the weigh in

that really is me in the picture, honest.......you can tell by my big feet and long toes. the midwife Shannon is very generously protecting my modesty as she weighs me at one week old.

despite best intentions not to make comparisons with my big brother, here's a few interesting facts: at birth i was 1.5cm taller than Joel, but my head circumference was 2cm smaller. i was 6oz heavier at birth, despite being born ten days earlier.

due to his reluctance/inability to eat, joel took three weeks to regain his birth weight, but here i am at one week and ten hours and already i'm 9lbs and 4oz. hoorah.

what was that?

it's one hour before i'm a week old. here's how i celebrated a few minutes ago:

feed feed feed .. mmmm .. nice .. eyes closed .. ahhhhh .. yes this is the life .. a bit wasted really. thanks mom .. wipe out ..
.. swaddle swaddle swaddle .. "what a work of art" thinks mom .. lie down in crib ..
.. wait for it .. wait for it .. warm parents huddle in bed .. everyone just about to doze off .. wait for it ..

THBUUUUGGHHGHHHUUUGGGHHHHH .. pause .. farrrrttt

.. pause .. snigger snigger snort. at this point dad tries to invent some rule about the first person to giggle deals with the evidence. mom definitely giggled first. however, as she pointed out she had been the one feeding me for the last 20mins while dad lay half asleep. dad deals with the "yellow thai bean curd curry" that is my current excretion of choice.

[comment from dad: "I don't know if you've tried to play calvin ball with someone who gave birth within the last week, but there's only ever likely to be one winner, and it won't be you!]night night all, we intend to be asleep for my one week anniversary.

chinese?

today i'm a little jaundiced, my eyes are mostly shut, and i've spent some time crying. nothing to worry about, just part of settling in. however dad has given me a special new name for today

"sun wai ling"

looks

related?

oliver --- day two --- joel

party

given the short notice, mom and dad did a really good job of organising not one but two welcome parties for me on sunday morning. both had bands with live music, people dancing (well, joel dancing at any rate), lots of adoring fans wanting to say hello and snacks appropriate for the time of day - meaning plenty of caffeine for dad and milk for me. joel got to snack on bagels, hang out with some of the youth group, and play with some toys too. after mom had shared a few words of appreciation it was time to go home to bed. aaaah......what a busy life i lead.

saturday

after a fairly long night, when I caught up on all the eating I missed during the day (too many other exciting things were happening to me then) another wet day dawned in Vancouver. we were visited in the morning by another midwife, Julia. now there's a lady with an obsession about bowel habits! she asked after the whole family, except dad. she took a close look at me, stuck a very sharp piece of metal into my foot in order to make it bleed, and pronounced mom and I as doing very well under the circumstances.

dad and joel went out and jumped in a few puddles in the afternoon, whilst mom and I sat in a bath of much warmer water. I was actually still fully dressed and sitting on her shoulder for much of the time, until I fell asleep, and then she put me in my chair and added a load more water to the tub.

having fed pretty consistently during the day, I only wanted to eat every two hours during the night, much to mom's relief. I didn’t really do much crying either, other than between 3am and 4 am, so all in all we were in pretty good shape on sunday morning.