Return of the Bilirubin

We thought the bilirubin was under control, however the levels today were elevated so they recommended that we start phototherapy.  Newborns generally have a susceptibility to high bilirubin levels since their liver is not fully developed, but Emilia also has a secondary factor.  Since Connie is Type O blood, I'm Type A and Emilia is Type A, she has a thing called ABO incompatibility.  Basically Connie's AB antibodies crossed the placenta, and are trying to take out the baby's Type A RBC's.  One of the by-products of this is bilirubin which builds up in the fatty tissue of the skin, and causes a yellow appearance (jaundice).  It sounds bad, but it's usually easily controlled by 1-2 days of phototherapy.  Basically, the baby is placed over blue UV lights, and the UV converts the bilirubin into a form that can be naturally removed by the body.

It's been a bit of a battle getting Emilia to accept being in the light box.  This is because it eliminates some of the soothing tricks we use, namely: tight swaddling and puttting her on her side.  But since she has no choice, she eventually accepts it.

We also still have the elevated WBC issue we're dealing with, but we should know tomorrow whether there is any infection that would require further treatment.  Hopefully not as that would mean another ~5 days in the hospital.

The good news today is that she passed her hearing test.

So This is a Newborn

In her first day of life on the outside, Emilia pooped 5 times and pee'd twice.  She's a food processing machine.

Her bilirubin levels are normal so her liver function looks good, and she won't need to be treated for jaundice.  However, they found that her WBC counts are a little high so they are going to administer some antibiotics, and monitor her for a few more days at the hospital.  Looks like she won't be home until Tue or Wed.

She's Here!

29 hours of contractions later, Connie gave birth to Emilia Ying-Zhi Sakurada at 9:36 am this morning.

It was time to cut the cord, and begin a new dependent life outside the womb.

Emilia weighed in at 7 lbs 2 oz including a full head of hair.  She measures in at 19-3/4" in length.

She fortunately looks a lot more like Connie than me.

 

Mommy and baby are doing great.

 

Thanks to everyone for keeping us in your thoughts.  Stop by sometime, and check out the new kid.  We're interviewing for babysitters.

Getting Closer

At 7 am, Connie was at 8 cm.  Things are suppose to progress faster now so she should be pushing fairly soon.  She's had a strong urge to push, but they really want her at 10 cm first.  It's getting close, really close.  But I don't think I've convinced her of that yet.

Hard Labor

Connie's been in active labor since about midnight on Friday.  We headed to UCSD hospital in Hillcrest at about 1:30 am.  By about 5 am, she was at 6 cm.  The doula (Diana) says she should be in the transition stage now which is 7-10 cm.  When she gets to 10 cm, they'll allow her to start pushing.  It's been an incredible ride so far, and I'm amazed at Connie's tenacity.  Diana has been a tremendous asset as there's no way I would know how to deal with this myself.  Connie's "lounging" in the tub right now after it took literally hours to get it filled with water.

More to come...

Midwife Checkup

Connie had her normal midwife checkup scheduled for today so we decided to stick with it even though contractions have begun.  Our midwife (Beth) felt that Connie is in the very early stages of labor.  The contractions can progress over the next few days or they may subside and it could be up to a week until she's in what they call "active labor".  They really don't want you to head to the hospital until you're at this stage.  We also have a doula (Diana) who's keeping track of where we're at.

Beth checked Connie's cervix, and she's dilated at 1 cm.  Unfortunately we don't have any previous measurements so we don't know if this is a change or not.  The contractions are about every 6-10 minutes for 20-50 sec.  They're also somewhat irregular which is another sign of early labor.

 

Uh, someone's looking a little too happy to be in labor.  This is Connie hooked up to the fetal and contraction monitors.  They basically monitor the baby's heart rate for 20 minutes, and also watch to see if there's any effect on the heart rate during contractions.  Apparently our baby has a good oxygen supply since the heart rate didn't change much during the course of the test.  Here's a look at the monitor with the baby's heart rate on the left, and the contraction level on the right.

