Good morning
I'm up at my 6 o'clock feeding time and...
May the Taylor who didn't even like a toaster
on the counter because of clutter
Rest in peace...
Forever
Please allow me to formally introduce you to my son
I'm so sorry this took so long
I honestly wasn't planning for it to be like this at all
It took a lot longer than expected for us
to decide on his Chinese name which I'll explain more later
But we wanted to finalise both names before we announced it
and then things were just busy
and I didn't have time to sit down and film this
'cause I wanted to explain why we chose what we chose
So! His English name...
... is Levi!
Levi
The name means 'joined together'
Our two corners of the Earth, me being from Canada
Tom being from Hong Kong, joined together
and he's going to be brought up with a harmony
of different cultures and traditions and languages
I think it has a very rugged, strong, woodsy, country feeling to it
which ties in nicely to my Canadian roots
but then it also feels very young and um...
Energetic
There's the character Levi Ackerman from Attack on Titan
the Japanese manga series, who's "the leader of the soldiers"
so he's this very strong character
[- They're listening]
- Who? Who's listening?
[- YouTube is listening]
- but... it's not like we go around yelling his name
It's a sign from him!
[- Single...]
Yeah, four letters, short, which is what we really wanted
I really like gender neutral names
It doesn't have to be but I like them
Short ones, four letters, maybe one to two syllables
[- Easy to remember and pronounce]
- Yeah, for Cantonese speakers as well as English speakers
it's easy to pronounce
Now for his Chinese name, parents here can do one of two things
They can choose a name they really like
or they can go for an auspicious name
For the auspicious name, you could choose to consult a fortune teller
or a fengshui master that specialises in names
and what they're going to do is take the baby's date and time of birth
to find their most...
Lucky name or balanced name
taking into consideration the Chinese elements
We decided to consult two fortune tellers
One got back to us after 3 days
One took about a week to get back to us and...
[- No, two weeks]
- Two weeks, yeah, so that's why it took longer than we thought
and then both of them said the same thing
[- They said Levi needs gold(/metal) in his name]
- We took their advice for the gold aspect
and came up with a name that we like
and it is...
[- Shing Fung (sing4 fung1)]
[First of all, both [characters] belong to gold and...]
[the pronunciation of the two words combined]
[is like "riding on wind"]
[I hope his life is like very smooth]
[There is a saying in Chinese, 乘風破浪 sing4 fung1 po3 long4]
[It's like you have the wind supporting you]
[and you can break all the difficulties in front of you]
[so 'sing4 fung1', its pronunciation is quite meaningful]
- Mm... [- 'Sing4'... doesn't mean anything special]
[But in general it means 'supporting', 'helping']
- Like helping people
[- Yeah, and 'fung1' is like... It means the [edge] of the knife]
[Also the leader of an army]
- So there's another strong soldier element to it, a warrior
[- It's like a leader character]
- Mmmm [- Yeah]
So, with his name, we hope he has a smooth life
that he helps people
and he is a strong little warrior
Yeah? [- Yep!]
- And life lately...
As you may know if you follow me on Instagram
I tried Chinese style confinement for the past 30 days
I'm working on a video for that covering everything
or as much as I can, but I have hours and hours
and hours of footage and like research to do
so that is going to take me a really long time to get out
so I'm putting this video out first
which is coming after confinement
I'm not 'in confinement' anymore
Although we still have Carol helping us
because we decided to hire her for two months
When you hire a puiyuet or a confinement nanny
You can do it for as long as you want
Some people do it for one month, some two
I think Carol has clients that hired her for 6 months
It's really up to you and how long you want to do it
so we decided two months would be good
and the first month, it was focused on me healing my body
So there was just a lot to do for that
There's... I'm not going to get into it, there's a lot
And then this month, I feel great
I'm pretty much healed or I feel healed anyways and...
It's more like training what to do with the baby
especially in the future after she leaves
and just helping me and Tom feel more confident
[- Because when you're nervous and scared, the baby can feel it]
[so he's scared also]
[- Okay]
(Levi yelps)
- (whispering) Go, daddy, go
Elbows high and bounce, pat, walk
Shoulders down and elbows high and bounce, pat, walk
[- (whispering) Yes! Yes! I did it!]
- She's VERY knowledgeable
Carol has actually taken care of
over 100 babies at this point and mothers
so she's seen a lot of things and...
she just has great recommendations and agh!
I just... I've had such a good time
So grateful to have her in my life
especially since neither of our families are in Hong Kong
so it's been great help and great learning experience
Doing this thing now where every morning we're incorporating
some form of movement like light aerobic exercises or stretching
and Carol is going to choose a video we do one day
and I choose the next day
Let's see what she's prepared for me this morning
Today's her day
[- I cannot go very straight]
(counting in Cantonese)
We are about to take our first family walk with our stroller!
We're heading to the Peak today
because it's a nice even walk that's relatively shaded
Are you ready, pup?
Alright, let's pack the stroller
Look at this handsome boy!
