Day.. 24

Okay, so it's been a while, and I have no excuse this time (unless laziness counts). Alexander is growing visibly, and has added a few new skills to his repertoire (which was previously limited to crying and... er, crying loudly).

One of these is lifting his head, and taking a good look around. It may not sound like much (sadly I have no photo of this), but it's heartwarming to see, and quite funny. He doesn't have full control of his neck yet, so the movements are not exactly coordinated, but there are times when he seems to be following either me or my wife when we're looking at him.

And of course, there are the facial expressions - he has quite a collection.

We managed to take him out once about a week and a half ago; there's a park right next to our apartment. This event had to meet board approval (the wife) - Korean culture dictates that newborns must stay home for exactly 3 weeks before leaving the confines of their house (this conveniently excludes hospital visits). All being said and done, however, he managed to sleep through the entire outing, which was probably for the best.

We tried to do the same again a couple of days later, but being awake this time, he didn't take kindly to the pram (stroller), loudly voicing his disapproval.

Day 6

So, after 2 days in the hospital we finally got to take Alexander home. He seemed fairly nonplussed about this change, and slept on the way back from the hospital. He was still asleep when we put him in his bed for the first time; we remarked that he seems very calm and that the stories of endless crying must surely be exaggerated. This lasted for about 30 minutes.

The first night he woke up at about 1am; he was hungry so we fed him, and tried to put him back to bed - without success. I think we got about 3 hours sleep each that night. The following night was worse - my wife couldn't sleep at all, and was on the verge of going nuclear. Then suddenly, things started to get a lot better - yesterday, for instance, we had to wake him up to feed, as he'd been sleeping for 4 hours straight.

No-one likes their sleep disturbed, but after the experience of the first few days, waking up only twice during the night is heavenly.

A contemplative moment

Even in his worst moments, he is still delightful, and I couldn't be happier with how everything has turned out.

Day 1

Actually it's day 2, but I have an excuse - Alexander was born yesterday at 10.45am KST on a rainy September day in Seoul, at a healthy 7lb 8oz. After 24 hours of epic hand squeezing, a screaming baby with an alien-shaped head was held up for me to briefly inspect before being whisked off to be tagged and stowed away safely in a room full of more screaming newborns. (About the head - it's a temporary effect from being squeezed out though the narrow birth canal.)

Thereafter you can request a 'viewing' through a triple reinforced window, or have the infant brought to your room to experience the delights of your first nappy change, or elicit expressions of awe and wonder from your gawking guests.

Alexander, aged 27 hours

About the room - after birth you must choose one of several hotel-styled rooms to spend the next few nights. The nurses generally look after your newborn, and periodically enter the room to perform various tasks, such as delivering food, checking up on the new mother or cleaning the room (they do this whether you are in the room or not). They also enter without notice or warning, and sometimes at strange times. I vaguely remember being awoken by someone stepping through the mattress on the floor where I was sleeping, at 5am! Joking aside, the whole experience with the hospital has been very good; the facilities are modern and the staff extremely attentive, and compared to hospitals in the UK... it would fill up another post so I'll go into it later.

The feeling of holding your newborn baby for the first time and seeing him look into your eyes is indescribable, and makes it all worth it. At that moment, everything else in the world seemed so infinitely small.