Monday, January 25, 2010

Happy 1st Month!

Swe-cha turned 1 month old last Saturday. To mark the day, we made spaghetti and hard-boiled eggs (noodle and eggs for long life) and blew out a birthday candle on his cappuccino mousse cake. Mommy and Daddy enjoyed devouring the cake :D

Suddenly, Swe-cha doesn't seem so "swe" or small anymore. He has outgrown one sleeper or stretchy and will soon outgrow the rest of his newborn clothes. I can't wait till we start on his 0 to 3 month sized outfits.

Some milestones and tidbits that I'd like to note for this month:

He was born 5 lbs 14 oz and his weight was down to 5 lbs 11 oz when we brought him home. He registered at 6 lbs 3 oz on his first pedia visit on his 1st week and on his 1st month' visit to his pediatrician, he tipped the scales at 8 lbs 3 oz! He may have started small (he used to be at the 10th percentile when it comes to his weight and length) but he's done a good job of catching up as he is now in the 25th percentile. Yay!


He had his first bath on January 10 and he loves taking warm baths in his whale tub. His eyes would be ever so round and he'd be staring at himself in the vanity mirror. He also knows to close his eyes and mouth when Mommy is washing and rinsing his face.

He's started to express an interest in his surroundings, he would whip his head around 360 degrees to check out his environment whenever we bring him into a different part of the house. We had our first "outing" last week, I put him in his stroller and we walked to the building lobby to retrieve a package that was left for us in front of our mailbox. He stared at the hallway walls & ceiling intently on our way to the lobby and by the time that we were walking back home, he was enjoying himself so much that he was laughing and kicking hard. Mommy left the camera at home that time so there are no pictures to commemorate the occasion.

He's still 100% on (expressed) breast milk - Mommy has been working overtime to get him his milk. He started out with 2 oz of breastmilk every 2 hours and recently, he's been drinking between 3 to 4 oz of breastmilk every 3 hours and if he's really really hungry, 2.5 hrs.He gets really really red in the face when he's hungry or pooping. Unfortunately, stress only seems to aggravate his infant acne and as per his pediatrician this morning, his acne might persist for a few more months because of the hormones that he gets from Mommy through his milk. *sigh*

He's generally a happy baby and only gets upset when he's really hungry, uncomfortable (wet & poopy diaper) or gassy. So we just make sure that there's milk ready for his next feeding, we change his diaper often and burp him during feedings - there's always Aceite de Manzanilla (Chamomile oil) too.

He's very interactive now, he smiles and coos when you talk to him. His Ape sent him a CD of nursery songs and rhymes and he loves listening to them, he's very partial to the French songs. He would smile and kick when the French lady starts talking. Looks like we may be raising a future linguist ... well... or someone who likes the French ladies.

More of his first month pictures on our Multiply site - Sean's first month.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

3 weeks

It has been an amazing 3 weeks.

Amazing in the sense that we're here, that we are parents to an amazing little boy, and that we're still up and running, considering that we've had very little sleep since our baby arrived.

If you had asked me before I gave birth how often I planned to update this baby blog, I would answer readily and say "once daily, if not more". Now, reality has set in and I am finding out that having a baby leaves a parent with very little time for oneself, if at all. So here I am, finding myself fortunate to have been able to catch a break today and catching an extra hour of sleep twice and able to blog.

The most logical place to start would be our birthing story but that's a long post so I'll postpone that for later. In the meantime, I do have enough time to note that at 2 weeks, Swe-Cha is able to roll onto his side. We'd swaddle him and set him on his back to sleep but we'd find him on his side (usually on his left) minutes later. My Dad (his Angkong) says that he might be feeling too warm and wanted to get some breeze on his back.

Up till yesterday, he was still waking up every two hours to feed. There'd be days when I'd rejoice because his milk capacity would increase half an ounce and he'd sleep longer, but the longer sleep didn't last long and he'd revert back to feeding every 2 hrs again. Our usual milk intake is now at 3.5 ounces and he's still exclusively being fed expressed breastmilk from a bottle. I also find it a blessing that I am able to produce enough milk to feed him throughout the day - including those that he spits up, throws ups or leaves behind in the bottle.

I'm also happy to note that he seems to be bigger now as he already fits into that outfit that we brought him home in. :)

Happy.