Day care soon...

I feel fortunate that I have been able to spend quality time with Penny during this stage of her life. However, as the month is coming to an end, the reality (which I have been in denial of) that Penny will need day care soon is setting in. I am scheduled to go back to work on September 17th, but I still have not found out whether going back part-time has been approved by my employer or not. Regardless, I will need to start earning some income for the household and that means I have to find a good daycare fast. Penny and I will need to adapt to a whole new routine. She will probably have an easier time with the change than me...

San Diego trip

We just got back from a short trip to San Diego. We went to visit Ann and Hung and to attend Comic-con. This was Penny's first flight and she did great! She was fully awake and happy both ways (although the announcements startled her). We were lucky enough to get a free seat for her, since the plane was not full.
We all attended Comic-con together on Thursday. It was a huge event with lots of people dressed up. But, after a rough night of sleep, Penny and I had to opt out of another Comic-con day on Friday. She caught up on sleep with a long nap and was in a good mood for most of the time afterwards. I was pleased with her adaptability to the new sleep environment and to co-sleeping with us in the guest bed.
Overall, it was a successful trip.

Princess Leia

Here is a picture of Penny dressed up as Princess Leia for Comic Con
2009.

4 months today!

Today was Penelope's 4-month birthday and we had a pediatric appointment. She is healthy and on-target in terms of development. She got three shots and afterwards, she was fussier than last time even though the shots were the same as at the 2-month appointment. I gave her a dose of Tylenol because it seemed like the pain was very uncomfortable. She was much better after that and laughed and played before bed.
Tomorrow we are taking a 4-day trip to San Diego to visit Ann and Hung and to check out Comic-con. It will be our first flight with her and I'm hoping that her pain will have subsided. During our trip, I will try letting go of a nap schedule and let her do whatever she wants.

Relatives visit

Some family came into town that met Penny for the first time. We enjoyed nice meals out with them and snapped some shots of her with them.

Uncle Stan and cousin Katy visited from New York.


Great grandfather Henry visited from Oregon.


Unfortunately, going out meant that Penny's nap times got disrupted a bit. It has been quite challenging getting her to sleep in general and I fear for our mini-vacation to San Diego this week, since it will be a whole new stimulating environment for her...

Updates

Just wanted to post some recent pics.

Penny in her new bumbo seat.


Penny watching the goats at Kaylie's birthday party at Lemos Farm in Half Moon Bay.

Thursday, Grandma day

Grandma Huong has offered to take a day off of work and watch Penny tomorrow. This will be a true test of whether Penny can eat from the bottle. We have been trying to give her a bottle a day since she was 5 or 6 weeks old. She usually resists and we end up throwing away a lot of milk that I painstakingly pump daily. It has been a concern of mine that daycare will be a rough transition for us because of this difficulty.

PU/PD method

I've been reading up on the Pick-up/Put-down method of sleep training and found out that pacifier use is basically incompatible with this method. We have been giving her a pacifier lately after breast feeding to help her to fall asleep. So, it looks like we will have to gradually wean her off of the pacifier before she gets too dependent on it...

More on sleep

We have continued working on Penny's naps. Knowing that she can only stay up for 1-2 hrs at a time, timing when to start soothing her has been key. We were keeping her up too long before, which was making her over-tired. I've been studying various methods of sleep training and we tried a little of the Weissbluth (cry-it-out) method one day, but it is too traumatic for us. On the other hand, spending 45 minutes rocking her until she is fully asleep each time is also too much. I think we may opt for the "pick-up/put-down" method where you put baby down drowsy and come back if/when she cries and help her to get back to drowsy. Eventually, this process is supposed to get shorter. Last night, for the first time, I put her in her crib when she was drowsy (but not asleep) and she fell asleep on her own! It was a bittersweet moment of being proud and at the same time, a little sad that she didn't need me...

Penny rolling over

Here's a short video of something Penny just learned: how to roll over from her back to her tummy.

 

Playdate with Nathan

We had a nice play-date with Jaime and Nathan today. The moms got coffee and lunch, the babies got some milk, and we all got fresh air at the park.

Naps

It seems like just a few weeks ago, I could get Penny to fall asleep easily in the sling or stroller. Now that she is so interested in everything around her, its a different story. She would stay up all day long if we let her. Getting her to fall asleep and *stay asleep* takes a lot of effort and if she skips a nap or doesn't get at least 45 min, then she gets fussy later. It has been difficult to enjoy weekends out because it usually cuts into a nap (since she needs a nap every few hours) and then we end up with crying all the way home in the car...
On a positive note, we got some light blocking blinds for her room, so she can start napping in her crib, hopefully!

Third month pics on Flickr

click here to see photos