Summer's Over

Wow, September already.  This morning I saw kids waiting for the school bus.  This summer flew on by!  I really hope the nasty humid and hot weather is gone for good though. I'm so ready for cooler weather!

Let's see...any updates.  Carey had his 15-month well appointment last Friday.  Here are his stats:

Weight:  20 lbs, 10.5 oz (under 6.7%)
Height:  30 inches (14.6%)
Head Circumference:  47 cm (47.4%)

I thought he would weigh a little more than that but the dr said that when they get to a certain age, they stop gaining pounds rapidly.  According to his chart, he is doing just fine.  Every time I go in for a well check-up for Carey, my family always asks...how much percentage are his measurements?  They just don't do that for preemies cuz it's going to be tiny tiny.  This is the first time I looked it up and yep, tiny, except for his head.  My baby has a big head, big hands and feet.  And he's pretty tall!

My boy eats a TON and drinks a TON of milk.  They say you should limit the amount of whole milk to only 16-24 oz a day to prevent iron deficiency.  We've been doing that but lately, Carey wants more milk at night time.  He'll scream when he finds out there's no more milk in his bottle and I have to scramble quickly to get him more or else he'll never stop screaming.  I know I have to transition him to a cup instead of a bottle but it sucks when my mom refuses to do that cuz it's easier for her to give him the bottle.  *sigh*  I'll have to transition him myself when I'm home for a week at the end of the month. 

I searched on google and you never read that their kids love milk too much.  Only that kids refuse to drink milk.  I was one of those kids.  I hated milk but I got my calcium via yogurt and cheese, which I loved.  My sister hated all dairy and she's shorter than me. Haha.  But the only people I know who loved milk are my cousin, Snot, who is very tall; and Meanie, who's also very tall.  I keep on hearing stories from Meanie that his father had to buy a bunch of milk several times a week cuz he would suck it all down.  I think that's what Carey's starting to do.  I buy the 3-pack organic whole milk from Costco and that should last me for a week but sometimes it doesn't and I have to run to the grocery store to get a gallon of organic whole milk.  Gack.  At least it's cheaper than formula!

Carey's got a lot of teeth.  Almost a full mouth.  His molars have come in and the ones in between are coming in now.  It's like they all popped up all at one time.  And I can't pry open his mouth like a circus lion to monitor these things.  I found out when Carey got his vaccines on Friday - measles, chicken pox, flu and Hep A (just in case because we are going to Cancun in November) - when he was screaming his little lungs out, I peered into his mouth and saw all these teeth coming out!  That boy inhales his food.  I don't know if he chews or not but it's gone in seconds, esp if he really likes it. 

It's funny cuz I was reading an old post of mine during my pregnancy about how whenever I ate food, baby would jump around all over in my uterus as if he were excited.  And if I forget to eat or if I was too lazy to get food, I would get a kick from the uterus telling me that I need to feed him.  And I said that my kid would prolly be a foodie.  Boy, was I right or what?

His palate is more like an adult's.  He can eat scallions, onions, garlic and ginger with no problems at all.  He loves Asian food, Taiwanese and Vietnamese, and he also likes the American stuff.  He had Costco pizza for the first time over the weekend and he looked so happy.  I think his favorite foods are watermelon (such a happy happy face when he's eating it) and oranges.  It's funny cuz I was snarfing those 2 things like candy while I was preggers.  He prolly likes pomelo, too, but we haven't given him any.  I was eating pomelos for dinner when I was preggers.  Grapefruit if I couldn't find any.  I craved for it.  Heheh.

But overall, Carey is doing well.  The dr wants him to speak more and know more words. He has said some words but he hasn't said them again.  He's already said "Bad" (lol), "Red", "Green" (at Meanie's prompting), "Milk", "Mama", "Meh".  He says "Meh" alot and it seems like he says it towards me.  I wonder if he knows that "Meh" means Mom in Vietnamese.  I dunno if he's saying that for me or if he's just babbling.  We tell him to say "Mama" but "Meh" comes out instead most of the times.  The dr also wants me to let him feed himself.  *cringe*  Guess I'll be doing a lot of cleaning during my vacation.  It doesn't help that Carey refuses to sit at his high chair, too. So it's kinda hard to let him feed himself with a utensil!

He is officially walking!  He's very steady on his feet and can officially walk from person to person.  But now that he's kinda mastered walking, my daredevil son has been trying to walk up and down the stairs, only to fail. : (  My poor baby! He seems to have inherited his mother's and father's clumsiness and has constant booboo's and bruises.  In fact, he had cut his foot on something several weeks ago and we had no idea what it was.  It got infected and it swelled up and got red.  I even had to call the doctor's office to see what we could do for it and they said warm compresses and Neosporin.  The infection eventually broke and now it's healing up nicely.  But I don't think he was bothered by any of it. He has a high pain threshold!

Now that it's officially cooler in the mornings and nights, I like to put BabyLegs legwarmers on him. 

These are so covenient! I just slip these on, instead of pants, and he's good to go.  They also protect his knees and legs when he's crawling on hard wood floor.  And if his feet are a little chilly, I pull them over the heels of his feet, too.  And yeah, adults can wear them on your arms, too!  They have very cute designs and patterns.

These Cocolo bears are Carey's most prized possession. Actually, the bears aren't the prized possssions but the blankies they are holding are Carey's most prized possession.  He received one of these bears last year from a friend of ours.  He used to love the bear but now it's hanging out in his playroom somewhere.  But the blankie has become his "nigh-nigh", his lovey, his security blanket.  He's totally like Linus from Peanuts.   It didn't cross my mind to get several duplicates until he started getting a rash on his face from the blankie.  He would drag his blankie everywhere, mop the floors with it, etc, so god knows what sorts of nasties are on his lovey.  It took some work tracking these doods down but thankfully Snot found them on Ebay.  I promptly paid for 2 of these doods and now I have 3 loveys for Carey so I can swap them out for washes.  I've heard stories where extra loveys have backfired because the kids know the difference but luckily for me, Carey still loves them all!

