7 Months

She cut her first tooth yesterday!!! When I got back from work, Frank told me to put my finger in her mouth and feel her gums, and to my surprise, I felt something sharp and pointy! There are 3 little white bumps where the tooth is breaking through. I can also see the tooth next to that one about to come up also. Wow, she's not going to be a toothless baby anymore! So of course, I am both happy and sad. Happy that she's going to finally have teeth, but sad that she's never going to be my toothless little girl anymore... Why do babies grow up so quickly? I am not ready for this at all. A couple of weeks ago, she pushed herself back up to a sitting position from her tummy. I was so proud of her! I just want to freeze her at this stage. She's so easily amused by us now. Always so happy. I'm so afraid that as she gets older, she won't want to spend all of her time with us anymore. I just want to be able to hug her and hold her all the time. She's already showing signs of wanting more independent playtime now. She's great at sitting and playing on her own in her room and she loves the freedom of roaming anywhere she wants in her walker. She's gotten really good with the walker now, she's Guinny's worst nightmare!

6 Months

I have come to the realization that I am not a very diligent blogger! I guess time is sort of an issue too, but then of course I am just looking for excuses =) First thing first, at Ellie's 6 month check up, she was 19.9 lbs and 26.5 inches, 90th and 75th percentile respectively! I may be partial, but she is getting cuter and cuter every day! I love all of her rolls and just want to hug her ALL the time!!!

At five months, Ellie went on her first official vacation to Cancun! She did pretty well on the plane ride which was surprising to me. I for sure thought that I was going to be the one with the crying baby the entire plane ride, but she was such a good girl. We didn't have much time to do much, but we did take her to Xcaret. She did fine with the heat, sun and humidity. I think she did better than I did. We spent a lot of time just relaxing at the hotel pools and beach. All in all, a great time! Although traveling with an infant has its inconveniences, it was definitely worth it to us. Hopefully, there will be many more family vacations to come.

Developmentally, she has done a lot. At five months, we started her on solids. At first, I thought I was going to make my own baby food, but I realized that I really didn't have that much time and I'd rather be spending any extra time that I have playing with her, so we are going the jarred baby food path, which is fine with both Frank and me. She also started sitting unassisted at 5 months. Now, she is a total pro at sitting by herself and playing independently. We bought the alphabet foam pads for her room, and as soon as I put her down at one corner, she rolls ALL over the place and can end up at the opposite corner in a matter of seconds. She is able to get on all fours, but no crawling movements yet. At the beginning, she showed a preference of rolling one direction and as first time parents, we started worrying that she wasn't going to be able to roll the other direction, but now, she has mastered rolling both to her left and her right, from tummy to back and back to tummy. We also started putting her in her walker. She's great at moving backwards in it and also trying to move forward, but that seems like it's much harder to learn than flying backwards =) Ellie also babbles a lot more now. She's constantly playing with her consonant sounds, but they're mostly "da da da da da" or "ba ba ba ba ba", very rarely would she go "ma ma ma" but I am working on it with her! Also, the other big improvement is her naps. She's now able to fall asleep on her own pretty well for naps. We no longer have to hold her and rock her for 20+ minutes. Took some time to get here, but I think she's finally grasp the concept that it's nap time and we're putting her down because she's tired and needs sleep. We just have to work on extending the duration of naps now... It's hard, she's so alert all of the time and curious about the world. She doesn't want to miss out on anything that goes on around her.

The other night when I was putting her to bed, I held her on me and was about to walk over to her crib to put her down. I looked into the mirror and saw our reflection and couldn't help but feel a bit sad inside. Don't get me wrong, I love how she's a happy girl and excited for new milestones, and I'd never thought I'd say this, but I miss her as a newborn. I still remember when we first brought her home, she looked so small when I held her against me. Now she is so much longer and bigger. Pretty soon, she won't be our "little" girl anymore! She already won't let us cradle her anymore, and we had to put her infant swing away a couple of weeks ago. Time really flies and I'm going to miss being able to hold her and cuddle with her. I am loving the stage that she's at though. I love how she's able to sit on her own and play contently with her toys by herself. Pretty soon, she'll be moving all over the place and probably won't be so still when I want to cuddle with her anymore =(

Oh please Ellie, don't grow up so quickly. Mommy just want to hold you and love you and protect you forever...

