Baby Blog

I know that I promised an update, but it's been pretty busy over here. Back in the hospital, we were basically there from Sunday afternoon to Thursday afternoon.
First, there was the delivery - I had an epidural done so I was awake during the whole thing. It was very bizarre feeling all this pressure but no pain. Like when they cut me and was pushing him out, I didn't feel the pain but I felt all the pressure. Kuan was able to hold my hand and watch the whole thing over the sheet that they put up. He also got to trim the umbilical cord. Right after the delivery, I had a chance to try and breastfeed him, but he wasn't quite latching on and he was very sleepy so they took him upstairs to the nursery for his assessments and kept me downstairs in delivery until I got some feeling back in my lower body.

That first night, they brought him in a bit but for the most part, they let us rest and just brought him in every three hours during assessments. The most exciting thing was just looking into his eyes when they opened for us for the first time. On Monday, Kuan got to be an expert at changing diapers - he changed five poopy diapers! Considering that it was his first time changing diapers, I'm very proud of him. That evening, we had a couple friends, Kat, Eddie and Rachelle stop by to see our little dude.

Tuesday is a bit of a blur when I think about it - I'm pretty much in and out of sleep because when he sleeps, I sleep. We had some issues with breastfeeding, he wasn't really latching on and I wasn't quite producing anything yet so I was meeting with lactation consultants and nurses about the issue every 3 hours which was exhausting because we'd try to get him to breastfeed for 30-45 minutes and then, when that failed, I'd have to pump for 20 minutes. Tuesday night, both of Kuan's parents stopped by with some home-cooked Chinese food and soup for us and to also see the little guy. After they left, Dr. Shisler ended up taking Kennedy in for his circumsion which Kuan went with and witnessed the whole thing. That night was rough because he was so groggy from his Tylenol so when we was lucid, he was just cranky and he pooped a lot. Wednesday was a much better day with us getting used to the schedule and he was more lucid and I was so happy - he FINALLY latched on and I finally began getting colustrom in my breasts to show up!

Tips for the Hospital:

• Take advantage of the nursery and let the nurses take the baby so you can get a full 2-3 hours of sleep. If he's in the room with you and sleeping, sometimes, you just want to hold him and stare at him but you don't realize that when the baby sleeps, you really should sleep.
• Take everything that they offer you - sounds weird but I love those disposable panties that they gave me - they're more comfortable than maternity underwear. One of our nurses was also really awesome and hooked us up with liquid formula (which she totally recommends for when you travel on road trips) and all this bottle/nipple stuff that she was like 'Put this away and let me know if you need more' - also, take the petroleum jelly. We took three tubes of it from the baby cart and we're on day seven with our little guy - only 3 days at home and we've already used it up because of his frequent diaper changes and you'll need it for the circumsion healing
• Ask every single question that pops into your head - they're all medical experts and there for a reason.

So far, it's been really tiring and trying to figure out a routine/schedule that works for us. One night, when we think that we have it down, it completely changes on us the next night. Breastfeeding is still a challenge but we'll eventually get it down pat. And oh, yeah - we got the hospital bill and for the c-section and hospital, it is $16,425 which doesn't even include the cost of the ob/gyn delivery so we're waiting for that bill and also seeing what insurance will cover. Overall, being with our son is simply amazing and a part of me still feels like it's all so surreal that we're parents, but when I look at him, everything is so worth it and I'd do it all over again for him.

Introducing KENNEDY!

Introducing...

Kennedy Hongyan Su
7lbs, 3oz
20 inches
February 8, 2009 at 7:59pm
(picture taken minutes after being born - the date stamp on the bottom is the time that I texted it out to people)

And here's the whole story...The funny thing is that I woke up on Sunday morning feeling really fluish and couldn't hold down anything! I first threw up around 8:30am about 5 times and threw up anything that I had consumed on Saturday. I talked to my doctor and she told me to stick to liquids like gatorade or water so I did that but after an hour, I threw all that up (when I say throw up, I mean, I threw up 5-6 times consecutively which is really rare for me). My doctor told me to try and sip at it which I tried but then, two hours later, all that liquid still came up and at this point, I was having horrible pains and we weren't sure if I was having cramps due to dehydration and throwing up or if I was having labor pains. So, they told me to come into Labor and Delivery to get monitored and have an IV in me.

So, I went in around 1pm and was monitored for the next 5 hours. Around 6pm, the doctor came around to let me know that I could probably go home. However, during our conversation, suddenly Baby's heartbeat took a HUGE dip and we couldn't find him. The doctor was concerned that the baby was distressed so we would have to keep me overnight to monitor me. So, as Kuan and I prepared for an overnight stay and I was getting ready to call my boss to tell her that I would be in late on Monday, Baby's heartbeat dips AGAIN. The doctor came back in and was like "This is too frequent - we're very worried about the baby so we're going to need operate a c-section tonight. We'll give you about 15 minutes to talk amongst yourselves and then, we'll send the anesthesiologist in"

Basically, in less than an hour, I was drugged up and the whole procedure lasted about 45 minutes. I was awake through the whole thing and Kuan was right there in the surgery room holding my hand and got to snip little Kennedy's umbilical cord, as well. And voila! Here he is :) I'll write a little bit more details later about the whole procedure and hospital stay since we just got back this afternoon after our long five day stay at the hospital.

