Grandma!

It's been great having my mom here to spend time with us, supervise post-pregnancy meal production and to bond with Margaret. Sarah had her first couple doses of recovery herbs today and she was very brave in swallowing the rather medicinal tasting brew. Of course, she was able to do the induction herbs so I had no reason to suspect this would go any differently.

You can see from some of the photos that Margaret's hair is starting to get a bit long. It's growing a bit over her ears now. Thankfully, her back hair isn't exhibiting similar growth. In looking at her hair, it's amazing to think about how much she has changed in just the 9 days she's been out in the world.

The longer she's out, the harder it is to imagine life without her and what it was even like before her. As Sarah says, "I can't believe she was once inside of me."

I'm feeling pretty clobbered today so tonight's post will be relatively short and mostly just be a few photos.


婆婆 loves Margaret!


And Margaret loves 婆婆 right back


The first use of the Baby Bjorn on Saturday night for dinner with the family


Taken last night and included just because I love the hair

More next time...

Random free association

One of those things that's hysterical in your head during the 4:00 AM diaper change

My baby got sauce
Your baby ain't sweet like mine
She got sauce
Your baby ain't sweet like mine
She got sauce...
She ain't just sweet
- G. Love and Special Sauce

Busy, busy, busy as bees

Taken tonight before bedtime

Thank you, thank you, thank you

First, thanks to the readership for all the advice that has been pouring in on how to avoid diaper blowouts. The most practical has come from my sister Joan and our friends Beth and Erika who all told us to double check that the frilly elastic seal on the diaper's legs are properly sealed around Margaret's legs. We have been doing so and have so far been achieving good results.

My favorite piece of advice, however, comes from our friend Mushtaq, who wrote, "...keep your mouth closed while you change the diaper. Trust me."

It has been said that the sagest wisdom is that which has been hardest won. This man truly took one for the team.

Shades of the Merlion

From the, "different but the same" problem department comes our experience from last night. Margaret had an especially difficult night last night and spent the hours from about midnight to 4:00 AM completely awake. We tried everything and went through three changes of clothing, several diaper changes, many feedings, etc to get her calm (we did have one pee leak and more than one soaking spit-up).

At around 2:30 AM, I'm in the living room trying to get Margaret to settle and have her sitting/laying in my lap, facing me with her head in my hand. Then, in something straight out of "The Fly," a powerful jet of spit-up comes flying full force out of her mouth, against the force of gravity, about a foot and a half, to splatter directly onto my chest. The impact was impressive and the stream mind-bogglingly well directed and coherent, like something out of the business end of a super-soaker. I was incredibly impressed at the amount of pressure that must build up within her to create these geysers from both ends of her body. We're now burping after meals with new vigor.

The Weekend

These past few days have been busy in a fun way with us receiving our first visitors - our friends Molly and Sylvia who both came on Friday afternoon after school.

Then yesterday evening, my mom, sister Joy and her family came over for a visit. Everyone was fawning over Margaret so much that I was worried that she might get a big head!


Joy, George et al plus Margaret


The kids plus Margaret

The kids were great with Margaret with each taking turns and wanting to help in every way possible. Everyone was gentle and loving and Margaret is lucky to have such wonderful cousins! Sarah even tells me that Samantha was especially helpful. After watching just one diaper change, she assisted Sam in the next one by preparing the diaper, wipe and all else perfectly without prompting.



This morning, my mother came over early to help us take care of Margaret and for a nice visit where she helped prepare SAM's lunch and snack. These days have been busy and it is a great help to have family nearby who are so loving and wanting to help. Tomorrow, mom comes over again to help prepare the Chinese herbs for Sarah's post-pregnancy recovery. I am super glad for this because I have no clue how that will work.



In the afternoon, after my mom left, Lindsay and Graham came over with Fred and we all six hung out and enjoyed an early dinner. There were cookies and caramel ribbon brownies but the sweetest two were new fast friends Fred and Margaret. Here you see a photo of the two babies born only three days apart.

Now, as I write, Sarah is asleep in bed and Margaret is swaddled and asleep in my lap. A bundle of joy and warmth if ever there was one.

It's a quiet end to a busy day. It is these times to myself, with my loves nearby when I can sit and be grateful for all the incredibly wonderful things that have come my way.

Truly, insanely, great.

Birth Day presents from Grandpa

A package arrived in the mail today from Grandpa Jack (so named until he finalizes his "official" grandpa name). The card itself was gift enough, and I was in tears before I got to the second paragraph. Enclosed in the package were three special gifts, two for Margaret and one for Mom.

