Monthly Archives: May 2010

Simon’s 1st vacation: Southern California – Day 1

Day 66

This is Simon’s first long distance trip by car. Our friends Lynne and Joe are having a baby shower so we thought it a good time to see if we can travel with Simon. It’ll be a four day experience.

We got on the road around 7am in hopes of meeting up with our friend Tiffany for lunch. Simon is well fed, all dressed, and ready to go. We didn’t realize how much more stuff we needed to bring with a baby (ie, his clothes, diapers, wipes, toys, blankets, bath soap, etc).

Although he looked wide awake, he soon fell asleep in the car and slept almost the entire way there. We only needed to stop once to fuel the car and another time to change his diaper. We had brought enough milk for the trip and I was pumping in the car so whenever he woke up, I just bottle fed him.

Unfortunately we did leave a little later than anticipated so didn’t make it in time to Los Angeles to meet up with Tiffany so we went to try something ourselves: Phillipe’s French Dip Sandwiches. We had seen it on the Travel Channel as a place you must try in LA. The lines weren’t as long as we anticipated so that was good but I was bad and didn’t order correctly. Apparently you have to specify that you want your sandwich “dipped” and you can ask for “single” or “double”. I assumed that they would at least give you the “au jus” on the meat itself or dip at least one piece of the bun into the sauce… but nope, just the meat on the bread and the hot mustard at the tables. Oh well… we had one lamb, one beef, and a side of cole slaw. The hot mustard was great, really spicy but the sandwiches were okay. It might have tasted better with the sauce but not sure how much better.

After our lunch, we went to meet up with Tiffany at this store called Japan LA. They have lots of Hello Kitty items and other cute things like Tokidoki and Crowded Teeth.

After shopping we went to a restaurant nearby to have some coffee and chat. The place was kind of unprofessional. First we told them we just wanted coffee and/or shakes, no food, and they said fine and to sit down. When Ron wanted to order a shake then they told him the blender was broken. When the waiter went back to check, apparently the blender was fixed but they were out of ice cream. I wanted an amaretto latte but they were out of amaretto. What the heck?!? I ended up ordering a hazelnut latte, Ron a raspberry iced tea, and Tiffany a soy latte. The waiter brought Ron a regular iced tea then realized so brought the raspberry iced tea. Tiffany was afraid they messed up her drink and used regular milk but we confirmed it was indeed soy. So not such a good experience but we got a funny picture out of it. Simon was being fussy and wanted to eat but for some reason would only start to eat while in this position:

For the evening, we headed to Torrance as we were staying at a Marriott Courtyard there using reward points. The baby shower is tomorrow and is in Rancho Palos Verdes so this was the closest hotel in the area. We also had to find a place for dinner and while searching Yelp, I came across this Taiwanese place called Ju Ju Shine. It had rave reviews so we thought we’d check it out.

Here is their menu:

The lady owner suggested how we should order since Ron wanted this ground pork over rice dish, apparently the “rice” for the combination is that special ground pork over rice dish so it was a better deal to order the combination… not sure if that makes sense but if you go there, I’m sure she will help you. They also have stinky tofu there even though it is not on the menu.

They also have some older Japanese comic books for you to peruse (if you can read Japanese) and when Tiffany first met Simon, she thought that he resembled this character.

This is some sort of soy sauce chicken served with three kinds of vegetables: lightly pickled cucumbers, stir fried cabbage/carrots, and preserved vegetables. The soup is some sort of vegetable broth that was really good. Then the special ground pork rice with boiled egg that Ron likes.

An order of their stinky tofu. Smelled authentic and was really tasty. The tofu kind of had air pockets in it so soaked up the sauce really well. The outside was nice and crispy and the rest a bit chewy.

One of my favorite noodle dishes, Check-R noodles. It’s very simple, just rice noodles in a broth with a boiled egg, some shredded pork, bean sprouts, cilantro, green onions, and fried onions.

We finished everything but were pretty stuffed. All this was less than $20 and she even gave us two ba-wan to go. It is a quaint little restaurant and I’m sure if we lived close by, we would frequent it often.

After dinner, we went back to our hotel and tucked Simon into bed. Our hotel room had two Queen beds so Simon has a bed all to himself.

We had requested a portable crib and it ended up being a Graco Pack’n’Play with no sheets and no bassinet so we opted to have him be more comfortable on the bed. It’s been a long day of traveling so we are all exhausted.

What a tease!

Three Outfit Changes

Milk update

1 Reply

Day 63

Thank you to all our friends who offered advice about how to get my milk supply back up. I blogged about my issue here. It’s pretty much back to normal now and Simon seems to be eating enough and getting chubbier again. In that short week, you could tell that Simon was losing a bit of weight, his cheeks were less chubby and he lost the “rolls” on his arms. Now his cheeks are chubby again and the “rolls” are forming again on his arms.