After that, I'll be closing out this blog and going back to my regular blog. One of my goals during maternity leave is to finish our family website so I'll probably create a new blog there, too. Thanks for all of the support and love - I could not have made it through this pregnancy without having this outlet to share all of my thoughts and steps. I'll be publishing this blog through www.blurb.com so I'll have a hard copy of my pregnancy journal and each of the steps. All I can say is that when he first opened his eyes and I really saw him, every thing in this pregnancy was worth it - to have a beautiful healthy baby.

C-version results

So, this morning, around 8ish, we head over there. To prepare ourselves for the worst, last night, I had this moment of 'nesting' and cleaned up Baby's nursery in case I had to go in for an emergency c-section. It is all ready for him to come home, too. I washed all his sheets and clothes in baby detergent and lovingly had it all ready for him. Kuan even set up his car seat in Smokey and he packed his snacks (Twizzlers, Chinese seaweed, nuts, and rice cakes) in our duffel.

This morning, we check in and I change into those tubey thingies around my belly and a hospital gown as they go ahead and put the IV in me. Man, she must have hit something because I saw my blood squirt. I thought that I was going to faint for a moment there. Afterwards, we had to wait a little bit because there was an emergency c-section that took place. So, I'm just hooked up to this monitor which is monitoring Baby's heartbeat and another monitor that is monitoring my contractions. It was so bizarre to see the machine register a contraction when really, I wouldn't have guessed it to be a contraction. According to that machine, I'm registering roughly 4-6 contractions an hour but really, I'm only feeling 1-2 of them, which of course, are the ones with the highest peaks. I'm also only feeling the ones that hurt.

Anyway, around 9:50am, they come in and they do an ultrasound and of course, Baby's head is right smack in the middle underneath my ribs. His little feet are up and his butt is down. They decide that they're going to try a backward roll since that seems to have the most room for him. So, I get this shot that makes my heart all racy but supposedly relaxes the uterus. They put all this goo around my belly and Dr. Shisler is going to try and push his butt out of my pelvis and to the left while the other doctor is going to push his head right. 1-2-3..and OMG - PAIN. I felt like my organs/insides were being forced around. They did that for a couple minutes but apparently, he wasn't budging. They did a quick ultrasound scan to see if he moved and a quick heartbeat check. Nope - the little bugger's heartbeat indicated that he was SLEEPING and the ultrasound showed that he hadn't moved an inch. So, we tried it again. Kuan said that my face looked like I was in a lot of pain. My left hand was busy squeezing the nurse's hand and my right hand was squeezing Kuan's hand.

And then, that didn't work so we opted for the forward roll - moving the opposite way. OWWWW...for some reason, that one hurt even more. After a couple minutes of trying that and nothing. I felt like crying partially because of the pain and partially because we hadn't succeeded. So, we decided to give it one more try. And that one really really hurt and Kuan said that I was shaking which I didn't notice because the only thing that I could focus on was trying to breathe despite the pain. And then, Dr. Shisler said that his little rump had moved a little tiny bit and his head hadn't shifted at all. So, after giving me a little time to breathe and recuperate, we tried it again. That last one really took the cake on the pain. I almost regretted not having the epidural. Anyway, nothing. Afterwards, they monitored both Baby and me for an hour before releasing us. And on the way home, I started to tear up. And I couldn't help but think that I just paid $2,500 for a failed procedure!

Caesareans are far more expensive than vaginal births. A caesarean with complications costs $18,500. In the United States nationally, a vaginal birth at a hospital with no complications averages at $6,973; with complications at a hospital rises to an average of $8,963; a caesarean without complications averages at $16,544; while a caesarean with complications averages at $18,960.

On top of that, there's the recovery time to factor in and the worst part is that I don't have the vacation time to take off. It also puts a damper on our Southern California trip that was planned for May - that will have to be unpaid vacation time if I opt to take it and on top of that, I don't know if my Director will still approve it. And if it's unpaid vacation time, can we afford for me to take that time off and go on a vacation? Just really worried about our financials, especially since Kuan isn't working. I don't know what to think at this point and our next step is to see Stephen Bonzak one more time and if he isn't flipped by next Tuesday when we go to see Dr. Shisler, we're scheduling the c-section and I'm going to start planning around the c-section.