Margaret's first gift is the "traditional McLean girl birth day present":



Those of you close to the McLean family know that my dad made a tradition of giving each of his daughters a teddy bear on the occasion of her birth. Ubi and I are featured below:



This tradition has now officially been extended to the grandbabies. These teddy bears continued to be part of our lives as we grew up. When I first saw the Carter's snap-front newborn t-shirts for Margaret, my first thought was that I remembered dressing Ubi in those after Sylvia grew out of them. Here are the three McLean girls with their birth day bears, Ubi in aforementioned t-shirt and diaper:



For the second gift I can only quote Dad's card. As a preface, Dad was in New Mexico when Margaret was born, celebrating the Marine Corps birthday in an annual reunion with members of Charlie Company, his company from Vietnam. For more about the characters mentioned, you'll have to read his book. The card reads:

"The quilt was made by the wife of one of my Charlie Company buddies & was raffled off at our banquet last Saturday night. 11/10/2007 was also the 232nd birthday of the USMC - hence, a birthday quilt and, as so woven, a Charlie 1/4 quilt as well.

"Terry Tillery won the Raffle.

"He immediately gave the quilt to Bill Negron, the Skipper. 11/10/07 was his 71st birthday.

"He subsequently presented to me to present to Margaret on her birth day."





We are incredibly moved by the generosity and love of so many people that this gift represents. My hope is that this quilt in some small way holds a promise for the future. May Margaret grow up in a world where the men and women of the United States Marine Corps are not sent into battles such that her grandfather and godfather have seen. With every generation comes the hope for peace. As a teacher, and now a parent, I find myself increasingly reflecting on the question of what can I do to make this hope a reality. What will it take to raise even one peace maker? Can we, collectively, train an entire generation?

Bite me once, shame on you. Bite me twice...

Either Margaret is having an uproarious laugh at our expense or we are demonstrating hitherto unexplored levels of incompetence at protecting our furniture. Though you hope that it's the former, the suspicion that it's the latter is as uncomfortable as it is unavoidable.

This morning, we had her on a cloth, in her diaper just laying on a little protected part of the couch where she had two arms protecting her. Sarah was at the table and I was at my computer. Somehow, she had gotten herself onto her side and so when she released her bladder and bowels, it all came out of a gap in the seal of her legs. And of course, immediately thereafter, she wanted to feed so it was me again, stripping the slipcovers with dish of soap and water trying to get poop out of of the couch.

As Sarah says, for someone with a very serious aversion to poop, I'm getting my hands dirty with it a lot these days. One wonders if there isn't some higher power that let Margaret know that there are a few lessons Daddy needs to learn.



Mishap aside, we've had Margaret weighed and she is now officially weighing in at 3.12 kg or about 6.88 pounds. If you'll remember, she was born at 3.01 kilos so that means that little Maggs has put on the weight she lost and then some and is now on the upward climb. We're very excited!



Something else we've been excited about is that she has been spending more time with her eyes open looking around, exploring the world and her parents. This not only makes for some new and interesting photo opportunities, but new levels of ooohing and aahing on the part of her amazed parents. If you thought we were smitten before by her visage with her eyes shut, the fact that she ACTUALLY has eyes and can ACTUALLY look back at us has taken us to new levels of euphoria.

Of course, this also means that now she spends lots of time when we wish she was sleeping looking around her crib, or trying to get her eyes on mommy or daddy during feedings and burpings and the like.

We really love it, though, because with her eyes open, we really feel a new level of bonding with the baby as she really does seem to be studying us and learning about who we are now as much as we are her.

We've even managed some photos. These two were taken yesterday.



The final one is from bath time yesterday. After seeing the blog, my sister, Joan, called with some helpful hints. And while Margaret still hasn't taken to the water, the experience yesterday was substantially less harrowing for us than the first time. We're looking forward to continued improvement on this and other fronts.

Finally, one final accomplishment. She's had a bit of a sniffle these past few days and today, I noticed some snots up her nose. Following instructions from Joy, I twisted up the end of a tissue and inserted it up Margaret's nose and pulled some mega-monster-boogies from her nose. She was none to happy about it at the time, but her breathing was easier after. Chalk one up for Dad skills.

Parenthood is great. We recommend it to everyone.

Beautiful Mom, beautiful Margaret

The newest batch of observations:

1. If NASA can figure out what the propellant is in baby digestive systems, we could be on Mars within three years.
2. Margaret can sense when you've just put a new diaper on so that she can poop again. That way Mommy and Daddy can get more practice
3. She can also sense the exact point at which you've just reached the deepest state of relaxation in your unconscious and know just how to yank you from it
4. She doesn't like looking at the camera so she squeezes her eyes shut when she sees me getting it out.
5. Babies feel best when cuddled up close to your chest
6. Baby sneezes come from the same place that fireflies, summer days and caramel apples come from.
7. Most important one of the day. When it's your baby, the poop isn't gross.


Burping the little monkey!

Last night, we had an experience from the, "hmm, that was impressive" category.

Having read that allowing babies to play for a bit after a feeding without a diaper helps avoid diaper rash, we got Margaret bare bottomed on the couch on top of a maternity bed pad to protect the cushions from any accidents.

