tried to sit up ...

so i'm working with aj to practice sitting up...here's our progress. =)

first on the bumbo: hmm...he's only fascinated with his right foot

let's switch to the left foot

good, good. sit next to your giants bear

and then quickly tumbled after a second...hehee.

happy chinese new year

wow, i can't believe chinese new year crept up on me so quickly! since i'm still on maternity leave, i went and hung out with my parents and went to visit our relatives. it was weird to get red envelopes again. aj received a fairly generous number of red envelopes from all my relatives!

umm...my mom got this chinese outfit for my nephew. unfortunately (or fortunately), they didn't make them in 3 months for aj!

hey, you owe me some red envelopes!

okay, do you want them back?

must wear our red outfits!

3 months old

i can't believe aj is 3 months old today (ha, i think i say this every month)! this last month has definitely flown by; probably due to the holidays. so let's recap how my sweetie has changed...

weight - he's definitely getting bigger! i'm not sure how much he weighs but he definitely feels heavier heehee. he actually started wearing 3-6 months clothes a couple of weeks ago; more really for his length though.

sleep - it was rough for a bit. he was waking up a couple of times a night. not for a feeding but he just wanted to be soothed. so i'd wake up at 2ish, comfort him and then have to get up at 4ish to feed him. well, just this past weekend, he started waking up at 4 to be soothed and didn't get back up until 7 or 8 for a feeding! i'm actually getting at least 5 or 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep! i won't hold my breathe - we'll see when he regresses! his naps are going well. putting him down is relatively painless, it's getting him to take long naps! he'll usually wake up after 30 - 45 min but needs to be soothed to sleep for another hour or so. since his bedtime is still 10p; he usually takes four naps a day. i'm trying to adjust and get him into bed earlier but it doesn't really work out with his feeding schedule.

feeding - what a good transition into his feeding. i've survived another month!! i can honestly say that breast feeding is actually going okay! my breasts are still quite sensitive and i don't think they'll ever look the same again. my only issue is that since he's going longer without a feeding, my breasts are quite engorged. i actually look forward to feedings at times so that i can get rid of the milk! i just want to survive another month and then i have to think about going back to work and pumping - yuck!!

personality - i'm happy to report that his temperament isn't as serious anymore. he's definitely a more happier baby. he's not really into looking at himself in the mirror. he's most happiest early in the morning and after each feeding. he loves to see new faces and loves having people talk to him. he also really likes being on his changing pad. he has this panda bear that he adores and these hand puppets that can entertain him for hours.

smiling on his changing pad

"oh interesting, these are called toes?"

"why is mommy making me do tummy time?"

"i love sleeping on daddy!"

sleep is over rated...

or at least that's what i try to convince myself! aj is almost 3 months old and i'm trying to start some good sleeping / napping habits. for the first 2 months of his life, i took aj everywhere with me and he just slept a lot. at night, i only got up once for a feeding, usually at 4-5 am. so overall, i didn't really have much to worry about. i thought, wow, aj is such a great baby. =)

ummm...spoke too soon! 2 weeks ago, he started waking up at 2-3 am. he wasn't hungry but just needed to be soothed. this continued for days and i figured i better start reading those sleeping books!! so in the baby whisperer book, she recommends this "easy" schedule. well, it's not easy!! haahaa. she mentioned that you should stop swaddling after 6 weeks as the baby starts to discover his hands and can use them to self soothe. so i thought, easy enough! maybe he'll soothe himself at the 2-3 am waking. i don't know if he wasn't used to his free body but then he woke up every 2 hours instead!! he obviously didn't know how to self soothe so i had to get up and calm him down. sometimes it was quick and only took five minutes but other times it took almost an hour!

so then i bought another book, healthy sleep habits, healthy child and tried to utilize some of his tips. he emphasized the importance of napping and "window of wakefulness". so i decided to not go out for a couple of days and see if i can observe aj's napping tendencies without the distractions of going out and having the car seat or stroller alter his schedule. if he had great naps during the day, it would set him up for success at night. he also emphasized putting your child to bed earlier. he also dissed the baby whisperer at times; for example, dismissing the claim that sleeping has nothing to do with your stomach and "tanking" doesn't work.

well, i just have to say, i have no idea what parents write these testimonials about the effectiveness of these sleeping books because it is NOT a miracle worker for me and aj!! this whole putting your child down while he's still awake but drowsy and not overtired is not always that easy!! i do think it's good that i try to understand aj's sleeping patterns but then i end up stressing about his naps being too short or long or too few or many!

i think i'm just putting too much pressure on myself and certainly aj to try to get a structured routine now in preparation of going back to work in a month in a half or so. whatever...

aj's first christmas

since s and i were both not working the week of christmas, we felt that we were up to hosting christmas. also, with this being aj's first christmas, it was nice to have both families together. the only missing person was s' sister, who unfortunately, had to work on christmas. this was the first time that we've hosted a dinner with aj and it was interesting to say the least. prep time definitely slowed down due to having to break to breast feed or entertaining him when he was feeling lonely. we also made all the dishes from scratch and it took a bit more time that we thought. i actually ended up not making a salad because we had more than enough veggies and i ran out of time!

aj had a great first christmas with his grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins! he was very grateful for all the generous gifts and can't wait to play with all his new toys!

our christmas dinner

j always making sure everyone is liquored up!

busy eating...

m with c

g and f enjoying dinner...

j trying to give c food - c saying 'don't touch me with that thing'

j givng aj the stare down

j wants aj off of him while...

c just wants to get away from both of them!

my family minus the hubbies...

s' family minus the h's

paw paw and gung gung with their 2 favorite grandson

aj with paw paw

christmas eve

my wonderful cousin invited us over on christmas eve. since we no longer spend christmas with their family, it was nice to see them and have the kids play together. aj was on his best behavior for his first christmas eve...

matching red shirts with denim pants

aj's 1st present

with auntie j

with uncle f

j pushing m along in the truck

they're stuck...looking at the truck to see what's wrong!