just us.

sweet words

on Alcatraz Island, 3/23/16

Keira said something unexpected to me last night.

I can't remember exactly what we were doing (blame it on mommy brain...it was only yesterday!) but it was her, Karter and I.  She said that I should find a babysitter, so that Mike and I could go out on a date, without the kids.  When I asked her why she thought that, it was because all I ever do is stay home with Karter and take care of him.  I told her it was very nice of her to think of me and her dad and to care about us in that way.

She continues to surprise us with things she says and does.

Keira recently tried (and liked!) some "new" foods: black pepper beef, peking duck, pork chops (Mike makes them good) and mochi ice cream.  If you know her, you know she is a bit of a picky eater.  We encourage her to try different things all the time, and if she decides she doesn't like it then it's fine.  At least she tried them!  We hope to introduce Karter to all sorts of different food, it'll make going out to eat so much easier!

I'm ready

picture taken today, 3/29/16

Today didn't start off on the best foot.  Karter woke me up every hour starting at 1230am.  Thankfully Mike came in at 6am and took over, so that I could attempt to sleep a little bit more.

I thought I'd be more exhausted, but surprisingly I'm not.  Karter wasn't fussy much either, which is a blessing.  He's on his third nap as I type this, and I snuck in a quick shower too.  We played, we caught up on DVR'd shows, we ate, we hung out.  So far it's been great.

I go back to work next week and I can honestly say I'm ready.  The last month or so, I've been operating in such a mental fog that I felt like I couldn't put a coherent sentence together if someone paid me.  It was bad.  I think Mike walked around in the same fog as me, and there were times we would get snippy with each other.  But neither one of us would take it personally, and we would move on.

Today is probably the first time in a long time that I've felt mental clarity, that I haven't felt tired and dumb.  As much as I've loved every moment with Karter the last several months, I realize I need to have some human interaction again...and very soon.  My parents will be taking over as far as caring for Karter while I'm at work, and I'm grateful for that.  They didn't get that chance with Keira but with Karter, they are ready to dive in full force.

The little man is up now, which means it's time to go.  We're going to pick up Sissy and head to Trader Joe's to buy some mochi ice cream.  Keira has added a few new foods to her repertoire and mochi is one of them.  It's a good thing mommy likes it too.  

February favorites

Lots of milestones this month so far.

 

Keira turned 7!  We celebrated with donuts and presents.  Legos still rule, Shopkins are the latest fad and jewelry is always a favorite for a budding fashionista.

 

We've managed to keep Karter thriving for a whole 2 months now!  He's wearing size 1 diapers, and is starting to outgrow his 0-3 month clothing.  At his 2 month appointment, he weighed in at 11 pounds 1 ounce and was about 22 inches long.  I think his head circumference was 15 inches or so.  He's got a mild case of dry, scaly skin (particularly around his eyes), but we've been slathering him in Cetaphil cream a few times a day and it seems to be helping.

 

Karter has become more responsive to us now too.  He'll smile and coo when we talk to him and it's got to be one of the best things ever.  Especially when it's 2am and mama is tired, that sleepy grin after being fed just melts my heart.

 

Keira lost another tooth last night, it's her fourth one since Christmas!  She was chomping on a chocolate covered strawberry when her tooth fell out, and it's left her with quite the interesting grin.  She's been eating from the side of her mouth for the last 2 months since she's got no teeth to take real bites!  She's still doing hockey, and Mike has started working with her on her stick handling.  She's gotten pretty good at skating, we just need to get her handling skills in order.  And only our girl would practice in a watermelon tutu dress.

We've started working on tummy time with Karter, and Keira is quite the cheerleader when he is doing it.  She is still very much in love with her little brother and fully embraces her role as Karter's big sister.  We're constantly reminding her about personal space, but we should probably enjoy this now, before the bickering begins.

And if you couldn't tell, Karter has got himself a nice bald spot on the back of his head.  Keira never had one, but now that Karter does, it makes me sad!!  He tends to turn his head side to side a lot, and now he's bald.  I was even afraid that he would rub it raw, but his pediatrician said she has never seen that happen.  I guess babies with no hair have the same issue and they survive.

All in all, we are living each day one at a time.  I don't plan on going back to work until April, so I am making the most of my time home with Karter, Keira and Mike.  I won't have another moment in time like now, so I'm savoring each moment while I can. 

constant change

Keira and Karter, lying on the couch as he tries to fall asleep.  January  25, 2016

There's one thing that's for sure when having a newborn.