So there we were, baby bare bottomed when Margaret starts to pee. OK. No problem. We were prepared and had the pad down. But what we weren't prepared for was the simultaneous projectile poop that came issuing forth from her bottom like a high pressure fire hose onto the rug. We were literally caught with her pants down.

I busted out the tape measure. Furthest point of impact from anus was about 36 inches. Given, there was about 16 inches of height, so solving for a^2 + b^2 = c^2 gives you a horizontal leg of about 32 and a quarter inches of linear range. That's still pretty impressive. I'm of the belief that given a bit more elevation, the TV might have been an achievable target.

Of course, immediately after, little Margaret wanted to be fed, so it was me kneeling on the carpet trying to pull out every last bit of yellowish, cheesy goodness from the carpet. This led me to today's observation number 7. Aah, the joys of fatherhood.

Another joy of fatherhood was giving Margaret her first bath in the sink yesterday. I volunteered, having seen this done plenty of times and, of course, falling prey to the (seemingly exclusively male) fallacy that having seen something done is equivalent to having done it.

What I didn't realize was how slippery she gets and how floppy she is when you've only got one hand to stabilize her. I had her head in the crook of my elbow and one hand grabbing her bottom. This was fine for getting her in the water and making sure her head stayed out of it, but allowed her head to clonk against the side of the sink a couple of times because I had effectively no control over it. I feel like next time, if I can get her higher on my arm and my hand wrapped around a leg, that might help. Of course, I'll also wear a short sleeved shirt, too.

See what happens when you mix new dad, with new baby with water, below.



PS I know that the Pythagorean theorem is actually the wrong approach and that I need to use the quadratic equation (I think we have enough variables). But frankly, that required too much remembering of high school algebra so I didn't do it.

PPS: In further thinking about the math, I don't think we know enough variables. I only know enough to solve for the slope of the line (y = mx + b) but not enough to solve for the overall trajectory of the path followed by the poop. From what I understand, I'm missing the velocity / force of the initial 'launch' which is what would allow me to do the calculation. And no, I'm not going to go to the trouble of devising a way to measure it.

The Story So Far

Last night with her eyes open

The Eagle Eyed of you will note that the name of the blog has now changed to Life and Times of Sam, John and Margaret in order to benefit her status as a named baby.

I hope that in the past few days nobody has been bored with the rather mono-thematic nature of the blog. To us, all of this is exciting, new and obviously everyone else wants to know and see photos! But of course, we realize that we aren't the first parents in the world. We hope we aren't being too boring!


Today. Hooray for feedings!

So I've chosen to do something a little bit different today. Since Margaret was born, the blog has served as a conduit of photos and information on Margaret and of our lives together but we didn't actually let anyone know the details surrounding the birth. Most of this is because I didn't want to get any of the details wrong and so needed to organize the notes I had taken during the process. Of course, it also doesn't help that having a new baby means you're always a bit short on time.

There was another reason, though. I had been taking video from before and after the process (no "during" photos, sorry) and wanted to use those videos to tell a bit of the story and it took until I had some time to cut something together. My apologies on the length of this post.

Details below it.



The Story

Saturday, November 10 was SAM's scheduled induction date. At this point, The Baby To Be Named Margaret would have been 1 week 6 days overdue. On the morning of the ninth, when the video begins, we knew that this was going to be our last day no matter what, so we decided to plan a busy day in order to enjoy ourselves as well as try to get the baby out.

We were to go to SAM's school to drop something off, drop off food at our friends' Lindsay and Graham who had just given birth the day before, walk to our midwife's office for SAM to have her membranes stripped, walk to the Star Ferry to cruise around the harbor, have ice cream, pick up my business cards, have dinner and go home, all the while Sarah had to take her induction herbs (Black and Blue Cohosh) every 1 hour.

We managed to do it ALL and what a great way it was to send off our last days of couple-hood. We even managed to accidentally catch a celebrity sighting as they were filming the new Batman movie, "Dark Knight" in front of our midwives' office.

That night, we retired into bed at around 11:30 PM and I fell asleep probably around 12:30 AM. We were encouraged by a bloody show at about 3:30 that afternoon, but both of us were ready to get to the hospital early the next day to start the induction process.

Before bed, Sarah silently asked the powers that be for a natural childbirth so that she would know that her body to know what to do.

By 12:45 AM, Sarah was having her first contractions. At 2:44 AM (I know because I wrote it down), I awoke to hear, "John, John, guess what?"

Her water had broken and she was calling to me quietly from the bathroom. Of course, I bolted upright, and, I am embarrassed that instead of rushing to her side, I instead reached immediately for the notebook and pen I had left by my bed to note down the exact time and immediately began asking for details. Of course, once I did that, I rushed to her side.