4 Months

At Ellie's 4 month well baby checkup, she was 17lb and 25in!!! Mommy's little chubster. When her pediatrician saw her, the first thing he said was, 'wow, she's chubby huh? that's good!' Yup, she is definitely well nourished by mommy's milk! The other day, Frank and I were looking at her newborn pictures and she looks completely different now. She just gets cuter and cuter every day!

Over the 4th of July weekend, her Auntie Denise shaved her head, so now she has no hair. At first, I was really afraid of shaving her head, but since all of the hair on the back of her head is rubbed off, she looks so funny, that I finally gave into peer pressure! Surprisingly, it came out pretty good! My mom and dad love her new look. Ellie was also really well behaved during the entire process. She didn't cry at all, not even when she got a little cut on her ear.

She is babbling, smiling, and laughing a lot now, but she is still a screamer! Periodically, she'll also squeal in delight which is really cute! She can roll over from tummy to back, and we are now working on unassisted sitting. When she's on her playmat, she'll always roll over half way from back to side to reach for her toys, but hasn't really gotten all the way over yet without our help. She also loves to stand and has very strong legs. Her favorite activities lately are peekaboo and singing with hand motions. The itsy bitsy spider song gets her to smile and laugh almost all the time! And I know, all parents probably say this, but honestly, there is no better sound in this world than to hear your own child laugh. I hope I will always be able to make Ellie laugh...

100th Day

Today is Ellie's 100th day. Seriously, where does the time go? She has finally started sleeping through the night now too! Been almost a consistent 2 weeks. Hopefully she can keep it up. Last weekend, we took her to Vegas for her grandpa's birthday. She went into the pool with her daddy for the very first time. Babies look so adorable in their little bathing suits. We figured we should start her in the pool early. That way she can get used to the water and learn to swim soon, then later on, she can go abalone fishing with us =) I wonder if there is an age limit?

Ellie's continuing to grow every day. Everyone always comments on the rolls on her arms and legs. I think they are super cute! Just means that she's thriving and well nourished by her mommy!

3 Months

Can't believe it's been 3 months already. Time truly goes by so quickly. Pretty soon I'll be back at work. I am terrified that I will miss out on her when the time comes. Frank says that he'll talk Ellie into waiting for me to come home first before reaching any of her milestones. If only that would be the case. I want to witness every one of her "firsts". I want to be there the first time she gets up to crawl, her first step, her first word. But I know that I have to go back to work, so right now, I just want to enjoy every second that I get to spend at home with her.

Ellie's growth and development have been pretty on track. She's now close to 15 pounds already! Her chubby cheeks, arms and legs make her so cute and adorable! I know I may be partial though =) She's a lot more alert and active when she's awake now, and she loves to talk to her daddy. I swear, she's extra talkative when Frank is talking to her. Already a daddy's girl! Oh, and she finally laughed aloud last week! It is honestly the greatest sound ever!

So no one ever told me that being a first time mother was going to be this hard. I'm not exactly certain if I would be having any more children since I really obsess about everything. I have a constant fear that I am doing something wrong. Right now, I am definitely obsessed with her sleep! She gets crazy when she's overly tired so I'm trying my best to put her down for naps before she gets cranky. That means that I always think twice about taking her out. I feel like almost everything interrupts her sleeping schedule, so we're cooped up at home most of the time. But the good thing is that she's falling into a more predictable schedule now, so hopefully she can keep it up!

8 Weeks Update

Wow, time really does go by really quickly. She's already 8 weeks old! Went in for her 2 month well baby checkup and vaccinations today. She weighed 12.65 pounds and measured 23 inches. That's up from 9.75 pounds and 21.5 inches at 4 weeks. Pediatrician told us that she is at the 90th percentile for weight, height and head circumference. So she's on track and thriving!!

Only thing that worries me lately is that she still does not sleep for very long stretches at night. Our record was 4 1/2 hours. I can't wait until she sleeps a little better. Now I'm not asking for 8 hours, just 5-6 hours would be great!

She is definitely more alert and active now, especially during tummy time. She's able to hold her head up and turn from side to side! I am still amazed every day with her growth and development. Just 8 more weeks until I have to go back to work. I don't really know how I feel about that. I don't want to miss out on her every day...

