I had to become that patient who was screaming out in pain. I didn't want to be that lady, but I had no choice. Plus, I was getting annoyed and wanted to be in a room. I found that when I started screaming out in pain, they were a tad more responsive to moving me (and getting rid of me!). Finally, the nurse came back and told me there was a room and also told me that I had to walk there. At this point, I could barely stand, and no joke..it took about 5 minutes just for me to get to a standing position, even with both him and Mike helping me. It was SO. PAINFUL. I was about to request that they wheel me over in the stretcher (which would have been super annoying to everyone, I realized, because the space wasn't made for requests like that and I just would have been super complicating things)... but I had a small break between contractions and mustered up all my mental willpower to walk out to the triage desk and tell the nurse (who had gone over to print out my transfer papers) that I was ready to go... NOW....NOW NOW. Luckily, it wasn't that far of a walk and I made it without incident.
Once I got to my room, one of the nurses from triage came over and told me that my nurse would be Ms. Li and she was next door and would be over in a little bit. I believe my first words to everyone I met were "I need an epidural. NOW." She was very nice and I liked her a lot...sooo wish she could have stayed to be my nurse for the delivery! She was joking around with me and Mike and was very friendly and helpful. I just realized that I didn't even think to ask for a physioball....something I definitely used with the other two and really wanted for this labor. Ha. It didn't even occur to me until right now. Anyway... she said that the anesthesiologist was next door (with my nurse) and that as soon as they were finished, they would come to me. The pain was really awful at this point and I was yelling pretty loudly during the contractions. I was starting to get frustrated and angry and reached that point where I didn't think I was going to be able to do it. I felt better when Mike rubbed my leg during a contraction because it helped me to focus on something other than the pain. After FOREVER, my nurse finally came in, introducing herself and telling me she wasn't sure if she was my nurse. I was like - yes, you are my nurse.. PLEASE have someone check me. I was really curious to see how dilated I was at that point. At another point, when someone else came in, she told me to tell them right away if I was feeling rectal pressure. I remembered from friends and from reading things about labor that rectal pressure is a sign that the baby is coming NOW and that it should be considered an emergency of sorts. So even though I didn't feel it, I told the nurse - yes, yes, I feel rectal pressure - someone check me!!!! FINALLY, this did the trick. I felt a flurry of activity, with one or two nurses entering....and then finally a doctor appeared! He introduced himself as Dr. Jew (a name I recognized from my doctor's practice... I knew I wouldn't have MY doctor, because he's in his office on Mondays and I myself had a 7pm appointment with him that night!), and he was dressed in a suit. He grabbed a pair of gloves and was like... ok, let me check you. I was bracing myself for him to say I was only 7cm dilated and was wondering how on earth I would survive sitting still for an epidural. I was PRAYING that I was at least 8cm. The next thing I know, he was like... WHOA, you're 10 cm! You're ready to have this baby! You're going to have this baby in a few minutes. Let me just go change. I was SHOCKED and relieved and surprised and happy and scared and MAD that he had to go change... haha.
After a few minutes, Dr. Jew came back with Dr. Moore (the resident who had interviewed me/checked me in the triage room) and my nurse and all of a sudden, I was ready to push. They changed my bed position and explained the logistics of what Mike and the nurse would be doing. Mike was to hold my right leg and the nurse my left leg. Dr. Moore was the one actually delivering the baby and Dr. Jew was hanging out in the back...the boss, the overseer. Here came the part where I began to really hate the nurse, Mrs. Li. She was on my left, frequently preoccupied by something (something to do with me? Someone else? i have no idea) on the computer and would disappear between contractions. She'd then appear and tell me confusing things.... She was counting differently than Dr. Moore and kept telling me to hold my breath...something that was really distracting to me. After about 5 pushes or so, I made eye contact with the doctors to let them know she was annoying me and told Dr. Moore that I much preferred HER to count. After another push or so, I finally made a motion for the nurse to STOP TALKING and Dr. Jew jumped in with "No more speech from you, Mrs. Li. No more speech." HA. I loved that. Having her silent was SO much better and I could focus better. I was still a very big wimp with the pushing, though. I thought I'd be SO much better, but the pain was SO bad during each contraction that it was really hard to focus on pushing for 10 seconds. I would end up pushing for about 3 seconds and I could tell I wasn't pushing hard enough or the right way. After about 15 min of this, I could tell Dr. Jew was getting really frustrated with me, and I was getting frustrated with myself. During one contraction, I only pushed for about 2 seconds and then told everyone I needed a break. I think I just needed to regroup and find that inner strength. I finally realized what I needed to do to push more effectively. I needed Mike and the doctors to be yelling "GO GO GO" or "PUSH PUSH PUSH" instead of counting. Then I could focus on counting myself at my own pace. That worked MUCH better. After about 3 pushes of her ALMOST being there, I finally was able to dig deep and just pusssssh push push push.
