.: angilou and tucker too :.

validation

yay! after a host of appointments yesterday, i can confirm that cal and i are on track!

hip ultrasound. because he was breech, he was at risk of having hip mis-alignment and would have to wear a little brace. they did an ultrasound and everything looks normal - yay!

pediatrician. his weight is crazy! here's the stats:
- birth (1/16) weight: 6lb 9oz
- fri (1/21) weight: 5 lbs 12 oz
- mon (1/24) weight: 6 lbs 3 oz
and his head grew a whole cm from friday! who knew they grew so fast.

lactation consultant. this was kind of cool. you set up an appointment and she walks you through a bunch of things, breastfeeding tips, etc. the other cool thing isyou come during a feeding, so she makes sure you're positioned right, and also weighs the baby before and after, so you get a sense of exactly how much milk he took in. very helpful and we can confirm that i do have milk! i am just not a big cow of a producer, so that's something i'll have to work on.

what does breastmilk look like?

ok, so i've been taking the prescription that the doctor gave me to help my milk come in. everyone said "it'll be really obvious", or "i woke up and i was leaking everywhere". i must be the deformed minority. i _think_ my milk has come in, because when i pump, something comes out! not a lot, but definitely something that could be breastmilk - but how the heck do i know?

this parenting thing cracks me up - who knew i would be trying to figure out whether or not the ligquid coming from my breasts is milk...

coming up for air

well, cal is officially six days old and it's definitely been an experience. the delivery was quite exciting, and i'll have to write about that another time. the toughest days were day 3 and 4, after we left the hospital. i am breastfeeding and there is a period of time when you're waiting for your milk to "come in", and the baby gets colustrum, which is like a pre-milk. it's totally fine for him for a day or two, but by day 3, he's awake, he's hungry and he knows he's supposed to get more than pre-milk! so he would fuss and cry and be really annoyed. i would be annoyed to if all i had was some watery milk for three days.

so, i'm still waiting for my milk to come in, but thank goodness the pediatrician said to go ahead and supplement with formula (supposedly blasphemous according to the breastfeeding nazis), and that has made a world of difference. i actually get an hour or so, here or there, so i don't feel like i am nursing 24 hrs/day and still have a hungry baby. whew!

and then to make things more fun, my dad went in for heart by-pass surgery this week. he was diagnosed on monday, surgery was wed or thurs (i can't even remember now), and he had to go back in on friday, and now he's FINALLY stable. thank God.

so, it's been a stressful week, but baby cal is doing great. he's pretty even keeled, not too fussy, other than the hunger thing and is pretty darn cute. of course, all parents think their babies are cute. ;-)

oh, and for those of you looking for pics, tucker posted some day 1 pics on our website www.wongtucker.com/calvin. here's also one from i think day 3:

anxiety?

both tucker and i have been having more dreams about labor/delivery/parenting, so it's definitely on our minds. today i had trouble sleeping and woke up at 4am, feeling anxious. i am sure it's totally normal. hey, our lives are about to be turned upside down with our biggest event yet - a little anxiety ain't no surprise.

baby drop

so, near the end of your pregnancy, the baby "drops" or starts settling into a birthing position. my doctor noticed it on my visit last week, and a couple of people commented on it also. i do find it's easier to breathe, although it wasn't a dramatic "i can breathe!" like the classes led me to believe. what's wierd is that when i sit now, i feel my belly resting on my thighs a lot more. before i would have to lean forward to achieve that effect, but now just sitting straight up will do it.

everything else is going ok! i felt much better last week, and i think the week before last was some kind of wierd fluke. tucker things that because of the way mr bun was positioned, he may have been pressing on some nerves/arteries, which may have made me feel so crappy. but he's actually moved again, so maybe that's why i feel better? when we first discovered he was breech, his head was on the left hand side and now he's moved over to my right hand side. so, he is moving, and toward the right direction, but is still breech. i believe his butt is wedged into my cervix now, and both tucker and the doctor are not optimistic that he will turn anymore.

nesting instinct

so they say that toward the end of a pregnancy, women get this "nesting instinct". some women are compelled to alphabetize all their cd's, or re-wash and categorize the baby's layette, etc. my cuz/sis-in-law amber said that she was just supposed to paint the door of the nursery, but then decided all the doors needed to match and painted eight doors, front and back, in one day.

i do feel like i am working a little more frantically this week, but i thought that was because i wanted to get as much done as possible. what i have noticed is this urge to bake. first it was the cupcakes and today it's oatmeal cookies. what's up with that?

