Source: Voice of Russia
Russia has started the annual Days of Defence against Environmental Hazards from the 15th of April to the 5th of June with the announcement of sensational results of an independent work of research. Scientists have proved that Genetically Modified Organisms are harmful for mammals. The researchers discovered that animals that eat GM foodstuffs lose Continue reading
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| From Nathan 2 months |
On April 22 Nathan turned 2 months. I can’t believe how fast the time is going! Seems like just yesterday we brought him home from the hospital. He seems to be adjusting very well to his new life outside mommy’s tummy. Everything checked out great at his 2 month doctor’s check up. Apparently he is in the 96th percentile for height and 80th percentile for weight for his age group. No wonder he wants to eat all the time! This is completely opposite from my daughter. She always checks out in the 25th percentile.
Though he’s not sleeping through the night yet, he usually wakes up only once a night to eat. His going-into-the-night time fussiness has greatly subsided. For the first month and a half of his life, his daily crying fit would begin around dinner time and last until 10:30-11 at night. He would literally scream this whole time, unless he was being fed or held. Now he still cries, but it’s only for a few minutes at a time.
Elyana seems to be adjusting well to her baby brother. She can’t quite say his name yet, so she refers to him as baby or bother (brother that is). Even though she plays rough at times, he seems to enjoy her company for the most part. He loves the attention and lets off crooked teethless smiles as she touches or kisses or talks to him.
The three of us started to get more social after Nathan turned 6 weeks. We now routinely visit the library for Elyana’s toddler story time and the playground. We go for morning stroller walks two to three times a week. It’s a great exercise for me and an outing for the kiddies. I am now braving grocery shopping by myself with the two of them. Nathan is usually sound asleep and Elyana, well, she’s being Elyana, the typical toddler in her terrible twos. She does fine though, unless the check out line is too long. Then she tries to sneak a candy bar or two past me, though puts it back when I ask her to. She is definitely learning ‘the rights’ and ‘the wrongs’. When she does something wrong, she feels bad and tries to fix it. We’re taking her out of daycare that she attended part time for the past 3 months. I now got the routine going with the little one, and I feel confident that I can keep Ely busy without having her in daycare.
Today Elyana had her first shower. We went for a stroller walk right before dinner. I knew that I wasn’t going to fit her bath and my shower in separately before dinner, so I combined the two. We took a shower together and made it well before dinner time. She seemed to enjoy it!
Seems like I’ve been moving a mile a minute since Nathan was born seven weeks ago. Now the randomity of dealing with our new family member is wearing off, and the well-desired routine is settling in. A quick update is long overdue after taking a 7-week break from blogging.
Baby Nathan is now 7 weeks old and is doing well. Alas, last couple of nights I went to bed before midnight for the first time since he was born. Usually he needs attendance until 1-2 in the morning before going down for the night. I’m hoping that the pattern of him falling asleep at a normal time continues, since I have to be up for my oldest at 7:30.
He’s been smiling for couple of weeks already. Best time to catch him greening is in the mornings or while changing his diaper. He loves attention. His fussy time is at night, starting around dinner and ending with his last feeding for the day, at around 10. Often we have to move him to his crib during dinner for the sake of our sanity. Though having two-year old around kind of defeats the purpose.
Elyana is still going to daycare twice a week and seems to enjoy it. I enjoy a little break from her as well. She learns a lot there and constantly shows off new words and skills she learned there! Her language skills and awareness of her surroundings are improving a mile a minute. Just yesterday I missed a turn to the library and as soon as I did that, she yelled: “Mommy go where? Mommy go where?”. That caught my attention and I made a U-turn before I drove too far. Elyana is quite a dancer and a singer. She’s more likely going to be artistic and I can’t wait to get her into something that involves dancing or music of some sort.
I’m fully recovered from delivery and working at establishing a realistic exercise routine for myself. Breastfeeding is taking up a good chunk of my day, though it’s getting easier as the time passes by. Lack of sleep and possibly other things are starting to affect my ability to remember things. Sometimes I feel like a complete cluts! I’ve given up at keeping my house “perfect” and my face made-up, as I simply don’t have the time! As long as I manage to clean the kitchen, pick up loose toys around the house, brush my teeth, wash my face and conceal the dark circles under my eyes, I feel pretty good! At the end of the day, I’m not going to remember how clean my carpet was or whether I made up my bed.
On a different note, I’ve been accepted back into graduate school at USF for Masters in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering. I took a break after my daughter was born in December of ’07. Not sure if I will be attending this summer, since only couple of courses are offered by a different engineering department. Though it would be nice, since they are being offered online!
My other posts from this series:
Choosing a Stroller and a Car Seat
In this post I will focus on articles that I found unnecessary either through my own experience or judgment. So here is my list:
Breast pump. I’m sure it depends on the type you get, but the one I got was not working for me at all. Since I knew that I was going to be staying home, I decided to settle for one of the cheapest automatic pumps out there. I would sit there for 15-30 minutes at the time, pumping and get only an ounce or two of breast milk from both of my breasts combined. I was even thinking that my body will get used to it within time and gave it a run of a month or two. The pump was designed to pump from both breasts at the same time, but one of the sides broke way before I gave up on it.
With this in mind, if you are seriously considering pumping, Continue reading
Today’s visit to my gyno was a little disappointing. My cervix is still completely closed, not even a hint of dilation or ripening. Before my visit I was pretty sure that something was happening, since I had quite a bit of cramping for two days in the row, just couple of days ago.
It’s pretty different from my first pregnancy. The first time around, my cervix was 1.5 centimeters dilated for 2-3 weeks prior due date. And sure enough I went into labor on the 5th day after my due date.
This time Continue reading
My other posts from this series:
Choosing a Stroller and a Car Seat
In this post I am going to focus on other baby gear that I personally found important to have and why. If you’re about to have a baby shower for your first child, walking through the baby store’s isles can be overwhelming. So many articles, they all seem important and possibly necessary. Monitors, crib mobiles, swings, playpens, bath tubs, changing table pads, diaper disposals etc, etc… I think it’s important to separate these items into three categories, “not needed”, “I could possibly use that” and “I definitely need it”! From that point you can make a decision for what you need to purchase based on the necessity level and the budget.
Even with my first one, I used careful judgment at picking baby items (yep, I’m a minimalista!). I evaluated how long I would be using the item, how much it costs and what is its necessity level. And since I knew ahead of time that we were planning on two kids, I picked the colors to cover either gender.
This is a list of items that I’m glad I got, since they were well worth getting.
Playpen/bassinet combination with changing pad is a definite necessity and will serve your child from birth until 2 or 3 years old. I decided not to purchase changing table, see why in my previous article and started using playpen from the time my daughter was born. I didn’t use it as a bassinet, since it’s bulky and not easily movable. When my daughter grew up a little, I got rid of the changing pad and started using it as an actual playpen. It’s definitely a lifesaver when you need to leave the room to take a shower or if you’re cleaning the house or when they simply misbehave! Since it can be folded into a compact bag, it served Continue reading
Before I even start talking about choosing a jogging stroller, here are some questions I think you should ask yourself:
Like I was saying Continue reading
In my earlier post I talked about saving money on furnishing and decorating the nursery. In this post I’ll be talking about picking the right stroller.
In my opinion, an every day stroller is not a thing to buy at the garage sale. Since it has a few nuts and bolts, moving parts, folding mechanism, you want these things to be sturdy, last a while and work well. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be using your stroller a lot. I use it to go on the walks in the neighborhood, shopping, play dates, adventure parks, etc.
Before purchasing I would strongly recommend Continue reading