Post Partum Care

The hardest thing after delivery is the post partum care.
http://www.babble.com/pregnancy/20-things-i-wish-someone-had-told-me-about-postpartum/

I stayed at the hospital for 48 hours since baby Tiara arrived after my water break for more than 18 hours. The nurses encourage you to nurse right away since your body usually would produce the colostrum (the nutritious milk for baby) and to have that skin-to-skin experience with your baby.
I never thought that breastfeeding is that hard. Baby does not know how to latch...they are still learning to suck vs bite. Every feeding time is a challenge to me. Thank God, they have lactation consultant that came to our room every day. The lactation consultant will help you see whether you need any Lanolin
http://www.amazon.com/Lansinoh-Lanolin-Breastfeeding-Mothers-Grams/dp/B005MI648C/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1404570759&sr=1-1&keywords=lanolin

or hydrogel pads to soothe your breasts:
http://www.amazon.com/Tender-Care-Hydrogel-Nursing-4-Pack/dp/B0011ECPA2/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1404570777&sr=1-1&keywords=hydrogel+pads

Aside from the breastfeeding challenge, my third degree tear is quite painful as well. They managed the pain by giving me ibuprofen every 4 hours, but it gets challenging to be on and off the bed.....

Some stuffs that helps my post partum recovery:

1) Witch Hazel pads
2) disposable mesh underwear
3) dibucaine gel
4) squeege bottle

Also since most of the women do experience a harder stool after giving a birth, I highly recommend you taking doqulace and if that still does not really help, do take "Milk of Magnesia"
http://www.amazon.com/Docusate-Sodium-STOOL-SOFTENER-DOCQLACE/dp/B00080FO08/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404571101&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=docqulage

http://www.amazon.com/Phillips-Original-Magnesia-Liquid-12-Ounce/dp/B000GFZ12G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404571157&sr=8-1&keywords=milk+of+magnesia

I was actually discharged on the 3rd day after spending 2 nights in the hospital, however Tiara needs to get phototheraphy due to jaundice. Her 1st day count of bilirubin was 9 and 2nd day it was 15.5. We got moved into the pediatrics floor where Tiara got phototheraphied under the blue light.

While I was staying with her in the peds room, I spiked up a fever and my whole body was shaken. I got readmitted to the post partum care room with my mom and Jack stayed with baby at peds.
The doctor gave me some antibiotics since she speculated that I got some infection from my water breaking.
Staying extra couple nights in the hospital really helped me with learning to breastfeed, to pump the milk and to rest well before the non-sleeping days begin.

On the other side, we are so glad to be home on the 26th! :D

Birthing Experience

Just wanted to share about my birthing experience. Tiara considered the last baby in June among my friends' baby that I was aware of, hence I was very anxiously excited to get her out.
I was drinking the raspberry tea to help naturally induced her.
http://www.vitacost.com/traditional-medicinals-herbal-tea-organic-raspberry-leaf-16-tea-bags?csrc=BPA-032917000675&srccode=cii_328768002&cpncode=26-364111688-2

Baby Tiara was due on June 25,2014. My last day of work was on June 19th. During my 39th week visit with my obgyn, i have a bloody show when she checked my cervix, so she predicted that baby will come out that weekend. True enough, on Saturday, June 21st early morning at 4am, my water broke. I started to feel mild stomachache around 2 am. I called Swedish Hospital to talk to the on duty obgyn. She called me and told me to check back at 8 am.

I fell asleep and finally woken up around 10am. I called the hospital again and they want me to check into the hospital as soon as possible. We got into the hospital around 12pm and checked in with the triage nurse.
The current on duty doctor needs to check whether it is truly that my water broke or just pee...since pregnant women have less bladder control with the baby pushing down.

Finally, the doctor declared that it is true my water broke, so we got admitted around 1.30pm with only 3-4cm dilated. The doctor wants to wait for the contraction to follow on its own. I have not really felt any strong contraction until 4pm and the doctor decided to give me pitocin to induce the labor. I told my labor nurse to have the anesthesiologist ready since I wanted the epidural. The labor was not too painful, but I wanted to preserve my energy to push, so I had the epidural injected at 5pm.

After several doses of pitocin, I was still at 6cm dilated by 10pm and baby had not come down. I was getting discouraged. I thought that I would certainly had a C section. I also know that the longer baby inside of me with my water broken, the higher chance that baby or me will get an infection. Finally at 12pm, the nurse said that I am 10cm dilated but baby had not come down yet. So, we waited until 2am to labor down and start pushing then. I used all my strengths and pushed the baby out by 2:40am on Sunday, June 22nd.

