Ethan is coming home

Ethan is scheduled to come home this Sunday! He's doing extremely well and is drinking about 50ccs of milk every 3-4 hours. He is no longer in the incubator and is in a regular crib, the IV was taken out yesterday! Today we brought his car seat over to the hospital so he can sit in it for an hour or so. The hospital requires that discharged babies be able to sit in the car seat w/ out any problems. We're looking foward to him coming home, he's a really good baby and loves to chug milk then fall asleep. He'll close his eyes after he eats, then will give you a huge smile :)

Ethan is 5 days old today!

Ethan is continuing to do well. They took him off the blue light today and he’s now a happier baby! He didn’t like to sunbathe too much according to the nurse. He always wanted his binky while he was sunbathing. Now that he’s off the blue light, he feels content having a shirt on and being swaddled that he hardly needs his binky at all.

They have been increasing his food intake to 3ccs every 6 hours. He was at 25ccs this afternoon. I tried breastfeeding him today and he did well! The nurse weighed him before I started breastfeeding and weighed him after to see how much he drank! The nurse measured 14ccs intake! (Isn’t it amazing how they can measure something like that?) I fed him 11ccs more breast milk through a bottle and he wanted to sleep right after! (I think he is definitely taking after his Daddy, who always overeats and goes into a food coma!)

I was so happy to see how he’s progressing well today! These are all great milestones, which gets him closer to going home with us! The nurse says they will start weaning him out of the incubator into an open crib soon. I’m hoping we’ll be able to bring him home soon. It breaks my heart to leave him in the hospital all by himself. I felt so empty coming home after being discharged from the hospital this past Sunday. It’s not the same without Ethan at home. Even though he’s only a couple of days old, it seems like he’s been with us forever.

It’s true what everyone says, your life will never be the same after having a baby. I can’t explain it…but it’s true. When I look back on the 7 weeks of bed rest and the long labor, it all seems like it was from a distant past....and definitely all worth the sacrifice for our beautiful son!

Wow, Fatherhood is a trip

Ethan is doing great, his magnesium levels are normal, and they have increased his intake of food to 13cc instead of 10cc which means he has a healthy appetite. I stopped by to visit him today and was able to feed him and get a crash course on how to change a diaper. Since this was my third time feeding him from a bottle, I'm at lesson," Baby feeding 103" and now I know that you have to wait until his tongue is down before you stick the nipple in his mouth. He drank 1/2 a bottle w/ his tongue above the nipple (shame on me for not knowing), then we took a quick break and the nurse told me to check the location of his tongue. He quickly chugged the rest of the formula down, turned a little red and looked like he wanted even more. I turned him to his side and he let out a big burp. He reminds me of myself back in my old college days during parties.

Just Visiting

Ethan is still under the blue light and hopefully will be taken off tomorrow. Today we attended a support group for premature babies and were able to ask questions and relate our experience with other parents and nurses. Many of our questions were answered and we have a better idea as to what will happen from this point. Ethan's in good hands at the hospital. He' been eating about 10ccs of milk during each feeding and is on a fixed schedule as to when he eats. It feels so weird not being able to take him home, however we know that he has to hit certain milestones before we can. This gives us some time to prepare the house for him. Today we got a taste of it when we were cleaning and drying the pump, we can just imagine the amount of work parents to when they clean bottles, diapers, clothes, etc...

Ethan Hunter Tran

We've decided on a name, Ethan Hunter Tran.

Ethan; in Hebrew means strong/firm and safe
Hunter; The name of many of my old Role Playing Characters when I use to play AD&D and Top Secret and a derivative of my favorite character class, Ranger. A "Hunter" in sales is also a person who goes out and finds and brings in business.

We fed for the first time today through a baby bottle and we're practicing natural feeding as well. It has seriously been quite an experience because as Christine was changing him in the incubator, she took the diaper off and lifted his legs to wipe him, he sprayed his weapon everywhere. So I was running around getting wipes as she was cleaning him off and changing his diaper. I can't imagine how parents do this at 3am in the morning on limited rest.

According to the Doctor we have a pretty good shot at taking him home at the end of next week. There are no guarantees however the tests came back and he is negative for infections. He just has to chill out at the what we call the beach until the jaundice goes away (blue light at the hospital).

Ethan has started to open his eyes as well and loves to peek around and see his Momma and surroundings. We are so blessed that we have been able to make it to this point and really hope we'll be able to take him home next week. Christine is being discharged from the hospital today and we'll be taking trips back and forth to the hospital to spend time with Ethan.

Doing Well

Mother and baby are both doing well. Christine finally got off of the Magnesium today and is recovering nicely, she was able to eat solid food so she had salmon, rice, organic green beans and a bean burrito for lunch!

She was able to see the baby today and hold him in her arms. This has been the first time since she gave birth and briefly saw him for a few minutes. Once she held him he started smiling and it looked like he was trying to open his eyes. He is also feeling the Magnesium so there are trace amounts in him as well from the labor. This makes him very sleepy so the nurses are not surprised that he is sleeping so much.

