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!

T-2 Days Till Work

I always believe laziness is one of the attributes within human nature. And unwillingness to change is the after math of that.  First week of taking care of the baby is tough, as a matter of fact, I more or less miss working (mind it is working that I miss, not the work or the company that I work for).  It is now 2 days more until I have to return to work, just the thought alone is enough to raise my blood pressure to a whole new level!

Enough of my well being for this coming week. How about my little family? Yes it is once again time for my day trip and get them enough groccery for the rest of the week to come.  Practice makes perfect, my day trip is a lot shorter today, as I know exactly where to get the goods effectively, well how about that!

Our little guy is finishing his 2+1 ounce of milk, at the moment, he is the happiest camper thats ready for bed.  As for me, I refuse going to bed! Why? because tomorrow is what you know... T-1 day!

Modeling

Today was suppose to be the original due date of our little guy, but since he came out 2 weeks early, my wife and I got up earlier today and prepare him for his first modeling session instead.  That's right, he is officially two weeks old and it is time to have his new born pictures before he gets too old for it :)
Of course, by preparing I'm referring to the usual diaper change plus good old formula so he can be nice and comfy during the session.

Sometimes, taking good pictures and capturing the right moment is really hard, especially when we are talking about babies who can get fuzzy anytime and without valid reasons that we know of.  Luckily, our experienced photographer knew exactly how to keep our boy calm, so besides to our little model's lunch break, he was very cooperative during the whole time.  Thank you Alisa from Ali-oop photography, for the patient and wonderful experience for our boy!

Weapon of Choice

According to my wife, one of the greatest inventions on earth is none other than - the Breast Pump!  Indeed she is right, because firstly the milk can be 'pre-pumped' and save for our little big eater during the day.  Also, if it isn't for it, my wife may suffer even more pain over the 'clogging' situation we were having.

There are various breast pumps out there, and I don't want to advertise too much about this specific one we have, but it is handy.  If only the mechanics of the straps can be improved (plus its current Flame-Thrower looking design), then it is considered Perfect to me!

A Very Long Day!

It is me and my wife's 3rd year anniversary today, unfortunately that isn't the highlight of the day.  Without being too technical here (as I honestly don't have the knowledge to do so), apparently after giving birth to a child, mothers potentially and often face a painful process of milk clogging in their system.  I personally can't imagine how it is, but from my observation of my wife, the process to unclog is EXTREMELY PAINFUL!

From what I know, the process to unclog the milk harden is to rub a hot towel against where it gets hard, and pump/squeeze them out.  Sounds simple but according to my wife, the is actually far more brutal than having a labor and giving birth.  It isn't a peaceful scene as my wife does not have a very high tolerance in pain in general.  I did however try my best to support her by twisting boiling hot towels for her, and giving her not very useful feedbacks such as - "It will soon be over", or "I think we're almost good!".

Having this process repeated as many times as our boy gets fed, my wife is feeling a lot better now, which giving me time to write an anniversary note on her facebook.  And just to add a bit of a good news for the day, our little guy's weight is finally higher.  All of a sudden, his cheeks seem a little chubbier.  Keep it up Son!  At the end of the day, you are what makes your mom proud and overcome any pain/uncomfortable times!

Day Trips

It takes half a day's worth to grocery shop when you have a wife recovering at home.  With items that spread across multi-designated stores at all different directions from where you live, grocery shopping becomes a bit of a project.

It was my second or third time of these day trips so far, and I've already made friends with a couple of the store owners.  For some odd reasons, I find myself talking to strangers more actively, maybe I am happier since our boy is here, or I get to take coffee/tea breaks in between my commute between theses stores :) j/k

I don't mind long drives, but getting on and off of a car usually bugs me, yes I admit I am quite lazy.  But when my family needs me, I no longer find it irritating.  In fact this often reminds me of this reality show in Japan (ナニコレ珍百景), where toddlers are assigned to make solo grocery trips and do funny things.  Maybe we should let our boy do something like that as soon as he can walk (IF my wife does not object).

The New Dad's Mom

It's granny's (My mom) birthday today.  Due to the distance, and that my wife is still recovering, plus our little guy is still only a bit more than a week old.  I visited my mom solo.

My mom's place is always crowded with stuff, even when I was living there with her before I got married.  She doesn't like the idea of people touching or throwing away her stuff.  This time, it is still fairly crowded, but she's trying to clean up so soon we can bring our little guy over without violating any safety hazards.

I felt bad for not being able to bring our boy along to greet his grandma a big happy birthday, but on the bright side, his eyes are opening wider each day so by the time he meets his grandma, he can dazzle her with his... funny stares?

The little Fireball =O

It is a beautiful Sunday morning, and uh-oh, what are these little red dots and bumps on our little guy's face?  And his bump is redder than a ripe tomato...

Being a bit anxious, my wife started googling and putting face cream and rash cream all over our boy like face paint!  Almost every 15 mins my wife checks and asks if the redness is going away.  And the answer is no x 100 times!

Thankfully, with a quick glance, our super nanny said 2 words that took my wife's mental alarm off the grid - "Too Hot!"  No wonder, grandma (just like many grandparents btw) is always scared our little guy being cold, hence overnight...  

