Alligators!

 

My mom bought max a cute outfit from baby gap with alligators on it. Then one of Max's great aunts sent him this adorable alligator robe! If he gets the munesato collecting bug, maybe it will be alligators. Course, I've already gotten him a cow car seat and a cow humidifier!

Gordito!

Today I was at Target and heard two workers speaking spanish - well, I didn't hear much, just kept hearing the louder one say "Ay dios mio" over and over. As we were passing them near the shoe section, Max smiled at one of the ladies who was checking him out. I heard one of them say "gordito" and I just started laughing. I guess they weren't expecting me to understand - happens a lot in Raleigh. They asked me how old he was and I just said dos without thinking. Luckily - because last time someone asked me what time it was in Spanish I totally blanked on how to say thirty so I just showed him my watch.

Poor little guy usually calms down once we get on the highway, but coming home from Target Max cried the whole way. I think that was the loudest and longest he's ever cried - I felt so bad, he had one tear that had dropped down to his nose and 2 big tears that had fallen on top of his big cheeks and gotten stuck there. He hardly ever cries with real tears and usually they are just kinda on the edge of his eyes.

Here is a picture from the other day where you can see his chins. He was being kind of fussy and then fell asleep when my Kirk Franklin CD started playing. I was trying to figure out how my 6-cd changer on my old stereo worked so I could put in a baby einsteing lullaby cd someone gave us, but I haven't used it in so long I was having trouble figuring out which CD was what. We think he actually does better with a litle bit of noise, seems like he sleeps better than when it's dead quiet....

Lasik

Dude, today I got some junk mail inviting me to a Lasik seminar. And yes, it is watching an actual Lasik surgery live! Yikes! I know I am usually all into the science stuff - I watch when they are taking blood, I asked to see the placenta before they took it away for core blood donation, etc. but that was all myself. I guess I was already squeamish about someone pointing a laser into someone's eye while they are still awake, but watching someone else get it done just seems kinda wrong!

Playdate

 

Ok, maybe not a real play date, but the first time Max has met someone his own age. Barrett and Max are closer in age than wei yan and uncle josh. Perhaps they will grow up together just like josh and wei yan did in greenville - as grandpa chan predicts.

our mornings

in the mornings a lot of times i'll tuck max in with dad while i brush my teeth and grab a bite to eat before it's time for dad to go to work...

 

max is sleeping, but his eyes in that pic are a little open. and in the words of my pediatrician, yes it is a little creepy ;-)

Grandma's got the touch!

My mom left on Sunday, but while she was here she got Max to smile a lot! I joke that we're in survival mode so we are just concentrating on keeping the kid alive, whereas when she was here she had lots of extra energy to play with Max. I still say that he smiled a whole lot more when she was here - and here is some proof!

 

 

 

breastfeeding is hard

max weighs 11 lbs 5 oz now and gaining about an ounce or more a day - which is all what it's supposed to be. i've been dealing with some pain that has always kinda been there (max does better on one side than the other) and when he started his last growth spurt he really took out some frustration on the side he doesn't like as much. so it's been tough. i finally broke down & went to see a lactation consultant a week and a half ago, went to a nursing mothers of raleigh support group meeting and also rented a hospital grade pump - the other pump wasn't working that well for me most of the time. it was all going pretty well before that or about as well as i was expecting breastfeeding to be. so i keep telling myself that one of these days it will be easier and this will be the last thing we need to get over, but i'm guessing that is not true, that as soon as we get past this there will be something else. max no longer wants to go 3 hours between feedings consistently, but i guess i've traded 45 min feedings for 10 min feedings every hour or two. so it's been long enough that i don't think he will go back to the 3 hrs between feedings at this point.

i woke up this morning only to realize that in 3 weeks i go back to work! yikes! today i was in bed til 12:30 - max was in bed with me after 8am and we napped between feedings. so i wonder if i'll be ready and need to figure out the pumping thing before i go back as well! oh, and i tried to give max a bottle for the first time last night (pumped to give the problem side a rest) - he cried and fussed the whole time and ended up taking both sides anyway.

my mom was here for a week and so our house is cleaner, we're all very well fed and max got lots of cuddles and love last week.

growth spurt at 5.5 weeks continued

Just kidding. He totally fakes us out. He's back to 10 feedings a day and hasn't gone more than 3 hrs between feedings (and that's maybe once a day). Not too bad, but yeah, he eats for a really long time still. Anyway, just gotta keep through. Hopefully Wei Yan and my mom can hold out on the temptation to "just give him a bottle" - while the intentions are good to let me sleep & rest, I don't want to go through the not being able to keep up with his demand thing and trying to breastfeed & supplement with formula all by myself at home while everyone is gone a week from now. Max started this growth spurt Sunday - so someone please tell me it will be over soon. On the plus side, he is growing - for good or bad. He started using his hands to push off my chest and pull on me when he's really hungry. He also learned today that if he spits up in his mouth and then blows out it's really fun (too bad I was talking right to him when he first did this this morning). And he's hang onto my shirt when I'm feeding him and roll onto his side when we put him down on his play mat.

Growth Spurt

So right at the end of our 1st trip seems that max started a bit of a growth spurt. Incidentally, we caught the Duke-Carolina basketball game and Max stayed up for all of it and we made him do the UNC cheer. His arms are too short to make a C and therefore the C-A-R-O-L-I-N-A cheer will really have to wait...and "A" is totally out of the question with those short arms.

Oh, yes, growth spurts. So he was really getting frustrated with my milk flow and causing a bit of pain and then I was not able to pump very much. Kind of panicked, and went to see a lactation consultant. Course now his growth spurt has slowed down a bit from the last few days and he was much calmer. We also weighed him Tuesday (he has crusty cradle cap on his eyebrows & ears that is REALLY gross and spitting up a lot but dr says it's normal after hearing all about it) at 10 lbs 5 ounces. And then today at 10 lbs 10.5 ounces (when I left the lactation consultants office) - so yeah, that just confirmed he's growing like crazy the last few days and everything is normal. Technically I do need to make sure I can pump enough when I go back to work, but guess we can worry about that when Max is NOT going through a growth spurt.

First Road Trip

 

This past weekend, Max got to meet his yeh yeh (grandfather) and see his ma ma (grandmother) again. He also got to meet lots of uncles and aunts and family friends. His yeh yeh made red eggs for everyone to eat for good luck.

