#2 : by jean

a friend of a friend accidentally got pregnant with their #3.  they were happy with 2 kids but then had a weekend away from the kids, perhaps too much vodka, and then voilà!

note to self: NEVER get drunk while not on birth control.  EVER. 

so this story got me thinking-- i know there's no "right" time to have a baby but when is it a good time to have baby #2?  just so you know, i am not pregnant nor am i planning to get pregnant or drunk any time soon. :)

my sister was born when i was 10, so i always envied friends who had brothers and sisters around their age.  it seemed like so much fun!  now that i'm a parent, i would like miles to have a sibling or two (maybe) somewhat close in age, but i am sooo not ready to go through the sleepless nights again.  pregnancy wasn't too bad, but i just don't have it in me yet to deal with labor and the first few newborn weeks.  i feel like i'm now JUST getting my life back, really enjoying miles and getting to understand his personality.

how did you decide to have #2, #3, or more?  did it just happen, or did you plan?

my holiday pet peeve : by amy

Before I write this post, I just want to say to my fellow parent-friends that I think your kids are cute, and I love looking at their photos on Facebook, on your phone, on your fridge, on your computer screen, and everywhere else you post them.  God's honest truth, I do!

But I have a pet peeve.
And it happens during this time of the year.

The holidays are here, which means time to write those holiday cards.  The family photo cards have become increasingly popular among families with young children.   The ones that look something like this:

Cute, right?  You probably just ordered yours, didn't you?  (and from TinyPrints, right?  They have the best designs!)  So, in the example above, the card has its holiday greeting and is "signed" by The Smiths, which include Jenna, Derek, Catherine and Robby.  Well, guess what?  There are FOUR people in The Smith family but only TWO people in the picture!  What the fudge.

....

You think I'm crazy, right?  Am I the only person in the world who is annoyed by this?  Actually, my husband agrees with me (of course).  I will admit that this irked me much more when I was childless.  I mean, if the card is from "The Smiths," I expect a picture of The Smiths-- all four of them!  What makes you think that I only want to see a picture of JUST your kids?  YOU (the parents) are the ones I'm friends with, so when I hang it on my fridge, I'd like to think of you first and your kids second.  Parents, why do you shaft yourself from the holiday photo card??  You are part of the family too!

December 2011 was our first Christmas with child, and low and behold, I wanted to make a holiday family photo card.  Yes, parents, I finally understood why you guys love making these cards.  It's a nice way to chronicle your children's Christmases and watch them grow.  The husband and I went back and forth on it, and in the end, we decided to make one under the following conditions:

1) If it was going to be from "The Changs," the card would have to include a picture of all 3 of us
2) We were only giving them to family and close friends who came to our holiday brunch.  No mass mailings.

So, that's what we did.  This was last year's picture:

And yes, I already ordered mine for this year.  It's from The Changs-- all 3 of us!

Thanks to this post, I have a feeling my mailbox is going to be a little more empty than past years...! :P  I still stick all of your kids' photos on my fridge!

Happy thanksgiving!

Happy thanksgiving everyone! We are so thankful for all our family and friends...esp thankful that we get to raise our sons and share with you all.

See you back for our regular post on Monday!

itchy, itchy eczema! : by amy

'Tis the season for peppermint hot chocolate, Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown classics and...eczema.

The dry air that winter brings can be tough on baby's sensitive skin.  Logan always had very sensitive skin even even in the humid August air when he was first born.  Initially, we thought it was just newborn rash, which was partially true.  After months went by, a few stubborn patches just wouldn't fade away.  His eczema was very apparent on his face and eventually spread to the creases by his elbows and behind the knees.

Here are some things we used/did to help alleviate Logan's eczema:

1) Breathable, loose-fitting, soft cotton onesies and separates were the most comfortable for his skin. 

2)  The doctor said to avoid liquid soaps/shampoos since they dry out skin over bar soaps (even if they say they're for sensitive skin, which meant I couldn't use the bottles of California Baby and Mustela that I had gotten as gifts).  He recommended Dove Unscented moisturizing bar soap, which we still use to this day.

