Different Ways of Burping

See how tiny Ethan was...it seems like daddy was strangling him

this way is relaxing

Umbilical Cord Fell Off

It finally came off today.

Jaundice

On Sunday July 15, we took him to see urgent care cuz we noticed on Saturday that he's kinda yellow...jaundice. They withdrawn blood from his heels...poor baby. His bilirubum level was 18.

Then, we went to doctor's again on Monday July 16 as schedule when we left the hospital. They withdrawn blood from his tiny arm...poor baby. His bilirubum level went down to 16.1 I think.

Then doctor wanted to see him again on Tuesday July 17 cuz he hadn't gained weight. He told us to give him 1 oz of formula so he can get calories, gain weight. On Tuesday, a nurse from "Welcome Home Baby" came to visit and he weigh 6 lbs and 8 oz...gained 4 oz!!! that's with diaper on. When we went to the doctor, he weighed 6 lbs 7 oz...so he gained 3 oz (without diaper). Doctor wants us to go back on Monday July 23rd to see if he gains all his birth weight back. I hope he does or else doctor will keep telling us to go back or do blood test on him

Not Gaining Weight

Ethan loves to sleep...like a pig. It takes me a long time to wake him up. He rather sleeps, but I have to wake him up to feed or else he won't gain weight. First, he didn't pee or poo for over 12 hrs so we were concerned. When nurse checked him, his diaper was dry, but when doctor came, sure enough, he pee and poo (on Thursday, his weight was 6 lbs and 4 oz). His birth weight was 6 lbs 12 oz.

Pictures Taken in July

http://picasaweb.google.com/susanc521/EthanJuly2007

Ethan loves to make all kinds of faces, loves to stretch a lot!

Welcome Home Ethan!

We only stayed at the hospital for 1 night. We came home around 9 PM. Ethan's going home outfit was way too big for him although it said it's for newborn.

Small and cute foot!


http://picasaweb.google.com/susanc521/July122007WelcomeHome

Pictures Taken at the Hospital

Don't cry baby. As soon as Ethan came out, he was crying. Oh poor baby...don't cry..mommy loves you.

Daddy thought Ethan looked like him at first....like this picture.

I said to daddy, "daddy, we did good" (which means baby looks cute :D ) Baby has a lot of hair, 10 fingers, 10 toes, cute nose, cute mouth, cute ears hehehe.

http://picasaweb.google.com/susanc521/July102007EthanIsFinallyHere#

Ethan is Finally Here!

I checked into the hospital around 1:20 A.M. on July 10th. Nurse comfirmed that my water did break. I had no clue, I only knew my underwear was wet (I thought I couldn't hold my pee). Nurse checked me and told me I was 3 cm dilated. It was sooooooo painful when her fingers were inside of me!!! ARGH! I jumped! She told me not to jump because she had to check @_@ She asked me how's my pain from 1-10. I think I said 2 or 3.



I felt my contractions closer and closer. Althought they weren't painful, I hate the tightness feeling. I think the 2nd time nurse checked me again, I was about 5 cm dilated. The 3rd time she checked me, I was 7 cm dilated. Every time I felt contraction, I told Eric to hit my lower back. I said, "HIT ME!!!". Hitting my back really helps.



The 3rd time when nurse checked me, she asked how's my pain from 1-10. I said, "I guess, may be 5". She asked me if I needed something to feel better. I said, "sure!". Oh yeah, she told me to lay on my left side because baby's heart rates dropped. She also gave me oxygen mask. She said because my water broke, I need to give baby more oxygen. I didn't like the oxygen mask cuz it smelled like tires. It was hard for me to lay on my left side cuz my tummy was big and there's no body pillow and besides hospital bed is not comfortable.

Not too long after that I asked her if I could use the restroom, I felt like pooping. She checked me again and said I was 7 cm dilated, but can stretch to 9 cm. She started to prep stuffs and then asked me to push. Before she asked me to push, I felt the urge to poo so I actually push twice (I think that's why I tared a little). I pushed about 5-10 minutes before doctor came. I push may be about another 15-20 minutes before Ethan came out.

Funny thing is I cheated a few times when nurse wasn't looking at the monitor. Every time when contraction came, she'll asked me to push. I had to push for 10 seconds and each contraction I had to do 3 sets of pushing. There were a few times she wasn't looking so I just tried to act I wasn't feel any contractions at all so I could rest for few seconds. :P

Right before Ethan came out I heard "snip snip". My doctor cut me :( , but good thing I didn't feel anything. The only time I felt something was when she stitched me up. Ethan came out at 4:19 AM!!! He was 6 lbs 12 oz and 19 inches long. When doctor put Ethan on my tummy, I was shocked cuz my labor went really quick and quite painless. I didn't get epidural yeah!!! My total labor was only about 3 hours!!!

My Last Doctor's Visit Before Meeting Ethan

I had a dr's visit on Monday, July 9th. Doctor asked me if I felt any contractions at all. I said no. She said because I was already 2 cm dilated. I told her I didn't feel contractions, I just felt the braxton hicks every few hours. She said those are contractions. I said, "Oh". This was my first time being pregnant, so I had no idea. She checked baby's heart rates and it was kinda low, so she wanted me to schedule an appointment at 5 am the next day to deliver my baby. I called work to request for time off right away. We were so excited that baby's coming out soon! I kept telling baby to come out on July 7 (so his bday would be 7/7/07). I was supposed to take maternity leave starting on July 16th.

