Hannah's Newborn Photo Shoot

Hannah has been an angel thus far. Today, I took advantage of Steve being at home to take some pictures of Hannah as a newborn. After hours of pinterest searching, I was inspired to get a bit more creative than I did with Nathan. Did I get all the pictures that I wanted done? No. Did I spend over 2 hours trying to snap pictures of this baby? Yes. 

There are still a few shots that I would like to try to take, but it all depends on time. We'll see how the week plays out. For now I have enough pictures to create a birth announcement. 

This may be my favorite picture...

These books used to be Hannah's great grandmother's books. 

Definitely stole this idea from Pinterest. Thinking about using this for the birth announcement...

Overall, I had a lot of fun creating this. It's been awhile since I've been able to exercise my creative side.

I have a new-found respect for newborn photographers.

Week 100 / 1 : Surviving

Dear Nathan,
Congrats on reaching your 100th week of life! It's kind of neat that you and your little sister are about 99 weeks apart in age. Since I've been recovering from surgery, life has been kind of uneventful. However, are lucky that your Ama (grandmother) is visiting this week. We have been fortunate to be able to eat her yummy cooking and play lots of fun activities with her. In fact, your Chinese has improved with her being here and you have picked up some of her manerisms like "ayo!"

For the most part, you are adjusting to not being the only child pretty well. You are very gentle with Hannah, and the times you have been a bit dangerously rough were due to your general clumsy self. You really love Hannah and love to give her hugs and kisses.

I thought you would be a bit more jealous and seek attention. While you are a bit more clingy to me, you haven't acted out. The only instance that came even close occurred today: You had just come down from your nap and found me napping with Hannah in the bedroom. She started to cry and I took her out to nurse. You then climbed on the bed to play. A few moments later, I heard you "crying" and came in to check on you. 

 You were imitating Hannah's cry. After a brief reminder of why babies cry, you were back to jumping around on the bed.

I don't know if you've gone through a growth spurt, or if I have been changing too many infant diapers, but you definitely feel more hefty. We measured you on the Wii and in a month, you've gained 1.5 pounds, which is pretty good considering you have been hovering around the same weight for a few months. At this rate, you will be able to fit into your new glow in the dark train shirt that your great grandparents got you in no time.

I look back to the posts from when you were little and I wish I wrote more about the new mom experience and the things that we were all going through as a family, so starting with this post, I will be writing more about that. 

Joys: 

• I have instantly fallen in love with Hannah. Initially, it took a few days with you, but I now can see how I can love someone else as much as I love you. 
• I am so thankful to have a your Daddy as a partner. He has been so supportive through everything and he does everything possible to make sure that we are all taken care of. 
• I am so thankful of support from friends and family. Ever since your sister was born, and even before, so many people have offered to help. 
• I am glad to be able to spend some time with my mom. I don't get to spend much time with her at all, so having 3 generations of women in the same home for week has been/is amazing. 
• It's so interesting to see how you have instantly fallen in love with your little sister. When she starts to cry, you are genuinely concerned and will make sure I know that she is crying. You are gentle with her and you share your toys with her. I look forward to seeing you two grow close. 
• Hannah is a pretty good sleeper. She is able to fall asleep on her own if I put her down drowsy. This was not the case with you. We always had to walk around to make you fall asleep. 

Frustrations

•  Hannah is sleeping for stretches of 45 mins to 3 hours, which is normal and expected. However, she falls asleep within 5 minutes of the start of a nursing session. I don't mind it so much in the day, but at night, feeding sessions can last an hour, sometimes 2. The whole cycle of feed, try to wake, feed, try to wake can get quite tedious when you are exhausted yourself. 
• For the first few days, nap times between the two of you lined up so that I was able to take a nap as well. Luckily your Ama is here and I've been able to take a nap even on days when your nap times don't line up, but I know that  this will not be a luxury in a few days. 
• The first 5 days of recovery were really rough. The simple act of sitting up was painful, especially if it was almost time to take the next dose of medication. Coughing, sneezing, and even laughing were painful. (It doesn't help that you are a super funny boy.) A week later, I have weaned myself off of the vicodin, and am surviving off of just Ibuprofen. 

Ama gave you your first bath at home after you were born. Unfortunately, we never took a picture. We decided to keep the tradition and here is Ama getting ready to give Hannah her first bath.







Finally, I leave you with some cute pictures of Hannah taken during her first week of life outside of the womb.

