Emilia's 1 Month Update

Emilia hit her 1-month birthday last Saturday, and she's very happy about it.

Here's some current baby Em trivia:

1. Her weight is now 8 lbs 10 oz.  Her birth weight was 7 lbs 2 oz.
2. She now opens both eyes frequently (although not apparent in the pic).
3. She cries a lot more now.
4. She sleeps a lot more now.
5. She eats a lot more now.
6. Ok, the above 3 probably aren't possible concurrently, but it seems that way.
7. She's starting to spit up a bit more.  Let's hope that's not a trend.
8. She's sleeping better late at night because we understand her better.
9. We'll let her sleep on her side a bit then shift her to her back.
10. She's a very slow eater - an hour long session is not unusual.
11. She's gets lethargic when she's warm - gotta watch to make sure she doesn't get too warm.
12. She'll cry like a banshee when she's cold.
13. She's starting to hold her head up.
14. Her legs are very strong.  If she had any balance, she could walk.
15. Her eyes will follow objects that move across her field of view.
16. She's got a strong grip and razor sharp nails that we need to keep clipped.
17. She'll cry like a banshee when she's uncomfortable.
18. She likes to be held and bounced and swung.
19. She's a sun worshiper - well, she seems to like being out in the sun.
20. She smiles a fair amount, but so briefly that's it's tough to capture them on film (or silicon).
21. Her feeding schedule is still roughly every 3 hours.
22. She's getting more dangerous during the diaper changes.  Be ready for high pressure!
23. She averages about 4 pee's and 4 poop's a day.
24. Her arms are generally in constant motion.
25. She'll cry like a banshee when she's hungry.
26. She could still care less that she's wallowing in a dirty diaper.
27. She's discovered that her hands are fun to suck on, and can fit her entire hand in her mouth.
28. She still has bouts of hiccups that she's carried with her since her time in the womb.
29. She's developed a high pitch squeal that we're not sure what it means yet.
30. Her Houdini act makes it a challenge to keep her swaddled.
31. She made it through her first month with no illnesses or serious issues.  She's ready to take on the world  :^)

Car Chip

This is a cool little device I picked up recently.  Connie's old Bimmer had a penchant for throwing Check Engine Light (CEL) faults at totally random times.  She had taken it to the dealer several times, but they never really fixed the problem despite charging a lot of money.  So I needed something that would allow me to see what the faults were even though they would come and go.  In doing a little research, I came across the Car Chip.

It just plugs into the OBDII port via a socket on the back of the device.  The USB port on the front is for connecting it to your computer for configuring it or downloading data.  Now there are a lot of OBDII readers out there, but what I like about this one is that it's actually a data logger.  So it will monitor fault codes continuously while you're driving for up to 300 hrs.  When it reaches its memory limit, it just overwrites the old data.  As long as you download the data periodically you should be able to capture intermittent faults.  You can also program it to monitor some preset engine parameters.

Well, as luck would have it, we sold the Bimmer before I could sort out the CEL issues.  But the Subaru also likes to throw out random CEL faults.  I've caught several, and they do appear to be random as the same one has not reappeared (the Subi has gremlin electronics).  And it's already saved me a few dollars as I was able to clear the CEL before taking it in for its smog inspection.  The Subi always passes smog with no problem as long as the CEL is off.

Oh, another interesting thing about the Car Chip is that some parents use it to monitor their kid's driving.  When you download the data, you can see their speed and acceleration profiles.  Now you won't know if they're doing 50 in a 25 zone.  But you will know if they're doing burnouts or doing 90 which is not good anywhere.  And you can set audible alarms so the thing will set off an annoying tone if a certain speed is exceeded.  Connie likes to have it set at 70 to remind her not to speed.  Too bad she didn't have this installed when she got her speeding ticket  :^O

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut...

Connie's Mom has been visiting for a few weeks helping us out tremendously with cooking and taking care of the baby.  But there's also a fair amount of downtime so she's picked up a new hobby.  There are over a hundred avocado trees here and various fruit trees, but just one lonely Macadamia tree.

Well, this tree now has a new caretaker.  Connie's Mom has adopted the tree, and is caring for its nuts.  She sifts through the jumble of leaves, weeds, and who-knows-what at the base of the tree to gather up the hidden treasures.

