Growing and Changing

For the past couple of weeks, we have been focusing on the not-so-glamorous side of baby life: acid reflux, cradle cap, and baby acne. Kian took a trip to the doctor's office on September 22nd to get checked out for reflux and had a chance to get back on the scale. In these most recent photos taken today, there is clear evidence that this boy has been eating well! Note the double (triple?) chin.



For those who are interested, the progression of Kian's weigh-ins is as follows: At birth on 8/10/08 he weighed 8 lb.... At his first doctor's visit on 8/14 we saw that he dropped down to 7 lb., 8 oz.... At his 2-week check-up on 8/25 we marveled at a healthy weight increase to 9 lb., 2.5 oz.... and as a 6-week-old on 9/22, we were shocked when the scale read 12 lb., 8 oz.!!



















Here are a couple more pictures (taken on 9/15/08) that show some facial expressions of Kian's that continue to entertain us....

Kian is One Month Old!

It's hard to believe that Kian, one of the people we love the most in this world, has only been in our lives for a month. During this month, we've seen him grow from 7 lb., 8 oz. at his check-up on the 5th day of his life to a whopping 9 lb., 2 1/2 oz. on the 15th day of his life; we've enjoyed introducing him to friends and family; we've been entertained by his many funny facial expressions; we've been enamored by the moments when he's looked in our eyes and smiled (we'd like to think due to true recognition of our faces and appreciation for the care we've given him and not due to gas or simply imitation); we've experienced a middle-of-the-night clean-up for his projectile poop that traveled halfway across the room and hit the wall, spraying the clean diapers and hamper along the way; and he's witnessed the first of many Broncos wins this season, wearing one of his many Broncos onesies.

We hope to take a photo of Kian on the 10th of each month next to the same teddy bear so that we can see how much he grows!

Two Weeks Old

Now two weeks old, Kian opens his eyes for a bit more time during the day than he did during Week One, so we've tried to capture those fleeting moments so that everyone can see that our son does, indeed, have eyeballs. Here he is wearing a fortune-telling t-shirt from his mommy's friend, Kami. Look out, monkeys... there's going to be a new monkey wrangler in town!

Yesterday, Kian went to his first beer fest with his mom and dad! Laughing Buddha and three other local brewing companies shared samples of their refreshing products. We didn't have a fake ID for him, but nobody hassled Kian for being there. Mostly he received compliments for "starting out right" in life. I took care with the timing of my sips so as to not lace his subsequent feeding with a large quantity of alcohol, but as a couple people have pointed out, Kian is part Irish, so he has a built-in tolerance for holding his liquor!

Kian's First Neighborhood Walk

We took our first walk as a family of three on Thursday! Ryan carefully navigated the uneven pavement, cracks, and rampless curbs -- our precious cargo bundled up inside his new car seat and Graco snap'n-go stroller.
Besides a quick car ride to the pediatrician a few days after Kian's birth, this was the first time I had left the house, so I was a bit tentative to venture very far, fearful that my body still wouldn't be up for much strenuous activity. Luckily, Devin and Teresa's (for those of you who don't know, Devin is Ryan's brother and Teresa is his wife, my dear and favorite sister-in-law) house is only 5 blocks away, with no major inclines to make me cringe with each step.

In fact, it was wonderful to get some fresh air and stretch my legs, and even more fantastic was the pride I felt walking alongside my handsome husband with our new little boy. I'm not gonna lie -- I was also having fun sporting my new stylish diaper bag! ;) I do realize, however, that nobody else gives a crap about the print of my diaper bag.

Before a dinner of grilled fish (trout caught by Finn, who's not even three years old!....OK, so they stocked the pond for kids), we had a great time watching the antics of our nephews as they strutted around in just diapers and Crocs.

In this picture, Finn has just sweetly asked to touch baby Kian. Teresa facilitates the peaceful interaction. I imagine that if younger brother Lochlann were observing, he might have been thinking, "Man, if only Finn handled me with such tenderness and care!" It won't be long before the day will come when all 3 boys will wrestle around - no holds barred - far from the watchful eyes of their parents. So, I'll just enjoy this calm before the storm of playdates with boy cousins.

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!!!