3) Don't bathe him too frequently.  Newborns don't really get dirty anyway.  So we bathed him 2-3 times a week and washed his bum with warm water when he had an extra nasty diaper.  Now, we bathe him 3-4x a week since he gets pretty gross at day care.

4) When you do bathe him, make sure the water isn't too warm and you don't keep him in the warm water for too long.  The warmer the water, the more it will dry out his skin.  I've become a pro at quick and efficient baths!

5) Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize!  We moisturize Logan's face about 3x a day.  The morning and night regimen is as follows:

a) CeraVe

This stuff is the ish.  Before I discovered Cereve, we were using tons of Aquaphor and Eucerin, but it wasn't helping much.  My husband's co-worker recommended this, and it has been an absolute skin-saver.  According to the company website, it has the following special technology: The unique, patented Multivesicular Emulsion (MVE®) delivery technology in CeraVe Skincare products provides multiple layers of skin-nurturing and protective ingredients to the skin slowly over time.

So it slowly releases its "stuff" into the skin over time.  What is the "stuff"? 

• Ceramides, which help repair the skin barrier
• Hyaluronic acid, which attracts needed moisture
• Emollients, which moisturize & soften skin

This cream definitely feels different from other moisturizers.  I accidentally got some on my lips once and was amazed by how moist and soft my lips felt, even after wiping it off!  We were told not to purchase the lotion, but the CREAM.  After his bath, we dry him off and immediately slather the cream all over his face and body to lock in the moisture.  You can find CeraVe at most major drugstores, but just a heads up that one jar of this will cost you about $15-18, but it's totally worth it!  You can even use it yourself as face cream-- very gentle on skin like Cetaphil and not greasy at all.

b) Aquaphor

Who doesn't have Aquaphor in their medicine cabinet?  We went through tubes of this stuff in the beginning before we discovered CeraVe.  Logan also won't stop drooling (starting to worry that he'll be 18 and still drooling...) so I always have tubes of Aquaphor in every bag to protect his mouth area and chin.  We put on a thin layer (after the CeraVe) on specific eczema-problem areas where it's extra dry, and especially before we put on any...

c) Hydrocortisone

Prescription hydrocortisone.  This is the one that Logan's pediatrician prescribed.  I'm told that the 0.1% is very weak and completely safe for babies when used correctly.  We only use the hydrocortisone when it's REALLY bad, or if there is a very sudden flare-up.  The doctor says to first put down a layer of Aquaphor and then a very thin layer of the hydrocortisone, 2x a day.  Typically, when we use the hydrocortisone, we see results by the next day, so we don't use it consistently-- maybe only a few times a month. 


Before I ran out of it, I also used this lotion on eczema patches before the Aquaphor layer:

Neosporin Eczema Essentials

I wanted to give this a try, so I used it during the day time on his arms and legs (not after baths).  At first, I couldn't tell if this actually worked or if it was just my rigorous moisturizing regimen that was improving Logan's skin.  But after using it for a week, I did notice a difference, even without having to use Aquaphor as a top layer all of the time.  I've been meaning to buy more of this stuff for the winter.  Get a $3 off coupon here at Neosporin's website!

What helps your baby's eczema?

they make that?? : by jean

miles is at an age where he does NOT stay still especially when you are changing his diaper.  he's constantly trying to roll over as i'm cleaning away his smelly mess.

i was flipping through some magazines and came across this!

hulabye

i don't know about you but i started CRACKING UP!!

they really do make something for EVERYTHING in the baby industry.  is this for real?  i'm sure it could work...but am i really going to spend $44 to have my child stay put as i'm changing his diaper?

and what about this?!