We spent much time with her in bed with me timing her contractions. They were fairly regular from between 30-60 seconds and between 1 minute to 2"55 apart. SAM sat up quietly in bed with me next to her noting her contractions. She was so calm that the only sign to me that she was having one is that she would periodically say, "start" or "stop" so that I could get an accurate timing of them. She looked otherwise completely peaceful.

At around 3:50 AM, we spoke with our midwife/doula on the phone and were instructed that if the contractions became quite strong to call the other midwife on duty, Jane.

At around 4:25 AM, SAM had a snack (banana bread) and tried to take a nap. By around 5:00, her contractions were still consistent at around 1 minute in duration and about 2 minutes apart so we called Jane at about quarter after while SAM got in the bath.

Jane arrived at around 6:00 AM and we were much reassured so as to have someone there who knew what to do and who had a fetal heart rate monitor and could help monitor the health of the baby. At around 6:25 AM, Jane reported that SAM was about 4-5 cm dilated. By 7:25, Jane reported 7-8 cm dilated. It was time. We had all our stuff together already and hopped into a taxi.

It was a beautiful day just kicking off outside and the taxi ride in was calm, bright and uneventful. It was a surreal sight to sweep around the Northeastern Corridor, looking out at the sea to one side, Hong Kong's skyscrapers on the other and realize that we were going to have a baby!

We arrived at the hospital at around 8:20 AM. While Jane was helping Sarah get admitted, I ran downstairs to file some paperwork that the hospital needed. We were disappointed to learn that the admitting nurse felt that Sarah was only 2-3 cm dilated and thus not yet eligible to be moved to a private delivery room which one got when they were 3+ cm dilated. Sarah needed to wait in the general pre-labor ward where husbands were not allowed.

At this point, we got a bit tense as upon her next examination by the doctor, the doctor claimed that she felt Sarah was 5 cms dilated. With this conflict of information, they had to call in yet ANOTHER doctor (at least she was the "Medical Officer in Charge") who confirmed, "not quite three."

After being kicked out, our Jane left to tackle her workday while I made some phone calls to family members to keep people updated until around quarter after ten. Finally, they were moving her to a delivery room. At this point, I saw SAM and from her face, I could see from her face that the labor pains were worse than before and her facade of calm was being pierced.

As quickly as possible, I picked up a few things that the nurse said Sarah needed for the delivery (maternity pads and bed pads for the delivery bed), rushed inside and changed into scrubs, all the while trying to manage a slight snafu that had emerged with my shipment of toys that was arriving.

In any case, once we were reunited, things seemed to calm down for everyone. The staff in the delivery room were calm, professional and efficient. The constantly confirmed that we wanted a natural birth, that she wanted her tissues protected (no episiotomy) and that she had a sulpha allergy. They were nice and encouraging and for the most part, left us alone. This, as well as being together allowed SAM to calm down a bit during her laboring phase.

Things started to pick up again as we neared the time that SAM wanted to push. A more senior midwife was brought in and we began the process.

After about two or three contractions, the doctor said that it appeared that the baby's head was twisted so that it was trying to come out the widest way possible and that she was trying to manipulate it. Soon thereafter, I noticed on the fetal heart rate monitor that the baby's heart rate had dropped from an average of about 130-145 beats per minute down to about 75 during the pushing phase back up to anywhere from 90 - 111 in between. This seemed to be of great concern to the nurses who immediately began murmuring about fetal distress. Suddenly the room was filled with doctors and pediatricians all speaking rapidly in Cantonese.

After about two or three more pushes, the delivery nurse said to Sarah, that they were concerned about the baby's heart rate, and that if after another few pushes, the baby wasn't out, that they would recommend an episiotomy and would that be alright. We of course, agreed, as we felt the baby's safety was of paramount concern. In any case, at this point, the top of her head was already visible and we felt that we might be able to make it anyways.

Two contractions later, the baby's head was still visible, energy levels were high and everyone was encouraging, but Margaret was still inside. I too, was trying to be encouraging but the nurses at one point told me to be quiet when she was pushing. I complied. At about this point, the nurse in charge did her thing and within two pushes, Margaret was free. It was 1:37 PM on November 10.

At this point, the doctor's told us that though we had requested the baby to be delivered onto SAM's chest, the pediatrician wanted to do a quick check due to the slight complication. This lasted maybe five minutes, during which SAM had some Pitocin to aid with the delivery of the placenta. After her examination, we got Margaret for a few minutes. However, shortly after we received her, the nurse told us that they felt that her crying didn't sound right and that whey wanted to put her under the incubator with a warmer blanket and oxygen for a few minutes.

We agreed to this and Margaret was taken away from us as Sarah delivered the placenta was sewn up. This part, Sarah will say, was the most painful for her. From her perspective, it seemed that neither the local anaesthetic that they used, nor the gas they provided did much.

