One Month Old

We went to the doctor's before she turned one month old. Renee weighed 6 pounds and 8 ounces. Even though it was still less than the birth weight of most of the baby we know, for her this is already 22 ounces than what she was 14 days ago.

She peed on me for the first time at the doctor's. she also peed on the changing table, the weight. And that was preceded by a small stool and followed by puking some of the milk out. The assistant said that she has seen each action individually but but never together.



Maybe it was my imagination. But every time she dose something like this (surprise you with pee when you least expected), she would become quite, as if quite pleased with what she just did.







We hosted a month-old party in the apartment with a few old family friends. Renee's performance reached record high on this day. She would only complaint when she became hungry, then just eat quietly. Then she will either go right back to sleep, or staying awake playing with herself, allowing us to show her to the guest and took some photos.


Her grandma gave her a good bath, which she enjoys more and more lately.









Then we dressed her up.








While we were waiting for the guests, her grandpa finally worked up the courage to hold her long enough for a picture. We all thought that she appeared to be much more comfortable than the grandfather.









The guests are here! Renee had her first star moment with the three lovely aunties. Sorry Jing and Erica, the angle of the camera could have been better had we turned her a bit.






And here are the proud parents!









Here is one of my potential son-in-law. There is another one, but he was yet too young (less than a month older) for this trip.








Weili for the first time asked me where are the new posts, which could only mean that he was proud of this picture.











And at the end of the day, the grandparents, who arranged everything for the party, finally took the rest and enjoyed some family time.

First Outdoor Stroller Experience

After the month-old party, she became less easier to take care of. It appeared to be the gas in her stomach, but the Mylicon has lost its magic. My sister recommended to keep her in up-right position after the feed, and rub her stomach in clock-wise direction. Two nights in a roll I had to stay up for an extra hour to calm her down, during one of which she had her first earth quake experience.


When she is happy, she is still cute as well.









After her mother and grand parents spent a whole day calming her down, I came home a little early so that we can all go out together. We came to this green field that is to the north-west of the apartment.





I think she enjoyed the little trip, because she slept right through it.

Plum, Gas, and Backrub

She became fussy. She will lift her legs up very high and her face will turn red. We called the doctor, who thinks that she might have some gas and recommended Mylicon, a gas relief drop. Before we started giving her that, we talked and realized that it could be the plum juice and plums that the mom had.

But it only improved very little. So we still ended up giving her Mylicon. It seems to work, because she is much better now. It is funny to watch her taking Mylicon. She will suck hard on the tube, then she will making loud smacking sound and frown slightly, as if trying to figure out what is this liquid that does not really taste like milk.

"Now, will you change my diaper?"

This has happened three times already, and every time it was pretty funny to me.

Renee got gassy lately. She will let out gas loudly, sometimes with a bit of stool. We would open up her diaper, take a look at the damage, and discuss if we should change it, or just wipe that little stain since the diaper is still clean.

Three times during that discussion, she will start urinating (yes, girls can make them high too!) and make a scene. As the new mom and dad were in a hurry checking to make sure the bed and clothes are ok (we are actually getting better at that), she will follow it up with a big stool.

Then, she will stop all her arms and legs movement, become very quiet and look at us rather satisfied, as if to say:

"Now, will you change my diaper?"

It is worth to note that her stool business is quite strong, and twice we had to wash our hands. The last time she did it, it literally reminded me that little bird at the end of the movie "Scary Movie III".

If you get the picture, sorry.

She sometimes scratch her face, so we give her gloves whenever she is active.

Eat, Drink, Pee, Poop, Sleep (吃喝拉撒睡)

These five Chinese characters are the five very basic activities that every human does in order to be alive, and that is pretty much what Renee is focused on this period of time.

Eating and Drinking

We still have not found a good pattern for her to feed effectively. What this means is that she will have two feeding patterns. Pattern one: eats for half an hour, goes limb, burps and falls asleep during the second or third round. Pattern two, eats for an hour, keeps falling into sleep, wakes up after being put into swaddles, cries, eats for an hour as if last hour of eating didn't happen.

Pooping and Peeing

She still does not cry with a wet diaper or stool. But we are getting better at smelling it, well, much more accurate with stools anyway.

Sleeping

Sleeping is a bit random as well. She seems to like less about being in the swaddle once she wakes up, because she will put a lot of effort into getting out of it. Well, we know for sure that she puts a lot of effort into something based on her expression and the sound that she makes. She always succeeded in getting at least one hand out. On a good day, she will become quite and sleep like this for a while longer. On a bad day, she will keep doing it, even after we get her free.

Nova's Visit

Nova happened to be in town with her boyfriend. Due to the Chinese traditional belief that the new mom and baby should see as few guests as possible, and least of all strangers, the poor guy had to wait outside while Nova went with me to see Lian and Renee. Nova brought some cute clothes for Renee. I also asked her to buy calabash to hang at the bed side. With calabash and the silver lock, we finally have both the decorations that was suggested by the folks from my birthplace, who made the suggestion based on Renee's birth date and time. Actually the silver lock was supposed to be under her pillow, but for one she does not have one, second that would be a choking hazard.

Acne

The book says that diaper rash may "grow" on the diaper area and baby acne may "break out"on the face. When her acne came right on time (started third day on the third week), I finally understood why it was "break out" and why the book describe it as "bother parents more than it does to the baby".