I [heart] New Years

I think Natty received more Christmas gifts on her first Christmas than Sunny and I have received in the last 3 Christmases. I guess she's pretty easy to shop for and she always reacts to every present in the same way: stoic indifference. But it was still fun for Mama and I to wrap her presents and unwrap them in front of her. It was also fun to buy our first Christmas tree (first since we've been married). It was actually kind of a sad tree, fake, cheap, and adorned with two strings of lights and a single ornament. Our own Charlie Brown Christmas.

Natty must be thinking, "Man, I can't get over how ghetto this tree is..."

FUNGUS UPDATE!

Several weeks of Prescribed Medicine #1 did nothing. A couple more weeks of Prescribed Medicine #2 tasted better, but still did nothing. Then a friend turned us on to Over-the-counter Medicine #1 and the fungus had met its match in a few days. The trade off was that Natty's mouth turned purple and some clothing and sheets got stained.

We had our usual late lunch with Sunny's family on New Years. We took Natalie out for a walk after lunch and when we came back, Sunny's grandma scolded Sunny for letting Natty get so cold, her lips turned purple. True story.

Anyway, the thrush is gradually going away and Natty's mouth will continue to be Laker colored until all the fungus is gone.



Oh yeah, this past Christmas marked the first time in forever that we sent Christmas cards out. Because we weren't too experienced with this, we didn't order nearly enough so if you didn't get a card from us, here it is. Please print it out, magnetize it to your fridge, and then throw it out next Christmas. Natty is now 9 pounds, 8 ounces of Sanrio-like cuteness. If you enjoy the sight of chubby baby legs as much as I do, you'll appreciate the next photo more if you look at the photo from a previous post. We hope you will have a blessed 2008!




Giggles!

The Lazy Post

Natalie is at that age where she can just sit in a boppy for a good long time and just coo and take in the little world around her. She's been sleeping very well lately despite the sometimes very loud upstairs neighbors. She is smiling a lot more and even manages a giggle now and then. This is definitely going to be one of the stages of her life that we'll cherish... and miss the most when she grows out of it.

She still is fighting her thrush. The medications she's been taking to get rid of it haven't been ultra-effective to say the least. But we'll thankful to God that thrush is the only real problem she's had lately. Hopefully by the new year I won't have to give these fungus updates anymore.

I have major blog-writing block right now. That includes trying to format these pictures into an eye-pleasing layout. Maybe it's because I just joined Facebook and I spend the majority of my time there taking the never ending movie quiz. Anyway, I will try harder the next time I post. Promise.

My First Thanksgiving (and all I got were my daddy's chins...)

I've been meaning to write this since the day Natty was born. I was reminded by this Thanksgiving holiday to give some public shout-outs to the many friends and family who have made us feel loved and supported by their actions. Some of the people Sunny and I would like to thank simply emailed a congratulations after receiving the news of Natty's birth. Others have offered their help in running errands for us, dropped off meals, or given us gifts. Still others have spent their time helping coming over to help Sunny hold, feed, and comfort Natty while I was away at work. All these things from small to big have a lasting impact on us. It impresses upon us to be better people and better friends. It shows us that God has given us all we need and more and that even the smallest gesture done by one person for another person can have a huge impact. We've been the recipients of those gestures for the past 11 weeks and on behalf of Sunny and Natalie, THANK YOU!

Yeah, I'm a girl!

I didn't realize how androgynous Natty looks until Sunny put this clip in her hair. I've always seen her as this beautiful little girl but I bet from an outsider's perspective, if she was dressed in neutral colors in a unisex outfit, they would have to guess at her gender. I think the clip helps a lot in emphasizing her girliness. Or someone might just wonder why a little boy is wearing a hair clip.

Our little girl is a fungus magnet. At the time of my last post, she had cradle cap (yay, it's gone!) and that was marked by scaly fungus covering her whole forehead. Now she has fungus covering her tongue. We had thought it was maybe immature taste buds or milk residue. Nope, it's fungus (yeast to be more exact). The condition is called thrush and it's enough to make her hair stand on end.




Lord, we pray the fungus demons will go away. Amen.














Natty had her first round of immunization shots this week. As you can tell, she took it like a champion. She is now 7 pounds, 12 ounces and almost 21 inches long at 9 weeks old. For some reason, every time I look at this picture, I imagine her torso is a nice juicy meatloaf. I should stop looking at this photo.

Tomorrow, we go to church for the first time since Natty was born. We're looking forward to it.

Half Asian, half Klingon?

Natalie had some flaky skin on her forehead. Initially, it was just dry skin but then something weird happened. What used to be dead white skin cells turned into thick crusty scales. It is a sickly green color and even worse, it has a rotten cheesy smell to it. The doctor says it's cradle cap although a very severe case of it. She also said that she has never seen cradle cap so widespread on just the forehead as opposed to on the scalp. Imagine our pride in having such a unique baby.

We can live with the stinky, crusty forehead. What's really stressin' us is Natalie's new favorite activity: wailing uncontrollably through the wee hours of the morning. Our doctor warned us that Natty might get colicky. I guess that's why they get paid the big bucks. We've been able to narrow down the cause of her colic to gas pain. Or acid reflux. Or hunger. Or exhaustion. Or pure spite.

The cruel thing about Natty's colic is that she's an absolute angel during the daytime. She hardly makes a sound when the sun is up and when she naps, she can sleep through a ruckus. At night, a spider could fart and Natty will wake up screaming bloody murder. I've never valued sleep more than in these past two weeks.

Still, it's hard to be mad at Natty because she just can't help herself. And she's such a cute crusty-headed kid. These pictures are from her last doctor's visit. She's now 6 pounds, 14 ounces at a little over six weeks old.

Pull my finger...

I guess all parents think their babies are cute. I am no exception. I look at Natalie and I see past the hairy forehead, baby acne, and flaky skin. All I see is my daughter whom I love more than anything.

Having said that, here is an unflattering picture to keep Natalie (and me) humble.










Oh, who am I kidding. Natty is adorable.

Alien Baby

Alien baby says, "Quit typing and put more pictures up!"

tiny blessings

In late 2005, Sunny underwent surgery for her Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS). The surgery involved removing the first rib and part of the scalene muscle in order to decompress the nerves running through there.

It didn't work. Sunny still experiences pain and numbness in her neck, shoulders, and arms. She is unable to lift heavy objects and the condition causes clumsiness. Amazingly, the hormones generated during pregnancy dramatically lessened the symptoms of her TOS; the trade-off was a nine-month long morning sickness. Now that her pregnancy is completed, the TOS symptoms are coming back.

I sometimes wonder if God gave Sunny the intense morning sickness to make Natalie small. I see Sunny holding Natalie, establishing that unique mother-daughter bond. I wonder what would have happened if we had a bigger baby? It's a small blessing the way Natalie perfectly fits her mommy. We love Natalie just the way she is.

(The blasphemous dark side of my personality wonders why God didn't just heal Sunny of her TOS, make her pregnancy easier, and make Natalie bigger. This same side of my personality also causes me to waste money on MegaMillions tickets.)

On a closing note (and to end what I started in my last post), I don't worry about Sunny taking care of Natalie while I'm away at work. Sunny is one tough cookie. After the delivery, Sunny experienced what we thought was normal postnatal bleeding. She passed a small blood clot. Then she passed a larger blood clot. Then she threw up and passed a blood clot the size of a softball. Then her blood pressure dropped to around 80 over 30 and she was fighting to stay conscious. Nurses started buzzing around her and the air in our room became leaden.

Our doctor rushed her into the operating room after saying things like "Call Dr. So-And-So" and "There's a chance we may need to remove the uterus" and "Please sign the consent form". I'm left standing there, alone, staring at a document called something like "Uterine Artery Embolism Procedure" mistakenly left behind by one of the nurses. An hour later, Sunny is wheeled back in and the doctor gives me the good news that they found a large vaginal laceration that they were able to sew up without needing to operate. Sunny would tell me that while struggling not to black out, she thought about how she wouldn't let herself die because Natalie and I would need her. I'm thankful that God is merciful and agreed with Sunny. Despite her TOS, Sunny has a strength that has been tested many times over. She's going to make a great mom.