She came out and I remember looking down and seeing the doctor almost drop her... lol..she was slippery!! They cleaned her off and let Mike cut the cord. What a different experience than the other two. As soon as she was out, I felt SO much better and was even able to take pictures as her cord was being cut. They handed her to me right away and I got to hold her for a while before the nurse took her to be cleaned up.
This delivery was SO much less chaotic than the other two. After she was born and I was taken care of, the doctors left and it was just us and the nurse. She cleaned her up a little bit and did her footprints and weight and then Mike and I got to take turns holding her. We stayed in the delivery room for two hours and it was very low key. It was so nice to be able to spend that time with her! She was looking all around and was very alert for a newborn. She finally fell asleep for a little when Mike was holding her.
In hindsight, I'm SO glad I didn't get the epidural. But maaaan was that tough! :) Welcome to the world, Brielle Calai!
The house is quiet!
Two sleeping children (Liam and Brielle) and the third at the Natural History museum with Daddy... I think I'll take advantage and sit down at my computer with a nice piece of Junior's Cheesecake and try to catch up on a few things. (oops..the cheesecake is gone!) I'm so excited Mike took Eli out to the museum. This month, he's been fascinated with several BBC documentaries about Dinosaurs, Beasts and Monsters and that's all he talks about. Now he's going to get to see the dinosaurs up close and personal. He's been twice before when he was little, but he didn't appreciate it as much as he's going to today. Mike has already sent me half a dozen pictures of him posing by his favorites and told me Eli insisted that they sit down and watch one of those documentary movies about vertebrates. Ha. It's good that they are getting some quality father and son time, though, and hopefully Mike will get to take Liam out somewhere this week as well.
Brielle is still super sleepy and is really only awake to eat. Sometimes, she'll stay awake for 20 min to an hour, just staring and taking in all of the sounds, but most of the time, her little eyes start closing even before she's finished with her bottle. I stopped breastfeeding on Saturday, just shy of a week. My goal was to make it to two weeks and re-assess then, but I was just in TOO much pain. I was dreading every time I had to feed her instead of looking forward to it. Making the decision to switch to formula was hard, but the best decision ever. That night I got 10 hours of sleep and WOW...what a difference a fully rested mama is! That day, I was able to spend much more quality time with all of the kids cause I wasn't so tired.... I even made a huge breakfast and was able to get a lot of things around the house cleaned. Switching to the bottle also means Mike will get a chance to feed her and bond with her...something I think is really important. And for me, I now REALLY look forward to feeding her, sometimes even willing her to wake up so I can cuddle with her. I always envied the mamas who talked about how much they cherished the time breastfeeding their children.... now I get to cherish cuddly time, too! I'm SO glad I made the decision. And now I know exactly how much she is eating.... the hungry little girlie drinks 2 oz every two hours. Last night, she wanted to eat almost every hour! Guess she's catching up. Hope she's back to her birth weight at her 2 week checkup next Tuesday.
Liam continues to surprise me by how sweet he's being with his baby sister. He's totally accepted her. He doesn't seem jealous at all when I'm holding her, though he sometimes wants me to put her down so I can have two hands to help him with whatever he's trying to do. He keeps trying to hold her (so we have to always be close!) and loves bringing her her pacifier and socks (which always fall off her little tiny feet). He likes to take her blanket out of the crib so he can re-cover her up (uh oh! lol).. and last night, he took her blanket over to the couch, covered himself up with it and motioned that he wanted her to lay next to him. Super cute. He's tried a few times to share his toys with her, opening her hand and getting quite upset when she won't hold whatever he's trying to give her. He also hasn't minded at all that I'm feeding her bottles.... which completely surprises me since HE is still drinking bottles. So far, so good!!
