New Car

 

 

So here are finally pics of Wei Yan's new toy. These are pics from the detail job (he's more anal about the white paint than he was with the old black/gray) - so eventually we'll get a pic of the whole car. At least you can see the wheels he choose. Sadly I intended to post these a few days ago but accidentally shut off the NAS instead of rebooting it...

The baby seat fits in the back and Max has had some fun riding in the new car on the way to day care with daddy. by the way, i still think this is an ugly car and no, i have not drivin it yet. i don't know which is worse, the last car that i thought looked great but hated driving (transmission was really clunky, ride was rough....although the looks were pretty funny) or a car that I'll probably like driving but don't like the way it looks...hey, i'm from LA, looks matter ;-)....at least when it comes to cars....

Best and Worse Parts about being a new mom

Worst
1. When you are so tired you are afraid you will fall asleep standing up or sitting somewhere while holding him and you're afraid you'll drop him, but you are just so tired.
2. Big poopy diapers. 'nuf said.
3. When Max is crying and you have no idea why and nothing seems to work.

Best
1. Smelling Max right after his bath when he's all fresh and clean.
2. He smiles now. He doesn't necessarily recognize people now from what I can tell, but he finds joy in little things. He loves his mobile (winds up & moves while playing music) and his play mat. We can also make him smile when he's in a good mood just by talking to him and playing with him.
3. When I burp Max he puts his arm around mine and it's like getting a little hug. You can put your finger in his hand and he'll grab on and just hang on forever. :-)

1st day at day care pics!

 

 

Max on his first full day at day care. His daddy did his hair like this the night before after his bath and the next day it was still going strong!

Back to Work

Monday was my first day back to work. It started off a bit slow since I had to wait on my OB's office to fax me a letter that I needed clearing me to go back to work. So Wei Yan left in the morning to take Max to day care and I got some time to clean the house a bit (yeah, to look at you would never be able to tell I had done anything...but the 45min was the most I've done at one time in forever). My work email inbox was just shy of 700 emails. For 10 weeks that's not bad! I was able to delete most of them and only read maybe 50-100. Yes, I was counting down the minutes I had to go pick up Max, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be.

Monday evening and Tuesday were a bit rough, we're trying to figure out if Max's eczema is bothering him (crap, i just added "ezcema" to the mozilla spellchecker by accident....darn it). So by Tuesday evening I was ready to go back full time. Wednesday at work, I figured out I'll be taking off Tuesdays and Thursdays until May 20th and then I'm full time after that.

Course this morning things are much nicer. Max was pretty fussy last night. The day care said that we should bring in some diaper cream for his "bm, uncontained" that irritated his bottom - I was annoyed at first but once I checked it out, I was impressed cuz I think they were actually being overly cautious. Still that might have been bothering him a bit on top of the ezcema. Fed him at 10:15pm, and Max woke up at 3:20am for a feeding. Then he was asleep by 4am and didn't wake up until 8:30am. I fed him and we played for a bit and he fell fast asleep around 10am. Hopefully today will be much better! It would really suck if the last 10 days of my maternity leave are spent taking care of a really cranky baby! This morning he was smiling and loving just hearing me talk to him and watching the ceiling fan from his bassinet after breakfast. I'd post some pics, but the camera is still in Wei Yan's car right now...soon.

New Vacuum Cleaner

So recently our vacuum died on us. Anyone have a good recommendation? We have stairs, and I used to vacuum them with a hand held corded dirt devil - but that hasn't happened in a long time since I really don't feel like vacuuming on my hands and knees. A friend of mine said her Dyson collects dust somewhere inside - that the occasional dust cloud will erupt despite efforts to have it serviced & throughly cleaned out.

movie night and day care...

We were able to get out to watch 21 in the theater last night. Good movie - not as good as Rounders or anything, but entertaining. The theater near our house has free popcorn on Tuesdays with your frequent movie goer/points card - i ate like a third of my bag. Wei Yan finished his whole bag. We argued about the goat problem afterwards, which made me feel like we're closer to the nerds in the movie than I'd like to admit (ok, i didn't do much arguing, except for us to get on the road & get some food before stuff closed).

Max also went to day care for a half day this morning. They said he did really well and liked sitting on the playmat that has stuff hanging from a bar overhead - he really likes the mat my aunt got him too, so that made sense. He also stayed up the whole time he was there, just like yesterday. Last night he slept from about 11:30pm to 5:30am - not sure if it was the shots or that he only slept for a few hours during the day. He's sleeping more today, so we'll see....

2 month check up survived

so we survived. i thought i'd be more upset, but i was just so amazed at how red max's face got. and he also looked so mad - not sad. i tried giving him his pacifier when he started screaming - but he wouldn't take it. i scooped him up once the nurse said i could and he got quiet - for like 10 seconds. but then i was able to get him to take the pacifier and he quieted down after a few minutes of rocking. got him into his car seat and he was out. he was up pretty much the whole day. from 9:30pm to 6:30pm he only slept for 2 hours (2 one hour naps) and one or two 10 min naps.

oh, he also weighs 12 lbs 5 oz and is 23-1/8 inches long. Which puts him in the 63% for weight and 55% for height. His head was 15-7/8 inches and i think in the high 50s as far as percentile goes. he's also got some ezcema - worst on his face and under his chins, but it doesn't seem to bother him much.

k, sleepy time for me. max goes to day care for a half day tomorrow. i should have planned better - but at least i'll be getting a massage. monday i am back to work part time - i'll be going back mon/wed/fri for 5 weeks. so that's 10 weeks of full time maternity leave and then 5 weeks where tuesday & thursday are my maternity leave - til i use up my 12 weeks. sucks cuz i think i'll be using up vacation days too...anyway, i'm babbling. time for bed.

2 month checkup

Going tomorrow afternoon. Just realized that poor max is going to get his shots. Last time he got shots it was in the hospital and it was just one. And i was not there with him. Hopefully these shots won't be too hard on either of us! Max can cry a LOT louder now and with real tears, so hopefully we both survive ok. ;-) wish us luck.

Daddy's babies

 

So daddy's supra drove away for the last time yesterday. wei yan had never heard his own car pulling away from the house - it does sound good. max got to sit in the supra for the first and last time and now it's off to a new home. at least he has one cute baby left!

Food Coma

 

nuf said.

and my favorite picture of late....

 

Crib

 

Max finally got his crib and his mattress. USA Baby is Cary was very lame. They were nice, just extremely incompetent in getting us the crib, armoire and mattress. I don't know how many hours we wasted on the phone with them just getting the stuff here. It was also about 12 week later than the long end of the time frame they told us when we ordered. Anyway, this was back a week ago when he got to sleep in his crib for the first time. He's sleeping in the hail mary pose - which he usually will only sleep in for maybe 20 min.

Here is max sleeping on his side - he can sleep for a long time like that - probably because this is more of the fetal position and maybe because that's how i had to sleep when I was pregnant with him!

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.