A step into the past - 寻秦记 - by Huang Yi

[sehseh]

Congrats Jean! She look beautiful!

[Eagle]

Jean,

Congratulations!! The baby look really beautiful. Did you put on the gloves in her hands to prevent her scratching herself?

[Han Solo]

Congrats.

Cute baby.

Han solo

[fastclock]

Congratulations Jean:

Hope she's always going to be a treasure for you in your life.
Don't strain yourself, please.

[Gubrak]

Conratulation Jean, a cute baby and looks very happy to know her mother is a great translator !

[genuis8]

Congrats Jean. Your kid looks very chinese and that reddish skin means she will be very fair skinned in the coming days.

[balikpapan]

Yeah, she will have that white snow skin, like (my favorite) Huang Rong.
What's her name, Jean? and How did you get her name?

Oh, don't forget to have multivitamin, fish oil, and milk everyday. They're good for recovery and your bone.

[Gravitzz]

She is a cutie......Congrats Jean.

[KChill]

The pic of your daughter just made my day....Congrats!

[kenixgoh]

Welcome back Jean, ur baby gal is cute!

[dewyloony123]

Congratulations on the new arrival! She's an adorable bundle of love and joy

[gqonmars2]

Biggy ups to Jean and Jr. I am very happy for you two ladies.

[yeongwee]

So cute!!! Well until the nappies and wailing keep you up at night...

[JAJA9]

Hi Jean,
Your baby looks bubbly and lovely, many good wishes to you and your baby. Must tell you how much I appreciate reading your translation although I seldom take part in the discussions.
I brought up three kids of my own and I know they can be a handful especially at night. What I found to work from my experience is
1) make sure you stick to the exact time when you want her to sleep and that is if it is 8 at night then do not play with the child after 8. A little bit of crying is good though too much the baby will develop colic.
2) When it is time to sleep have a disc player in the room and put on some soothing soft music. The music will indicate to the baby that this is sleeping time and everynight when you play the music the baby will sleep. I use baroque classical music or mood music. It is also good to lie the baby on top of your heart so that she can listen to your heart beat as she is used to that in your womb and it will be comforting for her. After she sleeps then you can put her back on the crib.
3) After the baby have gained enough weight and feeding frequency is less and you want to ween the baby off waking up at night, you should feed the baby water when the baby wakes up. After a while she will not wake up at night.
4) breast feeding is the best as it will reduce colic and if you must use the bottle make sure you burp her because they tend to take in a lot of air from tbe bottle.
5) if you are breastfeeding, be careful about taking the chinese traditional tonic, the olive wine or alcohol as it is not good for the baby. I remembered my mother coming over to stay with us tried to feed the baby with grounded pearls and a yellowish stuff which is completely bitter. When I talked with the doctor, he blew his top as he said that during the first 6 months of the baby's life, the kidneys cannot process any complex substance and any complex food will harm the kidneys later on in life. Fruit juice, porridge etc should consult the doctor before doing so. I started mine during the 5th month. Do not feed honey because it is not safe for babies.

sorry for the long posting. Lastly, daugthers are sugar and spice and all things nice. I have two boys and one girl and it is the daugther who will accompany you shopping, talk with you and remember your birthdays, anniversary etc. So you are in for a beautiful relationship. Congrats again.

[Jean]

Hey guys, thanks for the well wishes and compliments.

Eagle: yup, she's wearing the mittens to prevent her from scratching herself

balikpapan: Her name is Sherylyn. It's a long story on how her name was chosen.

Jaja9: Thanks for the tips! Any idea on how to reverse her sleeping habits? For now she sleeps like a pig during the day. No matter how we disturb her she just wouldn't wake up, unless she's hungry, and she can sleep for 4-5 hrs at a stretch. But once it's about 10pm at night, we can't get her to sleep and she's awake til about 2-3am. And she seems to be forever hungry at this time, keeps on wanting milk 5 min after I put her down after her feed, and yup, I'm breastfeeding at the moment (kinda strange to be announcing this here )

ok, and now on to the story....

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Xiang Shaolong stood up and smiled, “It seems that the lesson is not that interesting, right?”

Jing Jun came to him and said honestly, “I was bored to death and I dared not offend my future father-in-law. And to think that I had to spend money to buy 10 catties of waxed meat for him, and I did not even get to touch Zhao Zhi’s hand in the end.”

Xiang Shaolong asked, “You did not get to see her?”

Jing Jun sighed, “What’s the use of seeing her, there are so many students, do you think I can really walk up and start touching her? I think most of the people goes there for lessons because of her.”

Xiang Shaolong chortled, “Is she having lessons as well?”

Jing Jun shook his head, “Initially she was sitting at a corner, making me think that she is accompany me for the lesson but in a short while she ran away with a smile and totally disappeared. I couldn’t find her anywhere after the lesson ended. Hai! I won’t ever go again even if you force me with a sword.”

Xiang Shaolong shook his head and sighed, “Such impatience, how can you win the lady’s heart.”

Jing Jun only shook his head.

Xiang Shaolong said, “Come with me outside for a walk.”

