First cold

Our little babycakes had his first cold this week. He didn’t run a fever but had an alternately runny and stuffy nose all week, since early Monday morning when he woke up in the wee hours, all congested.

We did everything we could for him, but minutes after we’d help clear his nose, he’d be stuffed up again. Even with the runny/stuffy nose, he was his usual cheery little baby self, except when it was time to sleep. Wednesday morning, he was having so much trouble sleeping that I put him in the sling and sat up for three hours just to help him sleep half of it, as his more upright position in the sling helped him to breathe better.

He’s a tiny bit congested today but it’s clearly the very end of the cold. It’s been rough on all of us, as Seppo and I were sick as well. None of us got enough sleep, and Seppo still had to work while fighting the cold and caring for the baby as well. Most days, we were able to get the baby to nap a bit to catch up but he definitely didn’t get as much rest as he usually does.

As I said, he still maintained good spirits, while having no way of knowing why it was so frustrating to breathe and sleep, nor why his parents were torturing him with drops and bulb syringes in his tender, red, sniffly nose. He still giggled and smiled and babbled all day long, giving us extra energy when we were at our worst.

I adore him. Just couldn’t love another as much as our little one. My heart ached knowing he didn’t know why he felt so terrible yet not being able to do much to change the situation. When he cries, we are the only ones who can help him. And not being able to help him was one of the worst things I’ve felt. I can’t even imagine how hard it would be if he were suffering from something other than just a simple, uncomplicated cold. Bleh.

Luckily, that’s all it was. He seemed to get much better Thursday night. On Friday, he ended up taking a 5.5 hour nap, followed by two hours of cheery wakefulness, followed by another 2.5 hour nap. I freaked out about how much he was sleeping, but he was far less congested and much better all around both awake and asleep, so I let him catch up on many nights of poor, fitful sleep. He seemed all the better for it.

The first cold is a milestone of sorts, I suppose. I’m just glad he’s better.

A family that laughs together…

I’m sure no one except us will be entertained by this video, but we sure had a great time laughing it up! 😀

Hit and run post

Baby & Seppo are sleeping. I should go to sleep as well soon.

It’s the new year. Lots of crazy things happened at the end of the year, much of it negative. I didn’t get to do a retrospective and a resolution post. This won’t be one either.

I do have a couple of to-dos I took care of tonight though. I paid some bills. I bought a ticket for my mom to come out for the baby’s baek-il (100th day celebration) later this month. I started an evite for it, but realized I need to get a guest list together before I send it out.

Things I still have to do: finish the thank you notes from the baby shower, and include a small photo of the baby. I wish I had everyone’s physical addresses on file, so I’ve very slowly been gathering them. The influx of Christmas cards helped, but it just reminded me that I’d like to start sending out Christmas cards as well.

I’ve also been working my way through a will & trust estate planning packet, which I had started before Thanksgiving but never finished. This would be good to finish before the week is up. You don’t want things like that hanging over your head.

The baby is just about 10 weeks old. He’s changing like crazy everyday. He babbles up a storm every morning, after every nap, and any time I try to engage him in conversation. He’s very game. 🙂 He is trying to use his hands now. I don’t think he quite understands what is going on with his appendages, but he’s quite curious.

When you engage him on his activity mat with his feet near a post, he’ll get excited seeing the effects of kicking at the post — the entire set of dangly toys move! He stares at his feet while wiggling his toes. When you put something in his hands, he instinctively pulls it close to his mouth. He used to just touch his hands to his mouth, then he started to suck on his fingers/half his fists, and now he’s interested in getting other things in there.

He didn’t use to drool until about a week or a week and a half ago, but now any time he is intently staring at something or trying to bring it to his mouth, he starts to drool. Haha, what a goofball! Today, he laughed out loud when Seppo blew on his belly! And when I kissed his cheeks! Aww, the small little moments, they make my day.

I spend so much time with him trying to read him that I’m pretty decent at figuring out if he’s bored or hungry or tired or has a wet diaper. I think Seppo’s getting a little bit sad to find himself less adept at interpreting the cries, since he has less time with him during the day, but he’s doing great in every way. Seppo continues to give me morning breaks any time he can, bonding with the baby while giving me some luxurious sleeping-in time.

I am trying to brainstorm some ideas for work when I have free mental cycles. I had an idea earlier today and I forgot to write it down! Crap, I think I forgot. Ha.

This year, a lot of our friends are getting married. P&C, K&N, and A&K are all getting married in June! Wow! C&S are getting married on 10/10/10. 🙂 We hope to be able to travel to their weddings.

My sister, her husband, and their two daughters want to visit the Bay Area sometime in the summer as a vacation as well as to meet their new relative. I wish my son could grow up near his cousins! I loved having my cousins around when I was growing up.

Yikes, it’s late. I better get to bed. I wish I could remember what the work idea was. D’oh.

First Christmas and life with our two month old baby

It’s hours away from our first Christmas with the baby.

He doesn’t just smile now; he laughs and giggles and squeaks while kicking his feet around. Even when I’m at my most tired, after the third fitfull night in a row followed by as many early mornings, when I hear the little one gurgling and cooing and giggling, I feel a smile spread over my face and stretch into every corner of my body.

He’s so much fun! He’s always been communicative about his basic needs, but in the last week, we figured out that when we are able to really pinpoint his tired cues and help him wind down to fall asleep, he’s extra happy when he’s awake, he eats eagerly and efficiently, and sleeps better through the night.