Hannah Mei Havlir's Birth Story and My Hospital Birthing Experience (Lots of detail)

On 8/8, we found out that Hannah was in a frank breech position. On 8/11, the doctor tried to externally turn Hannah around. It did not work. On 8/12 and 8/13, I went in to see a chiropractor to see if the Webster method would help turn Hannah. I actually think it worked because she started moving around a lot more, I noticed kicks and hiccups in different spots, and her head had moved elsewhere. On 8/15, I went back to the doctor's office and the nurse practitioner confirmed that she had turned into a vertex position. Hallelujah! 

On 8/18, at 3:11 in the morning, I felt like something had popped. It turned out that my water broke. So I laid down some towels and tried to go to sleep, knowing that the baby would be here soon. In the back of my mind, I feared that Hannah had turned back to breech, because I could feel a hard bump again high in my belly. There was so many things that I needed to do, so thinking about everything kept me up for a long time. I finally fell asleep for about 2 hours before getting up at 8. 

We debated whether or not to call the doctor's office immediately, or to just show up when contractions started. I decided to call the doctor's office and they had me come in for a progression check. Again, I saw the nurse practitioner who checked me and confirmed once again that the baby was in a vertex position. I asked to have an ultrasound done, but was denied. She then told us that we should head to the hospital. 

Since I knew we were going to play the waiting game, we took our time. We took Nathan to the park, I took a shower, and after dropping Nathan off with our neighbor, we ate a quick lunch at home before we headed to the hospital. 

We checked in around 1:30, and the nurses were a bit annoyed at how late we were. We got settled into a room and I got hooked up to a fetal and contraction monitor. I asked if I could have intermittent monitoring, and was denied it. (Even though the OB told me at one of my appointments that we could have intermittent monitoring). At time of check in, I was about 6 cm. dilated, and my contractions were about 7-15 minutes apart. My nurse was pretty awesome and tried to delay hooking up the saline lock for as long as possible. So, we waited around and my contractions continued to stay the same. If things went the way Nathan's birth went, we would've started active labor around midnight, so I tried to rest and planned on trying some nipple stimulation with the breast pump to help with contractions. 

Since I had gestational diabetes, I had to prick my finger every hour to check my blood glucose levels. 

I was given an antibiotic at 18 hours afters my membranes have ruptured and was told that I would be given more every 6 hours. 

Around 10 pm, we tried the breast pump, and contractions got closer together, but they were not painful and as soon as we stopped pumping, contractions went back to 10-15 minutes apart. 

Well, midnight came and went. Still no progression. We slept and every 3 hours or so the nurse would come in and check my vitals. 

The morning came and still things have not progressed. I was getting frustrated and restless. The nurse suggested that we try some pitocin and I decided that we would try the breast pump one more time before receiving some pitocin. Still no progression. Around 10, we started a pitocin drip and my contractions started to become more intense, but nothing was happening. The nurse then remembered me mentioning that I thought the baby was breech again, so she asked to doctor on call to do an ultrasound. This was the first time I had seen a doctor since I arrived at the hospital. Anyways, quickly it was confirmed that Hannah was indeed breech. I started to cry, not because I had a C-section in my future, but out of frustration. I was frustrated that no one would listen to my request to have an ultrasound confirm Hannah's position. I was frustrated on how no doctor came in to talk to me until almost 24 hours after I had been admitted. And those frustrations just piled on top of the saline lock and uncomfortable monitors I had strapped around me. 

A C-section was then scheduled and 45 minutes later, I was sitting on the operating table about to receive a spinal block. It was freezing. I felt a weird sensation as they put the first numbing shot into my spine and then a few moments later, I felt some pressure as they put the spinal block medication in. My toes started to feel warm and the warm sensation just started to rise. 

I laid down on the table and they positioned me into place, with my arms stretched out like I was being crucified laying down. They put up a screen above my neck and started to wipe the area that they were going to cut. I felt several urges to cough, but I couldn't cough because parts of my diaphram were numb and I had no control, so a cough just turned into a heave. My sinuses became congested and I found it difficult to breathe. It was a super weird sensation. At some point, Steve came in and sat down next to me. A medical assistant was by my side, telling me what was going on, answering my questions. I felt some tugging and pushing on my trunk area and soon I heard a soft wimpering cry, that quickly escalated into a stronger cry. Steve received the baby and after a few excruciating minutes of waiting, I was able to see little Hannah. 

 While I was getting stitched back up, Steve and Hannah went back to the room and her measurements were taken there. Towards the end, I had gotten super light headed and nauseous. I wasn't able to throw up due to a loss of diaphram control, but I felt like I needed to.

