Piper Two Week Checkup

Today Piper had her two week checkup. Overall Dr. Booth thinks she is doing really well. She is basically back to her birth weight of 7 pounds 13 ounces (she weighed in at 7 pounds 12 ounces). Last Thursday Dr. Booth asked us to start supplementing since Piper hadn't had a bowel movement in a few days. He was thinking that she might be slightly dehydrated and that she might not be gaining any weight if she was having bowel movements. Since Piper is now back to her birth weight, Dr. Booth said we could discontinuing supplementing. Yeah!!!

Piper is definitely a more challenging child for us because she cries a lot more than Pennington ever did. It appears as though her tummy hurts and she probably has Colic. I talked to Dr. Booth about this and we decided to give her a Probiotic (aka Natural Bacteria). The idea behind the Probiotic is that it can calm down her tummy. The only way to give her the Probiotic is to give it to her in a bottle so she is still getting 2 ounces of formula in a bottle a day. From what I can tell this is really helping. She doesn't seem to be as cranky as she used to.

Fun at the Fair

Daddy took the last two weeks of August off from work to be at home. Mommy is so appreciative that Daddy has been able to help out at home with the little ones. Daddy has been in charge of taking care of Pennington so Mommy can focus on recovering from the labor, breastfeeding and taking care of Piper. Daddy and Pennington went to the fair a few days ago to see the farm animals. Daddy mentioned that Pennington loves fair food (i.e. fries and milkshakes). Of course Mommy rolled her eyes when she found out what Daddy let Pennington eat. Oh the battles that are not worth fighting over. Below are pictures of Pennington at the fair.

Piper's First Bath

For some reason Mommy and Daddy didn't participate in Pennington's "real" first bath in the hospital. This time around we definitely wanted to participate. Daddy helped with giving Piper her first bath. The nurse was very impressed that Daddy wanted to do everything. She mentioned she hadn't seen a father be so interested/helpful before.

Mommy and Nonie gave Piper her first bath at home a few days ago. She cried through the whole thing. Hopefully she will learn to love bath time like her brother. Below are pictures of Piper's first bath.

Piper One Week Old

Piper is now one week old. We are so amazed by what she can already do. She is only one week old and she has already rolled over from stomach to back once for Daddy and once for Nonie. Crazy huh! While doing tummy time she can already move her head from one side to another. This girl has some seriously strong neck muscles.

Piper is also very different from Pennington. She doesn't like to be alone at all. We can only leave her by herself for like 5 to 10 minutes before she starts totally freaking out. She has the loudest cry for a one week old which is exactly the reason we named her Piper. We keep joking around about how we will never have to use the monitor for Piper. As you can guess since we can't leave her alone at all we are having to do a lot of co-sleeping. She sleeps the best on our chests.

Piper is an AMAZING breast feeder. Mommy is so excited about this. We did have to do some very limited supplementing (maybe 5 ounces) in the beginning because she was having trouble controlling her blood sugar levels because of Mommy's diabetes. She lost some weight from birth (10 ounces) but gain 3 ounces back since we left the hospital. We have another doctors appointment tomorrow because Piper hasn't had a bowel movement in a few days. I will make sure to post an update after our doctors appointment.

Below are some recent photos of Piper. We are crossing our fingers she will take the Binky so that Mom doesn't turn into a human pacifier. Right now she isn't really excited about it.

Comparing the Stats

I was in total shock when they weighed Piper to find out that she weighed the exact same as when Pennington was born. I was convinced she was going to be smaller. See the comparison below. You would think they were twins.

Pennington Piper

Height 20 and 1/4 inches 20 and 3/4 inches

Weight 7 pounds 13 ounces 7 pounds 13 ounces

Days early 5 5

Head circumference 13 inches 13 and 1/2 inches

Daddy and Piper

Surprise, surprise, baby number two also looks like Daddy. Piper definitely has Grandma Luangaphay's long fingers and toes.

Piper Elle Luangaphay

Piper Elle Luangaphay was born on August 18th at 8:23am. She was 7 pounds 13 ounces and 20 and 3/4 inches long. The labor/delivery was about 5 and a half hours which is about half the time of Pennington's. We decided on her name after she was born. We gave her the name Piper because she is VERY loud.

Sitting on Mommy's Belly

One thing I have really enjoyed over the last nine months is that I could carry Pennington on my belly. Most people would think that it must hurt to have him sit on my belly but honestly it doesn't really hurt that bad. Only when he tries to stand on it. I think Pennington is really going to miss Mommy's belly. Mommy is going to miss it as well. Crazy I know but I love being pregnant. Below is a picture of Pennington sitting on Mommy's belly when she was 39 weeks pregnant. Baby sister should be here anytime.

One Year Old Stats

Today Mommy and Daddy took Pennington to his one year old check up. Over the last year we have been going to the Family Medical Health Center (FMHC) but once our little girl is born we are going to switch over to Dr. Booth at the Treasure Valley Pediatrics downtown location. It was really exciting today to go to the FMHC because Dr. Kathryn Schneider was able to see Pennington. Dr. Schneider (aka Katie) and Mommy has been friends since they were toddlers. Overall Katie said Pennington looks great. She commented on how active he is which is something she doesn't typically see in a one year old. She also mentioned that over the next few months Mommy and Daddy need to focus on spending quality time with Pennington since the new baby will consume a lot of the time we used to spend solely with Pennington. This will be a bit of a challenge for us and we will definitely be blogging about it over the coming months.

