Oh Brandon :)

So it has been a tiring few days because Brandon has been more fussy than usual and upset and hungry A LOT. Last night I felt like I was feeding him continually for 3 hours. Needless to say mommy was very tired and at wits end. Luckily, Ray firgured out how to broadcast static from his weather radios so that Brandon would feel comforted and sleep. He slept for a long time after that and mom and dad got the rest they needed to take care of him.

We went to his 2 week doctor's visit the other day to get everything checked out. His weight is within the average but on the lower end (amazing since he eats so much!) and his height is right in the median :) His circumcision and belly button also look good. His next checkup is at 2 months and he will be getting some shots then...poor Brandon

Brandon is also working on his neck muscles and is lifting his head when daddy is holding him tummy down now. It is wobbly but at least he is trying to use all of his muscles. Also, it looks like we might have a track star on our hands because his calf muscles seem very strong. You all can feel them when you come to visit :)

Ok that is it for now. Much more to come!!!!!!

Belly Button for Brandon :)

Haven't written a post in a while just because we have been spending most of our time at home.

Brandon's cord finally fell off on Saturday night. Peter was there for the momentous occasion and actually spoted the dangling cord first. We weren't sure what to do when the piece was dangling since they tell you not to pull it even at that stage in fear of hurting the baby. Lucky for us, it decided to just fall right off some minutes afterwards. Brandon still has a little bit of a wound on his belly button but at least now it looks like a normal innie :)

Brandon is also starting to grow out of some of his hospital undershirts. It has been a little more diffcult to get them over his head and around his body. Our little chubby baby :) His feeding times are getting shorter, and he has been more fussy and squirmy as of late. Hopefully he is still getting all the nutrients he needs.

That is all for now - we'll keep all of you posted as things happen!

Daddy and Me Time

Since Ray can't breastfeed and Brandon spends a lot of time sleeping, Ray likes to bond with the baby by taking his naps with him. I have been chronicling some of their time together (click for larger view):

The last photo is of Ray & Brandon napping as I blog :)

Sleepy Smiles

Apparently newborns sleep all the time so it is tough to get a picture of Brandon with his eyes open. When you're lucky though, you manage to catch one. Here's one of him doing his usual activity - sleeping:



And here's one that we got of him smiling:



We wanted him to smile on video, but it took a bit of doing. The end result is well worth it though.

One Week Old!

Little Brandon is now over a week old! Can you believe it? They just grow up so fast, don't they?

Anyway, we're all still doing well. Brandon is a very good boy and is pretty good at being low maintenance most of the time. He does get a little fussy occasionally (and often at night), but that comes with the territory. He is already getting chubby from eating so much, which is good because we want him to be healthy and strong.

I should note that everything they say about changing the diaper of a baby boy is completely true. We've lost count of how many times he has sprayed all over the place when we tried changing him. You learn to cover it as much as possible during the changing, but sometimes you need both hands to do certain things like lifting and wiping or swapping the diaper. And of course, he learns to relieve himself at these most opportune moments too. It is hard to get mad at him though, because afterward he gets this calm, peaceful look which is irresistible. Aside from these accidents though, we're getting pretty good at changing him after one week of experience. The changing table is kind of like a NASCAR pit-stop now - a well-oiled-diaper-changing-machine.

That's it for now, there are a few more pictures and a video I'd like to post, but I've been too lazy to download them from the camera. I'll get it up soon though, I promise!

Brandon's first outings

Brandon got to leave the apartment the last couple of days and go on some outings. :)


We went on a walk yesterday to get out and break in the new stroller. Sierra Madre is the perfect place for taking the baby out since we can easily walk to town or to the park without encountering many cars or anything. For those of you who don't know, there aren't even traffic lights in Sierra Madre. Just stop signs and cross walks :)


The walk went pretty well but Brandon ended up being alseep the entire time. He loves it when it is slightly warm and can just sleep for hours and hours like that. We were going to try to make it to the park, but mommy couldn't walk much further than the local library because of the surgery. I think I might have exerted myself a little too much because I was hurting a little bit when we got back.


