So much has happened...

It's been sooooooooooooo long... I'm not sure whether to start at the beginning or at the end! Well, let me tell you about yesterday & today and then go back to the beginning (as time allows).

Yesterday (Tuesday), Peter drove mum to SJC airport and she just barely made her flight to Dallas, Texas to help Jade set up her new home-to-be when she becomes Mrs. Chia next month. After that we took out one of the Sr. High girls for some shaved ice (pat-bing-soo) and a chat. Then we went to the Almaden area for a visitation for another couple of hours and Sara Juhee decided that she wasn't going to feed. She didn't want to feed in the house we were visiting and she didn't want to feed in the car. She was cranky, didn't want to play, and was obviously hungry but was refusing to eat. Peter and I were starting to become very worried as she was either sleeping or crying the whole time. We were worried about her blood sugar levels dropping and also worried about her not sleeping at night because she hadn't had enough to eat and because she'd slept too much during the day. Well, we don't know about her blood sugar levels dropping but I do definitely know she didn't sleep thru the night last night! She woke up every 3-4 hours so I was a very tired mum today. She wouldn't eat in the car Monday evening after mum's birthday dinner and I had to really coax her into eating at church on Sunday too. We're beginning to wonder, as she becomes increasingly aware of her environment, if she's going to become picky about where she eats, i.e. refuse to eat anywhere other than at home. That would be a real pain... Hopefully it won't happen!!! Today we stayed at home and her feedings were very regular, approx 3 hours apart. She ate well, slept well, poo-ed and pee-ed well... :) She even sat in her swing for a bit today. She used to love sitting in it, used to coo at the little animals on her mobile above the swing, and even fall asleep in it now and again but now... In less than a minute she's crying her lungs out asking to be taken out or at least for Peter / me to sit in front of her and entertain her but even that didn't last very long. Hopefully she's going to start enjoying sitting in her swing again. That means I'd be free to do some housework (or check my email, etc) while she's happy and I can keep an eye on her but not have to hold her the whole time! :)

So now, let me go back to the beginning... My latest 'new beginning'...

The cutest baby in the world (I'm a bit biased I know!), Sara Juhee Oh, was born with 22 minutes remaining at 11:38pm on 22 Dec 2007 at Good Samaritan Hospital, Los Gatos, CA, USA weighing in at 6lb 3oz and 19 inches in length. I was 4cm dilated when I went in at around 4pm so had my epidural as soon as poss but then it slowed down my contractions so much they had to give me some pitocin too. I never actually fully reached 10cm but she was so far down she was actually sitting (lying?) on a nerve and making my left leg hurt (even with the epidural) so a bit before 11:00pm-ish I started pushing. I can't remember how many pushes it took but I know I didn't think I could push again but then still managed to push one more time... And then one more time... And Peter was there the whole time holding up my left let while Dr Noh held up my right with both men encouraging me the whole time "pu~~~sh!!!", "good job!", "one more!!!", "i can see her head!!! her head's out!!!", "oh my gosh!!!!!!!!!!!!!" :) Jade had the camcorder, mum was a bit of a wreck and then burst out crying when Juhee was born. She said that it was out of pure joy and excitement experiencing the miracle of birth - not because her daughter had just gone through so much pain. :)

After an exhausting day and a very late night, Peter was at church early the next day and made announcements during the Youth services about Juhee's birth. :) Christine, one of the youth girls, recorded it on her phone so I got to see it. Peter was a very happy and proud dad. He was so cute. :) After the two Youth services he rushed over to the hospital to see his two girls, had a rush lunch and then had to rush back to church again for the 3pm Christmas service. He was back again after that. As with the previous night, I insisted that Peter go home to sleep as he wouldn't have many nights of uninterrupted sleep for a while! So Jade stayed with me the 1st night and then I was alone the 2nd night. The food was brilliant as were the facilities and nurses.

In terms of pain, yes, childbirth was still painful even with epidural but I definitely couldn't feel any pain from my contractions just slight pressure once the epidural's magical powers started to work - phew! But the day after... Oh dear... I couldn't walk... I was sooooooooo tired and in so much pain... I actually fell asleep soon after they moved me from the Labour & Delivery room to the Postpartum room so didn't get to see Juhee having her 1st bath and then they took her to the nursery for me so I could get a few hours of good sleep before she woke up and had to be fed. I was in such a daze those first 24 hours... Breastfeeding was a challenge but we got there. It was really nice having such supportive and experienced nurses around the first couple of days. They helped much more than the lactation consultant that dropped by before we left.

Juhee's bilirubin count was high so she had to use a bili-blanket from her 2nd day (24 Dec) and then after we were discharged from the hospital we had to continue to use a rented one at home and go for blood tests to the hospital everyday too. She didn't like the bili-blanket, it was loud, and it was finicky for us as it had to go underneath her clothes so it was hard trying to be disciplined in using it all the time. On the 27th Peter took her to the Good Sam for her last blood test as that afternoon we were given the all-clear by our Paediatrician. Peter then went to the Youth Winter Retreat (against the advice given to us by the nurses) that afternoon and came back on the 29th. It was hard for him to go as he wanted to be with his recovering wife and new baby daughter but he had to go... I missed him but I wouldn't have had it any other way either.