Below are the stats from the appointment:

Height - 31.25 inches (between 75 to 90 percentile)

Weight - 20 pounds 8 ounces (between 10 to 25 percentile)

Head - 18 centimeters (25 percentile)

Once again Pennington is still a very tall skinny boy. One of the highlights from the checkup is getting tons of shots. When we say tons of shots we are not joking around at all. They had to give him six separate shots in his legs as well as prick his finger to draw some blood for some test. Not fun at all. Pennington cried through the whole thing but fell asleep when we got into the car to go home and sleep for 2 and a half hours which was wonderful for Mommy. Below is a picture of Pennington after he woke up from his nap. For the most part he was happy as can be for the rest of the day.

One Year Old Birthday Card

At Pennington's baby shower we had the guest make birthday cards for Pennington. Below is a picture of the birthday card for his one year old birthday. The inside says, "Happy 1st B-Day!! Be nice to Mommy and Daddy! When you're "teething" don't chew on your crib!!!" This card was decorated by Jamie Perkins. Thank you Jamie for the card. I would like you to know that Pennington doesn't chew on his crib. Well at least he hasn't yet.

One Year Old

Pennington turned one year old today. It is amazing how fast the first year goes by. Over the last month Pennington began walking and even sometimes running. He has mastered how to sign dog and all done. He started sleeping through the night fairly consistently. When I say sleeping through the night I mean going to bed between 8 or 9 pm and not waking up until after 6am. He points at what we wants now. He is eating fairly well. We have to be careful sometimes to give him breads, vegetables and meats before fruits otherwise he will only want to eat the fruit. He currently loves grapes, veggie chicken nuggets, watermelon, strawberry banana smoothies, string cheese, and fried rice. Pennington loves going to the park. He isn't afraid to climb up onto the play sets or even go down the slide by himself. The other day at Cassia Park he actually went head first down a slide. The good thing was that the slide wasn't very steep. He is also starting to understand how to throw and kick a ball. He can wave bye-bye and best of all he can blow kisses.

Over the next month we are going to focus on introducing his new baby sister into his life. One of my goals is to get Pennington off the bottle as soon as possible. I am happy to say that yesterday was the last day Pennington had a bottle. Getting your child off a bottle can be very hard for some families but for us it seems as though it is going to go relatively smoothly. He has been basically weening himself off the bottle over the last month or so. I have been told by lots of people that now isn't the time to get him off the pacifier because he is going to need something to comfort himself when I have to give his sister attention. I think it is going to be a challenge for us in the future to get Pennington off the pacifier because he has become really attached to it lately.

Overall Pennington has been a wonderful little baby. He hardly got sick and he didn't cry very much at all. For the most part he was a very happy baby that loved being around people. Thank you my little Pennington for being such a wonderful baby. Mommy and Daddy love you very much.

Family Birthday

Tonight we celebrated Pennington's first birthday with close family. All of the grandparents and uncles were able to attend. Below are pictures from the party.

Pennington's favorite gift. Sponge Bob Ukulele from Daddy.

Musical instruments from Nonie and Popie.

Birthday cake. He wasn't really into the cake at all. Hopefully this means he doesn't have a sweet tooth.

Playing with the balloons.

Yummy Yogurt

We are trying to teach Pennington how to use a fork and a spoon. As you can see from this video it looks like we have a long way to go. Enjoy!

Little Weirdo

So my child sometimes does things that I am either not proud of or find to be a little weird. Even though I am a little embarrassed about what Pennington has been up to these days I am pretty sure all children do it at some point. Below is a list of what my little weirdo has been up to lately.

1. Playing in the toilet.

2. Eating toilet paper.

3. Playing in Domino's or other dogs water dishes.

4. Trying to eat Domino's dog food. I am pretty sure he has eaten some dog food when I have turned my back.

5. Eating dirt.

6. Trying to eat rocks. It is definitely possible that he has swallowed a small rock (about the size of a pea) a few weeks ago.

7. My personal favorite - Eating a roly poly.

Fairmont Park

Today Daddy and Pennington had to run some errands on the other side of town (west side of Boise) so they decided to stop by the Fairmont Park for some play time. According to Daddy this park is really awesome. One of Pennington's current favorite things to do at the park is try and climb up the slide. Below are some photos of Pennington at the Fairmont Park.

Baby Girls Room

Johnny and I finally got everything ready for our baby girl. I can't believe she is going to be here in less than four weeks. I even packed my bag for the hospital yesterday. We bought Pennington a new convertible crib and are using Pennington's old crib for our baby girl. (Note: See the Walking post for a video with Pennington's new crib.) I wouldn't say that we really have a theme for our baby girls room besides making sure everything has pink and yellow in it. I bought the same bedding for our baby girl that I bought for Pennington (GAP jungle theme) except for it is the girl version in pink and green instead of blue and green. The plan is to have our baby girl sleep in the room with us until we feel comfortable putting Pennington and her together in the same room. Below is a picture of our baby girls crib in our room. Boy are we lucky that our room is big enough to fit a king size bed, two nightstands, three dressers, a crib and a couch.

Pennington's Favorite Things

I know it has been a while since I last updated the blog with photos of Pennington. I thought I would devote this post to some of Pennington's current favorite things to do.

When Mom and Dad are getting ready in the morning Pennington likes to pretend to get ready too by brushing his hair and teeth.

Pennington LOVES his blankets. He loves walking around with them right now.

Hang out on our couch/spare bed in our mulit-purpose (toy/living/office) room. He can get himself up and down now and likes to pretend to turn on the TV with the remote.

Playing the Piano. I can actually tell him to go play the piano for me and he will walk on over to the piano and start playing. Sometimes he even tries to sing.

Pennington LOVES his doctor toys. He is playing with the blood pressure toy in this picture. He also has a thermometer, needle to give shots, odoscope, and stethoscope. Daddy hopes he will grow up to be a doctor some day.