Today Brandon got to go to his first doctor's visit. Of course he is an old pro at this point since he was poked and proded constantly during our 3 day hospital stay. The lactation nurse said that Brandon was already back at his birth weight (usually takes 2 weeks for a baby to get back to it) and that he seemed to be breastfeeding wonderfully. No signs of jaundice today and his cord and circumcision site both are healing perfectly. Such a good baby!!


Then we made a surprise and last minute visit to my workplace at Universal. Everyone seemed really excited to see him. He was sleeping of course, as usual, for most of the visit and only got up because I was mean and pulled him out of the stroller to hold. Brandon became a little fussy and we had to change him there (sorry guys!) to make him a little more comfortable. I hope that we didn't disturb everyone too much. It was fun to see everyone without having the worry of working :)

Labor Day Play by Play

Hi Everyone

Finally up to doing a blog about Brandon's big birth date. Ray did a good job of keeping everyone in the loop about what was happening the day of, but we figured I can account every thing for everyone. Unfortunately this will be long and the wonderful baby pictures/video will get pushed down, but all you have to do is scroll down to see them :)

Here we go.......April 9th, 2008:

2am
I woke up thinking that my dinner had not agreed with me even though we only had tofu, rice, and some melon soup I made.

2:15-3am
Tossed and turned thinking that my tummy ache was back. Then I decided to stay up in case for some reason they were contractions.

3am-4am
Started timing when I was getting the "tummy aches" and seeing if there was a pattern. They were coming almost every 5 minutes consistently but I decided that they weren't so bad to wake Ray up just yet.

4:15am
Couldn't wait to wake Ray up anymore and finally went in to tell him I was having contractions. He told me I should have woken him earlier.....he was right because they started getting really really bad and closer together.

5:30-ish am
The car ride to the hospital was not fun. I could barely walk myself down the halls to Labor and Delivery because we had to stop every time I had a contraction which was about every 2 minutes at this point. I could barely answer any of the questions the admitting nurse was asking me because the pain taking over my body.

9am
The epidural is your friend. Can't feel much.
The doctor had been monitoring me at this point and the baby and noticed that the baby's heart rate was lower every time I had a contraction. She also became concerned that I was having such close contractions (still about 2 min) when only dilated 4 cm. My water has also broke. They immediately wheel me into the delivery room because they think they are going to have to perform a C-section right away for the baby. There are about 10 different doctors that hover over me to tell me what they do and that everything will be ok. I am super nervous at this point and Ray suddenly appears wearing a surgical outfit.
The nurse administers something called terb that slows my contractions down so that the baby is not as stressed out in my body. This takes affect right away and the baby's heart beat starts looking very good. All the doctors look on and they wait to see if they really need to do the C-section. 30 minutes later - they wheel me back to the original room I was in and tell me that we can try to do a vaginal birth.

11:10am
The baby's heart rate starts to go down again with my contractions and I am only 5 cm dilated now even though it has been 3 hours. I should have been dilated to at least 7 cm (1 cm per hour) by now. The doctor says that the best thing would be to do a C-section and that Ray and I should discuss it. Obviously we want what is best for the baby and so C-section it is. My mom has arrived at this point and she comforts us and tells us she will wait outside for us.

11:43am
They wheel me into an OR and the doctor immediately starts yelling out for people to get in here right away because she thinks that we need to do the C-section NOW. She is worried that something might have ruptured in me and that the baby may be in harm's way.

Ray is waiting outside for them to let him in. He tells me later that he got really nervous because he could hear all the yelling for help and that when the door was open, he saw red liquid spilling from my body. Luckily it wasn't blood and just the iodine they poured all over me before they started. He had no idea though.

I am in there listening and getting more medication from the anethesiologist, Dr. Stafford (she was the same person who gave me the epidural and I really liked her). There is more yelling: "She needs to get internal anethetic now! Get ready to knock her out because she might be in pain. Are you in pain?" " tell Kathy [my l&d nurse] to get in here NOW - we have to start! Where is she?" I manage to ask if they will remember to bring Ray in and Dr. Stafford (I think it was her any ways but everyone had masks on) promised she would remind them.

