Bulimic baby

Evan just threw up what looked like almost half of his whole meal. James was minding him at the time and this is what he said to him: "Oh Evan, everybody else thinks you're so cute, but I know the real you. You bulimic baby, eat eat eat and then spit up, trying to stay cute!"

4 months: endless drool

Head circumference: 43 cm (75%)
Height: 26.25 inches (90%)
Weight: 16 lbs 6 oz (75%)

At over 4 months now Evan is all smiles. He's into quietly observing and starting to interact more, with both people and toys. While in the Exersaucer he's not as wobbly as he used to be and can actually spin the fish barrel with his fists. As I'm writing this right now he's lying in his crib, happily squealing away. He can be quite loud when he does cry/laugh, but most of the time he's pretty quiet. When he's lying face up in his play gym, he enjoys reaching for and grabbing the dangling toys. He's also enjoying car rides a lot more now.

It feels like he's been teething forever. He drools so much he often fills up a bib in 15 minutes. Hopefully we see the tips of those first 2 teeth soon.

One of the things I love about Evan is his gentle gaze and stare. He has lovely eyes.

Finger licking goodness

Evan has been after his hands since day one. Before he had control of his arms, instead of bringing his hand to his mouth, he'd try to catch his hand with his mouth. I still have trouble nursing him sometimes cuz he has a natural tendency to want to suck his hand instead. He used to stuff an entire fist in his mouth, but aim was not that great, so would often get frustrated. Now he's graduated to individual fingers, index finger being the favorite. We can often hear him smacking away eating his fingers like they're covered with bbq sauce. He's also started staring at his own hands, probably thinking to himself "wow, can't believe I'm controlling these things".

Tuesday was Evan's 3 month birthday and James put together the exersaucer again for him to play with. He loved it and stayed in there for at least 15 minutes. I was just thinking to myself "wow, exersaucer is the best toy ever". But at closer look, he wasn't looking at the exersaucer, he was just playing with his hands.

Getting some exercise

Evan is finally enjoying tummy time more now and was happy looking around in his crib for a record 10 minutes today. He does not enjoy sleeping/resting on his tummy, so whenever he runs out of energy holding his head up I'll have to pick him up.

He's got pretty strong legs though and loves bouncing on my lap. Too bad bouncers are considered unsafe now. He would've loved bouncing in one.

Gotta keep the stroller moving

Last Tuesday was our 7 year (Shanghai) wedding anniversary, and we thought we'd be brave and go out to dinner with the two kids. Evan slept in his stroller the whole time, but to keep him asleep I had to leave the restaurant 3 times. He seems to sense whenever the stroller stops rolling, so I'm often eating with one hand and pushing the stroller back and forth with the other. But straight back and forth is sometimes not could enough. Evan prefers a slight curve to the left or right in addition to the back and forth. Luckily our stroller does this naturally (what used to be a "bug" is all of a sudden a "feature")

Two months

Stats
Weight: 13 lbs (80%)
Height: 23 3/4 inches (80%)
Head circumference: 40 cm (50%)

Evan is getting big fast. He's outgrown most of the 3m clothes now. 6m and even 9m bodysuits don't look that big on him. Even though he doesn't look like a newborn anymore, he still sleeps most of the time like a newborn. The longest that he's slept in a single stretch is 6hrs at night, which I'm grateful for. He's loving the papasan still and that's where he sleeps most of the time all swaddled up. He definitely wakes up easier when he's in his crib. Some (unlucky) days I'd have 3 failures in a row of him waking up as soon as I lay him down in the crib.

Still dislikes tummy time and usually cries as soon as I flip him onto his belly. Though today we did get a brief moment when he lifted his head and looked around on his little gym.

He definitely recognized mommy now. Makes me feel special but also means it's harder for somebody else to hold him. He doesn't seem to like new faces.

Lots of puking. My shirt seems to be constantly stained with milk. Sometimes Evan will have a sad expression on his face after a big puke, as if he knows he just wasted some precious milk.

His favorite object is this pink and green drawing of a caterpillar that turns into a butterfly that Nathan made in class once. I pinned it next to his changing pad and he'll often "talk" to it. Whenever Evan makes a sound, Nathan will think he's talking to him "弟弟宝宝说话".

Evan still tends to fall asleep a lot during breastfeeding. He does this whole body stretch right after a feed, with back arching, both arms in the air, legs curled up, and eyes closed but eye brows raised with a complete look of satisfaction on his face. I haven't been able to capture it on camera yet but that is one of my most favorite moments with Evan, so I take a mental picture every time.

