new exciting things!

Thomas is so full of surprises! about two weeks ago he started really smiling in reponse to our smiles. before that he would smile and immediately stop when he saw how excited we got. he didn't quite know what he was doing except that it made mom and dad very excited. but now - he really smiles - when we smile at him, it brings a smile in return (sometimes even a wide, open mouth, gummy smile) and it is the BEST THING IN THE WORLD! :)

the next exciting thing was about a week ago... he started "talking" to us. it was soooo neat - but he would only talk once or twice a day. so we were constantly trying to figure out how to catch it on the camcorder. as soon as he would see the camcorder, he would stop. same with the camera. he loves to just stare at the camera. he knows it is something funny, just doesn't know what it is for yet. but he knows it is something foreign. so he talks talks talks and as soon as the camera pops into his range of vision - all talking stops. well, something clicked on this past weekend because all of a sudden he talks a LOT now. i mean, right after eating, during diaper changes, when i am carrying him around the house... you never know when he feels like starting a conversation with you. it is SOOO cute. just talking away (all kinds of noises, esp "ou" and "oooo" sounds). we bought a digital camcorder a month ago, realizing that we didn't want to miss capturing his babyhood. i have a feeling we are going to end up with thousands of hours of footage, slowing stacking up through the years, gathering dust in the closet. then we can watch it when we are retired and he is married with his own kids :)

here he is throwing signs with his donkey posse... yo yo yo what's up!

perfect pose... just had to post this one

he seems to get cuter and cuter all the time. just want to eat him up! that's william's eyes and nose and my mouth. but it is hard to tell who he looks like and seems to change all the time. it probably depends somewhat on the expression on his face. below is another funny one - this is right after he has had a nice big meal and has fallen asleep towards the end. i just had to take this pic because from the side, he looks even chubbier. plus he is smiling a little - makes him look like a smiling budda doll.



we were talking about how horrible it is that there are people out there that try to kidnap kids. you just love these little guys so much, it is hard to imagine how it would feel if someone snatched him. you really can imagine killing to keep them safe, or sacrificing yourself to save them. william said that he would shrivel up inside if thomas were taken or disappeared. how sweet is that! one things kids do is bring you closer to your spouse. seeing them love and care for your baby just makes them all the more wonderful. of course, it helps a great deal that we are getting more sleep and have settled into a nice routine now.

on a totally different topic, i still can't understand how people think they can have kids to "save" their marriage. i mean, sheesh, kids put you both under so much stress, there is no way it makes a bad relationship better. even in great relationships, the first month with a new baby tends to accentuate your weaknesses. i stupidly thought that william would magically become more patient once the baby was born and that i would magically be able to efficiently prioritize my day so that everything could get done.
yeah right!! ha ha... in my dreams. :p

st. patricks day in Dublin, CA

we went out to the arts & crafts fair today. dublin always does a parade and festival the weekend of st. patricks day. we missed the parade this year, but we went to join our little community for some food and to enjoy beautiful weather today. here are the boys - including thomas. thomas was sleepy but there was so much to look at he stayed awake almost the entire time we were walking around (close to two hours). he totally crashed this evening and won't even get up now - even though he must be getting hungry.

at church today, we caught some great photos of thomas and two of the other infants at church. thomas lost his socks somehow. we left the house with two little socks. the socks i have are for "3-6 months" but his legs are so fat, that the band is too tight. so i cut the band thinking that would make it looser. it does make it looser... too loose making them fall off at random times. so he went bare foot.

too bad the other 2 couples with new babies weren't there. we could have had all 5 of them lined up! :) Thomas is now 10 weeks old. Little Dylan in the middle is just about15 weeks old. Tyler on the end is 10 months - the big brother.

Sometimes, you just need someone to lean over on. luckily, little tyler on the right was strong enough to put his arm out and support the other two before they all fell over...

chubby christmas

here is a picture from monday. isn't he cute?? ha ha.... i know, i say that way too much. surprisingly the chubbier/more bulldog his face is, the cuter he gets. ok, so i have this little christmas suit from a year ago. i bought it for someone then realized it was the wrong size. then lost the receipt so never returned it. so now, we have a baby and he was born after christmas and by next christmas will be too big. so we popped him into it this week because he is big enough to fit into it (more or less). he was so cute, all smiling, in bright red, that we had to take photos. even though christmas is done and gone, he is the best christmas gift ever~

he had his 2 month checkup yesterday and he is 12 lbs 13 oz and 22.5 inches. at least he is not in the 25% for weight and height anymore. for awhile there, i suspected God was going to give us a short stubby son for all those times william made fun of people who are overweight. what goes around does tend to come back around. and if it doesn't, God still gets you in the end... heh heh...

