Liam's Favorite Place to Sleep

ABS Bouldering Comp

Got to see my niece, Elizabeth, compete in the ABS Youth Bouldering Comp today at our other local gym, Mesa Rim. She placed second in a similar comp in CO. Looking forward to the time when we can get Em and Liam out climbing with her.


Update: Elizabeth placed second in her division at this comp. She's setting a high bar for Emilia and Liam.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Momma trying to catch some precious zzz's while Liam naps. Don't roll over ;^0

In The Clear

Today's doc check gave Liam a clear on the jaundice. The yellow color is gone and Liam's weight is slowly gaining. He is at 7lbs-2oz now and looks to be at his birth weight really soon. So, all in all, we're finally back to adjusting to each other, new schedules, and new ways of doing things.

It's been looking good since Liam's come home. Emilia loves her little brother and shares her toys with him. She likes to help and tends to him, rocking his bouncer, putting his blanket on him, and patting him. So, all in all, we're settling in... finally. =)

Liam's Current Stats

Today's Bili is at an acceptable level of 12, which means it hasn't really increased since leaving the hospital. Doc still wants close monitoring, so another day of doctors and/or hospitals. Seems like it's one or the other every day.



Liam is doing well overall. He went into the bili-hospital with almost 9% loss of his birth weight, from 7 lbs-4oz to 6 lbs-10oz. Now with the aggressive bili-feeding approach and strict 3-hour feeding schedule, he has gained weight and is now at 7 lbs.

Bili Update: The Light at the End of the Bili-Tub

These past few days reminds me of the song "Blue" by Eiffel 65 as Liam and I have only seen blue while trapped inside a tiny little sterile room. Everything feels like it appropriately fits with a techno-beat blue song.

"Yo listen up, here is the story about a little guy, that lives in a blue world, and all day and all night, and everything he sees, is just blue... "




Labor and delivery was relatively short and easy compared to the past few days, which have been frustrating and tiresome. Liam has been such a trooper through all the blood draws, needle pricks, forced eye mask, and a blue tub isolation without much cuddle or holding. Mama has not been such a trooper, running on 1 hour intervals of sleep getting maybe 4-5 hours of sleep in 24 hour period, going back and forth with hospital personnels on the care of Liam and fighting traditional mentalities with modern preferences, while trying to "recover" from giving birth.

To recap and correct prior posts, Liam's bili went this way --> 7.1 --> 9.2 --> 15.3 --> 18.3 --> photo-therapy --> 15.3 --> 11.9 (yeh! below 12 means we get to come home!) Objective is to have a low number and/or a low delta gain the following day. So, from 7.1 to 9.2, delta gain is relatively low. But then it jumps from a 9 to a 15. Big delta change for a day's worth. And then from 15 to 18 in just a few hours. Not good. The numbers don't mean much, the concern is that 18.3 is very high and getting close to danger zone and other issues, so it was good that we did get re-admitted to the hospital to deal with this, even though it was very not fun.

We are now home, but not exactly out of the woods. The photo-therapy and increased in Liam's protein intake through formula supplement and me vigorously feeding him every three hours and additionally increasing milk through pumping after his feedings helped to bring the bili number back to a manageable level. Now the docs needs to see that Liam's liver can handle the bilirubins on their own, which we hope, and we will get an idea of that with another doc visit/blood draw tomorrow. So.. out of the woods, but not in the clearing yet.

Here's Ryan and Emilia paying Liam and I a visit:

Return of the Bilirubin, Part 2

This seems to be the way things go for us (we had a similar situation with Emilia). We found out that Liam's bilirubin level was too high again on Saturday so Connie had to take him back to the hospital. This time he went to the pediatric unit at Palomar Hospital. In retrospect, we may have been discharged too early from UCSD Hospital. I had the bilirubin levels wrong in my last post. His initial reading was correct at 7, but his second reading was just slightly higher (need to get the exact number when Connie gets back). It's a little obscure what is a good reading as it's more dependent on the trend. As long as the levels rise slightly or stay the same, things are good. But if they rise too rapidly, then alternative measures need to be taken. At UCSD, they must have thought that it was rising at an acceptable rate. But by Saturday, when we had him checked by our pediatrician, they had elevated to an unacceptable level. So that meant he had to receive phototherapy and supplemental formula until Connie's milk is fully in. He was retested this morning after receiving these treatments, and he is responding well. They expect that, if this trend continues, he should be able to come home tomorrow.

