Our Home is a Disaster Area

I have been sick since Friday night with the flu, over 4 days of fever, so I have been of little help around the house. I think Sunny has been feeding the baby and cleaning the kitchen. I have no idea.

Here are some pics from the last week.

Olivia has been getting bigger. You'll see it in her face. She is also sleeping in longer chunks, sometimes up to 4 hours. And making doody bombs less often which is cool, because we were going through 20 diapers a day there for a while.

Sick day. Probably watching the Travel Channel. 

Scary, Fascist Leader type pose. 

Notice the drool.

Just a little bit.

I'm at a lose for entertainment with words, the fever has got me. Hopefully these pics are worth thousands of words.

4 Weeks Old

Olivia is four weeks old now and starting to be quite a handful trying to figure out what her agenda is each day. So far she's been a serious baby. Very little time for messing around. Eating, sleeping, and diaper changing is serious business for Olivia. But every once in a while when she thinks we don't see her, she sneaks in some smiles for a split second.

sticking her tongue out at all of us

she can't function if she's not being held

feeling grumpy this week.

first stroller ride down the street. It didn't last long. Too windy.

One of a thousand shots just like this.

Showing off. Laying down with no hands or feet touching

it's hard to play a guitar with a kid on your lap.

Olivia has been doing her best to be sad and consoled this week.

crazy hair.

this is an old pic I found from Apr. 21st. I think she's 6 days old here.

The Girls are back in town

Sunny and Olivia came home on Saturday afternoon. Just in time for Sunny's first mother day. I didn't have time to post, I was too busy watching the Lakers lose by 34 points.

A pretty good baby burrito.

We received an awesome gift on Friday. A new baby quilt from Ann. Thank you very much. Great colors. Check it out.

She might have a little bit of Grandma Rennier's hands.

She likes the quilt too much to sleep.

She either likes me or is planning to overthrow me ASAP.

Still at the Korean Care House

Sunny and Olivia will be returning home on Saturday. Here are some of the pics the care center took of Sunny, the baby, and the other Moms & Daughters.

Can you find Olivia?

Sunny and Baby at the Korean Care Center

Sunny and the baby are spending the next week at a traditional Korean postpartum care center.

In Korea, there are 21 days where a mother’s job is to just eat and rest. According to Korean traditional post-partum beliefs her body is weak and broken. If she doesn’t recover fully she can have chronic issues in the future. Here is a list of current modern Korean traditions.

• 21-42 days of recovery for the mother
• Eating Miyeok-guk (Seaweed Soup) at least three times a day
  • Belief: it cleans the blood and contracts the uterus
• Don’t eat hard or crunchy foods
  • Medical science shows that new mothers’ gums are tender after birth, so there is some truth to this
• Mothers should stay warm
  • This is an old humors belief in hot and cold common in east Asia and other cultures. The blood is hot, and mothers lose this in childbirth, so they must always be kept excessively warm to recover this lost humor.
  • This includes not drinking cold liquids. They must be hot or at room temperature. And no ice cream!
  • Avoid cold drafts. The belief is that a woman’s bones are loose, and a draft can enter the joints and cause rheumatism or arthritis in old age.
  • Always wear socks and blankets
• Mothers have a special caretaker
  • This is either an elder female in the family, a person hired to help or some time in a post-partum clinic, known as a sanhujoriwon
• Mothers’ primary jobs are to eat and rest
  • No house chores
  • No driving
  • Don’t leave the house
• Proper breast massages
• I don’t think this is strictly a Korean belief
• Hot pads and hot towels on the breasts also help–and are also not strictly Korean practices

Anyway. Here are some pictures I took today. Olivia weighed 6 pounds 4 ounces at her doctors appointment on Thursday. She is also 19 inches tall now. She seems to be putting some weight on her face now and maybe entering chubby baby phase.