Breakthrough

This weekend we went to Houston so that Trung could get his business visa for his trip to China on Sunday. Yup, that's right, Trung is leaving us for two weeks to train his new team members...boo hoo hoo!! Nah, it's okay, Lydia and I will stay with my parents in Houston until he returns. We set up the webcam while we were in Houston, so that he doesn't miss seeing us too too much.

Lydia slept for more than five hours without waking up Sunday night for the very first time. She has been sleeping a consistent three to four hours, so Sunday was a breakthrough. Too bad I was up at 1 AM trying to tame my hives; they seem to flare up everytime I eat fish. So anyways, I always look at the clock when I feed her, so when I saw that the clock read 3:40 AM ( I put her down around 10:15 PM), I thought maybe my dad had not yet adjusted it for Daylight Savings. Well, when I looked at my cell phone, it also read the same. I knew this day would come when she would sleep longer, but some nights it seemed that it never would. Now, let's just hope that it stays consistent.

She smiles :)

This morning as I was feeding Lydia, I noticed that she was smiling at me as I was burping her. Up until this point, she smiled due to gas or as she was falling asleep; she never knew what she was doing until today. Every time I smiled at her, she would voluntarily smile back at me. YAY!!! Here's a close up...

This new discovery has almost helped me forget about the hives...almost.

Last night right before I went to bed, my face was a mess. My eyes were swollen and red and the rest of my face was blotchy. Trung was helping me put Benedryl gel on the hives, which believe it or not, covered about 75% of my body. Once again, if not for the Benedryl, I don't think I would have been able to sleep from not only the itch, but also the burn. Every time I got up to feed the baby, I could tell that the hives were gradually going away. When I finally woke up for the day, the hives from my midsection and arms had pretty much cleared, which left my legs and face. Right now I am presentable, though I certainly wouldn't mind if these hives disappeared once and for all.

Breakout!

AHHH!!! I started breaking out into hives Monday after having Banana Macadamia Nut pancakes. I noticed a small red itchy patch on the right side of my abdomen and thought it was a mosquito bite, so I scratched it a little bit. Bad idea! A couple hours later, it had spread to my entire right side of my abdomen. It began to clear up afterI took a Benedryl, but eating clams for dinner made it worse. By the end of the night, my entire midsection was covered in large red patches.

Yesterday, the hives began to spread to my upper arms and thighs. I took Benedryl throughout the day and after consulting my doctor friends and the pharamacist at Walgreens, I applied a Benedryl gel over the hives. By nighttime, my legs and arms were covered with red patches. If not for the Benedryl, I probably would not have been able to sleep with my whole body itching. During one of Lydia's early morning feedings, I noticed that the hives were on my toes, fingers, and face and not so much around my midsection. It is so crazy how the hives gradually moved away from my abdominal area out to my limbs. I'm just glad it does not affect my breastmilk, though I do have some stored up for emergencies. I would post pictures, but I'll spare you the horror.

The hives should hopefully clear up by tomorrow. Now, the question is, what am I allergic to? I've never been allergic to anything before, oh, except for bad shrimp, but those hives were only on my face and would go away in just a few hours. This was a pretty bad break-out and I definitely want to know what to avoid. I'm thinking that it was the macadamia nuts that done me in, and the clams just made it worse. Maybe one week when I'm not going out at all, I'll experiment and find the culprit. Until then, I'm avoiding all nuts and shellfish, which I oh so love...boo hoo hoo.

Visitors

Friday night my sister-in-law Mai and her husband Be drove up from San Antonio to come see the baby. They are from Albany, NY and were in Texas for Be's work. We had a great time chatting and catching up and Lydia loved seeing her aunt and uncle.