However, once that was done, the baby came back to us and a midwife assisted us in Margaret and SAM's first breastfeeding session.

This point was a nice respite as there was an emergency pre-term delivery in the delivery ward that had called away all the nurses and doctors and we were forgotten. While I am sorry for the stress for the other couple, it allowed us to stay in our room just a bit longer, forgotten.

After this, perhaps around 3:15 PM or so Sarah was delivered to a different recovery ward and I fetched her things and delivered them to her. And that was all that I could do as visiting hours were not until 6:00 PM. So I took a cab ride home for a shower and some phone calls before I brought a BLT back to SAM at 6:00 PM. In the cab, I managed to talk to my mom, Roz and Sylvia. Roz I woke, but Sylvia was still up awaiting any news, so of course I had to let her know.

Well, that's the story of the drama. It's exceedingly long and probably not of interest to most people, but some may be interested so I thought I'd write it down for those of you who were.

The main point is that we got a baby girl who we named Margaret McLean Tsien. She was born on November 10th at 1:37 PM at 3010 grams and 50 cm. And she's perfect in every way to us.

We're in love.

All Sleepy on the Eastern Front

Some new observations about life with a baby

1. That whole, "She's so cute, I even love the sound of her screaming her head off," lasts until about 2:00 AM. This may be compounded when she poops out of her diaper onto the sheets you're trying to sleep on.
2. In the dimmed half-light at around 3:00 AM, her screaming face begins to look and sound like a space alien.
3. Sleeping in shifts helps.
4. Mom's are the true heroes in families.
5. Patting a fussy baby is as much a comfort to you as to the baby.
6. She's so cute, I even love the sound of her screaming her head off. When I'm not in charge.


I wonder what's in that sack?



They're weighing it. Must be potatoes.


SURPRISE!


Whew!

As you can see, we had a midwife home visit this morning in order to help SAM with a couple of questions that she had and to do a quick check of the baby. She's lost just a tad of weight as she's weighing in at 2820 Grams / 6.22 pounds which is, apparently fine as the weight loss is less than 10% of her beginning body weight. Also, her poop is yellowish/greenish/brown which is apparently what we want. Hooray for breast milk (which is coming in wonderfully)!

In the examination, the midwife thought that Margaret was a touch jaundiced and so is recommending that SAM feed at least every 3 hours during the day and every 4 at night. We were about there if not better anyways, so it represents little change to our schedule.

So it seems like things are going along quite well, I think, all things considered. Sarah and Margaret came home last night with my mom and aunt helping her. Through the evening, Sarah and I worked out a system of responsibility for Margaret.

As she is on my side, every 3 hours (or if she wakes), it's my job to unwrap her, wake her, check her diaper and change it if necessary. I then hand her to SAM who will breastfeed while I nap. Once Margaret has had all she wants, I take the baby back, burp, check the diaper, re-swaddle and put her down again. What's especially nice is that I can reach over and pat her on her tummy to help her sleep if she's a bit fussy. It makes dad feel nice too.

Last night, the system seemed to work alright - except for when I didn't burp her well enough and she kept screaming. Finally, she burped up all this milk and so we had to change her receiving blanket and shirt and the sheet in her crib because she was soaked! Then, of course, she was hungry again. But hopefully the system will allow Sarah to get a little bit more sleep over time in the evenings.

Besides that, however, it went alright. We successfully got through our first night at home! I have NO idea how Sarah managed it alone in the hospital. Women are apparently superhuman. At least superior to men.

These past couple of days we've had a flood of wonderful emails, text messages and phone calls from all of our friends and family who have been incredible engaged, supportive and loving. Thanks to all of you for being your wonderful selves and for showing Margaret, Sam and I so much love and thought. We are truly lucky to be so blessed and will keep you all updated with the latest via the blog.

Baby, Baby, Baby - and Veteran's Day

Some observations about newborn babies (or maybe just ours)

1. They can open their mouths to an aperture seemingly completely disproportionate to their head size.
2. Baby skin, not vicuna, is the softest thing on earth.
3. Everything they do is cute. Everything.
4. They have surprising strength for their size.
5. They don't like it when their mothers sleep.
6. They have a magic that makes you warm inside.


Taken today while napping

Sarah and Margaret are both still in the hospital but are coming home tomorrow (Tuesday). We're excited to get mom and baby home. Sarah so she can get some rest and me because I get to see them for more than for just three hours a day which is all we get at the hospital. Did I mention that the co-sleeper is on MY side of the bed? :)

Margaret seems to be doing well. She can latch on pretty well, Sarah's milk seems to be coming in quite well (so said the midwife at the hospital) and Margaret is able to sleep for a couple of hours straight if she manages to get a feed off both Sarah's breasts. This is rare, however, as the little one has a habit of falling asleep a few sips in. But she has done it.

Partly as a result of this, Sarah is quite exhausted, but part of that is also the close proximity of so many other babies and mothers and is another reason we're looking forward to getting the family under one roof for the first time.



