Jan 29, 2011  •  In Art/Design, Beauty, Blogging, Geek, Personal, Pregnancy, WordPress

Post-Partum Hair Loss

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?

You may also like:

Jan 28, 2011  •  In Baby, Claire, Parenting, Personal

Sleep Regression

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.

You may also like:

Jan 27, 2011  •  In Personal

Bon Anniversaire!

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!” )

You may also like:

Jan 23, 2011  •  In Claire, Cute, Gadgets, Wishlist

Laughing Baby

We’re not exactly sure why Claire was in such a good mood today (if only she were like this every day!), but we didn’t dare jinx it by even questioning why. We took it all in stride, enjoying every last minute, and when she went into a 3- minute long laughing frenzy, J scrambled for his phone to record a short video.

The quality isn’t great — there is some lagging, and the lighting is horrible — but we hope you enjoy it! (Because we sure can’t stop watching it!)

When we were preparing our baby registry, a friend suggested that we add a Flip video camera (or something similar) to the list — “There are so many moments that can only be captured on video,” she said. We did not heed this advice and I am regretting it to this day. I know that our phones can record video, but the quality is pretty bad especially because the lighting in our condo is pretty dim.

For this reason, I have added a Flip UltraHD to the top of my “save money for” list and wholly recommend that all expectant mothers add a small video camera to their registries if they don’t already own one!

You may also like:

Jan 22, 2011  •  In Funny, Geek, Relationships, Star Wars

Luke, I Am Your Father… [Animated GIF]

Because no father-son relationship (even that of the Skywalkers) would be complete without “When I was your age…” comparisons.

Via Geeks are Sexy.

You may also like:

Jan 22, 2011  •  In Asian, Funny, Personal

The Aging Process of Asian Women

One of the biggest stereotypes about Asian women (aside from the notion that we are meek, timid creatures who are sexual slaves in the bedroom) is that we never seem to age, or age at a much slower rate than the rest of the population. And wouldn’t you know it — here is a funny cartoon to show just that:


(image source)

While I’m not so sure about other Asian women, I can attest that now, at the age of 30, I am starting to notice signs of aging. I am very lucky that I have not yet developed wrinkles; however, I am beginning to get plagued by dry patches of skin and age spots. My metabolism is nowhere near where it was when I was in my late teens and early twenties (and I thought I was FAT back then…what I wouldn’t give to have the body I had ten years ago!), I get tired much more easily, and the 30+ years of bad posture is catching up to me in the way of nightly backaches.

That being said, I must admit that I am often mistaken for being younger — people are always surprised when I tell them my actual age, and I guess I have my (Asian?) genes to thank for that, because God knows I’ve treated by body like crap.

I dug up this old photo from 2001 (friend’s face marked out in respect for her privacy):

It is undeniable that I look younger (and I can’t help noticing how much thinner I was back then…sigh), but I’m not sure that I look an entire decade younger than I do now.

What do you think? Do you agree with the stereotype that Asian women never seem to age (or at least until they hit menopause, as depicted in the cartoon above)?

You may also like:

Jan 21, 2011  •  In Entertainment, Funny, Web

America, America, This is You!

Remember America’s Funniest Home Videos? This comic, entitled The World Before the Internet, sure brought back some great memories. (America’s Funniest Home Videos was one of the few television shows that my family watched together, since fluency in English was not required in the comprehension of the majority of the videos.)

You may also like:

Jan 21, 2011  •  In Claire, Motherhood, Parenting, Personal

Milestones, Schmilestones

I have a love/hate relationship with weekly emails from BabyCenter.

If you are pregnant, or are a parent, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

By this week your baby is…

And you read on to feel smug if your baby has already reached that milestone/developmental stage, or you are ashamed and feel like the worst parent in the world if your baby shows no signs of doing what they are supposed to be doing.

While I like reading these emails to see where most average babies are at this point in Claire’s life, I also sometimes feel like crap because she shows no signs of rolling over (which should’ve happened two weeks ago) and refuses to reach out for toys or even grab them (which should’ve happened last week).

I try my best to assist her. When she is on her stomach during tummy time, grunting and flailing her arms and legs, I place her limbs where they should be and flip her over to show her how it is done. Then I’ll flip her back as if to say, “Now you try.”

I wave toys in front of her…well, anything that seems to grab her attention and pull her arm out to set her hand on the object of interest. I place toys in her hands and position her little fingers in a grasping hold. And what does she do? She will pull her arm back and give me a look that plainly states, “Why are you doing that? I liked my arms and hands where they were.”

I know that every child develops at different rates, and that I should not worry unless the doctor gets concerned. But everytime I get those emails from BabyCenter, I let out a sigh and begrudgingly read what my child “should” be doing this week. Because if I don’t inform myself, how can I be prepared for other mommies who will inevitably ask about (and judge) my baby’s milestones? And will I ever have bragging rights aside from the fact that she was able to hold her head up just one day after she was born?

Then I remind myself that I am better than that. I know my child best, and I know that she will do these things when she is ready, not when some website says so.

And the next time a mom brags to me about her child’s early milestones, I can just retort, “Will you be bragging about your kid getting pubes early too?”

You may also like:

Jan 20, 2011  •  In Geek, Photography, Video Games

Video Games vs. Real Life

What if old-school video game characters were to invade our world? Would you be able to spot them? What if they continued to exist in their 8-bit graphics glory?

Illustrator Aled Lewis shows us just that in his Flickr set titled Video Games vs Real Life. As the set shows photos from June 2007 to now, I certainly hope that he will continue this project because I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next!

Via Bit Rebels.

You may also like:

Jan 20, 2011  •  In Claire, Personal, Sports

If the Steelers, Jets, Packers, and Bears Worked in an Office

Last Saturday, our beloved Ravens were booted out of the playoffs. It was an especially disappointing loss because not only did they lose to their #1 rivals after a first half that looked more than promising, it was Claire’s first NFL playoffs and we had ordered a baby cheerleader outfit just for the occasion.

This year’s NFL playoffs have been full of upsets and surprises. Now, with only four teams remaining (two of which no one had expected to go this far), I will be rooting for a Packers win for Super Bowl XLV. Anyone else with me? 😀

I happened upon a funny article titled Steelers, Jets, Packers, Bears And Their Office Equivalents earlier today. I knew that I had to share because it’s so hilariously true! Enjoy, and here’s to the impending end of a great NFL season!




P.S. — Did you know that the site of Super Bowl XLVIII (in 2014) is less than 3 miles from our place? I’m both dreading and looking forward to the day!

You may also like: