First Outing

We had our first family outing - lunch while Bucky got his hair cut. There was a lot of crying involved (and I am not talking about Matt here) but we all survived and I sweated my tail off.

Exciting day in Charlotteland

Went to the lactation consultant today and another informed professional acknowledges that Charlotte is off the charts on the hunger scale. Supplementing with formula again but have a new way of feeding to encourage her sucking (or suckling?). As I was readying for a feed I heard Matt yell "OMIGOD!" as Charlotte demonstrated her first projectile urine that landed inches from the ceiling, much to Matt's utter surprise and delight. We put together the baby gym, which I have decided has a funny name. Charlotte likes it which is good as rocking her for an hour at a time (while she is awake post feed) is doing everyone's knees in.

On with the videos!

Here is Matt showing our new supplement feeding method. He didn't realize he was going to maybe lose a pinky or two in the process:


Here is Charlotte's first encounter with the baby gym:


And finally, despite what you feel about Florida football, Charlotte seemed to have enjoyed her first encounter with a Gator:

Happy 2 week birthday Charlotte!

So this may not qualify as the most exciting video on the blog as Charlotte is sleeping, but here is Char on her 2 week birthday. Imee is holding her.

In other exciting news, we are breastfeeding and it is a non linear, not exactly super fun process. But we are navigating through - slowly.



Here is a video of Matt lulling Charlotte to sleep:

Cool Childbirth Video (3D Animation)

Here is a video showing what Charlotte did (all by herself!) when she passed through the birth canal. Matt says she came out head down, just like in this movie!

More pictures of Charlotte

Finally had a chance to upload the camera. You can click on each picture to re-direct you to each photo gallery.

Here are some pictures that include Charlotte getting her sun therapy (to combat the minor jaundice she had):


Here are some pictures from her birthday (I now see why we screwed up her birth weight):


Finally here are some pictures of her nursery:

Charlotte stats and Matt burps!

After writing my last blog post I realize that all of Charlotte's birth statistics are screwed up.  She was 19.3 inches instead of 20 inches long as confirmed by her pediatrician 5 days after birth.  She was 7 lb 7 oz at birth instead of 6 lb and 8 oz due to my inability to properly convert metric to English (she weighed in at 3.37kg).  Also, we are not clear exactly what time she was born (though we think it was 10:29).  I am a statistically inclined person and it is ever so appropriate that all of these statistics are 'gray'. :)

And a digression - here is a video of Matt burping Charlotte.

An update on the Drake Family

After a rather eventful birth day-to-day life here in the Drake household has been eventful.  Our little Charlotte was inconsolable about once a day since we got her, in the realm of a couple of hours at a time.  We thought she was hungry.  We tried to exclusively breastfeed for a while then supplemented with glucose water while in the hospital.  This glucose water has a short shelf life (and Matt asks why since it is just sugar water).  We then supplemented with formula out of a 'cup' feeder (and not a bottle as I was advised by the hospital lactation consultant not to use a bottle to avoid nipple confusion).  The cup was good as she was markedly less fussy but still somewhat fussy as half of the formula we attempted to feed ended up on her shirt.  This feeder was mastered by my mom and no one else really.  We tried this for days but the fussiness never relented.  My mom and I were sleeping very little and were perhaps not of our best temperments.  Charlotte started out in Matt and my bedroom but moved early Wednesday (at a week old) to her own room (being a typical first time mom, I thought I needed to be around her 24/7; I also now fully understand when people say that you sleep differently once you have a child).  Moving rooms was an improvement as we have more space in her room.  Matt has been working a lot as our construction project opens on April 27 to the public.  Around this time with Venetian Macau we were both working 100 hour weeks 7 days a week  so I understand the time commitment involved. 

Videos of Charlotte at 1 week old

Chillin' in the crib


With Grandma

Charlotte videos

On her birthday:


Longer hospital video:


Hip Hop Charlotte:


Charlotte with Grandma:

Kumquat is here! The unabridged birth story of the baby born on the stairs

*Disclaimer - there is quite a bit of delivery/physiological detail in the below.  Also this is a pretty long read.*

I was due on April 14, and boy was I ready to have the baby by then.  If you had asked me I was pretty impatient for my first born (Kumquat as we called her) to come.  I was hoping that she would come without any medical interventions (including natural induction methods) which is sort of not typical me.  I was previously one of those ‘epidural all the way’ girls as I have a low threshold for pain, but somehow I thought I could try.  I had hired a doula (my birth coach Lauren) and had studied up on hypnobirthing to increase my chances of a natural birth.   I wanted to have a birth in the hospital – if I wanted to do a home or a water birth I would have had to change obstetricians which I did not want to do.