If he hadn't gotten stuck on I-40 during rush hour when an accident happened, that trip to Greenville (NC) would have been his longest.

Happy to be 1 month old....

 

Ok, so he's really happy about something else, but I was actually able to get a picture of him smiling on Wednesday. We can't wait til he starts smiling at people socially, but this will have to do until then!

Happy 1 Month!

 

Today Max is 1 month old...well, technically he is 4 weeks old.

Not all things on newborns are proportional. His little arms barely reach to the top of his head! Pretty much all bodily secretions are HUGE compared to this "little" 10 lb guys. And his burps and farts are already as loud as those of a full grown adult. We both still jump when he poops his diaper it's so loud! Things I had never thought about before...

Heels are #1 and Bruins are #2 in the men's basketball rankings this week! Nice!

Changing every day!

 

Today Max went with me to an old friend's house for lunch. He stayed up for quite a while there - so I got a pic of him with his eyes open. He got bopped on the head by the 2 year old - but he slept through it...even the subsequent apology. I wasn't as upset as I thought I'd be, but I think that's because I really trust my friend (we've known each other for 13 years now) and he really didn't get hit very hard at all. I was also more interested in seeing motherhood in action - how my friend taught her son right from wrong, that there were consequences to his actions, that he needed to apologize, and that there is forgiveness and unconditional love.

Oh, I also stopped by Target on the way home. I used to think that I'd always just wait til hubby got home to run errands. I mean, why would I deal with the hassle of bringing a kid along, but I guess I've just been so stir crazy & feeling house-bound, that it just felt good to get out & do something normal. And maybe it's a way to prove to myself that the baby is not going to stop me from being able to do normal stuff like go to Target. I made it back just in time - he got hungry just as we were driving home! I knew I was playing with fire!

His baby acne seems to have emerged today. :-( Here is the exact face we get when we try to burp Max most of the time (well, unless he just falls asleep right after his feeding):

 

swaddle

 

Normally Max is not too big into the whole swaddle thing. Is it just me or do these swaddle blankets look suspiciously like straight jackets. We heard some popping noises coming from Max's hip the last few days and the doctor told us to come it so they could check it out so I took him in. The doctor said that it's probably just a ligament - more common in the shoulders & he was able to get it to happen on Max's shoulder while we were there today. But the doctor check his hip sockets and was unable to get his hip to come out of socket, so he said that was good & showed me how to check it next time it happens.

I changed Max's diaper as soon as we got to the pediatricians office & then we weighed him - 9lbs 7 ounces. While I was taking him back to the room from the scales he promptly spit up on me (I had just finished feeding him at home before I came to the dr.'s office). Then while the doctor was examining him, he spit up again some more - in fact he's spit up a whole bunch since he got weighed. He also pooped while the doctor was examining his butt/hips - the doc was quick with that diaper shield! So I changed him, then while the doc was explaining follow up, he pooped again! I changed him and then he pooped yet again! So I'm pretty sure that he lost at least 2 ounces after getting weighed, but 8 ounces in 6 days is looking good. We haven't had to supplement any formula or breastmilk after I feed him for quite a while now - so the latest weigh in was good to know that he's just falling asleep because he really is full. And I think we're done with newborn swaddlers....onto the next bigger (read: higher capacity) size.

stylin

Seems that getting a shot of max when he is awake is tough. Here's a rare one taken last week - onesie made by max's great auntie. today max is 3 weeks old. we went to visit dad at work today for lunch and to get out of the house for a few minutes. max slept the whole time starting from the car ride to work and only started fussing when it was time to go home. of course he slept on the ride home & then started crying once the car stopped!

saturday

we are trying to catch up on some sleep and laundry this weekend. saturday, max got a visit from his great grandmother who was returning from a trip to the west coast and we got to eat some dim sum take out at the house with family. max got lots of presents from his relatives on the west coast and those who have not gotten a chance to visit him yet.

weigh in

took max to the pediatrician on Wed. he was only 8 lbs 8.5 ounces and the dr was not happy that he had only gained .5 ounce in 8 days. he told us to up bottle feedings to 3 ounces and feed him more often. after not getting any sleep tuesday night after my mom left & I woke up to every noise max made in his sleep, i was very upset at the pediatrician's conclusion that we weren't feeding him enough. but finally got some sleep & slept in the other bedroom while Wei Yan slept with the baby in our bedroom after that 1st night.

thurs & friday morning pm max decided on his own that he wanted to be fed every 2 hours for the first couple feeding of the day. saturday night he took 4 ounces of formula and would not be ok with anything less. friday we took him back to the pediatricians office and he was 8 lbs 15 ounces. i think he's gained even a few more ounces since then. luckily we've made it through most of Saturday without having to give him any formula and he's been content, so hopefully soon my milk supply will be able to keep up with him and we can keep little max gaining weight. thurs & friday were rough since it's hard to breastfeed & then try to get a supplemental bottle into him all in one feeding. saturday I even got a chance to get out of the house & walk around with him in his stroller for a few minutes.

Who you gonna call?

Babies sleep in such weird positions....

Thanks Grandmas!

Wei Yan's mom was here from Sunday to Tuesday and my mom was here from Tuesday until today. They have been a tremendous help and Max loved all the attention. Thank you to both of them for helping us out!

Tonight will be the first all night with just the 2 of us covering for quite a while - and the first since my infection settled in. I am feeling much better and only have 1 more day of antibiotics to go. Had a check up with the OB today and he said everything is looking good & should be a dim memory soon. Tomorrow is Max's 2 week check up - so the today & tomorrow will be ok with Wei Yan having to play chauffeur, so Thursday will be a real test.

Lip quiver & chinese new year (fixed link)

Max has some strong neck muscles! His neck is still a little floppy especially when he's tired, but with how big he is he definitely hasn't seemed as fragile as everyone told us he would be as a newborn. When he gets really upset, his lip quivers when he cries, it's really funny (your not supposed to laugh when your baby cries, I know...)


Also, here is Max's 1st ly-see (hong bao/red packet) from great grandma on chinese new year eve. Perspective makes his hand look big - it's not THAT big.
 
