Family Photo at One Week

In this picture taken by Grandpa Chow on Sunday, August 17th, Kian is one week old and I (Althea) am still reliant on pain meds, as the road to recovery from an emergency c-section is not a bundle of joy. As I type this blog update on August 21st, however, I'm happy to report that although my "no refills" prescriptions have run out, I'm feeling pretty good now! All the aches and pains and inconveniences are worth it; Kian is such a blessing and a joy!

I feel so fortunate to have Ryan at home helping me during the round-the-clock feedings, diaper changings, and the swaddling & soothing. He's got the touch with Kian when it comes to calming him down to fall asleep after we've jostled him around during a diaper changing or snot-nose extraction.

We're grateful for the love, incredible support and practical assistance we've received from our own parents. Kian's proud grandparents have helped us with everything from doing the dishes, to delivering dinners, to holding him for hours and hours while we try to take naps. Grandpa Andre and Nana Joan have both returned to their respective hometowns, but we know that there will be many more visits to come! Luckily, Grandma Gei and Grandpa Matt are in town and lovingly available to help with just about anything!

We're also so lucky to have Uncle Devin & Aunt Teresa just blocks away, and we're thankful for the wonderful first-night-at-home dinner they provided, along with a basket of yummy fruit. Can't wait for Kian to be able to run around the neighborhood with his cousins Finn and Lochlann! We appreciate the many generous gifts and gestures from friends-- gift baskets, flowers, meals-- and we look forward to having visitors drop by so that Kian may meet all of you!

Thanks, everyone, for your messages of congrats and support!

Here he is: Kian Chow Liddell

On the morning of Saturday, August 9th Althea began having contractions that were a bit stronger and more regular than before. I cooked up some pancakes, we played Yahtzee, and we watched part of a movie -- American Gangster (what better way to relax than violent cinema!). The pause button on our DVD player got a workout with the contractions coming more often and getting stronger. Pretty soon we realized that this could be the day, and we began making some last preparations around the house and getting the final items packed for a possible trip to the hospital.

Around 6pm Althea called the office of our ob and reported the frequency and length of her contractions, and combined with the info from our ob visit the previous Wednesday, they said to go ahead and head to the hospital!

We got into triage at Swedish First Hill and a monitor was attached to Althea to track the contractions and monitor Mama's and Baby's heartbeats. I was watching the graph paper being spit out of the machine and pretty soon could see the pattern of her contractions -- nice round curves showing the contractions, which at this point were lasting about 90 seconds each and getting pretty strong. Then I saw those nice curves start to turn into big peaks and valleys, and Althea's face took a turn towards "Let's hurry this up, people! I want an epidural!"

We moved over to a birthing suite and met our labor nurse, Cindy. A pelvic exam showed that things were moving quite fast, so pretty soon Althea had an epidural to ease the intense pain. She was completely dialated and got the green light push around 12:45am on August 10th. Althea did an amazing job pushing and pretty soon the top of the baby's appeared. Dr. Daniel needed to perform a Caesarean on another patient, and since things were moving quite fast the doctor debated about finishing our delivery before the C-section. Then things slowed a bit, and so the order was given for Althea to push only every other contraction, and then for awhile to not push at all while the doctor performed the other patient's delivery. Dr. Daniel came back and the pushing began again. Althea got a "whiff" of oxytocin through her iv and pushed like a champion. More of the baby's head was showing now -- about the size of a sand dollar, and at point the doctor and nurse told us that Althea was 10-15 mintues away from delivery.

And then...not so much. Althea had been pushing for 4 1/2 hours and the baby's head just refused to come out. Around 5am Althea made a huge last effort, which was then assisted with some major pulling via a vacuum, but physics were not on our side. Althea was whisked into the ER for a priority Caesarean, I threw on some scrubs and booties over my flip flops and got to hold Althea's hand through the surgery.

At 5:44am, Althea and I welcomed our beautiful son, Kian Chow Liddell, into this world and into our hearts. As Dr. Kimelman predicted, he wasn't a tiny baby, weighing in at 8 pounds and measuring 20 3/4 inches long. No wonder he didn't make it out naturally from Althea's 5'3" frame!

We brought this little bundle of joy home on Tuesday, August 12th and marvel at him every minute, even when he's feeding 17 times in 24 hours -- Mama is tired!! He makes us laugh and melts our hearts with every cute little thing he does.

More to come soon, but right now we're just celebrating the wonderful arrival of our little miracle. I think Althea and I expected that bringing home our child would be the greatest thing we'd experienced in our lives. Turns out it's even more thrilling and fantastic than we'd dreamed it would be.

One more shot of Kian, this one taken by his visiting Grandpa Chow.

August: the Month of Birth is Here!

When I turned the wall calendar page to August, the first thing that came to mind was, "Oh my goodness. This is the month we've been waiting for...the month in which our baby is scheduled to arrive!" Well, I suppose my exact thoughts were a bit simpler: "Oh, god. It's August already. The baby's coming soon!"

How soon? We have a feeling that s/he will be born before the August 22nd due date because recent doctor's visits have shown good progress with my cervix and a pretty good-sized baby already at 37 1/2 weeks. At last week's Tuesday appt., my cervix was 2 cm. dilated, 70% effaced (thinned out), and at yesterday's appointment, it had progressed to 2 1/2 - 3 cm. dilated, 90% effaced! The best bit of info. was when our ob felt the baby through my belly and remarked, "Well...it's not a tiny baby!" She then asked how heavy each of us were at birth (I was 6 lb., 7 oz., and Ryan thinks that he was about 7 1/2 lb.), and then she said that she thought this baby was about 8 lb.!! (already?!) How she could tell that, I'm not so sure. Experience, I guess.