Things are constantly changing.  Just when I think I have him figured out one day, it doesn't apply the next.  Take, for example, getting him to sleep.  Most babies like to be swaddled because it mimics being in the womb.  We swaddled him for the first few weeks and realized he like having his hands free.  It seemed he slept better when his hands were up next to his face.  So we went with that.  We'd have to rock him, sing to him, sometimes for what seemed like hours at a time.  As of late, we've started swaddling him tight again, with his arms down by his sides.  He hates it at first, but it tends to get him to sleep faster (when he's ready to sleep, that is).  The pacifier is sometimes used to calm him down, and when he's done with it, he spits it out.  There are some who have shared their opinion about the use of a pacifier, but if we need to use it, we use it.  So far, Karter doesn't seem to be the kind of kid that MUST have it, so we're just going with the flow.

I'm not sure if all babies are like this, but Karter wasn't hugely fond of being in his carseat (Keira was the same).  He'd cry just moments into being in one (insert use of pacifier here), but once it was moving (whether we were carrying it to the car, or the car was moving) he would be fine. Shopping trips (or any trip in general) where he would be in the carseat was like a mad dash to the finish line.  Get what we needed and be done.  But now, it's the opposite!  Just yesterday, I managed to go to work to drop off a prescription for Keira, get some light shopping done, and chat all without him waking up.  And today, I got his birth certificate and stopped at the union office to turn in some paperwork, and cleaned out the car when I got home ALL with him sound asleep in his seat. 

Who are you child and why must you always change the rules of the game?!

He's growing, that's for sure, and these early days are flying by.  Part of me still longs for the future days of being able to play with him and where he can entertain himself, but I know the day will come where I'll hardly remember him being this small.

He's starting to smile and coo, and it's those things that melt my heart.  I can hardly remember Keira being just a few weeks old, but I'm lucky enough to have another chance to soak in Karter's early moments.

things to remember...

before I forget:

Keira:

she lost another tooth on Sunday.  That would make her third tooth in almost a month.  The tooth fairy forgot to come visit two nights in a row.  But the fairy made up for that by giving her 2 bucks, instead of one.

I'm so amazed to see how much she's improved as far as her hockey abilities.  She's still taking private lessons with Coach Patrick, and he's helped her come a long way.

She got to go to a Kings game with Mike, Uncle Steve and cousin Matthew on Tuesday.  They enjoyed a nice (and free!) dinner as well as ice level seats.  Better yet, the Kings won!  And they had a meet and greet with players after the game, so they scored autographs on their jerseys and pictures too!

Keira is very loving towards Karter, and wants to give him lots of kisses and is always in his face.  I know it's a sign of love, but sometimes it's too much.  I guess we should enjoy it now before they bicker like cats and dogs!

Karter:

the darkening of his eyebrows and the curling of his lashes...just like his daddy!

he isn't the biggest fan of bath time.  Most of the time he cries, which is the exact opposite of Keira.  She loved her baths!

He tends to calm down when near a light source, like a window or the sliding door at home.  I think he's a sun baby.

Karter is using a pacifier that we had bought when Keira was an infant.  We found one that she liked and bought a bunch of them.  I didn't really want to introduce Karter to the pacifier, but it does help calm him down when needed.  He isn't dependent on one, which could be a good thing.  And never mind that the pacifier is pink!

Mike did a rough measurement of his length and he's about 20 inches long.  That's almost 3 inches in growth since birth!

Karter is normally a baby that likes constant movement, but after dinner last night he sat quietly for almost 20 minutes while we had dessert.  Mike and I were both amazed...it may have been due to the fact that he had farted a few times and left us a diaper blowout in the end!  We had to change his diaper in the front passenger seat (no bathrooms with changing tables available) and he had to wear newborn clothes home.

He has outgrown newborn clothing.  They're getting tight in the length for sure!

He is 6 weeks old today!

 

Karter, Karter with a K

Guess who slept 3 to 3.5 hours before waking to eat and then went right back to sleep??

this guy!!

1/12/16, 4 weeks 5 days

I've forgotten what having a newborn is like.  The biggest thing I am not a fan of is the lack of continuous sleep.  Keira didn't start sleeping through the night (i.e. 8 hours straight) until she was 2 years old!  I know we are in the early stages with Karter, but that extra hour totally makes a difference!

1/10/16, 1 month old

This past Sunday marked Karter's official first month of life.  We made it one month, holy cow!  When you're in the throws of day-to-day life, time seems like it goes slow.  But now that we are more than a month in, I can't believe it.  Quite honestly, there were times I wished the newborn phase was done, but I know it doesn't last forever.  Every stage is a challenge right?