When they put Max on my chest right after he was born, I saw his hands & feet and thought - oh man they are huge! I'm supposed to think they are so tiny, but dang, they didn't look like tiny baby hands & feet. I was wondering how he fit inside my belly and thankful those kicks didn't hurt as much as they could with his big feet (thank god he didn't have room to get the momentum going for those kicks!)

Recovery

So I was a little hesitant to write over the last few days, but now that I've had some time to not be in pain & reflect, I thought I'd post an update. We got home from the hospital on Thursday. I had been off of vicodin for 36 hours and was not in a lot of pain. By Friday afternoon I was feeling uncomfortable sitting, and by Saturday night I was sobbing in pain and Sunday was not much better. Saturday evening, I called the doctor and he basically told me a bunch of stuff that I should have been doing to speed the healing process & make it more comfortable. None of which I really got from my nurses or doctors when leaving the hospital. All I remember them telling me to do when I went home was take 800mg of ibuprofen every 4 hours. Sunday morning, I was ready to have Wei Yan drop me off at the hospital again just so they could give me some pain meds.

Got a prescription for vicodin on Sunday from the on-call doctor but didn't seem to work well (was told to take it every 6 hours, but I was in enough pain that I was hurting by 4 hours). The on-call doctor suggested that I come in on Monday. Monday we went to see the doctor - last minute appointments were only available with the oldest partner in the group who no longer delivers babies, but has the most experience. He checked out the stitches & said everything looked ok - hard to say if the swelling was part of the normal healing process or because of an infection. He thought that I probably had an infection based on the amount of pain I was in. My blood pressure was really high, which I knew was because I was in a lot of pain.

Started on some antibiotics and vicodin (every 4 hours) and continued with the other care measures for the stitches. I've been feeling better - at least not in continuous pain or crying because of the pain. Not sure if I could have avoided an infection or not, but I'm sure if the nurses/doctors had given more more information on what I should have been doing to take care of myself I would have at least been in a little less pain. Or maybe all of the pain really was because of an infection, I'm really not sure. I think had I not been feeling so good upon discharge, I wouldn't have been taken by such surprise and perhaps the nurses/doctors would have given me more instructions or at least know when things weren't going well right from the start of the pain.

I definitely have learned a lot from the last week or so.
1. Always ask the doctors what to expect and what to do if something happens that you don't expect and when to call them.
2. Make sure that you have people taking care of you, so you can take care of the baby. They will end up taking care of the baby too, but make sure they are people who will tell you when your maternal insticts are making you do more than you should. It's best to have a woman you can call who has been through what you've been through, to help tell you all the stuff other people don't tell you.
3. Pain is good in that it tells you when something is wrong and makes you slow down when you need to. Pain meds are bad in that they do lie to you and tell you you can do more than you should be to recover. Pain meds are good if they help lower your blood pressure below 150/120 and stop the sobbing.
4. Have your baby at the end of the week so that you don't have to be in pain over a whole weekend if something goes wrong once you go home ;-)

It's weird how there was so much information given to me on the pregnancy and even how to take care of the baby once he arrived, but I had virtually no education on what I should be doing to take care of myself after the pregnancy ended. I have had a lot of folks tell me some of the normal changes, but not a lot on what I should or should have been doing to take care of myself. And yes, this post is at 4am. Christina told me that she was more tired during pregnancy than once the baby arrived, and I would tend to agree. I have not been able to sleep all the time, so I sleep when I am really tired. Luckily my mom is here now, so she's taking care of the baby when wei yan is at work & I'm tired & can actually sleep.

1st portrait

Max wouldn't wake up for the lady to take his picture at the hospital, but check out the pictures she took of him on Thursday before we left the hospital.

Introducing Maxton Takahiro Chan

It has been a couple of long nights. We finally decided on a name, Maxton Takahiro Chan. We were released from the hospital yesterday around 5pm and suddenly we were on our own. Things have been a little crazy since. No more room service. No more calling the nurse for help with Max. No more sending him to the nursery for some rest. Yeah, the hospital was nice.

Our first night at home was sleepless to say the least. Max just would not sleep on his own. He would only sleep if someone held him. So Robin and I took turns holding him last night while the other slept. I think I actually dozed off a few times holding him... luckily I didn't drop him!

We took Max to the doctor today just for a quick check up and they said he has gotten more jaundiced. He is reading 12.4 on some jaundice scale, up from 7.5 when he left the hospital. We have to bring him back to the pediatritian tomorrow to see if it is still going up. If so, they will place him under some lamp or something.

CC has been a great help these last few days. She's been over here helping us watch Max and even got us food and did some grocery shopping for us. Thanks Sis!

I would also like to thank everyone for their well wishes in emails, text messages, voicemails. I have read and heard them all. I apologize for not responding back but it has been very crazy here, lots to adjust to. Max has been taking up all of our time and energy!

Tekelec released their earnings yesterday. Numbers were good. Yay! Stock goes down? Boo! Bonus is 140% Yay! So that's a wash I guess.

Anyway, here are a few recent pics:

Resting

Mother and baby are now sleeping. We got moved to our postpartum room. This room is even nicer than our last one. Rex just renovated this wing, so everything is brand new. We even got a decent HDTV (looks like a 32" LCD) to watch the Duke/UNC game tomorrow night.

We will be staying here until Thursday evening, I believe. I think that's standard these days to keep the mother/child for 2 days after the birth to make sure there are no complications. They also have to give him his shots and circumcizion.

The rest of the pics can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/weiyan8/BabyChan

I'll have to warn you, tho, some of these shots are NWS... there are some penis shots in there. :-)

Baby Chan is here!

Our healthy baby boy was delivered at around 6:30pm today. Everyone is doing fine. The boy ended up being 8lb 13oz, decent sized baby. I will try to post some pictures soon, I've got tons. He's got chubby chubby cheeks. :-)

Fully Dilated

Robin is fully dilated now! Time to start pushing!

Progress

Wow, we've had alot of progress the last few hours. The doctor (Dr. Zimmerman, UNC Grad!) just came and checked the cervix. It's 8cm dilated now! He said it should hit 10cm within the next few hours and then she can start pushing. Getting close!

Epidural

We decided to go ahead and get the epidural, so the doctor just came in and administered it. Robin is feeling much better now. :-) Just resting right now waiting for her to dilate some more. The goal is 10cm. She is still 4cm.