This is the Cloud B Lavender Lab pillow.  I know young kids shouldn't be sleeping with pillows but Carey's been a pillow sleeper ever since he started co-sleeping with us.  Even those rare times when he slept in his crib, he always used his bumpers as a pillow, not as a bumper.  But Carey loves this.  Not only cuz it's in puppy form, but that it's soft and cuddly and he does use it as a pillow! It's so adorable when I check on his while he's sleeping and he's hugging his pillow and using it.  : )

Carey is a puppy fiend.  All his stuffies, pillows, etc are all puppies or dogs.  You know if something has Carey's seal of approval when he nuzzles them nose to nose. It's sooo soo cute.  These 2 are the only exceptions that he loves that aren't puppies:

His baby seal and shark Lubies.  He likes to chomp on noses, too.  Stuffy's noses, not human noses.  Phew!

Here are his puppy friends:

(From top to bottom:  Spunky - Gund blanket; Carter Baby Puppy Lovey; North American Bear Co. Pastel Pancake Puppy with Blanket)

Everything else that he dislikes is beaten up and then thrown out of his view.  Hee hee. 

First Word and First Steps

Yesterday, Carey said his first word!  How exciting, right?  You always imagine this type of situation.  You think that your baby will say "Mama" or "Dada" as their first word or something just as innocuous.  But nope, not my baby. 

Carey was a terror yesterday.  He was getting into everything, chewing on everything and every time he got his hands on something - a remote control, telephone, etc. - he would throw it on the floor, really hard.  He wouldn't stay still during his diaper changes, esp the poop ones, which could get very messy with a very wriggly baby, he wouldn't nap even when he was obviously so tired, he just wouldn't sit still.  Meanie and I were really exhausted yesterday so we fell asleep at different times cuz one of us had to be awake to take care of Carey.  I had just woken up from a nap and Meanie basically plunked him down in my lap with a smelly poop diaper and tried to get some Zzz's as I took over.  Nice rude awakening, huh?  And Carey started behaving really bad after that.  I couldn't even get a clean diaper on cuz he was rolling this way and that and he wouldn't stop grabbing stuff, so I decided to give him his very first time-out in a corner of his room.  Unfortunately, every corner of his room has crap in it so he was playing with everything.  To which I would snatch whatever he grabbed and throw it back where it belong.  So here I am, obvious mom-out-of-control, screaming at the diaper-less baby that he's a bad boy and boy decided to crumple in this dramatic heap and starts screeching in protest. 

Meanie decides to give him a shower so I haul the bad boy up and Carey has this habit of totally relaxing every limb of his body so he hangs like a limp noodle so he eventually falls out of my grasp.  So freaking infuriating.  And I transfer over the "package" to Meanie who's getting ready to shower with the baby and I'm screaming at Carey that he's a really bad boy, so bad, BAD BOY!!"

And that's when Carey decides to stay his first word ever, "BAD!!"  And he said it so clearly and well, too.  Meanie looked up all surprised cuz that's his first word ever and I knew I had to go on scolding or else I would have cracked up, too.  So I scream, "That's right, you are bad! Bad boy!!!" *stomps away*

It is soo hard to stay angry at such a little boy that's so cute with those big and innocent eyes!  He's going to be a trouble maker and is going to get away with it all.  Argh. And what do you do to discipline your child when screaming/scolding doesn't do anything, neither does spanking on the butt.  Whenever I scolded him or spanked him on the butt, he would just turn around and start laffing.  He thought I was playing with him.  How am I going to discipline this child if I cannot instill any sort of fear in him?  I/we have our work cut out in front of us.  Oh boy.

Have you ever seen "Bambi" and that scene where he starts to say his first words?  That scene totally reminds me of Carey saying "Bad!!"  LOL

He's not full fledged walking yet.  I think he knows how to but is just lazy. But he can do about 6 steps without falling.  He can walk a short distance from me to Meanie or vice versa.  He'll be running in no time, I'm sure, and that's when I'll really have my hands full.

This past weekend, we had company and I left Carey in the care of friends while they were snacking from the table.  We just said no nuts and no shrimp for Carey so they left Carey with free reign of the table, except by the shrimp cocktail. I stepped in to drop some more food on the table and I see Carey..eating something.  I"m like, what is he eating??!!?!  Turned out he was fishing in the bowl of Pop Chips or Pita Chips and stuffing whole chips in his mouth!!!  It's the most hilarious thing to see Carey stuff a big Pop Chip in his little baby mouth.  It sorta resembles a hamster trying to fit a huge sunflower seed in the cheek-pouch.

Such a curious little boy!  I love him so much! Even when he's bad.  <3

Post-Pregnancy Feet and other Random Things

So, in addition to my hair falling out and then growing back in - which are just starting to look like short bangs and not sticking up anymore - my feet grew.  A whole freaking size up.  I went from a size 6.5 to a 7.5.  And now I have to get a bunch of new shoes cuz my old shoes don't fit anymore.  What saddens me is that I had just gotten this really cool pair of silvery Cole Haan open toed shoes right before I got preggers and now they don't fit anymore and I've never had the chance to wear them!!  They've become my sister's birthday gift.  *sobs*

My mom was elated that my feet grew so I had to buy new shoes..and give her my old shoes. She says her feet grew too so she can fit a size 6.5 now which was my size - pre-pregnancy.  At first she thought I had diabetes when I said my feet grew so she kept on poking her finger on my foot to see if it was just swollen but it wasn't.  I kept on telling her that after some pregnancies, feet grow but she just chalked up my new foot size to my being fat.  Yay. 

