Stork bites (鹳咬)

As a new parent, one of the most common things to do is check baby for any issues: crying is the obvious indicator of something wrong, but it's now our responsiblity to notice anything off about baby's skin color, poop, how she feeds, making noises, maybe choking on something. It's like taking care of a whole new human being who cannot speak or reason at all, you just have to know what's good for them. It must be like taking care of a pet, except less hair (at the beginning) and the pet looks a lot more human and like us. And the possibility of the baby wanting to be attached to us ALL THE TIME, almost 24/7. She is still in a primitive state, wanting to be back in the womb, and any way to simulate that environment soothes her, whether it be being held in my arms, riding in a carseat that simulates the rhythms of the womb, or her favorite position, being held against the chest.....they all soothe her. Being assigned to the POOP SQUAD is a pretty normal for dads, I'm the chief administor/ CEO/ technician/ support staff/ emergency first responder of all things poop, and my nose has been trained to detect poop at any juncture. Luckily, Baby Yan'ss poops have all been healthy looking, there was one stretch of 3 days she wasn't pooping much (less than once every 24 hours) that spooked us, but after that it's been all systems go and back to the normal routine of drinking formula, pooping it out, refilling with formula, pooping it out. The poop has.......begun to smell pretty bad. It has an earthy feel to it like ti came from the soil, something from the nutrients that were put in both breastmilk (naturally by MJ eating different foods) and artificially by the infant formula makers......and it's not something I would want to smell 24/7 hours a day, which is why I try to change out of the old diaper and close it up as soon as possible to insert into the odor-cancelling steel lockbin of a the diaper disposal box. Still, in those few seconds when opening up the diaper and enjoying the nice surprise (it really is like Christmas morning opening up presents) of whether it's a little poop, big poop, muddy poop, old solidifed poop, really smelly poop that seeps through the diaper, they're all possible scenarios before opening up the diaper. Sometimes there's no poop! Yay! But a whole lot of pee weighing down the poop that weighs the whole contraption down anyway. Definitely being on the poop squad is one of those adjustments that hits you viscerally as a new parent, both the frequency of exposing yourself to the toxicity of poop and the immense amount of poop you have to deal with on a daily basis. And that's just the healthy poop, if all things go well. One thing I have noticed while looking around for problems (like a hammer looking for a nail) is the back of Baby Yan's head having stork bites, or little red marks that look like small blotches, why is why they're called stork bites because it looks like a stork bit in a little bit. Apparently they're normal and aren't indicative of any issues, rather more like birth marks caused by dilated blood vessels. When I first saw them I was a little alarmed, but I guess it's a common feeling I will get in the next few years seeing new things on baby that I have no knowledge about. Baby doesn't react to them, they don't seem to be causing any pain, so it's no more cause for alarm. One potentially alarming thing is how weak I am compared to baby's will and iron hand strength, trying to bat my hand away during feeding time or when I try to move her hand to get the bottle into her mouth. She's STRONG, which the nurses indicated on Day 2 or 3 when they measured the oxygenization in her limbs and assessed it as 100% percentile (even though she was born 6+ pounds, definitely not 100 percentile. She seems to have strong determination to get what she wants, which may be a good personality factor to have in the future but a detriment right now when she wants to be fed BADLY.....like she acts like the end of the world is happening and the crying is VIOLENT (she picked up my genes of having a loud voice, I guess) but then the instant she gets food, everything is peaceful again like a sudden thunderstorm passing through. Maybe a difficult combo in the future of being a Sagittarius baby (curious, independent, full of curiosity, and discovering new things) and this whole "needs to get what she wants" personality. oop, it's probably time for the Daddy poop squad team of one to get back on duty again!