In Labor

The doctors came in this morning around 7am and started the Oxytocin drip to induce the contractions. They also went ahead and broke her water so the baby will have to be delivered within 24hrs of that no matter what. The contractions are varying between 1.5 - 3 min apart so not real consistent yet. The pain is increasing now so we are talking about going ahead and getting the epidural now. She is 4cm dilated.

At the Hospital

We are in the hospital now. The room is pretty nice and spacious with our own bathroom. They prepped Robin for the induction and gave her some ambien to help her get a good nights rest. They will be giving her some petosin(sp?) at around 7am to kick start the labor. The labor/contractions should begin shortly after that. It is unclear how long after the contractions starts before the baby comes but they said it varies anywhere from a few hours to a few days! Hopefully, we will be on the lower end of that spectrum.

I'll try to keep you guys posted on the progress and maybe post some pictures.

Go Baby!

We're off to the hospital tonight! The doctors will try some stuff to try to get me dialated to ~3-4cm so we're heading in tonight. Then tomorrow morning (EARLY!), they will induce and hopefully we will have some good news for everyone very soon!

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers that we will have a safe and healthy delivery of our little boy! Lots of love to everyone of you who are reading our blog and pulling for us. We appreciate all of your support and prayers for us as we enter this very exciting new time in our lives!

No news yet!

No news yet. We have a scheduled induction for Tuesday Feb 5th - so unless the baby decides to come before then, that is the date. Wei Yan says there is wifi at the hospital, so we'll be able to post some updates here when the baby arrives. I'll have my last check up with the OB on Monday and that is when they'll make the decision to have me go in Monday night or Tuesday morning.

Today is the baby's due date

Yup, today, Jan 28th is our baby's official due date, and yes, there is no baby yet. We'll see the OB tomorrow and see what she says. He's still moving around in there and I don't feel much different. I'm supposed to be sick of being pregnant by now, but I don't think I'd say that I am. I might start getting sick of being asked if we've had the baby yet or folks saying, "so when is he coming?" (as if I know this.) I guess I must be used to being so big & clumsy & tired, cuz I am not really sick of being pregnant yet. I may get sick of wondering when he's going to decide to come out and what I'm going to do with myself as we wait....

Oh, and yes, we must just be wasting time because we went to go see Rambo yesterday evening. Talk about violent...terrible movie, but if you just want to see some gore, and violence for violence's sake then yes, this is the movie to see.

Movie Reviews

I'll keep the spoilers to a min, but just some thoughts on the few movies we've watched recently.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail
We got this from Netflix since it's a movie it seems we should watch. So now I get a few more movie references that I wouldn't have gotten before, but I think the references are more funny than the actual movie. I guess I just don't get British humor. It was pretty much a waste of time for me...I laughed out loud maybe once? Totally not my type of humor.

No Country for Old Men
Wei Yan's pick here. I went in with no expectations. Interesting, weird, a bit disturbing. Not your run of the mill Hollywood crime/suspense movie. Gotta pay attention here and only watch this if you like the off the beaten path/different movies.

27 Dresses
My pick this time. Tired from the pregnancy and ready to just turn my brain off for 1.5 hours, so this movie delivered. I'm impressed with Katherine Heigel's ability to pull off comedy (Knocked Up was funny too) - not that the movie was as much of a comedy as Knocked Up, but it's just harder to pull off funny than you would think. Don't expect much from plot or predictability, but it got the whole theater laughing more than a few times and satisfied my need to just turn off my brain for a few & relax.

27-12???

So, I have to admit that I haven't actually watched a Laker's game in forever. We watched a special on a new NBA TV channel that we got recently (it just made me really depressed). I really miss the days of Kareem, Magic, all those guys...

But is anyone else amazed that the Lakers are 27-12??? Crazy. I mean the line up the Lakers faced last night - Mello, Iverson, Camby, Kenyon Martin??? Not to diss on my own team, but the Lakers - the all the injuries...I hadn't checked the stats in awhile, partially because I figured out "playing great" would eventually fade, but it just blew my mind.

Shoyu Weenies!

We have 1 more week to go, and I can't remember the last time I had a hot dog (pregnant women are supposed to be careful that they get heated up enough to kill any lysteria and also the nitrates are not supposed to be so great for babies/kids). But after reading this story, I'm craving some shoyu weenies!

Anyway, if you've ever wondered why Japanese Americans love hot dogs and ketchup, read that article! I can't eat eggs without a LOT of ketchup...I mean, no ketchup = I'll pass on the eggs. Pretty interesting story and I guess I never wondered why other asian americans or americans seems so snobby when it comes to spam, hot dogs and canned corned beef. I guess I've got no qualms because I grew up eating it and it's all because of the forced introduction of such foods in the internment camps.

Snowy Saturday

We finally got snow, but it was a bit of a bust in my opinion. Just a little accumulation on the grass, but nothing on the roads or sidewalks - so I think our neighbor's kids are having a tough time gathering up enough snow to make a snowball. We should get some freezing overnight for the next few nights, but that's about it. At least we got a little precipitation to help with the drought.

Sadly, Carolina couldn't get it together to beat Maryland on their own home court. My hopes that Duke & State would lose to make our loss feel a little better were not fulfilled and I see that even the Bruins lost today as well. Carolina just didn't bring enough heart to the game in my opinion. And the look of surprise on Syndey Lowe's face when State won in overtime was really kind of funny - you aren't supposed to look that surprised when your team wins. :-P Really, I'm just bitter we lost. Although, I don't like for Carolina to go unbeaten too long, since I think they have needed a wake up call to bring their A-game when they play.

12 days to go

 

I was measuring a little on the big side, so the doctors decided to do an ultrasound to make sure everything was ok. Everything looks fine, and they concluded that I'm measuring big because the baby is big. The ultrasound is not exact (they give estimates plus or minus a pound) - but the machine calculated that the baby is 7 lbs 8 oz and about the 61% percentile. That lines up with the 30 week ultrasound that said he was in the 60th percentile. Course they also said his head is measuring in the 86th percentile - so I told Wei Yan that was his fault. But, yeah, could be any day now. The ultrasound lady was nice enough to switch it over to the 3D ultrasound and print out a few pictures - the quality is not that great, but you can see that he's got some very chubby cheek and we could even see his poutty lips in the profile.

