Category: Family

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Curie February 2014

2014-02-24

Curie February 2014. Curie loves the conveyor belt sushi restaurant which we have dubbed the “sushi choo-choo” restaurant. The other day she told us she wanted to go to the sushi choo-choo restaurant, which we thought was very cute; the thing is, Curie is crazy smart and we just didn’t know it. You see, Curie loves surprise eggs, and every time we go to the sushi choo-choo restaurant, she gets a Kinder egg (which are illegal in the US) from the candy store and instead of asking for an egg from the candy store, she asked to go to the sushi choo-choo restaurant without tipping her hand. Crazy smart right? On the other hand, at the restaurant itself, Curie has already gotten edamame, tomago, and fruit for herself AND returned the covers to the conveyor belt even before we have ordered drinks. Other families tell their kids to not touch the sushi, we ask Curie to get our orders.

The whole family got sick this month (not from the sushi). We tried really hard to keep it from Elia, but in the end she succumbed too. For Erin’s birthday, we did a staycation at the Sheraton Premiere, but Albert had the shakes in the middle of the night from being so tired and sick that he rolled himself into a hot bath to raise his core body temperature and fell asleep – scaring Erin. We are mostly better now, though Erin has caught another cold.

In February, we went to the Udvar Hazy Center Smithsonian Air and Space museum (twice, the second time with Erin’s parents and sister) to see the “space ship” (space shuttle). Curie’s favorite airplane is a yellow Naval Aircraft Factory N3N that hangs above the SR-71, Albert’s favorite. Upon entering the museum she immediately said “that’s my favorite,” about the yellow plane. Incidentally Erin’s favorite plane is the Concorde, Jim’s is the P-40 Curtis-Wright Warhawk, Julie’s was the space shuttle, and Brenda’s was the sail plane.

Erin returned to work at the end of the month, somehow the whole experience seems faster this time around. Having two kids is a little more hectic (those of you with three or more – more power to you), you have less time for either child. Curie gets less than before “put Elia down!” And Elia, as the second child gets fewer bright-eyed photos (we think Elia sleeps more than Curie did, but it may be an optical-illusion based on the fact that we had time to take pictures of Curie when she was looking at the camera). In any case, everything seems faster, more hectic, and with less time to enjoy our time together – which makes each moment something you have to intentionally slow down to savor and appreciate. The moments are always precious – whether it is leaving work at a good time, putting down the camera to hold the children, watching Thomas instead of the news, having a happy life is finding the time to appreciate the value of those moments.

Oh and congratulate Erin, she is officially the Chief Development and Engagement Officer at NatureServe as of yesterday. 

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Elia Turns Two Months!

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Elia turns two months. At two months, Elia is 8 pounds 2.4 ounces, has begun to coo, rolls over from front to back, almost rolls over from back to front, and like her sister at two months, has learned to get out of a blanket if you throw one over her. Also like her sister at the same age, she started size one diapers, went to child care for the first time, and has begun to sleep longer. We have begun carrying her in the Baby Bjorn in addition to her stroller.

Elia is just coming into her own. If you look at the pictures, you can practically see it in her eyes. She smiles a lot and loves to be cuddled. She sleeps more than Curie did, but she is also younger at the same age. She will lie on her back unperturbed for long periods of time, she tracks when you hold her, and she has begun to self-soothe with her hand in her mouth (both girls are likely thumb suckers with orthodontic bills in the future).

If it seems that Curie seemed more alert in her pictures, it is because with one child it was easier to capture when she was alert. With Elia, we take the pictures we can and cherish the time we have with each of our kids.

Curie, like her parents, loves to hold Elia, though often in awkward ways, the other day Curie bent over and said “Mommy, I want to give Elia a piggy-back, put her on my back.” This month we all caught colds, and as a baby it takes longer to get over it, so she coughs and has to learn to breathe through her mouth. You would think that with our second baby we would be less at the doctor’s office at a drop of a hat, but we go anyway, including rashes and such, Dr. Dierks, our pediatrician is patient with us and reassures us. Curie has been fascinated with going to the doctor with Elia, though very protective; at the last visit, Curie told us not to take Elia since she was going to get shots.