Connie educated me on the contraction levels, and said that the values are just relative numbers.  They don't have a standard baseline they start from so the range will be different on each machine.  In this case, we saw values from ~18-45.  But you could definitely correlate higher values with Connie's discomfort.

They also did a quick ultrasound, and confirmed that the baby is still in the head down (vertex) position.  She's still high (hasn't "dropped" yet), but Beth told us not to be concerned about that.  She should move down with the contractions.  So we're basically now in the waiting mode - packed and ready to head to the hospital whenever the time comes.

Now if I can just get some plumbing work done before then...

First Stage!

Officially in first stage of labor... 10 minutes apart, 40 seconds of discomfort, past several hours. Piece of cake, no problemo right now. I'm even still blogging!

Time? Maybe?

I've been having on and off Braxton Hicks (practice contractions) for the past month now.. they are painless, short and just feel like a muscle tensing up. The past two nights, they have become a lot more frequent and regular, but no pain. This morning however is a little different. The contractions are definitely not comfortable now and have become regular ~20 seconds long, and roughly ~8 minute interval apart. Hence, I am up blogging this since I can't go back to sleep. However, this is still considered irregular and not labor yet... so, now we just wait and see.

Ode to the Belly

Belly, oh belly, at first forgotten you always were.
I thought you were still slender, forgetting you were not.
Squishing in between tight spaces, you should not.
However I have grown with you as you have grown with me.
Twice I think before walking between them parked cars,
And now you are happily unscathed by those rigid side-mirrors.
Belly, oh belly, how content you now are.

Belly, oh belly, how we have grown!
From early days of seemingly chunky over-weight,
To the reminiscent shape of ancient Romanesque arches.
The Buddha of you now brings lucky rubbings from those around,
And my excuse to pat and talk to you.
Proudly you stand and out front you have become.
Belly, oh belly, you do protrude so!

Belly, oh belly, once my paranoia, now my convenience.
How wonderful we are together!
My mug securely rests on you, as we cozy together.
A base you provide, as I scribble notes on your supportive surface.
Belly, oh belly, these are the last days we have together.
I eagerly await your bundle, though will also miss these days soon of old.
Belly, oh belly, oh belly of mine!

Defender 110: Where It All Began...

This was a road test done in 1992 as the first of only 500 NAS (North American Spec) Defender 110's were being imported to the US:

Baby Face

Since the ECV, I go to the hospital twice a week for fetal monitoring to make sure she is still doing okay due to the short dip in heart rate during the ECV. For the fetal monitoring, I sit in a chair and hook up to a fetus heart-rate monitor and a contraction monitor. For a duration of 20 minutes, I count baby's movement with a Jeopardy-like clicker device that puts a tick mark on the fetal heart rate monitor so they can correlate the baby's movements with an increased heart rate. The room has four chairs to monitor up to four pregnant women at a time for various reasons. After the monitoring, I go to the next room and get an ultrasound to check on baby's position.

The latest ultrasound, I was able to see a bit of baby's face. Still not so clear, esp in the still image, but it was exciting to see her little face peaking out on the ultrasound.. asleep and peaceful. =)

Baby's First Toys

Baby's first toys from daddy and mommy!



Ryan bought baby a ladybug twilight constellation nightlight. It is pretty awesome and projects the full night sky in three different color settings onto the ceiling and the walls... and the ladybug fits nicely with baby's cute forest theme.

I bought baby her first snuggly owl. It's probably bigger than she will be when she arrives. Ryan's mom says the owl is a symbol for happiness in the Japanese culture.

This Baby Has Been ECV'd

Connie went into the hospital this morning to have the ECV (external cephalic version) done. This is how she looked before they started. (Sorry for the poor iPhone photos. I forgot to bring the real camera).