I know that there haven't been many photos of Sarah, but there has been a photo blackout of mommy imposed by half the editorial staff. Also, I know that there haven't been many details of the birth. These and more will all come so please stay tuned until some of us have slept, gotten home, and compiled their notes of/from the event.

Until then, I hope you all are happy of pictures of me and the baby and of the baby singly, in the same clothes, from different angles.


Margaret's first spit-up was yesterday on Daddy

Finally, I'd like to take a moment to pay tribute to all the men and women who have worn a uniform for their country on this Veteran's Day. Not only do they honor their countries but they honor us all in their service. Margaret's new godfather, Jeff Hsu is a US Marine officer who has served two tours in Iraq. Her maternal grandfather, Jack, also an ex-Marine, was the first Vietnam veteran to attend Harvard. Margaret, SAM and I are lucky and honored to be so close to both of them.

Presenting MMT / 家和

Born November, 2007
1:37 PM Hong Kong Standard Time
3010 Grams / 6.6 Pounds

Thanks to everyone for their support. Mother and baby are doing well at Queen Mary Hospital.

We're admitted!

We got here at about 8:20ish and got her all settled and examined.

Sarah is resting comfortably in the general ward until she progresses to at least 3 cm. This is the interesting bit - it appears that the doctors disagree on how dilated she is. One said 2 one said 5 and another said "not quite 3" while our midwife/doula felt 7-8. We were warned about this, however and so weren't caught off-guard.

The important thing is that Sarah is comfortable and settled and that we're here safely.

Will keep you all posted.

Ready to go - Week 41, Due Date + 11

I'm reminded of the lyrics to John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane"

All my bags are packed,
I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here, outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye

But the dawn is breakin'
It's early morn
The taxi's waitin'
He's blowin' his horn
Already I'm so lonesome, I could die

So kiss me, and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go...

'Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go



Tomorrow, SAM and I go into the hospital whether or not little Petunia is ready. We've reached the end of the line of life as just the two of us, and whether or not she's ready, the doctors have decided that it's time for her to greet the world.

While I'm terribly excited to finally get to meet our new little child, something about knowing that tomorrow or the day after will be the flip of the switch that changes our lives forever puts me in a sentimental mood about what we are leaving behind.

Part of it is that I'm not sure what lies ahead in terms of my place in the world and how Sarah and my relationship will change. We've spent the past five years building a relationship that takes my breath away and in the next 24 to 48 hours, all will be reordered. It's something that, in the past few days, has really hit me. In a way, these past few days waiting for Petunia have given Sarah and I time to really get reacquainted, and now, knowing that we're likely to have to induce tomorrow makes seem like that much more of a dislocative switch that we're throwing. In some ways, I think that if Petunia had just come on her own in the surprising way that these things are oft to happen, that I'd actually be less pensive about her coming as I would have had less time to consider it.



Regardless (or is it, dis-irregardless?), she IS coming and that's an incredible thing to consider. All these nine months (indeed, five years) of waiting will come to something of a fore within the next forty eight hours.

And we're ready.

As you can see in the first photo, our bags are (re)packed (with some larger baby clothes) and we're ready to go. Tomorrow, we march boldly into parenthood with whatever trepidations we have and won't come home until we have had a baby. It's pretty incredible!

Actually, we're still holding out hope that things will happen naturally tonight. SAM has been taking the herbs that our acupuncturist recommended (Blue and Black Cohosh) and we had an appointment with our midwife today who did an exam, stripped her membranes and said that she feels "very positive" about this pregnancy progressing naturally.

We are encouraged by some additional signs that we have had since our appointment at 2:30 that include some cramping / contractions (?) in the afternoon and an actual, real life show. So progress.

And indeed, our hope is that we can go into the hospital tomorrow for our induction appointment in labor and not actually needing to be induced. How great would that be! That'd be pretty great, John!



Of course, our day itself, besides the appointment, has been incredibly active with a ton of walking and climbing up and down stairs. Before our appointment, we dropped some food off at our friend Lindsay's apartment and walked down to our midwife's office.

As it turns out, they were filming part of the new Batman movie next to our midwife's office and we hung out a bit after the appointment during which I got pictures of (I think), Christian Bale and (I'm pretty sure) the director Christopher Nolan.

After that, it was Star Ferry time for the two of us where we enjoyed each other's company over to Tsim Sha Tsui where we had ice cream on the promenade before taking the ferry back again.

Once back, we picked up my new business cards (Thanks everyone, especially Alicia!) which I love and had SAM's favorite dinner of Spicy Peanut Dan Dan Noodles which, we hope will also help push things along.

Now, we're home for some quiet, relaxing alone time. Perhaps the last hurrah of this stage of our relationship and a quiet prelude to the next.

We'll let you know how it goes.