Finally, baby was given to me while the obgyn finished up all my stitches. I had a third degree tear, but baby is perfect. After being on my chest for about 1 hour, they took the baby away to clean her up a bit, weigh and measure her, as well as gave her 1st Hep B vaccine.

I am glad that baby has arrived and I do not have to go through C-Section. Even though I wish that if I will have 2nd baby, I might opt for C-section.

2nd Trimester Dream

It is interesting when I read babycenter.com article for 17 weeks pregnancy:

"Dreams During Pregnancy
Many women report that their dream life shifts into high gear during pregnancy. Interestingly, during the second and third trimesters, you spend less sleep time in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the cycle in which most dreams occur. "

I rarely dream/ remember my dream when I wake up, but this past week, I feel that I have so many dreams. Most vivid is last night's dream. I dream that I delivered the baby after 17 weeks and the delivery was very easy. Baby was healthy and cute. We forgot to find out the gender of the baby until we have to change him/her. Turns out it is a GIRL!
I remember I had my mom and my big family- cousins are all here in Seattle to help.

It was such an easy delivery and baby was so nice that I remember saying, "There is nothing hard about delivery. I can go to work the next day and surprise them that I have delivered my baby."

Waking up in the morning, I was a bit bummed that it was only a dream. Well, I surely pray that my delivery will be as easy as in my dream.

Chinese Gender Predictor

Once I found out that I am pregnant, a friend of mine sent me this chinese gender predictor.

This forecasting tool seems above 90% accurate when it comes to the gender predictions - See more at: http://chinesegenderchart.net/#sthash.i41n6zmi.dpuf

"This forecasting tools seems above 90% when it comes to gender predictions....."

Here is the Chinese Gender Prediction Chart for 2013 - See more at: http://chinesegenderchart.net/#sthash.i41n6zmi.dpuf

Here is the Chinese Gender Prediction Chart for 2013 - See more at: http://chinesegenderchart.net/#sthash.i41n6zmi.dpuf

Here is the Chinese Gender Prediction Chart for 2013 - See more at: http://chinesegenderchart.net/#sthash.i41n6zmi.dpuf

Chinese Gender Prediction Chart for 2013:

Here is the Chinese Gender Prediction Chart for 2013

- See more at: http://chinesegenderchart.net/#sthash.i41n6zmi.dpuf

Adapted from: http://chinesegenderchart.net/

Use this website to convert your western calendar to Chinese calendar:
http://www.prokerala.com/general/calendar/chinese-year-converter.php

English(Western) and Chinese Calendar Dates and information for September 3, 1983 (3/9/1983)

English Date :	September 3, 1983
Chinese Date :	Xin-You(Rooster) (7th month), 26, 4681

Chinese Year Name :Gui Hai(Pig)

Baby was conceived on October 8, 2013 - we know ;)
English(Western) and Chinese Calendar Dates and information for October 8, 2013 (8/10/2013)

English Date :	October 8, 2013
Chinese Date :	Ren-Xu(Dog) (9th month), 4, 4711

Based on this Chinese gender prediction....I will be having a boy.  (Age 31 (due to in Chinese, you are considered one years old when you are still in your mom's womb) - and month Sept (9th month)- we'll see how accurate this is :P

Regardless of the gender of the baby, Jack & I will be grateful to have a healthy baby!
We will update you on Jan 30th on the gender of the baby.

Let me know your thoughts ;)

Here is the Chinese Gender Prediction Chart for 2013

- See more at: http://chinesegenderchart.net/#sthash.i41n6zmi.dpuf

15 weeks Preggo Facts

Posting baby picture on Facebook and baby...you are so loved and famous~!

You got 194 likes and 69 comments!

We are so eager to find out the gender of the baby on January 30th! We have a name for the baby, regardless it is a boy or a girl :)

This week has been one of the best week....most of the nausea has gone, even though the headache starts to come. We saw our new obgyn, Dr. Lagalbo @ Polyclinic on Dec 28th and we really enjoyed seeing her.

She is very patient in answering all our questions.

Interesting Facts:

Baby size: Navel orange  (4 inches, 2.5 oz.)

Mommy's craving:  Boba Milk Tea

Daddy's sympathy weight so far: 10 lbs - same as mommy!

