ling | Entries tagged with family

The main reason for my recent visit to San Francisco was to visit my new nephew. If you remember, he was born a month early, weighed only six pounds and had problems eating. Well, now he’s gained a few more pounds and is eating quite heartily.

I spent Friday evening and all of Saturday with him and his parents. He’s already eating about 5 ounces every feeding, six times a day. I gave him about five feedings and by the end of Saturday, I was getting pretty good at it.

I wasn’t so great with maneuvering him onto my shoulder. His head was still hella floppy, but I got my technique down, which must have looked really weird. But I would lift him towards me and prop his head up with my face so that it wouldn’t flop forward when I laid him on my shoulder. Not the best way, but it kept his head from flopping!

Jayden mostly slept. He slept as he ate, his eyes half closed. No matter how I held him, he would fall asleep by the second bottle. Talk to him, not talk to him. He’d fall asleep. I was doomed either way.

He looks like a balding man here.

He’s at the age where he doesn’t really see anything and his expressions are somewhat random. But he did smile a few times. Mostly after he’s laid a big old fart. And they stunk! Not only did they stink, but they lingered. I couldn’t tell if he needed a diaper change or if fart was trapped in his diaper!

But you could always tell when he was about to fart. His face would scrunch up and his whole body was tense. He seemed to be straining quite a bit once, so I handed him to my brother. He laid the baby down on his back and lifted the baby’s chubby legs towards his chest like he was doing leg lifts. It’s his technique for Fart Central. That baby was much happier after that bit of exercise.

His cheeks are so chubby, the pacifier leaves dents in his face after he’s used it.

It’s too bad that I don’t live closer to see him more often. The next time I’ll see him, he’ll probably be walking. But his parents have promised to send more photos until then.

Originally published at Samantha Ling. You can comment here or there.

Since baby Jayden was born, I’ve been buying random baby items. Since they got most of the big things that they need due to the parents, they only need the day to day things. (Mostly diapers, but I’m not shipping those. They aren’t as light as you think!)

There’s a Carter’s where we eat lunch once a week and a Super Target, which is dangerous since Carter’s always has a sign about sales. There is always something or other for only $3.99! So I go in and manage to spend much more than $3.99 plus tax.

Over the weekend, we were at the mall and there was a Pottery Barn Kids. The Z’s and The G’s both have kids. I normally wouldn’t go in there since I thought it was all furniture, but it’s got doll houses and toys and all that. There were a few things that were on super sale. so I left there with a plushy robot and a froggy wash cloth.

We went to Old Navy and I found some really cute clothes. So of course I bought it. At this rate, by the time I eventually go to visit them, I will need pack another piece of luggage.

I told my brother that I can’t stop buying stuff for him and he said that’s what aunties are for!

Speaking of which, guess who loves his auntie?

Originally published at Samantha Ling. You can comment here or there.

Chris and I spent New Year’s Eve at home again this year. This year, however, we rented Hellboy 2 from Movies on Demand and then watched Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin do the countdown. I don’t know if I’m getting old or what, but I quite enjoyed that. Our neighbors also managed to obtain professional fireworks again and they set them off again behind our house. This time, however, there wasn’t any mishaps, and therefore no crazy screaming.

Today, I did some chores and then went to dinner with a few friends. I enjoy doing something with people New Year’s day. It’s like starting the new year with friends. For some reason, I also felt like I had to, I mean, absolutely HAD TO write a journal entry today. Like it’ll start the year with goodness or something.

As for baby update news, Baby Jayden was able to eat on his own and kept his food down. They were going to up his feeding from 38 milliliters to something else. They ultimately wanted him to be at about 50 milliliters before they let them go home, but he got jaundice, so they’ve got him back on the tube again while he’s in The Box. So they’ll be at the hospital a little longer than they wanted. I’m not too worried about the jaundice though, all the babies I’ve known had jaundice. Chris had jaundice. A little time in The Box and they’ll be fine. But I hope that he gains weight fast enough so that they can go home eventually. They’ll have a 4 hour drive when they do!