When I got back to the room I found out that she was 6 pounds 6 oz, 20 inches long, and due to her breech position, had lose hip sockets. Everything else was normal.

At this point, our neighbor, Andrea dropped Nathan off at the hospital and he got to meet Hannah for the first time. It was also then when he received his special gift from Hannah: an Elmo doll and a new book on being an older brother.

Nathan was very shy and hesitant to get too close.

We tried to nurse and she latched on immediately like a champ.

 Within an hour, all the feeling in my legs came back, but I was stuck in bed for 12 hours. Sitting up made me nauseous and I could not keep anything down. After 12 hours, (3 am) I was told to get up and to try to use the bathroom. My catheter was taken out and things were successful. I then threw up a lot of liquid.

In the morning, things became better. I could sit up without feeling nauseous and I could get up slowly on my own. Nathan and Steve visited and today Nathan seemed to be a bit more interested in Hannah. When he arrived, he just ran up to her and said "hi" as if he expected her to say "hi" back.

I want to specially thank my neighbor Andrea, and friends Hope, Amy and Jenna for helping us out during the birth. They were able to help us watch Nathan while we were in the hospital. Now, Steve is hanging out with Nathan while I hang out with Hannah at the hospital. We may be able to go home tomorrow. 

This experience has been completely different from the birthing center experience. While given the circumstances, we probably would've ended up at the hospital anyways, but if we had another child, I would most definitely pick the birthing center over the hospital. Birthing is a natural and beautiful experience. While the nurses are all awesome, hospital policies totally take away from the birthing experience. 

Her name: Hannah Mei Havlir
We wanted to keep the tradition that we started with Nathan. Biblical first name, with a middle name that is common in English, but has meaning in Mandarin Chinese. We loved the name Hannah, and pretty much had our hearts set on the name from the beginning, whereas we didn't officially decide for Nathan until after he was born. I love that it is also a palindrome. Hannah is Hebrew for grace. "Mei" is pronounced like "May" or "Mae" and can mean beauty, little sister, or plum.

Week 99 and Welcome Hannah Mei

Dear Hannah and Nathan,
Mommy and Daddy are so proud to be your parents. While this has been a week full of ups and downs, we are happy that Hannah is finally here and now a part of our family.

Hannah was born via C-section at 2:54 pm on August 19, 2014. She weighed 6 pounds 6 ounces, and measured 20 inches long. She is just as cute as a button and super snugly.

I will describe her birth story in a separate post.

We are so thankful for great friends who helped play with you while mommy and daddy were at the hospital. It was a crazy 2 days, where you were hopping from one home to another, but you did great! We are so proud of you.

On Sunday, we had our monthly baby reunion. All the babies are around/almost 2 years old and looking back at past pictures, you guys have grown so much!

One of the dads brought his guitar and started singing. You all really enjoyed dancing and singing along.

Our group. So this weekend your friend Evie also met her new baby brother!

 Looking at tomatoes with your friend, Oliver.

On Saturday, we also visited the Thinkery. As always, you had lots of fun at the museum, but for the first time, you actually climbed up the structure in the out door area. We were very proud of you!

As far as milestones go, you are starting to say 2 syllable words and you are now able to climb down the stairs without holding on. 

Well, that's about it for now. Until next week! 

Love, 

Mommy

Week 98.38 Little Sous Chef

Dear Nathan,
We've had a pretty steady week so far. Nothing too crazy has happened. Your vocabulary in both Chinese and English are both growing and you are still a very happy boy.

Another thing that you've started to do is ask for Elmo. You want us to talk to you in an Elmo voice during dinner, before bed, and any other time you remember during the day. It was super cute at first, but now I'm hoping that this phase will be over soon.

You really like to cook with me. Whenever I ask you, you will run to the bathroom and pull the step stool over to the kitchen counter, and with such urgency too!

This past weekend, we hosted an Iron Chef party with Daddy's friends from work. The featured ingredient was mushrooms. You helped me make a delicious mushroom cheesecake.

You helped me pour the ingredients into the bowl and hand mixed dry ingredients. When I stepped aside to wash a few dishes, it got really quiet in your corner. I looked over and this is what I found:

Cake batter makes a pretty good hair gel.

I was really proud of how well you handled yourself at the party. As guests were arriving, you were eating dinner. You just ate quietly, by yourself, and didn't fuss for attention. When you were finished, Daddy took you upstairs for a bath, I then stepped in and ready you a few stories and you were in bed around your normal time. Even with all the noise downstairs, you quietly fell asleep and didn't wake up at all.