They said next week that they will go ahead and schedule an induction for sometime in the 41th week just to have the appointment booked, but that a lot of women go into labor by then. So at the very least, we'll be having an avergage to larger than average baby - if he comes out at 8 lbs, I guess that means that all the newborn clothes will be packed away right from the start!

Holiday Party

 

Our company had it's annual holiday party. Oddly enough, the 2007 party is in January of 2008 - it's like 60% savings to do it after the new year, and frankly it's nice to be done with all the holiday stuff before going to the party. Probably our last night out with the whole dressing up & going out thing for a while. I made it to 11:30pm! (OK, I did sleep until 11am and then took a nap after the State game).

UNC vs. State: Round 1

The most entertaining 1st half I've watched - EVER! 'Nuff said! It was so bad, it's like you can't even talk smack - ESPN did it all for me and anything past that is, as my college friends liked to say, "like kicking a puppy". No tinge of guilt as I laughed throughout the 1st half though. The 2nd half got a little boring...don't know why Carolina didn't keep running the ball other than they had no motivation.

names

We're still deciding on names and yup, feeling the pressure. Some of the Japanese names that are in the running for middle name are:
* Tsukasa - My maternal grandfathers name. I was pretty close to him, and everyone called him "Tiger" which is kind of a cool nickname. Course everyone called him Tiger because no one could say his name. It would be kind of cool to keep this in the family, but I'm not sure I want to give our kid such a hard name to say/pronouce/spell. Course I guess on the last name he is getting off pretty easy - but this is NC, so he's gonna have to spell his last name all the time anyway...
* Takahiro (or something with Taka in it like Takashi, Takaharu) - I like Tak and Taka. Wei Yan likes Tak and maybe the Heroes series is having a subconscious effect.
* Yutaka - I think this is my paternal gradfather's brother's name. We always just called him Uncle Taka and he had a shop called Tak's automotive (still exists today). But I think this was actually his formal name. Might be a good option in case T ends up not being a good middle initial depending on what we pick for a first.

Sadly I have no idea what any of those names mean. And if I find a website with meanings - I'm reading whatever characters I recognize in chinese. If any family members are reading this or friends that have some knowledge of japanese to share or family history to share, please do. Course, like I said, we may end up just going with what sounds the best with the 1st name we decide on....whenever that happens! ;-)

latest pic

Me a month ago:


Me today with almost the same outfit on:

 

hehe...i look more tired in today's picture for sure.

Week 37

Today (Monday) the baby is officially full term. So if the baby come before the official January 28 due date, he will be considered full term (not premature) even though it would be early. This also means that the baby's due date is exactly 3 weeks from today! Our furniture is probably going to come after the baby is due, but we've got the pack 'n play set up and plenty of clothes and diapers. A lot of folks ask me if I'm ready to have the baby, but I'm still feeling like we need more time to get ready for the baby, it would be nice to do a few more things to clean up the house and wrap things up at work. It's a big relief to know that the baby is now full term and still elbowing and kneeing me vigorously. My hip was hurting a bit the last 2 days, but nothing too bad or uncomfortable - just tired these days. I'm sure I'll get to that point though, because folks tell me all the time that the last few weeks you get to the point where you are ready to just be done with the whole pregnancy thing.

locked & loaded

just got back from the OB. he was pretty sure the baby was head down, but after I mentioned that the last 2 weeks that the other docs were unsure, he went ahead and did an ultrasound to confirm. dr. henderson is a pretty funny guy - real dry sense of humor. overall everyone that i've met at the practice is pretty cool, they all seem pretty laid back. but, yup, he's turned around. funny though, i don't think that it feels any different - although the last 2 days I've felt slightly more pressure and the baby isn't as active as he was before, but didn't seem significant enough to mention. so no scheduled c-section at least.

18 degrees this morning

Woke up at 6:30am this morning. Maybe my body is preparing for motherhood. Eating breakfast this AM, the news said it was 18 degrees outside. Then when driving to work at 8am (yes, that's early for me) I see a guy is khaki shorts getting out of a car in front of the apartments by my house. It was early, so I had to do a double take just to make sure I wasn't seeing things! Yup, shorts.

what a day!

*sigh* today has been pretty frustrating. I got a call from our neighbor at 11:30 this morning that water was spraying out of a pipe on the side of our house. We rush home and discover that we forgot to winterize the irrigation system - the drought along with no watering for months and the slow growing lawn messed up our usual declaration that all watering & mowing shall cease & get ready for winter. So Wei Yan got the water from flowing down the grass and into the sewer. Thankfully our neighbors driveway is close to this side of the house & she could actually see the pipe & hear the water going down the storm drain. Had we come home that evening when it was dark, we would not have seen a think from our driveway.

my laptop is still now working quite right. printer won't install correctly. well, correction, it was and then I was trying to install hp's full software so that i could get the scanning and all the other bells and whistles to work and now it won't do a darn thing. *sigh* and had to reboot our cable modem & router this evening since that was acting up. this is after spending a few hours over the christmas break trying to get a vpn dialer working so that i can log into work. well, i might just have to give up before i throw the laptop across the room. i hate software sometimes.

Hilarious!

Back to work today. I woke up at 4am this morning - decided to eat something and try to go back to bed. Luckily I was able to get back to sleep, but I am resigned to just having to sleep when I am sleepy and get stuff done when I am feeling productive for the next few weeks. Anyway, I was scared about how work was going to go when I was falling asleep over Christmas break after only being awake for a few hours, but today wasn't too bad. Since most of our company has off the last week and a half, there weren't too many emails. So I got to read the daily Dilberts and for some reason I really got a kick out of this one. Enjoy!

My co-worker brought in this comic for me as well. He crossed out "Customer Service" and put "HR" instead and posted it on my cube (for those of you who heard that story.)

Oh, also today during lunch we got a few minutes of snow! :-) Not enough to stick anywhere, but it was kinda cool - or at least a perk of it being SOOOOO cold today! It just looked like there was some pollen in the air for the most part, but then there was a few minutes where it actually looked like it was really snowing. 1st snow of the year.

