Early Adventures of Baby L - Ông Ngoại comes to visit Part 1

Baby L has been busy since coming home from the hospital! She had her first visitors right after she turned 2 weeks old - the wife of one of my coworkers helped us out by serving as a witness when G and I needed to have our updated last will & testament notarized, so we invited the couple over to meet Baby L and go out to dinner. Baby L was a perfect angel through dinner, and then had a minor meltdown when we got home (which is perfectly understandable because she was super hungry and didn't really like bottles yet).

That weekend, I took Baby L to see both my doctor and her doctor because she had been really fussy - my perfect angel had turned into a colicky mess! I'm recovering well, my hemoglobin is still low but my lady parts are healing up as intended, so other than taking iron and sleeping more (yeah, right, I have a newborn at home!) I have a clean bill of health. I might be susceptible to lightheadedness due to low hemoglobin levels. Nothing too bad. Despite our best efforts to keep the area clean, Baby L, was diagnosed with an infection at her umbilical cord site. I was given a cream and a powder to apply to the area daily, and instructed to put table salt in the area in the morning and at night to keep it dry. The pediatrician also gave me infacol to help with her relieve some gas (and maybe give me a break from the crying and screaming!). We were to come back in 5 days for a follow-up.

My dad (Baby L's Ông Ngoại, which is Vietnamese for maternal grandfather) arrived late Monday night to help me out since G had to go home to the USA to pack up our home and sell our cars on Wednesday for the big move to Dubai. Baby L's first overseas visitor! Unfortunately, since G had to take care of some visa stuff in Dubai, Baby L and I didn't go with him to pick up Dad at the airport - it would have been a 5-hour trip, which is a bit much for my little newborn. Baby L and I cuddled on the sofa until G and Dad came home. It's been great having Dad here to help out, and Baby L has been spoiled with lots of cuddles and naps on Ông Ngoại's chest.

Baby L loves to curl up against her Ông Ngoại!

They also like to nap together - baby hugs for Grandpa!

While Baby L has been spoiled by the attention, Mama Kim has been spoiled with lots of really delicious home cooking and extra naps while Ông Ngoại plays with Baby L. On Dad's first day here, G took us all grocery shopping at the Chinese grocery store and Spinneys. Dad cooked phở for lunch and dinner and G and I gobbled it up.

G left Wednesday morning, and Dad and I hung out around the hotel. We went to the grocery store here at our apartment complex to pick up a few items we missed the day before, and Dad cooked Vietnamese ramen with roast pork, bacon bits, and baby bok choy. It was so good!! Dad also helped with baby bath time, and we had an amazingly tear-free bath. It was like the stars aligned with Baby L being a little full and sleepy and the bathroom being a little warmer than usual, and with an extra set of hands bathtime was super fast.

It was prettier when Dad served it to me, but I didn't think to take a photo until after I'd started eating :-)

Thursday we had our follow-up with the doctor, and her umbilical was fully healed! I suspect that the pain from the infection was contributing to her fussiness and crying, which then contributed to her gas because since that appointment she has generally been more like the baby angel that I brought home from the hospital. Doc said she wasn't gaining enough weight though, so we've been focusing on feeding to get her weight up, and we'll be back for another check up in 2 weeks. After the doctor's office, we swung by the embassy to pick up Baby L's passport and birth certificate - I couldn't believe how fast it was processed! 10 days!

The photo we used for Baby L's passport, which G and I both think is hilarious!

That evening Dad and I attempted to go out to a nice dinner at Signature by Sanjeev Kapoor. We got through two lovely courses when Baby L decided she wanted to go home - the restaurant staff was wonderful and they packed up the rest of our meal as takeaway and we rushed home with a screaming baby. I have now learned that Baby L's outings are best during the day rather than the evening - she really is a morning baby.

Friday we went grocery shopping again, this time to Carrefour. There is a wider selection of fruit and veg at Carrefour than Spinney's or Waitrose, and Dad wanted to do some extra cooking so I'd have leftovers to eat during the gap between when he left and G came back. We walked around Marina Mall for a bit and then headed to the basement for groceries. I forgot the Carrefour on a Friday is a madhouse - but we got through it! Baby L was a champ until the very end - she was a little fussy in the car, and then she was ok after I fed her at home. Here she is modeling some of the clothes that her new step-grandmother bought for her. Ba Ngoại (maternal grandmother) felt that Baby L didn't have enough pink in her newborn wardrobe, so she rectified that by sending Ông Ngoại with a week's worth of girly baby clothes.

Sweet girl making a not-so-sweet face!

Thoughtful dreams while napping

Baby L's first set of pajamas!

Friday night we had a minor apartment emergency! The hot water started running a disgusting brown color, so when I told the management staff that I needed to bathe my newborn, they offered me a room on the hotel side. Apparently there was an issue with the hot water tank that affected the residences but not the hotel, so we packed up Baby L's bath time stuff and hauled it up to the 50th floor of our tower in seek of clean, hot water. I wish I'd taken some photos of the hotel room, it was really nice. Things were a bit chaotic though, the room was super cold so Baby L was not happy during her bath. She screamed the whole time, and cried and whimpered while I fed her afterwards so we were a little distracted. By the time Dad and I both showered and got Baby L back to our apartment, she had passed out and she slept super hard for the next 4 hours...which meant she was up and being a Jerk Baby (i.e. cluster feeding) pretty much all night.

Today (Saturday morning) I took Dad and Baby L to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Dad and I agreed ahead of time that with Baby L, a tour would be too hard and too long, so we'd just walk through for an hour so he could see it, and then head back home. On the way to the SZGM, Baby L decided it was time to eat and poop, so I learned the new skills of breastfeeding in the car and changing a diaper on the backseat. Fortunately, I am super prepared like a girl scout, so I had everything I needed in her diaper bag. Once she was fed and changed, Dad and I took a quick walkthrough of SZGM.

Baby's first trip to Grand Mosque

Ông Ngoại and Baby L together

No strollers allowed inside the mosque

We got home and I decided to try out the reusable diapers that I purchased for Baby L. We originally decided not to use them until her umbilical cord fell off, and then G asked if we could defer using them until we moved to Dubai. They're just so cute though that I wanted to try them out to see how hard (or easy?) they were. Plus Baby L has been getting a little diaper rash, so I thought these might help with that too.

They're a little bulky under her onesies, but how cute are they?!?

I've heard rave reviews for these Best Bottom All-In-2 diapers, so we shall see before G gets back from Houston whether Baby L and I love them or hate them! Until next time!!