Up until the 13th there was no indication that Kumquat was coming out any time soon.  On the 13th I went to the doctor and he said that I had bloody show after I had my cervical exam and I was all of 1 cm dilated, so I was due to have the baby any time over the next week.  I was happy that it seemed pretty imminent versus having to wait another 10 days.  The rest of the day there was no show and I was a bit impatient about that.

Overnight I had felt some belly tightening (as I had over the last few nights) but nothing that seemed like ‘labor’ – an activity I was assured I would know I was in when I was in it.  I thought my water had broken as I relieved myself but that was a false alarm.

On the 14th I woke up around 7:30 (when Matt did) and had noticed I had some blood, kind of a 1st day of a period blood.  It was red and some was in the toilet and I thought that it was supposed to be pink or brown.  I called Lauren around 7:50 and she was not concerned about the color or the volume as I had described it.  She said labor seemed like it would be soon (the next day or two) but to go about my day as if I were none the wiser.

I made myself some breakfast, a yogurt fruit shake with flax seeds and took the last of my antibiotics (I was at the very end of a mycoplasma infection), a pregnancy vitamin and a probiotic pill.  I wanted to call my best friend Nicole in Boston to catch up so I headed upstairs with my mobile phone (our bedroom is on the top story of a 3 story house).  I was debating going to pregnancy yoga but decided to just read in my room.  My mom and our domestic helper Imee were in the kitchen (on the ground floor) preparing some typical Korean post baby confinement food in advance of baby coming.  Just as a reference, it is difficult to communicate between the floors of our house, and our house next door is doing a full renovation which means 11+ hours of relentless day drilling. 

8:43AM – after settling in my room I felt like I had to pass motion (this is a term I wouldn’t use normally but is the euphemism used almost exclusively at the hospital I just discharged from).  I went to use the toilet and I felt like something exploded and the toilet water was gray with gray bits in it.  Maybe that is my water breaking?  Hmm, I need to call Lauren and ask her about that I thought to myself.  Then I suddenly felt really crampy/awful.  Ah, this is labor!  Indeed I knew.  Something was clearly amiss though.  I could not call Lauren.  I could not go downstairs for my mom.  I went from zero to a thousand with that one trip to the toilet.  Somehow I managed to call Matt and told him he needed to come back home as I was in labor.  I was having contractions constantly.  I felt the urge to pass motion constantly.  I turned on the hypnobirthing CD.  It was really quite amusing in retrospect – I was trying to focus on breathing and relaxing to the colors of the rainbow as I am wailing and on all fours.  I was oscillating among being on all fours on the bed (not easy to get up on the bed), being on all fours on the bathroom floor, and sitting face back on the toilet so my head would have something to rest on.  I was still trying to convince myself that this was not pain – it was surges as per the Hypnobirthing nomenclature – but I was thinking if this was to go on for 8 hours (as most first time mothers labors do) I would definitely need to look at medication.  This was so intense I knew I couldn’t call Lauren because I would not be able to have the beginning of a conversation with her. 

Hello Kumquat - Welcome Charlotte Moon Drake!

Charlotte Moon Drake (aka Kumquat) was born at 10:29 AM (we think) on Wednesday, April 14.  She was born via unplanned, unassisted natural home birth and was delivered by her dad on the stairs.  She weighed in at 7 lb 7oz (after 2 bowel movements so probably she was heavier at birth) and was 19" long at birth.  Charlotte, Mom, and (surprised) Dad are doing fine.  Some photos below.
 

 

First family photo on April 14

 

Family photo before hospital discharge on April 16

 

First picture at home on April 16

Week 39.9

Just got back from the doctor - I am due tomorrow and surprisingly there may be a chance that Kumquat can actually arrive on her due date!  I am 1 cm dilated and have a bit of show to show (well, I didn't know it was show so a good thing the doc was there to validate).  She is due tomorrow.  I am trying to nap but the construction noise is so unbearable so I am trying to write. 

I thought I would have written something about being a mother sooner but I guess I have been so busy just being busy.  So it is coming soon and people ask me if I am nervous.  Of course I am nervous.  I am nervous about the birth - more that I have the stamina to keep with it if it goes on for more than a day than anything else.  I am nervous about the 'being a mom' bit after the birth too.  I thought I would be more evolved emotionally - sort of a total Zen version of myself by the time I had kids.  I also thought I would be close to ruling the world in some non-mom like way by the time I had kids (when I was younger I thought I would have kids in my twenties, too).  I harbored some future fantasies of perfectionism - probably some fallout from my Asian upbringing.  But here I am, in my mid thirties, I have not yet taken over the world, and I am not a Zen version of myself (but I am trying).  And I am happy, which in all of my previous fantasies, was never even a considered part of the equation.  I hope motherhood is the adventure everyone says it is - to be able to teach and to learn by example, to experience the spectrum of emotions from someone I created, to leave a legacy somehow.  I look forward to meeting Kumquat and sharing with her the beauty and joy life has to offer (and enduring the inevitable painful life lessons too).  If I had all the answers maybe motherhood wouldn't be so fun.  Who knows?  I go in with a positive expectation of the future and I am excited for Kumquat to join our happy little Singapore family.  Hopefully she can endure the construction noise better than I can. 

