We be Parents

As of this morning at 5:11am, Hazel is now two weeks old…and its been an interesting 2 weeks.  It’s amazing how much energy we all need to expend for a newborn who sleeps almost all of the time and can’t even move!  She’s doing well though – eating a lot, sleeping, making us change diapers a bit more than we’d like, but that is supposedly the evidence that things are going well.  At a doctors appointment this past Wednesday she was up to 7 pounds, 13 ounces – 3 ounces above her birth weight.  Like all babies, in her first couple days she lost close to 10 percent of her birth weight and was at least as low as 6 pounds 15 ounces, so making it back up means she’s gained quite a bit of weight in the past week and a half.

As mentioned before, she spends most of her time sleeping, eating, or filling up diapers.  She’s sleeping pretty well – we have to get up every 2-3 hours for some feeding and diaper changing, but we’ve been able to counter that by sleeping longer into the morning.  That will certainly disappear for me as I’ll be heading back to work tomorrow morning.  In the time that she is awake she keeps us all entertained with her various grunts and noises, trying to lift her head – good progress in that department, shaking her arms and legs like crazy. She also lost her umbilical stump, so she’s even more like a miniature person now!

The other thing that has made things fairly easy is that Yenari’s mom came in from Korea to stay with us on June 2nd and Yenari’s aunt came in on June 8th, so we’ve had the help of 2 moms with 5 children between them.  One of their primary activities has been keeping the Korean food cooking on the stove and trying to keep Yenari and the baby as warm and toasty as possible.  We’ve all had our fair share of seaweed soup!  They’re going to be here until the end of the month, so we still have two more weeks of help.

Visitors have also been keeping us busy – here are some shots of some of the people who’ve come to wish us well and meet Hazel since we’ve been home:

Yenari’s Mom and Aunts

To Yenari’s right is her aunt who is visiting from Korea to help us out for the first month, over Yenari’s should is Yenari’s mother, and just below her is Yenari’s other Aunt who lives close by and came for a visit.  So, 3 out of 4 Kim sisters, and three generations of women.

My Dad

My Dad, the new grandfather, was in town for business and spend Tuesday and Wednesday evenings with us.

Yenari’s Nursing School Buddies

A couple of Yenari’s nursing school buddies showed up unannounced but still very welcome this past Wednesday. From left to right: Dylan, Ruby, Yenari with Hazel, Josette, and Jen.

They joined in one of Hazel’s favorite ‘rock out’ moves, raising her fist in the air above her head.

Yenari’s Cousin

Yesterday Yenari’s cousin Kisook and her son came to visit us and to her aunts. Kisook had also visited us in the hospital the day Hazel was born and delivered a hospital stay worth of seaweed soup for Yenari.

Like Violet, Hazel’s second cousin is definitely a fan of making funny faces when asked to smile for the camera. Soon there will be another second cousin thrown into the mix as Kisook is expecting her second child in a few weeks!

Eulji!

Eulji, one of Yenari’s best friends from Korea – a friend since middle school, is traveling in California and stopped by our place before heading down to LA. Yenari and Eulji last saw each other two years ago when Yenari and I visited Korea.

Wave Goodbye

With all the guests we’ve had, we’ve done a lot of waving goodbye. So, here we are, the new family, waving hello and goodbye!