A Plentitude of Photographs

Lazy Saturday mornings are the best and I'm going to miss them if I start this new job. It looks more and more likely that I will be starting a new job sometime next week (sort of a Christmas Miracle) and it, unfortunately, involves Saturday mornings. That's okay, however, as it is in toys with a management team that seems willing to give me a chance to pursue the goals that I've been after for a while now.


As you can see from these photos, the Tsien family spent the morning mostly in bed. Delicious.

Is it admitting to be too slackerly to say that we enjoyed spending almost the entire day inside? Sarah and I went out briefly to the mall food court downstairs for a quick lunch, but mostly we were cozied up inside the house.



Have to admit, however, it wasn't all fun and games. Those of you following the blog know that we've been trying to put some parameters around Margaret's feeding and sleep and while there have been advantages, we still don't seem to have her dialed in perfectly. It's been taking her a lot of crying and screaming to go down, sometimes and I think that it's starting to get Sarah wondering if we aren't doing something wrong.

Typically, she'll feed for about 45 minutes, be active for awhile but then take 45 minutes to go down again during the day. In late evenings (after 11:30 pm or so) this isn't an issue as she goes down fairly easily, but during the day, after 7:00 AM or so, even after a feeding, whilst yawning away, she's screaming her lungs out while we've got her swaddled, trying to get her to fall asleep.

I suppose it may simply involve one of those mysteries that babies keep to themselves.



The good of this, however, is that she will typically have one long 5 hour or so stretch in the evenings. Unfortunately, this has been, up to now, during the 6:00 PM to 11:30 PM period. We're working on shifting this to later and may experiment with waking her up to feed her to "top her off" before we go to sleep.



Anyways, we have our friends Molly and Bill coming over this evening for dinner. They're bringing a salad and we (Daisy) are supplying the pasta. Margaret is the entertainment.

Gotta' love dinner and a show.

Plethora of Pictures

After yesterday's post mostly about us, the grownups, I thought I'd give you all a dose of what you're all really after, anyways. Margaret.


Mommy and Margaret sharing a moment

Today was a mostly quiet day. Margaret actually went up to CIS with Sarah and visited briefly this morning during the Primary school holiday concert. She got a bit fussy, however, and so soon came home.

We spent the afternoon at home and went for a short walk in Victoria Park at around 4:30. Two outings for Margaret in one day! Both were short, however, and well tolerated.

It seems like the tired one these days is actually me. I don't know if it's the swing shift feedings or what, but I've been just exhausted.

I got to sleep in a bit this morning, however, and so felt better through the day. Hopefully, last night combined with tonight will give me a chance to recover.


What's Daddy doing?


Stretching and holding her head up. Looking determined!


Also holding her head up


My first baby and my second baby


Mommy's hands are the best


"What you lookin' at? Taken in our new baby rocking chair from Auntie Shirley


Taking it all in

The Times They are a Changin'

Life and Baby

First, sorry about the slowdown in the posting these past few days. Life has been busy and we're trying to keep up! I've been working on a live lead for a toy job and things may change sooner rather than later in the employment department. This is both exciting and nerve wracking as I consider all the factors, not the least of which is feeling like I'm leaving Sarah and Margaret.

Sarah has passed a milestone as well with her now fitting into non-maternity pants! This past week, she even went and got a new pair of jeans at H&M and guess what? Size 8!


Sarah in her new jeans! Rowr!

In the meantime, Margaret continues to change at a breakneck pace.

We had her weighed yesterday and she clocked in at 4030 grams / 8.88 pounds and 54 centimeters / 21.26 inches. That's 4 cm of growth in as many weeks!

More and more now, she seems engaged and her grab reflex seems to be increasing. She now often comes away with the burp cloth in a closed fist after being burped. It's the absolute best when she holds one of our fingers in her hands.

Sarah thinks that she's working towards more and more hand usage as well and says that Margaret now often looks at her hands while awake with furrowed brow as if trying to figure out what they do. I can't wait until she figures them out!

Also, we got her US passport and Consular Certification of Birth Abroad for a US Citizen today so we're official. Woohoo!

Angels in the Night time


Borrowed from Flikr

I've always thought of Margaret as being angelic, but I didn't realize how much she resembled a classic cherub until last night.

It was about 3:15 AM and she had just completed a feed. While swaddling her with her flat on her back, after her burp, a fount of spit-up came issuing forth from her mouth that I swear must have gone 3 inches high. Keeping in mind that this hole is much bigger than the one from the now infamous, "Curious Incident of the Poop on the Carpet," I find the amount of pressure that builds up inside her incredible.