We've gone to the pool a few times this week. I got you this squirt gun and ever since, you've been asking to go to the pool every day. You really like squirting mommy.

Your aunt Monica also came down to visit this weekend. She brought back lots of Chinese books and CD's from Taiwan for us to read. You guys had lots of fun playing together. When she left, you got sad and kept saying "MoYi," which is your rendition of MoMo A-Yi (Aunt Momo) in Chinese. Don't worry, we will get to see her soon. 

I think we have pretty much completed your little sister's room. The pom poms are up and currently we have the bed still in there. When you are ready for a big bed, you guys will trade. 

I also went ahead and put some cork and fabric inside the frame. This will be a picture or bow holder for your little sister. I also recovered the hamper with the floral fabric.

 This is what your little sister will see when she looks up. When you saw it for the first time, you got really excited and said, "Woah!"

Shades that I made a few weeks ago that go with the rest of the room.

**Quick chiropractor update, today I went in for another brief visit where he popped my spine in two spots and adjusted some round ligaments. Baby has definitely moved, but it's difficult to tell where everything is. We will find out on Friday at my next OB appointment.

For now, I'm going to take a nap. I've really needed a nap these past few days. I guess it's my body building up sleep reserves for when the little one comes.

Until next week,

Love,
Mommy.

You Spin Me Right Round

Dear Little Honey Bun II,
You have been causing quite a lot of drama lately. At my last check up on Friday, we found out that you were in a frank breech position, with your bottom settled in pretty well in my pelvis. So on Monday, I was scheduled for an external cephalic version (ECV). This is where the doctor tries to turn you from the outside. After getting home, I turned to the internet and started looking up things I could do to help encourage you to turn, or to up the chances of you turning during the ECV. All the exercises pretty much involved me getting in a position where my head was lower than my pelvis. So over the weekend, I went to the pool a couple of times and did lots of headstands. 3 times a day, I would prop up my hips with as many pillows and lay down for 20 minutes. I even tried putting a bag of cold peas near your head to try to get you to move away from the cold. Alas, Monday arrived and I showed up at the hospital, ready for the procedure.  After getting an IV set up, and a shot of turbutyline to relax the uterus, the doctor started pushing. We endured 3 painful tries, she decided that you were not going to move and told me about my options, which pretty much boils down to planned C-section, or emergency C-section. However, she did say that it was still early and there is a small, very small chance that you would flip on your own.  

Today, I tried going to Dr. Ron, who is a superstar chiropractor within the Austin birthing community. He performed the Webster technique on me, which is basically an adjustment made to my pelvis, to make sure it's lined up and not twisted/tilted unevenly and then he pushed lightly on my round ligaments. Within 5 minutes, the procedure was done. For the rest of the day, I've been feeling you move a lot more. Perhaps the adjustment gave you more room to move. As of now, your head is still up, but it seems like it's at a lower spot than it has been. I go back tomorrow for a follow-up and we'll see what happens. From what I've read on-line, it typically takes about 3 visits for a baby to turn.

I'm not getting my hopes up too much. On Friday, if you have not turned around yet, I will still schedule an elective C-section for 8/26, exactly one month before your older brother's birthday. Then, it will all be in God's hand. (Actually, it's been in God's hand since the beginning) Regardless of how we get to meet you, the most important thing is that you are healthy.

I think this whole experience has been God's way of reminding me that ultimately, He is in control. I often forget about Him and try to plan my life out. I am not trusting Him enough. There have been a few instances recently, where I was reminded of the story of Abraham. Each time, I think about weak my trust in God is. If asked to, I don't know if I would be able to sacrifice my children on an alter. It seems like it would be easier for me to sacrifice myself than to bind up Nathan and offer him as a burnt offering to God.

While I know I don't have faith as strong as Abraham, I am thankful to be reminded that God is there for us, and that He has a plan for us. We are simply to trust Him more, and that is something that I think I can work on.

Even though we've had some ups and downs throughout this pregnancy, this just makes me even more excited to meet you and get to know you.

For now my dear daughter, keep turning.

Love,
Mommy

Week 97.37 Oh, the Things We Do for Love

Dear Nathan, 

This week has been a pretty odd week. You have been imitating babies, pointing out things that scare you, and being super clingy. According to the mommy websites, this is normal behavior for a kid who is about to meet a new sibling. It's scary how you are acting exactly like how the articles said you would. They say everyone is different, but you are a pretty "textbook" child. 