No car rides

Evan seems to be disliking car rides more and more these days. When we dropped off my parents at the airport last week, he pretty much cried all the way up there, poor thing. I thought maybe it's the combi car seat being uncomfortable so today we switched him to the Marathon but didn't get much of an improvement. We're going on a road trip to Tahoe tomorrow, so fingers crossed...

First smiles

It's 4:30am and I just put Evan to bed after his 3am feeding. He was quite alert tonight and gave me several smiles and coos when I was swaddling him. He's usually in a good mood right after a diaper change and could be pretty "talkative" too. Yesterday he gave Sarah several big smiles after his bath (which he's very much enjoying now).

One month milestone

First the stats

• Height: 22 1/4 inches (75%)
• Weight: 10 pounds 13 ounces (75%)
• Head circumference: 38 1/4 cm (50%)

For Evan's one month celebration we went all out and had a Chinese dinner banquet (满月酒). Both my parents (wai-gong wai-po) were still here, so gave them a chance to meet some of our friends, which they enjoyed very much. Evan won't remember he got passed around all the "uncles and aunties", but Nathan had plenty of fun and apparently likes sharks fin soup (too bad he won't be getting that again any time soon =P)

Growth-wise, Evan is really starting to pack on the pounds/ounces. His cheeks have gotten noticeably chubbier. His legs are no longer skinny sticks like a newborn's, and even his feet and hands and getting pretty pudgy. He loves to get swaddled still (and I'm getting pretty good at it). Evan isn't getting much exercise other than the crying. I try to give him tummy time at least once a day but he still protests after a few minutes. He's got strong legs and weak arms (like me). It'll be interesting to see how much he weighs at the 2 month mark. The speculation is he'll be heavier than Nathan at same age and I know we're not supposed to compare such things between siblings but it's hard to resist.

Evan''s still a pretty "easy" baby in general, though he is starting to stay awake more, especially between 8pm and 11pm seem to be his "prime time". I wonder if it's because the day->night transition is hard, not used to it being so quiet especially after Nathan has gone to bed. Evan loves having Nathan around it seems. There was once both of them were crying their eyes out and I was rocking Evan while trying to calm down Nathan. All of a sudden when I look down I found Evan asleep already. Maybe he finds Nathan's screams calming. Once Evan is asleep he can go a good 4 to 5 hour stretch these days sleeping swaddled in his grid. He's super good during the middle of the night wakings. When he's about to wake up he usually starts making little noises that I can hear on the baby monitor. Usually I pick him up before it develops into a full out cry. Our routine is feed, diaper change, swaddle, turn on kitchen fan and rock for 10 minutes, asleep and back in crib.

We were very lucky to have 外公外婆 come and help us out this time. Towards the end of their stay 外公 and Evan seem to have formed a special bond. 外公 carried Evan most of the time and new how to distinguish his hungry cries from gassy cries from I want to sleep cries.

One thing Evan is still not super excited about is baths. On a bad day he'll cry entire duration of the bath. (Even our next door neighbor Pam asked us about it since his cries could get pretty loud). He is slowly getting used to it though.

3 weeks and counting

I was flipping through a baby diary today and noticed I'm already behind. I haven't noted down exactly when Evan's first bath was, or which day his tummy button stump fell off... but at 3 weeks, some "first month milestones" he's reached so far:
- raise head a little
He does this usually when I'm holding him over my shoulder. If he's hungry he'll raise and turn his head and try to suck my cheek. It's as if he's giving me a kiss =) Most of the time he's pretty lazy though and does not like tummy time one bit. Prefers to just lie on his back and look around the room.
- respond to sounds
I haven't noticed this much yet. Sometimes if I'm talking and walking away from him he'll track me with his eyes/head in the directing I'm walking. He likes having Nathan around and can often fall asleep to the sound of Nathan's yelling/screaming.
- look at faces with interest
He's most interested in looking at daddy's face when James is holding him. Even since the hospital days, father and son can start a "staring match".
- see black and white patterns
He loves looking at the b&w NZ (silver fern) flag we have in the bathroom wall. He likes staring at my hair too (maybe because it's black?) and the picture frames in the hallway.
- vocalize sounds
Very little, maybe one "coo" a day. Usually after a satisfying meal.
- smile
No voluntary ones yet. He frequently "smiles" in REM sleep, but that probably doesn't count...