External Cephalic Version

Alright, from reading over the paperwork and looking it up online - I've found two useful websites:
PDF format about ECV
and
http://www.aafp.org/afp/980901ap/coco.html

The highlights of this procedure:

• Why should we consider attempting this?
  Many studies from around the world over the past 15 years have shown that the number of babies remaining in the breech position at the end of pregnancy can be reduced by ECV.
  As we do not generally recommend a vaginal breech birth, mothers with a breech baby are
  more likely to give birth by a caesarean section. Therefore a successful ECV would mean
  that the mother would have a chance at having a normal vaginal birth.
• When can ECV be performed?
  We prefer to attempt to turn the baby as soon after the 37th week of pregnancy as
  possible. It can be performed later but this is less likely to be successful.
• How often is ECV successful?
  The success rate depends on a number of individual factors including the position of the
  baby’s legs (i.e. bent or straight knee), the size of the baby and the number of previous
  pregnancies. Overall at least 50% of babies should turn – more so if this is not your first
  baby and the legs are bent, less so if this is your first baby or the legs are straight.

Acupuncture appointment

So, last night after work, I went to an old colleague of mine, Stephen Bonzak, in his practice up in Northbrook for a moxabustion/acupuncture treatment. It's pretty amazing - I've known him for almost 6 years and in fact, he gave me my first acupuncture treatment ever back at PCOM. It was really great catching up with him, hearing all about his 4.5 year old son, Henry (I still remember when he was born and now, he's getting ready for kindergarten!), and Kuan was able to ask him more about his PCOM experience.

For the treatment itself, all I can say is WOW. He put a couple needles in to reduce the swelling and all I can say is OMG - I totally should have seen him earlier! My meaty swollen ankles/cankles and calves were immediately reduced and the tingling/numbing sensation in them were gone immediately.

And as for the moxabustion, it's just this herbal stick that heats up that you put by a certain pressure point on your foot - the little pinky toe and it's amazing how just feeling the heat by that little point, Little Dude was just up and arms and kicking around and shifting. Stephen said to do this for 20 minutes each day for 5 days to try and get him to shift around. Usually, most women start this procedure sooner around 34 or 35 weeks. In my case, it's different because Little Dude was already in poisiton and flipped on us during 37 weeks. So, we'll see how the moxabustion goes at home for the next two days. I might try to contact Dr. Shisler to post pone the external c-version on Thursday to another day. We'll see - I told Kuan that I'm trying to take this one step/day at a time.

38 weeks - wowzers!

I just got back from the weekly doctor's appointment with Dr. Shisler and I'm at 38 weeks today. WOW! Well, I had a meeting as soon as I got back but you know what I mean.

The non-stress test - well, our little must not be very stressed because he was just happily content moving around in there and it was so weird to feel a contraction and actually see it being monitored on the screen. Anyway, he took a while to get the results that Dr. Shisler wanted.

Then, we went for an ultrasound to see how his movements have been lately and well, last week - his little head was on my right side and he had one foot up and one foot down with his spine on the left side. Today, his head is on my left side and he has both feet up with his spine on my right side.

Dr. Shisler said that's a better thing because now that he's fully in frank position (both feet up by his head), it makes it easier for him to move and be flipped. She also sat me down to talk about the c-version and pointed out that many women also opt to have an epidural during the procedure because it can be very painful for the mother. She also told me that they will be putting an IV in me in case the baby gets destressed, they will have to move forward with an emergency c-section. I'll post again with more information about the c-version procedure since she gave me some reading paperwork about it.

37 weeks?!

I fail at updating - sorry - 37 weeks and time is flying...this was supposed to be posted last Tuesday but I'm posting it five days late but I've got pictures!

Light at the End of the Tunnel

With just three more weeks to go and at about six and a half pounds (though weight and height vary from fetus to fetus), your baby is doing just fine. You can expect weight gain to be about half an ounce per day. (Boys, though, are likely to be heavier at birth than girls. And here's a bit of boy baby trivia to back that one up: Moms carrying boys tend to eat more than moms carrying girls — a foreshadowing of teenage refrigerator raids to come.) Since your little one is considered full-term now, if your baby was to leave the wet nest this week, he or she would likely thrive. That's because Mother Nature and you have done such a fine job.

So what's keeping your little one busy while waiting it out until D-day? Practice, practice, practice. Your baby is simulating breathing by inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid, sucking on his or her thumb, blinking, and pivoting from side to side (one day you feel the tushy on the left side, another day it has swung around to the right side). All these are skills needed for his or her next gig — starring as newborn.

Here's an interesting fact: Your baby's head (which, by the way, is still growing) will, at birth, be the same size circumference as his or her hips, abdomen, and shoulders. And guess what's making an impression (literally) these days on those shoulders and hips: fat — causing little dimples in those cute elbows and knees, shoulders and hip, and creases and folds in the neck and wrists.