"of course an undershirt, onesies, plus sleep sack isn't enough.  Let's give him a small blanket, PLUS a larger blanket (mind you it's double folded), WITH two towels rolled up side by side with the baby, jusssst to make sure he's not cold.  Because it's 75 degree Fahrenheit and it's (apparently) freezing".

Anyhow, grandma's intention  good, but hopefully lesson learned that we don't turn our boy into a little fireball ever again.

Weekend, Schmidkend

For many people out there, after 5 long consecutive hardworking days, weekend is their closest break.  Late night out, booze and friends.  My wife and I tend to prefer staying home with late night dessert + TV as entertainment.  

Now with our boy being the main focus of our lives, even though we are home (for many days in fact), we find ourselves following a similar routine plus a moderate change:

1. Late Night - Checked (if not later)
2. Booze/Dessert - Checked (milk for our boy, we serve him butler style)
3. Entertainment - Checked (baby watching/burping, and diaper changing)

Yup, doesn't seem all that fun, and weekend doesn't seem much differ from weekdays either.  But I sure would not miss any part of our boy's growth, and definitely not his childhood.  

That's right, Weekend? Schmidkend!

Living the Dream

Our little trooper is officially a week old!  Besides time deficits, lack of sleep, and an extreme tension up on my neck and shoulders, there are a few insights that I always hear but never realized how literal the fact is until now.

Without thinking too far ahead, 2 weeks off was all that I anticipated before our little boy was born.  And what sort of "Fantasy" did I see myself doing for these time off?  Nothing much, "taking care of the little guy, my wife, job hunting, resting here and there, and maybe I can squeeze in a bit of time to make progress for my apps once again".  Sounds reasonable right?  Even if i can't do all of the above on a daily basis, how about spread them to 2 days?  Well, dream on!  How about never! lol

The term "Taking Care" apparently isn't all that easy, especially if the subject is a baby (Trust me, I'm not a douchebag who does nothing but whining, and I have a VERY good understanding of what the term "taking care" means).  A baby, depending on their development and size of their organs, he/she needs to be fed every 2-3 hours.  As I haven't had the experience in feeding a baby before, it was news to me that average feeding time of our boy can take at least half an hour.  And diaper change?  Depending on the fuzziness (mentally) of our boy, if we don't catch him at the right time for the diaper change, what suppose a one time event can take up to 3 times more...  Of course that is only for the feeding and diaper changing part of our little guy, other time slots I also need to check on my wife to make sure she's in good both physical and mental state.

What I'm trying to say is... *talk about timing, continuing where I left off 2 hours ago for feeding our boy, changing his diaper, and taking care of other businesses*..., time is always at the essence, need not to fantasize what other activities you may achieve, taking care of the baby and my wife is already (and always will be ) my highest priority, as I do love them both very very much.

Little Frogger

To those who lived through the 80's, by 'Little Frogger' I'm not referring to the Frogger arcade with an end goal of a frog crossing the road, but my son's ability to get out from the baby bathtub sure reminds me of a frog (in terms of strength, not appearance).

Perhaps my wife has been good at taking her daily dose of vitamin (including milk, cheese, and yogurt on the side) months as she was carrying our little guy in her, even though our boy didn't seem to have big bones when he was born, he sure held a lot of strength in him.

Considering he is only a week old at this point?  If we are just a minute delayed in feeding him, or he is done with a nice warm bath with his back facing upward, he has the strength to push your arms and the bathtub away like a little frog!  So far he has gently bumped his head against the baby bathtub once cuz of that, thank goodness no harm was made to this little active frogger...

So FYI Son, your forehead is genetically big, not cuz of any safety hazard violation from baths given by your parents!

The Palm!

It's been a couple days since our last visit to the doctor, and this time we were well prepared.  From top to bottom, we had our baby boy dressed, rations packed, and hit the road right on time during rush hour.  Not to worry, that was expected as I had it thought through of which road to take.

We arrived 5 minutes early before our appointment, it was perfect!  With the help of granny (since my wife had to stay home to get well rested), the next thing we had to do was to unclothe our boy.  Wait a minute... it was almost too easy, something wasn't right... oh my, yes it is always important to cover the little guy's 'little guy' the moment you take the diaper off.  Thank goodness it wasn't too late, nothing happened!  Alright, the boy seemed all relax, let's not be overly skeptical about it.  Removed the diaper to give my boy a little kiss on his forehead for being such a good sport :)  And before I realized (that's right), I felt a great warmth sensation up from my chest, all the way down to my hip.  Yup, being relaxed gave him the go ahead to pee on me!  Without wanting the doctor to give us a hard time going forward, without hesitation, my natural instinct gave me the new move - the Palm!

Sir Poo-A-Lot

As I recall what a nurse has told me, the number of diaper for the first 7 days should be as follow:

Day 1: diaper x 1
Day 2: diaper x 2
Day 3: diaper x 3
Day 4: diaper x 4
Day 5: diaper x 5
Day 6: diaper x 6
Day 7: diaper x 7

It was day 5 for our little guy but we have already hit 8 diapers!  Either we were too quick at his changing his diaper, or the theory above is more of a minimal guideline.  Regardless to the possibility of either reasons applied, I am happy to announce our boy's new nickname - "Sir Poo-A-Lot" as well as the "Pooping Machine". GoOO Peanut Butter!!