Sledding

We've had a ridiculous amount of snow this year. Thankfully I haven't had to work during any of the major snow storms because the commute would have been a nightmare. Still, all this cold weather really has me missing all the warm weather I grew up in. Moving back to a tropical island is definitely on my wish list for the future!

Anyway, the week before I had Mikaela, we had a huge snow storm, so we took Naomi out sledding in our backyard. We haven't been brave enough to try one of the hills out at the parks near our house, plus since I was pregnant I wasn't in the mood to trek too far from our own yard, so we squished Naomi into the baby sled we had from last year and just pulled her all over the backyard.

First Family Photo

Here's our first family photo with our new addition

Tired

I'm tired. In the last month of my pregnancy I hadn't had any coffee, and was feeling pretty good. Now I can't get caffeine in me fast enough. Naomi was an incredible sleeper when she was a baby. So much so that I often asked our pediatrician if she was sleeping TOO much. I ended up being a bit bored during my maternity leave, but thankfully it was the summer so we could get out of the house and go on walks. I also managed to watch lots of FoodTv and treated Austin to some pretty nice gourmet meals.
This time around, Mikaela definitely isn't as good of a sleeper. During the day I can usually get her down for a few good naps on her own, but at night there's a good stretch of time where she won't sleep unless she's being held. This usually happens from 3-7am, so I end up holding her, or falling asleep with her in bed with me. Then as soon as the sun comes out she passes out and goes to sleep on her own in her crib (like right now). But of course by then, Naomi is up and rearing to go.
On top of this, Naomi has been having a hard transition with her new baby sister and has been waking up every night as well. Some nights all it takes is a quick check and she'll be back asleep, but a lot of nights it takes anywhere from 30mins to over an hour to get her back to sleep.
At the end of the day we're all tired and cranky. Hopefully Mikaela will get her days and nights worked out soon, and Naomi will adjust to be being a big sister.

Newborn Photoshoot

Last week Saturday, we had Janine from Saving Grace Photography take some newborn photos of Mikaela. We had her take photos of Naomi throughout Naomi's first year as well. Here's a sneak peak from the shoot.

Happy Birthday Ah-Ma

Happy Birthday to the best mom ever. I hope I can be as wonderful of a mom to my girls as you always have been to us. Thank you for all of your love and help. You're the best friend, mom, and grandma a girl could have ever asked for! Love you!

Hello Kitty Obsessed

We're a little Hello Kitty crazy in our household.

10 Day Update

I took Mikaela for her 2nd doctors appt on Monday. Her jaundice is getting better, so her doctor thinks she's in the clear and won't need any more bloodwork or to be re-admitted for phototherapy lights. She's also growing really well, extremely alert, and overall the cutest baby in the world. (yea the doctor said that, jk).
We're done supplementing with formula, so she's back to being 100% breastfed, which is great and tiring in a way. The good news is that since she's gained so much weight, I dont need to wake her up at night if she sleeps longer than 2-3 hours in a row...of course so far she hasn't slept more than 3 hrs in a row at night time. She still prefers to do her long sleeping stretches in the day, so I have to wake her up to feed her so she gets used to eating a lot in the day and sleeping longer stretches at night.
At 10 days:
Weight 6lbs 8 oz
Height: 20 inches
Head: 33 Inches

The Touchdown Dance

On our first night back from the hospital, the Patriots got killed by the Jets in the playoffs. Naomi saw how poorly the Pats played and decided it was time she start training. With the help of my dad, she learned how to catch a football. And of course had to add on her famous "touchdown" dance at the end of each catch. (she's screaming "I did it, I did it")

Mikaela's First Bath

Who wore it best?

From Naomi 29 months

Catmini faux minx coat. Suri Cruise or Naomi Wei?

Thanks to our good friends Katharina and Kyu Ha, Naomi is dressed like the stars.

Baby announcements and an afternoon out

We finally got around to emailing a baby announcement out to family. Sorry for the delay, we've been a little, um busy.