Since moving into this place, I've never picked up the nuts or tried to make it easy to gather them up.  So it's basically just a mess of stuff with nuts of mysterious vintages buried throughout.  After painstakingly separating the promising nuts from the menagerie, she moves them to the little nut corral she created.

Here the nuts are further categorized as to their future potential.  Connie's Mom has developed a method for determining the readiness of the nut.  She inspects and shakes each nut to see if she can hear the nut jiggling inside.  Jiggle = ready for cracking.  No Jiggle = not ready, needs more drying.  It's backbreaking work, but it has to be done.

The tasty nuts are protected by a very hard shell.  But they're no match for our nutcracker.

Uh, that's a lot of shells...

But here's the reward.  Roast them up, and you have some nice Macadamia's for a not-so-small labor input.  After watching this, buying them at the store is really looking like a bargain  ;^)

Chunky Monkey

Rolls... she has baby rolls....our little chunky monkey likes to eat.

NippleCam

This is from the nipple's point-of-view:

How would you like to see that coming at you?  And not letting go for up to an hour!

That's actually a new pacifier we're trying (The First Years Newborn).  A little strange-looking, but it seems to work.  Our pediatrician suggested that Connie stop being a 24-hr pacifier, and that we give the binky a try.  We didn't really want to do this (gain a dependence on a pacifier), but it's another avenue to soothing her when she just needs something other than food or companionship.

I need to get the NippleCam in video so you can actually see the sucking action.  We have a hard time not laughing when we see it in motion.

Baby, I've Got Your Number

Score: Baby Em Versus 'Rents - 1 to 3, ''Rents in the lead.

Baby Em scored her first successful "blowout" today, putting her on the scoring board against the 'Rents (aka. parents, grand-parents) for diaper changes. Mama gets credit for an assist for this one by providing Em a good feeding.

Usually we're pretty good at figuring out her pattern - she likes to wait until after we remove the diaper before she does her #1 and #2. Ryan caught on early to that and has manage to have successful catches to prevent blowout messes. However, on this particular occasion she out-smarted grandma and saved all her #2's of the day into one HUGE one. It was so HUGE that it made it out through the diaper, into the onesie and the sleeper, and managed to get it all over her feet.. and subsequently elsewhere. Yes. One HUGE mess. So, Baby Em wins this round versus the 'Rents with an atypical blowout.

We, the 'Rents, are on to you. We know your game now. We've got the 411. We're raising the ante now Baby Em!

Back in the Saddle

Finally got back on the Beemer today after not riding for about a year due to the neck situation.  I had to replace the battery after having it sit so long (forgot to put the trickle charger on it) so I mainly wanted to make sure the battery stays charged, and also test out some new gear. 

Last July I thought I'd be riding up to the races in Monterey with my messed up neck.  So I bought a Leatt GPX Club neck brace to provide a little insurance against possible further damage.  We ended up driving so I never used the brace.  That is, until now...

The Leatt brace is worn by a lot of motocrossers to prevent hyperextension of the neck in the event of a crash.  You don't see them much on the street, but there are a few of us not-so-cool dudes that are now wearing them.  Given that I have a little less flexibility in my neck now, I figure it's best not to stress it too much if that's possible.  So I took a ride with the Leatt on to see how it felt.  It's a bit of a pain to put on but once I get the hang of it, I'm sure it'll be easier.  Once in place, you really don't notice that it's there.  There's plenty of room available front to back for normal head tilts.  Side to side is a little more restrictive, but nothing objectionable.  There are other braces out there but after looking at several, the Leatt seemed to have the best design and build quality at a somewhat reasonable price.  Given the additional protection it affords, I'll live with minor niggles.

I also wanted to try out some new boots.  For quite some time, I'd been looking for some comfortable, shorty boots that offered more protection than tennis shoes.  Finally came across the TCX X-Cube All-Purpose boots.  Most appealing things to me about these boots are that they're lightweight, comfortable, and seem to have a fairly decent protection system for this type of boot.