The 2 of them changed into commoner’s clothes and went up the carriage and out of the stockade before slipping off the carriage at the corner. Jing Jun followed him from afar to see if there’s anyone following him.

An hour later, Xiang Shaolong met Pu Bu at a dense forest south of the city.

Pu Bu said excitedly, “Things are going a lot smoother than imagined. Zhao Mu’s number one man Zheng Yue recruited all of us. Not that I am boasting, but us warriors, when Prince Pingyuan was still alive, were quite famous and respected in Handan.”

Xiang Shaolong asked, “Is there any news?”

Pu Bu replied apologetically, “We have just settled down and have not heard anything. I think we will take at least 6 months to a year to fully gain their trust.”

Xiang Shaolong replied, “It’s all right, you will stay there for a period of time, I will come back to look for you. After we accomplish a big mission, I will bring you back with me.”

Pu Bu replied, “We will listen to Master Xiang’s instructions.” He paused and continued, “Master Xiang! We only hope to follow you.”

Xiang Shaolong replied earnestly, “I understand, I will not let you down in your trust and expectations of me.”

After they agreed on the mode of contact, Xiang Shaolong asked, “Do you know of this person from Qi called Qi Yu?”

Pu Bu replied, “That is a good question Master Xiang, the first task given to me and Liu Cao is to be his bodyguard and bring him around for fun. Hei! This lad really has a thing with women, all these women who saw him stuck to him like bees to honey.”

Xiang Shaolong felt a pain in his heart and thought of Lady Ya and asked quietly, “Have you accompanied him to see Lady Ya?”

Pu Bu replied, “That we did not, but last night he did not ask for company and slipped out of the Envoy Lodge, maybe he went to look for her.”

Xiang Shaolong said, “Don’t tell anyone about this. All right! If there’s nothing special, try not to make contact with me, no matter what you hear regarding Zhao Mu’s plans to deal with me, do not try to let me know. You must remember that.”

Pu Bu knows that he’s smarter than the average person and although it doesn’t sound very logical, there must be something to it, so he agreed.

After they parted, Xiang Shaolong went back to the Wu Residence and surprisingly We Yingyuan, Wu Zhuo and Teng Yu were all waiting for him.

In the secret chamber, the few important members of the Wu family, Master Wu, Wu Yingyuan, Wu Zhuo, Tao Fang and Xiang Shaolong were all seated, even Teng Yi as well, which goes to show that because of his relationship with Xiang Shaolong and his outstanding performance, he has already gained the trust of all in the Wu family.

This is an important meeting that will impact the life and death of the Wu family.

Wu Zhuo gave his report first, “Teng Yi and I, under Young Grand-Master-in-law’s instructions, chose 500 men from the 2000 elite soldiers and followed his suggested method and kept testing them. Hei! I did not expect only 77 to pass the tests. We will start training them tomorrow, but I can guarantee that these warriors will be able to fight off a hundred men single-handedly.”

Xiang Shaolong said with a smile, “You only have 10 days, make good use of the time.”

Everyone were perplexed, and asked him why he’s so sure there’s only 10 days.

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[JAJA9]

hi jean Thanks for translation, nothing like a good story being told by a translator who is also a storyteller who knows when to stop. Makes the story more exciting. I have posted my reply to your question under your personal forum. Don't know whether that is how it is done. Anyway if you cannot access it then let me know. Hope that helps. You are not the only mother having that problem. Makes me smile remembering how I dealt with that exact problem when my kids were young.

[Han Solo]

Jaja9: Thanks for the tips! Any idea on how to reverse her sleeping habits? For now she sleeps like a pig during the day. No matter how we disturb her she just wouldn't wake up, unless she's hungry, and she can sleep for 4-5 hrs at a stretch. But once it's about 10pm at night, we can't get her to sleep and she's awake til about 2-3am. And she seems to be forever hungry at this time, keeps on wanting milk 5 min after I put her down after her feed, and yup, I'm breastfeeding at the moment (kinda strange to be announcing this here )

ok, and now on to the story....

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************************************************** **********

Jean,

Babies have different sleeping time in the first few weeks of life as they readjust their sleeping cycle. Unfortunately for you, there's nothing much that you can do that can change this. Perhaps the only other thing that you can try to do is to feed on demand rather than feed on time (i.e. waking up your child to feed her.)

Han SOlo

[shadow8899]

You can try not feeding her as much in the day time, so she keeps waking up to eat. Then close to night time, feed her as much as she can eat and she will sleep longer. Also, keep the house bright and active in the daytime and dark and quiet at night, that should help also.

[Icefrog]

Jean,

congratulations on the baby... she's really cute!! i'm father to 3 lively kids but i can't be of much help regarding sleeping habits(babies seem to have a sleeping pattern of their own which changes from time to time).

congratulations too on breastfeeding!! so many advantages and merits to it. please take real good care of yourself(healthy foods, rest and fluids). hope you would encourage more mom and would-be-mom readers here to follow!!!

[smurf120]

Jean - that is one beautiful and happy baby! Congratulations again!