PSYCH!!

Mean, I know. Did I get anyone?

No, we haven't had a baby. What you are looking at is a photo of SAM holding a little 6 hour old boy(as of this photo) who is the new son of our wonderful new friends, Lindsay and Graham.

Lindsay is a friend of SAM's whom we met through some other friends of ours. They just moved to Hong Kong about 2 months ago and they were due in about 3 weeks. She and SAM have become quick friends bonding over pilates, midwife classes and other preggy conversation.

Funny thing is that Lindsay and SAM hung out yesterday evening and there was absolutely no sign that anything was going on. At 3 AM, Lindsay's water broke and by 7:30 Lindsay and Graham had their son.

We learned about 9 AM when Lindsay called us with the great news and by 12:30 in the afternoon, they were receiving us as their first guests. Whew. What a whirlwind for them and what a wonderful time as well.

The baby is incredibly, incredibly cute. While SAM was holding him today, she could feel Petunia kicking at the new little one. We're hoping she's jealous enough to want to come out.



After we ate lunch with the newly glowing trio, SAM and I left them and went on a walk at the Peak along a path that I had never been on before. I was a really nice walk, actually, as the weather was cool and the overcast skies kept the sun off. The path we took allowed us to circumnavigate most of the actual Peak and so we got to see a lot of great scenery as well as some cool parts like this waterfall.

We're hoping, hoping that the rigor of the walk (which SAM was powering through today) along with knowing that she's got already got a playmate waiting for her will make Petunia come soon.

We'll keep you posted.

Week 41

Well, here we are at Week 41 and Petunia is still cozily ensconced within her mommy's warm and comfy tummy. Mommy, by the way, seems to be doing great, notwithstanding Petunia's timorousness. Perhaps she is just waiting for the right opportunity to make a grand entrance?

In any case, today was a doctor's visit day and so we went in to the hospital again. Just to be on the safe side, the doc had her hooked up to a fetal heart rate monitor for half an hour, after which it was determined that all was peachy keen. The monitoring process was actually kind of cool because, if I read the tape properly, it looks like the equipment recorded a contraction. SAM, however, says she didn't feel a thing.

We scheduled our induction for the 11th (November 11th would be nice for a birthday, actually - easy to remember) while there and so now we're all set to enjoy the week!



Actually, what we've been doing is talking about wanting to enjoy the upcoming week and asking the baby to wait to be induced very loudly so she can hear and, hopefully, decide to foil those plans. :)

We got home at around 6:00 and had tacos for dinner. Yum! They may very well be my favorite food.

Then, we went on a walk at Victoria Park during which we called Roz for her Birthday and took some photos for the blog post tonight. There's SAM with some HK skyline in the background and us making out on a park bench. Well, sort of.

You know, the first time we ever made out was on a park bench in Taipei's Da An Park. This time, our intimate moment was considerably shorter as I received a message on my Blackberry about one of my shipments and had to get home in order to coordinate a bit. Oh well. That's okay. I get to kiss her whenever I want now! That's gotta' be one of the best parts of being married.

Anniversary Pumpkin

Five years and a few weeks ago, I was teaching kindergarten in Taipei and John was trying to get me to go out with him. With Halloween approaching, he offered to bring me a pumpkin that I could carve with my students. On pumpkin delivery day (hereafter referred to in Tsien/McLean family lore as "Pumpkin Day"), John planned to drop the pumpkin off mid-morning so I could take it to school with me that afternoon. To reciprocate, I offered to pick up a Taiwan-style breakfast of shaobing youtiao, dou jiang and fan tuan (clearly I was no longer openly shunning his advances).

At the appointed hour, I was walking back from the breakfast vendor and John arrived - sans pumpkin. He had left the pumpkin at home. Oops. He assured me that he had already arranged with his mother, who would deliver the pumpkin to him in Taipei later in the morning, and that he would rush it over at lunch time so that it would still be in my hands in time for school that afternoon.

As it turns out, pumpkin in hand, it was on the walk to school that afternoon that I finally agreed to give the relationship a try.

To celebrate, somewhat belatedly, the fifth anniversary of this moment, I would like to dedicate the following pumpkin to John. In doing so, I give him 100% credit for envisioning the future that we might share together. Real life is even better than we dreamed.

WREEP! WREEP!

This is a test of our mobile emergency blogcasting system. In the event of a real labor event, you would be seeing a picture of a baby.

WREEP! WREEP!

This concludes our test.

Lazy Saturdays

SAM showing off on our walk today

Today was potentially our last lazy Saturday as a couple (rather than a trio) for the foreseeable future. And it was just a beautiful day in every sense of the word.

Our day started with a chat with Roz and another quick one with Sylvia who had guests over for dinner. French toast and coffee followed for breakfast.