Eli is being a great big brother, and though not interested in her all the time, he loves giving her kisses and always wants to hold her. When he does hold her, he's very gentle with her and loves to kiss her cheeks. He will sing songs to her to try to get her to calm down when she's crying and he's been good about getting me her diapers, etc, when I need them. He's definitely a good big brother and I love seeing them together.
I can't believe she's already a week old! So far, so good!
Brielle is still super sleepy and is really only awake to eat. Sometimes, she'll stay awake for 20 min to an hour, just staring and taking in all of the sounds, but most of the time, her little eyes start closing even before she's finished with her bottle. I stopped breastfeeding on Saturday, just shy of a week. My goal was to make it to two weeks and re-assess then, but I was just in TOO much pain. I was dreading every time I had to feed her instead of looking forward to it. Making the decision to switch to formula was hard, but the best decision ever. That night I got 10 hours of sleep and WOW...what a difference a fully rested mama is! That day, I was able to spend much more quality time with all of the kids cause I wasn't so tired.... I even made a huge breakfast and was able to get a lot of things around the house cleaned. Switching to the bottle also means Mike will get a chance to feed her and bond with her...something I think is really important. And for me, I now REALLY look forward to feeding her, sometimes even willing her to wake up so I can cuddle with her. I always envied the mamas who talked about how much they cherished the time breastfeeding their children.... now I get to cherish cuddly time, too! I'm SO glad I made the decision. And now I know exactly how much she is eating.... the hungry little girlie drinks 2 oz every two hours. Last night, she wanted to eat almost every hour! Guess she's catching up. Hope she's back to her birth weight at her 2 week checkup next Tuesday.
Liam continues to surprise me by how sweet he's being with his baby sister. He's totally accepted her. He doesn't seem jealous at all when I'm holding her, though he sometimes wants me to put her down so I can have two hands to help him with whatever he's trying to do. He keeps trying to hold her (so we have to always be close!) and loves bringing her her pacifier and socks (which always fall off her little tiny feet). He likes to take her blanket out of the crib so he can re-cover her up (uh oh! lol).. and last night, he took her blanket over to the couch, covered himself up with it and motioned that he wanted her to lay next to him. Super cute. He's tried a few times to share his toys with her, opening her hand and getting quite upset when she won't hold whatever he's trying to give her. He also hasn't minded at all that I'm feeding her bottles.... which completely surprises me since HE is still drinking bottles. So far, so good!!
Eli is being a great big brother, and though not interested in her all the time, he loves giving her kisses and always wants to hold her. When he does hold her, he's very gentle with her and loves to kiss her cheeks. He will sing songs to her to try to get her to calm down when she's crying and he's been good about getting me her diapers, etc, when I need them. He's definitely a good big brother and I love seeing them together.
I can't believe she's already a week old! So far, so good!
Monday, February 18, 2013
Baby sister Brielle is here!!!
It's a girl!!!!! Baby sister Brielle Calai Flores arrived on Monday, February 11th at 1:25pm weighing 7 lbs 10.6 oz and 19 3/4" long. Her big brothers are excited to have her here and are adjusting very well to the new member of the house. She's a week old today and is still in that super sleepy phase where she pretty much just wakes up to eat and then goes back to dreamland. There are a few times during the day where she will be awake for about an hour, and during those times she loves staring at the windows. Her eyes get wider whenever she hears her brothers crying or yelling. They both enjoy trying to feed her (Eli has been drinking more milk "so that I can feed it to my baby sister.") and Liam loves giving her the pacifier. They both like holding her and ask all the time to do so. They are fascinated with her umbilical cord and like to point it out every time I change her diaper. Liam likes looking at her socks and pointing out "ock! ock!" whenever he sees them.
She's little and tiny and adorable. Her lower leg (from her knee to her ankle) is the size of my finger. Her fingers and toes are TINY. We can't really get any socks or newborn mittens to even stay on. She HATES getting sponge bathed (no doubt because it's freezing!) but really enjoys having her hair shampooed and brushed. She's a hungry little girl and wants to eat every 2 hours on the dot. I've had to wake her up in the middle of the night to feed her, though.... which we can stop doing when she's 2 weeks old and gets back to her birth weight.
Mike has been off from work for a week and has one more week off and we're really taking advantage of the time together to just really have relaxing days. It's been very nice lounging around...not really cooking or going out much. Brielle's first outing was on the subway to her doctor's appointment last Thursday and that went really well. She's also been to the playground (so her brothers could run around) and to church last night. All three times, I brought her in the carrier and she was knocked out the whole time! I can't wait until it's warmer and I don't have to worry about her being cold.
