Zachary Update

Time sure flies when you're having fun.  It's already August.  Zachary is four weeks old today.  How is he doing?  Well, he's doing pretty good besides still having a little trouble with the cold.  Yes, he caught the cold from the rest of the family.  We all had it for a little while, but it's mostly gone now.  Zachary seems to be the one who was hit the hardest.  I guess that's probably because his immune system is still developing.  He only has the stuffy nose left.  Actually, that's all he ever had, not like mom or dad.  I have had the stuffy nose, the runny nose, the headache, the stomach ache, and the weariness.  Michael has had it all also.  Nicholas did pretty well with it also.   He only had the cough and the runny nose, but he didn't seem to complain a bit about the cold.  That's how he has always been.  I think he has a very good immune system.  Whenever he gets sick, he never really complains about it at all and it usually doesn't last long.  Also, it has never affected his play and mood (at least most of the time, it doesn't.)  

I will be returning to work in two weeks.  Come to think of it, I haven't been to work for more than three months now.  I am hoping that I can readjust to working again.  I think it's going to be a lot more difficult with two now.  I have to adjust to the little or no sleep that I get every day.  Right now, I can sleep during the day when Zachary is asleep, but that won't be possible anymore when I go back to work.  That's why I'm not looking too forward to going back to work.  Well, it's more of a half/half thing.  I would love to go back to work because I really miss working.  It's really boring sitting at home every day just watching Zachary.  It's either sleep, watch TV, or "try" to clean the house.  Once in a while, I'll do things like this, updating the web pages or other things that Michael would like me to do.  Going back to work will give me lots of things to do.  I've already talked to some of my co-workers and there are lots that I can do when I get back to work.  The time at work will fly by very easily.  Hey, I might even forget that I will be tired by then.  

Zachary is doing fine besides the little cold.  And no, he still does not sleep through the night.  He's getting better and better at that.  I'm just hoping that he will get into a better sleeping habit by the time I go back to work.  Michael says that when I do go back to work, we will alternate who gets up during the night to feed and change him.  Right now, I do all that because he has to work and I don't.  I think Zachary has grown a lot.  Michael is guessing that he's around 11 pounds right now.  I would have to agree with him.  Two weeks ago, when I took him to the doctor, he was already at 9 pounds 8 ounces.  Well, we'll find out this Wednesday when we go in for his one-month check-up.  He is somewhat spoiled, though.  (Of course, I did that.)  It really wasn't my fault, really!  Two weeks ago when I took him to the doctor, the doctor said that he might have colic.  He gave me a handout on what to do with this problem and to summarize the handout, "spoil him."  It said to do things like rock him, cradle him, and give him all the attention that he wanted.  If none of that worked, then the last resort would be to let him cry himself out.  Of course, I never allowed him to get that far so he's use to the attention and the pampering.  Of course, Michael did not agree with that so yesterday, when he was watching him.  He went to the last resort.  He just let Zachary cry himself out.  I was sleeping and when I heard the crying, I immediately went out to the living room to see what was going on.  I was not allowed to pick him up.  He eventually did cry himself out, but boy, did that need a lot of restraining from me to not pick him up.  He was screaming off the top of his lungs.  I just can't stand babies crying like that.  I guess it runs in the family.  My younger sister, Karen, came over last night and when Michael was doing the "last resort" plan again, she gave in and eventually picked him up.  I think it's a girl thing.

Last weekend, we had a little party for Zachary.  Sorry to those that I might have forgotten to invite.  And thank you to those who came to his party.  It was a pretty good turnout.  I was able to see a few friends that I have not seen in a long time.  Of course, Irene and Richard got to see him.  It was a shame that none of Michael's other relatives were able to make it t see him.  But that's okay.  Well, be heading down to the bay area in early September so they will all have a chance to meet the little one.  Oh, and if Aunt Irma is reading this, I hope that your hand is getting better.  

Okay, onto Nicholas.  He's going great.  He's quite big now.  He still goes to my mother's house during the day.  I don't think I'm able to handle to kids at once right now.  Nicholas is doing fine with Zachary.  We actually allowed him to hold Zachary a few times.  He calls it "big hug baby."  What we would do is have him sit now and put his hands out.  Then I would put the baby into his hands, but I would still be holding the baby at the same time.  He really likes it.  He also is a very good helper.  He will find us whenever Zachary starts crying and tell us that he's crying.  He will also find for Zachary  a pacifier when he's crying.  He'll also help us with changing Zachary.  Nicholas is really taking the whole "new addition" to the family a lot better than I expected.  The only jealousy that Nicholas seems to have is the fact that Zachary gets to sleep in our room and he doesn't.  So, every now and then, he is allowed to sleep in our room and after he falls asleep, Michael moves him back into his bed.  That seems to be working out pretty well right now.  Of course, there are the times when he wakes up in the middle of the night wanting to come over and sleep with us.  There was one time when all four of us were sleeping on the bed and did it get crowded.  We have a queen size bed so having all four of us on there was not the most comfortable thing in the world especially since the both of them (the kids) take up so much space.  You would think that it's the adults that would take up most of the space.  Not in our family.  Nicholas moves around a lot when he's sleeping and sometimes he'll sleep horizontally instead of vertically on the bed so you can imagine how much space he needs.  As for Zachary, he needs a lot of space in between him and any other human because we are afraid that we might hurt him or leave him very little room to breathe.  And then of course, you have to add on to the count, the cats.  Sometimes they sleep at the foot of the bed so when they are both there, that's six living bodies on this tiny little queen size bed.  It usually ends up that either Michael or me would have to give up our space and either sleep on the sofa in the living room, sleep in Nicholas's bed, or go to the computer room and play games until someone else give up their space on the bed.  I think it's time we got ourselves a king sized mattress.