 

zaky infant pillow

i'm sorry but this is just CREEPY!  let's have fake hands to make your baby feel like you are touching them when you are not. ahh!!

i just had to share. :)

if any of you have these, please do share if they work or not!

happy thursday~

separation anxiety (the other way around) : by amy

Last week was my second time travelling for work since I came back from maternity leave.  The first time, I was away for 2 nights and frankly, sort of looked forward to the break from mommy-duties.  This time, I was away for nearly a week and in another country.  The trip came right after our extended trip to California, so I didn't feel mentally or emotionally prepared.  I also just spent 12 straight days with Logan (which, aside from the 1st day, were glorious), which was the longest time I ever spent with Logan since maternity leave.  I admit that I liked it...a lot.  Logan's toddler months are more tiring but definitely more fun than his newborn months when I was home with him.

So, when Monday morning arrived, I couldn't help but tear up as I picked Logan up from his crib.  I was so used to being with him all day/night from vacation, and now I wouldn't be able to see him for 5 nights.  How was I going to get through the week??

I was very unhappy to leave that day, but this is what made the trip a little more bearable:

1. Business class.  Unlimited booze, movies and ice cream sundaes can definitely ease the mental stress.
2. Non-stop work.  I was 6 hours ahead of US Eastern, so I ended up working "double-shifts" each day.  I would just keep myself occupied all day and night to max out my productivity.  After dinner, I'd keep working in my hotel room, but this was when I got a chance to...
3. FaceTime.  Seriously, what did travelling parents do before FaceTime??  Thank you, Steve Jobs.

I spoke with a few working dads on my team about how they deal with the time away from home.  Most of them consider the travel to be a nice break from the kids (but they still miss their kids).  They call, FaceTime or Skype every night or when they can after business activities are over.  One dad told me that he once he's home for 3 weeks, he's typically itching to travel again and get out of the house because he needs a "break" from the kids and stuff going on at home.  While I was a little surprised to hear that, I sort of empathized.  Travelling for work can be pretty posh.  You are able to regain and enjoy a part of your pre-parent self, such as adult and intellectually challenging conversations over late-night drinks, or indulge in (free) extravagant business dinners, or catch up on movies on the plane-- the non-cartoon/PG13 ones that you're forced to watch with the kids.  You have time to get up in the morning and work out because you don't need to worry about waking/feeding/dressing the kids and rushing them out the door.

These men have stay-at-home wives ("SAHW"), so they don't always feel guilty about leaving their kids alone with their wives for a few days-- this is what the SAHW signed up for.  I felt guilty leaving Logan with the husband and mother-in-law all week (though the husband's office was closed all week due to the hurricane, so it kind of worked out).  But in the end, everything worked out.  Logan welcomed me with a big happy hug...which made me cry again.

How do you working/travelling parents deal with the separation from your kids?

brr it's cold! : by jean

are you guys cold?  i am!  hope most of you  in the tri-state are safe and with power.

now that winter is pretty much here, we are always looking for the best way to keep miles warm whenever we are out and about.  since we are NOT in the 'burbs, it's not easy to find the best way to keep miles warm since we're not always travelling by car.  but, when we are driving, our car seat is now set up with the bundle me so we can snuggle him in there going in and out of the car.

JJ Cole Bundle Me

on a regular basis, we are struggling to figure out the best way to drop him off and pick him up from daycare.  his daycare is about 15 min walk or a 7 min bus ride down the street from our place. normally, we like to put him in the bjorn and get on the bus if we see one coming.  when we have extra time, we take him in the stroller, but we prefer to hop on the bus to get home quickly in order to feed, clean, and do all of that other good stuff.

since it's been getting cold, we've been trying to bundle him up and cover him under our jackets while wearing the bjorn.  we realized quickly that it didn't seem to work so well.  his stroller, on the other hand, is completely decked out and ready for any storm coming our way.  we recently purchased the bugaboo high performance footmuff which was a lot more than i wanted to pay (and much more than the regular footmuff) but figured it would be worth it since we are always strolling around the neighborhood.

bugaboo high performance footmuff

so for the bjorn, i am looking into this cover.  i know miles will only need it for this season since we won't be using the carrier with him for too much longer, but has anyone used it?  is it worth getting or are there better solutions out there?

baby bjorn cover for baby carrier

what are some ways you keep your babies warm and cozy in the winter?

in-n-out of Cali, animal-style : by amy

Our family got to share our first In-n-Out experience together last week.  Husband and I each got the single cheeseburger, animal-style (the not-so-secret-"secret" amazingly delicious topping, which is simply Thousand Island dressing and caramelized onions-- tip the hat to Big Mac), and Logan got a regular burger.  My husband and I both devoured our burgers (OK, I ate half of Logan's burger too...and animal fries).  But we came a long way before we could even think about tasting this fast-food-deliciousness.  I'm not just talking about the 2,800 miles we traveled by air, but that's where I'll begin since it was pretty quick and painless.