I did some research and it's not just the weight gain from the pregnancy.  It's a hormone called relaxin:

I think my feet have grown. Is this possible? (Source)


Expert Answers


Jane Andersen, podiatrist


Yes. As you're discovering, your belly isn't the only thing that gets bigger during pregnancy! This is partly due to pregnancy weight gain and swelling from the extra fluid your body retains while you're pregnant (called edema). To ease the swelling, soak your feet in cool water and prop them up as often as you can.

But there's another reason that feet seem to grow during pregnancy. The aptly named pregnancy hormone relaxin, which loosens the joints around your pelvis so your baby can make his way down the birth canal, also loosens the ligaments in your feet, causing the foot bones to spread. Your foot bones aren't actually growing — it's just that the ligaments that hold these 26 bones together aren't as tight as they were.

You may notice your shoes getting a little tight as early as the second trimester, and they may continue to increase in size until late in pregnancy. While the foot swelling generally subsides within a month after delivery, any foot spreading caused by looser ligaments is permanent. I estimate that half the moms out there wear shoes a half or a whole size bigger than they wore before having babies.

The bright side, if there is one, is that you get to buy new shoes! Buy a few pairs of comfortable, roomy shoes to wear during your pregnancy, but be aware that you may have to go back for more once the swelling settles down and your shoe size stabilizes about a month after delivery. Whatever you do, don't try to make do with your old shoes! Wearing tight shoes can aggravate bunions and cause a host of painful foot problems, ranging from ingrown toenails to corns and calluses.

Finally, since feet tend to grow with each pregnancy, you may want to hold off on those pricey Jimmy Choos or Manolo Blahniks until you're finished having babies.

Ugh.  I guess I should be happy my fingers weren't affected.  I still fit my wedding and my e-ring!

My colleague recently told me about Skechers Shape-Ups. They're like MBTs but run a little cheaper around $100-110.  I thought the price was a little steep considering what a cheapo I am these days.  A hundred buckaroos for sneakers??  I don't have time to work out or go to the gym anymore now I have a tiny tot that takes up all of my time when I'm not at work.  Especially since he's teething these days.  His fourth tooth (the top right one) is coming in and it's especially painful since he's especially fussy these days.

I bought my first pair of Skechers Shape-ups via Amazon at a whopping $90 at a size 7 but they delivered the wrong color to me and the size didn't fit either so I returned it.  The Slickdeals alerted me to a new deal on Woman Within - if you bought 2 items, the 2nd item (the more expensive item) would be at a 50% discount! Woweee!!  So I got onto that deal and got my new Skechers for only $55, instead of a freaking $100!  I just received them and tried them on yesterday and wore them to work this morning.  It's like walking in moon shoes and you have to get used to the rocking.  But my calves actually felt a little tired today when I got into work!  Just standing in those require you to use your muscles just to stay balanced.  So we'll see if these work in any way.  I'm going to walk around everywhere during my lunch hour especially since it's nice and sunny today.

On baby news, Carey slept his first full night yesterday allowing me to get continuous sleep! I did wake up several times at night just to check on him via the monitor and he was sleeping soundly  We were thinking to give him a little Tylenol last night too because he seemed to be in so much pain but in the end, he passed out soundly.  It's makes a huge difference to get a night of continuous sleep.  I'm still tired but at least I feel somewhat refreshed. 

My baby is so smart these days.  He tells me he's hungry or thirsty by making these lip smacking sounds. It's so freaking adorable.  And he doesn't make that icky face anymore when he eats his puffs - whether it's Happy Bellies Organic Puffs or the Gerber Graduates Puffs.  I got the latter at my sister's recommendation since that's what her kids loved to snack on.  They have much more flavor than the Happy Bellies Organic Puffs.  I'm not sure which one Carey prefers but he's happily munching on all 3 kinds - Happy Bellies, Gerber Graduates or even plain Cheerios!  And I started him on water in his sippy cup.  He has a little problem using some sippy cups but he's working on it.

He started rocking on all 4s and he'll be crawling in no time. Actually he is getting somewhere, kinda, but I can't really call it crawling.  More like stretching and shimmying. Hehehe.  I definitely think that he'll be full-fledged crawling by Easter!

Weekend from Hell

Ugh, what a crappy assed weekend.  I feel like I need a vacation from the crappy assed weekend we just had.  On top of it all, it was Daylight Savings and we lost an hour! Boooooo.

We were planning this past weekend to go up to Boston since we both took off on Friday for Carey's 9-month well appointment.  But plans fell through and we didn't end up going, which might have been a good thing considering the crappy weather we all got.

Carey's 9-Month Well Check-Up

His stats:

Head:  45 cm (my baby has a big head so it's hard to put shirts on and pull shirts off.  Forget turtlenecks!)
Length:  27.25 inches
Weight:  17.8 lbs

Wow! He's grown quite a lot.  Not quite the 25 lbs that Meanie was telling his co-workers that's how much Carey weighs now. Hah.  He's so off.  The doctor said he looks great and is doing very well. 

We asked her to check his head to see if he was ok, after his accident from last week (lunging himself out of the crib). And she said that his case was the 2nd one who had lunged out of the crib that week.  I guess it's a common thing.  So once your baby starts pulling him/herself up a little, lower the crib ASAP.  You don't want to risk anything! And might as well lower it to the max lowest possible. It's a pain in the butt to put him/her in/out of the crib but better safe than sorry.

