Twice the fun!

Helping Out

2006-05-24T03:59:00.000-07:00

Tia has been so good about having a younger sibling. Whenever I have to breastfeed and I can't really play with her, she just goes to her computer and plays quietly. She also helps with handing me diapers. If Zach's crying and she makes it to him before I do, she sings to him or tries to rub his leg. She's so sweet.

Zach's 2 week Appointment

2006-05-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

Zach is now 8 lbs and 9.9 ozs. and his jaundice is better.

We're very happy to see that Tia is getting less and less clingy and more friendly to other people. She was so chatty with the doctor this morning. I'm just so thrilled. She likes saying "Hola" now. A word she first learned in her Dora books then heard when we started letting her watch Dora on TV.

My Day by Myself

2006-04-25T01:21:00.000-07:00

Tam decided to stay home and work at home today. I basically just pretended he wasn't home and tried to take care of the two kids by myself. It went pretty well. Zach slept most of the day. Around 3PM is when I started to break down. Lack of sleep and a lot of pain stopped me. So, I had to ask Tam for some help. I had to go back on pain medications again this afternoon.

Tam's going to work tomorrow so I better get to bed before I tire myself out again :-)

Gotcha!

2006-04-22T23:51:00.000-07:00

As always, Tia was standing right beside me as I was changing Zach. She likes pulling the wipes out of the warmer and handing me diapers. The funniest thing happened. Zach sprayed sideways to Tia's direction. He got both Tia and mommy. Tia didn't know what happened until I called out to Tam and told him that Zach peed on us. Then she started crying clearly grossed out by what just happened.

I quickly had to give both kids a bath and clean the floor. Boy that was tiring! Here's a picture of the two of them getting changed.

Getting the hang of it

2006-04-19T22:37:00.000-07:00

Zach had his first doctor's appointment today. He gained 4.5 ozs the past two days that he's been home.

Tia's becoming more and more reactive to his presence. She definitely shows that she loves him. She always wants to kiss him and stare at him but when I carry him, Tia seems to get jealous. Thank goodness Tam is at home. Tia is able to run to him for comfort and never completely feel left out. Whenever she seems to want attention, I put Zach down and this seems to make her VERY happy. Poor girl. She must be going through a lot right now. I hope she never feels that we love her less.

Zach still sleeps a lot. I don't let him fall asleep on the breast and he's self-soothing right now. I hope this continues. It's so easy. We just put him down and less than five minutes later, he'd be asleep.

First Full Day at Home

2006-04-18T20:50:00.000-07:00

We went out today so Zach can get more sun to help with his jaundice. After 5 minutes, we stayed in the shade and he fell asleep in my arms while I watched Tia play in our backyard. I gotta say, that's the most relaxing time of my year so far.

Zach fell asleep for four hours after that. He's such an easy baby so far. Tam and I were just thinking about what it would have been like if Tia was like Zach. It's almost like not even having a newborn at home. He sleeps all night. He wakes up to eat or change diaper but goes right back to sleep. Maybe we just know what we're doing now :-)

We kept Zach awake about 1 hour this afternoon to play. We haven't really played with him because he likes sleeping. Sometimes, when he's awake, he even just lays in his crib and looks around. He loves toys. When we put one in front of him, he immediately reacts and watches it. Tia loves bringing out her toys for him to play with.

Zach's First Easter

2006-04-17T06:29:00.000-07:00

Tam and Tia went home last night to get better sleep which left me alone with Zachary for the first night.

He was very easy. He let me sleep for 6 hours the night before but I wasn't expecting that to happen again. This time he slept from 9-12, then 2-430. He came back after his hepatitis B shot. He fell right back to sleep after being fed and burped. Between 12-2, he didn't seem to be happy so I learned a few things about him.

He was well fed ... at least as much colostrum as I can give him and there was pretty much nothing more I can do about that. If he continued to show signs of hunger, I was going to ask for formula. I let him cry in his bassinet while patting his back. He stopped for awhile but kept fidgetting. I picked him up and held him. He was quiet the whole time, so after 15 minutes, I decided to put him down. he started crying again after a minute. So I checked his diaper, sure enough, he needed changing. He woke up after about 30 minutes so I decided to keep him warmer. He fell sound asleep. He's very easy as long as he's warm, clean and fed. :-)

I had so many bad dreams last night that I kept waking up.

When Zach was at nursery taking tests, I could've sworn someone came into the room but when I opened my eyes to see who it was, there was nobody there. I wonder if my mom was visitting ...

