Almost a month old!

Being a dad is NOT simple. I've been busy juggling work, running and taking care of my kid. My kid was allowed to leave the hospital on the 3rd day but we had to put him under the phototherapy machine coz he was down with bad jaundice. As an advise to all BREASTFEEDING mothers. Please do not consume GINGER & RICE WINE when you are breastfeeding. Whatever you consume will be passed-on to the kid, even alcohol. Please give yourself a 3 hour buffer if you are drinking DOM.

We had to learn the hard way coz we did not know why his jaundice level was climbing. When we placed him on formula milk for 2 days and went back for checkup, his jaundice level dropped tremendously. Thanx to all my friends and relatives. NO MORE GINGER and RICE WINE.

I was on leave for 2 weeks and thank God my wife gave birth during the Raya festivities. This gave me extra days off because Russel just threw our plans out the window. We planned everything according to his delivery date and I was hoping to register for the Kuantan run. My maid is suppose to arrive in November and so are the furnitures we bought. We now need to reorganise our dates. Whatever it is, he has been a blessing to everyone, especially my parents who are feeling elated. This is their first grandchild and I, of course, made them proud (suddenly feeling 3 inch above the ground).

Since my maid's not here, I was playing super-dad for the first 1 1/2 week because I had to take charge of the feeding, changing and cleaning. I had to help out with the house chores coz my mum was the cook and the only person who can bath Russel. My wife did not have any experience handling a baby and I had to teach her how to handle Russel as he was "too delicate" in her own words. She slowly got a hang of it coz eventually she has to do most of the stuff as I had to go back to work. I slowly passed the buck to her until she felt comfortable and confident enough. I think this comes with all new mothers. Their maternal instincts will kick in and everything will fall in place.

We are still trying to understand his behaviour and timing because he is "jet-lagged". We only know how to feed him periodically when he cries and also pick him up when he cries. He is really a handful as sometimes he would cry for no reason and we were forced to use the dummy (pacifier) on him after 2 1/2 weeks. We were planning not to use the pacifier as he might get confused with the feeding bottle but anything to stop his wailing was good for us. My wife and me are people of little patience and having Russel around really taught us to be patients. I was more patient compared to my wife coz she would get very agitated with his cries and sometimes looked lost. Now, we've gotten use to his cries and is still trying to understand him. This is gonna be a long journey and there is no turning back.

Russel is already 3 weeks old and soon he will be a month old. We are planning a small family do for him coz its his full moon. I'll be taking leave to go deliver the full moon packs this Friday. Once everything is more settled (and when the maid is here), we'll have a party for him. I've taken a few pictures and would like to share it with you guys. I've also uploaded 2 videos into youtube. Please go to the link below to see the pictures. I've placed the youtube videos in the blog your viewing pleasure.

PICTURES