According to the nurse Nona who has been taking care of him, he doesn't like to be touched and gets fussy when she changes his diaper. He has been sucking on a pacifier as well which is really good since he will have to be able to suck and eat before he can be discharged from the hospital. He is slightly jaundiced, this is very common for Asian babies so he may need to chill out under the blue sun tan light for awhile. I guess the blue light cures it and it takes 1-3 days dependent on how jaundiced the child is.

Christine will be discharged tomorrow so I'm unsure what time we'll be checking out of the hospital. We're hoping our son will be able to go home soon, and are still deciding on the name. We're very close though and will keep you posted!

Happy Birthday Baby Tran

Hi everyone! I was born at 11:18am at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View California on August 10,2007. I am 4 lbs 13oz. I'm 17 inches long and have large bellowing lungs, My Mommy and Daddy and Aunties have heard me scream.

I can't wait to meet all my new family and friends soon!

It's Time

Time to start pushing....

Nurse is preparing the room.

Epidural Time

Dr. Tan stopped by around lunch and at around 6:00pm and Oked the epidural. Christine's not quite dialated to the 4cm mark yet so looks like we've got a ways to go. From what I hear the first 4cm are the toughest and from there it's about 1cm an hour 'till whenver. I guess contractions really hurt because she doesn't like my jokes :) she just tells me to shush.

She tooks some narcotics through the IV that helped the pain however they were short term fixes that lasted about an hour. Geez preganancy is tough because she's been vomiting and just not feeling well at all.

So to ease the pain she's going the natural US route via epidural. Hey if they got it then use it. So now her BP has dropped from the 150-160s to the 120s after the epidural and she's not feeling pain. Hopefully she can get some rest for the main event, according to the doctors once the epi is applied then it will last throughout the labor.

As for me, I've had a large coffee and I'm working on a Venti Latte to make it through the next step. The video camera is ready to go and the elph has batteries...

Broken Water

Around 9:30am Dr. Tan broke Christine's water, so we're moving along the process. Her contractions are more frequent so NOW she knows what they feel like. The baby should come out sometime today according to the nurse, Dr Tan will be back around lunchtime to check on Christine.

Induction

We've begun the induction process. According to the Doctor she should be delivering by tomorrow so we've moved rooms and we are not in the maternity ward. Christine is now on an IV drip just in case we need to do a C section but so far it should be a natural delivery...

We've been Yelping

Lately we've been spending a lot of time on www.yelp.com , it's kinda like myspace but you write reviews about places you've been such as restaurants, stores, etc. I try to bring Christine different foods that we find on Yelp, today we had Frozen Yogurt at "I Love Yogurt" in Cupertino. I'm probably gonna give it 3-4 stars when I write about it :) In any case we are alllllmmmost there.

Check out our yelps at:

http://seasian.yelp.com

http://tinytinc.yelp.com

We're almost there

As of Saturday Christine was 34 weeks along. We checked back in the hospital at approximately 32 weeks. The plan of the Doctors was to induce at the 34th week because it was the optimal point for both Baby and Mother. The reason for the induction is not the overall bloodpressure which has been creeping up and averaging in the high 130/low 140 over 80/90s. The reason for induction is for excess spillage of protein into the urine. This essentially means that the kidneys are working overtime to support mother and baby. Normal protein levels are below 150 and Christine's has gone from the 600s to 700s to 800s and most recently 1100s. This is still considered mild, nevertheless concerning. Quite frankly the doctor has asked us what we are waiting for because many babies are delivered at the 34th week, so we had every intention at delivering at 34 weeks.

Now the Doctors have told us it should be ok to push it back to 36 weeks unless a severe headache sets in which is always a symptom of pre-eclampsia. So I would expect us to induce within the next 12 days.

Well I guess I have to start learning how to change diapers :) Christine and I still haven't decided on a name yet because we just can't agree on one. I'm sure we'll figure it out when he comes. So cross your fingers so we can make it another 12 days and wrap up this rollercoaster ride!

A Surprise Baby Shower

Last night, my closest friends came to visit and threw us a little surprise Baby Shower! It was a lovely surprise! They brought food and even decorated our hospital room! They brought lots of wonderful gifts for baby! It was totally unexpected and opening the presents and seeing all the cute little clothes for baby made everything so real! I don't think it hit both Tom and me that we're actually going to be parents soon until we started seeing onesies, bibs and bottles! I can't believe we're going to have a baby any day now!

The baby shower was such a great surprise! It was the highlight of my week! We had a great time! Thank you all for your continued love, support and all the presents for baby! Our baby is blessed with such wonderful and loving Aunties and Uncles!

33 weeks + 5 days

I'm now at 33 weeks + 5 days today in my pregancy and still hanging in here in the hospital. We had another ultrasound this past Monday and the baby is doing well. However, his growth slowed down a little bit. Two weeks ago his growth was near average which was at 47th percentile (average is at 50th percentile). This week he is at 30th percentile. Our perinatalogist says this was expected due to my condition, but there is nothing to worry about. They are still monitoring the baby twice a day, and he continues to be a good sport. His heartbeat continues to be strong and he loves to kick his momma! Unfortunately, the protein count in my urine this week has gotten worse. It's now at 1100. My BP has been a little unstable and I have been getting occasional headaches. Dr. Tan and our perinatalogist seem to want to go ahead and induce me this weekend, but nothing is set in stone yet. We will know more in a couple of days. So we'll see and keep everyone posted.