I thought I'd be putting her in a lot more cute little outfits, but truthfully she HATES getting her clothes changed, so we keep her in the same outfit all day. When it's warmer, I hope that changes cause she has so many cute little summer things to wear!
Let the adventures continue!!
She's little and tiny and adorable. Her lower leg (from her knee to her ankle) is the size of my finger. Her fingers and toes are TINY. We can't really get any socks or newborn mittens to even stay on. She HATES getting sponge bathed (no doubt because it's freezing!) but really enjoys having her hair shampooed and brushed. She's a hungry little girl and wants to eat every 2 hours on the dot. I've had to wake her up in the middle of the night to feed her, though.... which we can stop doing when she's 2 weeks old and gets back to her birth weight.
Mike has been off from work for a week and has one more week off and we're really taking advantage of the time together to just really have relaxing days. It's been very nice lounging around...not really cooking or going out much. Brielle's first outing was on the subway to her doctor's appointment last Thursday and that went really well. She's also been to the playground (so her brothers could run around) and to church last night. All three times, I brought her in the carrier and she was knocked out the whole time! I can't wait until it's warmer and I don't have to worry about her being cold.
I thought I'd be putting her in a lot more cute little outfits, but truthfully she HATES getting her clothes changed, so we keep her in the same outfit all day. When it's warmer, I hope that changes cause she has so many cute little summer things to wear!
Let the adventures continue!!
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Eli-isms
Over the past month, I really feel like Eli has grown up a LOT. The comments he makes are more witty....his understanding of things is sharper and his memory is even better. It's very funny to hear some of the things that come out of his mouth these days. Here are a few that I remember....
Yesterday, when I tried to cuddle with him on the couch, he said... "Mommy! You're freaking me out!"
"I want my baby sister to be a princess for Halloween."
Ok...I can't remember any more, but there have been tons lately.
Yesterday, I decided we'd try the ole baking soda and vinegar explosion trick, and Eli loved it. We did it about 20 times, using food coloring to dye the explosion different colors every time. We then experimented by adding cheerios to see what would happen....it was fun to see them explode, too. It was cute to hear Eli's theories of other things we could do. He went and grabbed lemon and dill spice and added that, thinking it would make it explode. Ha. He then told me that if we added yogurt, it would probably change into waffles. Ha again. I love the way his little mind works.
The shows he's been big into this month, just so I don't forget, are Fireman Sam, the Christmas version..... Auto-bots.... Spiderman....and his new favorite movie, Cars.
He's taken arts and crafts to a new level and yesterday and today he's made his own crafts entirely solo. He got some construction paper and cut out (by himself) paper and glued it together to make "cotton candy." He then put a valentine sticker on it and told me the cotton candy now says "Dear Eli, Happy Valentime's Day." This morning, he's making Lollipops. Every time he paints or does any arts and crafts project, we hang them up. It's looking pretty "Festive" in here. :)
He's always been one to line up his guys.... and over the past few days, he's really taken to lining up his Sesame Street characters. He loses his cool totally when Liam comes over and knocks them down, which happens quite a bit.
This past week, he has become obsessed with making his bed. Now when he wakes up in the morning, he turns on the light (even when Liam and I are still sleeping). He spends a long time making his bed perfectly, and then I MUST go and look. If anyone (Liam) touches his blankets or ruffles them in the slightest bit throughout the day, Eli gets VERY, VERY upset.
Eli is big into picking out his outfits these days. He usually lets me pick the shirt, but he MUST pick out his socks and usually wants to pick out his pants, too.
We were going to go gung ho potty training two weeks ago...but then both Eli and Liam were sick with fevers and bad colds.... last week, we were dealing with the whole Liam moving to his toddler bed thing....and now this week, we got the ceiling fixed one day (trapped in the room ALL DAY with both boys) and Liam has another cold. Sigh. Aiming to start potty training next monday....and hoping this baby doesn't decide to come early!
Yesterday, when I tried to cuddle with him on the couch, he said... "Mommy! You're freaking me out!"
"I want my baby sister to be a princess for Halloween."
Ok...I can't remember any more, but there have been tons lately.