So, all these stats really don't mean anything in terms of when this baby is popping out. She mentioned that she was on call all day and this coming Sunday (if we could somehow plan it so that she could be the one to deliver our baby, rather than one of her group's partners), meaning that she thought it was possible that I could go into labor any moment now! However, she also admitted that it's possible that we could be back in her office still pregnant on my due date, discussing inducing labor. We'll keep you posted!

Let's just hope this baby doesn't get TOO big!!!

Baby Shower Brings July Flowers

A big thank you to Teresa, my sister-in-law, for hosting a fabulous baby shower with the additional gracious assistance of Chris and Megan, pictured here with the beautiful spread. Nephew Finn and Dog Lucy wish they could stay for party!

Guests were also treated to an incredible ice cream sundae bar, complete with Megan's delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies and 5 kinds of Haagen Daaz ice cream flavors to choose from!

It was a gorgeous, sunny day to enjoy refreshments and share pregnancy & parenting stories on the patio. Pictured here are my mom (Gei), Chris, Karin, me, Megan, and Nancy.

The Belly at 34 Weeks

Our postings will get a lot more interesting once the baby is actually born, but for now, here's another look at my growing belly! The light and loose top I'm wearing was created by my mother to keep me cool on these hot summer days. (I should clarify that it's not a bare-belly design; I'm holding up the front!) It was perfect for a stroll down California Ave. to the Alaska Junction to check out all the shop owners and vendors setting up for this weekend's West Seattle Summerfest. Ryan took this photo yesterday on our front porch before an early evening walk.

Playing Catch-up

Inspired by other friends' dedication to consistent blog updates, coupled with the fact that I'm now on summer break, brings me back to our "Little Chow Liddell" blog after a 13-week hiatus. If you're reading this, thanks for not losing all hope and for coming back to check on our progress!


Time is flying by! The previous post shows our ultrasound at about 20 weeks, and while we don't have any new ultrasound pics of the growing baby to share, we do have a few pictures of my growing belly.



Rewind to 18 weeks...March 23rd...I remember thinking, "Oh my gosh! I'm really starting to pop!" Little did I know what nature had in store for my belly....

Fast forward to 25 1/2 weeks pregnant...May 14th...okay, NOW we're really poppin'!

Taking a break from the profile shots, here are some pictures taken in my 2nd grade classroom on June 9th at the baby shower organized by a couple of amazing parent volunteers.

In the first picture, you can see Ryan waving hello to the shower guests with one hand, holding our new digital recorder from Grandpa Andre in the other hand.











Here is some of the food that parents brought in, the most impressive of which was a homemade cake decorated to match our nursery bedding, "Bunny Meadows". This parent even mixed colored icing to match!

Finally, the third picture shows me enjoying this food while testing out the glider and ottoman given to us by the generous families of my students. SO comfy!! I wanted to keep the glider in my classroom and teach from it for the remainder of the school year! On the side, a new bookcase holds dozens of unwrapped gifts that turned out to be the beginnings of a collection of great children's books and baby board books selected by my students! Kids loved commenting aloud as Ryan and I opened each one in front of them: "Oh, that is SUCH a good book!" Or, "I have that book!! I loved it when I was little!"



I am currently 33 weeks pregnant, and we hear that babies are typically about 17 inches long (is that really accurate?!)and weigh a little over 4 lbs. so, we'll go with those stats, as recent check-ups put me right about average for weight gain and belly measurement. This picture was taken just last week at my friend, Karin's baby shower. Karin is having twins (a boy and a girl) and may deliver around the same time as me, as twins tend to want to join the world about 4 weeks early! (Note: we did not purposefully coordinate our outfits or the wall hanging backdrop for this "photo shoot"!)

And last but not least for this posting, the ultimate sign that life as we know it is about to change dramatically. We traded in the zippy little silver VW Beetle that I've had for 8 years and purchased a 2008 Mazda5, which can hold up to 6 people! As you can see in the photo it's a cross between a wagon and a...dare we say, mini-van. The size of it makes it seem more station wagon-ish, but the convenient sliding back doors and some other features make it seem like it's a bit more in the family of mini-vans. No matter how we categorize it, this vehicle is pretty darn cool and we love its versatility. With great gas mileage, heated/leather seats, a sunroof, lots of cupholders, and Bluetooth compatibility, we feel as if we are soaking in the lap of family vehicle luxury! Ryan's expression in this photo demonstrates that he is not the least bit fazed by the Mazda5's resemblance to a mini-van! We're ready to carpool! Bring on the rugrats.

Whoa, we're halfway there!

We're almost at the halfway point in our pregnancy journey, if you go by the standard 40 weeks, but as many of you know it could be longer or shorter. Seeing our baby's images and movements again on the ultrasound was fantastic. We told the tech. ahead of time that we prefer not to know the sex of the baby yet, so she was great about using gender-neutral terms consistently and asking us to close our eyes when she took measurements of Baby's legs and anything else in that region. It was tempting to sneak a peek, but the idea of waiting until birth was thrilling enough to keep us honest. (Although Ryan is a man of his word and didn't have trouble with this temptation as I did!) ;)

I had to go on a maternity wear shopping spree because I've truly outgrown a lot of my clothes! We'll get another photo posted soon so you can see for yourself.

Thanks for your comments, posted here and to my (Althea's) hotmail account. We appreciate your support and will keep you updated on other events as they occur.