he got 4 shots yesterday. it was hard watching the nurse stick all these long needles into him. and she did it so fast, just JAB right into his fleshy thigh. and then one fast pump to get all of the vaccine into him. it had to hurt, but he was a good little kid. he just cried while the shots went in and then would stop a couple sobs after. luckily, he didn't develop any symptoms that evening so we are clear.

at his one month visit, he only got one shot but i cried. it was terrible! i think with little sleep and not feeling well, i was so emotionally stretched that i couldn't handle them sticking him with a needle. so all i could do was cry. i am sooooo glad that the first month is over! (thank you God for helping us survive that!) at least now, i am get enough sleep (at least to function) and he is settling into a routine (of sorts). much more managable and such a joy as well!

outings

at 6 weeks, we started taking him on his first outings to church. that week, we also took a stroll through Target and Ross with him. it isn't that bad getting around with him - just inconvenient. at first i tried lugging the baby seat around. that got heavy really fast - it is not the easiest thing to carry around. round and over 15 pounds, it keeps banging into your knees & legs at the wrong time. so i gave in and started using the snap-n-go which is a light frame that the infant car seat can just fit on top of. that's much easier, even has a nice big storage compartment underneath for all your stuff. i just wish it had a cup holder.

we found he likes going out. there is a lot more to look at than at home. he likes to look around as it is - but outside is totally new. it is so funny... we'll be walking around the house with him and he will be nice and calm. then you try to sit down (because you are getting tired and your arm muscles are starting to burn), and if he is not ready to for you to sit down, he will start crying waaaaah, just like that. then there are other times when he is just fine and dandy laying on the sofa by himself like in this photo. just finished eating, nice clean diaper and he will lay there talking, making all kinds of noises and all smiles. he is sooo chubby!

burps, farts and repetitive stress injuries

it is really amazing how loud babies are when they burp and fart. sometimes when i hear thomas from the next room, i can't tell if it is william or thomas who farted. i mean, you would think that since their bodies are so small, that their expulsions would be small. but no, they are loud and adult volume. no masking it in public. i guess the advantage is if you do fart in public and you are holding a baby, you can just smile and say, "he is a loud little guy isn't he?" and no one will know better :) unless they are standing right next to you.

ok, for any of you who don't have babies yet - make sure you keep your arms, shoulders and back in good shape. stretch those muscles and keep up the strength training. william and i both have developed repetitive stress injuries from holding thomas. my wrists, elbows, shoulders and neck are all pretty sore now. and of course, the best treatment for these types of injuries is rest. HA. rest, ha ha ha. so work on those areas now while you can. i used to scoff at ergonomic injuries and people who complained about work-related injuries from bad ergonomics. i thought it was just an excuse, a reason to not work hard. while i still think that people could be better about making sure they are sitting correctly, i take ergonomics very seriously now. i had no idea it extended to baby! my wrists ache in certain positions now. my elbows and forearm muscles ache when i fully extend them and my neck - i can't look down or to the right without feeling the pinch in my spine. terrible! and the worst part is, this is not exercise. don't be fooled. that burn in your bicep is not a work out. it is lactic acid building up in the muscle fibers and that acid has no where to go, because the muscle is not allowed to do reps and rest b/w reps. it is just locked/contracted for long stretches of time with no break in between. and now that it is injured, i have to be careful with regular workouts, i.e. free weights, because overdoing it, will only do more damage. be good to your bodies... we're only getting older, not younger. of course we are still young at heart. at least that we have some control over :)

Big burping pic

william has asked for a big file of thomas so that he can click on it at work and see every single detail of his chubby little face. so mr. silly dad... here you go... :)