She was, of course, completely soaked. Clothes. Hair. Receiving blanket. Burp cloth. I've gotta' figure out how to get it out of the couch, too, before it turns yellow.

I find it a true testament, however, of how far I've come as a parent that instead of swearing and screaming for SAM to help, I instead cooed to my little one, "Oooh, doesn't that feel better. Daddy change you now and get you all dry!"

Talkin' 'bout a Revolution or "Desmond"

My life has been revolutionized over the past few days by an item which I truly believe has improved my quality of life. I refer, of course, to our hand me down breast feeding pillow which we got from Lindsay. Its label identifies it as "My Brest Friend." (funny, it doesn't look French) We call it "The Tutu."


The Tutu being modeled by SAM

By freeing up our hands, The Tutu allows Sam and I greater freedom while feeding. Sam can actually read a book with Margaret on a breast and I have a hand free while bottle feeding to do everything from wipe spit up, pat her on her tummy or drink from a glass. SAM has even figured out that she can (carefully) sort of stand up and walk over the the phone to pick it up without Margaret skipping a beat (or sip).


Margaret was sleeping so Ubi2 offered to stand in to illustrate



In actual use at 5:00 AM

Cryptically punny Francophone name aside, I consider this the best breast feeding accessory. Ever.

Training

In addition, starting the day before yesterday, we began a regimen of training that will, hopefully, allow Sarah some more sleep.

Over the past weeks Margaret was becoming increasingly dependent upon suckling or being held to fall asleep and to feel secure. This was becoming an exhausting demand on Sarah and my time. So, with the help of The Baby Whisperer, we've embarked upon an ambitious plan to establish some new habits for Margaret and to teach her how to fall asleep on her own.

The plan is to feed her for no more than 45 minutes, try to introduce a pacifier so she can soothe herself, and to make sure she falls asleep in her crib, but in a manner in which she doesn't feel abandoned (i.e. we do pick her up when she cries, but put her down as soon as she quiets but before falling asleep).

And while this adjustment period seems to involve quite a lot of screaming (at heretofore unheard of volumes), it already seems to be yielding results. Once Margaret is down, she is down for a more predictable period that allows SAM time to get a few things done in her life. It also seems that she's taking less and less time to settle - from something like 2 hours on Monday to today's 30 to 45 minutes. We're hoping to see continued improvement.


Tonight. She will now, occassionally, take a pacifier.

Sunday Family Day with the Koos

My two beautiful girls

Besides the obvious assertion that every day these days is family day, today (Sunday), we spent the day with my sister Joy's family! Margaret had lots of fun with her cousins and her cousins seemed to have much fun poring, patting, loving and otherwise fawning over Margaret.

The morning was actually quiet, with us spending most of it in bed. This made sense, however, as Margaret's schedule last night was slightly off. She was up at 12:30 and demanded to be fed (after an 11:30 feeding). She sucked down nearly 6 ounces of milk and before succumbing to sleep at around 2:00 AM. Then, she was up again at 4:00 am, 6:00 am and 8:00 am. Usually, she goes down at about 11:00, isn't up until 3:00, then wakes again at about 7:00. The extra wake cycle means a lot less sleep (for SAM, mostly), so we stayed in bed a bit extra this morning.


Starting out the day in Mommy's arms

Hanging out with the Koos at the Country Club is always fun and delicious. Sarah and I got to enjoy our burgers in relative leisure as the George and Joy almost fought to hold Margaret.


Gathered 'round the main event

As always, the kids are great with Margaret and simply love to get involved with her care. Here you see them gathered around ready to observe how I change a diaper. This change wound up resembling a surgery with different nephews and nieces assisting during different phases.


The pit crew

After lunch, we all went to Joy and George's house where we all hung out until dinner time. It was a lot like Christmas, actually, with the kids upstairs playing on the computer while the grownups napped at first then hanging out (when Margaret and Sarah weren't feeding).

Margaret did manage to take a nap and let Sarah out to hang with the grownups so that was nice.

After a nice dinner with the fam, we came home to, what else, feed Margaret.

I think that this has been our longest day out so far and I have to say that it seems like it was very successful. Of course, part of the success was due to our ability to make ourselves comfortable at Joy's house, but still, managing to have such a long day out and come home in as good shape as we have is confidence building.


Shot from the fair last week where I sold ALL my games!

Yesterday and today

Margaret and her "Magic Hands" Yaya, Daisy!


Thoroughly unenthused


Hai Ya!


Or is it line dancing with Ubi2?


Checking out daddy.