Week 35 update

Starting to go to the doctor every week from now until the baby comes. Last time, the OB was thinking the baby may have turned head down, but said we should wait til this time to be for sure. This week, the OB says she thinks the baby is still breech. This past week, there have been many times where my belly looks like a square or a heart - two bumps sticking out on either side of my belly button. I told the doctor this, and after checking the heartbeat, she said the baby is probably transverse, with the head still up - given where the heartbeat was heard the loudest. She said that we'll keep checking weekly and that at some point, they will do an ultrasound to be sure. And if I go to the hospital in labor that we can let them know that the baby's position has been breech & they will check again at the hospital. She did say that she's know babies who have turned in the last week, so a c-section is not for certain just yet.

Merry Christmas!

We had a quiet Christmas this year. No tree or decorations, since we figured we've got enough to do with getting ready for the baby. And if the baby were to come early, we'd be in danger or getting in trouble with our homeowners association for not taking down our decorations in time. Wei Yan's family came up for dim sum at lunch, then we went with them to the chinese grocery store after lunch. His dad, aunt, grandmother and brother went back to greenville and we headed back to our house. My sister-in-law and mother-in-law stayed the night before they flew out to Hong Kong on the 26th. We had hot pot for dinner and even got a chance to take a quick nap before dinner.

washer scare

So on Christmas Eve we had a bit of a scare. I was running a load of baby clothes - onesies, tiny socks, blankets, etc. Our washer which is usually pretty loud, made some bad clunking noises and then stopped. We got a F02 error code and things were not looking good. No water was draining and the washer was not happy. We did some searching on the internet and got some buckets out. We took out all of the wet clothes, got as much water out of the drum as possible and then took off the front. The drain plug produced quite a bit more water and some of this did end up on the floor, but we did an ok job of getting most of this up. After poking around, found a bra extender (early pregnancy must) stuck in the filter/impeller. Basically, there is a small area in the front of our washer were any small baby socks or small items can get sucked down our drain. After letting everything dry out, the washer is back to working order and we'll have to remember to put all baby socks, baby mittens and other small items in a bag before throwing them in the washer from now on. But no service call at least!

Head down?

Well, the doctor says she thinks that the baby is turned head down. I think I must be measuring a little big, because she said something to the effect of "he doesn't seem like he's too big" when she was trying to feel my belly & see if he's turned down or not. It was a bit alarming, because I'm pretty careful with my belly these days, and she was just pressing in with her fingers to try to feel the baby in there and it was farther than I've ever pressed on my belly. When you are lying on your back (which I haven't done in ages!), I guess all the muscles relax. When I'm standing, sitting or lying on my side, gravity or something makes it so the belly is a lot more solid and not so squishy.

So by meeting the only female doctor in the practice, I've now met all the doctors who could possibly deliver the baby. This starts my once per week visits. And she said that she thinks he's head down, but by next week it will be more obvious. The heart rate was good and the baby was busy moving around in there even though I couldn't feel it, so I guess he does have a bit of room to move around.

Cord Blood Banking

So one of the decisions that we want to figure out before the big day comes is where to bank the baby's cord blood. Seems like there are 2 big private banks: Cord Blood Registry and Viacord. And there are also many public cord blood banks as well. Neither one of us has a history of diseases that are typically thought of for cord blood treatment, but since dna matters, they say that people of mixed ethnic origin should consider that matches are harder to find. I'm not sure if half japanese and half chinese counts, but either way seems like a finding a match is going to be hard enough as it is.

The cost of a private blood bank is a good chunk of change. The public cord blood banks run the risk of someone else having a match, the cells being used for research or maybe issues with access if it has not been used yet. I think right now we're leaning toward the public bank. If I died tomorrow and someone needed my heart, I don't think I'd want my family to deny that person a chance to live on the off chance that someone in my family might need it in the future. What are the real chances of us needing them? But then would I feel differently if it were my own child?

Shower thanks!

Thanks to my sister-in-law for throwing us a wonderful baby shower, and to all of our friends who helped us celebrate!

9 weeks to go!

So last week, the baby's movements have become MUCH stronger. I guess it must be getting more cramped in there, because I can feel wiggles and movements - plus the kicks and jabs are getting to be a bit uncomfortable at times. I've actually had a few kicks that made me stop mid sentence and have to collect myself before continuing to talk!

At my 5 min OB appointment today, the doctor (that I've been warned is really a good guy, just a little crazy) said that even though the baby was breech in the 3D ultrasound, that by next week we should know the baby's position. Felt a little dumb, because it didn't even occur to me that he was in the "breech" position during the ultrasound. Most babies don't start turning til next week anyway, so no need to worry. Next appointment is with the only female doctor in the practice. The zany doctor that everyone warned me about was cool though - went to UNC, and I guess I just figure he can't be any worse than the old HSLL program folks that lived in my dorm, so it doesn't faze me.

So yeah, 9 more weeks to go! The baby is supposed to be gaining about a half a pound a week - so maybe he's over 4 lbs now??? Kinda crazy! Not sure where it's all gonna go!

3d Ultrasound pics

and the 4D video:

YAY!

College basketball season has finally started. While some folks are sad that college football season is coming to an end, I'm definitely not! The Heels didn't make a great start, but at least they won their first game and I got to watch the 2nd half (prenatal exercise class this week).

Getting healthy during pregnancy

So the Friday after our baby shower in California, I came down with a cold. It's now been a month and I have finally gotten over it. Granted for the last few weeks, I've just been coughing, but still, I never imagined it would take that long to get over a cold. Went ahead and got the flu shot, because I really don't want to find out how long it would take me to get over that! But it definitely has made me try to take it easy and rest a lot. Course, now that we are into the 3rd trimester, we really have a lot of stuff to do around the house to get ready for the baby - so I'm sure we won't be feeling so relaxed about things in the coming weeks.

California baby shower

 

Thanks to all of our friends and family who helped us celebrate our little one more than a month ago!

More outsourcing to India

Now I know that reading through pregnancy magazines that there are a fair amount of "crazes" or "trends" that really aren't much of a widespread phenomenon - just some hyped up way to sell magazines, but this article was is pretty interesting.