11:53am
Ray and everyone is in the room and they are ready to get the baby out.

11:55am
The baby is out! He cries for a brief moment and then, according to Ray, is brought over to some heat lamps by about 5 different people. He says it was like "ER." Meanwhile I am lying there on the surgical bed feeling a bunch of pressure around my belly. I don't feel pain, which is what the doctor was worried about, but can tell what they are doing by the pressure (Pulling, pressing, up, down, etc.) It is strange.
Everyone tells me how wonderful the baby looks and they bring him over and sit him on my neck (the rest of me is below the sheet where the doctors are still working to put me back together). He is beautiful. If I wasn't so drugged up and exhausted, I would have cried.

Rest of the day
About 40 minutes after Brandon is born, they finally finish sewing me up and we are wheeled to recovery. Kathy monitors me for a couple hours there and gives Brandon a bath. Ray and my mom take turns coming to see me and the baby. My pastors from church unexpectedly showed up during my surgery but are told that they cannot come see me since they are not family. They take it in stride and are just glad we are ok.

We are taken to my "permanent" room over in the Family Care Center where we spend the next three days. The room is small but at least private. By Saturday we are ready to run away home with Brandon. :)

Thank you to everyone for the visits, emails, calls, etc and supporting our little family. Your love was truly appreciated.

Visitation

Brandon was a very good boy last night and we were able to get some decent rest, so we'll be open for visits all day today.

A Couple Videos

These two videos were only taken one day apart.

The first one is an ultrasound from the day before Brandon was born:



This one was taken less than 24 hours later and just 20 minutes after he was born:



Look how super alert and calm he is... too bad he's not like that all the time..

Poll Winner

Congrats to Uncle Andrew who won BOTH the birthday AND baby weight polls. As the winner of the polls, he get his picture with the baby on the blog.

Home Sweet Home!

We're home and getting Brandon all settled in. Visiting hours start at 7 pm tonight if anyone wants to come swing by the apartment.

Finally coming home!

Just taking care of some final paperwork and we'll be heading home!

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One more day

So it turns out we are going to be staying one more day. They just
want to check out out a couple things first. Better to be safe
anyway. And we'll be home soon enough! We will let everyone know
when we hold visiting hours at the apt. Be forewarned though that we
may ask you for help if you come by.

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Coming home soon?

The doctor just came by and said we may be able to go home today. Woohoo!
Mommy is going to have some solid food today and if that all works out
well, then we'll be able to come home with the little one. She's
having some Cheerios now as I type. Wish us luck!

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Day 2

Hope everyone enjoyed the pics. There will be tons more to come I'm sure.

We are still here at the hospital taking it easy. We'll be here for
at least another day due to the c-section. In the meantime, we're
having a lot of fun being new parents. I've changed Brandon's diaper
twice already by myself. He seems to be a pretty prolific pooper
since usually babies just go once their first day and he's gone like
six times in the last 24 hours. Otherwise he seems to be a pretty
mellow baby but with a voracious appetite.

Also, for those who are wondering, we had to do an emergency c-section
because the doctors were worried about little Brandon's heartrate,
which kept going lower during contractions. It was a bit scary, but
everything turned out fine thankfully. I'm sure Valerie will be able
to share more about it when she is better shape.

Anyway, that's it for now. Back to attending the baby. Hoping to get
more than the 2-3 hours of sleep we got last night...

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More Baby Pics

Additional pictures at: http://anothercheung.com/cpg/thumbnails.php?album=69

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Multimedia message

Multimedia message

Brandon Gawain Cheung

Born 4-9-08, 11:55 am. 6 lbs, 6 oz. 19.25 inches. Mother and baby are
doing fine and resting comfortably.

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Going in for C-section

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Still here

Had a brief scare earlier, but everything is ok now. She is 5 cm so
it will be a few more hours.

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In labor

Just admitted to hospital.  4 cm dilated, 75% effaced.