Good Old Saturdays

Ever since of our little guy, days literally pass by just like that.  Today I finally get to go for a massage, and you know you are tired when you kinda doze off within the first 10 mins of a massage.  I know, if it takes me less than a few minutes, wonder how long it takes for my wife!

It's an ordinary day, besides the above highlight once again I have made quite a progress with my groccery of the week.  As now I know exactly what I need and where I can get them. Chatting with store owners also becomes a habbit (because I rarely social).

As for our dear boy.  Nothing different from his day to day.  Eat, Sleep, Poo!  Which seems boring from time to time, but isn't the life that many of us dream of when our days don't necessarily give us a freaking break?  so grow but don't grow too fast, enjoy every moment son :)

The Uncomparable Love of a Mother

Son, this message is directed to you.  And until you become a father, you won't really understand what I'm trying to tell you at this momemt, just like how I never get to understand what my parents tell me before your mother and I have you.

It was 2, 4 and sometime after 6, I woke up from my deepest sleep cuz I heard noises that you made.  You weren't crying cuz each time I opened my eyes, your mother was already up feeding you in the dimest light with herself half falling asleep.  Doesn't sound too bad eh?  Well this isn't an occasional event, this is on the routine, daily.  Something else you should be aware of is that your mother loves to sleep.  If she's given the oppotunity, she can sleep hours without the need to eat.  But because you needed to be fed, your mom gave up her precious sleeps for you, just so you can grow with the best health she can possibly give you.

There are lots of things that both your mother and myself have to sacrifice for you, not that we aren't happy to do so, but trust me, you may not know what I'm trying to say (even though you think you do), only when you have to take care of your little one, then you will truly understand how it's like.  But don't compare yourself to your wife, cuz you might find it impossible to have the same compassion as her as a mother, just like how I cannot compare your mother's motherly love with mine.  It's different, after all, she did carry you inside her with care for the longest time.

So son, never ever get mad or mistreat your mother.  Instead, make her happy and make us proud!

Late Nights

After picking up and putting our little guy down repeatedly all night, I'm finally beat with a major headache.  Till this moment we are still not sure what it is that kept him up all night, but as far as I'm aware, often babies are confused and don't exactly know what they want. An example of that is if our boy isn't full to the extreme, anytime you try giving him milk, he is going to latch on and eat.  Though it might be the diaper thats what's bothering him.  So below is our cycle of checks whenever he cries:

1. Time of the last feed - is he anxious to latch onto anything
2. Diaper - is it loaded and ready for an unload
3. Gas - is he kicking and stretching out his entire body (fight against sitting)

If all checks are done and he is still crying, it may be more gas, or that he is just fuzzy. Our nanny's trick is to move his rocker around with him in it. Oddly, a 'location' change tends to calm him down every now and then.  Maybe it's more of a distraction, which leads me hoping that our little guy doesn't have ADD...

Synchronize

Not entirely sure if it's the world that's spinning quicker, or am I just getting too slow to adapt.  I find there are a lot more changes nowadays than a few years back.  I'm not only referring to the simple fact of responsibilities that come with marriage and our son's presence.  With work, time, family, everything in general just keep changes so Fast, I can no longer find a place for myself, nor time for a breather.

*** this paragraph here is deleted after I chugged my cup of coffee just now, and boy it was one pessimistic paragraph of emo-ness***

Anyhow, at this moment of life turning point of mine, the most effective cure that I need right now is rest.  A lot of organizing and synchronizing to do, to uphold a lot of responsibility from all of my surroundings, but more of that on a later day.

Finally, I just want to say - Coming back home is always the most refreshing time of the day, despite the fact that I always say bye to my coworkers follow by "time for my second full time".  Seeing our little boy's funny and old geezer looking expressions (when he's full), just makes the long day worth wild.  And I know that's exactly how all loving parents feel when they are drained, including my wife.

Tips from Experts

After his midnight meal, our cranky boy was finally willing to sleep for a couple hours (I thank my wife and mother-in-law for getting up and feeding him 2 hours after), and called out his dad to take care of him at 4 in the morning.

I know, "Haven't you heard? Babies get up every 2 to 3 hours, what did you expect?" is what people would say to me.  And they are right, it's a fact, but it doesn't mean I'm going to sleep soundly while our poor guy screams in pain.  Just so it happens my boss who sits next to me has a soon to be 2 years old daughter, along with my boss's boss (who also sits next to me), has a 2 years old plus a few months old daughter.  I told them about this gas problem our boy has been experiencing nightly, and they were shocked when they found out how much our boy currently eats per meal.  Apparently our 7ish lb boy is currently eating just as much as my boss's boss's daughter who is 13 lbs.  below is a few tips that they shared with me today:

1. Meal Size (formula) - a baby should not have more than 2.5 ounces of formula times his/her weight divided by number of meals.  So to be right, our little big eater should have no more than:

2.5 ounce x 7.7 lbs / 8 meals a day = 2.41 ounce of formula per meal

* our little guy is eating average 3-4 ounce....

2. The Bicycle - other than the traditional back padding, we should also have the baby lie down and gently move his legs through a biking motion for a few miniutes.  This would let extra gas out down from his stomach.

3. Gripe Water - this is actually on my purchase list today since my wife has told me about it.  Plus the good feedbacks my boss has for it, it is an item must buy!

Above is hopefully going to help us catch with our sleeps tonight, because crying for food is one thing, screaming out for stomach pain may contribute to some serious sleeping disorder!

Back to Work -__-"

According to my wife, my mother-in-law never took my wife out until 6 months after that she was born.  By the time they were both ready for the world, cars, buildings (and people?), everything seemed a lot bigger than they were in comparison to before my wife was born...

I don't know if individual humans has grown larger over the past two weeks but I sure find this train conductor has gotten alot louder, that plus his name has changed to Kevin.  It's been a very long two weeks, given all of our attention and time spent on our boy.  It is finally time to get back to work and earn some money for the family, despiting my dream of a client's inquiry last night, it is with excitement for me to check probably 5000 accumulating emails later this morning. Nice! I think I am already going crazy!

On the bright side, I found out this morning that my pants have gotten larger as well, must be from all the running around for our boy.  It is only a matter of time until I find them small again.

No Nanny Day Meets Gassy Day!

Today is our super nanny's little break of the week.  Out of all the days, I wish she is here to show us her tricks.  They say 3rd week is when babies start to get a lot crankier, cuz for some reason they become extra gassy.  Well, it is exactly the 3rd week of our boy, and no people aren't kidding!

Like any other days, we feed, we change his diapers, and we do extra padding to his back to get as much gas out from him as possible.  While my mother-in-law is stressing over meals she cooks as she worries her food doesn't meet my wife's standard (like my mom, my wife actually does fabulous cooking, healthy style).  Something isn't quite right, our little trooper who normally eats and sleeps isn't doing much of that.  Instead he stares to the ceiling, twitching his brows with this serious look.  As I'm about to worry, I hear a 3 seconds long sound with vibration coming from his bottom.  Moment after, he cries and moves his body nonstop as if there's an ant in his onesy.  Yup, he is gassy, and I mean real gassy!

Thanks to my wife padding skill, our boy finally let out a lot of gas, and I am ready to sleep in earlier as I have T-0 workday tomorrow...  Yes I think my son feels my pain, cuz he is once again crying his lungs out :(  Hang on son!