Week 21 update

 

We took my sister-in-law out for her birthday last night. For all those loved ones in Cali or far away, just thought ya'll would get a kick out of me looking pretty pregnant. I have shared with some folks that I guess I am looking more pregnant, since a few weeks ago people would ask very cautiously if I was pregnant. Then last week people started just blurting out "wow! are you pregnant????" Today a co-worker said, "well, you are looking not as skinny as you were before" with the eyebrows. I busted up laughing. Got to be about the worst way to congratulate someone on being pregnant.

i'm on utube

One of my high school friends sent me this link tonight. For all of you who didn't believe the story about my high school reunion, definitely check it out. And I'm the one who told her that she looks "really different" from high school. We sat with some of the band geeks who quietly ate with her and was polite.

It was kinda funny at the end with the haters who got all mad & confrontational about it not being her, but it was also really lame. But hey, it wouldn't have been high school without those folks. It's too bad that they got all pissy over it....they could have just hung back and laughed. It's too bad that they didn't show all the people who were really drunk and went crazy when the stripper part happened, cuz they TOTALLY thought it was her and were taking pictures and freaking out. Songwriterlee and I were laughing hysterically watching all of them.

Oh, and I have to admit that I liked the video cuz I was skinny in that video. Having the baby bump is kinda cool sometimes, but don't think I don't want my old body back as soon as possible! That dress wouldn't fit months ago!

It's a boy!

This ultrasound picture was taken last week at 20 weeks. It was the best one of the bunch. It's shows the head on the left with a fist in front of baby's face. The body is along the bottom, and the legs up to the knees kind of wrapped around. I'll spare future embarrassment to our child and not post the one that show it's a boy - plus it's not a real easy picture to see anything unless you are a trained ultrasound technician. I did ask if they were for sure, and they said they were & then explained to us like 3 times how we could see the boy parts on the ultrasound screen. Lucky for us carolina blue works no matter what the sex is.

Kickin' it!

Today, while sitting at my desk, I felt a couple thumps in my belly. "Definitely not lunch!" was my first thought. I was able to put my hand on my bare stomach, and sure enough, a couple more kicks! I think I have felt the baby before now, but really, it was nothing definitive. Today, was the first time I can say that I definitely felt the baby move and it wasn't some fleeting weird feeling that I may or may not have ever felt before. Very cool!

1st prenatal massage

So after a hectic day on Saturday, and the mother of all cramps in my left calf, I treated myself to a mother-to-be massage on Sunday. Actually, one of my girlfriends and I were planning to go in a few weeks, but had to reschedule for a little earlier - and it worked out. My left calf is actually still sore from that cramp I got on Friday night, so I think I'm going to have to look into some prenatal yoga/pilates classes to get back into stretching. Went to Umstead spa to use the gift certificate hubby gave me for my birthday, but wasn't able to use, cuz I got pregnant right afterwards (massages in the 1st trimester aren't recommended). It was really relaxing. I came home and fell into a deep sleep for an hour before Wei Yan woke me up for dinner. The spa is on the small side, but very luxurious and the therapist was good. I'll definitely be going again for another massage!

5K for the March of Dimes

So for the last few years, I've helped out with the 5K Run for Healthier Babies. It's going to be tomorrow, and I'm looking at quite an early start tomorrow (6am). Good thing I'm already tired & ready to head to bed. Overall, it's been really great this year. I'm coordinating volunteers, and this year there will be ~100 of them. But after a week of meetings and all the last minute stuff (spent 4 hours on email wrapping stuff up), it's been pretty tiring. Anyway, wish me luck getting some sleep tonight & getting up earlier than gotten up since last year's race. Preparation for what's coming, right?

beef, it's what's for dinner

For some reason, I can always eat hamburger or ground beef. Chicken used to be my staple, but with this pregnancy, beef is the meat of choice these days. Perhaps it is the fact that I made tri-tip early in the pregnancy & then only ate the well done pieces (since everything is supposed to be well cooked through) that I haven't eaten a steak since becoming pregnant. Well done beef tri-tip of steak is just not my thing.
For some reason, I just have no desire to eat a steak. I don't know that it revolts me, but even if I had a steak put down in front of me, I just couldn't stomach it. Before I was pregnant, I could eat red meat maybe a few times a week - and a nice medium rare ribeye was a treat. If I had beef for lunch, I probably wouldn't feel like having beef for dinner, but today it is patty melt for lunch & hamburger helper for dinner. I'm eating even when I don't feel hungry - partially because I know if I wait until I "feel hungry" it will come on with such intensity that I might pass out trying to figure out what to eat (or kill anyone perceived as getting in my way). And also, cuz work has been pretty stressful these days, and when I'm stressed I don't feel hungry. I've only gained 5-6 lbs to date (after gaining back the 5 lbs I lost in the first trimester), but the doctor assured me that if I only gain 20, given my height & frame, it would be fine.

No More Meetings!

So for the last 3 days at work, I've been called into these all day meetings. The first one was the Friday before Labor day. Even after being out of the office all this morning to meet my new OB, this afternoon was just excruciatingly painful by 2:30pm. And maybe the prospect of being a new mom had made me less cynical, but I seriously was not in the mood to hear a gripe fest on how impossible our task was (or how dumb our higher ups were for asking to do the task) or maybe I just don't see how it helps me get stuff done. This is why I never want to go into system engineering. The joke is that those who can't work with other go onto become system engineers...so you can imagine some of the heated discussions we've had thus far. And some of us have only known each other for a few days. The fighting really wasn't too bad, I just don't see how the marathon sessions can really be called productivity.

Oh, but I liked the new OB office. Great first impression and very friendly staff and doctor. Even though I keep hearing the heartbeat each week and this week's growth is definitely some stretching on my belly skin, it just doesn't seem all that real to me yet. Today, I may be feeling the baby move, or maybe I'm just imagining it cuz today I've had about 3 people ask me if I've felt it yet. I'll let y'all know when I decide. ;-)

Week 19 update

So I realize that it's been a while since I've posted any pregnancy updates. Today makes it 19 weeks! Amost half way through! I went to my old OB for the last time at 17 weeks and heard the heartbeat for the 2nd time. As expected, the heartbeat had slowed down a bit (now in the 140s). I still haven't gained much weight, and I asked the doctor about it, and she wasn't worried about it at all. She said that she actually preferred it if I don't gain a lot of weight. Even still, I am conscious of how much I eat & try to eat when & what I can.