Dreams

amazingly i have had some very vivid dreams in the past months despite the lack of sleep. i have always been able to remember certain dreams. i kept track of some b/c i have several since high school that have made repeat showings but have changed as i have gotten older. so here is a sample. obviously some of them have to do with fears regarding thomas :)
the first one is a repeat. i used to dream about walking towards a HUGE tree city. i would be in the desert and in the distance, i see this huge tree that has a city built into it (kind of like LOTR). in college, i would dream about walking up to the base of the tree city and seeing people go in and walk up but never walk into it myself. so last month, i dreamed i was in the desert walking towards the tree city, but william was there and there was a old run down shed. we walk in the shed and it is pretty gross/dirty but there is a horse in there. (wierd!) for some reason we don't ride the horse. we just walk with the horse towards the tree city. then i am alone and walking up into the tree city. it looks like a narrow, densely packed, european cobbled street with houses and business packed in on both sides. then for some reason my mom appears and we walk in a restaurant. we start to eat a meal and she starts nit picking about things. i get really annoyed and start yelling at her. then i wake up!
my second dream was a nightmare. i actually woke up screaming causing william to come running from downstairs where he was watching thomas. he asked me what it was about and i was so sleepy, i just mumbled that i dreamed i was in the room with thomas and something bad was trying to get in and hurt both of us. i don't know what it was, a monster or a demon or someone that broke into our house. then he said that i said that even though i didn't know what was trying to break into the room, but that i had this feeling that it represented my mom trying to break in. funny thing is that i didn't even remember having this bad dream until william mentioned it a day later!
the third one was us trying to escape some sort of natural disaster. the whole region had been given the order for mandatory evacuation (probably my brain processing katrina or a show i am watching "surface" where the the season ender had a tsunami). so we are getting all our stuff together and joining all the thousands of other people fleeing the coast. then i get distracted and enter a building with a long hallway, like a school. there are tables all down the hallway with trays/baskets full of supplies that people have left behind. and for some reason, i am obsessed with picking all of the green markers and crayons out of the baskets. i finally get to the end of the hall and run outside, where i see a stream of people walking down the street (who knows why we all aren't driving) and i look frantically for william and thomas and finally see them in the distance.
the last one is pretty obvious (meaning wise). i dreamed that i took thomas to the doctor's office. there was an assistant there that i had not seen before. she took thomas for his weight/height check and she stuck him on the exam table as if he could sit up on his own. of course he tumbled off unto the hard floor. i freaked out of course, picked him up carefully and he was so shocked he couldn't cry. and he didn't look right. so i started yelling at the assistant and telling her that she would pay for his ER exam and that if he had any permanent damage, i would sued her for every penny she has as well as future wages. just screaming at her! that's when i woke up, thankfully not screaming this time. :)
anyways, those are the interesting ones. i guess now that i am getting 6-7 hours of sleep, i am remembering dreams when i wake up and they are definitely reflective of worries and things on my mind. funny subconscious...

Burping time

never realized how important burping is to babies. in the first 2 weeks, we would feed him and put him down as soon as he was asleep. he would almost always spit up in his sleep, making a choking gurgling sound that would wake me up with a start, to rush over and make sure he wasn't choking to death. can be very scary but then we also found out that babies rarely die from spit up. they instinctively turn to the side so whatever they spit up drains properly. God gives babies some wonderful instincts to make up for our lack of knowledge.
we found out that you have to keep them upright for 20-40 minutes after they eat to prevent spit up. i thought that babies had nice strong, brand new stomach and esophagus muscles. what do you mean they need to be upright for 30 minutes after ever single feeding?

so you feed for 20 minutes, burp for 30 minutes, 5 minutes for diaper change... and one hour has gone by. at least once a day they also get hiccups after eating so that extends the time you spend burping/keeping them upright. if you are lucky, they sleep for an hour or two, then they are hungry again and you repeat 3 steps above. all day, that is all you do for the first 2 months. at least he is sleeping 3-5 hours at a time now. makes night times a little easier.

this is our favorite look on his face - when he is being burped and looking up and around. so cute. look at those little bulldog cheeks! there is william... already poking fun of thomas.

week 8 update with Mr. Frog

wow he is getting bigger fast. here is a picture taken today with our prepetually happy Mr. Frog. Thomas was in a better mood today and i actually almost got a smile. but look at how much bigger thomas is. almost the same size as mr frog now, about 22.5 inches and over 11 pounds. yikes!
hi joanna! :) i posted a different picture b/c the first one made him look even bigger with that full body suit. this is a better comparison shot. look at how chubby those thighs are!

william and cleaning up poop

william is very fastidious when it comes to personal hygiene. he is very paranoid about poop and making sure that it is dealt with in the most sanitary way possible. sometimes i think he would sterilize his own butt if he could. so naturally when we had thomas, it extended to the baby. william loves to make sure thomas' butt is scrubbed squEEEeeaky clean when he does diaper changes. for the first several weeks, william would change his diaper every time there was even the slightest bit of poop. i was a little more lazy about it, esp in the wee hours of the morning. if thomas was not complaining and the diaper was not really full, i would let it go. so he ended up with a diaper rash. now we just put this nifty diaper rash cream (zinc oxide) on his butt after every diaper change and that way, we can let him sleep for 4 hours if he chooses too (w/o waking him up for a diaper change. although when he is really asleep, he will sleep through a diaper change!) however, even with the zinc cream, william will use this little flashlight to peek into thomas' diaper to make sure it is not too full & poopy. ha ha! :)

i found out yesterday that this fastidiousness goes all the way back to when william was a little boy. his mom told him a story about when he was about 6-7 years old. william's grandmother is a pretty easy going person and she would help watch the kids (william has 2 younger sisters, helen & jenny). she decided that she did not need to change jenny's diaper just yet. well, william decided that that would not do. so he promptly went over to jenny, pulled her diaper off, and thoroughly hosed down her little butt with the shower bucket. then he was happy. however, he did not know how to put a clean diaper on, so then he let her walk around naked. too funny...