Then they stuck this in her arm, and things got more serious. They told us about all of the bad things that can happen during the procedure, and had us sign a waiver. Of course, they have to do this even if the risks are minuscule. Worst case scenario we envisioned was possibly needing an emergency C-section.

Connie said that the IV was really painful. The nurse told us that they use extra large needles for pregnant women since they may need a lot of blood if something goes wrong. So they use large diameter needles to be able to pump in a lot of blood fast. How comforting...

They then administered a drug that relaxes smooth muscle. The purpose was to get the uterus to relax so it would be easier to turn the baby. A sign that the drug is working is an elevated pulse rate. Here's a shot of the vitals monitor just before they attempted to turn the baby. Connie's pulse is 111, and the baby's heart rate is 132 (it fluctuated between ~125-155).


They then hooked up the ultrasound, re-confirmed the baby's position, established a plan for rotating the baby, and began pushing. They started by ensuring the baby was up high enough out of the pelvis. This didn't require much as this baby has liked to stay high in Connie's belly. Next was to dig in deep, and start rotating. The following picture is when the baby was about in the horizontal position (rotated 90 deg CCW from her starting head-up, vertical position), and Connie was focused on that new test equipment she'd like to get at work ;^) Connie said that this was the most painful portion of the process. The last 90 deg of rotation happened so fast that I missed it. Overall the procedure took only a few minutes and was successful on the first try!


A cool thing about these dudes at UCSD (Drs. Kelly and Robertson) is that they monitored the entire procedure continuously on the ultrasound (unlike the YouTube video we watched in which they only did a before and after). This was much better because they were able to see how the baby was being re-positioned, and how she was responding. At one point her heart rate slowed (seen visually on the ultrasound) so they adjusted Connie's position, and it came right back up. However, since it did depress for a short while, they monitored everything for an additional 2 hours after they were done.

Overall it was a huge success, and went as well as can be expected. They were impressed by how well Connie tolerated the process (which isn't real pleasant for Mom nor baby). Now we just hope that baby doesn't flip back. They felt that Connie's uterus tone should be sufficient to hold her in position so they didn't recommend using any kind of restraint.

Next step: Drop Baby Drop.

Pregnancy Update: External Cephalic Version

Our last mid-wife appointment was on Friday, where we were hoping that baby would have moved from her head-up, breeched position to head-down vertex.

I have been seeing an acupuncturist and a pre-natal chiropractor, along with tilt exercises and alternative remedies (chinese herbs and moxibustion) every single day this past week to coax baby into turning around. However, baby is a stubborn little tiger and is comfortable in a 100% complete buddha breeched position.



The ultrasound technician was really patient and helpful this time, explaining what we were seeing and the position baby is in. Baby pretty much looks like the image above, except her hands are in front of her face. The technician also showed us something new! She showed us baby's chest/lung area where we could see some movement, which is baby practicing how to breathe!! She also told us that baby has a lot of hair on her head and we could see the strands on the back of her neck! That is pretty amazing!

The other news we have is that now at 38 weeks pregnant, with limited room left for baby, the chances of her flipping on her own are very small. After spending a week trying alternatives, it is highly recommended for us to try the External Cephalic Version procedure, which is a procedure done at the hospital where the doctor externally and manually presses and moves the baby. (Here's a Youtube video of the procedure with cheesy music).

It is an uncomfortable procedure with minimal risk, but there is small risk that something goes wrong and a C-section would be needed right away. Anyhow, the alternative of not doing the procedure would be a for-sure scheduled C-section. While lots of people get C-sections and are just fine, the benefits of a natural birth for both baby and mom helped lean us towards giving this a try. So, we go in tomorrow morning, Monday, for the External Cephalic Version. Turn baby turn!!

Gong Hei Fat Choi!

Happy Chinese New Year!! and Gong Hei Fat Choi!!

2010 is the year of the Metal Tiger , a strong Chinese zodiac symbol for baby!