They fit under jeans easily, and will look somewhat like normal shoes once I black out the TCX label.  Also, they're thin enough that I don't lose any feel for braking or shifting.  I did't have to modify my shifting method either since the boot easily fits under the shifter (unlike my dirt boots).  Overall, I'm very satisified with these boots so far.  I'm looking forward to putting more mileage on them.

 

 

Going Offroad

A few days ago, we decided to give the Baby Jogger stroller its maiden offroad experience.  There's a "trail" a few miles from home that afforded us a low risk test to see how it (and baby) would do.  Here's what the trail looks like:

Funny thing is that this trail turned out to be too smooth.  The Baby Jogger Summit has a cushy suspension, and Emilia prefers a fast, bumpy ride.  Oh well, we didn't want to go overboard the first time.  Connie mentioned it before and I have to agree, this stroller is awesome.  Really well made, rolls and turns super easy, great suspension, and folds up literally in a matter of seconds.  Only downside is it's a little bulky for transporting.

Here's Momma at the controls:

Momma likes it:

Emilia likes it as long as it's bumpy enough.  Since the trail was too smooth, you have to artificially rock the stroller to keep her pacified.

Uh, faster and bumpier please or I'm going to wake up.

Next up is the Whitney Trail...

Mo' Photos

This Morning

Fully awake, bright and early. Can't imagine a better way to wake up than to play with our baby girl.. even if it is at 5:30am. =D

The Great Outdoors.. Sort Of

Em and I have been mostly cooped up inside the house the past two and a half weeks adjusting to our new routines. Now that we're starting to get the hang of this gig, we're slowly venturing into the great outdoors..aka.. first our own backyard and then close outdoorsy stuff in Esco. We started off introducing Em to the outdoors by going stroller jogging (note: the Baby Jogger Summit 360 is awesome) up and down the driveway . I know.. so adventurous! =P Em did fairly well outdoors, maintaining a calm disposition with us for ~20 minutes.

Seeing how the driveway was so successful, we decided to take Em out to try a new, short little local hiking trail in the neighborhood. While it's no Mt. Whitney or Yosemite, it was still a newly established trail with not-so-good trail markers.. enough to get us lost for a very short bit and a few encounters with bush-whacking branches to graze the legs and wildlife (aka bunny) around.


Em was amazing. She slept through all the excitement and was happily content in her carrier (note: the Ergo Carrier with Infant insert is awesome too!) for the whole duration of the 30 minute "hike". Another success! At this rate, we'll be taking her to Joshua Tree in no time.

Breaking the Rules

This baby is a Non-Conformist!

First, she decided to stay in the breech position during the entire pregnancy up thru 38 weeks.  Only 3-4% of babies are breech at full term.  That meant we had to go through the ECV process which was fortunately a success since the alternative would have been a C-section.  The success rate of an ECV is only 58%.  Then she never "dropped" as babies typically do.  Only the forces of active labor moved her into the birth canal. 

And she was borne with the amniotic sac still enclosing her - Connie's water never broke.  Our Doula said she had been through almost 200 births, and had never seen that.  Connie discovered that this type of birth is called being "born in the caul".  The caul is the portion of the amniotic sac that encloses the baby, and a baby born in this manner is called a "caulbearer".  This type of birth happens in only 1 of 1000 births.  Legend has it that caulbearers have supernatural powers (we'll see). 

Finally, we just had our pediatrician checkup.  Emilia's weight is now 7 lbs 14 oz.  At her last doctor visit 6 days ago, she weighed 7 lbs 4 oz (her birth weight was 7 lbs 2 oz).  She gained 10 oz in 6 days!  The doctor said the normal weight gain is 1/2-1 oz/day.  Our little chugaluger is gaining weight at a rate of 1.7 oz/day.  At that rate, she'll weigh 395 lbs by the time she's 10  ;^O

Why Does She Cry?

How does little Emilia go from her calm, "I surrender" pose...

To this...

It really makes you want to understand why she's crying (the possessed crying seen in the video normally happens in the wee hours of the morning, of course). We've watched the "Happiest Baby on the Block" DVD, and practiced the 5S's. We've also watched the Dunston Baby Language DVD that helps you to understand what the baby's sounds mean. Well, our baby Em has become somewhat desensitized to the 5S's, and she's only made one sound that correlates to the Dunston language (Heh which is suppose to mean "uncomfortable").