so now, william (who used to hate dealing with poop) has to deal with thomas' poop and scoop poop for our two kitties. he is the poop master! :)

More new babies!

Congratulations to John & Joyce on their new baby girl, Lindsey! 7 pounds, 2 oz and 21 inches long. wow! that is long. thomas was only 19.5 inches when he was born. sounds like little lindsey will be taller like her dad. this is their second child. their first daughter, Lauren is almost 2 years old. they have their hands full for sure!

wow... now, we personally know EIGHT couples who are have new babies between Novemeber and March. it's like a baby epidemic - it seems there were a lot of couples getting busy early last year. but it also means lots of playmates for thomas! :)

Playing around! :)

some funny pictures from the 8th. look at that little face. :)













he is getting pretty chubby - it is really hard to clean out those neck folds. it gets pretty gross in there b/c when he dribbles or spits up, it goes right down his chin into his neck folds. and sour milk smells funky! plus this is breast milk - even funkier smelling. breast milk tastes really odd - it is really more like milk juice. breast juice. nothing like cow milk. plus the glands that produce breast milk are same as the glands that produce sweat. one of our friends said that she had a glass of wine. so an hour later she pumped and was going to throw it away so that her baby wouldn't get any alcohol in the milk. but her mom (who is helping out with baby care) said "you shouldn't waste it!" and promptly drank the whole thing. ewwieeeee......

giving babies a bath is a little tricky. i think we have given him 4 baths now and boy, they are slippery when wet! we try to make sure no water gets in his eyes or ears, and keep soap to a minimum so we don't dry out his skin. the first time it took us an hour, from in the tub to drying off. we have it down to about 30 minutes now. 20 minutes would be great. it will be so much easier once he can hold his own head up and sit up on his own. i think around 6 months...

Some artsy images from William...

Here are two of william's pictures from the weekend... one with his little nose and other with his little hand... still so little!





the funny thing about when he sleeps is that you can do almost anything and he will sleep. now i know how anne geddes gets those baby pictures. she just has to wait until they are deep asleep and you can put them into almost any pose you want!

Not happy with Mr. Frog

This picture is from today. he is 10 and a 1/2 pounds and chubbing out nicely :).
i was trying to get a nice picture with mr. frog there but Thomas just wouldn't have it. every time i put him down, he started with the kicking and moon pie face. then as soon as i pick him up, all calm. put down - waaah, pick up - calm, down - waaaah, up - calm... sheesh!!! little bandito just wouldn't cooperate so this is all i could get. ha ha...

a few things they don't tell you about breastfeeding

both william and i have been reading a lot of material, books and online, about babies and baby care, etc. it can be frustrating b/c many of them say different things. i tend to think that the more you read the better - that way you can just use what you feel applies to your baby. as they always say, each baby is different and you know your baby best. but all those differing opinions can be really annoying when you are trying to figure out why baby is fussing. luckily Thomas usually fusses when he is hungry, wet, too cold/hot or has gas (burps or farts). but every once in awhile, he fusses for a bit and it seems like nothing is wrong. william gets frustrated "those stupid books are so full of it!" and it does feel that way sometimes :)
here is what i wish was explained better re: breastfeeding. they talk about "let down" but they don't really explain. well, your breasts don't let go of milk right away. ever time he feeds, baby has to suck on them for a few seconds and then the milk starts flowing. that is called let down, and once your milk really starts flowing, it can happen several times in one feeding. so much milk comes out that baby chokes sometimes. however, you can have spontaneous let down at random times of the day, i.e. when your boobs are really full, when you hear him cry, when you think about him feeding, etc. what they don't tell you is that you know when you have let down b/c your breasts tingle - not a pleasant tingle. it can be a very strong tingle, uncomfortable. it is not as bad when he is feeding. but if you just start leaking when you are walking about, it is not comfortable.
another thing they don't tell you - even with everything going well, it is not comfortable when the little bugger latches on (first starts sucking away). this is after 5 weeks of breastfeeding. they say, oh the soreness will subside and that definitely does. but those first 5 seconds still make me want to say "hallelujah!!!!!" and push him off. plus, it is not like your breasts toughen up and become like pre-baby. you learn to be a little more careful, even towel drying after a shower.
anyways, tmi, but all true. of course each woman is a little different so my experiences are particular to me. but i wish i had known some of the above. it is no wonder women stop breastfeeding after a few weeks or the first month. it is not the most easy, natural process, not for today's women.