Does she look like Daddy?


Or does she look like Mommy?

"The Finger"

Inspired by a trick I once saw Alex pull with David on a long car trip, we have begun trying to offer Margaret a finger to suck on when she is fussy. She seems to have taken to the finger as the one and only substitute for a breast.

Now, we seem to be "giving her the finger" day and night.


On the phone with Roz this morning


Don't even think about moving that finger!



A little to the left...


No, no, too much. Now right.


Ok. I'm tired of this. I want boob, now!

Lots of new stuff

During her usual hour of lucidity from about 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM tonight

How new parenthood and smoking resemble each other:

1) They should both come with a Surgeon General's warning that they are hazardous to your health and may reduce your lifespan.

2) They both make your heart race and your blood pressure shoot up.

3) Both cause you to find yourself in drugstores at very odd hours.

4) Both put you in an initial state of euphoria that, over time, degrades to regret you ever got into it.

5) Both isolate you from your friends who aren't smokers/parents and you soon find your social circle defined by those who are and those who aren't.

6) Withdrawal from either your children or your cigarettes causes irritability, longing and hypersensitivity to other babies / smokers.



Today was a busy day out. We actually spent much of the day at the US Consulate applying for Margaret's new passport where Magaret was quite the celebrity in the waiting room. Lots of people there wanted to see her and know all about her.

Besides a period of feeding while we were in an outdoor holding area before we got to go inside proper, Margaret stayed sleeping the whole time - even through the interview! This was good, however, and they didn't need her awake during the process, just there. I guess that they want you to bring your baby just to make sure you really have one!

So now we've filled in all our forms (I filled in a superfluous one that took me hours and hours to do), done all our raised right hand swearing and Margaret should get her passport and proof of US citizenship in ten days and her social security card in three to six months.

We're the proud parents of a US Citizen! Woohoo! I am actually very excited and proud and glad we got through today without a hitch. We even got a receipt with her name on it which we will put in her pile of stuff to save.



After that, M had a feed, we ate, and then we went shopping for baby stuff which was very fun. We got a trial kit of a kind of semi-disposable diaper called the Bambino Mio which Sarah is keen to try. It's kind of a cool idea. There's a waterproof outer shell, an absorbent cloth diaper and a paper liner that you put over the cloth liner that blocks and catches the poop but lets the urine soak into the absorbent cloth diaper. You throw away the poop in the paper part and wash the cloth liner.

I'm a little worried that it's a recipe for diaper rash, but we'll try it and see.

We also got a small electric breast pump as a stop-gap solution until we get a better one - though we got a nice one for what it is. It's one called the "Swing" by Medela. We haven't tried it out yet and am very excited to see what it can do. It has a cool, "2-phase expression" system which is a fancy way of saying that it has two settings, one for the initial stage then a longer, slower one for after your let down. Right now, it's all sterilized, set up and ready for it's first ever tryout tonight.

We also received a wonderful package / present tonight from Margaret's cousin Clara With some very useful items such as all silicone pacifiers and the cutest socks I've ever seen. The interesting part is that Sarah was trying to order the exact pacifiers that we received today but was stymied by our, for some reason, fickle Internet connection tonight. Someone must have known! The pacifiers are now also fully sterilized and near at hand tonight for use in trying to get her to settle. Thanks, guys!


On the play mat earlier this morning

Speaking of tonight, we're hoping that Margaret becomes easier to settle soon. The last few days, she's been quite difficult to settle, either demanding constant rocking to fall asleep or being attached to Sarah. Today, Sarah managed to use a finger in her mouth to get her to fall asleep and so she is quiet in her co-sleeper now, but we're still hoping for a better and quicker option. The pacifiers are a promising option which we will continue to try but if something doesn't happen soon, we may all be nothing more than walking zombies.

Today was such a day. I made more than one error or faux pas today in business emails and meetings and I feel it's because of how tired I am. Part of it was staying up until Margaret's 2:45 AM feed doing paperwork for her passport application to prove my residence in the US (which they ultimately didn't need) but part of it is that now Margaret's 3:00 am feed has stretched to 5.5 ounces over an hour and fifteen minutes. Much of the time is spent burping her and getting her to settle at the end, though, so even fifteen minutes off would be 15 minutes more sleep!

Of course, here I am up at 12:30 AM typing a blog. But this part, I love! :-)

As the yawns overtake me, however, I'll sign off now and crawl into bed next to SAM who's already there so as to have energy to wake in a couple of hours to feed Margaret again.

We'll keep you all posted.

3.8 kg / 8.38 pounds!