Originally published at Samantha Ling. You can comment here or there.

On December 29th, at 5:29pm PST, my nephew was born!

He weighed 5 lbs. 11 ounces and was 19 inches long. My brother said that because of Baby Jayden’s natural birth, his cone head added a few inches to his length. But I said that it couldn’t have added more than an inch!

Jimmy and Jennifer were vacationing in Tahoe when the baby decided he wanted out, so they had the baby in the Reno hospital (the Truckee hospital doesn’t have a facility for premie care.) Baby Jayden was 6 weeks early!

Both mother and father are fine, but a little tired. Since Baby Jayden was early, he had a few problems eating. They tubed him and gave him formula only to have him throw it up again. But today, Baby Jayden was able to eat on his own and keep most of the food down. They’re trying different formulas to see if he’ll be able to keep that down.

They’re keeping him in the hospital for a few more days to make sure he’s gaining weight, so the parents will be stay up in Reno and won’t be able to return home (To the SF Bay Area) until then.

Hopefully now that he knows how to eat, he’ll put on weight quickly and they can all return home. Send good thoughts their way for me!

Originally published at Samantha Ling. You can comment here or there.

While Chris and I were working on our reception manu, we lamented the fact that wine costs so much per bottle. We briefly thought about having a dry wedding since neither Chris and I are big drinkers. My family isn't either (My brother is a tea tottler). And with the exception of one or two friends, none of my friends are huge drinkers either.

But I know that other people enjoy a glass of wine with dinner especially since we'll be at a steakhouse. So we decided to limit how many glasses people could have by only buying a certain number of wine bottles. They'll have to ask us at the reception if we want to order more.

As a joke, Chris has been asking people if they've received their wine vouchers with their wedding invitations. When he did that with his dad, the man was not happy. You could see his face become stern as he was about to start a lecture about you can't do that.

"That's pitiful," he said. "We can't allow that."

When we told him we were joking, he gave a small chuckle. But I think he was still worried that we'd do something so ridiculous.

When we did the same thing to his mom, she was incredulous too and was relieved when we told her it was a joke. Katie joined us not long after we told his mother and she asked Katie if she received her drink vouchers. Katie looked quite serious and said that she hadn't.

"Yeah, if you have friends who don't drink, you could take theirs," I said.

But I think she's much more wily than the parents and just laughed. Now, the question is, did you guys get any drink vouchers?

When Chris' parents came to visit last week, Chris' dad brought him a little toy. It's a gun that catapults little pigs at you. It's horribly inaccurate, but it didn't keep the four of us (including his mother) from catapulting those hard little pink pigs all over the hotel room. I'm sure that the hotel staff found some pigs hidden behind the bed at some point.

So when we got home, I'd left the little pigs int he car, but Chris remembered to bring the pigapult gun. He continued to play with the gun as it had two components. One was the pig tray and the other was the launcher. Well, he played with it so much that the launcher part launched itself right off the gun. I tried to superglue the thing back together, but since it was spring loaded, the superglue needed to be uberglue to keep it from constantly snapping. So there was no longer the launcher part. But you know, it didn't keep Chris from playing with it. I have no doubt he'll play with it until he loses it.

When I first moved in with him, he had this little ball on a string that was like the lazy man's version of a yoyo. His dad had given it to him, of course. He gives Chris all the annoying toys, including the infamous tongs. So Chris had this easy yoyo that he would swing around more like a weapon. He'd swing it in circles over his head and next to him and he'd sometimes hit himself with it (not on purpose, mind you). He played with this thing for about nine months. Then we moved into the condo and he lost it.

I have no doubt that he'll continue to pretend to shoot things with his broken pigapult until he loses this too. At least it doesn't make that horrible snapping noise when he shoots it. You know, on account that it's broken.

Talk to ya'll tomorrow!

Technorati : My Life