Archive for December, 2006
anZel’s year-end outings
Written by jlz on December 31, 2006 – 6:12 pm -Been really busy with work lately so haven’t posted as often…but we’ve actually gone out quite a few times with anZel and have taken some pretty kewl photos.
Thanksgiving Half Moon Bay
During Thanksgiving, we visited Half Moon Bay and took anZel to the beach…
anZel looking kewl in his shades
anZel’s doing a mission impossible-style hanging move…
Grandpa Sam and anZel
dAd and anZel
Santana Row
anZel also visited Santana Row and ate at Left Bank
Berkeley
Finally today he visited Berkeley’s 4th st and almost had some jelato and hit his head against a glass table
Sup…can’t you see I am chilin’ while my parents are eating dimsum?!
more dAd and anZel
anZel can tell who he or the little elephant is
Written by jlz on December 31, 2006 – 1:27 pm -The dialogs are in cantonese. Basically b33b3r asks anZel:
“Who’s the little elephant?”
“Who’s anZel?”
anZel loving it on the swing
Written by jlz on December 31, 2006 – 12:48 pm -If you listen carefully, you can hear anZel laughing on the swing.
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Peaks and valleys
Written by beeber on December 16, 2006 – 11:11 pm -As I lay wide-awake at 4:30 am, I thought about anzel’s blog. How exactly could I describe the feeling I had at that moment or the feelings I have been having for the past few weeks? People always say there are peaks and valleys in life, same as raising kids. I was wondering if I were on the peak or down in the valley. Would it be ok to admit that sometimes I have tears of frustration at the peak and tears of joy down in the valley?
Anzel has been sleep through the night a week before he turned five months. By that I mean he doesn’t want to eat when he wakes at night. That said he often wakes because of his itchy eczema, which are mostly around his mouth. We put socks on his hands in order to stop him from scratching himself. That doesn’t stop him. The sight of bloody socks is forever seared in my brain. We have now gone back to square one…swaddling. Then we find bloody crib sheet. So here I am writing this blog while he is asleep. He is now sleeping with us. We try to sleep while holding a hand each at night. Yes, we are doing it all backwards.
When my neighbor told me about how they dealt with their eczema son, I thought they were rather extreme. They rocked the baby to sleep (checked), change all of their household products to natural ones (checked), their medicine cabinet is filled with ten different kinds of moisturizer from around the world (checked) and rinsed their clothes four times (checked. We have been battling this skin infliction for at least six months. We still have no handle on it. We have switch to the hypoallergenic formula. We are racking our brains as to how we can keep anzel from this torment. We have tried everything except two things…putting anzel in a bubble or shove him back in my stomach.
The problem with eczema is that it itches when it’s too cold or hot. When it is dry, it itches. When you scratch, it itches some more and it itches some more…and then it oozes. It’s wet, and then it itches. Then it doesn’t dry..so it won’t heal. Once it’s healed, it’s dry. And it starts all over again. We were told to use Vaseline, Cetaphil and Eucerin (none of them really works). We were also told not to bath anzel too much as it dries his skin. We were also told that we should bath him with a cap full baby oil (doesn’t quiet work either) everyday. We tried both ways and neither seemed to make a difference.
Eczema patient are most uncomfortable at night when there are less distraction from everyday life. The itch finally gets them. Anzel sleeps fairly well until 8:30 or 9. From 2:30 on, it’s all down hill until he wakes between 6:30 to 7:30. During this time, he would move non-stop while still asleep. He would twitch, kick and sometimes scream due to the irritation on his skin. Who could blame him.
I can’t describe the frustration we all go through each night when this happens. Just when dAd and I are in deep sleep. We get a little kick in the ribs. His head constantly turning from left to right in order to itch himself, because we each got one of his hand. If he is swaddled, he would twitch and wiggle up and down. This will go on almost every five minutes. Sometimes he would scream because it’s unbearable. And he would want to be held. It used to work for me to keep myself in the warmth of the bed and rocked him back and forth while sitting. Lately, that would not do. I have to leave the warmth of the bed and walk while trying to keep quiet. So dAd could get some sleep in order to take over the second half of the shift. I used to be able to maintain a state of unconsciousness while trying to nurse or sooth him. It’s hard to do that when I have to leave the warmth of down comforter and out in the cold (we usually keep the house around 64, so anzel’s skin doesn’t act up). To make this even worst is that we are discourage to us pacifier on him because it would only make his eczema worst by having rubber rubbing the sore and keeping it moist.
I have been thinking about this blog for a long time but have been scared to put it down in writing. I don’t want to come across as whining. I am truly blessed to have such a beautiful little peanut. He is generally in good health. I am also surrounded by very supportive family and friends (Anne, Amy, Celine, Charlene, Clark, Julie, Linda, Ruth and Teej to name a few) near and far. There are mums who face much more difficult situations everyday. I just want to put my thoughts in writing. Perhaps some of my friends who are reading it would understand a bit why I haven’t written for so long. Perhaps someone who reads this can share with me how he or she helps his or her kid battle eczema.
Peaks and valleys indeed.
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