2 months, 2 weeks, and 6 days old

May 4th, 2014

This is his version of tummy time!

Last Sunday, I had a "mommy's day out". It was my first time away from the baby for longer than one feeding interval. I went to the far away mall and got to go shopping for the first time in a long time. I only got to shop in one store though because I called home and heard that M wasn't taking the bottle well and it worried me so I left and went home. 

This weekend, a good friend from LA drove up for a visit and we had all-day sleep-over snack-parties! While R & T were over, I was playing with M by tickling his neck and he had his first laugh! It was the cutest thing, like he was so happy that he couldn't catch his breath! 

Other firsts during said sleep-over snack-parties include my first pump and dump, as well as an epic to-go order of 4 dozen oysters from Swan Oyster Depot!

2 months, 1 week, and 3 days old

April 24th, 2014

Baby thinking under his activity gym.

2 months and 5 days old

April 19th, 2013

We're getting lots of smiles from this happy baby. He likes to talk and wiggle, and he's always alert.

2 months and 2 days old

April 16th, 2014

Two months old! I love his little toothless smile! It makes me so happy!

I also like picking his boogers...haha :)

1 month and 4 weeks old

April 11th, 2014

His double chin! He is almost two months old here :)

This week, I mustered up the courage to drive with baby for the first time! It went pretty well the first couple of times, but the last time was not so successful. I was driving T to the airport and he was fine until we hit the freeway. From there to the airport he was really upset and couldn't stop crying. T tried all sorts of comfort measures with him but he didn't respond to any of them. It was so heartbreaking to see real tears on his cheeks when dropping off T at the departures loading zone. Immediately, I drove off, looking for a good place to park and nurse, but magically, he fell asleep! I went straight home after that and he was much happier once he got out of his car seat. 

1 month and 26 days old

April 9th, 2014

His little dimples! Also, he graduated from newborn sized diapers to size 1! 

This past Sunday (the 6th), we had our first big outing. We went to a friend's baby shower and were able to stay all the way until the end. Originally, we had planned on just showing up early and staying for an hour or two, but he seemed ok with being out so we just continued to hang out. Before we knew it, the shower was over, and we had a successful first big outing! 

1 month, 21 days old

Friday, April 4th, 2014

This is what he looks like when he's very tired and ready to go to sleep. These days, he'll fall asleep only when being nursed or by being bounced on the yoga ball.

1 month, 2 weeks, and 3 days old

March 31st, 2014

Here, you can see J watching tv while holding the baby. 

Here, the baby has fallen asleep due to J's awesome yoga ball bouncing skills

And here is a picture of the baby's first manicure! I finally decided to cut his nails because his scratch mittens were getting so stinky! His hands would get sweaty and linty in them and on top of that, he'd wipe his mouth with them after nursing. This made the mittens super stinky and gross, therefore, I decided it'd be best if I just cut his nails. At first, it was scary, but with these baby light-up clippers, it made the job a lot easier. 

1 month, 2 weeks, and 2 days old

Sunday, March 23rd, 2014

This was Tiff's birthday and Mars' first outing. We had brunch at Troya because it was across the street from Tiff's house, which made us feel a bit safer in being out with him. I had everything prepared, I even pumped ahead of time in case he got hungry during our meal. In the beginning, he slept most of the time, but got a bit fussy towards the end. J had to stroll him around the neighborhood to keep him happy. Overall, it was a successful outing (not counting him crying on the way home and us having to pull over to nurse him)! 

1 month and 2 days old

Friday, March 16th, 2014

He is already getting so big and smiley!

1 month and 1 day old

Saturday, March 15th, 2014

One month old! His little thumb seemed to always find its way out of his scratch mittens or sleeve mitts! This was the last weekend before J went back to work. It was so nice having him around during his paternity leave. Before my mom came over, he cooked and cleaned and did everything around the house. I had breakfast in bed every morning! Now that my mom has gone back to So Cal, J still tries to make breakfast for me every morning before he leaves for work. He leaves it on my nightstand so that I can still enjoy breakfast in bed everyday. :) 

3 weeks and 4 days old

 Tuesday, March 11th, 2014

3 weeks and 1 day old

Friday, March 8th, 2014

This was his second meeting with his cousin, Lily. I think this was the best picture we could get of him. Lily looked adorable in all the pictures but Mars was screaming his head off. I think we caught him in-between cries for this shot. 