Now please come out soon!

Week 39.5 - This is getting anticlimactic

I just got back from a pregnancy yoga class, where the lovely teacher has commended me for staying so (relatively) nimble.  I am not sure what I thought the end of pregnancy would be, but for whatever reason I had envisioned I would be less ambulatory than I am.  I feel less comfortable in the pelvic zone, I am trying to convince the local aunties I am not having a boy or twins (and if I am having a boy or twins something is seriously amiss with ultrasound technology these days).  I am trying to assess if I have really dropped as the doctor has said because if just looks like I have stuffed a basketball under my shirt.  I suppose I am lucky that I can sleep (now that the coughing fits are over), although I have a mild discomfort on my left side which makes lying on my left a bit more theatrical than I normally am.  The baby never keeps me awake - only my annoying bladder does but in typical Ho fashion I am not awake for long.  My happy trail is alive and well and I think I have just realized my belly button is crooked (as are the remnants of my belly ring).  Ah, true navel gazing.

I am reading Eclipse and aside from being horrified at the high school dialogue scenes (seriously, is there that much jaw dropping in adolescent conversation?) I am keeping up with all the wolf and vampire lore with unusual attention.

I am surprised how well my mother is adapting to Bucky.  It is hard to hate a dog that basically does nothing but sleep and beg for scraps (and is generally sweet and unannoying in the latter).  She was an unusually good sport when I took him in to the doggie eye specialist on Friday.  Now if we can only get him to stop eating cat poo....

 39 weeks and 4 days.  Still no Kumquat.  

Week 39 - O, how I miss my collar bone

Went to the doctor yesterday - my weight has stabilized (yay) but with the new haircut I feel a bit... bloatier.  I really do miss my collar bone and my shoulder blades.  O well.  I also have been sleeping horribly - coughing till five in the morning with green phlegmyness when I awake.  I had been on 3 days of Augmentin (again) and just found out today that I actually have mycoplasma (not to be confused, as I was, with toxoplasma) and that the myco is resistent to the Augmentin.  So today I am starting another round of antibiotics (Erythromycin, for those of you keeping score at home).  Which means 3 rounds of antibiotics in the last 12 weeks of pregnancy, with this final round ending exactly on Week 40.  Sigh.  At least it isn't the cat infection.

The baby's head is engaged, which may mean something, but in an effort to not make myself crazy, I did not ask what.

My mother is here in SG, bringing fresh fruit to Matt much to his delight.  I am at the tail end of running errands I never ran while working.  Got pictures framed today and attempted to bring home engraved wedding rings but unfortunately that baby-blue-boxed-marketing machine jewelry store screwed up the year.  Lucky for us they will deliver the rings to the house in a few days.

Week 38.5 - Please come out, dear Kumquat

Being full term is a bit overrated.  10 days ago I was deemed full-term but I can have Kumquat for up to a month after 37 weeks (aka full term) and all will still be fine.  A month is a long time though, especially when you are impatient like me about such things.  Yesterday we bought hot cross buns from the local German bakery and the local auntie there surmised Kumquat hasn't dropped yet - that it is not anytime soon.  She should know; her daughter just had her fourth.  I don't necessarily mind having her on the inside - it is just so bloody hot.  If I am outside for 10 minutes I am irrevocably covered in sweat.  This means a lot of showers for me - 3 or 4 a day.  Plus I still have this dumb cold, which kept me up most of the night in a fit of my own coughing abyss.  Matt (Dr. MD as he likes to anoint himself from time to time) has told me that all these showers (and going to sleep with a wet head) is causing my cold.  Funny, I thought colds were caused by germy transmissions.  No matter, my hair (already in a state of wonkiness due to falling asleep with a wet head) has gotten a much needed cut today.  I was sporting a layered Joan Jett with a body wave look that was turning few heads with my lack of blow drying attention (and as Matt would like to mention, brushing attention).  I am back to good ole Bob with a vengeance (and have bid adieu to the year old perm).  Alas, a sensible mom cut that I always revert back to it seems (even when motherhood was nowhere in the picture).  I would post a photo but am feeling indolent now.