Updates

 


 

Okay a quick update....Everyone is doing well. We had Kerala's two year and Kian's two week appointment this past month. Both kids are doing fabulous. Kerala gained 2 lbs since her last dr's appointment, which was great news. She is 50% for height and head and 10-25% for weight. The doctor was very pleased with her verbal and physical development. Kian also had a fabulous appointment. He was about 9 lbs and had gained an inch and a quarter in length since he was born. We don't know his percentiles (I think we find those out at his 1 month appointment). The doctor said because he was doing so well with weight we could just let him sleep through the night if he wanted to. Unfortunately, he has not wanted to but we are still getting plenty of sleep around here. The only negative to his appointment was that he had a rash on his face which the doctor said could take a couple of months to go away. Since Kian's appointment he has started to smile a lot and is making the adorable baby cooing noises. He still sleeps a ton - honestly, this is the most mellow baby ever. We have Kian's 1 month appointment this weekend, so we will update with stats.

This past weekend we finished Kerala's birthday celebration with two birthday parties. My sister Kim flew in to help us out with the parties and help us get organized in general. While we had a busy busy Saturday, Kim and I were able to get some great sister time in on Sunday and let Troy take care of both kids for a couple of hours. Kerala was a bit overwhelmed at first with the parties, but she eventually warmed up and had a great time at both. Kian basically slept the entire time at the parties. It wasn't until everyone left that he put his party hat on and we had one of the worst sleeping nights with him since he was born. Generally, he will wake up once or twice during the night; however on Saturday, it seemed like he was up all night long.

We are still struggling with Kerala's napping. Kerala seems to want to nap about half of the time. I thought maybe her napping correlated with the level of activity she had in the morning, but I don't think that's the case since she walked over a mile this morning and did not want to sleep at all. The doctor was fine with her not napping, but did suggest moving her bedtime up if she seemed tired.

One final note, our Kerala's nanny Ellen left us this past month to return to school. It was a very sad day at the Smerry household. Ellen was such a terrific nanny and really cares for Kerala (as evidenced by the fact that she called Kerala on Sunday all the way from Guatemala!). We are still adjusting to a Smerry household post Ellen but I think overally we are doing well.

Transition, transition, transition...

 

Kian will be 2 weeks old tomorrow and we are still getting used to having a newborn in the house. Kian is a very mellow baby so the transition has not been too difficult for Troy and me, but Kerala does have her moments. If I am holding Kian she will ask for someone else to hold him or if it's just the three of us she will say "Mommy hold Kerala" or "Mommy hold you." We are working through it though and she is generally pretty psyched about Kian. She loves to help change his diapers. It's pretty cute because she will act as my assistant handing me the wipies or diaper. I don't know if her love for changing diapers is the reason she always goes up to Kian and smells him and says "poopie diaper." We are also still working on Kerala being gentle with Kian, but for the most part she has been doing pretty well.

Not only are we transitioning Kerala with a new baby in the house, but we also had to move her out of her crib. About a month or so ago she had climbed out of her crib by piling her stuffed animals together and using them as leverage. We took out all but two stuffed animals in hopes that that would delay the bed transition for a bit. Unfortunately, she climbed out again last week and actually hurt herself in the process by falling. Nothing serious, just a bruise so we were lucky. This past weekend we moved her into a big girl bed and she has been doing really well overnight and it's kind of hit or miss for naps. Yesterday during her nap she turned her room into a disaster - she took out all of her books, all of her cloth diapers, took off hte changing table pad and a lot more. Ellen and I kept going in and tell her that if she wasn't tired she still needed to do quiet time. Today has been better - she has been asleep for about two hours.

As far as Kian, he is doing really well. He is nursing well and had surpassed his birth weight at his 4 day visit, so the doctor was very pleased with that. He is quite the sleeper - it seems like he is typically up for about an hour in the morning and then an hour or so in the late evening. Other than those times and when we change diapers and nurse, he is asleep. I keep worrying about him because Kerala was not the biggest sleeper at the beginning. We have his two week appointment on Tuesday, so hopefully he is continuing to gain weight.

Check out the March photos - there are shots of the first of four b-day celebrations for Kerala. By the way, if you ask Kerala how old she will be on Monday she will respond by saying either 4 months or 2 (I am not quite sure where she got 4 months from).

Kian Ford Smith

 

After much anticipation, Kian Ford Smith finally showed up - he was 9 days past his due date. Kian was born on Friday at 12:56 pm and was 7 lbs, 9oz and 20.5 inches long. About a lb heavier and an inch longer than Kerala was when she was born. Everyone is doing great and it seems like Kerala is adjusting really well to being a big sister. She was super psyched when Kian came home and not so psyched when I held him at first, but after some cuddly time with me she seems to have adjusted just fine and had no problems with I held him later in the evening or today, our first full day home.

Our birth experience was much different than with Kerala - mainly because of our fabulous midwife, doula and labor and delivery nurse. There were times that were even comical - such as me vomiting in the cab ride over to our dr's office while our cabbie was smoking a cigarette and the hospital receptionist repeatedly asking me why I was there even though I was having contractions in front of her. The labor went much faster as well and today, when I was speaking to my doula, she told me that she was very concerned that she was going to have to catch the baby because my midwife and nurse had stepped out of the room just before I was ready to deliver.

Kian is adjusting well to his new world. Right now he seems to be a pretty mellow baby. He seems to only get upset when you change his diaper or right before a feeding. We have his first dr's appt tomorrow so I am curious to see how he does.

We posted Kian's hospital and first day home photos in the February 2009 link so check them out.