Two weeks

We took Evan in for his 2 week checkup yesterday and looks like we're finally doing okay in terms of weight gain. He's back to his birth weight now and grew taller by 1". That sounded off an alarm at how fast they grow at this stage, so James did his hand and foot prints later that day.

Evan also caught his first cold (from Nathan surprise surprise) and has had a stuffed nose for the last day. No temperature luckily and hopefully having breast milk should give him enough antibodies to fight the virus. Even when he's all stuffed up he does not cry much. He's more restless in his sleep and needs to be held more, but other than that still a very easy and content baby.

He continues to sleep most of the day and night. We often have to wake him up for a feeding. The little guy just loves to sleep. He prefers sleeping on his back (opposite of Nathan) so we were reminded by doc to give him some tummy time, which we really need to start doing...

Birth day

At last the wait is over... Evan was born on Monday July 20, 2009 9:13am via a scheduled c-section (2 days before original due date). James and I had both guessed that he'd be lighter than Nathan considering Nathan was a week late, but we were both wrong. Evan weighed in at a whopping 8lbs 8oz and measured to be 21".

The delivery itself went very smoothly. It felt weird being awake while being operated on, especially since some of the pulling and tugging I could feel even though there's no pain. It was comforting to have James there and we were both calmer this time being "experienced" parents. There was a lot of yanking (they had to lower the table even) to get Evan out, but it was quickly followed by a loud cry and Dr. Shin even lifted him over the curtain for me to take a look first before they took care of the cord etc and wrapped him up again for both me and James to hold. He looked so healthy and peaceful with his chubby little face... I stayed in the operating room while James followed Evan to get a bath and other measurements done. We later reunited in the maternity ward and coincident they initially put us in the same room as two years ago (talking about dejavu).

Later that day Sarah brought my parents and Nathan to visit us at the hospital. We've been anticipating how Nathan would react to finally meeting this "弟弟" that we've been talking about for so long. He was very excited and cautious at the same time, yelling and pointing at "didi", but afraid to touch him. Luckily Evan's a good sleeper and didn't wake up at all even with Nathan's screams. That's one characteristic of Evan: he can really sleep. He can sleep through anything, doesn't matter if it's noisy or quiet, if he's swaddled or not, if it's in the crib or in our arms... it still seems too good to be true. I think the first day Evan slept pretty much the whole time except for diaper changes. Even feedings he'd have his eyes close and be in a half awake state.

2 more weeks

We have exactly 2 more weeks until d-day (delivery day). I'm starting to feel a little nervous. I've been off work for a week now, but haven't been idle at all. The "nesting" instinct is starting to take over and I've been slowly tidying up both the baby (soon to be babies) room and guest room in preparation for the grandparents' arrival tomorrow. Our 3 bedroom house is feeling more and more crowded these days...

At the doctor visit last Friday we got a special treat and saw an ultra-sound of Peanut. He had one hand covering half of his face and was probably sleeping at the time. They wanted to check the water level, which was all good. It was purely by chance that James and Nathan were both there that day (I usually go to these routine visits myself) and Nathan was more interested in how to operate the ultrasound machine than the actual images. He knew that the visit was for "弟弟" though and was patient throughout. Peanut woke up shortly after the doctor visit and I felt some big kicks. We probably woke him up from his sleep.

Hiccups

Peanut has been rather active tonight. At first I thought it was just kicks, but after James felt it he thinks it's most likely hiccups since they're very regular, almost like a heart beat. It's an exciting thought that our little peanut's learning how to breath.

20 week ultrasound

We finally got some printouts of Peanut's 20 week ultrasound several months ago (on Feb 25, 2009). That was when we found out he was a boy! Here's a nice profile of his face and belly.

Bun in the oven

Yup, we got another bun in the oven and there is 123 days to go until it's done. Since Nathan was called "walnut" while he was in my belly, we've been calling the next one "peanut" before he was even conceived. (Unfortunately mypeanut.blogspot is taken already...)

This second pregnancy has been a little harder than the first. I've been getting sick (mostly colds) a lot easier and am more tired in general. I have been keeping a paper journal this time, but haven't been writing in it frequently enough either.

We found out that peanut was a boy at the big 2nd trimester ultrasound two weeks ago. It was amazing how much we could see already of him, he's got a very round head and tiny little arms and legs. I think I had mixed feelings when we found out about the sex. A girl would've been nice since everybody wants "one of each". But two boys (or two girls) would probably feel closer and have a tighter bond when they're growing up. Having no siblings myself I wouldn't know (though I did beg my parents for an older sister, not knowing it was pretty much impossible).

I do hope my two boys become best of friends...