Brother Be with Lydia...Mai with Lydia...Lydia is thinking "hey, you look familiar" :P

All in a day's work

I think we've basically got a routine (but far from a schedule) down now with the baby that kinda seems to work. Basically, we put her down to sleep for the night around 10-11 PM. (Some people would disagree and have the baby sleep earlier, but Trung and I are late sleepers...to each his own). Lydia wakes up a couple times throughout the night, about 3-4 hours between each feeding and I, of course, being the food source, get up to nurse her. If she wakes up within an hour of a feeding, I usually go find out what she needs, unless Trung is awake, then sometimes he goes. Then if Lydia wakes up and is not hungry after Trung starts working for the day, he takes her and puts her in the swing in front of his desk, which usually puts her to sleep.
During the day, she takes a couple naps for a couple hours and "plays" during the in-between times. Then during the evening time, I feed her every hour from 7-9 to stuff her so that she sleeps longer through the night. Every other night, we give her a bath, which is followed by her daily final feeding for the night.

Here's a daddy moment during an in-between time...
This is what we call the "Praise the Lord" pose; Grandpa Lee would like that. Every time we undress Lydia to take a bath, she spreads her arms straight out. I caught her a few seconds too late, but here's a pic to kind of give you an idea...I'll try to snap the picture faster next time.Um, I just thought this was cute. :)

Six weeks and counting

Today I went in for my six weeks appointment, basically a check-up to see how I healed up after the delivery. I am good to go, but don't tell Trung that, cause then we might end up with another baby in nine months. hee hee, j/k, I ain't no Britney Spears. Nah, we have discussed it...we want the kids to be about two years apart, so we're thinking that we'll have baby number two by mid-2008, but that's thinking ahead. Here's what we've got now:

Mommy was having a bit of fun in this picture.

This is what I like to call her Rod Stewart hairdo because the hair near the back of her head just recently started standing straight up. Well, what do you think? :P

Okay, so Sing and Maggie went to New York City for a break (Maggie is from Queens) , so we've been cat-sitting Fuzzy for a few days. The cats, overall, get along alright, but they definitely have their moments. Here's one of their nicer moments...

Shopping

Today I went shopping and bought something for the first time since I've had the baby. I have gotten down to my target weight, so I figured it was okay to buy clothes again. I did not buy much, just a couple tops and a dress for my friend's wedding in a couple weeks. I also bought Lydia a dress for the wedding, though I'll be returning it and buying another since Trung did not seem to like it very much. :P

I actually managed to shop for quite awhile. I first met up my friend Laurie at the food court and had a mini birthday lunch with her. Then I went to White House Black Market, one of my favorite stores, and tried on a bunch of clothes. Lydia did good for a long time, falling in and out of sleep, but later got hungry. I asked the salesperson if I could put the clothes on hold, feed the baby in my car, and come back and try on the rest of the clothes. She said that I could nurse in the fitting room, and that tons of other people have done it before. Well, so, I did. It wasn't too bad, just a but nippy (literally) at times. :) By the time I bought my and Lydia's clothes, it was traffic hour, which is like all day on Friday, so the drive back home took longer than expected.

My fear is for Lydia is start bawling as I'm in the middle of traffic and I can't do anything about it. Well, today, she started to cry, but I managed to find the pacifier (while driving, but there was traffic, so it was VERY slow), and stick it back in her month. Then I turned the music to the classical station, which I had on for the entire third trimester of my pregnancy, and it soothed her...thank goodness. This was my first time trying that, so maybe it will work next time as well.

Mike is home!

YEAH!! My brother Mike is officially home for good! He had been overseas in Iraq and Dubai for about three years and now he is in Houston to stay. :) He has yet to meet the baby, so we're looking forward to our next trip to Houston to see him.

Well, not much has been going on these days though Lydia sure is getting bigger. We swear that she's already talking, but I'm sure we're just hearing things. Seriously, just the other day, I had just given her a dose of her gas relief stuff and she said "nasty". No, really! And then she was fussing this afternoon and I was asking her why, and she suddenly stopped crying and said "what?". I mean, they didn't sound that clear, but I'm sure that's what she intended to say. :P

Lydia has also been playing with her new toys more. I placed her in front of the little mirror and she seemed to enjoy staring at herself. Everytime I would appear in the mirror with her, she would start waving her arms and kicking her legs in excitement. But when Trung does it, she looks away from the mirror...hee hee. Yeah, not so much of daddy dearest.