"Tiger people are sensitive, given to deep thinking, capable of great sympathy. They can be extremely short-tempered, however. Other people have great respect for them, but sometimes tiger people come into conflict with older people or those in authority. sometimes Tiger people cannot make up their minds, which can result in a poor, hasty decision or a sound decision arrived at too late. They are suspicious of others, but they are courageous and powerful. Tigers are most compatible with Horses, Dragons, and Dogs "
(excerpted from here)

She's going to be a feisty little one, as evidenced by her current constant moving and kicking in the belly... especially when the acupuncturist and chiropractor are poking her! That's my little girl! =)

It also means I'm going to have to keep a close watch on her. Luckily I'm a Dragon and Ryan's a Dog, so both of us having compatibility with baby should help.

Now... will she be an Aquarius or Pisces?

This Old House, Part 1

In preparation for the new baby, we've been busy getting things ready around the house. Connie's been taking care of researching and acquiring the amazing number of baby things we'll need. Thankfully we've had family and friends who've been able to provide us with a LOT of stuff. I've been focusing on the house since I haven't really done much with it since I moved here about 5 years ago. My time was consumed with getting the outside under control since it had been neglected for a long time by the previous inhabitants (i.e. renters).

The first thing I did to make things more kid-safe was replace all of the electrical receptacles with tamper-resistant outlets. I didn't realize these were available until I went looking for them. We were going to just do the plug-in plate things, but the house is really dated (70's style) so it was asking for an upgrade. So every receptacle in the house now looks like this.

In the kitchen, bathrooms, and laundry room, I also installed GFCI outlets since that had never been done.

To keep things looking uniform, I also replaced all of the old style light switches with these new ones. Some incorporated dimmers (the little slide switches adjacent to the main switch) to help with lighting control.

And to make it a little easier to find the light switches in the dark, I used illuminated switches in certain spots. An interesting thing I found is that some illuminated 3-way switches won't light up in certain circuits. I think it has something to do with a voltage differential they require to operate, and there are varying residual voltages in the 3-way circuits here. Another project for the future.

An outgrowth of replacing all of these outlets and switches is that I traced just about every electrical circuit in the house. So we now only have one unknown light switch (seems to be an abandoned 4-way) and a couple of circuit breakers that don't seem to connect to anything (they're both switched off, and I haven't noticed anything not working). I also found an interesting DIY job on a 3-way circuit. Whoever did it thought they didn't have enough wires in a cable to wire up a 3-way circuit. So they used the bare ground wire as a hot lead. Yikes! Needless to say, that's been remedied.

The house has always been rather dim (ok, almost like a cave) so I upgraded the lighting in a lot of locations. In the living room, I added some recessed lighting.

The master bedroom, Connie's office, and baby room got new surface mount ceiling lights.

And the bathrooms all got new lighting fixtures.

I also finally replaced the stairway chandelier that had been missing since I removed the giant fish hook chandelier when I first moved in.

The kitchen needs a complete remodel. But that's something for the distant future. So for now, I just cleaned up the existing lighting, re-wired it to balance out the circuits better, and replaced a bad ballast and all of the fluorescent tubes. So it doesn't look much different (except maybe cleaner as you don't see the silhouette of dead bugs any more), but the lighting is way better.

The lights on the outside of the house are really dated looking and some have been falling apart.

I've got all of them replaced except the two at the entry in the above photo. Due to the rock wall, these are going to require some carving to get them to fit. But eventually they'll look like this one that is installed in another area.

There's more that's been done and will be done, but I think that's enough for now.

New Beemer DOHC Valve Arrangement

The 2010 RS1200GS (and RT's) have the new DOHC heads. I was curious about how the valves would be adjusted so I found this picture and set of instructions: 

The cam followers slide out after removing the E-ring retaining clips.  Adjustment is made via different size semi-spherical shims.  A bit of a pain to stock a supply of shims, but overall it seems to be much better (i.e. easier to adjust) than typical shim-under-bucket arrangements.