Welcome Home, Liam

We brought Liam home this afternoon after he was cleared of any bilirubin problems (He scored a 7 on his initial test which is borderline for requiring phototherapy. But he also tested Coombs negative which is good, and later tested at 14 for bilirubin so he was good to go). So this was the first opportunity for Emilia to meet him. (Sorry for the poor video - probably not enough light for the camera to focus properly.) She wasn't quite sure what to make of him (maybe he was too chill), but she later (off-camera) warmed up quite a bit and was even able to pronounce his name. She wants to help more than we can allow her so that gets frustrating for her. If she had her choice, she'd like to be able to carry him around. But for obvious reasons, we can't allow her to do that. The plus though is that I think she's going to be a big help down the road.



ps. It's way different having two babies at home - lots of juggling and shuffling.

The Name

Well, we've finally come up with the name for Baby 2:

Liam has an Irish origin, and means "unwavering protector" which we hope he will be for his "big" sister. Noboru was suggested by my Mom, and means "to rise or ascend" which, not only has a climbing connotation, but is hopefully how he will meet the challenges in his life.

We've also found out that little Liam may not be as mild-mannered as we thought he was going to be...

Labor and Delivery Details

Connie first started having contractions on Wed around 3 pm during her midwife checkup. They remained brief and irregular until around 9 pm. For the next hour, they became quite regular and more intense. We contacted the hospital, and they said we should come in as soon as possible. So we dropped off Emilia with the nanny, and arrived at the hospital around 11:40 pm. The midwife checked out Connie, and she was already at 9 cm!

Things were happening very quickly so the midwife was even concerned about me leaving to get our things from the car. When I got back, Connie was getting close to having the pushing urge. It came and went a few times, and I was beginning to think that this might go on for a while. But then it came back strongly, and before you knew it, the midwife said the baby was crowning. With a couple more pushes, the baby was out in less than a hour after we had arrived at the hospital.

The baby was immediately given to Connie for the mother/baby skin-to-skin bonding. At that point, we knew this baby was very different from Emilia. He cried only briefly, and was quickly calmed and even nursing. We've found that it takes quite a lot to rile him up, and he prefers to lounge and sleep. Even the Vitamin K shot only elicited a brief cry unlike Emilia who screamed as if she was being unbearably tortured. Yes, these do seem to be two very different babies.

We're waiting now for the pediatricians to arrive who will exam the baby, and let us know if there are any concerns. The hospital requires a minimum 24 hr stay so the earliest we can be discharged is presumably around 11:40 pm on Thursday. If everything looks good, we'd like to get out earlier than that; otherwise, we spend another night here.

Connie's doing great, and trying to catch up on some sleep when not working on nursing the baby. The biggest challenge in nursing him is keeping him awake - he loves to sleep!

Baby 2 is Here!

Baby 2 (yes, that's his name right now) was born on 10/20/2011 at 12:27 am. Everything went well, and mother and baby are doing great. More info later after they fully check him out, and get all his stats. And maybe by then we'll have a name for him...maybe.


Update: Baby's weight is 7 lb 4 oz, and his length is 19-1/2".

2b... Daddy's Little Helper

Helping Baba keep the ladder weighted down while he vacuums the A/C vent.


Ryan showing Em the ropes.


Em giving it a go herself.. just needs to be 5 feet taller!


In other news, we're starting to have early signs that little bro may be coming soon! Slowly, but surely... stay tuned!

2 ... Waiting

3 ....

3 days.. and still a waitin'....

4 ...

4 days til due date... and a waiting...

5 ... Little Miss Driving

5 mo' days and counting...

We've been lucky enough to get to know a good handful of our neighbors through the local playgroup, that have kids in the similar age range as Emilia AND who are also expecting their second child and will have the second set of kids the same age as our boy. There's definitely a camaraderie to help each other out, share info, etc. especially in our community which is a little more remote than the city.

