Celebrating Maddy's 1 Month Birthday

Dearest Maddy,

Today, you celebrate your 1 month birthday. We took you to Dr. Pang's office for your check-up. The result of 7 to 9 servings of breastmilk a day has caused you to cutely weigh 10lbs and stretch your frame to 21 inches long. You can chug about 4 ounces easily. For a baby girl who is only 21 inches long, you pretty much have taken over both floors of our 2-story house and occupy 24 hours of our day.

Tummy time is easy for you. You've been lifting your head up since you were 2 days old! Ninong Wil noticed how strong your neck muscles were when he visited you at Torrance Memorial Hospital. You love lying on your Dad's chest. Many times I find you both asleep. Does the sound of his heartbeat calm you down?

You live like a little princess! You not only have a beautiful wooden crib upstairs in your nursery, but also a Pack n' Play crib downstairs. You also have a soothing bouncer but you cry whenever I put you in it. It's anything but soothing for you. I hope that maybe one day you'll change your mind about it because it's a lovely little furniture piece.




Your daddy has been reading "Brown Bear" to you, ever since you were inside the womb. I've been singing a lot of praise and worship songs to you while we both commuted to and from work. You seem to enjoy music very much. Right now I'm trying to get you ready for Tagalog language lessons. You've been really animated whenever I sing "Bahay Kubo" and "Leron, Leron Sinta". When you get older I will also teach you "Biyabo". It's a fun childhood song that your Lolo sang to me when I was a little girl.


The one game that you love playing is Peek-a-Boo. Your Lola has given you the nickname Pika-Pika because you smile widely and coo whenever we say "peek-a-boo" with a high pitchy tone. By the way, did you know that you have a lovely dimpled smile? Those dimples are from your daddy. It is clearly an Untalan family trait. If you don't believe me, just take a look at all of your cousins and your Grandma.

We, your parents, can't imagine life without you. We look back to how we lived life before you were born. No matter what ease and freedom we had back then, we'd much rather prefer the life with Maddy. You have taught us how much loving care God's handiwork requires at all times and it brings us so much joy to be your parents.

Love you so much Little Miss Pika-Pika!

Blessings,
Mommy and Daddy

Baby Spa?

Diaper changing time and bathtime for Maddy became pretty fun once we all got the hang of it.

Maddy gets instantly cranky the moment her diaper gets wet or poopy. Erwil and I found out that she has a discernable cry whenever she needs a diaper change. The moment she signals that she needs a changing, Erwil and I must do it immediately otherwise Maddy turns cherry red in the face and upset. We also discovered that Maddy needs a diaper change every 3 hours.

The awesome thing about Huggies and Pampers diaper brand is the indicator strip that tells you when the diaper needs to be changed. Yellow means clean. Blue means dirty or wet. We've tried other diaper brands, but they failed our expectations. (Thank God for providing us generously with diapers from the baby shower!) Maddy didn't have trouble outgrowing her newborn size diapers. She quickly moved up to size 1 in diaper size right at 4 weeks of age.

Because she is solely breastfed, she barely ever has massively explosive poopy diapers. Breastmilk is the most easily digested food so there is not much that ends up as "waste" down there, but most frequently just her urine. Her diapers aren't smelly either, which is great for the weak at stomach! The moment I pull the diaper fasteners and clean her with baby wipes, I can tell she feels relief and she stops crying. I can't imagine how uncomfortable it is to wear a diaper all day long. Thankfully, no rashes have turned up on Maddy because we're cautious about it. We use her Aveeno diaper cream only when we see very slight patches of redness on her skin, but that hasn't always been the case with her.


She loves taking warm baths in her Fisher Price whale tub. Maddy doesn't like being dressed and undressed, especially if I have to pull her clothes over her head. The tough part of dressing her is when I have to pull her arm through the sleeves. She never wants to cooperate by giving me her arm, I have to pull harder to get her shirts on and off. However, all her whining and crying changes once she's in the tub being sprinkled with warm water.


It's really tough bathing a baby because their skin is so slippery when wet and lathered with soap. There's no easy way around it. Her bathtub has a special design so that I don't have to prop her up in order to clean her with soap. Because she's chubby, I have to check in between her skin folds on her arms, thighs and neck for rashes and trapped lint. It's really easy for Maddy to get rashes around her chin and neck because she has a double chin that traps milk and sweat. I remember the first time I saw Maddy's neckline break out, I felt awful for her. I felt so lousy and stupid because I overlooked such an obvious area that made me almost cry. Did I mention that my post-partum hormones were out of whack? Thank goodness for 1% grade hydrocortisone cream. Problem solved! No more tears for me and Maddy.

After 3 weeks old, Maddy's forehead and scalp started to look really dry and scaly from cradle cap. It's a natural phenomena that happens to all babies. All it takes is for me to massage the affected area with some baby oil before her bath, some lotion on the face and she's fine again.


What really annoys me is to see people who don't know much about babies touching her cheeks with their hands or kissing on Maddy's cheeks. Yes, I know they're chubby with dimples, but even when I'm tempted, I still don't even dare kiss her or touch her on her cheeks because her skin is still too young and very sensitive. People with baby-sense know that you can touch the baby on the feet, never the face, nor hands because babies tend to suckle on their hands. Usually these offenders have already quickly sneaked a kiss, pinch or tickle on Maddy's face before I can say anything to them. What I really want to do is slap their wrists away with a swift, light sting. The really bad part is that the offenders are usually little children who's parents forget to tell their children to touch Maddy only on her feet. Her skin becomes so irritated and chapped, and it only takes just one offender with nasty germs and oily fingers to do such a thing. I'm not asking for people to wear laytex gloves in order to handle Maddy, I'm just asking that they do it respectfully.

Overall, it's a pleasure seeing Maddy benefit from all the pampering skin treatments that we give her daily. I'm not saying it's easy to do but it's a necessary chore for our little princess. I don't deny that it requires lots of time, and even the work of 2 people to keep up with this routine of cleanliness. She is one fortunate baby for being given such lavish skin treatments that top Glen Ivy Spa & Resort!