So, I previously wrote a post about how snot sucking is one of the pleasures of becoming a new parent to a newborn baby. While I did take some delight in sucking snot out of my babies nose, I did that thinking that the situation would be isolated and she would only have the occasional booger for me to remove.

Unfortunately, what I thought would be an occasional booger ended up being daily boogers. And then, it progressed into mucus that she started developing in her nasal passages. We started noticing that it sounded like she was breathing heavier, and when she would cough or cry, She definitely started sounding more congested. And our Night Nurse mentioned to us that she needed to use a bulb to suck out some of the excess mucus because there were some nights when she was waking up because she was so stuffy and trying too hard to breathe. It’s normal at this time of year given the cold weather, the night nurse said, so nothing to be concerned about. As you could imagine, this did not sit well with me: the thought of my baby struggling to breathe really scared me, so I wanted to do everything we could to clear her. This ultimately meant sucking out snot and mucus before bedtime right before her 10 PM feed, and then also again before her 10 AM feed. She certainly did not enjoy this process because… who on earth would enjoy having anything sucked out of their nose? But alas, it must be done.

Sucking out her mucus and boogers ended up becoming a much lengthier task than I had originally imagined. While before, when I would suck out her boogers, it would usually only take a minute or two, in the mornings when I need to clear her, I end up having to allot about 10 minutes to getting all of the mucus and boogers out. And I am completely disgusted when every morning, there is so much mucus that I am shocked that it came from such a tiny little nose from a tiny little human. Part of the reason that it takes 10 minutes is not necessarily the fact that it is so deeply lodged and I am trying to suck it all out. It’s actually because I need to take breathing breaks for myself so that I don’t totally exhaust myself and need to pass out after getting this task done. So as you can tell, it is taxing on both the baby and me.

Chris will often times check in to see how much mucus there was that I was able to dislodge. And, being a very hands-on dad, he tends to stand by and look at the end result in the tube instead of actually watching this task in progress. And several times, I have asked him if he would like to suck the snot and mucus out of our daughter’s nose. And each time, he will respond, “No, that’s OK. You can do it.”

So, he is a hands-on dad to be clear, but he really does not enjoy tasks like this. He takes zero pleasure out of doing things like this… Whereas he knows that I actually feel a sense of accomplishment after doing it myself. But some days, it really does take the wind out of me… Literally. And I really want to just take a nap after. But I have a child to take care of, and so I can’t really do that.

When we were deciding on names, it was a bit of a debate to say the least. Chris really wanted something for our child that was unique and also represented something about us or something we liked. So he settled on the name Murasaki Hojicha Diagonal Thi (Wong Jacob). We both like the color purple, he said, and he studied Japanese for a number of years and we like Japanese culture, so Murasaki could be her first name. Added bonus: Murasaki is also the name of the first female novelist (from Japan) who wrote the famous book Tale of Genji, and so there’s some good history and feminism attached to this. Hojicha… not sure what his rationale was for this, but that just sounds good and cute, plus it means roasted green tea, which is one of my favorite teas. For Diagonal, Chris hates crossing the street at crosswalks and prefers to do a diagonal whenever possible (and thus jay walk), and so a middle name of Diagonal would be fitting. Plus my middle name is passed down on my mom’s side, and the baby’s name would be complete in his opinion.

Granted, this is not her official name as we all know, but it’s what he thinks is her *real* unofficial name. So, in the morning, he calls her “morning Murasaki,” and once noon hits, she is then dubbed “afternoon Hoji.” It’s a cute transition and a cute name, but it just shows how quirky (and ridiculous) my husband is.

Once you have a baby, the conversations that you have with your spouse day to day will change drastically from the time pre-baby. This is a quick sample of questions that Chris and I ask each other throughout the day:

Chris to me:

How was your pump? 

How was your output?

How many minutes on each boob?

Is she actually eating or is she just pacifying?

Do we still have any berries left?

Why did you get that type of oat milk? (He wants Oatly and only Oatly)

Was it just pee?

Do you want me to change her or do you want to do it?

Do we need more diapers?

Me to Chris:

How was the feed?

Is that formula or breast milk (in the bottle)?

Did she spit up? How much?

Who is that gift from?

Who sent that package?

Can you make sure to buy more veg when you go to Whole Foods/Brooklyn Fare?

I am sure that the questions will eventually get less mundane, but this is the way it goes now.

When our baby was first born, her skin pretty much resembled mine when I was born. She wasn’t too light, but she wasn’t too dark. She did not have that pearly white skin that Chinese babies have, but rather more olive skin the way someone in Southeast Asia might have from lots of sun exposure, hence my Vietnamese side. Or, maybe her skin was a little bit less fair because of Chris’s Indian heritage. Regardless, her skin tone has definitely not remained the same since birth, and in fact, it has actually been morphing pretty much every single day since she was born. 

Some days, our baby is very fair skinned and light, whereas other days, she almost looks completely light brown, particularly on her chest and belly when we are rubbing her with lotion.  It is most noticeable on her chest and belly and less on her face. I have even noticed that some days, her legs are the darkest part of her body, and that is strange given the fact that they are almost always covered in her onesie. She gets a decent amount of indirect light given that we have floor to ceiling windows in our living room and a lot of natural light in our apartment, but we try hard to make sure that she doesn’t get too much direct sunlight because her skin is still very young.  So it’s not the light in the apartment that is making her dark. It’s just her body figuring out what color she should be, which will likely keep changing as she continues to get a little older day by day.