She also mentioned that the right part of his head (the back) is a little flat.  It's not THAT noticeable and his hair will cover up the flatness but it seems that the doctors like to tell you (and freak you out) when your baby's head is flat in the back.  Now it's inevitable because they tell you to keep your baby on their back when they sleep to prevent SIDS.  But if we want (we don't), we can have Carey put on a helmet 23 hours of a 24 hour/day period to straighten that out.  I think that's pure torture and I heard it smells.  No thank you.

I'm also weaning Carey off of the Similac Neosure formula onto Similac Early Advance formula.  It tends to make him slightly more gassier but the plus side is that he poops easier and more often.  It even says on the can that the formula is made to be more similar to breast milk so the poop should be more similar to a breat-fed's baby poop. Awesome!  Hehehe.  I asked to see if I could get an alternate vitamin for him cuz I thought it constipates my baby (one of its side effects) but she told me to change up his diet.  He eats pureed prunes every day so that's good.  We also need to add more fiber to his diet or we can put a little Benefiber in his food and that should help.  And he can eat meat and table food now.

I got some organic chicken breast over the weekend to make for him but Meanie's mom brought up a good point and she said to start making his baby food with some chicken stock so he can get used to the taste before he graduates to real chcken.  So I made a new batch of butternut squash puree with chcken stock.  It's quite good! I want to eat it all! Hahah.

Also I noticed if you make pureed prunes at home, try throwing in a pear as well (steam all first).  It makes the consistency a little more smoother than with a regular apple. 

Why It was the Weekend from Hell:

We were having crappy assed weather since Friday.  Heavy rains and strong winds.  Could you imagine if it were all snow?  We'd be totally snowed in with no way of getting out. Of course when I was going to enjoy my 3 day weekend with my hubby and son, the weather literally takes a dump on us. 

I could hear the winds howling on Friday night and the garbage cans being blown onto the street and stuff.  Freakiness.

Saturday, it rained the whole freaking day.  I have a running brook right behind my back yard.  When it rains/snows alot, it tends to swell alot and triple in size.  When I woke up on Saturday, it wasn't that frightening yet.  Later in the day, it looked like a river with high waves. Scariness.  We had near power outages all day with the power flickering but then it would come back on.  Meanie was saying soon we'll have a full blown out power outage.  I was hoping he was wrong.

Around 8pm, we heard a succession of big booms.  We peered outside and saw something burning a weird purplish color. It wasn't fire but it definitely wasn't a good thing.  I tried to get it on video but wasn't quick enuf.  And during the explosions, our power was flickering on and off but it kept on.  And then 2 hours, bam, no power.  *sigh* Luckily the baby was sleeping so I didn't have to stumble around with him in my arms.  I was prepping for a power outage so I had my flashlights ready - flashlights that supposedly don't run out of battery!  *crosses fingers*

I don't really care about the power outage with the lack of electronics and the fridge full of food. My main worry is the pump in the basement - that runs on electricity!  We have a pump down there to ensure that the basement doesn't flood and when the power goes off for that long of a period and if it's rainly profusely like it did all weekend, we are guaranteed to have a flooded basement.  There was about 3 inches Saturday night but by Sunday morning, it was about 6 inches.  It was high enuf to dislodge some boxes in the basement.  Our Guitar Hero guitars are totally waterlogged and most likely don't work anymore.

Our power/heat didn't come back till around 11:30am on Sunday morning.  That's like 13 hours of no electricity and no heat.  I didn't know we had hot water during all that time so we didn't shower and we were feeling pretty disgusting by Sunday morning. But I had a dilemma, I couldn't wash my hair anyway because how in the world am I going to dry it in a freezing house?  Ughhhh.

Since it was freezing, all 3 of us slept together. Hehe.  And I had to warm up Carey's bottles the old-fashioned way - by boiling some water and then dunking his bottle into it to warm it up.  Luckily we don't have electric stoves!  If so, we would have been doomed doomed doomed!!  Carey woke up in the middle of the night for his feeding because we didn't wake him up at midnight (his usual feeding) because there was no power. We were hoping by the time he woke in the middle of the night (or hoping he would sleep thru the night), that the power would be back on but nope, it didn't happen.  He had a look of WTF on his face and was like why the heck is there no light?  Would have taken a pic but not enuf light.  Hah.

And then there was the worry that there was an electric current in the stagnant water in the basement.  We had to flip the switch for the pump to get it running so Meanie put on my Sorel rubber boots (more like shoved his feet in it) and put on rubber gloves and went downstairs to switch the strip on, several times.  Ugh.  All Sunday we spent going thru the boxes - mainly my boxes full of mementos - old pictures, and some sentimental stuff which can never be replaced.  But nothing worth crying over.

So we finally finish doing all the yucky basement stuff and the laundry and everything till around 5pm Sunday.  I go to take a much needed shower - only to find that there was NO HOT WATER. *cue frustrated screams*  So after a few hours, Meanie finally gets the water heater working till around 7pm.  Apparently the flame area was wet from the flooding so with the help of some paper towels and a hair dryer, he was able to get it to work, finally.  I was worried I had to go into work feeling all disgusting and smelly. 

The shower I finally took was probably the best ever!

But yeah, that was my wonderful weekend.  I need a vacation from it.  Blegh.

Happy Bellies Organic Banana Puffs

Yesterday, we tried giving Carey some organic puffs, banana flavor ones.  My mom tried giving him Cheerios last week and she said that Carey looked like he was going to throw up while he was eating it.  I guess nothing compares to his milk or mom's milk, huh?  Whenever Carey tries eating something new, he has this peculiar face - like he ate the nastiest thing ever or something along that line.  I remember when I was trying to breast feed him in the hospital, he would have that very same face every time I tried to put him on.  I thought it was the funniest thing and then started thinking, omg, maybe I taste bad (only after not showering for a couple days, lol).  But it turns out that Carey has that face all the time whenever he tries something new.

