Baby Air

Woke up in the middle of the night and my wife was in shock, as she woke to sounds of the baby quietly choking away. She quickly tried to burp him but he was very much in distress, and I was still in the midst of waking up. Finally I snapped out of my stupor and got going, quickly laying him on the length of my arm, face down. That helped to get rid of the saliva/milk that was choking him.
It was the start of a tiring and bewildering week. From a baby with regular feeding and sleeping routine, Siyuan cried a lot, didn't sleep well or fed well. We tried everything, and he would just ignore it all, very much in distress.
Thank goodness for the maternal healthcare services provided here - giving us a 24 hours hotline to call. The nurses then assured us he was probably going through a phase where he is having a lot of stomache discomfort. Burping him more and keeping him upright would help. Warm baths will also relieve him. A friend suggested "cycling" his legs to help get rid of wind, and my mom-in-laws brought an ointment (used when we were babies and probably before that as well!) to use on his stomache.
Once we knew it was wind, at least we can stop guessing if he was hungry or sick. Then it became a matter of patiently trying to burp him and keep him upright. He fed a bit less as well, but was still putting on 250g that week, so that was okay by the nurses.
It took about a week-and-a-half for that to clear.

Japanese gardens, Sexless assassins, Arabic poetry

I had the most bizarre dream last nite - my baby was kidnapped. Wait, it wasn't as simple as that. Not contented with a baby kidnapping dream, my subconscious conjured up a mythical quest.
Our family was invited on a journey/bus/cruise? trip by my brother, and we went along. On the trip, I was assaulted by three men in white, who never says a word. Attacking their groin, I would find there's nothing there. I screamed for my dad to help, figuring if he could lend me his handy hammer, that could help. In the midst of a conversation with my dad, these sexless creatures disappeared. All the time, this was happening, a couple of a strange baby were making nasty comments. They also seem to be treating the baby badly. Attempts to have conversation with them fail.
We arrive at our destination, and when I looked around the couple had disappeared. But they left their baby behind. Another woman came onboard (was it a gigantic space cruiser by then? I remember wandering lost in huge corridors.) and took charge of the baby. We got to chatting, and right in front of our eyes, the baby decayed.
Convinced then something is wrong, I quickly looked for our baby and couldn't find him!

We wandered in this strange city, unsure what to do. My brother took the invite card, a black card with flowery script in poetry, and went to quizz the hosts which had sent it to us. He returned, shaken, as the host took the card and refuse to talk to him. Somehow I was convinced that the card now bears a link the disappearance of our baby, and we returned to confront the host.

We followed him down twisting streets, and he disappeared right into a wall. We followed him through, and found ourselves in a Japanese garden, filled with sumo wrestlers, women in masks, fountains, and sculptured plants. Lowering our heads, we attempted to follow through. The verse in the invite card now comes back to our minds - something about poetry, followed by song, and then something else. The words are lost to me now, though they seemed to make sense then.

Through the garden we searched, and we found then another set of poetry nscribed that seems to suggest that we have to find our way, through songs into a Chinese place.
A strange man and his girlfriend came forth to confront us. He pulled a golden dagger and we tussled, with me grabbing it off him and then drawing a bead of blood from his throat. Somehow in my dream, I sense that he was not human and could be bargained with.
I threw him a bargain - help us in one deed and u're free.
He went into a convulsion, and scars appeared all over him, as if I had drawn blood all over his body. I repeated my request again and again, and he finally agreed. Signaling to his girlfriend to come close, he touched her,and the scars disappeared.
Stranger, and stranger.
My wife woke me then.

I figure its just me saying: I didn't get enough time with my baby last nite.
Now that's a strange way for my subconscious to tell me that.

4.4 kg

So, help arrived as my mother-in-law came to visit for a week or more. My wife was soon grinning cheek to cheek as she enjoyed some good home-cook food, and she could catch up with her mom.
We all remarked how the baby seem to be growing so fast. When we brought him back, and put him down in his basket-bed, he filled only half of it. Now, his legs easily tough the end of the basket, and we realize we will soon have to move him onto a bigger mattress. Weighed at the maternal nurse clinc, and we found he is now 4.4 kg..havign put on an average of 300g over the last two weeks. He's getting to be a big baby now!

Living Zombies

This week, the third since birth, was tough. We thought it was becoming more predictable - feeding, changing the nappy, a bit of cuddling, and then sleep. Sure, we won't getting loads of sleep, but we got some. Siyuan changed the script four days this week, deciding he didn't need to sleep and that he couldn't be comforted no matter what. There were afternoons when we tried everything - cuddling, feeding, changing nappy, singing to him, rocking him in the pram, taking off his pants, giving him a bit of water - nothing really worked. We reckon it was the heat. It just got unbearably hot.
A bath at the end of the day, followed by a feed, gave us a bit of peace on two days. I reckon it was also because Siyuan was tired after a whole afternoon. He does need what, 16-20 hours of sleep daily anyway. We were both a bit nuts by Thursday, and wanted to get out of the house. So, when he finally fell asleep at 6 p.m., we dressed and rushed down a classic Chinese restaurant behind our apartment (contrary to expectations and boasts of been the food city of the country, there's not many places serving good Chinese food in Melbourne).
Double-boiled chicken soup with dumplings and vegetables was heavenly. Except we kept sneaking looks at the pram everytime Siyuan made a noise. Still, it was just great to get out for a quick walk, and some good food.