The Plane Ride
This ended up being much easier than I anticipated.  My UppaBaby umbrella stroller (which Jean also used for her Korea trip) was the super-star of my trip, along with my Kate Spade diaper bag-- this thing carries A LOT more than it looks!  Anyway, I packed a few books, 2 toys, the iPad, 2 blankets (thin and thick), some squeezy packs and other snacks, 1 bottle, spare liners, my thermos which stored 16 ounces of milk (which I was allowed take through security), and an extra change of clothes for Logan (in additional to diapers, wipes and Bibsters). We got Logan his own seat, so we sat in a row of 3, which was plenty of room for him.  It was also helpful that the people sitting behind us enjoyed playing peek-a-boo with Logan.  He even napped for an hour on the plane, which gave us a nice break.  However, the plane ride back home was more difficult, mostly because the timing was bad (but we had no choice due to our 3 rescheduled flights caused by Hurricane Sandy).  Logan started to get overly squirmy and refused to sleep, but reading books seemed to calm him down.  He also ended the flight with a little barf right as we landed.  These Arm and Hammer clean-up bags are always crucial to keep in the diaper bag for accidents like this.

The Hospital
Bet you weren't expecting this.  We arrived in San Diego in the late morning and our hotel room wasn't going to be ready until about 4pm.  Logan was still on east coast time, so I wanted to put him to bed by around 4:30pm west coast-time, which meant I would have to feed him dinner as soon as we checked in.  We stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn in the Gaslamp Quarter because 1) They had full kitchens and separate spaces between the living and bed rooms; 2) It included a hot breakfast and in the one we stayed at in Irvine, even dinner; and 3) It was downtown which would be stroller-friendly and dinner-friendly for the husband and me after Logan went to sleep.  At around 4:15pm, we checked into our room.  I immediately started microwaving and cutting up the frozen lasagna that I bought for Logan while the husband brought in the bags and started to unpack his suit.  Within minutes, the husband walked on an Advil tablet that was randomly found on the floor.  WEIRD.  Thank God he found it before Logan did!  We did a quick scan of the floor for any more random items on the carpet (which we assumed was vacuumed), but within another few minutes, the husband heard Logan crunching away on something.  It was a mysterious white chunk of...something, but it was definitely a pill of some sort since it turned into powder in my fingers.  Long story short, we spent the next 7 hours at the Rady Children's Hospital where they tried to force-feed Logan liquid-charcoal which is supposed to absorb any toxins in his stomach.  While the nurses were very gentle and caring, I couldn't help but cry as I watched my son struggle with fear and discomfort.  On the somewhat brighter side, Logan vomitted 3 separate times shortly thereafter, so his stomach was pretty much clean of anything that he may have ingested.

Poison Control required the hospital to monitor him for 6 hours after ingestion, and in the end, Logan was just fine, though still no idea what he actually ingested (maybe it was nothing-- maybe I got it all out of his mouth).  Did you know that a 27-ish pound toddler could ingest 4-5 Advil tablets and still be OK?  News to me.  Anyway, the hotel comped our hospital bills, our hotel room, our valet parking and our dinners for the nights we were there.  Obviously, this would've been avoided if they properly cleaned our room, but they DID handle the situation in the best way possible, and we were very grateful for that.  It was quite a scare.

The Time-Zone
It took Logan about 3 days to fully adjust to west coast time.  Everything was off due to the traumatic night at the hospital.  Logan woke up in the middle of the night, clearly upset, so we had him sleep with us in the bed for the first night only.  When we returned home to NJ, it was nearly 1:00am by the time Logan was in his crib.  With a little luck thanks to daylight savings and the possibility that Logan may be transitioning to just one nap a day, Logan transitioned to east coast time with ease in just one day!