We went to a baby shower over the weekend and the baby closest to Carey's adjusted age was already drinking from a sippy cup and eating puffs with no problem!  Age is confusing for a preemie.  Even though Carey has been out of the womb for a little over 9 months, his adjusted age is about 7.5 months but Carey was pretty gargantuan in size compared to the other babies.  I'll have to see what's up with his growth on Friday when Carey gets his 9-month well appointment.  Last time during his 6th month appointment, he was only like 10th percentile compared to other babies his age (not adjusted).  He's huge and heavy now!

So yep, I gave him a puff yesterday and accordingly to the Amazon reviews, kids love it!  I think it tastes better than a Cheerio but it's not much different.  It doesn't really melt in my mouth like they said it would but I guess it melts more than an actual Cheerio.  Carey looked like he was going to puke when I gave him a puff.  I couldn't stop laffing!  I don't have any pictures of him cuz I was laffing too much but Meanie took some video.  What's even funnier is that after he's eaten his puff, he'll open his mouth like a hungry baby chick so I can shove more in.  And when I do, he'll make that puke face again as he's trying to eat it.  LOL

I think the main reason why my baby got so big over the last 3 months is because of his formula.  Carey was only 3 lbs and 14 oz when he was born and he was PUNY.  He didn't even fit into preemie clothing cuz he was so tiny.  He was in the NICU for 2 weeks and they put him on Similac Neosure formula, which is what I still use now.  They say you should use this formula till your baby is 9 months old (which is Carey's age) so I'm wondering if I need to switch formulas now that he seems to be all caught up.

Now I have to teach him how to use a sippy cup.  I tried one time and told him to watch me as I sucked prune juice (ew) out of his sippy cup.  He didn't quite get it.  It's also more difficult to teach him because he only likes to drink milk.  He hates water and he hates juice.  Only milk!  He's just like his dad.  Meanie said when he was young, he went through like 3 bags of milk (the milk is sold in bags in Canada!!; not in cartons or gallons) per week.  I have a feeling I'll be going thru a lot of milk when Carey starts drinking cow milk.  Thank goodness for Costco!  = )

Sleep Deprived

I need a sleepcation.  My baby woke up at 5am screaming bloody murder and wouldn't go back to sleep after that.  I think he had a really disturbing nightmare and he just couldn't sleep after that.  I tried comforting him by holding him but nothing helped.  Every time I put him back in the crib, he'd start screaming as if someone was trying to kill him.  =(  So we brought him to the bed with us.  I don't want to make co-sleeping a habit but if it's the only way I'll get sleep, I'll do it.  He slept for maybe half an hour to 45 minutes and after that, he just started making this noise (think something like the horror lady from "The Grudge") and started poking me. Yes, my baby pokes me when I'm sleeping.  Wahhhhh....

Me = one unhappy exhausted momma. 

I can only drink one cup of coffee max per day or else I get really bad shakes and feels like I'm getting a heart attack since my heart palpitations are so rapid on caffeine.  Blegh.

I really hate this post-pregnancy hair issue.  Approximately 3 months after you give birth, all the hair you had while you were pregnant starts to fall out.  I would see softball sized hairballs after I took showers.  It was really disturbing.  Luckily I have a lot of hair to begin with so I didn't end up bald but my hair got really really thin.  And then after that, your hair starts growing back.  Baby hairs galore.  Mine grow back slowly and they stick straight up. So the hair at the front of my head (the bang area) sticks straight up.  You know, like these birds:

Now my baby hairs are half grown out so some are sticking up, some are sticking left, right, down, or just against the way how my hair is growing.  So annoying.  Luckily I found a stick of hair wax in my medicine cabinet and applied it.  My hairs seem to be behaving for now but who knows what'll happen at the end of the work day.

*Sigh*  The stuff mothers have to go thru for their children....*shakes head*  My sister was lucky.  She didn't have this hair problem after both her pregnancies. 

Anyways, here are some more product reviews.

Carey got this for his Christmas present from his Aunt Jenny, Uncle John and the kiddies:

Fisher-Price Rainforest Jumperoo

I think Meanie and I were excited more than he was.  This was the present we were waiting for.  This thing is a God send if you want to save your arms.  At a certain age - like around 6 months or so, your baby is going to want to jump alot.  All..the..freaking..time.  Usually we hold him under the armpits and he starts jumping no matter where he is.  On the bed, on the floor, on the couch, on your gut..etc etc.  But when you want ur hands free, you just plunk him into this and he jumps like crazy.

When I first put Carey in it, his feet didn't even reach the floor so he just kinda hung there.  I don't think he even knew that he could jump in it.  I even bounced him by myself for him to get a clue.  He didn't figure out it gave him the ability to jump until when his dad was trying to take him out.  So Carey was trying to get away from his dad and started jumping to get away.  But once he figured out he can jump in the thing, that's what he exactly did.  I have several videos of him.  It's totally hilarious when he screams at the top of his lungs and starts jumping.  He also likes to jump to music.  That's my son! :-)

There are 2 music settings - one that plays continuous music or the other is that music will play whenever he starts jumping.  There are also toys on the side that will entertain him and a bird and a gecko hanging from up high which Carey likes to stare at while jumping.  The only bad thing is that the seat is a little tight so putting your baby in is slightly difficult and that it takes a lot of room.  But I definitely recommend it!

