Xiaoniu 小妞

Yesterday we had our first visit to the pediatrician. It seems our little angel has regained all the weight she lost after birth (6 ounces) and then some. When Emelia was born she was 8lb 5oz and when we left for home she was 7lb 15oz. As of yesterday she is a whopping 8lb 9.2oz. That’s a gain of 10 ounces in 5 days.

The doctor also checked her length. She is still 21 inches long. She might have grown a little bit, but it is tough to tell since the pediatrician and hospital nursery use different methods of measuring. The hospital bends the baby foot down to make the baby longer and measures with a tape. The pediatrician has a special bed that measures her length.

We have another checkup next week. So, we’ll just have to see how well she does between visits. I suspect a little weight gain, but nothing as dramatic as yesterday’s discovery. Other than her measurements Emelia is doing perfectly fine. The pediatrician kept remarking how well she looked. Great color, very strong and lively. I guess we are doing something right.

We made a couple trips out to the store (Sunday and today), but pretty much have been home bodies ever since begin discharged from the hospital. I suppose that I could start working on the house, but it has been all we could do just to keep up with the baby, the dish/bottle washing and loads of laundry. Adjusting to the baby’s schedule of sleeping and eating is taking its toll too.

We’re holding up okay and starting to get the hang of things, but it really does smack you in your face that things are never going to be the same. No more running around doing whatever we want whenever we want. That’s okay with us, but like anything you learn in life it doesn’t really hit you until you experience it for yourself. Smack! Now, we know for sure.

We think things will get a bit easier next week. Emelia is getting more comfortable and I believe she is starting to understand that mommy and daddy are here to help and take care of her. Sue’s milk is coming in stronger and more plentifully so supplementing isn’t as big of a deal as earlier. So, maybe next week I’ll get off my ass and do something other than what I have been doing, which has been very little.

I can’t seem to post anything without including some pictures so here we go.

I just had to take a picture of baby Emelia’s feet. They are small, but they look long. She definitely got her feet from daddy (me). Long feet = tall woman? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Sue is rapidly shrinking down to her old self. At least half of the weight she gained is gone, her complexion is slowly clearing up and no more puffy legs and ankles. i.e. All signs of pregnancy are fading away.

One of Xuemei’s favorite places to rest and sleep is in daddy’s arms or on his chest.

One our favorite places for Xuemei to sleep is in her basinet. Believe it or not her basinet is her pack ‘n’ play. We leave it setup in the living room for her to use to nap and it has a changing table. At night she sleeps in her cradle. That white and pink blanket is one that Sue knitted and crocheted for Emelia before she was born.

I made one big mistake today. I used to heat up bottles in a bowl of hot water, then I started to use a pot on the stove. Well, I started to heat one up for lunch and got distracted. We found out the hard way that the bottle was still on the stove on high when we heard it pop. The bottle has a small hole near the top where the steam blew out. Funny thing about this is that it had a nipple on it. I guess it wasn’t enough to let out the steam.

In the next picture you can actually see the circular rings from the pot melted into the bottom of the bottle.

Thankfully, things didn’t get any worse. Sue’s friend that visited us on Sunday made the same mistake, but left it on the stove long enough to smoke up his apartment. The entire building had to be evacuated.