We were taught during our Childbirth Preparation Classes & other classes that we attended, the importance of not allowing a baby to go without a feed for longer than 3-4 hours for breastfed babies. So we woke Juhee up the first few days to feed her but then stopped doing it as we didn't think it necessary. It made life soooooo much easier for all of us! I didn't have to set my alarm clock to wake her up for feedings, she wasn't in a bad mood as she was allowed to sleep till she naturally woke up, and she didn't sleep for so long that we felt worried about her blood sugar levels dropping. It was our 1st lesson in using our own parental instincts to judge what was right for our baby. Peter was fab during the 1st few days as I was so weak and tired it was hard for me to lift Juhee out of her crib for feedings. Peter always changed her diaper and then brought her to me so I wouldn't have to lift her or bend my sore back. After we arrived at mum's my hands and feet also swell up like balloons so it was even harder for me to do all those things. But Peter didn't complain once about having to wake up in the middle of the night. He's so caring, so sweet... I don't know what I would've done without him! :)

We stayed at mum's place in Almaden for the first 5-6 weeks and when we 1st arrived from the hospital, Peter carried me up the stairs. Poor Peter! :) I then stayed in the top floor of mum's house for nearly the whole duration. I remember feeling shock horror after my first trip down just a few steps to the lower level - my hip joints & back hurt! It wasn't worth it... It was hard being cooped up in mum's room the whole time. I couldn't go out to the living room area much as I was either breastfeeding or sleeping most of the time and I even ate in the room too. After a few weeks I started going stir-crazy and feeling really down so whenever I was at home alone or my brothers at least weren't at home, I started breastfeeding and eating in the living room. It really helped. I remember saying to my mum the 1st time I went downstairs to eat (I think after 4 weeks) that I felt like I was in a different house.

One of the bestest highlights was definitely Sarah & Jay Tucker coming to visit from the UK when Sara was 4 weeks old (Sat, 19 Jan). Time definitely flew by way too quickly!!! We were going to take them out for a steak dinner but then changed plans last minute and ended up eating Korean food at home. I'm going to regret that decision forever for 2 main reasons: we wanted to treat them and missed a rare opportunity to do so & we didn't have much to eat at home. I'm not sure how we would've done had we gone out but...

Another highlight was Hannelie taking the time out from visiting her late sister's family to come see us (Thu, Jan 17). It was a bit of a weird day as while Hannelie was visiting with her niece a few other people from church also came to visit at the same time and kind of took over the baby. It was lovely to see her again though and although we didn't really get to talk much it was nice to meet her niece and just be able to spend time together.

Fri, 25 Jan I had my USCIS (US version of the Home Office, used to be called INS) Biometrics appt in downtown San Jose. It was a wet rainy day, our 1st time leaving Juhee, and my 1st time out of the house since I arrived two days after giving birth. We left mum with defrosted breastmilk just in case our appt took longer than we expected. Peter had to rush us to my appt cuz Juhee woke up when we were nearly ready to leave and had a feeding so we ended up leaving later than we'd planned. We arrived ok, Peter stayed in the car so he could get some work done, I had my fingerprints taken, a picture taken, and was done. We started back, driving carefully as it wasn't raining as heavily anymore but was still sprinkling and there was a lot of water on the surface. Suddenly our car was spinning and then bam! bam! We hydroplaned on freeway 87 and hit the centre barrier ending up facing the opposite direction. When we stopped I looked in front of me and all of the cars that were behind us had stopped in one line along the freeway... It was the strangest sight... I'd banged my head against the seatbelt holder (? the part where the seatbelt folds) so had a headache. Peter checked to make sure that I didn't have a concussion as I also had blood dripping down my scalp. When it was safe to do so, the cars that had stopped started driving past us and Peter turned the car around onto the closest exit ramp. A CHP (California Highway Patrol) officer came to check on us and said that we did the right thing. He said we didn't need to report the accident to the DMV (US version of DVLA) as it was just us involved. When the tow truck driver came he took us home first so I could feed Juhee and then drove Peter to the garage and back. After I fed Juhee and Peter got back, Peter and mum had a closer look at my bleeding and found that it went up a lot further and that there was more blood than we'd initially thought. So after I had some food (I was so hungry I was starting to shake, breastfeeding mums and hunger don't go very well together) we went to the ER at Good Sam. We weren't too impressed with the way they treated us but the important thing is that they said that I was ok. :)

Tuesday, Jan 29 the three of us moved to our Sunnyvale condo. Peter had been back and forth to check post, water the plants, etc but it was my 1st time back since I left in pain due to my every-5-minutes contractions the day I gave birth to Juhee. And of course, it was our Little Miss Oh's first time home. She also had her 1st trip to a restaurant that evening - Black Angus! :)

I'll continue some other time with what happened late on Thursday, Jan 31st... Need to sleep... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

I'll upload some pics next time too! :)

Missing you,
Jenny x