When my sister had her kids, she didn't have a jumperoo (I'm sure she regretted it because she got Carey one, lol). But she had the Evenflo exersaucer, several of them. LOL One for home, one for maternal grandparents' home and the other for paternal grandparents' home. I have 2 now (hand me downs) but it's a great contraption to put your kid into when he starts holding up his head. Mine are pretty outdated but the ones on Amazon look really cool!

The one I have is similar to this one.

But the other ones look so fun:

OR there's a 3 in one:

Wow!  The EvenFlo ExerSaucer Triple Fun.

I'm really envious of the babies nowadays.  I didn't have cool toys like that when I was a baby.  And the diapers are so awesome too.  I remember leaky, damp and itchy diapers from way back.  Ugh.

My blog is too long.  I'll do toiletries next like shampoo, baby wash, etc etc. eventually.

Refreshed...

I had a wonderful weekend.  Meanie had to work all weekend and honestly, I was quite worried if I could handle taking care of the baby all by myself.  So I had a little taste of what it would be like to be a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom). My mom always said staying home and taking care of a baby is much harder work than having an office job from 9 to 5.  At least at an office job, you can just sit and stare at a computer and have a 1 hour lunch break so it's a total of 7 "working" hours.  My mom arrives at my house at 7:30am and doesn't leave till about 7pm when we get home from work. That's a 12 hour day taking care of the baby.  No wonder she looks so tired. Children suck the life force out of adults!! :)

Honestly, I really enjoyed it.  Yeah, I was tired when he woke up at 7am but that's made up for during his naps!  He naps twice a day, each spanning about 1.5 to 2 hours each, if there are no interruptions like pesky phone callers, etc.  And I got to spend a lot of time with my baby boy and I'm sure he loved getting mommy all to himself, all day (and night) long. And on top of taking care of the baby, I also did 4 loads of laundry and cleaned up some mail.  I wanted to bake some brownies but never got around to doing that. 

I want to do so many things like bake some baked goods (Meanie really misses that), catch up on my DVR (I'm like 90% full on one of the DVRs - YES, I have 2!!), play some videogames (not happening.  Would like to finish Lost Odyssey but not getting any closer), and have tons of "to-do" things on my mental list which I seem to never get to.  At least I have an IPhone to entertain me in spurts.

Rowrrr

Happy Belated Lunar New Year & Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

It's the Year of the Tiger - MY year.  I hope that means a good year.  It seems like everyone I know has had a bad start to their new year - both regular and lunar new year.  Yesterday was a crappy day for Carey and me.  We both had big falls!  My poor baby rolled off the couch and hit the coffee table.  The loud thump had us both running and we found him on the floor next to the coffee table.  Luckily we have a rug underneath so I think it softened it fall but it totally scared him but he seems fine. 

And for me, I was heading downstairs to the playroom and laundry room with Carey in my arms and I slipped and fell down the stairs.  There are only 7 steps are so but I fell down and I remember thinking, protect the baby, protect the baby!!!  I did manage to protect the baby but I'm sore in several places.  But he totally freaked out cuz it was kinda scary and then screamed for a couple minutes till he was ok.

Speaking of tigers, someone has taught my baby how to growl like a rabid dog/tiger and totally sounds like a demon.  He was scaring both his parents cuz he sounded so demonic!  However, my family thought it was hilarious and caught it on videotape.  But I noticed he only seems to growl when his dad is around. He's ok when he's around me.  Haha.

Weekend was fun.  Had some visitors over - family visitors.  Went to eat at several restaurants in the area.  I'm still kinda annoyed at a visitor we had over the weekend.  I think it's only common sense, as a visitor, to respect the hosts of the house.  Not to demean them in any way or disrespect them, you know?  It's only basic common sense.  Yet this one visitor we have (I won't name any names and/or titles) is constantly dissing me and my people (Taiwanese) and it bothers the hell out of me.  Out of respect to my family, I keep my mouth shut so I don't create any drama but sometimes I wish I can just rip her a new one - in her Commie Chinese speck of a brainwashed brain.  =X  Oops, did I go there?  I sure did and that's it. 

Also, when you know the other party is footing the restaurant bill, you don't go and order EVERY SINGLE THING on the friggin menu and then go one to say that the food wasn't good.  "I like the variety and that's it".  Learn some freaking humility and order what you want to eat, not what you want to try.  Ok, that's the end of my rant but poor Meanie is going to have to go thru a whole week of mimicking by me of the bullshit that came out of her mouth.

*grumble*

Latest Baby Bump picture

Here's my latest belly bump picture. This was taken on 3.31.09 and just starting my 26th week:

I'm a mini beluga whale!! :-(

Just had my monthly checkup this morning. Apparently I've gained 9 lbs since the last month. Doh! Here's my 22 weeks picture:

I didn't get yelled at this time since I definitely "popped" over the last month but give me a break, I haven't gained anything at all during my first trimester. I'd say I have gained about 10 lbs total so far in the pregnancy. Everyone seems to think that once you're pregnant, you don't really need to think about weight gain - just gain as much as you can cuz the "baby needs it". But that doesn't really ring true. You're supposed to gain about 1 lb per week per month. So 4 weeks = 1 month = 4 lbs per month. Anything more and you'll get yelled at. Next month if I have such a high weight gain, I'll definitely hear some yelling.

I think it's because during the first trimester, I ate pretty healthily. My only craving was for fruit - any kind of fruit - oranges, grapefruits & pomelos (those I LOOOVED), apples, plums, bananas, etc. But lately I find that bananas cause me acid reflux and citrus foods were too acidic for my stomach so I stopped. Maybe I'll try eating melons now but it's rare that they're sweet these days. It's too early in the season. So I've been eating bad foods (weekly cheeseburgers, anyone) and fries. I crave for french fries and I crave for ice cream. That's a huge jump from craving fruits.