With Naomi back at daycare, and Mikaela sleeping most of the day, I took advantage of having my mom and dad here and had them babysit Mikaela for a few hours while I went with Austin to Montclair to run some errands. He went to the bank and had to get our tire fixed while I walked around and shopped a bit. It was nice to get out of the house sans kids!

Back in the swing of things...

Naomi is back to daycare today after over a week off. She was upset when she found out she was going back today and kept saying she'd go tomorrow instead but today she wanted to stay home. It makes me so sad to have to send her off if she'd rather be home, but I know the longer we keep her out of daycare, the harder it will be for her to go back. And she thrives while she's there, while sometimes I think she just wastes time watching videos and playing games on our iphones when she's at home. She's only going 3x a week while I'm on maternity leave, so at least I'll still get some extra time with her.

5 Days Old

Hello World!

Sleepy!!

Mikaela is 5 days old today. Her bilirubin levels have fallen from 16.2 to 14.8, still elevated, but at least moving in the right direction. No hospital re-admittance for us!
She can keep her eyes open for longer periods of time, and particularly likes the hours from 4am to 6am. She's weighing in at a whopping 5 lbs 14oz, but I can see her cheeks filling out, we'll have a cute chubby baby in no time.
She is going through her premie sized diapers like crazy, the hospital sent us home with a pack, and we bought two more from Target the other day. I was hoping they'd last us until she basically fit the newborn's we bought for her awhile ago, but at the rate she's going to the bathroom, we'll have to go back to get another pack in a day or two.
She's relatively easy, doesn't cry too much unless she's hungry or being changed. And when she is crying, she'll stop as soon as you pick her up and soothe her a bit.

Naomi's First Movie

Austin took Naomi to go see her first movie this afternoon. They are watching "Tangled" aka as Naomi calls it the movie about the "Purple" princess. Hope she sits well through the movie!

Mikaela Ching-Yun Wei

(Sorry for the picture quality, these are all from my iPhone since we haven't gotten around to uploading pics from the camera yet).

Introducing Mikaela Ching-Yun Wei.

Mikaela: feminine derivative of Michael, meaning, "who is like God"
Ching-Yun: pure promise

Born January 14th, 1:23am, 6lbs 2oz, 18.5inches long.
Hackensack University Medical Center
OB: Dr. Marc Clachko

We're home!! We got home yesterday after what felt like an eternity at the hospital. While we got home mid-morning, we were actually debating whether we should stay the entire day so Mikaela could get treated under photo-therapy lights for a mild case of jaundice. We decided instead to come home and try and get her bilirubin levels down on our own through some natural sunlight, lots of feeding sessions and supplemental formula as well. An early trip to the hospital for more blood work today, followed up by her first pediatrician visit proved that so far we haven't been too successful since the levels went up. So we're back to the labs tomorrow morning at 7am for more blood work. Hopefully things will improve from there!

It was a long, somewhat traumatizing delivery which may be the deciding factor in why we'll never be a family of 5. But we did it, Mikaela is a doll. I'm completely smitten, and where I thought Naomi occupied all the space in my heart, God's clearly graced me with a limitless amount of love which I can spread between my two daughters.
Despite being ever so tiny, (at her weight in today, she's at 5lbs 14oz, up a whole oz from when we left the hospital), Mikaela already has such a strong personality, and incredible grip, and lungs of steel. She loves to be held, and decided she wouldn't sleep last night unless either Austin or I had her in our arms. Her voice, while loud and strong, is petite and incredibly cute. She makes the littlest peeping noises while she's sleeping. These noises have both Naomi and I cracking up when we hear them, it's almost like a little bird chirping.
She's managed to mesmerize everyone she's come in contact with. Naomi adores her. She's a little frightened by her and doesn't want to hold her, despite weeks and weeks of "pretty please can I hold my baby sister?", she shied away when she actually had her chance to meet her. She loves gently patting her head, and giving her tiny kisses on her cheek though. And she's always trying to pull out extra toys and food for her baby sister. When she see's Mikaela without a hat on, or her blanket swaddling her, she'll quickly run around trying to find her blanket and hat cause "her baby sister wants them". She's an incredible older sister. Tonight before I took Naomi up to start getting ready for bed, she kissed Mikaela and said, "Good night baby. Sweet dreams".
Not to say it's been all easy. I'm overwhelmed. Completely. This morning, trying to get both kids out the door to the hospital, on just a few hours of sleep, was enough to have me near tears and begging my mom to stay longer (request denied). While Naomi does love her sister, she definitely is a little jealous that Mommy now has two babies. She wants me to take care of her more, wants me to get her dressed, pick her up cause as she says, "she's still a baby", and even once asked why I could carry Mikaela when I wasn't able to carry her.
And yet in the few days since Mikaela was born, I've seen such a change in Naomi. She's more independent, she's talking more and more in fuller sentences, she is growing up faster and faster and it sometimes breaks my heart. Don't even get me started on thinking about when both girls start school, leave for school yada yada, ugh