The odd thing, which seems to jibe with something I read in one of the books, is that the better he naps during the day, the better he sleeps at night. This is the opposite of how it works for us adults. I think this is because if he is too tired, he won’t eat until he’s full because his sleepiness and tiredness is bothering him too much. So he goes to sleep then he wakes up feeling really, really hungry, but he’s tired enough that he is upset at waking up. Hunger and sleepiness battle on, and he wakes up crying and doesn’t eat his fill because he is too tired. Wash, rinse, repeat in 1.5 hour blocks.

When he is well rested during the day, I can feed him at night until he is really satiated and catch his sleepy signals just as they start. Then he goes to bed, sleeps longer because he is full (between 3.5 and 6 hours!), wakes up to eat when he is hungry, but he may not be crying because he’s well-rested and his hunger isn’t intense, so he can go back to sleep fairly quickly after a light feeding.

We’ve established a fairly regular routine where he wakes us up at 7am, pretty much regardless of when he goes to sleep. I usually end up feeding him in my sleep 15-30 min before that, not realizing it is morning, then he makes it clear he’s not going back to sleep. He is content to play in bed with us for a good 20-30 minutes. Seppo takes care of him when he gets fussy until just before he has to leave for work, which is really, really, truly, sincerely wonderful for me. He also does nighttime diaper changes. Even though I vow I’ll let him sleep, I find I’m befuddled by the break in routine when the baby wets himself at night (he’s been holding it many nights lately, or hasn’t let a slightly wet diaper bother him) that I’m sluggish and don’t know what’s left or right, up or down.

When Seppo leaves, I play some games with the baby’s hands and feet, talk/sing with him, and, lately, read to him. He’ll usually look sleepy again by 9:30 or 10 in the morning, so I either rock him to sleep or put him in the sling and go about fixing myself brunch, which puts him to sleep in 5 to 45 minutes, which is when I eat. He’ll nap for an hour or two, then wake up to eat like a fiend at around 11 or so.

After he eats, I burp him and let him quietly get adjusted to being awake again. When he starts to get fidgety, the games begin anew. I play old Korean games I remember with his hands, fascinated by how much he pays attention and enjoys the process. I sing nursery rhymes, both Korean and American. I walk around with him, showing him new things and noting how he stares or laughs or lunges in his completely uncoordinated way.

Sometime between noon and two, depending on if he managed to get a morning nap, he gets that sleepy look on his face again, so I help him fall asleep. How successful I am at this during the day is what makes the difference between an easy day and a bad day, because if he’s too tired, he’ll cry and cry and be unable to find relief.

Anyway, if things go well, we repeat the morning’s routine. On a really good day, he will take two or three naps totalling 5 hours or so. This means he’s ready for his long block of sleep between 7pm and 9pm. He’ll sleep around 4-5 hours usually, then eat and be back asleep within 20 min. Next time, he’ll wake up in about 2-3 hours, then in 1-2 hours.

On bad nights, he’ll wake up every 1.5 hours and take more time to get back to sleep.

On days he naps a lot, I manage to squeeze in an hour nap which is awesome. While I’m rocking the baby to sleep or walking around the house with him in a sling, I watch tv. I also watch tv in the late afternoon, while reading books to the baby.

It feels like I should be able to do so much when he naps, but he wakes himself so often during the day that I’m constantly on the watch. Getting him to fall into deep, long sleep at night takes a good hour or three.

On great days, I do a load of baby laundry, load/unload the dishwater, and cook dinner. On bad days, I will have eaten only crackers and chocolate all day, been desperate to pee because the baby looks exhausted and has been fussy and on the brink of sleep for hours, and forgotten if I had brushed my teeth.

On great days, Seppo comes home to the dinner I made, and I can let him rest up a bit. On bad days, Seppo comes home, sees the look on my face, takes the baby and gently pushes me toward the bedroom to take a nap. Seppo cooks dinner or we order out and I try to recover in time to get the baby ready for nighttime sleep then spend 2-3 hours getting him there.

On average days, we manage to hang out, coo over our awesome baby, watch tv, and catch up on our days.

All in all, people are right when they say it’s hard work. But figuring him out more and more makes life easier. And he puts giant, crazy, face-splitting grins on our faces. Everyday, he does some new cute thing. It’s like puppies and kittens in fluffy towels times a bajillion. He makes me squeal, laugh, cuddle, and kiss him all day.

I get tired during the day and I get frustrated at times, but I never get mad at him. When he is upset and fussy, I feel bad for the little guy because I know he’d rather be happy too.

Tomorrow is Christmas. It’s his first. I regret that we didn’t get a tree and that we didn’t get him a cute little Santa or reindeer outfit so we can show it to him when he is a big kid. I want to really live in the moments of our lives as a family, to really create and cherish memories and traditions. I know we do it in our everyday; I just wish I had had the foresight to get things together earlier.

I suppose our traditions will have to live on in things like the songs we make up to sing to the baby, such as my favorite, “Driving a Car”. It changes every time, but generally goes like this:

[hold baby’s hands and make gestures while singing]
Driving a car,
Typing an email,
Driving a car,
Mowing the lawn!

Driving a car,
Beating up babies,
Driving a car,
Taking a shower!

Driving a car,
Skiing cross-country,
Driving a car,
Punching a bear!

Driving a car,
Writing a blog post,
Driving a car,
Flaming a troll!

Thank you, thank you; I know. 🙂 I also sing “You’re a Baby After All” to the tune of “It’s a Small World After All”.