My goodness!
Packing the bag!
Um... baby shusher...
Water...
(camera shutter sound)
(laughing)
(Levi babbles) - Yeah?
That makes you so happy?
(toy bell rattles)
(baby noises)
Right now I'm doing a mixture of breastfeeding and pumping
Originally it was to get up my supply
and now it's so that other people can also feed him
especially through the night
So usually through the day I mostly or only breastfeed
but if I had to go somewhere like an appointment
Then I will prepare...
I don't have like an oversupply or anything where I have a lot packaged
I do have some in the fridge
but sometimes I'll pump so that someone else can feed him
or while I'm gone
or also sometimes I pump extra on my slacker boob
I have one superstar that produces a ton of milk
and then I have one that produces barely any
despite me putting the baby on there more
or trying to pump more
so I'm still trying to pump more on that side
to see if I can increase the supply over there
but it just seems like I don't have as many milk glands
and it's just not working out
but I'm gonna keep trying
We're on the way to my 6-week body checkup
which I am a little bit nervous about because uh...
I haven't looked down there at all
I'm scared to
I tore a bit when I delivered my baby
I've had some stitches
and honestly everything about me has changed
Everything about my body looks different
My mind is different
and that's why I'm focusing on a B-word
but it's not the 'bounce back' word
I'm focusing on trying to remind myself and my brain
on focusing on what I'm becoming
Today I'll also find out if I'm able to exercise
Recently we started to incorporate a bit of movement in the morning
but I've been doing postpartum exercises
that are okay to start after one month
Like very light exercises
But I think after today, I'm able to take things up a notch
and do more strength training and stuff like that
so I'm really looking forward to that
I'm really looking forward to finally taking a hot bath
I haven't been able to since getting pregnant
and I haven't now because I'm a bit scared of
if something's not healed and there's some bacteria or something
the water can go in
We're inside
I have to do a pap smear first
and then an internal exam
I feel like this is like a whole body check
to check my cervix, my uterus, uh, everything
What things are looking like inside and outside
I think they might do my breasts too...
Okay!
[- (Tom tuts)]
- I'm wearing Skims (laughing) [- Babe!]
- Okay!
[- Yeah, good! Your uterus, now it's just 6cm, that's normal]
- Mm... There's no little guy in there
(laughing)
[- This is the lining, that's perfect!]
[which means nothing stayed in your uterus]
- Oh, good! [- Good!]
[Oh, you completely recovered! Completely recovered] - Yay!
- Okay! That was OK, not as bad as I thought
I HATE pap smears
I think anyone who has had one knows
They're not the most comfortable
but yeah, got through it, that was quick
Everything is okay
and...
I guess the next time I come back here will be when we're...
When we have baby number two
Maybe we'll conceive naturally or maybe we will be back for IVF
I'm yet to find that out but...
I'll definitely be back here to work with Dr. Kong
and the nurses once we do have a baby
because I LOVED her throughout my pregnancy and the delivery
(singsong) Goodbye for now!
Back home
As we were leaving the clinic today, I was feeling so emotional
Because we were making our way to the elevator
and the staff and the nurses were all saying congratulations
and waving goodbye and it kind of felt like we were graduating
or we were finally getting off this crazy rollercoaster ride
that fertility treatments or IVF is
after 4 years of going in and out of those clinic doors
Yeah, we've always described it as a rollercoaster
because you just hit the highest highs and the lowest lows
and you're on this... crazy ride with so many twists and turns
and so many unexpected things
and you never know when you're going to get off
or if you will get off or if you will be successful or if you
or if you'll fall along the way
but we were one of the lucky ones
Our ride has come to an end and we have a baby in our arms
I'm healed, that was the last appointment (Rosie barks)
Okay, Rosie! Someone's at the door
(cooing) Yes! Is this the big sister?
Is this the big sister?
Should we dance?
(giggling) What's this face?
What's this face!?
For dinner, I'm having two soups that help with breastmilk
so... this vegetable helps you create more breast milk
and there are some clams inside, and some egg
and then this is the...
the confinement must-have
the fish and papaya soup
It's like a milky white broth
I'm about to have my very first hot bath since getting pregnant
Make it extra hot!
When you're pregnant you're not supposed to have
bath water that's over 100ºF (37.8ºC)
so I use this baby thermometer to measure that
It will flash red if it goes over
I personally like really hot scalding baths
like I like to be red
so my baths weren't that enjoyable
Now it's gonna be a good time
Baby is in bed, I'm gonna have this
Then I'm going to pump
Through the night, I pump and then Carol feeds the baby
So I just pump and I go back to sleep
I have one more week of this and then Carol's gone so...
Gonna try and get as much rest as I can
So our plan is to bath, pump and then sleep
And then I'll wake up again at 2AM to pump
and then I wake up again around 6/6:30
to breastfeed him and stay awake for the whole day
So I think that's going to be it for this vlog
I hope you enjoyed it
I will see you in the next video
with my whole Chinese confinement experience
Bye!