With or Without You...getting nostalgic

I've been looking at a lot of old videos and pictures of Naomi while I've been home these past couple of weeks. I can't believe how little she used to be and how much she has grown up. We just finished up breakfast and spent at least 20 minutes just sitting at the table after we were done, talking, singing together and making each other laugh. She's her own little person. Anyway here's a video I just watched that I don't think I ever posted. Austin and I love music and have been trying to introduce music to Naomi since she was just a few days old. Here's an early jam session of her and Austin.

Coming soon...

I had another ultrasound yesterday to check on the baby's growth. Apparently, while I have been diligently gaining weight every week, my baby girl has a mind of her own and is hanging in strong at just over 6 lbs. In two weeks she hasn't grown, making my ob not so happy. He called me back after reviewing my ultrasound results, while I was at Target to tell me he would feel more comfortable having the baby out before the week end. He also asked me if I was still on a strict bed rest..umm not sure if he heard al the background noise from Target, plus Naomi screaming, "AHH THERE"S ANOTHER PRINCESS TOY" but I quickly said yes I was.
Anyway, on my actual due date, Thursday Jan 13th, I have to call the hospital at 5am, tell them I'm coming in at 6am, and then the process begins. Having another induction is not exactly ideal, Naomi was induced, and it took over 24 hours before she decided to show up. It got to the point where my then ob was considering giving me a C-Section cause my amniotic fluids were getting too low. Of course Naomi has always had her own way of doing things, even now, she likes to take her time with everything... Hopefully baby wei 2 will be a little speedier. Anyway, Thursday, Jan 13th. That's the day it all begins.

Mommy the big muffin.

My sweet 2.5 year old has changed the lyrics of "Do You Know the Muffin Man" to "mommy mommy the big muffin". Can't help but laugh.

Yeh Yeh

Naomi loves watching NIck Jr's Ni Hao Kai-Lan, maybe a little too much...Anyway, part of why she loves the show is that Kai-Lan calls her grandpa Yeh Yeh, which is what she calls Austin's dad. Recently she's noticed that not only does Kai Lan call her Grandpa Yeh Yeh, she's noticing an un-canny resemblence. Every time she sees an episode you're guaranteed to hear her yell out, "Kai-Lan's Yeh Yeh looks like MY Yeh Yeh"

Who's coming today?

Every morning this week when I've gotten Naomi up (she's been oversleeping and I've had to get her up for daycare!) the first words out of Naomi's mouth are, "Who's coming today?" The first couple of times she asked this, I responded "no one" to which she would respond "NO, who's coming TODAY!?" only to get more and more aggravated. Finally I asked her who she thought was coming, and she said, "baby 2" well, ok she really said the baby's name. Every morning it's the same thing, except now I know to play along. She's been saying her baby sister would come "today" every day for a week now. I guess she's excited to have a baby sister in the house too! Hopefully she won't be completely shocked when she realizes what having a baby sister means!

Where's Maisy?

I love being on Maternity leave. I love how I get to spend extra time with Naomi and catch moments like these:



I know when baby 2 comes things are going to be a lot crazier, but for now, I'm enjoying getting some extra time in with Naomi, and of course some extra R&R =)