Seeing Eye to Eye with Britney Spears

Sydnie went to her first bday party - Sofia turned one so we went up to LA to celebrate. The drive up was great and although she was a bit overwhelmed with so many faces at once, she was pretty good. The return trip home however was a terrifying combination of LA traffic, clogged duct pain, and ear piercing/crushing my heart wailing baby! So here I am trying to soothe Sydnie with one hand, while strategically positioning myself away from the window and pumping with the other. To Steve's dismay, I ended up pulling a Britney Spears and pulled Sydnie out of her car seat. My clogged duct chose that moment to unclog (to my physical relief) but I was spraying milk like a busted fire hydrant so must make note to wash my sister's clothes before returning them... sorry Amenda. Back to peace at home =)
So here's another lesson learned... how come no one told me to avoid those wind up mobiles?!?! I seriously thought I got a defective one because mine lasted for just a couple minutes and I would have to get up and rewind it over and over again. I highly encourage anyone expecting to ignore the mobile that matches your bedding and go with the Tiny Love Symphony mobile... that is, if your purpose for the mobile is for it to be used to entertain your child so you can get a few things accomplished without feeling like you're neglecting them. If you don't necessarily care about that and just want something cute, then by all means go for the wind up mobile, but I guarantee you will be getting up every few minutes and feeling more frustrated than productive!
Early in the week Steve watched a report on GMA where it recommends parents speak 17,000 words a day to their baby although 30,000 is preferred! I read up on it further and it says that babies who are talked to more have higher IQ scores and do better in school... partly because smarter parents talk more to their kids. Well poor Sydnie has a mute for a mom at home so hope that doesn't imply anything! Of course you have to take all these studies with a grain of salt but according to this report, assuming the baby is awake 12 hours a day, that comes out to 42 words per minute nonstop every waking minute! I tell you - this parent thing really can be more than a full time job depending on how you approach it. Well thankfully our conversations are becoming more two-sided as Sydnie is becoming so much more talkative, so maybe combined we can reach 17,000 together! =)

appa & sydnie time

Two Kids

We now have two children: Steve's 13 year old and our 10 week old... well technically 13 dog years. The inlaws are in Korea until next Monday so Yooree, Steve's dog, has been with us since last week. She's typically calm, but also suffers from random yet severe anxiety. It usually is triggered by fireworks or thunder and as a result a few doors and rugs became sad casualties. But she's fine as long as she's not alone... So going out now means packing up the WHOLE family!
So a friend sent me an article about a mom that makes $$$ through her blog via advertising. It sounds like a great idea but I empathize with her struggles (i.e., invasion of privacy, writers block, sensitivity to negative comments, etc...) Plus I don't think the few visitors I have to this blog would generate that much ad revenue! For now I enjoy sharing our lives with whoever comes to visit our site but I figure eventually my updates will be less frequent as Sydnie acclimates to everyday life and she becomes boring like all of us! haha But it does continually have me thinking about my perfect stay at home job. I think I might actually have something brewing in my head!


Sydnie and her pointer finger





Well, I've heard many complain about the pain from breastfeeding, but that only scratches the surface of breastfeeding woes for me. Here is a list of my "breastfeeding blues":
1. dry skin: not sure breastfeeding is really the cause but my hands and face feel like I washed them with clorox!
2. clogged ducts: you've heard enough about these, but they completely drain me - it takes minimum 12 hours to clear one of these
3. milk blisters: blister on your nipple - popping a pimple has nothing on these unless you pop your pimples with needles!
4. food limitations: I love SPICY food and the one day Sydnie would not stop crying was the day I had a spicy noodle dish so now I'm not willing to risk our sanity by eating spicy food again. Also lately all everyone talks about is that coffee drink from McD's! Steve's obsessed with them. Well I fear Sydnie might be sensitive to caffiene so I won't even let myself drink that either! Very sad...
5. birth control: apparently breastfeeding being natural birth control is a misconception so that's one more pill I'll have to take!
6. sagging: well I knew this was inevitable. It hasn't started sagging... yet! right now its reached a triangular stage =)
I can go on and on! But with all that said I'll gladly go through this knowing that she is thriving and healthy. She never looks more beautiful to me than when she is peacefully eating or pounding on my chest with her fisted hand. And I am continually amazed at God's perfect workmanship in allowing our bodies to produce nourishment for our children while bonding with them. I only hope I can be more successful with pumping so when I do go back to work I can continue being her food source! Speaking of pumping, I've become so absent minded these days, I was pumping the other day and forgot to attach the bottles to the pump parts so I was spewing milk all over my pajamas!!! All that good milk gone to waste!!!

I love these two pics of her! Power to the people! hee hee

We've Reached Two Months!

I have to continue telling myself that I'm not going to be the first mom to not be able to figure nap schedules, breastfeeding, playtime, etc... right?!?! I sure hope not! =)
Well, here are some two month mark notables:
* she goes down for the night around 8:30ish and will sleep pretty much through the night (its amazing that she can distinguish night sleeping from her naps)
* has started to suck on her hand, mainly her pointer finger to put herself to sleep
* getting very talkative and expressive
* the biggest thing for me is how much more we have bonded over this one month! i really like her a lot now! =)
And I've hit a glorious milestone of my own! I finally started to shed again! Whoo hoo! I know its a strange thing to be happy about but starting my final trimester I was shedding no more than one or two strands of hair and the thought that I was retaining all this hair was grossing me out! It looks like my normal shedding routine is returning!
Here is another thing that no one tells you about... I never knew there were different sizes to the breast pump until yesterday. Apparently its based on your nipple size so I guess everyone I know must have a standard 24 mm nipple, while mine are abnormally large!!! Well I hope trying a different size will help with my pumping dilemmas.
Just a random thought but I'm glad I've been using this blog to "journal" weekly as I realize you really do quickly forget... and its only been a short two months for us!

our dog yooree and sydnie (they both look so serious!)

sydnie enjoyed her first picnic this sunday!

for some reason she likes taking her medicine - it must taste sweet

8 Weeks v. 2 Months

Sydnie turned 8 weeks on Friday, but she won't be considered two months until Tuesday, the 8th... so confusing!
Well either way, it is amazing that she has already reached this age! Cliches are there for a reason and I find myself frequently thinking how big she is getting!... or perhaps that just shows how fast my own life is moving!
Because of my thrush I am constantly applying creams, rinsing with baking soda solutions, air drying - all quite tedious! So I'm actually topless most of the day at home for obvious reasons (yes I know that is a disurbing image!) I just hope I'm not putting on a show for our neighbors! But at this point I'll do pretty much anything to clear up this thrush and prevent clogged ducts!


Sydnie now holds on to dad while sleeping