 

some of my favorite pictures at the moment

Keira is loving her new role as a big sister, wanting to hold him constantly (even if it only last a few minutes) and smothering him with kisses.  She calls him "Fluffy" and has been since before he was born.  We haven't seen much jealousy from her with the baby, she just loves him tons.

Keira was actually the one to give Karter his name.  All throughout the pregnancy and even while I was laying on the operating table being sewn up, Mike and I could not agree on a name.  We didn't know the gender beforehand, so coming up with names for either sex that we both agreed on never happened.  I can still remember lying there, holding our boy on my chest and asking Mike...so what's his name going to be?  We ended up picking 3 names we had thrown around and letting Keira make the final decision.

12/10/15, the first meeting

My parents picked Keira up from school and brought her to the hospital to meet her little brother.  Both sets of grandparents were there, but I asked Mike to bring Keira in alone so that we could have the time as a new family of 4.  We had our moment with Karter, but we wanted Keira to have hers.  I can still remember her walking into the room and looking gently for her new brother.  Mike handed him to her and she held him so lovingly and just stared and talked to him gently.  We gave her our 3 options for names (Adam, Aaron and Karter) and asked her to pick one.  So Karter it was.

Side note, Keira has been participating in various hockey clinics for a while now and she's starting to know some of the Kings players.  When we gave her Karter as an option, she said "I like Karter, just like Jeff Carter of the LA Kings!"  We told her that Carter is normally spelled with a C, but we would be spelling it with a K to match her.

Mike and I realized we may have just set our boy up for a lifetime of explanation regarding the spelling of his name, but it's not so unusual nowadays, right?  "My name is Karter.  Karter with a K."

 

How he came to be

So we've added a new member to our family.  We had sort of surrendered to the idea that we would be a one-child family, but the thought was not completely lost.  The "trying" part never really stopped, but we didn't think a second child would become a reality.

Until it did.

It was March 30, 2015 when the pregnancy test came back positive and the world as we knew would change.  I can't say I was totally happy, since I knew the norm that we had grown so accustomed to would forever be changed.  We hadn't pushed a stroller, or carried a diaper bag or changed a diaper in YEARS.  We were starting all over again.  Ugh, really?  But I knew that this baby-on-the-way was, if anything, for Keira and her wish to be a big sister.  And with that I knew that this was just meant to be.

What seemed like months and months away quickly became "it's any day now".  Because of my previous fibroid surgery, my doctor said that a c-section would be ideal, given the fact that I had the scar tissue already present.  My due date was to be 12/20/15, and we set the c-section date for 12/17/15.  In hindsight, the date made little sense since it was only 3 days before the original date.  The last 2 or 3 weeks of my pregnancy, Mike kept urging me to move the date up a week because he felt things were getting to uncomfortable for me.  I looked it, I felt it and I was.  But I kept thinking I could make it a little bit longer, that the baby would have a little more time to ripen, that I would be okay.

But who was I joking?  Walking wasn't comfortable, I wasn't sleeping very well and at my 37 week appointment I was dilated at 1.5 cm. The doctor said I'd probably make it another week.  I came to my senses and moved the date up a week, to 12/10/15.  And I almost cried.  All along I was playing the waiting game, and with the date change, the end seemed so near.  Sh*t was about to get real.

We ordered a new couch (it was time), we called both sets of grandparents to give them the heads up, and we started to make plans in terms of Keira and her needs.  My hospital bag was already packed at the point too.

our last picture as a family of 3, morning of 12/10/15.

The morning of the baby's birth, we dropped Keira off at school.  She knew that by the time school was done, she would be a big sister!  I think it was something she was really excited about, and she shared that with her teachers and classmates.  We opted not to find out the gender of the baby (we did the same with Keira), so that was the big question mark everyone wanted answered.  To the 3 of us, it didn't matter whether it was a boy or a girl, we just wanted to meet him or her!

My c-section was schedule for 1pm, so we had some time to kill before heading to the hospital.  I can't even remember what we actually did, I just know that I hadn't eaten anything since the night before.  And I couldn't wait until my next meal.  I had gestational diabetes again with this pregnancy, and I knew that my next meal would have zero restrictions and I could eat pretty much anything my heart desired.  I found out later once I was admitted that I wouldn't be able to eat for at least 24 hours to ensure everything went smoothly with the birth.  Can you say SUCKS?!

me at 38 weeks, 4 days

My parents, Mike and I headed to the hospital around 1130am and I was admitted not too long after.  The nurses prepped me for the procedure and once the OR was ready for me, Mike and I walked over.

