“Let the baby sleep.” Wise advice.

Mia’s Manang Tiana is visiting from Hawaii this month, along with her Auntie Jane.  This is one of the first photos I took of them together.

It has been four weeks.  In the quiet times, when there is a chance for reflection, time seems to have passed by rapidly.  At other times, especially during the crying spells, time seems to move glacially.  Either way, it still amounts to four weeks. Mia is now four weeks old.

Things Learned

There are only so many books you can read and so many stories you can hear from others who’ve been through it, to prepare you for a child. I’m sure what we’ve learned is contained in a book, a web site, or a friend’s story, but nonetheless here are a few things we’ve learned:

• Crying doesn’t always mean she is hungry.  Sometimes she just wants to be held, especially at 3am.
• Baby acne just happens. Seriously, it wasn’t the gangly beard I grew that caused her face or arm rash.
• Changing one diaper can rapidly digress into changing three diapers.
• During a diaper change, if her butt is angled correctly, she can project a poo stream a good foot away. Yeah, it happened.  Luckily I was to her right when it did.
• She’s not cross-eyed.  She’s just trying to focus at something far away. Whew!
• Hiccups happen.  It seems to not bother Mia as much as us.
• It’s probably wise to do a load of laundry a day, both for yourself and the baby.
• Amazon.com is a great site.  It is especially great for subscription services. You can subscribe to diapers, wipes, etc. It’s convenient and saves some money as well.
• Another good site is Diapers.com. I had to call their customer service because of a missed shipment.  They were very quick in correcting the issue. They also ship as quick as Amazon does.
• The Baby Geek app for the iPhone / iPad has been very helpful.

The Cuteness

There are many cute things Mia does. I’ve tried to capture the moments on video, but sometimes it’s not possible.  Here are a few that I don’t want to forget about:

• After she sneezes, Mia lets out this exhaustive sigh, as if the sneeze took every ounce of energy she had.
• When Mia wakes up, she stretches multiple times, contorting her body in an “S” shape, getting the most out of each consecutive stretch.
• She can lift her own head when doing the over-the-shoulder burp. This makes it difficult to hold her at times.
• From time to time she makes an “O” shape with her mouth as if she’s about to say something. As long as it’s not crying, it’s good.
• She sleeps with her arms raised as if she’s crossing a finish line.

I’m sure the future holds more to come, both in learning and cuteness.

Now I understand why so few photos are taken during the first few weeks of a baby’s birth.  First off, the baby is often asleep.  Seriously, there are only so many photos you can take of a sleeping baby.  I suppose you can take photos in various outfits, but nonetheless, they are still sleeping.  The second reason so few photos are taken is that you - the parents - are really freakin’ exhausted!  So when your baby is awake, and you have your camera ready, capturing the moment in a photo is a gem.

This photo of Mia was taken on July 8, 2010.  At this point, she was one week old. She was very active for a few hours before falling asleep once more.

GPOYW - Gratuitous Picture Of Yourself Wednesday - is a tumblr tradition I’ve never participated in. But I think I’ll start, but change it up to be GPOMW - Gratuitous Picture Of Mia Wednesday. Let’s be honest, I’ll post photos of Mia anyway. So why not make it an every Wednesday occurrence?

For the inaugural post, I’m using a few photos.  The above series of photos were taken in Mia’s newly built crib on July 13, 2010. Mia’s cousin Kayla help me put the crib together earlier in the day.  So we placed Mia down for a test run.  In a few photos, she is laying next to a Bee flash card, which represents one of the nicknames we gave her and often call her by.

Mia getting ready for her first pediatric appointment.

Two video clips from Mia’s birth day. I didn’t take photo or video of the actual birth, but these videos are within hours if not minutes afterwards.

The first clip was shot by myself. Fina was able to capture the second clip of Mia being bathed.

Mia Izobel was born at 10:16 am on July 1, 2010.  She weighs 7 lbs 12.2 oz, is 19 1/2 inches long, with a thick head of hair. Mommy and baby are doing great!