This week, I go to the new Ob. Once I've gone to see the new OB and they've gotten a full history & initial visit, they will schedule the 20 week ultrasound (hopefully next week). So, hopefully the next update will be a more eventful one.

94 Good Years

Last week, I was saddened to hear of the passing of my great aunt. She was my paternal grandfather's sister. I know most folks these days don't seem to know much of their extended family, but when I grew up in L.A., our whole family was there and the Munesatos all saw each other a lot. My second cousins were always around to play & fight with, and we'd often mistake our granfathers for each other's (my grandfather & all his brothers all looked a like more & more as they got older). We had big family gatherings with all of my grandfather's brothers and sisters and all of their families. They still get together on Super Bowl Sunday for brunch (west coast, fellas) but I haven't made of these in years. Auntie Yae was a sweet old lady who always had a smile on her face when she saw you. When I got married almost 3 years ago, she sent me my birth announcement with the sweetest card. I'll miss her. God Bless and rest in peace, Auntie Yae.

Some things look easier than they really are

OK, some of the early ones....like how hard can they be.



Props to Bert for posting this on his site. So am I proud to be Japanese or just am I just explaining to everyone that my relatives branched in the evolutionary tree when they moved to America?

so you think you can dance

so i know that there isn't much to watch on TV, but we started watching So You Think You Can Dance a few seasons ago. this past season, this guy made it totally worth it instead of just a way to waste some time:

Superbad

Went to see Superbad on Saturday. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I can't even remember much about specific jokes, but I can't remember a time when I've laughed that hard at the movies. I think this is probably one of the crudest movies around, but at the same time actually had some pretty honest, real moments. Do not see this movie if you are easily offended and definitely heed the R rated-ness (not child safe). Hilarious.

My new phone

Last week, I got a call from Sprint saying that since Wei Yan ported his number to AT&T, that I no longer was on a plan and was being charged per minute. They offered to put me on a plan only to then inform me that getting on one of them would commit me to a 2 year contract. I was done talking to them & told them I would have to call them back later. Wei Yan tried to log in, only to find that he no longer can log in - so no access to our bill for that period. He called them & found out it was 50 cents per minute, but that luckily I hadn't used my phone much in that time. He also put me on a month-to-month plan, that only gave me 200 minutes ~ which at least is more like $0.20/minute.

But a decision had to be made, so got a refurbished Treo 680. It will tide me over until I find a phone that has everything I want (need the stylus, good batter life, 3G, etc). We did figure out that pretty much all customer service folks are created equal...we spent more time on the phone with the AT&T CS as Sprint, but only cuz we cared more about getting things right. Finally got my number ported after talking to several different people - which I admit wouldn't have been that bad, except that I work on the number portability software and I know it doesn't take that long! So, the number is the same, and I will actually be answering my phone now. :-)

New Ob

So the last few days or week I've been kind of stressing over changing obstetricians. I first found out that my current OB shares call with another practice, so if I deliver on the 2 weekends of the month that the other practice covers, than a doctor who I've never had an opportunity to meet with would be taking care of me. I also realized that the classes we take before the due date will be with folks from Durham and probably not Raleigh. It will probably be harder to hear about resources for folks living in Raleigh - for day cares, doctors, etc.
I heard a few weeks ago from a friend's mom (who works as a nurse at durham regional) that she wouldn't recommend delivering at the hospital that my Ob delivers at. Then last week, I met a lady who works as a pharmacist there, and she said she also wouldn't go there as a patient. So for the past week or so, I've been asking around for referrals. I've gotten some really good recommendations - for about 3-4 practices that deliver at Rex. I wasn't sure how I would decide. My friend who is a nurse at Rex recommended hands down a place called Atrium ObGyn (she also mentioned some other great practices, but said this was her 1st pick). After hearing a glowing review from another friend who actually went to Atrium as a patient and said a bunch of the things that really appealed to me, I called them this morning. I'll have to go through another intro with the nurse going over the medical history, but there are 4-5 doctors in the office (the most senior no longer does ob care/call) and a nurse practitioner - and they don't share call. I'm feeling much more at peace about the whole thing, and we might even be able to get a 3D ultrasound later in the pregnancy for not a crazy outrageous fee.
So anyway, that worry has been alleviated in a huge way for me. It's definitely hard to make a decision that you've already made and then decided wasn't the right decision in the first place, but at the same time we are definitely fortunate to be living in RTP with so many good hospitals and good medical schools around here - I don't think I could have made a bad decision with the few practices that were recommended to me.

More on Kobe-gate

The other night I stayed up WAY too late to watch the Kobe interview on Jimmy Kimmel's show. I think this article pretty much summed it all up. It was worth staying up for, even if I only got a laugh, but no reassurances. *sigh* I think the article said it all.

Oh, and Kobe mentioned some soccer player (as his sports idol), but I couldn't make out the name. Kobe went all italian on us and said the way you are supposed to, but I have no idea who it was. Anyone know? I'll have to check out all his soccer tricks on uTube.

Bourne Ultimatum

Every time I go to a new sequel this summer, seems like I can't for the life of me remember what happened in the last movie. Maybe it's pregnancy brain, or just that I pretty much go to movies to shut my brain off. You will not hear me complaining that Transformers wasn't "real enough" or the acting was bad. Really, it's 1) enter theater, 2) shut brain off.

We went to go see Bourne Ultimatum last night and I think if your brain was half on, you would still enjoy it. I do remember laughing during some fight scene and thinking, "Am I supposed to be laughing here?", but yup, it was definitely entertaining. I think the biggest chuckle was the Norton anti-virus scan...hilarious. I wonder how much that cost!?!? Everyone has told us to go to the movies now, since after the baby gets here, we won't be watching many. Luckily this summer has kept us busy.

When procrastination is a good thing

So with all the Michael Vick stuff happening and the Boston College Men's basketball woes last year, it never ceases to amaze me that athletes can't just put off smoking weed or other illegal activities for a few years! If your football career just won't be that long, or maybe you just need to make it 3 years to get into the NBA, can you just not do stupid stuff at that time? It's not like you won't have tons of time after your career is over & you are sitting on a huge pile of cash. I just don't understand.

This guy has got to take the prize. Maybe he should have also given up pot for a few years.