Zachary was circumcised today. The pediatrician kept asking me to go to the Sun Room and read their literature on breastfeeding. I finally had to tell him I can't talk to him. I wanted to be with Zach while he got circumcised. They only let me watch through the window. I can hear his crying but it wasn't as bad as I thought.

Later that day, the nurse came in to teach us how to care for the wound. I almost fainted when I saw it. My poor Zachary! I hope it's not as bad as it looks. He's taking it like a man :-)

I suspected Zachary had a slight jaundice because his eyes are a bit yellow. He was tested for it but I haven't heard the results yet.

Tia and Tam came back around 10:00 AM. Tia was so happy with her Dora balloon that they bought at Sav-on. I heard her running down the hallway and when she got to our room, she had a huge smile from cheek to cheek. She was so proud of her Dora.

Tia's been such a good girl the past couple of days. I was so proud of her. I LOVE MY FAMILY!

Emily, Joey and Mason stopped by bringing presents and cookies. It was fun playing with Mason. He's growing up so cute! He's so chubby, I just want to squeeze him. He looks like both mommy and daddy.

We celebrated tonight with celebratory dinner prepared by the hospital. I had Stuffed Chicken and Tam had the New York Steak. Food here is so good I almost want to stay just so I can avoid having to prepare my own meals at home :-)

Tam and Tia went home again last night. I missed them so much the night before, I almost asked them to stay. BUT I want to make sure Tia sleeps well and with the nurses coming in and out, that just aint gonna happen here. I don't know why I give Tam a hard time when he's around but I miss him so much when he's not there. What can I say? We're falling into the "old married couple" category pretty early :-)

Finished the taxes tonight.

Black Saturday

2006-04-16T16:01:00.000-07:00

Everybody came to visit us today since tomorrow is Easter and it will be a busy day. We still haven't decided the name of the baby.

Tia calls the baby Zachary and still addresses my belly as Tyler. Tam still spells Zack with a K. I'm still frantically reading baby names off the internet and books.

The Delivery

2006-04-16T15:31:00.000-07:00

My story starts after around 8 hours of labor.

The hospital was empty that night. There were only 4 rooms, including mine, with patients delivering baby. I preoccupied myself by looking at the monitors and seeing how each delivery was progressing. One was definitely pushing already.

When I got there, they immediately said that the baby had a bowel movement. I forgot that this was bad. I was just scared about the events that was about to unfold and I want so badly for everything to run smoothly.

I met the nurses and they asked me if I want epidural. I said yes.

At around 11:00 that night, the worst pain imaginable came. I couldn't believe it. I've taken kicks and punches to the head strong enough to see bright lights and those were nothing compared to this. I was contracting every two minutes ... each one 1 minute in duration.

I was yelling at everybody. They were so busy poking me and sticking needles on me and shifting me around. Finally, I had to tell everybody to stop touching me during the contractions. I was yelling at Tam for just sitting there and not standing beside me. I knew he felt helpless. That's why I wanted him beside me because I felt even more helpless than he did.

Contraction after contraction, I was getting more and more pissed. The epidural arrived two hours later. The anesthesiologist was no good -- this time even the epidural hurt. It didn't when I had it with Tia. I blame the anesthesiologist for that.

The pain subsided and everything was quiet again. Tam fell asleep in their tiny loveseat snoring away. I was 1 cm dilated.

At 2:00 AM, I was 2 cm.

At 3:00 AM, I was 4 cm.

At 3:30 AM I was 6 cm.

Things were progressing well. The nurse came in and informed me the baby's not happy during the contractions. For some reason, I took this to be normal and didn't react. They look like they knew what they were doing so I just did everything I could to help it.

By 10:00 AM, I was still 6 cm. The doctor came in encouraging me to take the C-section. I was set on having a VBAC. First because I'm not really sure if I want a third baby and I know by then, the risks are so high if I have a 3rd C-Section. Second, I want to heal fast so I can take care of my babies well as soon as possible. So, we waited 3 more hours.

I prayed and I prayed. Talked to my mom a little asking her to help me. At 2:00 PM, I was 10 cm. I was fully dilated and ready to push. The nurses got everything ready for me. I felt everybody not wanting this VBAC to happen. From the doctor to the three nurses to my husband but I went on.

I pushed and I pushed but nothing happened. After 1 hour we decided to have c-section.. I was crying so much -- so scared that I made all the wrong decisions and how my baby is doing in there.

At 3:57 PM, I delivered a beautiful baby boy. Poor boy! He went through so much!