Otherwise, everything looks good so far. I'm on my 26th week and my doctor tells me that my uterus seems about 26 weeks. Baby's heartbeat is good too.

I did the gestational diabetes test today. I had to drink a bottle of orange glucose which wasn't all that bad. I thought it would taste really sickenly sweet but it was just like an orange drink. I didn't feel so great afterwards though. And the lab withdrew some blood to do a test to see if the sugar gets all digested properly. If I don't pass this test, I'll have to monitor my diet more closely or maybe even do finger prickings every time I eat. That doesn't sound fun at all.

My doctor also told me that he wanted to be thorough with another ultrasound. It turns out the last facility I went to - they didn't have a good view of the heart and the 4 chambers, the spine or the face - where all 3 are really really important!! They counted the spine and deemed it ok but my current doctor wants to be really safe in case we need to take precautions. He said what they should have done back then was offer me an amniocentisis (when they stick a long needle in the uterus to test the amnio fluid in the placenta - owch) to check to see if everything was ok but they didn't even do that.

So I have an ultrasound scheduled for next Friday. *sigh* I hope everything's ok. I'll have to take a personal day off too since it's in the middle of the afternoon.

We went to see the NY Rangers vs Montreal Canadiens (Habs) game yesterday at MSG. It was fun but I started winding down during the 3rd period. I always end up sitting next to the scary typical Ranger fan but yesterday's guy was pretty nice. He kept on trying to convert Meanie out of his Habs jersey into a Rangers jersey. The Rangers KILLED the Habs (3-1) and then poor Meanie had to deal with all the mean NYer heckling and suck. NYers are mean bastards! I find hockey fans are really scary out of all the sports out there. They're rude and they curse alot. Last time I went to a Rangers fan, the old geezers were screaming at the kids in front to sit the F down. Nice. Talk about childhood trauma right there.

My baby's namesake - Carey Price - performed pretty horribly. Terrible. =*(

Stupid Me

It's really quite interesting to see how much dumber you get while you're pregnant. I don't know what the reason is but I'm super dumb these days! The things that come out of my mouth are just purely amazing. I feel like a total dumb cheerleader. :-)

I'm on my 26th week of pregnancy - which is NOT my 7th month. Haha...I'm only 6.5 months pregnant. Deerrrr.... Now I feel stupid for telling people that I'm in my last trimester and am starting my 7th month. That's not for another 2 weeks!

I definitely show now. I'm waddling like a duck and I have a protruding belly. My belly button hasn't become an outtie yet. I've always had a really deep belly button so I'm counting on that to not be an outtie but I think that time is coming soon... One of these days I'll have to upload my weekly belly pics. It's come a long way! And I'm only going to get bigger!

I have trouble fitting into my pre pregnancy clothes. I can fit into some of them but they're feeling tight. I've definitely gained some weight this month but I hope not too much. And I'm starting to feel the negative aspects of pregnancy - like swelling of hands and feet (pig feet!), leg cramps, tingling in my limbs, dizziness, feeling off kilter, shortness of breath, getting tired really easily and other "fun" things. :(

We went to Babies R Us this past weekend to look at stuff like changing tables. Even though I'm getting really nervous and scared about labor and being a good mother, I couldn't help but be excited for my baby's arrival. Just imagining changing a diaper on a changing table excited me which is really odd! Who gets excited about changing a dirty diaper? But I guess in a way, I'm really excited at the prospect of being a mom. So weird!

I've been getting beat up from the insides (baby kicking and shifting and doing gymnastics) at times but it's good to know that he's doing ok. Whenever Meanie "talks" to him from my belly, Mignon starts moving around alot. I have to start playing classical music for him. I hear that it's good for the baby. I think Mignon will be a total foodie. It seems like I'm constantly craving for ice cream and/or something like that.

I have my gestational diabetes test this Wednesday. I have to drink some sort of orangey looking thick liquid and an hour after that, they'll draw blood from my arm to see if the sugar is being digested properly. I hope I pass it..I really don't want to be pricking myself after I eat. *shudder* My sister didn't have it for her first pregnancy but she was borderline during her 2nd pregnancy and she had to monitor what she was eating alot. Suckiness!

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Let me starting blogging about non-baby stuff. :-)

I saw Twilight on Blu Ray over the weekend. I totally loved the book series and fell in love with the characters. I've been wanting to re-read the series all over again but I feel like a child with ADD and can't focus my attention on just one thing. I saw the movie the first time on a bootleg copy with horrible clarity and it was obvious that someone was video taping the movie from a handheld camera in a small theater. But I totally hated the movie. I hated what the director did to the story and trying to make it artsy-fartsy when you really didn't need to.

I bought it anyway on Blu Ray when it came out and finally saw it over the weekend. I thought it was better than the first time. I don't know why -- maybe because it was clearer and I could see everything? I'm not really sure. I viewed all the special features - the deleted scenes and the extended scenes and I cannot figure out why the director would choose to delete these scenes. To me, those scenes were key for the non-reader to understand what was going on in the story! I really do hope the next director does a better job with the next installment.

I saw some eye candy in the newstands while I was walking to the subway in Port Authority:

[Gosh, I hate the formatting for blogspot. I wish I could access Xanga!! Arrghhh]

Carey...

We settled on a name for Mignon. We're going to call him Carey. We didn't want a name that everyone else seems to have and we wanted a name that would stand out. All other male names are common - like Matthew (can you believe there are 5 Matthew's on my floor?), David, John, etc etc. There's nothing wrong with those names but we just want something more original. Plus "Carey" paired up with Meanie's last name sounds very nice too and it's very yellable from a parents' view.

Which is kinda funny because I had dreamt over the weekend that Carey was a little toddler and he had done something pretty naughty (I forgot what) and I was screaming out his full name. LOL.