Taken Sunday

It's been a couple of days since I last posted and there is a decent amount to catch up on (Sarah's post about our walk on Monday notwithstanding)!

The big news, is that Margaret was weighed today and she came in at 3.80 kg / 8.38 pounds. The last time she was weighed on November 27th (last week), she came in at 3.49 kg / 7.69 pounds. So she gained 310 grams or .69 pounds in a week. I don't know if that's good or not, but I can feel every one of those grams when I pull her out of or put her in her crib at night. It's especially noticeable after she sucks down five and a half ounces of milk at 4:00 AM and I'm trying to lever her back and forth between my shoulders, my lap and the co-sleeper.


From Sunday

The last few nights, Margaret has been ramping up her milk intake during her 3:00 AM feedings considerably. We've rapidly gone from giving her just an ounce and a half to try out feeding, to three, to four and a half to, last night, five and a half ounces at once. We're told that this is in the realm of normal consumption but I can't help but feel like it's a lot of milk to be taking in, especially as sometimes, she has monster burps and it sounds like she's eaten so much she has trouble breathing. The tip of seems to be an almost whistling sound when she breathes after a big bottle feed.

A consequence of the increased feedings is that she is also taking increased amounts of time to feed. So last night, she was up from about 2:45 AM to roughly 4:00 AM. Part of this is because I started with only 4 ozs, then tried to put her down, then had to add an ounce and a half and even after that, she had trouble going down. Add in burping, diaper change, trying to calm her down, we begin to lose some of the time efficiency we thought we were building into her schedule. Add to that the fact that SAM is now getting up alongside Margaret and I to pump, and you've got a couple of pooped (and poopy) parents!

Personally, I feel more sleep deprived now than at the beginning. That's alright, though. I've got five and some ounces of milk in the bottle, ready for tonight. We'll see what she can do with that. If not, SAM is always there, but I do hate to fall back to that as the whole point was to give her a chance to rest herself and her boobs.


Sure, SHE looks well rested

One thing that we didn't fill you in on was our belated Thanksgiving dinner at my sister Joy's. Since her husband had to travel, we put off our Thanksgiving dinner by a week. There were over 30 people (including kids) over at Joy's house last Thursday and it was a FEAST. We had Turkey with all the fixin's including stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, green beans, an incredible salad and something like 8 desserts. Yum!

I think though, that the sweetest thing, for the kids, anyways, was probably Margaret. In the early part of the evening, when the kids first got there, Margaret was mobbed like a celebrity. All the kids were great, though, all wanting to be helpful and loving and gentle. And while it looked like a mob of people from outside of the mosh pit, it was all very gentle at the center of it all. Sort of like a silent storm (except for when the kids all wanted to talk at once).


Here's SAM and Margaret feeding. Where's Margaret? She's in there!


Here's me burping her. You can't even see me in the sea of people!

Dinner was delicious, but Sam and I didn't actually get to eat together at any point during the evening. Margaret, chose that evening to do something she had never done before - feed for four hours straight. From, essentially, 6:45 PM until 11:00 she was either feeding or screaming to be fed. There were a few ten minute hiatuses here and there (a thirty minute one when all the kids arrived at 7:15 pm) but if SAM wasn't there feeding her, I had to be distracting her so she wouldn't scream her head off.

We understand that many babies have a growth spurt at 3 weeks and we believe that was what suddenly kicked in as that signaled the start to an incredible non-stop chow fest that continues even to today.

You can say this about babies, they certainly keep you on your toes!


The only place all three of us were together during dinner was in Samantha's bedroom where we fed Margaret

Family Day Out

After a long night last night, we were woken up this morning by the deafening sound of multiple jackhammers pounding on what we though must be the apartment above us. Turns out, the apartment two floors BELOW us was taking a wall down. As we had to yell to hear each other, there was no way we could stay at home. We decided to make the most of our situation and have a Family Day Out. Here are a few images from our day (Margaret slept for most of it, so forgive the emphasis on photos of Mom and Dad):



And we're off!



First we took the subway to Admiralty



To have lunch at Dan Ryan's. Yum.

We were craving hamburgers last night, but Margaret had another feeding frenzy and we had to stay home. We decided to make up for it today.



Then up the Peak Tram!



And for a walk around the Peak



Remember this Photo? Taken almost exactly four weeks ago.

Finally, we sat in a coffee shop to feed Margaret and give Mom and Dad a rest. Look what happened the one time we forgot to put the burp cloth on the shoulder before the burping:



Maybe he won't notice?

We got home around 6:00 to a dinner of tacos. Life is good :-)