More Rae info

Rae had her 2 week check up and here are her stats: Weight: 8lbs 7.5oz 60% Height: 22inches 96% Head Circ: 36cm 56% Outside of some diaper rash this check up was great. Dr. Crosby messed with her umbilical cord and it fell off the next day so we are now able to give her baths in the tub which she much prefers to a sponge bath. All was wonderful until 3 days later when Otto caught a cold then gave it to me and Rae. Oh, we are so sad to hear her struggle to breath. She is just so new and little and catching a cold so early is a real bummer but I guess it could be worse. I think it has interrupted her sleep but it is hard to tell because her sleep patterns were fairly irregular anyway. My goal is to have her swaddled in her co-sleeper by 7. I think any later and she gets fussy and hard to put down. At that point she is usually OK until about 10 or 10:30 when she wakes us to nurse. I am mostly nursing her every 2 hours at night still but at least we get 2 hour stretches which is more than I can say for Otto in the beginning! We are managing. She sleeps really well in the morning so depending on how late Otto sleeps in we can all get a few extra z's. Trevor is still home which is incredible. He takes Otto out during the day to play and I stay home and take care of Rae and some housework if I can fit it in between nursing and holding her. Susan stopped to nurse so I thought I would add that even though I feel bad for Rae having her cold it has turned her into the most adorable little piggy in the world because of her pink skin and grunting sounds. I also love her beautiful dark hair which naturally shapes into an awesome mohawk. I love the way that Otto gently caresses her hair and says how cute she is. Their relationship is what I always wanted my children to have with each other.

Visitors

We had a great time with Stacy and Ryan and the twins and once they took off Grandma Deidra, Grandpa Ray, and Aunt Cori came for a visit. It was so fun and festive to have them around. Grandma and Grandpa stayed in Otto's newly built playhouse which was great and I think they enjoyed. Rae enjoyed all the people holding her and Otto loved all the bike rides with Dad and Grandpa. I mostly have been staying home with Rae who is nursing around the clock. She is not as much of an eater as Otto was but I try to nurse every 2 hours during the day and 4 hours at night. Now that my abcesses have healed and the mastitis is gone I'm feeling much better about the nursing frequency. Otto is an absolute DREAM older brother. He always gives her his toys to play with and pats her head or her feet and turns on music for her. He hasn't displayed any signs of jealousy just acceptance and love. It is truly wonderful and I couldn't ask for anything more. He is absolutely going through a bit of a terrible two phase (and has been for a while) but honestly I'll take it as long as he continues to be happy about his new sister. He really is just a wonderful brother! Here are a few photos of the two of them and one of Aunt Cori and Rae and Grandma and Grandpa and Rae.

Otto, Cooper, Tucker

We were beyond lucky to have Stacy, Ryan, Cooper, Tucker, and Goa here to watch Otto so we could stay at the hospital for the full 3 days. We had ZERO worries and Otto had a great time. He really bonded with his cousins and Stacy and Ryan and Goa said he was a cinch and so much fun. Here are 3 cute photos of all the boys together-a pretty hilarious before and after shot of Otto and Tucker and one of all three cousins.

LABOR DAY!!!!-WELCOME RAE!!!!

Wow! May 9th sure was eventful! It started out early. 5 am and I thought my water broke. I called the doc who told me to go to the hospital. So we did. Luckily Stacy, Ryan, and the twins were here to help out. I called my mom (Stacy answered) and asked them to come over to stay on our side to watch Otto and Trevor and I headed to Cedars. We checked in at 7am and the nurses did a bunch of tests and told me that although my water hadn't broken I was in early labor with contractions 10 minutes apart. Their advice was for me to stay close to the hospital because I'd most likely have the baby later in the day. Trevor and I decided to get some breakfast so we went to the SLS Hotel-the most comfortable close by place we could think of. And boy did we ever choose the right spot. When we walked in with our Cedars badges and bracelets the hostess asked us if we wanted a couch or a table and I said that a couch would be wonderful because I was in labor. She spread the word and before we knew it everyone was coming up to us and congratulating us and treading us like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie! They comped our breakfast and kept bringing us what ever we needed. It was an incredible breakfast! Trevor had a meeting scheduled that day-his salary negoiations-and since his office is so close to the hospital and we had time to kill he decided to go and bring me along! I waited in his office and watched Game of Thrones on the IPad and Trevor hopefully got his raise! By the time he was finished I felt ready to get back to the hospital. I checked in and the nurses checked me out again only to tell me that I was only 3 cm dialated and needed to go walk around a bit more to progress things. So Trevor and I did and about an hour later I could no longer stand it. We went back to the room and I made Trevor go get the nurse who checked me and declaired that I was 5cm and 80% effaced and could get an epidural! Yippee! I was so happy. They transfered me at 5pm and gave me the epidural and by 8pm Tsui checked me and said that I should get ready to start pushing. After getting the room ready and all the necessary people gathered I started pushing and about 10 minutes later at 8:56pm Rae Marilee Groth was born weighing 7lbs 9.5oz and was 20in long! She was perfect and was able to lay on my chest right out of the womb. Trevor cut the cord and she started nursing right after being cleaned, checked, and swaddled. What a perfect dreamy day!

