My little 2 year old is living up to the whole terrible two’s thing. She makes it impossible to put her to sleep. Instead she keeps us awake and screams if we try to do anything else. Tonight obviously was no different. I am about to pass out on the bed hoping she will get tired soon and I look and see she is going through my hiking pack. She managed to find my SureFire, which with the button on the bottom of it makes it a really fun toy for a 2 year old.

Normally I take the light away from her, and put it somewhere she can’t get too it. Especially now since I just paid $17 for a replacement bulb for the thing. Being so tired I sighed effortlessly and just let her play with it. She then climbs on top of me holding the light above my face and shines the light in my eyes, which I instinctively close. Then out of no where and without warning she slams the light into my mouth.

Never quite understood that until last night. She just did nothing but scream. Nothing could shut her up. So I decided to read the book for a change. First, I though colic was when a baby spits up or something like that. NO! Its when they scream non-stop for about 3 hours in the late evening. No one knows why, but there are theories such as excersizing her lungs. Part of the description in the book advised me not to throw the baby out the window. Ironicly the thought came across my mind. Don’t worry she is safe and sound. I just thought it kind of wierd that they put it like that when I was about at the end of my rope and thinking the same.

Along with a little baby acne now, she is doing fine. 30 days is up now so hopefully we can have some visitors come see the baby now. I just wish she didn’t have this acne now cause she isn’t as cute as she was.

It helps having friends in the Army when you have a baby. I have gotten four packages in the mail already, and a bag of used clothes from my CO from his twin girls. But one of the bigger packages that I got was from everyone in my platoon. One of the bags was almost as large as my kitchen table, never seen a gift bag that large before in my life.

This is everything from my platoon.

This is my little Angel sleeping.

Me on my lunch break, try to sleep when I can now.

Last night I stayed up late until 4 in the morning arguing with my computer. She can be a bitch, but I can be stubborn. A reset button was involved a few times, but that’s not the point I still won. I am on vacation though, and I can afford to stay up that late. I have grown me a gotee and everything since I have been on leave. The wife doesn’t mind cause I was awake to take care of the baby. However, she was also sleeping the entire time and had no clue when I actually came to bed. So, when she woke me at 8 in the morning to get the baby I had only 4 hours sleep and my main concern was making the baby quiet so I can go back to bed.

I got out of bed wearing just my boxers, didn’t put anything else on, didn’t care. Made a bottle, fed the baby, burped the baby…, and just as I went to lay her down I could hear a rather unpleasant muffled sound coming from under the diaper. Now, experience tells me that when the baby starts to poop, you wait until she cries. Why? Cause she cries when she is done. After 4 hours of sleep though by brain was thinking about nothing but the nice soft warm bed. And not wanting to get up later, I decided to change her then. The baby still has diarrhea so it makes a nasty wet sound and most of the time leaks out of the diaper. I could really gross you out with the details but I’ll save them for later when I have nothing to write about.

I removed the diaper, cleaned her up, and just lifted her legs to put the clean diaper underneath when she pooped again. However, this time it had a little bit of force too it, maybe from me squeezing her stomach from lifting her legs, or maybe she was really trying to hold it just for this case. But she shot liquid shit about two feet directly at me. Hit me square in the groin and all over my boxers. Not just one spot, from left hip to right hip. I let out a scream like a 5 year old school girl. My wife came running, she sees me holding the baby’s legs up so not to get shit on the blanket underneath, a clean diaper in the other hand, and shit running down the front of me. I get a look like “What did you do?” and I return a look like “This is your daughter!”. Needless to say my wife was wonderful enough to finish up for me so I could go clean up. I have been unable to go back to sleep, but I will be a little more awake next time I change a diaper after 4 hours sleep.

Everyone tells me that raising a baby is hard work and that they are going to laugh at me when I come into work tired as hell and everything cause the baby wakes up in the middle of the night.

This isn’t that hard. The baby sleeps 90% of the time, when it cries it needs a bottle, diaper, or burped. Very seldomly does it need to be held. It wakes up twice in the night almost on que, 1am and 4am. Most of the time it needs a diaper, but mainly it wants a bottle. Throw one scoop of forumla in a bottle add some water from a thermos thats already the right temperature and in 5 minutes its back to sleep. With these bottles with the plastic bag liners the baby gets almost no air so almost never needs to be burped.

Whats the big deal?!?!

No on the other hand this 30 exodus for my wife staying with her mother is crap. The mother does nothing but make me agravated. Continually boils the baby’s nipples for the bottles. (No, big deal? Or you think good?) She does it in the friggin microwave. You can tell they are already falling apart, but I want to know why they have to be boiled? The soap she uses to clean dishes is an anti-bacterial soap…, wouldn’t this kill every germ on the nipples without physically changing the status of the nipple? When we were down in Yongsan the other day I bought some more nipples to replace the ones Mom-in-law had ruined in the microwave and not taking them out of the package until we get back home, or until they are ruined and my point is proven.

The other problem is she seems to think that no matter what the baby is cold. It’s 74 degrees in the house constantly. No variations anywhere in the house, all the windows are closed, the house is very warm and comfortable. They want the baby with a fleece sleeper, to be wrapped in 2 blankets. Everytime I touch the baby the back of its head is covered in sweat. Which is really not good cause the baby has diarhea and the doctor said the main thing is to make sure she doesn’t dehydrate. The other day they went to Lotte mart and bought a blanket just to wrap the baby in. Its thicker than the comforter on my bed at home during the winter. The baby gets wrapped up like an eskimo baby, double wrapped just about.

The doctor on yongsan told me on friday that the status with the baby hadn’t changed, and that she did in fact have the rotovirus that the Korean hospital claimed she had. Which there is no medication or anything, just let it run its course and make sure the baby is hydrated. Like give her a bottle every 2-3 hours instead of 4. The blanket wrap doesn’t help at all though. I am trying to explain that these certian clothes we have are called sleepers and that is all she really needs with maybe a recieving blanket drapped across her. But they think that she needs to be wrapped like a pork roast at the butcher so she can’t move.

I am pushing my wife to move back today, maybe I am an asshole but I don’t need to be replacing bottle nipples every week, or have to explain that she can dehydrate from sweating every 5 minutes. Its really not easy when I don’t speak Korean and they don’t speak English. My wife also isn’t ready to disagree with her mother. Damn Korean respect! My wife is going to have one hell of a shock living in the states.