The Im Family

i had hoped that baby two would be like mimi was and not be a spitter (there has only been three occasions in mimi's entire 4 years that she has ever spit up/vomitted. once was when she was just an infant, she was soooo colicky that we went through 4 bottles of formula to try to appease her crying and it projectile vomitted out when i sat her up to burp her. the second time, when mimi was one, some how a leaf had blown into the car and she put it in her mouth, gagged on it and threw up all over herself. and the last time was last year, when she contracted a stomach bug and got up in the middle of the night not feeling well, went into the bathroom and vomitted all over the bathroom floor.) well, it seems, despite my hopes for the same with kid 2, that Osten is in fact a spitter. today he completely covered my chest with spit up milk. and not just spit up formula, but spit up a bunch of breast milk...my supply is still dangerously low...almost borderline nonexistant (less than a...

(mimi and ozzy getting tummy time) we've noticed that Osten seems to hiccup very regularly (my mom keeps saying b/c i'm keeping his tummy cold...even when she has him wrapped in several layers, he still hiccups). the doc says it's common for newborns to hiccup every day for a few months. mimi used to every evening, but Osten seems to do so regulary throughout the day...2, 3, or 4 times a day! for the past couple of nights he's been sleeping for 4 hour stretches in the first leg of the night. he is taking btwn 2.5 and 3 oz of milk a day (breastmilk/formula). i'm still only producing about 1 oz of breastmilk and therefore must supplement with formula. i'm latching him on 8-10 times a day and then pumping for 15 minutes after each feed. he's been a tough one to breastfeed. he gets really agitated and has a hard time latching on, and then staying latched on. he is generally easy to calm…at least for now…we’ll see how things go in the next couple of weeks!

went to the pediatrician's office to day for Ozzy's 2 week weigh in. at birth he was 8 lbs 6 ozs. when we left the hospital at day 4 he was down to 8lbs 2 oz. today at 13 days, he is 9 lbs 1 oz! no wonder he's been fussing for more milk lately! he's put on a pound since we got back from the hospital! i think they are supposed to gain an ounce a day...he's been gaining two a day... an over achiever already!

(picture: mimi on the carousel at clemyjontri park) rob and i both noted how much bigger and heavier mimi seemed to us after Osten was born. at first i thought mimi had had a growth spurt and i never quite noticed just how mature her face looked until i got back from the hospital. it made me tear up when i saw how much older she looked in the space of time i had been gone. but later i came to realize she hadnt grown much taller, or heavier, or much older in the 4 days i was away at the hospital, but that after seeing the newborn ozzy's face and holding him, in comparison, mimi seemed to have grown bigger because for so long she was our 'baby', but now with a real baby in our midst, the realization that she really is no longer a baby finally sank in.

just got this picture from my sister woo's picasa album. this was taken the day before the ceasarean. big ole belly. people were stopping to ask me if i was carrying twins. yeah yeah yeah.

i forgot in the previous birth story to mention that Osten had his circumcision the following morning after the birth. at 6 am dr wolf came to get him for the surgery. rob and i had gone back and forth on whether or not to circumcise. rob was against and i was for. if i had known what i know now, i would have sided with rob and not elected to have the surgery for our little boy. in the end though, rob and i agreed that we should have it done. not long after my OB picked up my son (she was the one performing the surgery), she returned again with a quietly sleeping Ozzy and told me she was done and that she had some care instructions for me. she told me the nurses would come in and show me how to care for the wound (and it was an open, raw wound!!!), and she said a trait particular to asian baby boys' penises is that they retract so every time i cleaned the area i would have to press on either side of his testicles and make the penis 'pop out' so i could get the petro...

Monday, July 14th, i went in for my 41 week OB checkup. i was starting to get stress from everyone asking when the baby was coming out and lots of words of sympathy that i was STILL pregnant at 41 weeks. i was hopeful though that the baby was still healthy and that he would be coming some time this week. if he did not come by the start of week 42, my doctors had advised me to schedule a ceasarean for that week. at my OB checkup, dr wolf checked the baby and my placenta on the ultrasound and told me that the placenta did not look so good any more. it was broken up into many globs and had a bright white halo around each glob. she told me it was breaking down and calcifying and wouldn't last very long. she also told me that she was a big supporter of VBACs (vaginal birth after ceasarean), which i was planning to attempt with this baby, but after checking me out, my cervix was too far back, too long, and closed and the baby's head was not descending (meaning i was nowhere nea...

Not much going on these days...just waiting around for baby Osten to decide to be born. Went to see the fireworks on friday the 4th of July... got some ice cream from baskin robbins, sat in the back back of the suv with the door popped open, protected from the rain, and watched the fireworks from a parking lot nearby the show...our plan was beautiful in it's simplicity...didnt have to walk any where in the rain, didnt have to deal with crowds and find a spot to sit, and when it was over, we just buckled up and drove off! mimi clapped and cheered for each blast. there wasnt anything esp fantastic about the show...rather lame i thought, but it could have been b/c it was such a rainy night. there was supposed to be over 9,000 shells blasted, but it looked really weak. mimi was zonked by the time we got home, so rob saved the sparklers he bought for her for the following night. she enjoyed those. i wish i had gotten a picture of her with her first sparklers, but i forgot to grab ...

mimi has been asking me about how you become a mommy and a grandma. i told her one day i would be a grandma when mimi was all grown up and a mommy herself. this evening, as i put her to bed, she kissed me on the forehead and said, i dont want you to be a grandma because you wont be my same mommy anymore. i will always be your mommy. no, i dont want you to be like Noh halmuni (great grandma) with no teeth and old in bed. i wont be old for a loooong time. but i dont want you to ever be a grandma and not look like my mommy any more. i love you to be my mommy forever. i had to reassure her that i wouldnt be old for a long long time b/c she was clearly very worried that i would look old and frail like her great grandma, who is sick and bedridden. i do remember the first time becoming aware of my own parents getting old and how scary that was for me as a child. i could empathize with mimi's concerns. i wish i could tell her i'd always stay 36 years old and would never grow old, ...