My Hungry Boy

Milk Supply

One of the biggest mysteries for breast feeding moms is how do I know my baby is having enough milk? Joaquin is quite a big eater. I spend half of my day feeding him and the other half worrying about whether he is getting enough milk. He was pretty good for the first 3 weeks, eating already on a four-hour cycle. But the last two weeks, his schedule has been a bit out of whack (ever since I started reading Gina Ford and wanted to train him). He was nursing every 2-3 hours the day my mother left and also the day Jaime's mom & dad left. We thought it was because he sensed the departure of his caretakers and needed to be nursed more to feel secure. However, the last two days, he has been demanding to eat every 2-3 hours again. I think I do have enough milk (as evidenced by constant wet and dirty nappies) but maybe he is just going through another growth spurt. I am downing 3 bottles of 1.5 liter water every day yet I can't seem to increase my supply to match Joaquin's ferocious appetite...

Tummy Exercise

Since nowadays infants are not to sleep on their tummy (major cause of SIDS), they don't get to exercise their neck muscles as much as we did growing up in the 70s where sleeping on our tummy was the recommended position. We have been putting Joaquin on his tummy during his play time to help him exercise his neck muscle. Joaquin was not very comfortable the first few times on his tummy. This week he seems to become more comfortable with it. He can even lift his neck to change his face from facing right to facing left. Quite impressive for a 5-week-old (at least I think it is quite impressive for me). Although every time after he flips his head from left to right, he becomes very exhausted and would immediately demand us to put him on his back and he would just lie there resting for a couple of minutes with minimal movements. Today he did left to right and then right to left and he left a big pool of drool on the play mat. I guess we are going to be quite demanding parents...

Lovely God Daughters

We had lovely visitors last weekend. Erin brought her two daughters to visit us in Hong Kong. It has been more than one year since I saw Ting and Ning in Shanghai and more than two years since they last visited us in Hong Kong. They have grown up more. I cannot believe that Ting is already 8 years old. I still remember visiting her at the confinement center shortly after Erin gave birth in 2000. She was this tiny little thing and now she is starting to look like a little young lady.

We hung out for two days. They were very curious with their little newborn god brother, Joaquin, and were begging their mother to give them a baby brother. We took them to IFC the first day and had outdoor brunch at Isola (weather was exceptionally nice after a few weeks of non-stop rain). They had a lot of fun playing with Mom & Dad (language was not a barrier at all). On Sunday, they hung out at our place, playing wii and also had tons of fun with Uncle Jaime. It's amazing how good kids' memory can be. They remember what they were playing with two years ago when they visited us. I really would love to see them more often but too bad I don't travel to Shanghai anymore.
Thanks Erin for coming to visit us. We had a wonderful time with you and seems like the kids love Joaquin too...

Milk Tea

Jaime bought me HK-style milk tea last night because I had been craving for it. This milk tea is made of very strong tea (usually left brewed overnight) with evaporated milk. It is one of my favorite food/drink items. So I drank half of the cup at 2am and Jaime drank the other half. Then both sleep deprived parents ended lying in bed awake until 4 am. I guess with such strong caffeine passed to Joaquin we will have tireless baby to play with for the whole Typhoon day.

Full Moon Party

We had a full moon party for Joaquin yesterday. On the full moon (first month) date, it is the tradition that the parents will show off their newborn to friends and family. My mom had prepared gold necklace, bracelets, and rings for him (a tradition to symbolize good luck and good fortune in his future). We are very happy to have grandparents from both side to be with us on this date.
Many of our closest friends also came to join us in this wonderful event (even though they were given very last minute notice due to poor planning on our part). Joaquin was a well-behaved boy and didn't fuss around too much and spend most of the time sleeping like an angel despite being in a noisy restaurant. We took pictures with all these loving aunties and uncles (most of them don't have babies yet so hopefully a good-behaving Joaquin will give them motivation to produce playmates for Joaquin soon). A good-behaving Joaquin also gave me some confidence that we can have some normal social life back soon!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joyceandjaime/sets/72157605698733566/
P.S. We went for Joaquin's first month check-up: he gained a healthy 1 kg and grew 7 cm in the first month. I guess I shouldn't be too worried about my milk supply. I also nursed him the first time outside of the house and it went very well!

Training Time

I'm sitting outside of Joaquin's room listening to him cry. It's not easy to not want to pick him up but I want to see how long he will cry and how long I can stand him crying.