Hilarious moment of the week : Daddy ask the obgyn: "Does mood swing common in pregnancy?" - it makes mommy feels so bad! :P

We are also excited to share the pregnancy/parenthood journey with 7 other couples whose babies are due in June! Boy, apparently, parents are busy in Sept/Octoberish ;)

First Trimester- Morning Sickness

My first post about my pregnancy. I am reaching 12 weeks mark....YAY!
Baby is due on June 25th.
We were trying to get pregnant since we were back from Kenya end of August.
We used the Clear Blue ovulation test to help us conceive:
http://www.amazon.com/Clearblue-Digital-Ovulation-Test-Count/dp/B002VLYAOI/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1387182861&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=clearbue+ovulation+test

It totally works! I got the first smiley face about 8 days after my period is over.
Here's youtube video to learn more about the ovulation test:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6ZSbCtpN-0

We also are eager to know whether we are pregnant, so we bought the pregnancy test that can detect pregnancy even before I missed my period:
http://www.amazon.com/First-Response-Result-Pregnancy-Packaging/dp/B000052XHI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387182971&sr=8-1&keywords=rapid+pregnancy+test
The lines that show whether I am pregnant or not was faint before I miss my period. So, I tested again after I missed my period and the result show clear two lines. So, I am pregnant!

The first month of pregnancy was a bliss. I was not tired at all and I can eat all I want.
The nausea starts at about the 6th week (counting since the day of your last period) - I started vomitting after lunch at work. I went to the Polyclinic and they said that the symptoms is normal for pregnant women. I know that it is not ok for me since I have had random hormonal spike every 3-4 years. I had to go to ER that night to get fluid IV-ed in since I was very dehydrated from throwing up the past 12 hours.
They gave my 2 dose of zofran to control my nausea but it still doesnt help. Luckily after I can sleep, the vomitting stops. The nausea somewhat lingers, but not too bad. The next week after that, I was totally fine without nausea. So, I was under the assumption that it is just my normal hormonal spike.

Little that I know, the next week, on Sunday the vomitting starts again after my dinner. This time, I waited until morning to go back to the doctor and after several tests, they decided that I need to get IV-ed in again. I went home with another prescription for zofran and phenergan. They did not help to stop the vomitting. I am not sure whether I should take them as soon as I am feeling nausea since I feel nausea almost all the time.
I had to miss work that day and no one at work knows about my pregnancy.

On Tuesday night, the vomitting starts again, and I started to get very skeptical that I will have an easy pregnancy. I started to believe that I have the "hypermesis gravidium" HG (which what the doctors diagnose me with) and felt sorry for myself. I got IV-ed in again on Wednesday and had to excuse myself from work. Thank God it was not a month-end period, so, it was fine for me to miss that couple days. But, this can't continue on. So, we decided to tell people at work to help them understand and cope with my circumstances better. The people at work were very understanding. They told me to do what is best for me.

I read more and more article about HG and avoids spicy food. I couldn't stand the smell of food coming out of microwave- which means we have to make/buy fresh food every meal. Even the smell of rice freshly cooked would stir up my nausea.
I started to eat banana in the morning with 50mg of Vit B-6 and that really help with my nausea. I am still nauseous but I don't have the urge to throw up. On my last visit, the doctor prescribes me with "Diclegis"- which supposed to help me with my nausea, however, the dose has 20mg of Vit B-6 that I am afraid I will take too much of vit B-6 considering the 50mg B-6 I took was not prescribed. "Diclegis" is also very expensive- it is $120 after insurance coverage. I wish the Dr. would prescribe me that medicine sooner before spending all my money into buying Reglan, Phenergan, and Zofran.






The best thing is that after the 3rd episode of getting IV-ed in, I was doing much better. I had nausea almost every day, but no throwing up. The salty preserved plum, satsuma/tangerines, and decaf diet coke are my best friends. For some reason, I tried ginger and the baby doesn't seem to like anything ginger-y. So, I do what I can do and as long as no vomit, I am a happy mom.

Africa Mission Trip- Kenya

I just wanted to document our decision to go to Kenya Mission Trip.

We have been wanting to join a mission trip group that goes to Africa. We were looking to join through Foursquare Church, however they do not have any groups formally formed yet. Our friend, Mike, from Overlake Christian Church, let us know that OCC is having Africa Mission Trip Introductory Meetings on April 2013.
So, we went to the introductory meetings.

OCC offers two type of mission trip: Kenya, serving children and to Cape Town, serving the community that is mostly AIDS contaminated.

Because of timing, we decided to join the Kenya Mission Trip in August 10-24, 2013.
We have put in the deposit for $100 each. The trip costs $3500.00/person - all inclusive.

Excited... to be continued...