Last week we took Claire in for her 4-month checkup. Our pediatrician declared the baby perfectly normal and healthy for her age…but voiced her concern at Claire’s weight gain.

When Claire was born, she weighed 6.7 lbs (23rd percentile) and was 19 inches long (33rd percentile).

Currently, Claire weighs 14.6 lbs and is 22.75 inches long. While her height remains at about the same percentile range, her weight is now over the 90th percentile!

Our doc asked us how much the baby was eating and how often, and told us not to worry about it too much. However, if Claire cries to be fed again within 2 hours of finishing a 6 oz bottle, we were to try giving her 3 oz of water instead.

I know that Claire is just a baby and that she will probably grow into her weight when she becomes more mobile. But as someone who has struggled with weight almost her entire life (I have more curves than the average Asian and am actually considered overweight in Asia), I couldn’t help but be a bit worried, especially since they say that formula-fed babies are more likely to become overweight as they get older.

J and I puzzled over Claire’s weight the entire way home from the doctor’s office. “How could she be over the 90th percentile?” we asked ourselves. “Look at her — she has some baby fat rolls but no more so than the average baby!”

Then we figured it out. It’s because of her giant noggin!

What’s that you say? You think I have a big head?

Why don’t I distract you by taking off my diaper instead…

No? That’s okay — I’m a shy little girl!

(And before you start judging me for what I’m about to write below, remember that I am Korean. We have a tendency to obsess over head sizes.)

I have always been self-conscious of my giant head. If you think that I’m exaggerating, I can tell you with confidence that my head is larger than anyone else I know…and I only stand at 5’1″. If you’re curious, my head circumference is 60cm. That’s almost 24 inches!

As such, ever since I got pregnant I had been hoping for a baby with a small, or even an average-sized head. Not only because it will be easier to give birth, but so that my children will not have to grow up with the teasing that I had endured.

I breathed a sigh of relief when the nurse first informed us of Claire’s stats right after giving birth, because her head circumference was 34 cm, or the 31st percentile.

But as she grew, so did her head. Today, while Claire’s height remains below 2/3 of babies her age, her weight and head circumference are both above the 90th percentile.

And as you can see in the pictures above, Claire is not a fat baby. She has a slight tummy, but that’s most likely due to the fact that she had finished a 6 oz bottle mere minutes before these photos were taken. So the only likely culprit for her above-average weight is her above-average head size.

And before the “How can you criticize your daughter? She’s just a baby!” comments start pouring in, let me say that I am NOT criticizing her. I am making an observation, or at least trying to think of a reason why her weight seems to be so high for her height when she does not look fat.

J and I actually think her big head is adorable. We are also well-aware that babies’ body parts grow at different rates, so her head may very well be average-sized, or even below the average size a year from now.

And if she grows up to have a big head just like her mommy? Eh, I don’t like that I have a big head but the teasing eventually stopped and I’ve learned to live with it. Besides, my mother tells me that I had a bigger head when I was Claire’s age.

I have a tendency to keep all the extra screws, nuts, and bolts that come with electronics, toys, furniture, etc just in case we have a malfunction in the middle of the night and ohmigosh this thingamajig just fell apart because it’s missing ONE screw but Home Depot isn’t open! So as you can probably imagine, our toolbox carries a giant mess of various fasteners in all shapes and sizes.

I could never really tell the difference between each nut or bolt, or even what they’re called.

Enter Bolt Depot’s interactive guide to fasteners.

Not only does it describe the different nuts, bolts, washers, etc, it also tells you what each should be used for and offers a downloadable PDF for offline viewing.

For instance, did you know that there exists a category of bolts called sex bolts? And that they function exactly how you would think they would (minus the naughty bits)? Well, now you do!

Go download your PDF now. I, for one, immediately saved it in my computer for those just in case moments.

Via Lifehacker.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed an unusual amount of hair lying around the house.

Note that I am always “shedding” a lot of hair — one of my ex-boyfriends used to say that he could always tell which rooms I have been in just by looking at the hair on the ground — so imagine just how much more hair there must be for me to become concerned.

My post-partum hair loss had started.

