anZel/Arden

Archive for August, 2006

shaolin monk anZel

Written by jlz on August 29, 2006 – 9:39 pm -

We have been talking about giving anZel a hair cut for sometime now. But he’s had craddle cap for a while so we held off. This morning I had a sudden urge to just shave his head. I figured out that I can use my shaver to do a pretty clean job and it won’t be painful for him.

So I shaved his head while grandma helen held anZel. anZel seemed to have enjoyed the buzzing noise from the shaver. He did’t even make a peep the whole time we shaved him.

Now please give a big round of applause on welcoming….shaolin monk anZel…

少林和尚

羅漢腿

一指饞

Posted in Photos, anZel | No Comments »

winner’s smile

Written by jlz on August 27, 2006 – 4:59 am -

It’s my night to take care of anZel. Beeber’s had some rough nights lately and needed some additional sleep. I had been sleeping quite a bit coz I was feeling ill on Friday. Anyways, she asked me to take anZel for the night. I enthusiastically agreed to.

The night got off to a pretty good start. We fed anZel some rice cereal for the first time. He took it pretty well. Still learning how to swallow the rice cereal but we all had fun watching him eat. He seemed to have enjoyed eating it as well. We then mixed a few small spoons (his spoon is TINY) of rice cereal into his formula to get him used to it. He takes SIX ounces per feeding now!!

Anyways, no big issues. I put him to sleep. Took 2 songs from the baby CD before he fell asleep. Not too bad, before it took 1 song, but these few nights he’s struggled a bit.

Normally he would wake up after 4 hours for his next feeding. I figured that given he’s had rice cereal, he will most likely sleep longer. I had the baby monitor next to me. No big deal. I’ll wake up when he wakes up.

4 hours later, I hear some banging of the mattress. anZel’s doing his normal kicking. No signs of waking up.

5 hours later, a bit more banging and a few noises. I woke up, figure it’s time to feed, and put the bottle in hot water to warm the formula up. Checked on him, sound alseep, no signs of waking up.

6 hours later, some more noises. He’s struggling. (We still wrap him as he has a bit of ezcema and he would scratch himself silly if we don’t wrap him.) He’s starting to waking up. He’s also starting his cry for food.

I quickly took him downstairs. By now the formula had already cooled. I reheated up the water in the microwave, put the bottle in the water, took him to the changing table and quickly changed his diapers.

All good, pretty normal routine, not a big deal.

I picked up the bottle from the hot water, it felt a bit warm, probably ok, not too bad. At this time he’d starting to scream. Something’s itching him. He wouldn’t take the bottle!!! Sup w/ dat!!!

I thought, oh, the bottle is too warm. I quickly poured some cold water into a cup and put the bottle in to cool it down a bit. In the meanwhile, he wouldn’t stop screaming.

I started rubbing his head really fast. He liked that. He stopped screaming, closed his eyes and enjoyed the rubbing. As soon as I stop though, he started screaming again. I can’t stop!!!

A couple minutes have gone by, the bottle should be cool enough now. I grabbed it and shoved it down his mouth. He spitted it right out. He wouldn’t take the bottle!!! Sup w/ dat!!!

He continued to scream. I put the bottle down and started rubbing his head again. He quited down. By this time he’s already woken up beeber. She came down to check on us. I sent her back to bed.

After going through the rub-his-head-stop-shove-bottle-in-put-bottle-down-rub-his-head-daddy’s-arm’s-getting-tired routine several times, he finally takes the bottle.

I am golden! Who’s your daddy now!!

He usually takes the whole thing in one feeding, no need to stop or anything. Sometimes he will leave an ounce, but that’s ok. I watched him drink. He continued to struggle a bit. Throwing his arms around and moving his body. But he was sucking.

As I was getting pretty happy to see the formula slowing being drained, he stopped. He spitted the bottle out!!! Sup w/ dat!!!