Turn Baby Turn

We're now at about 37 weeks, and the baby is still in the breech position. It seems that a lot of babies have turned by this point, and are positioned properly for their journey through the birth canal. But our baby seems to be happy keeping her head up high in Connie's belly. Since we'd like to go through natural childbirth, it's required that the baby be in the vertex (head down) position.

So we're trying various methods to see if we can convince her to turn. Some of them are:
Acupuncture
Chinese Herb Therapy
Moxibustion at Acupuncture Point BL67 (baby toe)
Prenatal Chiropractic - Webster Technique
Breech Tilt Position

Since we have so many things going at the same time, we won't know which one actually works (if any). But we're more concerned with just getting her to turn. And who knows, she could just decide to flip on her own right up to the day of delivery.

World War II

What could be more fun than a few friends and world domination? As baby is nearing, we took a day off for one last battle of Axis & Allies, 50th Anniversary edition. Of course, it was one day of conquests and defeats, but a week's worth of collaboration and strategizing with our respective alliances.

The true nature of everyone came out. CR's true computer science side peeked through with his laptop and his own battle outcome statistic generator program that calculates the percentage of victory based on probability of dice rolls. He did not code into account everybody's luck factor though. Ryan and Curt had pretty solid scoring rolls. Jon and Rob had the usual kamikaze outcomes.

The battles begun at 10am sharp with breakfast bagels, donuts, coffee... which slowly evolved into Red Bull, beer, and munchies through the course of 8 hours play. Japan(me) took over Burma and was slowly moving into India, while keeping US naval on its toes in the Pacific. Italy(Ryan) had made its way into Africa and the Persian Gulf, to threaten Russia(Rob) from the south. U.S (Jon) was a force to be reckoned with as the sheer size and IPCs allowed it to battle the Pacific as well as Europe. The main teetering of domination however was in Europe as land kept being conquered and then re-conquered between Germany (CR), Russia (Rob), and U.K. (Curt). Daylight soon gone, no victory for either side was in sight. I guess even with all our planning and relatively early start - we still under-estimated the time for completion.. again!

CR has a much better post about the play-to-play individual war strategies on his blog.

The Workshop Build Saga

We've been kind of baby-centric so here's a little diversion.

One of the main reasons I got this particular property was to be able to build a workshop on it. It took about 6 months to get the permit, and ground was finally broke in Nov of '05. As most construction projects go, it took longer than anticipated, and wasn't complete until Aug of '06. Huge Thanks to my friend Tom in LA who came down here, and helped me with the assembly of the metal building.



Here's a few specs on the building:
36' W x 48' H (1728 sq ft)
18' Peak Height, 12' Eave Height
10' x 10' Door Openings (3)
Steel and Wood Framing
240V, 1-Ph, 100A Electrical Service

T-28 Days

February is here! Will baby arrive on her expected due date, February 28th? And what is her name?!?

The baby pool is in high effect as we will soon also find out who the winner is on guess-timating the closest to baby's arrival. The boy guesses still have a 23% chance that both ultrasound techs were wrong in interpreting the gender! =)

We are now at 36 weeks into the pregnancy and baby is usually considered full-term at the end of 37 weeks. My "practice contractions", the Braxton Hicks, have started and I feel them on a daily basis now. However, baby is quite content staying high in the belly in a breeched position. So, typical babies come out between 37 and 42 weeks... where will she fall in?

There is the last minute mad rush now to get all affairs in order - wrapping up projects at work, finalizing maternity leave and insurance, organize the house for baby AND the stream of family that will be visiting, and stocking up with food for when we won't have much time to grocery shop or cook.

Also, if anyone has easy, simple food recipes that are healthy to pass on to me, that would greatly help.

Last minute guesses for birth date, birth time, weight, and length are still open in the pool!