I had read that some women’s hair can fall out in clumps, and that’s exactly what has been happening to me. Chunks of matted hair on my pillow. A mangled mess in the bathroom drain. And hair everywhere on the floor.

I keep my hair up in a tight bun when I am home and there is still hair everywhere. It has gotten to a point where I vacuum twice a day because the amount of hair on the floor and on the couch disgusts me.

I have found that the hair loss isn’t quite as bothersome if I blow-dry my hair right after showering. This way, I can get out the majority of the hair in one go — whereas if I let my hair air-dry, which I used to do before this debacle, my hair will fall out gradually all over the house.

And for those who may be thinking, ‘It can’t be THAT bad. She must be exaggerating,’ here’s a picture of the amount of hair that was on the floor this morning after blow-drying my hair (and I didn’t even use a brush!):

My friend Kelly  wrote about a product that has helped her with her post-partum hair loss — the Redken Extremé Anti-Snap leave-in treatment. I usually don’t like using products in my hair but I may have to get a bottle to avoid going bald. I also plan to start taking prenatal vitamins again because my nails have been a complete mess too.

I always tell my friends that the only thing I miss about being pregnant is being able to feel my baby move inside of me. Now I have two others to add to the list: thick, luscious hair and strong, healthy nails.

You may have noticed that I have gone back to my old blog design. After a couple of weeks with the new design, I decided that it just wasn’t me and found myself missing my old layout.

Although I’ve been comfortable working with WordPress in the past, I have learned a lot re-creating my old Squarespace design as a WordPress theme. As such, I am thinking of doing a series of posts on WordPress theme design and development…in simple layman terms and using lots of screenshots. However, I know that this would be VERY time-consuming, so I would only do it if there is enough interest.

Would any of my readers benefit from my writing some tutorial posts on how to get certain things to look the way you want in WordPress?

Ever since Claire hit 15 weeks of age (she is now 17 weeks old), she has been becoming increasingly difficult to deal with each passing day. I had read about the dreaded 4-month sleep regression and realized that our child was a classic case: instead of waking up only once or twice in the night, she was suddenly screaming awake 4-6 times a night!

What most non-parents don’t realize is that (good) sleep begets more sleep. In other words, an overtired baby will have more difficulty going to sleep and staying asleep. So with a baby who is getting less sleep through the night, we were bound to have trouble with naps also.

We must’ve hit our low point yesterday. The omfg the baby will NOT sleep at ALL and will only fuss and cry no matter what we do kind. The kind that made me burst into tears at the end of the day and apologize to J on the baby’s behalf for ruining his birthday.

I have been reading up on baby sleep books and websites, and have come to the conclusion that we are in the unlucky 15-20% of families who have extra-fussy babies with difficult temperaments. She’s been through colic between 5-9 weeks of age, and now her sleep regression is making for a very tense atmosphere in our household.

We get about 10 minutes of these happy moments every 3-4 hours.
But still, these moments make the bad times seem worthwhile.

The prescription for extra-fussy babies is a sleep schedule. Previously, I had not believed in a sleep schedule but I now realize that Claire’s temperament calls for it, for our health and sanity’s sake.

I will also start putting her to bed earlier — at 6:15~6:30pm as opposed to our usual 7:00~7:30pm. The main reason for her original bedtime was so that J could spend some time with her when he comes home from work (he usually gets home at around 7pm). Now with the new schedule, he may not see her at night at all, but it may give him an incentive to go to bed earlier himself and wake up early to spend time with his daughter.

Even my mother remarks that Claire is a difficult, “intense” baby, and tsk tsks over the constant dark circles under my eyes. (The one good thing about having a difficult baby is that my post-partum weight loss has come swift and easy. Even after a 50-lb pregnancy weight gain, I am now just a couple of pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight without even trying!) Being a mother is a difficult job in itself, but it is especially hard with a fussy baby. It makes me really question whether I will ever want another baby — as much as I love Claire, I don’t think I can go through this again.

My favorite person in the whole wide world turns 33 today. Happy birthday to a wonderful husband, father and friend!

(Today also marks another special day for us. Exactly one year ago, I found out that I was pregnant with Claire. J’s reaction? “The baby’s not even born yet and it’s already stealing my thunder!” )