We came across the name "Carey" because we couldn't agree on anything else. All the names I liked, Meanie hated and vice versa. Meanie's also a die hard hockey fan and he follows the Montreal Habs. Their goalie's name is Carey Price and he was doing really good (in the beginning of the season - not so hot now though) and we really liked the name. So you could say that my Carey is kinda named after a hockey player but that's definitely how we came by his name.

I'm getting tired of people asking me why am I giving my baby boy a girl's name? It's not a girl's name! Think of Cary Grant, Carey Price, isn't Pink's bf named Carey? It's not pronounced like Carrie but instead it's pronounced as "Care-ey". I think it's a very beautiful name. :-)

I googled it and came across this link:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090218045420AALKyeI

Resolved Question
Show me another »
Carey as a boys name. From previously asked questions.?
Just curious to know did anybody call their baby boy Carey ? Is anybody called Carey?
1 month ago

Additional Details
Just curious to know. I saw a few people ask . My son is named Carey and he is well into his 20's . I haven't heard of anybody else
1 month ago

It is pronounced Carey as in Care and not Carrie as in Carry.I even think Cary Grant is not pronounced Carrie . Carey is another version of Cary. A welsh version I think.
1 month ago

I've heard people say Cary as "Care" yAnd it even says so in books of boys names. It's just what you prefer

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I find it entertaining that this question exists on Yahoo Questions but it sure does explain the name to people who just don't "get it".

I'm glad I'm pregnant so I won't be suckered into buying all that stuff that's on the Rue La La Final Sale. Hee hee. Lotsa cute clothing on sale but there's no way I'm fitting into that stuff anytime in the near future.

There's also a Woot Off happening but no goodies yet.

I slept a little better yesterday despite all the acid reflux action that's recently happening. All the baby sites say that it's normal to get acid reflux during this time because the uterus basically grows in size to accommodate the baby's growing size so all your body organs get pushed up and gets all cramped up into your upper body cavity. Doesn't sound wonderful? The first time I read that my uterus would grow in size (to above your belly button) totally grossed me out. LOL but hey, as long as I don't have to view it, I guess I'm ok. :-)

So yeah, I slept slightly upright and on my left side. Leg cramps are starting to come by too. Ugh.. My doctor was so right when I saw him earlier this month. I was in a happy and cheery mood and he had told me that when I come for the April's monthly appointment, I won't be so happy anymore. He's so correct. I'm starting to feel the discomforts of the third trimester.

I cannot believe after next week, I'll be starting my 3rd trimester. Pregnancy goes by pretty fast, especially when you have a relatively "easy" pregnancy compared to others. Soon, Mignon will pop out. I'm excited and I'm really nervous. I guess that's all normal. I just hope labor won't be all too bad.

We have baby classes in April at the hospital. That should be interesting... Hee hee.

Wow...4 years.

Damn! It's been 4 years since I've touched this blog. Honestly, I forgot I had it. Maybe it was a good thing I created so many blogs back when I was bored so I could have some kind of outlet later on. Work has finally cut off the support staff from social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. Weirdly enuf, Xanga is considered as a social networking site so I've stopped blogging on there because I can't during work. After work, I'm just too tired to sit in front of a computer to blog about stuff so I just let blogging slide.

But I've noticed I have access to Blogspot so now I can blog again!

I also got an Iphone so I can bypass the firewall at work to log onto the sites that I'm blocked from. I'm also blocked from any website that has to do with "gaming", even videogames. I can't even look up on faq's for games that I'm currently playing or go shopping for games. It's so ridiculously stupid. So I just do a lot of food blog reading at work or stuff on TV shows. Or news. But it all gets boring after a while.

So yeah, 4 years since I got married...Things have happened -- good, bad, ok, overall good.

I'm 24 weeks pregnant with a baby boy. My due date is mid-July.

I've been keeping a log of the pregnancy but I haven't posted it anywhere. I guess I can post it here now.

We found out at 17 weeks that we're having a baby boy. That was the first time Meanie came with me to the doctor's so he saw the ultrasound and heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time. I think he was so moved and amazed at the technology that he was almost reduced to tears. I do admit that it's quite an experience to see it all like that. It's amazing what technology has come to.

At 18 weeks, we went to meet my new doctor near our house. He was referred to us by my sister and he is really great. The office is about 15 minutes away from the house so it's nice to be nearby.

At 19 weeks, I started to feel fluttery motions in my stomach. It was similar to a rodent running around in my insides, like a gerbil. Some people say it feels like butterflies in the stomach or popcorn popping in your stomach but it definitely felt weird. I remember I was scared to feel this movement starting from the beginning but I've come to enjoy my baby's kicks and movements (it doesn't hurt yet) and know that he's doing alright in there. I definitely freaked out the first time I felt it though! :)

Not much has happened during the last few weeks except for the onset of heartburn and acid reflux. It really depends on the food I eat. I'm still trying to figure out what causes it and what doesn't but it seems to change all the time. I keep a storage of Tums on me at all times because sometimes it gets really really bad.

I'm at 24 weeks this week. A few weeks past the middle mark. I can't believe it's halfway already! Time goes by during this pregnancy and it goes by too fast, I think. I'm sure I think that because it hasn't been too awful for me, as it has been for others. I'm still wearing my pre-pregnancy clothes but now I have some help from a generic Belly Band. I'm definitely sporting a baby bump now. You can definitely see that I'm preggers. And baby has been kicking me every day! I think he's starting to respond to our voices too which is an entertaining thing.

So yeah, this is what's been going on. I'll remember to update this blog as long as I'm able to. If i don't, it's because I've been cut off from this site. Blah! Damn firewalls!