Stress-free Holiday break

I did get a break.
We went to New York to share thanksgiving with our ever faithful, high school friend and her family. It was exactly what I needed, something different, something new. Faith enjoyed being with other kids her age (or a year older). No, we didn't go to the Macy's parade, we didn't see Manhattan or the fancy places of New York. Nope. We did something more memorable and less stressful - we chatted, ate good home-cooked Chinese food, and visited other friends in the area. Oh, we did the black Friday shopping (which I had previously thought is a stress!) but we went there on the afternoon and boy, the malls weren't bad at all.
It was nice, to be away from routine... nothing beats being with family and friends.

Give me a Kit-Kat

I need a break!
I've been holed up in my house for a week now, and my usually happy baby has a cold, which makes her (and mommy) very upset..
I need to just get away for a while and de-stress. Take care of me... Go to a warm nice South Pacific beach and listen to tranquil waves lapping at my feet... eat dark chocolate and java frapuccino... have a deep Swedish massage, or a spa for my neglected body... maybe even a pampered pedicure...

ok, sister... wake up!
oh well, it was fun to daydream.
maybe i'll just have a kitkat.

dealing with faith

On other days, it's tough to be a SAHM!
There are just times when I don't know what do, like days when Faith has colds and get cranky. I can hardly get her to finish two teaspoonfuls of cereal. She takes only 30-minute naps and wakes up crying. She always want to get picked up and I can never get enough chores done. At night, her nose gets so stuffy that I hae to hold her in my arms so she can sleep upright, which means I don't get to sleep well either. None of us right now are sleeping well. Days like these, it's a tiring job. She goes to the sitter for two days, and she tells me my baby eats a lot and drinks her formula! Why is that? I get jealous and feel like I'm not being attentive enough (but I know I am!) So why is that? I have no clue, really. So I just hang on for dear life (hers and mine) and hope she gets well and days like these will be over.

playing with faith

It's so much fun being a SAHM!
I get to play with my daughter everyday. We "wrestle" each other in bed when we wake up (now that she's standing ??- she climbs all over my body). We trade blowing bubbles at each other, do peek-a-boos, make smiles and funny faces at the mirror. I found her funny bone(s - she's so ticklish!) and get her to laugh. She's learning to fake her grin too, which is the funniest in the world!
She's almost 8 months and a handful to be with, super"likot"! One woman at the doctor's said my baby's like a worm, a cute and beautiful worm... I'm at the keyboard right now, and she's playing along with me, messing my sentences, deleting phrases i just wrote...
Right now, I'm her playmate and best friend. And I wish we stay that way for a long long time.

Managing allergies

It sneaked up on us, this allergy. I gave Faith a bottle of formula this weekend and she took only 2 ounces when her face redened and her lips swelled! She vomitted out the milk twice and the portion of it that touched her skin caused rashes to appear.
When I went to the pediatrician, we were told to carefully watch her diet (and mine as I still breastfeed her). We were prescribed an "epipen" syringe in case she'll have difficulty breathing because of allergic reactions. She can't have any milk or dairy products until further tests, or when she outgrows this. She can't even touch dairy because she might get rashes or even worse reactions!

My family has a history to allergies, but I never thought my own child would have a reaction this young. It was very disheartening to think that I passed a gene or susceptibility to my child that potentially could make her so sick. How's a mom to feel?
... My sister's encouragement - "we manage".
And we will. We'll have to educate her babysitter and our friends who interact with her. We'll have to be careful. We'll have to be prepared, exactly how I don't know yet. But we'll manage.
And we can pray. And we will pray, that she will outgrow this. Even be healed and purged of this allergy.
She'll have her blood tested next month for specific allergens to milk and other foods. So I have a month to pray hard. In the meantime, we'll manage.

healthy sleep habits, happy baby

WOW! After seven months of sleeping-less nights, there really seems to be a light at the end of a tunnel. (It does feel like a tunnel at times, literally when I lack sleep. My vision gets blurry and my mind blanks out!)

But now, I can feel and live HOPE. I found this book "Healthy sleep habbits, happy baby" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth whose resume include being a pediatrician in-charge of the Sleep Disorders Clinic in the Children's Hospital in Chicago, and a father of four.
Sleep begets sleep. He encourages parents to put the baby down for a nap (or naps depending on the age. For Faith at seven months, it's 2-3 naps per day); getting baby on a regular and consistent sleep schedule (an earlier bedtime being better for baby's wellbeing and producing longer sleep); and consolidating sleep (no waking up at night; no catnaps if possible). He says be on the watch for sings of sleepiness and tiredness ), which is a window, that if taken, makes sleep faster and easier (less crying). Once a baby starts crying or fussing, then she is overtired and past that window, which may make sleeping harder and shorter.
It all makes sense now. I've put Faith down for naps and she takes to it so easily! She's on a regular sleep schedule that i protect so that she doesn't end up tired and cranky the next day.
More on this saga as we get Faith to sleeping well.

like a Mona Lisa

Today, I'm sitting somewhere, trying to last till the end of work day, when I look up from my desk to see a picture of my baby smiling at me. It's like that Mona Lisa smile - you just know she saw someone or something that made her smile like that, and though frozen in a painting, it reaches out to you and draws you in to smile back at her. That's how my baby's picture looked to me just now.

I smile back. And I am with her, playing, making her laugh, giving her kisses, spending the day with her...

It won't be long now, in less than an hour. I will be home.
I smile back.