Little one's first month!

Today marks the one month pediatrician visit for Br. Since we were going there, we decided to schedule a 2 year old visit for Ry too. Here's an update of their vital stats:

Ryan
Weight: 25 pounds (11.3 kg)
Height: 33.75 inches (85.7 cm)


Brendan
Weight: 10 pounds 4 ounces (4.17 kg)
Height: 22.4 inches (57 cm)

Ry is still small although he has improved to the 15th - 20th percentile according to the growth chart (the American version). He is slightly thinner and lighter than we previously weighed him as he was down with cold for the past two weeks.

Br on the other hand is doing great. He has gained a whooping 3 pounds since birth and is highly ranked in the 50th - 60th percentile according to the growth chart, which probably makes him a pretty big baby according to Asian standards. Seeing him grown so much today made me feel that all the hard work breastfeeding him every 1 - 2 hrs a day is worth it. Even at night, Br wakes up every 1-1.5 hr to nurse. I was just telling my mum a few days ago that his biological clock is so strong that he automatically wakes up 1 hr later from the time he fell asleep.

Some updates from the past month:

1. Ry is getting more accustomed to his baby brother but still has flares of jealousy sometimes. Like today, he refused to let the me nurse the baby and was wailing out loud on the floor while I did so.

2. The three men in the house went for a haircut together on 22 Mar, Sun at Chinatown. Br did not get a full shave according to the Chinese customs as we think it is too "sayang" to shave his head of beautiful hair, so only had his sideburns and the ends cut only.

Baby Br's new look! He is bursting out of this new onesie (newborn size) that we bought for him.

3. We also celebrated Br's one month old on a Thursday evening, 26 Mar with a cherry cheesecake from Finale. However, the celebration seems to be Ry's birthday celebration instead as Ry eagerly blew out the candle and cut the cake while the little one was peacefully sleeping away.


4. Ry has engaged in more imaginative play over the past month. What amuses us over the past month was when he used an empty red box as a guitar and happily strumming it away in a rock and roll fashion. This prompted us to purchase a toy guitar over Amazon.com, which arrived last Saturday. Ry was definitely ecstatic when he saw the guitar and now this has become his favorite toy.





5. As my mum has cooped up in the house for over the past month due to my confinement, I decided to go shopping with her once Br almost reached his one month old. We had been to a few places alone without K, even venturing as far out to Burlington mall, which is about 30 minutes drive away. However, it is a real challenge to be going out with an energetic 2 year old and a frail one month old who needs to nurse every hour or so. Just preparing to leave the apt took us a good 40 minutes and during shopping, we constantly had to keep a vigilant look out for Ry, who loved to walk on his own and refused to sit in the stroller anymore. I probably have to do more online shopping from now onwards.

All geared up to go shopping!

Alike or not?

Br is now about 3 weeks old, meaning that I have only about one more week of confinement to go. It is not that I'm really following a strict confinement regime which I'm not allowed to go out of the house at all for a month. In fact, I have been out of the house a few times to do some grocery shopping as K is down with a bad flu. However, I have been trying to keep those outings real quick so I'm really yearning to go out to have some fun and do some real shopping with my mum and have a great meal outside once the baby is 1 month old.

Last week, while I was showing my mum some photos of our life here in Boston, we ended up discussing whether Br and Ry look alike. Since we could not make up our mind by comparing their present looks, I decided to put Ry's and Br's photo by which they are of the same age (7 days old) side by side to compare. The following is a comparison of their looks. So friends out there, maybe you can tell me whether they look alike or not.

Big brother Jealousy!

It's been 10 days since baby Br is home. He's grown 10 ounces heavier than his birth weight and is a healthy pink baby with no signs of jaundice at all, unlike his older brother, who was severely jaundiced at birth. This is definitely a piece of good news for us since we were worried that the baby may be like Ry who is colicky and jaundiced in the first month. Everything is going pretty well with the new baby except that he's wide awake at night, keeping me up almost every 1.5 - 2 hr and refuse to go to sleep from 10 pm to 1 am, like last night. The pediatrician says that it is because the baby still couldn't differentiate between night and day. And I guess it's the same timing the baby is keeping when he's in my tummy by which he usually starts his kicking and movement after 10 pm every night when I was enjoying a late night show with daddy.

Attempt to catch a picture of Brendan smiling away.

