Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Family of Four



After she was rescued from the blue light, Katie started growing like crazy... about a pound per week for the next four weeks. With Joo's milk in, things calmed down quite a bit and we started to find our groove as a family of four.




Ellie, while still having some issues in sharing with her peers, instantly fell in love with Katie.






Following in her father's footsteps, Ellie also loves secret places. :)






For the three weeks following Katie's birth, we loosely adhered to the Korean post-labor traditions. JooYeon didn't leave the house much and she kept herself relatively warm (although she did break tradition a bit by taking showers and brushing her teeth). It was a glorious moment then when we emerged for our first family outing on International Day!




This was followed soon afterwards by an Easter egg hunt at Blake's house. Not only do Blake and I share an office, but we both have two daughters, almost the exact same ages.



Having finished my dissertation just in time, I was able to spend quite a bit of time with our new arrival (although I spend a lot more time with Ellie now while JooYeon adapts to a second round of breastfeeding with Katie).










JooYeon, completely unfettered by the fear of cleaning up messes, continues to engage Ellie in all kinds of arts and crafts. Lucky Ellie!


Saturday, May 3, 2014

Heeeeeeeeere's Katie!



Before...


After.


JooYeon was amazing again. :)

 

Welcome to the world, Katherine (Katie) Marie Showalter!


Ellie has enjoyed having a new member of the family. If nothing else, she somehow sensed that she moved up one spot in the maturity pecking order of the family.



 


One hazard of having a second child is that everyone (yourselves included) assume that you remember everything from the first time around so there is much less guidance. Somewhere amidst the mantras of the extreme exclusive breastfeeding circles, we missed the message that you should probably eventually feed your baby if they're not getting enough milk. Or I missed that message anyway and convinced Joo not to give Katie formula regardless of how much Katie cried. "The milk will come in eventually." "Mothers fed their babies for thousands of years without supplement." "The colostrum is all they need right now." "Most mothers think they're not producing enough milk." Yadda, yadda. Long story short, Katie ended back up at the hospital under the blue light and with an IV in her arm. Poor girl. :(  Incidentally, five weeks in, she is exclusively breastfeeding, but now I know that there is a time for formula (if only Pete Seeger had included that line in his song, we might have avoided the second hospital stay!)


That said, this time around was much better than when Ellie had been under the lights. As soon as her bili levels stabilized, we knew it was just a matter of time, and so Joo and I relaxed and tried to enjoy the stay. Mom and Dad took Ellie, which gave Joo and I some time alone to bond with Katie.