The anesthesiologist filled me on what was to happen with the spinal anesthesia, but like any patient, I didn't pay attention.  But let me tell you, it's no joke.  They laid me down as soon as it was placed and administered, because I wouldn't be able to feel anything from midway down my back to my toes.  And then I felt like I was hit by a truck.  My whole body ached, I felt sweaty and I wanted to do nothing but sleep.  I could hear the doctor ask me if I was feeling nauseous, and I wasn't, but I couldn't muster up the energy to answer him.  My blood pressure dropped super low, but I never did vomit.  And a few minutes later, the fog lifted and I rejoined the land of the living.  Holy moly, I've never felt that crappy before.

From the first cut to the baby being born, it didn't seem very long.  Mike would give me the occasional play-by-play, but the biggest memory for me was the amount of pushing, prodding and pressure on my abdomen when the doctors were trying to get the baby out.  I couldn't speak, and I swear they pushed half the depth of my body cavity.  At one point I told Mike, I was never doing this again.  At one point, both the surgeon and the OB were standing on top of me trying to push the baby far down enough to pull the baby out.  Since I hadn't labored, the baby hadn't dropped down far enough to be pulled out.  Mike also said that the original incision wasn't big enough, so they had to cut a little bit more.

Eventually, the moment of truth came and I heard Mike whisper softly.  One of the doctors asked who was going to call it ("it" being the gender) and Mike said it more loudly.  Since the baby's back was towards Mike, the goods (or lack thereof) wasn't initially obvious.  But the baby's goods hung down low enough that he knew.

It's a boy.

We had a baby boy.  A son.  Keira has a baby brother.

and he is already flipping the bird.

 

He was tiny.  That was all I could think about was how tiny he was.  He seemed so much smaller than Keira but even that seemed so long ago.  I kept saying to Mike that we had a son, that he was so small...and what the heck were we going to name him.  I'll have to share that story another time.

Karter Michael Lieu

born 12/10/15 at 1:57pm

6 pounds 14 ounces and 17.25 inches long

I can think of no better way to end 2015 and start 2016.

we are a family of 4.  Michael, Jamie, Keira and our newest member, Karter.

Can't wait to see what the new year brings us.

my issue with carrots

I've never been a fan of carrots.  I can't eat them, especially if they're raw.  It's something about the texture or the crunch that just turns me off.  If it's in my food and I can pick it out, goodbye carrots.

Mike and I started making our own juice at home a while back.  When he first made it, I remember there being beets and tasting really, really green.  Like drinking grass.  I wasn't a fan.

Somewhere along the way, I became a fan.  We've juiced all kinds of things: kale, beets, cucumbers, pineapple, passionfruit, apples, oranges.  I realized early on that I like the sweeter tasting ones, the juices with more fruit content therefore more natural sugar.  But again, somewhere along the way, the green juices won me over.

(picture by Keira)

The other night, I was on a juice kick and bought 6 bunches of organic kale, 5 or 6 cucumbers, a bag of carrots and a pineapple to make juice with.  We had a bunch of fuji apples (my favorite) at home from a previous purchase that I wanted to use too.  All that gave us 3-32 ounce bottles plus one 16.9 ounce bottle of yummy green goodness:

It's just sweet enough to not be too much (I think the pineapple did it), but you still get the earthiness from the vegetables.  Mike and I have at least a cup of it everyday, and sometimes we'll pack a 16 ounce bottle to take to work too.  And let me tell you, it makes the number twos come along real nice too.

Getting back to carrots, the last batch of juice I made I also used carrots, and I set aside some to use for dinner.  I made chicken and potatoes, and threw some carrots in there for good measure.  It simmered for a bit, so by the time dinner was ready they were nice and soft.  Not mushy like baby food, but soft enough that there was still texture to them.  And I actually enjoyed them! 

I think from this point, I'll enjoy my carrots either cooked or in juice form. Raw carrots??  ew.

Through her eyes

Occasionally, Keira will want to take pictures with our cameras so last night I let her have free reign.  It all started with a hummingbird she found out in our backyard:

which led to 50, maybe 60 more pictures, most of which are on the blurry side.

(Mike just built this outdoor bar, and installed that outlet.)

 

We may have to get her a digital camera to use so she can do more exploring...