We were wanting to try to move you to a big boy mattress. You seem to be interested in sleeping on a bed, so we tried to put a mattress in your room. You were only interested in doing story time on the bed and then insisted that I put you down in your crib to sleep.  So then I decided that maybe we can find some Elmo sheets to entice you to sleep on the bed. Well, after searching 4 different stores, I looked on-line, disappointed at the selection. The sheets were either ridiculously expensive, or of poor quality. So I came up with an idea of painting Elmo on an old sheet to see if it would work. In the span of one nap time, I finished the project and here you can see Elmo eating dinner with you. 

 When we put the sheet on the bed, things looked promising. We read, sang a lullaby and I asked if you wanted to sleep with Elmo or in your crib. You picked crib. I didn't really expect any other answer, but we decided to try again the next night. After a few nights, I decided I would leave you on the bed after our song and see what would happen. As I walked out of the door, you started crying hysterically, and I could sense strong fear in your cry, so I quickly went back in, comforted you and put you back in the crib.

The next day, we took the scary mattress out of your room and put the crib back. We will wait until you are ready to move to a big boy bed yourself.

I don't know if it's a mom thing, or just an Asian mom thing, but I really love watching you eat. You chewing on a rib just makes me so proud. Still no progress on the veggie front, but as long as you are eating veggie purees, I'm ok with it.

An activity that we have started to play is tee-ball. Again, we have a ghetto set-up, but it works perfectly. You are actually pretty good at hitting the ball. 

Your best friend came over to play yesterday. You guys had lots of fun completing a mini obstacle course that we set up for you along with other little activities like drawing and riding horses.

 In fact, when it was time to leave, she didn't want to go. She hid in our bushes so that her mommy couldn't take her home.

You have become so helpful. A few months ago, you were simply dumping silverware into the drawer. Now you are able to sort (with some reminders at time) and help put away the eating utensils. 

 I'd say this looks pretty good.

 Other than the odd behaviors that I explained above, you are still a happy little boy. You are napping for about 1.5 hours each day, with an occasional 2-2.5 hour nap here and there. Each day you are talking more and more. In fact, you are actually saying the word for "water" (in chinese) as opposed to "Aaaa," which you have used for water since you turned about a year old.

We are allowing you to watch more Little Pim and Ni Hao Kai Lan (no more than 30 mins a day) and I've found that you are picking up even more Chinese through those shows. I don't know if it's the reinforcement, or the fact that the characters are really cute, but you are speaking more of it.

Well, as far as the pregnancy goes, things are going pretty well. The contractions have lessened this week, but one night, I got a super painful Charley horse while sleeping. I definitely feel the baby's head lower in my pelvis, which makes twists in Zumba pretty much impossible, but other than that, things are settling down.

I've started to see the doctor on a weekly basis and as of my last check up, I'm about 50% effaced and dilated about 1 cm. I think I am ready to meet this little girl soon, (but not too soon). We have the nursery about 80% completed. I just need to hang the pom poms up on the ceiling and walls. I'm thinking about hanging a clump from the ceiling at the corner (the crib will go where the bed is right now) and then, the rest, I will hang on the wall with decal stems and leaves attached. I think I still have some contact paper from when I made Nathan's tree decal for his bedroom.

 We have been so fortunate to receive LOTS of hand-me-down, super cute, girl clothes from friends and family. Those purple drawers above are filled with accessories like shoes, bows, and bloomers.

On the other side of the room, we have the recliner and the chest of drawers that I refinished. I'm going to recover the hamper lid with the same fabric that I used to make the pillows and for the fancy frame, I'm probably just going to make it into a cork board for now. Originally, I wanted to cut a piece of glass to put inside, but I think we can wait until baby girl is older and won't reach for the frame during diaper changes.

I am actually pretty much ready to have this baby. Call me crazy, but I'm actually excited for the challenge of raising 2 kids. I'm not looking forward to being sleep deprived, but in hindsight, I know that it won't last for more than a year. The first few months were tough with Nathan, simply because it seemed like it was just me giving all the time and not receiving anything more than an occasional gassy smile. But this time around, I will have Nathan there, so caring for a newborn and a toddler will most likely be a bit more interesting.

I'm still a bit apprehensive about birthing at a hospital, but I'm sure it will go just fine. My worst fear right now is having to give birth en route to the hospital. While it would be an awesome story to tell at cocktail parties, I'm praying that we make it to the hospital at the right time: not too early, and not too late.

I'm probably going to have lots of down time after the birth, so maybe I'll do a post on the differences between birthing at a birthing center, and a hospital.

Well, that's about all I have to update this week.

Love,
Mommy