Otto: the boy who loves motorcycles

We have a book called Otto: The boy who loved cars. Otto LOVES it and it is totally appropriate. Otto is a boy who loves cars-he either tells me every make and model of the cars we see or asks what they are if he can't recognize it himself...but he loves something even more than cars...MOTORCYCLES. He is obsessed. He can't get enough of them. He loves to talk about them, play with toy versions, point them out when we are driving, sit on them when we walk by, spin the wheels, go to motorcycle shops, he makes motorcycle sounds, knows all the different kinds and most importantly tells us that when he grows up he is going to be a fast motorcycle driver. They are his passion so I thought it only appropriate that I share it on his blog. I've included some photos of Otto on various motorcycles. The first is of Otto on Amador's Yamaha 1100 (Amador is the gentleman who is building our playhouse/screening room), next Otto on Morgan and Troy's ride-on-toy motorcycle cruising up a ramp, Otto on a small motorcycle at the Honda/BMW Dealership, and finally Otto on the rocker Harley that the Deighton's gave us. Otto is truly the boy who loves motorcycles.

Easter

Easter was a massive hit! I bought egg dye about 3 weeks before Easter so Otto knew we'd be coloring eggs and he was really excited about it. I cooked 17 eggs and we took them over to Goa's for some dying. Otto loved it. He colored each egg about 5 times, insisted upon fitting as many eggs as he could into the cups of dye, and spilled at least two cups over. All in all it was great fun for all of us. The next morning, Easter, the Easter Bunny visited Goa and hid the eggs in her house. I was WAY too excited about the hunt and scared Otto. He wanted NOTHING to do with finding eggs. We had to wait about an hour and very nonchalantly mention that we should go look for them. He was hesitantly on board but once he stated the hunt he had THE BEST TIME! We had to hide the eggs about 7 more times before he finally moved on to something new. I made deviled eggs out of our bounty and we headed off to a party and another egg hunt-and this time the eggs were filled with candy. Once Otto discovered the treasures inside the eggs he stopped searching the instant he found an egg and ate all the contents. It was pretty funny. That evening Otto, Trevor, Tam Sam, Goa and I hopped in the car and drove out to the Valley to the closest Olive Garden. Uncle Richard gave us a gift certificate for Christmas that we finally used. It was our first family holiday dinner at a restaurant and we all had a ball and stuffed ourselves silly. The first 3 pictures are of our Easter activities: dying eggs, Otto's Easter outfit from Uncle Fishy, and at the Olive Garden. The picture of Otto and Goa is just a cute one over on her couch that I had to include and the final picture of Otto Trevor and I in bed was taken by Tam Sam one morning. Otto usually wakes up around 5:30 or 6:00am and we bring him into bed with us and all fall back asleep until around 7:30 or 8:00. It is such a wonderful morning ritual that we all love. Tam Sam will bring Maybe in the morning to play in the backyard. We are usually awake by the time she comes over but this particular morning we were all still lazing in bed reading books. I'm so glad because now we have one of the best parts of our day documented!

Spring fun

We've been having lots of fun this spring. Despite feeling wore out all the time I've been trying to get Otto out and about. The picture of him looking sideways was taken at the Noah's Ark Exhibit at the Skirball Museum. It is SUCH a fun place-super hands on with lots of activities and an ark that he can climb in. The only problem is that it is a bit far and opens just before nap time but we try to get there anyway. The photo of Otto in his jammies was taken one morning during breakfast. Trevor was making French toast because I made some clotted cream and marmalade jam. We thought Otto would love it but he preferred to dip honey pretzels in the cream and call that breakfast. I caved in because ultimately I figured there wasn't much difference between a pretzel and piece of toast. Trevor and Otto usually cook breakfast together. The ladder that Otto is standing on is his "robot transporter." They will make pancakes together and Otto will crack the eggs, or he will toast his own waffles, or push the blender buttons for banana smoothies. It's pretty cute and allows me some time to shower or get a little extra sleep. Otto has been super into cooking with me lately too. We make an avocado pound cake the other day and he likes to season whatever meat we are having. He also likes to poke holes in the potatoes before we bake them. I am always a little unsure how things will turn out when he helps but everything so far has been excellent. He is a great chef! The picture of Otto and I at the library was taken the same day as the one of Otto and Trevor in the cable car. We had an awesome field trip downtown one Friday that Trevor had off of work. We completely forgot about gymnastics (Otto's usual Friday morning activity) and took the public bus downtown to the central library. The bus ride was a massive highlight. Otto loved not being strapped in a car seat and kept switching seats and we even sat next to a man also named Otto! We spent almost 2 hours at the huge downtown library. It's a really beautiful building with a very inspiring children's wing. It looks like something out of a Harry Potter movie. After reading a bunch of books we ended up checking out around 10 to bring home. Instead of heading straight to the bus stop we road all the outdoor escalators downtown and ended up at the cable car which we road 4 or 5 times. It was such a fun morning and made us feel like tourists in our own city. The final photo is of Otto and Trevor flying a kite at the meadow. Otto, Tam Sam, Rahel and her daughter Aden, and Yumana and her family and Trevor and I all met up one Friday afternoon for a picnic. We had a great time and played with lots of kids-some we already knew from the meadow and some new faces as well. Otto loved flying a kite and we vowed to make picnic-ing in the meadow a Friday afternoon tradition...although we haven't done it since. I think now that Trevor is on paternity leave we will start it up again.