One month and Two month update

We were in limbo whether we wanted to start a blog to document our new life with our 'plus one'. Originally, I wanted to blog about my experiences with the pregnancy, but since I was 'blessed' with constant morning sickness for a big chunk of the pregnancy, I didn't feel like sitting down to write (and re-live)the difficulties.

So, since we started late blogging about our 'plus one' I didn't get a chance to write about our first month with little Ollie...

Here's to catching up:

One Month Update:

Ollie's first day

We spent the first quarter of his first month at the hospital. We were fortunate enough to be given a private room, however the private room was not what we expected. Sure, we had a window but the window didn't open. Yes, there was air conditioning in the hospital, but too bad we could barely feel it. I think my experience in the hospital was less than ideal....we were there for 6 days and by the end of the 6th day, I was ready and begging to leave and go home.

Now onto Ollie's achievements for his one month: Well, the first month was more about mom and dad's achievements!

- He opened both his eyes on Day 3 of his arrival. For the longest time, he was a 'pirate' and would only have one eye open at a time.
- Ollie had his first bath at the hospital. Dad somehow got black 'tar-ish' poop into his hair!
- He fought his way through jaundice using light therapy with a pair of really cool 'batman' blindfolds in less than 24 hours!
- He learned to latch and unlatch onto the boobs, all in one week. His weight loss was just over the 10% mark and that kicked everyone into high gear and we had to bottle feed him with what little milk I pumped along with donor milk.
- On July 2, he FINALLY learned to latch on the boob (out of the blue, no less)and the success of breastfeed began. Mom and Ollie both felt very accomplished!
- He's a quick and efficient eater: 10 mins or less is all it takes!
- Ollie also experienced his first diaper rash. Dad took him off the disposables and put him into his first cloth diapers. This was also when we realized Ollie is a BIG POOPER!

Two Month Update:

Ollie working on his neck muscles during tummy time

- Ollie gaining and strengthening his neck muscles! Mommy loves tummy time! It's super amazing to be able to see how his neck muscles gets stronger everyday. I've already written about that in a previous post!
- Ollie loves to stand up and being on his 2 feet, with assistance of course! He is definitely a kicker, which makes sense since that was all he did in mommy's tummy during the last 2 months of pregnancy! Maybe Ollie will bend it like Beckham, although I'm sure dad would much rather him shoot like Gretzky!
- Ollie is able to smile back, if you're close enough to his face and smile at him. Of course we still think most of his smiles are 'gas smiles' rather than his social smile.
- He is able to start having some very very brief 'conversations' with you....he'll occassionally like to have a 'coo' conversation with mommy or daddy.
- He is also a BIG GRUNTER! He grunts when he's pooping. He'll grunt when he's asleep. He'll grunt in his bouncy chair.
- Ollie is able to focus his attention to faces now...and no longer just stare at you with a blank look, where you wonder if he's even look at you.
- One word: Projectile Poop

We have a crier in the house, everyone!!

Ollie after his bath with daddy

I survived my first week on my own with Ollie. Dar returned to work after taking 6 weeks off and I could not believe how much I depended on him during those first 6 weeks.

Our little guy DOES NOT like to nap during the day! I'm starting to wonder if there was a mix up at the hospital...Dar and I are sleepers and Ollie is not....If you can do the math here, it doesn't add up!

Instead of wanting to sleep in his fancy little crib, he has chosen to sleep on mommy instead. Thank goodness for Mel's little vibrating chair....that's the only other thing he would sleep on. We hope he'll grow up to be a good sleeper, otherwise I'll have to try to return him to the hospital and try to get a refund!

As first time parents, we are constantly wondering, "Is our kid the ONLY ONE that does this?"

1. Ollie is the king of hiccups...is he the only one that suffers with hiccups after almost every feeding?

2. Ollie poops like there's no tomorrow...is he the only one that goes through a diaper after every feeding? Although, after he hit 6 weeks, his pooping frequency has dropped...thank goodness! If it weren't for cloth diapers, we would spend our life savings on disposable diapers for him!

3. Ollie has MAJOR gas issues....he burps like a big person...no little teeny tiny baby burps, but BIG and LOUD beer guzzling manly burps!

4. He cries and cries and cries...and for no reason!! We'll feed him, we'll change him, we'll bouncy/swaddle him, we'll burp him, we'll sing to him....and he's STILL crying! I'm no expert here, but I don't think we've been blessed with an easy baby...we got one of those "OMG, he's fussy and a crier!" He has 2 stages to his crying...the whiny whimper with no tears cry and the immediately 'turn beet red' with shooting tears cry. He has also developed the "I'm so freaked" cry where he pops open like a starfish and immediately starts crying.

He's lucky he's such a stunner...if it weren't for his looks, I'm sure we would have returned him by now!

Last week was definitely been the toughest! He constantly needed to eat and was extra extra extra fussy! We think he was going through his 6 week growth spurt (although he was almost 8 weeks old). We, meaning I in particular, very much looked forward for his growth spurt to be over with!

His most favourite time of day is definitely bath time with daddy in the evenings!!

We're very much looking forward to having Ollie sleep through the night. I am beyond envious of those parents who has a 2 month old who can sleep 6-8 hours at night! We are considering putting him through the "Sleep Sense Program" so he can learn to sleep better. I think he FREAKS for no apparent reason is because he's sleep deprived. Dar thinks I'm being impatient, which I'm sure he's partly right....but I miss my sleep.

I thought things will be easier at 2 months, however Dar thinks the tide will turn at 3 months. I hope Dar is right because 2 months will be here in a few days!

Ollie's latest achievement. . .

Tummy time with mummy

Oliver's latest achievement: gaining strength in his neck muscles!! He's no longer floppy head!!

For the past few weeks, Ollie has been working on his neck muscles after his feedings. We would have him spend some tummy time with mommy and for most of the time, he would try to lift up his head to look at mommy and his head would just flop back down after a very brief lift.

However, in he last few days, he would lift his head quite high up and stay up for quite some time. It's so amazing to have him look into mommy's eyes! You can tell how he is absoultely pleased with himself...and mommy and daddy is so proud of his accomplishment!!

Our little baby boy is growing up!

Announcing our new "plus one" bundle of joy . . .

On June 11th at approximately 5:43am, we welcomed our 'plus one' into the world:

Oliver Nicholas Chau arrived via C-section, after a long and uneventful labour. He weighed in at 6 lbs. 15 oz and 20.5 inches long. With 10 fingers and toes, a massive cone head, a button nose, a perfectly round face and a full head of hair (plus some extra), he won over his mommy and daddy instantly!

Our birth story may not be an ideal one...let just say, mom's water broke before any contractions were in sight, given morphine, induced, given oxytocin, given laughing gas and finally an epidural....but nonetheless we are blessed and beyond smitten with the final results.

It's been a full month plus 4 days since our little Ollie turned our world completely upside down. We are sleep deprived and at times going insane ("Didn't we already feed the baby? I swear we fed him already! Oops, I guess I dreamt we fed him. Oh, it makes sense why he's crying then."), but at the end we wouldn't want to have it any other way!

Our adventure, so far, has been full of many bumps along with lots of accomplishments, love and joy. Ollie quickly recovered from his jaundice; mom is finally starting to get the hang of breast feeding; and dad is determined to make cloth diapers work!

Life with a newborn is unpredictable, but we are looking forward to learning all about him and adjusting to having him be part of our lives.