Yesterday, I decided we'd try the ole baking soda and vinegar explosion trick, and Eli loved it. We did it about 20 times, using food coloring to dye the explosion different colors every time. We then experimented by adding cheerios to see what would happen....it was fun to see them explode, too. It was cute to hear Eli's theories of other things we could do. He went and grabbed lemon and dill spice and added that, thinking it would make it explode. Ha. He then told me that if we added yogurt, it would probably change into waffles. Ha again. I love the way his little mind works.
The shows he's been big into this month, just so I don't forget, are Fireman Sam, the Christmas version..... Auto-bots.... Spiderman....and his new favorite movie, Cars.
He's taken arts and crafts to a new level and yesterday and today he's made his own crafts entirely solo. He got some construction paper and cut out (by himself) paper and glued it together to make "cotton candy." He then put a valentine sticker on it and told me the cotton candy now says "Dear Eli, Happy Valentime's Day." This morning, he's making Lollipops. Every time he paints or does any arts and crafts project, we hang them up. It's looking pretty "Festive" in here. :)
He's always been one to line up his guys.... and over the past few days, he's really taken to lining up his Sesame Street characters. He loses his cool totally when Liam comes over and knocks them down, which happens quite a bit.
This past week, he has become obsessed with making his bed. Now when he wakes up in the morning, he turns on the light (even when Liam and I are still sleeping). He spends a long time making his bed perfectly, and then I MUST go and look. If anyone (Liam) touches his blankets or ruffles them in the slightest bit throughout the day, Eli gets VERY, VERY upset.
Eli is big into picking out his outfits these days. He usually lets me pick the shirt, but he MUST pick out his socks and usually wants to pick out his pants, too.
We were going to go gung ho potty training two weeks ago...but then both Eli and Liam were sick with fevers and bad colds.... last week, we were dealing with the whole Liam moving to his toddler bed thing....and now this week, we got the ceiling fixed one day (trapped in the room ALL DAY with both boys) and Liam has another cold. Sigh. Aiming to start potty training next monday....and hoping this baby doesn't decide to come early!
Liam climbs out of his crib
So about a month or so ago, Liam climbed out of his crib a few times. Mike put the sleep sack on him and he fell out and got scared and didn't try it again... until now. On Monday the 14th, the day before he turned 19 months old, he climbed out of his crib about 10 times. I walked in the room at one point and saw him standing on the window sill, trying to jump into the laundry basket. NO GOOD. He didn't take a nap that day, but thankfully he still went to sleep at night. The next day was worse, and so I broke down and assembled a toddler bed for him. (No easy feat when you are alone with two little monsters!). Eli helped me and it only took me about 90 min to put it together. That night was rough. It took about an hour for Liam to settle down and go to sleep. He kept walking around the room, excited about his new freedom. I can't even tell you how many times I had to put him back into the bed. He did ok that night, but woke up once at about 3:30 and wandered out into the living room. It took about 30 minutes for him to fall back asleep. The next day was rough...there was no keeping him in his bed at all to nap, so he was tired and cranky. The good news is that because he was so tired, it only took about 20 min to get him to sleep at night. The next day, he fell asleep because he was so tired and he actually stayed asleep for about 2 hours in his bed. Every day has been getting better and better and for the past few nights it has only taken about 10 to 15 min to get him to sleep. YAY. Hope we get this all worked out by the time the baby comes! The upside is that now she gets a crib instead of the pack n play we were planning to use!
Friday, December 28, 2012
Liam at 18 months old!
There are several moments every day where I am struck by the fact that Liam looks more like a little boy these days than my little baby. At 18 months, he is SO SO SO active. He will rarely sit still for more than 10 seconds at a time and is always on the move. He LOVES riding around on his little bike.... back and forth and back and forth. He sits on it to watch TV, takes it into all of the rooms, likes to sit and spin in circles on it..... he LOVES it.
He's moved into size 4 diapers, though I still try to fit him into size 3s since we have some left. He's in 18 month clothes consistently now. From time to time, I try to squeeze him into something that's 12 months, but those things are generally too short for him. He LOVES putting on his shoes and always eagerly runs off to get his shoes if he knows we're going out. He still doesn't like wearing hats, but there's a little green hat I have that buttons around his chin that he rarely tries to take off.
He's trying harder and harder to talk, but most of his words are "WOAH" and "UH OH" or "EH EH" as he's pointing to whatever he wants. Over the last two weeks, he's really trying to copy us more....and to our surprise, we found he can say things like "Cat" "Daddy" "Car"... its obvious he's trying his best. He sometimes calls Eli "Yaya," which is really cute.