Though it doesn't sound like much, that essentially took us to two o'clock when we departed on the centerpiece of our day - a really great, almost perfect walk up to school. Not only was the weather wonderfully cool yet sunny, but we ran into two dogs who let me pet them and a colleague of Sarah's who stopped to chat.

SAM was feeling especially vigorous today and had me in her dust as she power walked straight up the hill and to school. I followed along, sometimes ahead of her, sometimes behind her, usually next to her, taking photos and now, video, to document our last few days alone for everyone.

I had a great time learning how to edit the video and spent the remainder of the afternoon before dinner with the Koos playing around on my computer while SAM read her book. You can click on it below to watch it. The hardest part was picking the music, but once I found the right piece, "Embryonic Journey" by Jefferson Airplane, it felt like it was basically the soundtrack of our whole day. Calm, bright and beautiful.

Just a note on the video - it may not play very well on dialup. Some of you on dial-up may have to find a brand new laptop somewhere and bring it to Cafe Creme to watch. Or you could just watch it at school. :)



Dinner with the Koos was another fun experience. Joy brought Joey to an Exeter presentation and it seems my old alma mater was not very impressive. Seems the Director of Admissions forgot his passport and so couldn't come so the Alumni Affairs Director had to do the presentation. Joey said he'd rather stay home. I guess you can't win 'em all.



Now we're home and will be here for the night. Though I'm still excited to welcome Petunia into our family, after a day like today, I feel especially strongly that I'm going to miss days like these with just the two of us and am a somewhat sad to say goodbye to them. I married SAM because I love being with her. It will be interesting to see how our life will change in just a few days.

Administrivia

Just a quick administrative note - I've changed the date / time zone on the blog from US Pacific Time which it was somehow set to before to GMT +8 which is local Hong Kong / China / Taiwan time. Gives everyone a better idea (except for the West Coast fam) of when posts and comments come up.

There have also been some issues with the comment system - I've now enabled it so that anyone, not just Blogger members, can comment. Hopefully that will help.

Thanks for reading, everyone!

NEWS FLASH: Colostrum!

Sam was getting out of the shower just now and noticed a few tiny beads of yellowish, mucous like fluid on her right nipple. We have colostrum, people! Woohoo!

It may not seem like much, especially considering that many people get colostrum weeks before their babies are due. But for us, this is our very first "sign" of anything (besides the whole big tummy moving around and kicking, of course).

Anyways, we're very happy.

No photos. Obviously.

Week 40 DD+4

This is why I'm glad I've had Sarah to myself for these past few days.



It's actually been a nice and quiet couple of days. Yesterday, we spent a quiet day at home. Sarah read, I worked a bit on descriptions for the games I'm selling and watched a bit of TV. At night, we snuggled on the couch after dinner and watched that old classic Val Kilmer break out flick, "Top Secret," which isn't nearly as hilarious as I remember it being when I was 10. I would have preferred the Anthony Edwards movie, "Gotcha'" ("We lahhhve it!") but couldn't find a copy of it on iTunes.

We also called Jack who, among the many pearls he routinely dispenses, gave us one that resonated more than usual. The baby is coming as soon as we realize that she is in control. Sarah and her dad also worked out the exact chronology of Sylvia's birth which was a curious process to observe.

Today has been quiet as well, the highlight being Roz's call this morning which we enjoyed very much. We also went for a visit to the midwives to reassure ourselves that all is well (it is). As this process continues, we just want to be able to keep on top of things since there seems to be some concern amongst healthcare type people (and writers) of decreased placental function and other issues once the baby is past due. The midwives have basically said 2 weeks past is fine but it was nice, nonetheless to get some reassurance that Petunia was all right in there!

We actually had a bit of concern this morning as it seemed Petunia wasn't moving as much as usual. As soon as I put my head up to SAM's belly to listen for the heartbeat, however, she kicked me in the head! After she got that out of her system, she's been moving around with her usual vigor (the Baby, not SAM).

The evening has been a laid back one. We had a delicious dinner of McLean chicken Caesar Salad prepared by Daisy and had a quick visit from our friend Sylvia who brought SAM some books. We also spent some time online where I've become deeply jealous of Erika's shiny new Wordpress blog. Wordpress seems to handle photos much better and the templates just seem to look better. Maybe I'll switch after the baby comes. Yeah, right.

Anyways, the picture below should be reassurance enough that all is well with mom, if not baby!



It's funny, actually, now that it has been a few days, I think I'm a bit past the waiting stage where I was constantly hoping that it would happen "tonight" or "tomorrow," and have moved on to one of relative resignation that it will happen when it happens and it's a waste of brain cpu cycles to speculate. Maybe I'm growing. Maybe it's a sign that she's coming soon? Of course, maybe that'll jinx it.

In any case, it has been a great opportunity for us to take some extra time to enjoy each other's company. The weekend should be a quiet one and I'll be looking forward to spending it, barring the arrival of our new daughter, with my wife.