The tips that I think helped me:

1. Keep well hydrated, plain water is fine. Yesterday, Simon’s doctor said something funny but very true: Most of us live in a state of dehydration. I know I definitely do not drink enough water during the day, I have to constantly remind myself. I’m not sure how I will keep up when I’m back at work since we’re not allowed to have water in the pharmacy. Constantly going in and out of the pharmacy can be difficult but I’ll just have to try and probably drink a ton at one time.

2. Soy milk is a good source of fluids and protein. My friend Trang says this helped her a lot and it seems to do some good as well. I would recommend trying to find the unsweetened type or else it contains too much sugar (up to 17g per serving).

3. Herb Lore Nursing Tea which was recommended by the Kaiser SF Lactation Center (and they sell it there too) which seemed to help a bit after drinking it religiously for 2 days. This may also have helped because I was drinking more liquids.

4. Herb Lore Fenugreek capsules which was also recommended by the Kaiser SF Lactation Center (and they sell it there too). I had been drinking the nursing tea for four days with very slow improvement so they suggested I add this on as well. It is three capsules by mouth three times a day with food. It is a pain to swallow them since they are large gelatin capsules but it seemed to really have boosted my milk supply. Once the milk supply is established I’m supposed to slowly wean off of it but I may continue for a little while longer until I feel more comfortable. Apparently if you abruptly stop, it can have a negative impact and decrease your milk supply again.

5. Old-fashioned Quaker oatmeal. I read about this on another website so thought I’d try it. It wouldn’t hurt and it’s good for digestion. Every morning I was eating a bowl made with milk, Sun Crystals , and dried fruit. A few days ago I baked some oatmeal pecan cinnamon cookies so I wouldn’t have to deal with microwaving it every morning and so I did not necessarily have it eat it for breakfast. Sometimes I just want some bacon and eggs for breakfast! Here is the recipe for the Oatmeal Pecan Cinnamon Cookies. I did not add the chocolate chunks this time.

6. Pump pump pump! I had been letting myself go over 4 hours without pumping or breastfeeding and this signals your body that baby doesn’t need as much milk. So we are limiting the number of prepared bottles and bringing my portable pump with me if we anticipate being out for a long period of time.

7. Rest and relax! This is probably the most important. If you are tired and stressed, the milk won’t come. After a few days of intense breast feeding and pumping, I allowed myself one night to have longer periods of sleep and had Ron feed Simon with our stored supply. I noticed a big difference after I finally got some good sleep and was able to relax.

8. Papaya. If you like papaya, it doesn’t hurt. Since I was doing so many other things, I’m not sure how much it helped on the day that I ate a ton. But there is usually a basis behind these Asian remedies.

9. Breast feed your baby. This one should have been like “duh!”… I had been exclusively pumping at night and didn’t realize how negatively that could impact my milk supply. Now I’ve been doing a combination of both breast feeding and having Ron bottle feed him. I’m not sure what will happen when he starts sleeping through the night.

10. Ask your Asian mommies for soups and broths, sometimes they really do know what’s best. I had two soups during this time period. One was a sesame oil chicken in ginger and rice wine broth. The second was a pig feet and eggs in a black vinegar soup.

Wow, seems like a lot but I guess most of us would do anything for our babies. It was really frustrating in the beginning but I wanted what was best for Simon so just kept at it.

Now on to pictures for the day. I mentioned yesterday that Simon had his first round of vaccinations and his poor legs had little band aids on them so here are his little chubby legs. Poor guy actually seemed to bleed quite a bit but after removal of the band aids, you can hardly tell where the shots were placed.

Simon and I went for our second outing alone this afternoon. He had been awake for more than 2 hours already and seemed to be winding down so I thought a stroll would help him to fall sleep. He didn’t fuss much except when he wanted to eat a little bit and when I got to Old Navy on Market Street, he started to fall asleep. I’m always impressed he can sleep in such loud environments when he sometimes has trouble falling asleep at home when the TV is on. He probably didn’t have an extremely restful nap since whenever we’d go somewhere quiet (like inside the elevator), he would open his eyes for a few minutes and then fall back asleep again.

It was interesting to maneuver around various stores (Old Navy, Gap, Westfield Shopping Center) with the Snap’n’Go since I hardly take the elevator so had to figure out where they were. I had originally planned to take him out in the Baby Bjorn but he just didn’t want to so I used the car seat and Snap’n’Go. I now know I can carry the car seat and the folded up Snap’n’Go down the front stairs but to come home, I have to carry Simon up first and put him in the apartment then retrieve the Snap’n’Go. For some reason, it’s difficult for me to carry both up the stairs. Ron just carries them attached together but I don’t feel comfortable doing that yet, need to work out 😛

After we got home, Simon woke up and ate a lot, played for a bit, then fell quickly asleep. I was amazed he fell asleep without a fuss and thought he was going to sleep well. I forget sometimes that he is a baby and can be unpredictable. He woke up after half and hour and wanted to eat more. He really tanked himself up with milk (bottle and breast) then finally fell asleep again at 9pm. He’s been sleeping a bit longer but not quite through the night yet.

I love it when Simon catches himself in the mirror (the light green thing with flowers on the right is a mirror on his playmat) and he gets really excited and laughs and coos. So adorable!