The Hurricane
We couldn't have timed our trip any better.  Hurricane Sandy prevented us from coming home 3 times.  We were forced to extend our trip for another 4 days which ended up being the delicious animal-style topping of our trip.  While we were in Irvine, we stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn in Orange County (free hot breakfast and dinners!) where they gave us a reduced week-rate given our circumstances.  Thanks to Sandy, we got to enjoy good company in Koreatown, Santa Monica, Newport Beach, Balboa Island and play at the beautiful playground in the Irvine Civic Center Park.  We came home to a 50 degree, power-less home, but nothing long underwear, 5 layers of blankets and a fuzzy Halloween costume couldn't handle.

Our trip to California will definitely be a memorable one!  Kinda like my first animal-style experience at In-N-Out, but the burger at Father's Office just absolutely blew my mind...and gave Logan diarrhea.

korea part 3: by jean

here are my final thoughts on my trip to korea.

in terms of packing:

i forgot to mention that i packed a saline nasal mist for miles.  i don't know about you but my nose gets very dry whenever i fly so i end up putting aquaphor up my nose (i know that sounds gross but it really works).  miles started to get lots of dry boogies so i used the saline mist on him a few times throughout the flight so it wouldn't bother him.

here was  my post about my list of things that i was planning to pack.  one of the big things i was contemplating about was whether or not to bring a pack and play.  i knew miles could sleep on the floor but because he moves around so much i was concerned that he might roll out of his sleeping area, or roll over the pillows i put down to create a boundary.

in the end, i was able to buy a used graco pack and play off of park slope parent's classified section and it worked WONDERS!!  (kathleen huddy, you can breath now!)  i was able to put him down in the pack and play and walk away when it was time for him to sleep, like how i do back at home in his crib.  my parents were so impressed by how i could simply put miles down to have him fall alseep by himself rather than getting him to fall asleep and then putting him down.  (read about miles's and logan's sleep trainig here!  it's the best thing i ever did!)  they kept saying miles's was such a "chak han" (nice/good) baby to fall asleep himself.  i said, sure he's a good baby and all....but it's also called sleep training!!

because he was able to fall asleep by himself, once he adjusted to the local time, (and got used to being with his grandparents) we were able to leave him before bedtime to go out and meet with friends for dinner. i still asked my parents to text me once he fell asleep but all in all (except for two big meltdowns), he slept well once we left him.  sleep training, it does a body good!

in korea:

because my parents lived about 30-45mins outside of seoul, we typically hung out around their area during the day and then went out to the city at night by ourselves.  we did take miles on the bus once, and that worked out pretty well.  we made sure we left right around his nap time so he fell asleep the whole ride on the bus.  i also put him in the bjorn and just wore him the whole time to be safe.  the few times we did take him to seoul with us, we took him by car with my parents.  i was too chicken to take him on the bus/subway into the city in case we couldn't find baby friendly places to change, feed him...and since he can't eat everything we eat yet, it was too much to pack for him!  traveling with a baby was definitely very different.  we didn't get to venture out as much as we had hoped, but we were grateful to have a happy baby during our trip! :)

on the plane:

miles overall travelled VERY well.  as i mentioned in korea part 1, miles JUST fit in the bassinet that attached to the wall so he slept for about 5~6 hours once it was his bedtime on our way back.  AND the flight wasn't full. our seat was by the window so the lady that had the 3rd seat in our aisle got to move to another area so we had the whole row to ourselves.

miles enjoying his flight back to nyc!

meal for miles: gerber's mangos and rice, some japanese crackers, soy milk for babies, gerber's mixed fruit juice, and mushroom/carrot/beef/rice porridge

in the end, our trip to korea was a success!  as scary as it was to think about being on the plane for so long and dealing with jetlag, it was great to be with family.  we are now dealing with jetlag AGAIN so i'll keep you guys posted!  hopefully miles will adjust back to ny time soon!!