3 weeks and 1 day old

Saturday, March 8th, 2014

His first bath! We wanted to wait for as long as possible to give him his first bath because we were obsessed with vernix. Before bathing him, his armpits and neck creases had a very distinct baby smell...kind of feet-y/cheesy, and we loved it! I never wanted to wash it away! But after three weeks, lint and other gunk started building up and we knew it was time to give him a bath. 

I wasn't sure how he felt about baths at first because he loved this first one but hated the next. This first one, he was calm and curious and looked like he was trying to figure out what was going on. His second was the opposite. He absolutely hated it and screamed and cried until we were finished. And for a while it kept flip-flopping like that until I bought a bath sling for him to lie in. After that and to this day, he seems content with bath time. He doesn't look like he enjoys it, his arms and legs are always spread out, trying to find balance...but at least he seems ok with it.

3 weeks old

Friday, March 7th, 2014

I remember this being about the time when breastfeeding finally got a bit easier. As a first time mom, the one thing that was really challenging for me was breastfeeding. Everyone always says it's the lack of sleep, but for me it was definitely breastfeeding. Looking back, I'm really glad that I didn't quit. There were times when I wanted to supplement with formula or just throw in the towel all together, but didn't and I'm glad for that. M is 3 months old now and BFing is a breeze. It was as if we woke up one day and my nipples healed and felt as if nothing was ever wrong. So glad I stuck with it or else I would've never experienced that.

2 weeks and 5 days old

Wednesday, March 5th, 2014

Smiling in his sleep! 

During this time, my mom came and stayed with us for a few weeks. It was amazing and we were so thankful for her help! She cooked yummy food everyday, cleaned the house, and held the baby so that I could take a nap. It made a huge difference and I am so grateful to have such a wonderful mom. 

1 week and 5 days old

Wednesday, February 26th, 2014

6 days old

Thursday, February 20th, 2014

This face! He used to always make this funny face! It was hilarious, especially when trying to breastfeed. They say you should wait until the baby has his mouth open really wide, like in a yawn, and then latch him on. This was impossible to do with Mars because he would make this little "o" with his mouth. 

4 days old

Tuesday, February 18th, 2014

At this time, we had been home for about three days. I remember the first few days being stressful because my milk had not come in yet, and he had not pooped for a few days (we later realized this was because all his poop came out during labor). We first met with a pediatrician that was convenient for us in terms of location, but we ended up not agreeing with him on some things. We eventually had to break up with him for the excellent pediatricians at UCSF, where we returned for weight checks almost all week.

I remember we did not sleep very much because he did not want to be put down so one of us was always holding him. I remember just telling myself that there will be no sleep tonight and I would stay up until 5am, holding him and happily watching him sleep. Eventually, I'd start falling asleep and then it'd be J's turn. I think the first time my milk came in, he had the biggest meal of his life and we were all able to sleep just a little bit more. 

Everyone warned us about not being able to sleep and to be prepared to be exhausted, but I didn't see it that way at all. I loved staying up with him and didn't mind the lack of sleep. I was just happy to finally be able to hold this little baby in my arms. :)

2 hours old

In two days, Mars will be three months old. As far as I'm concerned, time stood still when we had him and it's still February... at least that's what it feels like! Where did the time go? Is it already May? 

After three months of blog-vacation, I think I'm ready to come out of hiding and start sifting through the thousands of photos we've taken. I want to try to document the timeline of his early years as much as I can... I guess it just depends on how often he allows me to actually get on the computer to get something done! (FYI, it's taken almost three hours to write this much)...

Here he is, just 2 hours old on the day of his birth on Friday, February 14th, 2014:

Labor was amazing even if he was breech! Everything went smoothly, and in this picture you can see that he came out with really long fingernails! What you can't see is that he also came out with a full head of hair!