one heck of a rose bowl

new year's and new year's eve were nice and calm. new year's eve we played taboo with josh and amber, then i fell asleep listening to the times square celebration. new year's day, tucker and josh made it very clear that it was rose bowl day. it was texas' first time in a bcs game and the first time at the rose bowl. tucker was so agitated, he could barely sit through the game. early on, i discovered i couldn't really watch texas games with tucker because he gets so wrapped up. so, i stayed home for the first three quarters, baking cupcakes, then brought them over to josh's for the fourth quarter, where tucker was pacing in the back of the room. whew, thank goodness they won! and what a great game, a nailbiter down to the end.

the weather has really thrown me off. it's been in the 70's, so i walk around with a tank top and sandals around new years - very bizarre. tucker assures me this isn't normal. it's been really nice, like a late summer day, but it just doesn't feel like it's new years; i am pretty thrown off.

so, shirley, my mother-in-law, is in new mexico, and comes back tomorrow. i am trying not to do anything too strenuous, so that i don't go into labor too early. i have to tell you, it does feel like it's going to be soon. plus, i have work to finish! i'm almost done, but just need a week or so.

it's official...

..i have moved into the uncomfortable stage of pregnancy. it all kind of came crashing in this week;it's wierd. up till now, i just had the occasional joint creakiness after sitting/lying for a while, and occasional indigestion. this week, i've gotten some regular backaches, acid reflux and (ick) my first hemmhoroid. i know, i know, too much information, but oh well, that's pregnancy for you. so now i walk around with a heating pad and sitting on pillows.

went to the doctor's on wednesday, and mr bun is still breech - he's now standing straight up, so he's exactly 180 degrees from where he needs to be. at this point, we are kind of resigning ourselves to the fact that we'll have to have a caesarean section. we decided we won't schedule it, but we're going to go ahead and wait until i go into labor, see if he turns at the last minute, and if not, then we'll do the c-section.

so, i think i am down to less than 3 weeks! it's pretty nerve-wracking. going to pack up the bag today, so after today, i think we will be officially "ready". eek!

moxabustion | warning: unflattering picture coming

so, as i mentioned in my other post, mr bun is breech, meaning he is sideways, when he needs to be upside down. besides hoping he'll turn in time for delivery, the doctor recommended an oriental remedy that had a pretty good success rate. so, i said, of course, i'll try it, what does it involve? and she says, well, you purchase this stuff called moxabustion and you burn it. me puzzled: and what, you inhale the smoke or something? dr: no, you just kind of burn it near your toes. me, even more puzzled: what? burn it near my toes? but how does that possibly work. dr: well, there's so much we don't understand about oriental medicine, but it's something about the pressure points in the foot that are connected to the uterus and it helps relax it and help the baby turn. it's been published in a very reputable medical journal, and we've done some of our own trials, so i feel comfortable recommending it to you, but i can't tell you exactly why it works. tucker and i: silence. then, ok, well, i guess we'll try it.

so, we went out and bought our moxabustion, and here is a picture of me trying it out. you're supposed to do it right before bed, and this was our first night trying it. the doctor said it's really smelly and you should do it outside, but i felt dumb doing it outside, so we did in the bathroom with the window open. if you click on the thumbnail, you'll get a bigger picture and you can see the funny little moxabustion sticks on top of the books (and yes, they tell you to use the books) and you're supposed to point it at your pinky toe. bizarre. you sit there for 20 minutes, burning your toes, then you go to sleep and wait for the baby to turn. double bizarre.

another added plus to this is that it smells like low grade pot (or so tucker tells me). so the first night we did this, we thought oh, it just smells like cheap stogies. the second night, there were still lingering smells from the previous night and we thought, hmm, maybe it does smell a little like pot. while i was doign my 20 minutes, tucker went out and walked trixie. he comes back into the house and says "oh yeah - it smells like pot. i can smell it from the edge of the front yard."

great. so our neighbors probably think, "the new people down the street are smoking pot every night, and can you believe she's pregnant too???!!!!" i am half expecting a cop to come to our door one of these nights to arrest us for possession or something.

fyi, you guys must know you are really good friends/family for me to be willing to share this picture with you.

breech baby

had a doctor's check-up today and found out mr bun is breech. for those of you who haven't had kids yet, the baby's head should be down in the cervix. mr bun, on the other hand, has chosen to sit sideways in my belly, which is called breech. so, hopefully, mr bun will "turn" soon, otherwise it will be too late for him to turn. if he doesn't turn, then there's a strong likelihood i'll have to have a caesearean section. which is not a bad thing, but it'd be nice to have a choice.

but, there is still hope! apparently, in week 35, there is still a 35% chance that mr bun will turn on his own. i'm also going to try out a couple of things that the doctor recommended, one of which sounds hysterical. will write an update as soon as i try it.