Ok, gotta be the air he swallowed. He needed to be burped. I putted down the bottle and started burping him. After a couple of minutes, I tried to give him the bottle, he didn’t even spit it out. He literally pushed his tougne out to block the bottle from going in!!! Sup w/ dat!!!

Ok, more burping. Few more minutes later, he let out a pretty big burp. Kewl. I am good to go again!!

Nope. He wouldn’t take the bottle anymore!!! I got up, walked around a bit, tried to talk some sense into him.

I told him that he should finish the bottle so everyone can get some sleep. I told him that if he doesn’t finish I will not be very happy. I told him that he WILL finish the bottle! I told him that if he doesn’t finish I will punish him by leaving him in the bouncer with no toys.

He looked at me intently as I spoke to him. He saw right through me. He’s almost asking, “what ya gonna do?!”

He still wouldn’t budge. Everytime I gavehim the bottle he cried bloody murder. My patience was wearing thin.

Finally I told him if he doesn’t drink I will put him up to bed. He didn’t drink. Given that I am the man of my words, I took him upstairs!

I wrapped him, put him in his place, and watched him stuggle a bit to get himself lose. I rubbed his head to try to get him to sleep. He stared at me and continued to struggle.

He likes to kick his legs up and hit the mattress hard. I put my hand on his knees to stop him from doing that. Usually that will get him to sleep faster.

He continued to stuggle. He turned his head a couple times, but eventually will turn back to stare at me.

Finally, his eyelids were starting to close. That’s a good sign!!

I left him alone, sat next to him quitely as he tried his last ditch effort to not fall asleep.

His breathing went from fast to slow. He’s finally asleep. I WIN!!!

Or did he? He’s got the food and the sleep. What did I get, nothing!!

I left the room, walked downstairs to turn off the light and get a drink of water. Couple minutes later, I walked back up to check on him.

As I approached the crib, his head turned a couple of times. He opened his eyes. He looked at me.

He smiled…winner’s smile!!!

He fell back asleep.

Posted in anZel | 1 Comment »

the joy of motherhood (quarter end)

Written by beeber on August 21, 2006 – 10:34 pm -

So I am wondering if I am still a little short of the “joy” part would child protective service coming knocking on my door?

Let’s start with Anzel’s hunger strike a couple weeks back. It lasted a week. The state of the household was severely compromised. Depending on his mood, he would sometimes drink 2 oz or 4 oz or not at all. The longest he went without drinking a drop was five hours. That was with much rocking, singing and praising. We never knew when it was time for him to eat. He would give us clue (or that what it seems to us) for food. The moment the nipple is in his mouth, he would cry bloody murder. It was as if we were feeding him poison. We did almost everything under the sun to convince him that it was not…including changing three different nipples…warm up the milk more…cool the milk…drinking in his swing…the bouncer…changing nipples two times at 3 am in the morning! There was no telling from one feeding to another whether he would drink or not. It felt like a week of playing Russian roulette, except we were dealing with a toothless man who may or may not eat!

Anzel continue to have skin rashes on his face. He scratches them often because it’s itchy. It’s incredibly disheartening when I pick him up at night to see his cheeks were raw and oozing. What happen to picture perfect baby you see on magazine covers? We have invested in more skin products than we would like to admit. We have tried olive oil, chamomile tea and now onto neem oil. Neem is a plant native to Indian. It supposed to have tremendous medicinal values. It has a very distinct smell. So Anzel smells like Indian spice.

Under anzel’s leadership, we have all been “better” in “reading” and “anticipating” his needs. HRH would only want to be served (meaning food) at a time of his liking…not 1 second early or late and he is DEAD serious about that. He has also decided that sleeping six hours during the night isn’t really working for him. He would like to be fed every four hour instead. There were many times I wanted to shove this toothless man back in my stomach and not have to worry about feeding, changing or bathing him.

On other happier notes…anzel has definitely been more interactive. I had the great joy of watching him roll over for the first time. He is able to entertain himself for a short amount of time. It’s definitely fun to watch him interact with his environment and toys.