He is a DAREDEVIL. He loves jumping from things and will do ANYTHING that Eli does. He climbed out of his crib at 17 months!!!!! (Luckily, he fell hard once and didn't hurt himself and hasn't tried since... there is NO WAY he's going to stay put in a toddler bed).
His favorite books right now are Peek-a-Who, Green Hat/Blue Hat, Goodnight Gorilla, Batman and books about Spider-Man.
Trains are his life. He loves building train tracks and pushing his trains around... He loves pushing his trains along the edges of tables, etc. He LOVES pushing them to the edge and runs over saying "EH EH EH!" pointing at his trains. He wants you to say "OH NO! It's going to fall off the cliff!!!"
He LOVES fitting himself into small boxes, carrying boxes around, putting boxes on his head. He constantly dumps out the baskets I keep the diapers in so that he can push them around. He LOVES emptying his boxes of toys. Sigh.
He's gotten much better about sleeping by himself at night, and sleeping through the night. He used to have to sleep with us for SOME part of the night, but now he really doesn't need to. Nights where we do have to sleep with him (sleeping at someone else's house) are pretty rough...he kicks and thrashes and moves a LOT at night. Granted, his schedule has been very, very off these past few weeks with the holidays, and he's been getting to bed closer to 9 instead of 8, but he's generally been sleeping in til after 7am! WOOHOO!
He's still taking two naps, and definitely needs that morning nap (2 to 3 hours after he wakes up), but he fights the second nap a lot.
He LOVES bath time. He gets very upset if he hears the bath running and he's not in there.
Annoyingly, he is ALWAYS pushing the chairs and his little table all over the apartment so he can do scary, daring jumps or climb up onto something he shouldn't be on. I have to tell him about 40 times a day to get off the table. He LOVES scaling the back of the couch and flinging himself over to the other side...repeat...repeat...repeat.
The boys play together a LOT, which is usually fun to watch. Liam has really learned how to fight back and has gotten into the bad, bad habit of hitting Eli on the head with trains, blocks, etc. He's also been biting him and hitting him in the face a lot. Both boys consistently put each other in headlocks and pull the other one down to the floor.
Annoyingly also, he LOVES climbing up onto our bed (whenever I have to do something important like fold laundry) to turn on the light and mike's radio. He will do this OVER and OVER and OVER and if I take him off the bed, he will just open our drawers to climb back up. If I put him outside the room and close the door, it is the worst thing to ever happen in his life and he stands there screaming his head off.
He always plays superheroes with Eli and his favorite "guys" seem to be Buzz Lightyear, Captain America, Iron Man and Venom. He gets really excited if he ever sees a picture of spider-man. His favorite toy to bring in the bath is Buzz Lightyear.
Food-wise, he hasn't had as much of an appetite as he used to. He's big into berries, applesauce, yogurt (boy, this kid loves yogurt) and cheerios are usually a sure bet. Bread is now hit or miss.... the only meat he'll generally eat is the meat in empanadas (like Eli)... He DOES like things with sauce, unlike Eli. Things ALWAYS taste better when they are on mommy's plate.
He loves coloring (or doing whatever it is that his big brother is doing), but he still frequently tries to eat crayons/markers.
He throws toys ALL the time.... we get very mad at him for that, but he doesn't care and ALWAYS continues to do it. Grrr.
He's showing more of an interest in Basketball and likes to shoot the ball at the basket and pass to others/imaginary people.... but he still gets VERY mad if you don't give him the ball. He'll collapse to the floor, screaming and banging the floor if you don't give him the ball. Taking turns is not a concept he enjoys. He DOES enjoy taking toys that Eli is playing with and running away with them/throwing them.
He still LOVES the cats, but instead of being nice to them like he used to, he likes to spider-man blast them or throw toys at them. Cliffy is terrified to go anywhere near him. Riley tolerates him for about 5 seconds and then runs away.
His hair sticks straight up in the back. He definitely needs a hair cut, but he does not cooperate with hair cuts, so we're in a quandary.
He really likes playing with toy food, just like his big brother, and especially likes the play ice cream we have.
I could go on and on... but that's a pretty good picture of Liam at 18 months! Apparently, he's in the 78th percentile for height (don't believe that, though I do think he's gotten a lot taller) and 11th percentile for weight.