So, we went to sleep around 11 pm on July 9th. We both were excited, so we couldn't sleep. We woke up around 11:55. I was sitting on the sofa and I started to feel contraction again and again, so I timed it. Then I felt wetness (I thought I pee), so I went to the bath room to pee. After that I told my husband, urm I feel contractions about every 5 minutes. Eric said, "Ok, I think it's time to go". We packed our bags and headed toward hospital. On the way there, I called the hospital, and the nurse told me I should wait about an hour to check into the hospital. I told her my contractions are 5 minutes apart. She said they usually recommend patients to wait an hour or two, but if I want to check in now, I can." After I hang up, I was thinking, is she crazy?

Baby's 3D / 4D Ultrasound

Although I did an ultrasound at the hospital on March 9th when I was around 21 weeks pregnant, I didn't get to see my baby. I had to drink at least 24 oz of water at least an hour before my appointment. The lady didn't show me anything. She just measured this and that and then asked my husband to come in after she's done. She kinda showed him, here is baby's private part, here is the spine... but DH couldn't even tell. She didn't even give us a print out either because the printer was broken. We found out we are having a boy! Everyone else was guessing baby was a girl.

So I decided to go to a private place to do 3D/4D ultrasound on March 24. Baby was smiling, yawning, and kicking. He's so cute! http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=uoyup4x.6h2bp7ed&Uy=-umri10&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0

I'm pregnant!

I did a home pregnancy test on Nov. 15 in the morning. I used "Clearblue" and was shocked to see the word "pregnant" on the stick. I didn't expect to get pregnant on our first try :P .

Honeymoon at St. Lucia

We went to St. Lucia for honeymoon from 10/17 - 10/24 (6 nights). http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=uoyup4x.9ji01psp&Uy=-tdd6q8&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=274905916900_973155884605&localeid=en_US

We stayed at Sandals Regency. We flew from San Diego to L.A., L.A. to Miami, Miami to Hewanorra. Since it's all inclusive, we pigged out and drank as much as we could :P

We joined a local tour "Soufriere Adventure Cruise". We passed by the Pitons, Marigot Bay, and Soufriere. There's the drive-in volcano and the Diamond Botanical Gardens with waterfall ( briefly featured in the Superman II movie) at Soufriere. We had lunch at a restaurant in Soufriere. Afterwards we dropped by Marigot Bay and then snorgled.

We also did "Two-Hour Horseback Riding". I swam with the horse in the Atlantic beach!

The food wasn't that great. It's so humid there. We took taxi to town, but we didn't buy anything. We wanted to buy those carved wooden stuffs, but they are so expensive. It seems like the locals love sex. They sell many wooden stuffs that show the naked bodies or show it on t-shirts, either pictures or words. They even have a song, something "bam bam Lulu".

We had a couples massage, which was relaxing.

Wedding Day

Our reception was on 10/7. My father and aunty came to my wedding from Taiwan. I only slept for 3-4 hrs because I was working on the slide show. I put pictures together and wanted to do a slide show at the restaurant but I didn't get to finish it. My bridesmaids were Romalyn and Sun. Eric's groomsmen were Duy and Franklin. Sun slept over and we went over to my mom's at 6 A.M. My make up artist was late. He came over around 6:45 or so with his cousin.

It was funny. My niece was my flower girl. When she came over, she was asking my mom where I was. I was sitting by the front door and she didn't recognize me with make up on hahaha.

Eric was running a little bit late. Only few things went wrong since there's no rehearsal for Chinese wedding (just go with the flow, do whatever elderly tells you to do).

Tea ceremony at my mom's was short, but tea ceremony at Eric's house was long. I wore high heels and my feet hurt, so we decided not to take outdoor pictures at Balboa Park.

Reception at the restaurant started at 6:30 P.M. I was supposed to greet guests at that time, but I wasn't ready yet cuz my make up artist did touch up for me and he wanted to make sure I look great. He did a great job on my make up and hair. I love it!

My feet hurt even more cuz I was standing by the front door to greet guests for 1-2 hr. Food was great even though I didn't get to eat much. I only had a few sips of shark fin soup and then I went to change out to qi pao to do toast from table to table. By the time I came back to my table, my shark fin soup was gone =~( The cake was good too.

Even though it was a super long day and we were so very tired, over all I think it went nicely.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=uoyup4x.2ob8w7xx&Uy=c2kqn4&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=689153763775_660164864605&localeid=en_US

Here is a picture of my dog Du-Du! He was a good boy! Normally, he would take off if the door is open. For some reason, he kept following me or stood close by me at all time on that day. He kept sitting on my train.

Engagement Photos

We took engagement photos at Balboa Park and La Jolla on 9/9/06. http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=uoyup4x.3mqtftnx&Uy=-2ua9v0&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=847242531780_438844864605&localeid=en_US

Earlier that day, we got married at the County Office. We had lunch at Fish Market and then we had picture taking. After that, we went back to Fish Market to have dinner.