As for Ry, things weren't so good for him. After spending almost a week with the baby and realizing that the baby isn't going away, i guess jealousy starts kicking in. He's been whiny, needy and attention seeking. My mother-in-law has made 2 new pillows filled with 豆芽壳, the outer shells of dried bean sprouts (P/s: dunno what is the real translation in English, can anybody enlighten me?) for for Ry and Br but Ry kept taking Br's for his own use and refuse to share any of his pillows. So now, Ry has 5 pillows and we had to secretly put one away for Br. Also, Ry would want me to carry him, hug him or play with him whenever I'm breastfeeding Br or carrying Br. If I told him to wait till I finished with Br, he would promptly plop himself on the floor and start knocking his head against the floor to coerce us .

Worse still, for the past week, Ry has been waking up in the middle of the nights crying and kept snuggling into our bed which the the baby is sleeping in his sleeper between me and daddy. Thus, keeping the daddy awake since his cot was beside K. So last night, we decided to have a new sleep arrangement such that Ry is sleeping between us and we put the baby and his sleeper onto Ry's cot beside me. However, around 2 am last night, Ry woke up and saw the baby in his cot and started wailing away as he refused to have the baby there. Ry kept crying for almost 2 hours and by then, our temper has flared since both of us had not been sleeping well for the past nights plus I just went to bed only half an hour ago after carrying Br for 3 hours when he refused to sleep. K almost resorted to punish Ry to his naughty corner when my mum came out to interfere. I have no choice but to get out of the bed and try to pacify Ry. Fortunately, he quieted down as he realised that K was really angry with him and later went back to bed after I soothed him to sleep. So, the two of us only went to bed at almost 4 am and by then, Br was almost up for him his next feeding, meaning that I get to sleep only at 430 am.

Before Br's birth, K and I had already agreed not to scold or punish Ry for at least the first 2 weeks when baby is home. However, we find that it is really hard for us to keep our temper and patience in check. I have on numerous occasions raised my voice at Ry especially when he refused to wait for his turn and kept tugging at me when I was carrying or feeding the baby. I guessed we just have to learn to cope with two young kids and as my mum says, they are really too close in age and Ry has been too comfortable with the both of us and it is difficult for him to start sharing his attention with the younger sibling. Hopefully, as days go by, Ry will be better in his behaviour.

Picture of Ry with the birthday present from our good friend in Abu Dhabi.

Ry loves to sit in Br's car seat / bouncer.

Ry's Second Birthday!

Ry's second birthday was yesterday, 5th March. However, we had already celebrated his birthday about 3 weeks ago. Hence, this is a backdated post.


According to K, Chinese custom states that we do not celebrate two happy occasions together, especially for birth. This is to prevent the clash of two joyous occasions, to avoid 冲喜. Just like the old belief that a pregnant women should not attend a wedding celebration for the same reason. Since the due date for Br was so near Ry, we were also afraid that we won't get a chance to celebrate Ry's birthday when Br was born. Also, we figured out that we'll be too tired and occupied with the new baby to be in the mood to celebrate with Ry.

Ry loved the lighted candles on his birthday cake.

So, about 3 weeks ago after my mum arrived from SG, we host a mini birthday celebration for Ry on a Thursday evening. K and I bought an ice-cream cake from Baskin Robbins after my last Ob-gyn appointment while we walked back home from the Holyoke centre. After dinner, we got out the cake and K blew up 2 balloons for Ry. Ry was mesmerised with the candles and he was so thrilled to blow out the candles. Till now, he would still take out the candles and pretend to blow at them. The ice-cream cake was surprisingly nice and the four of us actually finished the whole cake that was meant for 6 -8 people at one go.

My mum still pretty jetlagged from her flight 2 days ago. One can see the pretty low bump on my tummy - the lightening as known to be near labour.

After the cake cutting, we took out our presents for him that we had bought at least a month ago. There were 3 presents. The first present was a box of flash cards, the second was a book and the last was a jigsaw sound puzzle from Melissa and Doug of transportation vehicles that if one fits them correctly, it will give off the sound of the vehicle. So throughout the night, Ry was happily playing with his puzzle and the flash cards. I was pretty suprised that Ry actually know at least thirteen out of the sixteen words in the flash cards. Although he can't speak the words, he can pick out the flash cards correctly when I said the word and he loved playing this game. So, I think I would get him more flash cards to help to improve his vocabulary.

Ry savouring his piece of cake and he finished it all by himself.

Ry was surprised by his three presents.

Daddy showing Ry how to open his presents but before doing so, a daddy and boy photo together.

It has been 2 years that we are in Boston that we do not have a really proper birthday celebration for Ry. Probably, next year when we are back in SG, we'll be throwing the two boys a combined birthday party and invite our closed ones and friends to celebrate the joyous occasion together.