Weather forecasts of 39 degrees for at least 2 days this coming week. Oh man.

Do Babies Dream of Seas of Milk

Some people talk about the golden moment, when the baby will smile or laugh at you. In the first week or so, we often find the baby smiling to himself in his sleep - dreaming of seas of milk? What do babies dream of, anyway? Siyuan is also active in his sleep, sometimes he would make noise almost like speech, or wave his arms and legs around, and then carry on sleeping. That led to us jumping out of bed every 20 minutes in the first week before we realized he's probably sleep-talking. Bizarre, huh?
Not sure if its normal, but by the end of the 2nd week and into the 3rd week, we find Siyuan smiling and even laughing more in his waking hours. And I'm pretty sure, he's sometimes laughing or smiling at us. Once, we were laughing at a joke, and he started smiling too. The other day, I stroked his hair, and he just broke out into a smile and laugh at me.
Moments to live for.

Football and Baby

The one thing about following European football in the Asian timezone is having to stay up or wake up at unearthly hours to catch a match. The one thing about having a new-born in the house is been woken up at unearthly hour by a baby wanting milk/new nappy/a cuddle. This week, Siyuan was the perfect alarm clock helping me to catch a couple of football matches, including the excellent Liverpool-Arsenal FA Cup game (I support the losing team, but you can't fault those beautiful arse goals, though I could fault my team's defenders). I'm not sure if that's really a healthy habit though - baby cry, wake up to do a/b/c, stay up extra hour for a match. No doubt, I'll find sleep much more valuable since I restart work tomorrow. I'm already pretty glad to have a new-born baby in Melbourne - land of great coffee. I'm sure I will find those coffees invaluable tomorrow to help me stay awake at my desk.

Start Early on the Pushups

So, I realized why we struggled to do push-ups in our teens - it's all because our parents didn't make us do it as babies. Three times a day, we're supposed to turn our baby over, so he lies on his stomach. Then we're supposed to watch him struggle to lift himself up - yup, a push-up - so he could strengthen his stomach and neck muscles. That will help prevent SIDS, the nurses say.
Each time, he only lies on his tummy for a couple of minutes, while i lean close and say push, push, push. Its really more to entertain me, since he doesn't really enjoy it that much.
I reckon one push-up each time (three times a day) should do. My wife thinks I'm psycho.

The amazing thing though is Siyuan does have pretty strong neck and stomach muscles. He likes to sleep with his legs in the air, for one. And whenever we place him upright, he can twist and turn and flip himself off our chests to have a look around. Usually he rebounds back and hits my chest with a thud, at which point he lets off a bit of a whimper. Then he goes back to doing the same thing. Curiosity kills the cat, they say.

Dads meeting groups

We visited a maternity nurse earlier this week, and she talked about support group for new parents. I've also read about such groups for breastfeeding moms, which got me wondering about support groups for new dads.
Dad A: So which stage of the poo are you at? I'm at the yellowy part.
Dad B: I've got all this black tar! Is that normal?
Dad C: Oh yeah, you're still in week one. Early days.
Dad D: Did you guys find that if its breast milk, the poo doesn't smell as much?
Dad A: My hands are getting sore from all that washing. What do you guys do, man?
Dad B: Is it better to use cotton buds or wipes to clean the poo off? My wife thinks I'm a cheapo for not wanting to use wipes.
Dad C: Buds are the best man. I was using the wipes, and I was rubbing my baby's ass raw! The nurse quickly set me on the soft and watery path to good skin.
Rest of Dads looks at Dad C, and start thinking how much money they could save on wipes.

The Joy of Peeing on Your Dad

One of the things I’ve learnt is not to massage your baby with lotion before dressing him. He looked pretty quiet and happy after a warm bath, and there i was working the lotion into him, and I wondered why he was suddenly smiling and twisting. Then, I noticed this stream going all over my shirt, pants, the table and the towel. No wonder the nurses have warned us that we should always dress a baby boy quickly.

But babies like to be touched, we have been told. When I was caressing him, he lay back, arms out wide with a smile on his face. Yesterday, after the bath, he actually looked a little contrite at having a wee at me. When I rubbed his head, he suddenly broke into a laugh and smile, almost as if he was glad I wasn’t pissed. I’m imagining all of this, I reckon. We’ve noticed that his smiles are now lasting longer than the split second last week. He’s just into week three now.

We had taken him for a walk yesterday morning for some late breakfast (with he-who-peed-on-daddy, there’s only early early morning, or late morning. 8-9 a.m. doesn’t exist anymore.) We ran into the typical Melbourne wind, except this one was hot and dusty. Which is probably typical in summer too. It blew a whole lot of dust, sand, and soot all over us and stopped us in the tracks.

Checking on him, he had covered his face and turned sideways to avoid the hot dusty wind - all this while asleep. Babies have wonderful instincts, we’re finding out. That apparently extends to bad singing. We were watching an old Eddie Murphy movie, Coming to America, where Edddie had broken out into a wondefully off-tune song. Siyuan covered his ears.