So here's what Connie and I have learned so far:

1. She does not cry due to a dirty diaper.
2. She doesn't seem to cry for no reason (although you sometimes wonder).
3. She will cry when she's hungry.
4. She will cry when she's not comfortable (Heh from the Dunston language). This could mean a lot of things so you have to experiment until you find the off position for the crying switch. 
5. She's really sensitive to body position.  She prefers to lie on her sides rather than her back.  But she has to sleep on her back since that poses the least risk for SIDS.
6. She will cry due to gas or digestion issues. But you can generally tell from the usual signs - burping, farting, or squirming like her stomach is bothering her.
7. She will cry when she wants to be held.  Connie feels more strongly about this than I do.  I still think it's a comfort issue, and that holding her is a way of making her more comfortable.  You still have to find the right position to hold her otherwise she'll continue to cry.
   
8. She loves motion: big, swinging motions, bouncing motions, burping motions (patting her back). These will usually stop her crying, but it can be just temporary if there's an underlying discomfort (position?).
9. If you can't do anything to get her to stop crying, she's usually hungry. In other words, if all else fails, feed her :^)

So I guess the bottom line for us so far is to know when her last feeding was, make sure she doesn't have gas, try a variety of positions and motions, and don't put her to bed until you've coaxed her into a deep sleep.  Bottom line #2 is that we're still learning about her.

Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF)

Early last year, I had an awakening when I fell snowboarding, and lost all sensation in my arms and legs.  I lied motionless for several minutes until the feeling finally began coming back.  I was able to get up and snowboard back down to the resort, but I felt like I'd gone through the most severe workout of my life.  My arms and legs were tingling and extremely sore.  When I got back home, needless to say, I decided to get checked out by my doctor.  She told me that I had a case of whiplash, and I should get an MRI.  Here are the results:

The circled area shows the bulging disc between vertebrae C4 and C5.  The major issue was that the disc was bulging into the spinal cord and compressing it.  This is what caused the loss of feeling when my head whipped backwards resulting in even greater spinal compression.  After seeing this, I recalled that I had experienced similar symptoms (although much more mild) when I had fallen on my back while bouldering a few times years back.  So this condition wasn't really new, but had been around for some time.  I'm guessing that it first started in a car accident over 10 years ago.  At that time, my doctor (a DO - Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine) "fixed" my neck pain by cracking it back in place.  It felt much better at the time, but I think that injury was the root of the current problem.

I didn't really want to have surgery so I first looked into some alternative treatments.  I tried doing some decompression exercises and icing the back of my neck.  But I didn't notice any change in the symptoms.  Based on Connie's mom's input, I decided to try a NUCCA chiropractor.  It's actually kind of an interesting approach, and much different than standard chiropractic.  I really don't like the idea of having my neck cracked so I wasn't going to see a regular chiropractor.  But the NUCCA just uses a gentle pressure on the side of your head to make adjustments to your Atlas bone (first cervical vertebrae).  The theory is that this bone controls your head and spinal alignment.  They monitor progress via X-rays.  I must admit that I was skeptical, but I actually felt some changes after a couple of visits.

The problem though was that I was walking around like a ticking bomb.  If I happened to get into a car accident or fall a certain way, it was possible to cause permanent spinal cord damage.  So I also started checking into neurosurgeons to evaluate the surgery option.  A fortunate thing is that I came across a friend (Tabo) of a friend (Carol) who is a Physician's Assistant at an Orthopaedic Center.  Tabo use to work in San Diego, but now lives Montana.  He happened to be in San Diego one weekend, and agreed to meet with me and review my MRI's.  He felt that there was irreversible structural damage, and that surgery would be the best option.  He also felt I should try to get an artificial disc, if possible.  He cautioned that this surgery was not to be taken lightly, and that I wouldn't want just anyone doing the operation.  He referred me to 4-5 neurosurgeons that he felt were the best in this area.