Birth Story

Elise's estimated due date was Tuesday, February 23, 2010, but she never made her debut before then, so we decided to go in for an induction. We checked in to St Joseph Hospital on Wednesday night at 10pm, but because they were having such a busy night in Labor and Delivery that we didn't get into our private room until 1am. As soon as I changed and got settled into the bed, the nurse checked me and my cervix still didn't have much change yet. My OB wrote me up for 2 doses of Cytotec (ripen and soften the cervix), given 4 hours apart, then we were to start on Pitocin later on to get the contractions going. First dose was given at 1:30am. I was told that I may have minor cramps but should be able to get some rest and the nurse would be back 4 hours later to give me my second dose.

At 4am, I started to feel contractions. The nurse came in at 5:3oam to give me my second dose of Cytotec. This second dose killed me!! I immediately began to feel the contractions get stronger and longer. The on call OB came to check up on me at 7am and told me that I was progressing very well with the drugs, dilating to 1-2cm, and according to schedule, I should be fully dilated and ready to push the latest by 4pm.

At the beginning, I told Frank I wanted to try to go through this process as natural as possible and see if I can skip the epidural all together. Boy, I have no idea who I was kidding... At 7:30am, I was at 3cm and could no longer tolerate the pain. I was sweating, screaming, and basically pulling Frank's arm off since the contractions were 1 minute apart. Frank called the nurse and she came back with the anesthesiologist. Trust me, seeing the anesthesiologist was the best thing in the world, he was seriously my best friend that day. So we put in the epidural and I immediately felt better. I was still able to feel the contractions but the pain was no where near what I had felt earlier. After awhile, as the pain got worse I pressed for 2 extra boluses of medication on the epidural. Then at 10am, I got really scared because the pain I felt earlier was coming back and I thought the epidural was already wearing off. So we called the nurse again and she had the anesthesiologist come back in to give me an extra shot. She told me that I was feeling a lot more pain because I was almost done dilating and didn't need the Pitocin at all. Everyone was quite surprised that I reacted so well to the Cytotec and that I was going to be able to start pushing in less than an hour.

We started pushing at about 11:45am and at about 12:30pm she was almost crowning but my OB wasn't at the hospital yet. The nurse had me stop pushing and we waited. The pushing part wasn't all the bad except that I couldn't really feel much. I had no idea how hard I was pushing or where she was in the birth canal. After the arrival of my OB, she was born at 1:00pm!! When she first came out, I was so surprised since I didn't feel her coming out. They lifted her up and I said 'Oh my god!' She was all slimy and covered in blood. All I could think about was how did I get that thing out of me?!?!?! They had Frank cut the umbilical cord, dried her off with a towel and immediately put her on my skin. I am a mother! Words cannot describe how it felt to hold her for the very first time. After 9 months of waiting, she was finally here.

So on Thursday, February 25, 2010, Elise Camryn Leung made her arrival into our hearts.

Weight: 7lb 8oz

Length: 19 1/12 inches

Head: 35 cm

Apgar Score: 9/9

Nursery Pics

So we are almost completely done with the nursery! All we're missing is a chair/rocker, and Frank still needs to put together the swing set we got from my wonderful friends at DB. I also finally finished the last load of laundry and the bassinet is put together. I guess the 'nesting' phase is over, and now the nervousness sets in! We are both very excited and nervous for the big day!

At first I wanted to buy already painted letters from a seller I found on eBay, but after some thought, I didn't think I wanted to spend $15 per letter, so I had the great idea of buying the wooden letters and painting them myself. Although the letters did not come out any where near what I had originally envisioned, I guess it would have to do. The original idea was to paint butterflies, lady bugs, and dragonflies on each of the letters too, but after spending 2 whole days and putting 10 coats of acrylic paint on the letters just to make them look even, I talked Frank in to letting me just leaving them a solid color. I should have listened to Frank in the first place, he told me to leave them plain white, but I thought I could be creative and I mean, how hard can it be??? Just let me tell you, it's hard! I know why those sellers can charge $15+ per letter now! Sorry Ellie, but mommy is just not cut out for this! =P

Ultrasound Pictures - 20 weeks

Then at our 20 week ultrasound, another technician told us 'It's a Girl!!!' We just looked at each other all confused. But here are the pictures of our little girl. Please don't let there by anymore surprises, I cannot imagine the doctor telling me anything but 'Congratulations! It's a GIRL!' in the delivery room.

Ultrasound Pictures - 15 weeks

Here are the very first ultrasound pictures. Yup, the technician told us 'It's a Boy!!!' And of course we proceeded to tell all of our family and friends that we were expecting a little boy.