anZel/Arden

Archive for April, 2006

things i wish…

In hind sight…I wish of the following:

1. Read up on how to take care of a new born
We were so focused on getting the birthing part right that we didn’t spend much time reading up on new born care. Given nothing can prepare new parents for the overwhelming responsibilities of a new life, it would be helpful to know a bit about jaundice, cord care and feeding schedule/quantities. These may seem like a piece of cake once you get a hang of things. It’s overwhelming when you are operating on ONE hour of sleep each day.

2. Read up on how to breastfeed
It may come easy for some people but certainly not for me. I know it may sound crazy but I would rather give birth again than deal with all the mental and physical pain of breastfeeding. Imagine a sensitive part of human flesh of being sucked on every two hours around the clock…even metal would wear thin!

3. Have someone purchase a couple of newspapers on anZel’s b-day
As he grows older, newspaper will probably become a rarity. It may be of interest to him to look back at the day he was born.

anZel’s first outing

anZel’s into his 12th day today, we decided to take him out for a short walk.

Because there’s a bit of wind this morning, grandma’s so concerned that she wrapped him 3 layers of clothing and 2 layers of blankets.

anZel’s slept the whole time we were out though, didn’t get to enjoy much of the outdoors.

Grandma on guard as beeber pushes the stroller.

Random photos…

anZel getting a foot massage from beeber…

anZel was not happy with only 1 eye…

anZel getting burped…doesn’t he look like a pretty serious little man?

anZel the side sleeper

For whatever reason, anZel likes to sleep on his side. A lamaze instructor and lactation consultant seems to think that it’s because his head was positioned incorrectly during birth so he has tension in his back and stuff.

He’s been a great kid the last couple of days though. Basically eat and sleep every 3 hours.

As you can see though, he does have his lower arm infront of him so it’s preventing him from rolling over to the stomach position. Sleeping on the stomach is much more likely to cause SIDS.

We don’t allow anZel to sleep on his side unless someone is there. Most of the time he’s on his back sleeping.

For more information about SIDS, check out here.

sleep deprivation

how do you know you really need some ZZZs…

1. You seriously thought you felt a tornado whipped through your house at 3 am in Bay Area

2. You started driving away while your mum just stepped out of the car

3. You closed the garage door on your spouse’s car (maybe I did get enough sleep ;-))

In search of anZel’s Chinese name

We’ve been pulling our hair out trying to figure out a good Chinese name for anZel. I think I must have gone through 3 Chinese poetry books as well as the dictionary. Still haven’t found the right words. We are looking for a 2 word name. I’ve thought of

甄妮
甄士隱
甄寶玉
甄子丹
甄珍
.
.
.

I even found the Zhen’s family website to look for hints.

Still haven’t found anything..any suggestions, anyone?

Nuclear Explosion

anZel hasn’t had a bowel movement for 3 days now. Beeber and he went see the pediatrician yesterday and the pediatrician said it’s ok. anZel’s stomach is pretty soft so it doesn’t indicate constipation. But she also said that don’t let it go past 5 days and bring him back if it does.

This morning he had a HUGE nuclear explosion!! I mean..it’s soooo horrific (ok, maybe for 1st time parents) that I can’t show the picture here. The picture is probably rated R anyway…

Everyone in the house are reliefed now that he had this nuclear explosion.

One week old anZel

anZel’s 7 days old today. It’s also my first day back to work and away from anZel the whole day. It was kinda tough. I thought about how beeber and anZel were doing at home. They also went to the hospital for the bilirubin check today. Results came back fairly good. His bilirubin score was down. That’s a good sign.

Also, our pediatrician gave us a couple of premie nipples, which supposedly flows much slower. We tried that tonight and I felt like it was still too fast. However, anZel loved it. So much so that he just held the bottle up himself and drank 45ml of formula + breast milk!!

After that, he and I decided it was time to surf the web together.

Tai Chi Master anZel

anZel loves moving his arms while he’s sleeping or just laying down. He will punch and kick the whole time. Even when he’s deep asleep, he will move his arms like he’s punching. And he will move his arms in circles like a Tai Chi master…

Boppy pillow really does work…

We’ve been using lots of pillows around us the last few days during anZel’s feeding sessions. However, it’s been a big hassle coz everytime we try to find the right set of pillows and stuff.

This morning I rushed to Babies R Us and bought one of these boppy pillows.

Tried it immediately after I got home. It worked out great. It’s thick enough that it will hold him up duing the feeding and it’s soft enough that it won’t hurt him.