I had consultations with 3 of them, and the consensus was that it was not a condition that would get better through any kind of therapy.  Sometimes bulging discs can go through a resorption process where they reduce in size through conservative treatment.  But my disc had structural damage so they all said that it would not do this.  Now you can say that the neurosurgeons all had something to gain by telling me this, but Tabo was just providing free advice based on his experience and had no affiliation with any of the doctors I consulted.  So I put a lot of weight in his advice, and all of the other doctors just confirmed it.

Now that it was determined that a surgical procedure was required, the question was: artificial disc replacement or vertebrae fusion?  The insurance companies made the answer easy as there was only one company that was approving the artificial disc procedure, and it wasn't the insurance I had.  So there was no choice but to have the disc removed, and the vertebrae fused.  The procedure is called Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF).  They basically cut out the bad disc, replace it with a cadaver bone graft, and then plate the vertebrae together so that the bones will eventually fuse.

Having coming to terms that surgery was my best option, I then selected a doctor from the ones I had met.  Dr. Tim Peppers at Core Orthopaedic was my choice based on a few things.  One is that he had gone through the same operation, and wore the scar on his neck.  He's a surfer so he could relate to me any limitations imposed by the operation.  He demonstrated his range of motion which didn't appear to be very limited.  And he works with active people a lot so he understood the types of things I was concerned about.

So on August 31, 2009, I checked into Scripps Hospital in Encinitas, and had the ACDF procedure done.  I think the actual operation only took about 1-1/2 hrs.  I wore a soft collar for 2 weeks, and was back to work after just 1 week.  The worst part of the the early recovery was difficulty swallowing.  I had to severely limit my range of motion for 3 mos while the bones were fusing.  That made driving an interesting experience as I had to turn my whole body to check for cross traffic.  After 3 mos, I was allowed to slightly increase the motion.  At 6 months, they considered the bones to be fully fused, and cleared me to return to all normal activities.  That's basically where I'm at now.  I'm finding that I'm way out of shape, and have been injuring things by doing too much too soon.  The road to full recovery is apparently going to be a long one.  Here's the way things look in there now...

 

Haven't tested it yet, but I've been told that I'm metal detector safe  :^)

Dad, WHAT are you doing?

Bath Time...

Hair washing. Not so bad. Quite comfy.




This is what we call "the Yoda". She cries so hard she contorts herself into a little mini Yoda. She really does like bath time... just not today.

Parental Units Have Taken Over

My parental units have arrived and imminently taken over the kitchen in the traditional Chinese-y way... with lots of foods which are *very good for me and baby*.


There's pig leg, chicken feet, vinegar egg, chicken cooked in wine, papaya with short rib soup, bunch of roots and herbs I know not of, among other things. The Chinese culture believes that the first month after birth is vital to re-balance the body's energy. In fact, lots of people hire a special care-taker for the first month specifically for the balancing of chi for both mom and baby. While the reasoning behind why the food is *good* for me in terms of ying yang and chi is fuzzy, it's okay cause Ryan and I get home cooking for the duration of their stay, so I cannot complain! And while its best not to ask what the ingredients are, the food is surprisingly yummy and filling. =)

Emilia is their first and only grand-child, so one can imagine how excited they are. In fact, they usually don't like taking photos, but to document the occasion, they have even demanded a photo session with baby.

Em Does Martial Arts

This is what she does when she sleeps...

Eyes Open

She started off doing pirate one-eyed looks... left eye open with right eye closed or right eye opened with left eye closed.


Never both eyes, but now she's starting to open both eyes and look around. A whole new world for her now that vision is included.

And the Winner is...

We started a baby pool way back when to guess the Date of Birth, Time of Birth, Weight, and Length of our new baby, Emilia.  Now that she's decided to enter this world, we know the answers to all of these questions:

Date of Birth:  2/27/10
Time of Birth:  9:36 am
Weight:  7 lb 2 oz
Length:  19-3/4"

So here's who came the closest to each item, and the number of points it was worth:

Date of Birth:  Jeff 2/27/10, 4 pts
Time of Birth:  Pat 8:03 am, 3 pts
Weight: Curt, Steve, Monica, Jessica 7 lb 2 oz, 2 pts ea
Length:  Joe 19-1/2", Diane 20", 1 pt ea

So the winner is Jeff Freedman!  Jeff (aka Jefe) was the only one who guessed the exact date.  Knowing that Connie is always late, it didn't appear to be a good guess way back then.  But somehow Jefe willed her to an early labor.  And for his efforts, Jefe takes home the big prize of dinner for two at Busalacchi's Italian Ristorante in Hillcrest.  In addition, Jefe has immunity from changing poopy diapers :^)

Thanks to Everyone who played!