This month  we visited the Air and Space museum twice, Erin’s parents came to visit, and Albert resumed racquetball; Erin gets ready to return to work and we gear up for a different routine. We get a little more sleep, but the weight of being on all the time does take its toll. The days go really fast and if you don’t take the time to appreciate it, carve the time to be a part of it, remember that this time is fleeting, you will miss too much. With work, obligations, family challenges, and the inexorable push of time, we are learning to appreciate every moment no matter how small and be grateful for what we have.

2014-02-13

 

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Curie January 2014

2014-01-31

Curie January 2014. Curie learns to have a sister. It is remarkable to see Curie as a little girl – up until when Elia was born, Curie was our baby. More than one parent has described this phenomena to us, where all of the sudden Curie seems so big.

At two and a half, she loves her trains with three different sets (thank you to Suephy and Ed, Shaun and Chris, and Cy and Librada for the trains), knows all the names of Thomas and Friends, and loves to play “ramper” which is making a long ramp jump from train tracks and running cars and trains down through a hoop. She has sings a wide range of songs now including “Eidel-bise,” and is always asking what you are singing when she doesn’t know it. We said goodbye to Brenda, had Suephy and Taylor visit, and spent time with the Hoaglands and Tamanahas.

It has been an interesting month for us; with Elia coming home, Curie has been overjoyed, achingly caring, and a little needing of attention. Normally, when she is tired she wants Mommy and when she is rested she wants Daddy, but in the past month she has wanted both of us at the same time, when Albert gets up, she says “Daddy, lay down!”

The flashes of jealousy manifest with things like the boppies being hers again, asking to put Elia down, or asking to pick her up instead of Elia. No eating newspaper like Suephy did when Albert was born. We try to make the extra effort to hold her and play with her and make her feel special still. It is hard sometimes to balance giving her attention and giving in.

On the other hand, Curie can be gentle when she asks to hold Elia, and is terribly proud when Elia stops crying when she holds her or sings lullabies to her. Curie loves her sister and is quick to show you what Elia is doing. It hasn’t been easy having two kids, to all of you parents out there who have already done it, more power to you. With the lack of sleep, the divided attention, and the adjustment of having another member of the family, we are simultaneously overwhelmed and in awe that we are finally together.

When it is late at night, and the two girls are asleep, when you are too exhausted to clean, too overwhelmed to work, and too tired to sleep; you check to see if the baby is breathing, you put your hand on your two year old’s back and let her snuggle up against you, and in the deafening quiet of the night, before the baby wakes up again, you take it all in, give yourself a moment, and are grateful for everything.

 

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Happy One Month Birthday, Elia!

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Happy One Month Birthday, Elia! 18 days in the NICU make it feel like this is our second week with Elia, not a full month – our due date was January 18th, Elia was born on December 19th.  As recounted in previous posts, the hardest part was seeing her only a couple of hours a day.

Elia was 4 pounds 8 ounces when she was born, and at her month’s doctor’s visit she will be around 6 pounds (5 pounds 14 ounces the week before). Elia has out-grown her preemie clothes and is wearing newborn outfits now. Our favorites are the Mickey and Eeyore ones (the Eeyore has a tail in the back).

Just like with Curie, we are posting monthly collages with every day for the first year – those of you interested can watch Elia grow with us. On our website we include a family picture, on Facebook we collected those at the end of the first year.

Before Elia was born, Albert would joke about the second child – that he would just reuse the pictures of Curie and tell Elia that it was her (actually Peter at Duck Chang started that joke), the reality is Albert has not stopped taking the picture a day – you can call it insanity or dedication (or “insanication”).

(Why does Elia’s collage only have an ultrasound in the beginning? Confession time: when Albert was putting together Curie’s first month collage he forgot the 18th day, he didn’t forget to take it, he just forgot to put it into the collage. You can count it, 32 slots, three taken up by pregnancy test, ultrasound, and monitor; September so 30 days, there had to be a missing picture. So here we have Elia’s, December so 31 days, that means only one free slot, hence just the ultrasound (though we have the other two). Why didn’t Albert ever fix it? If you have ever been to our house, he blew up a 24 x 36 of the collage which hangs in the stairwell, and it would be a lot of work to redo it. Now the truth is known.)

