I love Daddy, I love Mummy

I think Hayden loves daddy more. What say you? Hahaa…

Christmas ’09

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you.

Undoubtedly, the greatest gift that I ever have for Christmas is the arrival of Hayden.

Hayden was supposed to arrive today, 27 of December, but he could not wait to see his daddy and mummy, that is why he came a lot earlier than expected. However, it is not a bad thing. With Hayden, both Abbie and I think that our Christmas is so much merrier than ever though all we did on the Christmas day were all about changing diapers, feeding milk to Hayden, and carrying Hayden around to soothe him.

500

Last week, Hayden hit his 500 mark, he consumed more than 500 ml of breast-milk from bottle in one day. How much is 500 ml? It is equivalent to a small bottle of mineral water that you can find in any convenient stores.

A few days later, he did 600 ml, and the most important thing is that I was the one who fed him that time. He hit 500 and 600 mark on my arm. A day to remember, and also a day to forget because I am going to make 700 soon.

Today, Hayden measured at 3.5 kg on scale unofficially. He has grown 0.7 kg in less than a week, his last weight was taken on December 21, he was only 2.8 kg.

Ehh… Because of his high consumption, he is chubby now, not so handsome anymore.

The first milestone – Full moon

Hayden marked his first milestone two days ago, it was his full moon and thankfully he is fit, healthy and growing steadily until today.

One month ago, Hayden was still very weak, his milk consumption was very very low and he cried a lot, especially in the midnight where both Abbie and I seriously had to rest well. In the first month, we kept adjusting and finding out the best way to “cope with” Hayden, we did our best to minimize Hayden’s crying frequency, we worked on keeping Hayden to latch on properly everytime he is on breast-feeding, we observed Hayden so much that until we understood his needs with every of his reaction or emotion.

In the full moon party, friends who read Every Moment Counts… said I have done so much for Hayden and Abbie as a father and husband. To be honest, this is the least that I can do for both of them…

A secondary care-taker

Believe it or not, ever since the arrival of Hayden, my life has changed so much.

I sleep less now, I have to help on the bottle feeding part, changing clothes, buying baby stuff for Hayden and Abbie; I went to Jusco for a packet of women pads for Abbie, the female cashier looked at me one kind. Ehh… It was not the first time I bought women’s stuff for my girlfriend or wife, I have no issue with the one-kind-look.

About the sleeping issue, I tend to sleep late at night, usually an hour or two after Abbie sleeps and I am like getting used to it. During this one or two hours, I spend more time on Hayden, and some for my favourite Astro. You know, when Abbie is not sleeping, I am always the secondary care-taker to Hayden. The only moment I can be with Hayden entirely is when the primary one is unavailable.

I am not blaming Abbie for occupying Hayden’s time with me. She is the mother, she breastfeeds Hayden, she is on materity leave, she gave birth to Hayden, she suffered the pain, she went through the most difficult part in her life, she risked herself; From the bottom of my heart, she deserves to be the primary care-taker to Hayden, and she is doing it very well. I have no issue with being the secondary one.

Does my sleeping issue affect my work? Not at all. Everyday I come back from work, the first thing I do is to take a good nap, usually it takes one or two hours before I wake up for dinner or shower. With this, I can stay awaken until quite late at night.

Hayden’s full-moon

Hayden is 24 day-old today, his mull-moon is just around the corner, it is due on Sunday, December 13. I have received so many gifts for Hayden from relatives, friends and colleagues, thank you so much, thank you for your best wishes and blesses.

I did not plan for something big for Hayden considering Hayden is still underweight and I did not know how his condition is on the full-moon day. If I were to have it at the restaurant, it is unavoidable that the guests will crowd around Hayden as he is the ‘main course’ of the day, but I do not think this is a good idea. My parents did not seem to be interested in throwing a party for Hayden at home, I guess they had had enough on my wedding, it was crowded and everyone was happy, but it was very tiring.

As the full-moon day is getting closer and closer, I have a feeling that I need to make a huge announcement to the whole freaking world that my Hayden is fit and healthy, and he is ready to meet everyone out there. After the last visit to Dr. Koe, knowing that Hayden’s condition is good and stable, he is free from illnesses, I am thinking of making it big for Hayden this time.

Give up

Why can’t I let Hayden latches on properly? Feel like giving up dy…
- Abbie’s Facebook status

My wife seems to have problem to get Hayden latches on properly, especially on the right breast.

This morning, I was awakened by the mosquito bites. Abbie was changing for Hayden. While changing, Abbie was talking to Hayden impatiently, something like blaming Hayden for not drinking milk, neither bottle nor directly from the breasts. She is right, Hayden did not drink much milk yesterday, started from 12am onwards. This worried her as Hayden is still underweight, he needs to drink a lot to gain weight to boost his antibody. Hayden was 2.25kg on the scale two days ago.

I am not so worried on hayden’s low in milk consumption. From my observation, there are two reasons why he is not keen in milk.

Firstly, when he is about to pass motion, he has to focus on the buttock, to push all the faeces to the backdoor and push them out forcefully. You can see his ‘guk si’ video here and here.

Secondly, his stomach is full of gas, causing discomfort in his stomach. I think adults will face this problem too, the remedy is passing gas or fart. Some people call it wind instead of gas, I wonder how Hayden’s stomach can be so windy, or can we really ‘chui chui foong’ in the stomach?

Anyway, I have found a website, Colic Calm, on newborn and baby gas problems. In summary, the gas is believed to be due to the inability of the baby’s immature digestive system to process certain constituents of their food. This often results in the production of air bubbles, which gets lodged along the digestive system, and produces intermittent abdominal pains or cramps. Newborn babies may also develop wind by swallowing air bubbles with their milk. Clear?

Reference:-
Colic Calm

The confinement

If we were to plan to have a confinement lady, probably we could have screwed ourselves up. Premature delivery was beyond our expectation, nobody knew that Hayden couldn’t wait to say “hello” to the world.

Speaking of Abbie’s confinement, she planned to do it at her mum’s plan in Kepong. She said she has more friends and relatives in Kepong, she felt easy if her mum were to take care of Hayden and her. Later on, for some reasons, she changed her mind, she wanted to do it at home in Seri Kembangan, where we are staying now.

Because of the change of mind, we had to shift everything back from Kepong, washed it again, cracked our head to find places for all the baby stuff like nappies, baby clothes, car-seat, bottles, etc. After keeping all the stuff, it was time for Abbie’s pregnancy photos shooting, it was on Sunday. 3 days after the photo shooting, I remember it was Wednesday, Abbie was rushed to the emergency ward after her supper, and later to the labour and delivery suite.

Early arrival of Hayden was unexpected but we had done enough preparation before Abbie admitted to the ward, everything was coped quite well until today. Without a confinement lady, Abbie has to do the washing and cleaning job, she seems doing it briliantly. I help Abbie on the feeding part occasionally as I have no maternity leave. My mum cooks for Abbie, and Hayden is fully on breast-milk.

PS: Thank you for your wishes and blesses, red eggs are on the way. Also, Abbie’s sexy pregnancy photos will be posted soon, stay tuned okay.
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Food poisoning

My mum keeps asking Abbie not to eat eggs, prawns, ducks and clams or shellfish because those food are poisonous (“yao duk”). I really want to ask her why she is eating them then, since they are poisonous.

Anyway, I took Abbie for prawn-noodles on the next day after she had been discharged from the ward. A video of Hayden’s yawning and stretching the body after this:-
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