Ryan & Connie

Mission Control... I'm here!

I am alive and finally in a somewhat coherent state after 6 days of blur and several hours of total sleep. Now I finally know why parents are always tired. Anyhow, a quick post before the kiddies wake up:


I haven't been able to get back to everyone yet, but just want to say thanks for the supportive messages and congrats! It kept us in a good place as first-time parents dealing with all the details that goes into a newborn at a hospital. Besides having lack of sleep, the rest of me is recovering quickly, which is one of the benefits of going with a natural birth. I guess a trade-off for having intense labor for an easier physical transition to motherhood. =P It also helps that Ryan took care of EVERYTHING and keeping all the posts up-to-date. (Thanks sweetie!) He's a big part of taking care of Emilia in the wee hours of the morning and still staying on top of chores and things that need to be done. Oh, and I take back my comment about labor being a piece of cake That was just the trojan horse that deluded the reality!

Anyhow, all of us are happily adapting to life at home now, and Emilia couldn't be more content not sleeping in a blue tub now.


Thanks for everyone's support and checking!

Finally Home

The doctors cleared Emilia to be discharged from the hospital today.  Her bilirubin levels were finally on the decline, and there was no sign of infection in the 48 hr culture.  So in preparation for the trip home, she got her first bath and absolutely loved it.

Then she got bundled up and packed up in her carrier.

And finally lounging at home after experiencing birth, many needles, blue lights, and hospital food.

Labor & Delivery Recap/Trivia

Timeline of Connie's Labor and Delivery:
2/26/10, 5 am:  Early Labor Starts
2/26/10, 2 pm:  Midwife Checkup (UCSD La Jolla), Dilation at 1 cm
2/26/10, Midnight : Active Labor Starts
2/27/10, 2 am:  Arrive at Hospital (UCSD Hillcrest), Dilation at 4 cm
2/27/10, 5 am:  Dilation at 6 cm
2/27/10, 7 am:  Dilation at 8 cm
2/27/10, 9 am:  Dilation at 10 cm, Start Pushing
2/27/10, 9:36 am:  Baby Out

Other Items of Note:

• Connie did not take any drugs during the labor and delivery.  Impressive!
• The amniotic sac did not break until mid-delivery.  This is good in that there is less chance of infection.
• They didn't wash off the amniotic fluid from the baby for 2 days to help minimize skin rashes. 
• The midwife inspected the placenta post-delivery, and said it was extremely healthy and provided a good O2 supply.
• There wasn't any need to remove excess mucous/fluids from baby's mouth or nose.  It was effectively removed by the movement through the birth canal.
• Baby was skin-to-skin with Mom immediately after delivery, and latched in about 45 min.
• Baby didn't have a conehead.  They say that this is due to her being breech (before the ECV), and then spending little time in the pelvic area.  She never "dropped" until sometime during labor.
• The umbilical cord is surprisingly tough to cut.

 

Emilia on Day 3

Emilia Update

Emilia's bilirubin level is still increasing, but at a much lower rate.  They feel that one more day in the blue light box should do the trick.  She'll be finishing her second day tomorrow at 10 am. They'll draw a blood sample at 4 am (for some reason, they think we're awake all the time) so we should know the results later that morning.

The first 24 hr test for infection came back negative.  We'll get the results for the 48 hr test tomorrow at 8 am.  She hasn't had a fever or any other signs of an infection so we're hopeful that it will be negative as well.

We've made some changes in her feeding regimen so she's getting a combination of breastmilk and formula.  This is just temporary until Connie's producing enough of the free stuff.  Emilia's weight so far has been good.  She lost about 6% of her birth weight in the first 24 hrs (this is suppose to be normal), and only lost an ounce (~1%) in the second 24 hrs.  She's been feeding well, and we don't anticipate any weight issues - yet.
 
So with any luck, we'll be able to head home sometime tomorrow.