We are out of practice at being new parents, but we try and the sleep deprivation comes back like riding a bike – (wait, we meant parenting comes back). Elia is eating well both from bottle and breast, poops a lot, sleeps a lot, and burps a lot, all part of her job. Elia smiles a lot ,and did so  from the beginning – as early as the second day. There are a few hours of awake time where she loves being on her tummy (we burp her face down on our palm, so she probably associates face down with feeling good). When she is not doing tummy time, she is looking around with wonder at the world or looking into your eyes, sharing time.

It’s 3 AM, Elia has just been fed, Curie is sleeping quietly perpendicular to the bed, you can hear the ice maker in the refrigerator gurgle, lights are low and the baby makes mouth movements as she dreams of eating – a smile passes her lips. Warm baby breathing against your chest, you think to yourself, “I remember this, I remember what this was like.” What is this? This is happiness.

Elia 365 Year 1-001

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Curie Pictures Revisited

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Curie pictures revisited. There is a temptation to take some of the iconic Curie pictures and stage them for Elia. There is also a temptation to post Elia pictures as there is an appetite for them from friends and family. Today however we spend a little time with Curie, a little throwback to when she was a baby. Those of you receiving our cards for some time will recognize the upper left hand picture as the back side of our 2010 holiday card. It is a little over two years later and feeling a little nostalgic with the new baby, we took some Curie pictures.

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Curie Loves Elia

2014-01-05

Curie loves Elia. As promised here are the pictures of Curie meeting Elia. On the lower right is when we told Curie that Elia could go home – Curie had not been allowed into the NICU so had waited in the cafeteria every time we visited. Upper right is first meeting, with the the upper middle being the present Curie bought for Elia months ago in anticipation of meeting her “baby sisser.” Upper left, Curie did not want to let her go so insisted on helping carry baby Elia. The others are pretty self-explanatory except that the middle is the first time she held her sister.

We are well, sleep deprived but happy. Elia gets her first month on the 19th, more then. Special thanks to Brenda for her help every day with us since Elia was born.

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Elia Comes Home

2013-12-21

Elia comes home. After 18 days in the NICU, we are a family again. There is a saying amongst NICU grads, you never want to have to go to the NICU, but you are grateful for everything they do.

We are about to explain what happened at the NICU so that people can know that it is not so scary. It is important to trust the staff at the NICU and try not to predict when the baby will go home. The baby will go home when he or she is ready.

Elia was born at 35 weeks and 5 days, and was an IUGR (interuterine growth retardation – meaning she wasn’t growing as fast as we would like). Because Curie was also an IUGR baby, and had suffered in the womb, the decision was made to deliver early while Elia was still healthy.

At birth, she had a little grunting, which is a sign of respiratory distress. She was put on a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure, same as is used for apnea) machine for a day to help regulate her breathing. When her breathing stablized, she was put on a nasal cannula to get oxygen into her blood (day 2). She had a little trouble keeping her breathing, so they gave her a stimulant to help her – a dose of caffeine.

Amniotic fluid is usually pushed out during labor, but since she had a c-section they needed to put a tube in her mouth to suck out the fluid; at this point she was fed by umbilical catheter which puts nutrients directly into her belly. After a day or two she was put on an IV instead.

We were able to bottle feed her at the beginning but she kept getting tired. This was also normal for a 35 week and 5 day old baby. She did not know how to eat yet, so they intubated her and gavage fed her meaning they put a tube in her nose to her stomach and put the breast milk into her stomach. This would be the reason we stayed in NICU for so long – in fact we joked that why would she learn to eat if she could get milk pumped into her nose? She could continue until she was 18. Even with breast milk, infants need to be fortified with formula and vitamins at this age.

Elia was a little jaundiced on the first day so she was on a UV pad called a billi-blanket for a day. Curie was on it for several days. Babies have a terrible second night since they are out of the womb, we did not have to experience it because she was in the NICU. Babies also have terrible poo called merconium which is black and sticky, the nurses took care of it for us.