The baby room today

Ah, the beginning of yet another week. I don't really do much all day, except tend to the baby and do a few chores here and there, but somehow, the days go by really fast. I'm just excited that Lydia is getting bigger and am awaiting the day when she will sleep through the night.

Okay, so here's what the baby room officially looks like. I finally got the glider and ottoman and it is oh so comfortable.

One year anniversary

Wow, it sure doesn't seem like we've been married only a year; we've already been through a lot. We really didn't do much to celebrate, with the baby and all...we just went out to a nice dinner, just the two of us. My cousin Grace, who lives right around the corner from the restaurant, was kind enough to watch Lydia for a couple hours. I got to have gyu tataki (raw filet mignon) and sashimi, which I had been craving for during my entire pregnancy. YUMMY!

Today we also busted out one of the toys that Tiff let me borrow, a 3-D gym. We laid Lydia on the mat and she unknowingly swatted at the hanging animals; this kept her entertained for a little while. Sasha, on the other hand, really seemed to enjoy hiding under the mat. We've got evidence and video footage...You know we can still see you, you silly cat. hee hee

Well, at least Lydia has the swing all to herself. Sasha has yet to attempt jumping onto the swing; and if she does, we'll turn it on a freak her out. ma ha ha!
Don't worry, we later propped up her head. :)

The many faces of Lydia

Last night was pretty rough, with the baby waking up a couple times during the wee hours of the night. She usually sleeps 3-4 hours without a feeding, but last night she only slept one hour around the 3-4 o'clock hours. It is convenient having the baby room next door to our bedroom, but it also means that every time she wakes up, Trung and I both wake up. That's fine for me because I'm not working, but I feel bad for Trung. So, early this morning, I found a cozy place on the couch with the baby and we had sleepy time. Needless to say, Trung found us and took a few shots of us. :P
Want a close up of the baby? Done!
After we woke up, the baby decided to give us all her famous facial expressions. Here's monkey face, which is basically having a blank look on her face while opening her mouth with thinned lips...
And the oh, so frequent "ooooOOOO" face, where her lips are pursed in a nice "O" shape. We like to make "ooooOOOO" sounds though no sounds seem to come out of her mouth. :)

One month old

Yeah, we made it to the one month old mark! It is Chinese culture to feed the mom certain foods (or avoid them) and to keep the newborn indoors for the first month. I guess I was considered somewhat of a rebel because I refused to eat ginger and I let Lydia out in public a few days before she was a month one. oooOOooo. Now that she is a month old, every old-fashioned Chinese person will be off our case, at least until the next baby. Free at last!

Today we had Lydia's one month old appointment and she now weighs 9 pounds, 4 ounces. She's pretty long (75%), so people think she's older than she really is. The doctor said that Lydia is doing well. :) Here's our big girl!

Late nights/Early mornings

I just finished nursing Lydia and thought I'd say "hi". The feedings have been going much better now, though just these last couple of days, she has not eating as much, which means she sleeps for smaller periods of time. It sucks, especially during the night, but what can you do? You cannot force a baby to eat and if you try to get her to eat while she's yawning, she will get mad and clamp down on you. Trust me, I know...it hurts.

I've been very thirsty as well. I think today I have been even more so because we went out to eat last night and you know how salty restaurant food is. Starting tomorrow I will be cooking full meals for the first time in almost a month. I've got tons of cooking magazines that I have not looked at yet, so maybe I'll find some good receipes there. Since Lydia is just about a month old, we've been taking her out with us, so she'll probably go to HEB with me "today". I hope she doesn't get all fussy and cry on me, though she's been very good about sleeping through everything because I feed her right before I leave to go anywhere. We'll see. I'm still trying to get Trung to fix the "pictures" problem. Until then, you'll just have to listen to me blab. :P

Pictures

We moved the blog to a different locations so the posts are still up, but the pictures are not. We'll figure it out soon. Come back and see us!