Here's Emilia discovering how to "drive" at one of her friend's birthday party.

6 ...

6 days down and counting...

We hit a local high school pumpkin fest this year which had a real pumpkin patch where people could cut the pumpkins gourds off the vines if they wanted to. It made it fun for the kiddies to romp around over the vines and the naturally scattered pumpkins of all sizes and colors.

Emilia had a friend to hang out with as well, which made the patch even more fun.



The kiddies together...


and monkeying around. =)


Searching for pumpkins and things...



She picked up a pumpkin and said "heavy".


Next to the pumpkin fest was also a bird vendor fair which we strolled around a little.

7 ...

Seven. Seven days from due date...

Emilia had her first "haircut". Well, it's more like a trim, and only on the front whispy bangs that are too short to tie up. She's been constantly rubbing her eyes and scratching that I gave in to Ryan's request to have it trimmed. Rest assured, the rest of her hair is untouched and still has those cute baby waves and al natural layers.



In other news, Baby Boy is growing fast now. I feel like there is no room in there and waddle like a duck... except that a duck waddles much faster than me. Weight gain is about 1/2 pound a week for the past 2 weeks and will continue that way til he's out. We're all anxiously awaiting him. Emilia goes to the bassinet play-pen and is always asking "baby?". I am excited for the day that she peers into the bassinet and actually sees her little brother.

8 Days Away... and Hypno-Birthing

So while we're in this waiting process, let's talk a little about our birth plans and prep for Baby Boy since we have not documented as much.

With Emilia, we had planned for all-natural labor and delivery. We took hospital birthing classes and hired a doula. We had a few hiccups along the way, like Emilia enjoying the Buddha position and not turning around, but all in all, things fell into place and my labor was considered a "classic textbook" labor for a first birth(says my doula). I loved having a doula and could not have imagined going through labor without a doula. I still highly recommend a doula for those that want to have a natural birth (aka no epidural).

With Baby Boy, we want another all-natural birth as (assuming all normal, no complications) the benefits of natural outweigh the side-effects of using drugs.

We were introduced to the concept of hypno-birthing from a friend that went through it that had an amazingly short labor for the 1st child. While Em's birth was great, it was a good 14-15 hours of active labor. So Ryan did some research. Out of his survey of different friends and acquaintances, he found all positive reviews on hypno-birthing. Most people said learning the techniques really helped with dealing with labor with a high percentage of people having short labors. Long story short... Ryan and I took hypno-birthing classes and practiced the techniques. This time around our plan is to have an all-natural labor and birth using the hypno-birthing method. Instead of hiring a private doula (which still would be really nice to have, but we're trying to cut the cost down), we are going with the hospital volunteer doula.

With a second child, the labor is expected to be shorter by, typically, about 50% than the first child. And hypno-birthing, if done right, can reduce the labor even more. So... let's see. We tend to be more on the analytical approach to things, so, Baby Boy, let's see if the numbers will add up for your birth!

8 days and counting down....

9...

9 days away... and all's quiet on the belly front...

Week 38 Comparison

Less than 2 weeks and counting down!! It's now a mad rush to get things in order.. hence, the less frequent posts. Sorry!

We have slacked on taking weekly belly photos this time around, but for comparison, we have captured a Week 38 photo of current Baby Boy pregnancy with that of my pregnancy with Emilia. My weight is roughly the same as when I was pregnant with Emilia, if anything, maybe 1-2 pounds more and that's it.


No official poll, however, we are taking guesses on when we think the baby will be born --> whether he'll be early or late and what time, when we will go into labor, how long labor will be, and how big or small he is. Ryan and I, of course, differ in all these categories.

Tomato Vs Apple

Emilia and I are flipping through a baby magazine when she comes to a picture of a tiny tomato. She immediately points to it and pipes up "Apple!". I correct her and simply reply "Tomato." She pauses, then looks up at me, and says adamantly "No,no!".

Yes. That's my strong-willed child. I will have to buy her a tomato and an apple for comparison. =)