Tam told me later that everybody was worried because I was so swollen and bleeding when I was pushing. It just didn't look right. I knew everybody had this fear on their face when they looked down there the whole time, but I ignored every reaction. The didn't let me push at first hoping the baby will "labor down". The baby came with a huge conehead. Thanks a lot mommy! :-( But he is the most beautiful boy I've ever seen and I was so happy!

Zachary Thomas Pham was born 7 lbs and 2 oz 20 inches long on Good Friday 2006. Thank you, God, for all the blessing you have given us!

Sure enough

2006-04-16T15:09:00.000-07:00

I was in labor as I was writing my first post two days ago. How cool it would have been if my child was born that day -- my own mommy's birthday!

Well, here's how our afternoon went.

As I mentioned before, I was in a lot of pain around lunch time. It was a good thing I had lunch early that day because by 2:00 PM, I was very lightheaded. I decided to make a Vons run to grab some afternoon snacks for Tia and bottles of water for me. It wasn't my day! I fell in line behind the chattiest old lady around. She also decided to pay by check and just couldn't rummage fast enough through her purse for her driver's license. I was very ticked off!!

As I was walking to the car, I knew I had to be in labor. I could barely hold my legs straight. When I got back to work, I went upstairs to go to the restroom. I couldn't even get up the stairs with one hand on the rail. I had to use each hand for both rails. I saw T.J. and Latricia. I told them I suspect that I'm in labor but I'm going to the bathroom just in case I just had a full bladder. (The restroom right outside my office was out of order so I had to walk upstairs for this -- like I said, it wasn't my day).

I sat in my office and coded some more. Ten minutes later, I decided to go to Mike's office and tell him that the pain is very unusual and I'm gonna have to go home in case it gets worse and can no longer drive myself. Stupid me standing around there for another 30 minutes chatting away and timing the minutes between contractions.

I picked up Tia from day care and gave her a bag of grapes. I knew it would keep her preoccupied in the car so that I can focus on driving.

We were home by 4:30. I was happy to see that Tam worked at home that day. So I unloaded the groceries and changed to more comfortable clothes. I snuck out of the living room to get some rest but after 30 minutes, Tia realized that I was sleeping and as usual, she wouldn't have it!

I asked Tam to head to his mom's house at 5:30 and eat dinner there with his sister, mom, dad and niece (as planned). I took a warm shower, packed my hospital bag and washed some dishes and clothes.

They had so much fun and didn't get home until almost 8:30 PM. When they got home, I quickly changed her to pajamas and put her to sleep. The pain was getting stronger and I was determined to get her to bed quick. Tears were already coming down my eyes from the pain that I felt . Tia would constantly look up at me and ask, "are you okay, mommy?" and give me kisses all over my face. It always made me feel better.

Around 9:30PM, I told Tam to call his mom. I'm DEFINITELY sure I'm in labor. The contraction are all 6 minutes apart since 3PM. I no longer have any doubt in my mind.

I called the hospital after Grandma arrived and they instructed me to wait another hour or until my water broke. Tia woke up a little so I stood beside the bed to comfort her back to sleep. I didn't make it. I felt another contraction come on and I just fell down and tried my best to stay in squatting position -- "to help the dilation". Something familiar happened, my water broke! With my legs held tight together, I ran to the bathroom and made it to the toilet. Now, I'm SURE I'm in labor.

All hell broke loose after that as the pain became less and less bearable. I kissed Tia goodbye and left her to grandma. She was still sleeping, fortunately. This is the first time I won't wake up with my baby in my arms in the last two years. We drove to the hospital and as I reached the lobby, a strong contraction came and I held Tam's hand. People at the lobby were cheering for me. I have no idea why since I'm sure this happens all the time everywhere.

The receptionist told me not to worry -- some people have delivered in the same lobby. I was very curt when I told them that I don't want that at all.

The wheelchair came and there was a lady beside it. I fell in her arms as another contraction came on. I don't know who she was or why she was there but I hugged her as tight as I could without hurting her. I thanked her and sat on my wheel chair. At 11PM, the room was set for my boy's arrival.

Having a baby today?

2006-04-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

I feel like I'm contracting more than usual. It's definitely painful but it's always painful when my batteries run low. Since I went to bed at 3AM this morning and woke up at 7, I definitely feel tired.

My hospital bag isn't packed yet. I don't have a name for my baby boy. We asked Tia and she's actually willing to change the name of the baby from Tyler to Zachary. She's calling my belly Zachary now.

I forgot how it's like to be in labor. I'm afraid unless my water breaks, I won't really know.