He has been spoiled with all the attention directed at him and has acquired the habit of needing someone to hold him to sleep. We have never let him cry himself to sleep so far. I decided to see if he can actually do that himself given today he seems to be quite tired after feeding. We put him down in his basket but in less than 5 minutes, he is already crying. It hurts me when I listen to him cry so I guess if he is persistent then I will need to go in to pick him up in 5 minutes. Training can always start tomorrow for both of us.

25 Days Later

So thanks to the fact that Franchan is holding her wedding tomorrow, I'm ending my no-shower period today. It is the Chinese belief that women must observe confinement after birth for at least 30 days as their bodies become extremely weak and prone to catch cold or flu during this period. During the confinement period, there are certain food you eat and a lot of rules to follow, one of which is no shower for 30 days and I have done just that for the last 24 days.

Before you decide that I'm too stinky to be your friend, hear me out. I DID have a daily body dry shower (wiping only) with achohol and water and I washed my hair with dry shampoo (powder) so I didn't exactly stink that much. But in any event, being able to step into a hot shower is such a luxury after 25 days. I was also able to lift up my calves while standing in the shower for the first time in the last six months. These little things which you don't normally appreciate do matter a lot!

放不下你

已經不知道是第幾次抱著熟睡的你而不想放下你
每次總要吩咐爸比 不要過分寵你 不准他抱著你太久
不准他抱著你哄你入睡 怕寵壞了還未滿月的你
但自己看著在我懷裡的你 白嫩嫩的臉頰 紅紅的嘴唇
平靜但卻又急促的呼吸 就算是明知道你已熟睡了也捨不得放下你
有時候 光是抱著你 感覺彷彿你又是像在媽咪肚子裡一樣地貼近我
看著你 我就不自禁地流下快樂的眼淚
總要親親你好幾次 仔細端詳你閉著的小眼睛及仍然短短的眼睫毛
確定你已不會再驚醒 才會肯放下你
但每一次抱著你走向你的小床 又會情不自禁的抱著你回我們房間
總要這樣掙扎好幾次後 才能放得下你
就算放下了你 也要坐在你小床邊 看著你好久才捨得離開
我想爸比也是這樣不捨得吧
我的親親小寶貝 我想這一輩子 我們都沒辦法放得下你了

Sleepless Night

Since Joaquin and I do not share the same blood type, he has been diagnosed with some level of jauntas since birth. Before we left the hospital, he already had his blood drawn twice. Last Wednesday, we went for the two-week check up and he had it drawn another time. The result came back borderline (because we had not seen any sunlight since two weeks ago) so we had to go back on Friday to get his blood tested again.

He was taken away from us for a brief 5 minutes but he was returned with tears and snot while screaming on top of his lungs. He has been a loud baby since birth but never has he cried this hard.

Since the clinic visit, Joaquin has not been able to sleep well all day. He slept at most 30 min and needs to be held while he is awake. He also has to be breast fed more often (from 4 hours to 2 hours). Our nanny thinks he was really traumatized and that's why he is looking for some sense of security. Even when he is being held, he is often crying so hard and so loud that it breaks my heart to hear it. I spent most of tonight awake, anticipating him waking up since the only way to calm him down seems to be putting him on my breasts.

Second Week

Two weeks ago I was still with 50 extra pounds and a big Chamu inside my belly. Today Joaquin is lying next to me sleeping like an angel after feeding (and I'm still with 30 extra pounds to convert to milk).

My busy life has been reduced to a very simple life: I either sleep, eat or feed. We have already established that Joaquin is a no non-sense Barracuda eater. He is so aggressive when it comes to feeding time. He lurches his neck like a rattle snake and launches forward with his mouth (which has no teeth but can hurt you like Jaws). Even so, I still savor every moment spent with him even if it is just lying next to him like a cow being milked.

Joaquin is already spoiled with so many people around to hold him and play with him. We are trying to wean him from being held to sleep (mostly because Dadu cannot resist Joaquin's cuteness). I cannot really hold him when he is awake since the minute he smells me, he goes into hunger mode and starts looking for food (even if he has just been fed). I have been really strict with Dadu to make sure Joaquin does not get spoiled (my grandma says two kinds of people can get spoiled easily: new babies or new daughter-in-laws) and we need to set the rules (thanks to Marg who gave us our first Gina Ford book). But last night when he fell asleep next to me after feeding and I held him up to put him back to his basket, I hesitated many times. He looked so calm and peaceful and cute in my arms and how could I not want to hold him?

I guess that's why Dadu always cannot resist holding him and often ends up falling asleep with him together...(Doesn't Joaquin look a bit like Crayon Shin-chan?)