He is a DAREDEVIL. He loves jumping from things and will do ANYTHING that Eli does. He climbed out of his crib at 17 months!!!!! (Luckily, he fell hard once and didn't hurt himself and hasn't tried since... there is NO WAY he's going to stay put in a toddler bed).
His favorite books right now are Peek-a-Who, Green Hat/Blue Hat, Goodnight Gorilla, Batman and books about Spider-Man.
Trains are his life. He loves building train tracks and pushing his trains around... He loves pushing his trains along the edges of tables, etc. He LOVES pushing them to the edge and runs over saying "EH EH EH!" pointing at his trains. He wants you to say "OH NO! It's going to fall off the cliff!!!"
He LOVES fitting himself into small boxes, carrying boxes around, putting boxes on his head. He constantly dumps out the baskets I keep the diapers in so that he can push them around. He LOVES emptying his boxes of toys. Sigh.
He's gotten much better about sleeping by himself at night, and sleeping through the night. He used to have to sleep with us for SOME part of the night, but now he really doesn't need to. Nights where we do have to sleep with him (sleeping at someone else's house) are pretty rough...he kicks and thrashes and moves a LOT at night. Granted, his schedule has been very, very off these past few weeks with the holidays, and he's been getting to bed closer to 9 instead of 8, but he's generally been sleeping in til after 7am! WOOHOO!
He's still taking two naps, and definitely needs that morning nap (2 to 3 hours after he wakes up), but he fights the second nap a lot.
He LOVES bath time. He gets very upset if he hears the bath running and he's not in there.
Annoyingly, he is ALWAYS pushing the chairs and his little table all over the apartment so he can do scary, daring jumps or climb up onto something he shouldn't be on. I have to tell him about 40 times a day to get off the table. He LOVES scaling the back of the couch and flinging himself over to the other side...repeat...repeat...repeat.
The boys play together a LOT, which is usually fun to watch. Liam has really learned how to fight back and has gotten into the bad, bad habit of hitting Eli on the head with trains, blocks, etc. He's also been biting him and hitting him in the face a lot. Both boys consistently put each other in headlocks and pull the other one down to the floor.
Annoyingly also, he LOVES climbing up onto our bed (whenever I have to do something important like fold laundry) to turn on the light and mike's radio. He will do this OVER and OVER and OVER and if I take him off the bed, he will just open our drawers to climb back up. If I put him outside the room and close the door, it is the worst thing to ever happen in his life and he stands there screaming his head off.
He always plays superheroes with Eli and his favorite "guys" seem to be Buzz Lightyear, Captain America, Iron Man and Venom. He gets really excited if he ever sees a picture of spider-man. His favorite toy to bring in the bath is Buzz Lightyear.
Food-wise, he hasn't had as much of an appetite as he used to. He's big into berries, applesauce, yogurt (boy, this kid loves yogurt) and cheerios are usually a sure bet. Bread is now hit or miss.... the only meat he'll generally eat is the meat in empanadas (like Eli)... He DOES like things with sauce, unlike Eli. Things ALWAYS taste better when they are on mommy's plate.
He loves coloring (or doing whatever it is that his big brother is doing), but he still frequently tries to eat crayons/markers.
He throws toys ALL the time.... we get very mad at him for that, but he doesn't care and ALWAYS continues to do it. Grrr.
He's showing more of an interest in Basketball and likes to shoot the ball at the basket and pass to others/imaginary people.... but he still gets VERY mad if you don't give him the ball. He'll collapse to the floor, screaming and banging the floor if you don't give him the ball. Taking turns is not a concept he enjoys. He DOES enjoy taking toys that Eli is playing with and running away with them/throwing them.
He still LOVES the cats, but instead of being nice to them like he used to, he likes to spider-man blast them or throw toys at them. Cliffy is terrified to go anywhere near him. Riley tolerates him for about 5 seconds and then runs away.
His hair sticks straight up in the back. He definitely needs a hair cut, but he does not cooperate with hair cuts, so we're in a quandary.
He really likes playing with toy food, just like his big brother, and especially likes the play ice cream we have.
I could go on and on... but that's a pretty good picture of Liam at 18 months! Apparently, he's in the 78th percentile for height (don't believe that, though I do think he's gotten a lot taller) and 11th percentile for weight.
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