When Elia could temperature regulate she was taken out of the isolet and put into a crib. When she could start eating, we were officially out of the NICU and into a step-down room (ironically also in NICU). When she could take 8 feedings in a row without gavage, she was ready to go home. This does not happen gradually, one day she decided she was going to eat and we were sent home. She would have been 38 weeks and two days today.

Bottom line, trust the NICU (but don’t be afraid to stand up for yourselves there), don’t get your hopes up or the goal post will keep moving. Don’t be in a rush to get home, they can take care of her better there than you can at home. In fact we miss the monitors a little. 160 heart rate, 100% on the pulse oxymeter, an 85 over 50 blood pressure, and a 30 on the breathing. At a glance she is okay.

The hardest part was that visitors had to be over 12 so Curie couldn’t meet Elia until today. Instead she stayed in the cafeteria with her Grandmom or Poppop, or her aunt and uncle-to-be, or spent time with “her friends” our friends the Hoaglands. Thank you to all for keeping her company while we snuck in an hour or two a day with our new girl. Thank you for Emma, Raye, Anna, Ashley, Tino, Jim, Annalisa, Lischa, Julie, Haley – all the staff at Labor and Delivery, post-delivery, and NICU at Virginia Hospital Center. Thank you to Dr. Armstrong, Dr. McClaren (no matter how scary those visits were) and all of their colleagues and staff.

Albert’s birthday in the hospital, Christmas in the NICU, New Years going to the NICU, every day a visit to “the doctor” as Curie would call it. All the celebrations are smushed in a day, today, when we are a family again. If you have questions, ask us, we don’t know it all but having been in the NICU twice we can at least tell our story again and if that helps at all, then we are glad to do it again and again. We are lucky. We are grateful. We wish every parent and parent-to-be all the prayer and wishes for their children.

(There are cute pictures of Curie meeting Elia for the first time, we’ll get those out soon.)

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Curie December 2013

2013-12-019

Curie December 2013. So I will admit I do not know how to do the collages going forward. To date these have been Curie’s but with the birth of Elia, I guess we will be doing two a month. So Elia is not shortchanged, I will do the picture a day collage of her on the 19th of each month just like we did for Curie in her first year; after that she will get her own monthly collage.

December was a challenging month with Erin on bed rest and Albert doing all the chores as well as bringing Curie to and from school. We relearned the power of friendship through the kindness of the Hoaglands, and paid it forward shoveling out our then also-pregnant next-day neighbors and salted the neighborhood walkways.

Curie loves the Sound of Music (Julie Andrews version) and sings “Doe a Deer” in its entirety (video clip sometime later). Her favorite song lately is “Love is All” by Playing for Change to which she twirls to. Curie continues her independence and wants to do things “on ma own.” She loves to play “basketball” with a hoop in the living room And loves to play “tunnel” with her blanket/comforter.

We are lucky that she was not born in Barney or Tele-tubbies, so Curie’s favorite shows are Curious George, Thomas, and Super Why. She does love to watch YouTube of people opening Kinder eggs and similar thing (anyone else seen this? It really doesn’t make any sense).

The biggest thing is of course Elia’s birth which deserves its own entry, but as it relates to Curie, she still hasn’t met her “baby sisser” yet though we hope that will be soon. In anticipation, Curie bought Elia a Curious George (and one for herself), has diapered her stuffed animals and knows Elia has been born: “baby sisser name is Eleee-a, she cute!”

So two daughters, one an independent young girl, the other an infant ready to take on the world. We haven’t even begun the feedings yet and we are exhausted and cabin-fevery – Albert thinks the reason for parental leave is so that you don’t make work decisions impaired.  Elia and Erin are doing great, Curie is a little needy, but that is from us going to the hospital all the time. Albert is a basket case, but has been since childhood.

One thing about having a child that applies to both Curie and Elia (Curie’s birth story is on our site, but not published yet): there is a moment before they operate where the husband sits in paper scrubs and a mask in a room by himself while they prep the mother for OR. In those interminable minutes, you remember how fragile life is and how precious what you have is. Then there is the flurry of activity, holding each other’s hand, the c-section, and the wait for the baby’s cry. For both Curie and Elia, hearing the doctor say that they are healthy and hearing them cry, at that moment, that was all that mattered; you think life is right, life is good, and anything that will happen will happen, and that too is right.