Congrats to the new babies!

Congratulations to Liz & John!
They had their baby boy, Ethan yesterday. john sure was super eager to get photos to everyone. i don't think it was even a couple hours after the birth and john had photos emailed out. john - take care of your wife and baby! stop emailing everyone so much... ha ha...

Congratulations to Mia & Shawn!
their baby boy, Gabriel was born on January 31st. that makes 2 kids for them - brave new world of two kids!

both babies are healthy and doing well. well, now the four of us up here in the Tri-Valley have had our babies. it was so nice to have other couples going through the same thing together. along with my co-worker, Blanca & Richard, and our friends Louisa & Andy and Mia & Shawn, that makes 6 couples that we knew that were all pregnant around the same time. definitely nice to know that there are others going through the same process. :)

Still at it...

almost four weeks old and still loves sleeping with his arms up. so cute! ugh just want to squash him - like this cute little stuffed animal. but he is alive so you can't just hug him to death.... but he makes me want to (william too. he is always pretending to smoother him with hugs. or poking his little chubby cheeks). he is just about 10 pounds now. we keep telling him to stop growing so fast. we see other babies at 4-5 months old and they are so big compared to thomas. sometimes we wish he would stay small.
life has settled down to almost a routine now. thank you God! we are both getting some sleep and we are getting used to life with baby. it is still hard and thomas doesn't leave me with time to do much else but last week i finally recovered fully from my cold and william's cough is finally gone this week. we feel normal again! we thank God that thomas is a fairly easy baby and that he is healthy. gaining weight at a good pace and eating really well. although when william does the evening bottles, he was adding a little formula to breast milk (partially to help him sleep longer at night). then we noticed formula makes his poop stinkier so we stopped mixing. there is plenty of time for stinky diapers once he starts eating solid foods. right now we are just trying to enjoy him as much as we can. they change and grow right before your eyes.

New pictures for week four

he is still so small... *sigh* :)

hiya to my mervyn's friends! :) btw, in the previous picture - that is my hand on his head. i guess the light was not that great in that shot...

we are doing better now in terms of sleep. i usually sleep from around 9p to 2:30am and william will feed him once or twice using a bottle. william sleeps from 3:30a to 9am. that way each of us gets at least 1 good block of sleep. i have been trying to get william to sleep by 3am so he can get 6 hours - but it is still hard to wake up sometimes. so instead of waking up at 2 or 2:30, i end up sleeping until almost 3. but at least i get naps during the day. william doesn't take any naps. don't know how he does it.


isn't he cute? look at that big ole nose and those little lips!
can't wait until he starts smiling at us.


Here i am with Thomas - he is looking grumpy b/c he was just cuddled against my chest, nice and warm. all of a sudden he was picked up and plopped down next to mom for a photo. not nice at all. at least his neck is getting stronger now so he can hold his head up without it suddenly flopping to the side.

Going into the fourth week

It is unbelievable how much you love your own baby. it is almost an ache in your heart - when you just sit and stare at him. i used to think "yeah, of course people love their kids" and i knew it was aweful to hear when kids were kidnapped or abused. but you really never know until you have your own. how you could look away for just a moment in a crowded place and have him nabbed, or how no one really knows why SIDS happens. until i had my own kid, i never in a million years imagined how much the thought of finding him not breathing could make me feel. and i used to think i was not maternal!
of course, that overwhelming love is also mixed in with frustration (when it is 3am and he just won't stop fussing) and the occasional desire to just shove his whole bassinett in the closet and shut the door (just let him cry his little lungs out until he falls into an exhausted sleep). luckily God has given me a lot of patience for Thomas and the thought doesn't cross my mind too often. william is handling it a little differently. patience has not been his strong suite - i know he has thought about squeezing thomas so he can't cry (bad william!) and just leaving him on top of the dryer, crying. but then he realizes how helpless Thomas is and that he has no other way to communicate with us right now when something isn't right. William may not have actively worked on gaining patience with circumstances ever before, but he is getting a crash course in it now to make up for the past. i have certainly heard a marked decrease in the not so family-oriented language that pops out of his mouth whenever he stubs his toe. maybe this will help him be more patient with Thomas as he moves into toddler-hood. we'll see. :)