bonnie & jason

Happy New Year!

This time last year, we were packing for a whirlwind trip half way around the world to Taiwan.  This year… we’re lucky if we can get to Albertson’s down the street.  How things have changed!  I’m starting to lose count of how many times I’ve been peed/pooped on.  Sleep is not so much how I spend one-third of my life but more how I spend three-ninths of my life.  For those of you who are “Fast and the Furious” fans, I’ll paraphrase Vin Diesel and say, “I live my life one feeding at a time.”

Otherwise, Alissa is continuing to “educate” Bonnie and I but things are definitely getting a little more routine if not easier.  We are currently on a three ounce every three hour feeding cycle.  We were hoping to stretch it to four hours, but think the fact that Bonnie is now off the Vicodin has eliminated those few four hour breaks we used to have.  Not sure if that’s the cause or not.

That’s it for 2006!  Hope everyone has a great 2007!

Alissa is a week old!

It’s “only” been a week, but I can already hardly imagine life without her.  Things are starting to get a little more sane around here.  Alissa slept for three and four hours straight last night so that was nice.  Then this morning she proceeded to once again pee and poop right after I took her already dirty diaper off.  Oh well… and I used to wonder why P&G was spending millions of dollars on capital equipment sending me around the world to build them.

Anyway, here are a few other pictures to finish of her first week in the world.

Alissa Day 4-5

Want more pics?  Click here.

The last two days have been very challenging.  Lots of visitors, lots of feedings/changings/etc, lots of not knowing if we’re doing the right thing, lots of advice from different people, and not much sleep.

However, I think we’ve turned a corner as we think we know how to get Alissa to sleep by herself for two to three hours at a time, and she appears to be a happy baby for the most part.  A few observations:

Things she doesn’t like…

• Wet diaper – doesn’t even have to be really wet, just a little wet.
• Being changed – she really screams every single time.

Things she likes:

• Peeing while being changed – happened twice today
• Peeing/pooping 8 milliseconds after being changed – happened three times today
• Making everyone think she’s an absolute angel during the day only to show her true colors to mommy and daddy at 4 am.  (although last night was much better)

Otherwise, we’re hanging in there.  Bonnie is making progress recovering and we’re trying to enjoy this fleeting time in Alissa’s life as much as we can.  I will say, this has been more difficult that I thought it would be, even with Alissa being a pretty “good” baby.  Most of you know I’m a pretty patient person (except for my road rage) but I will admit to being pushed a little farther than I’m used to.  But like I said, I think we turned a corner yesterday so hopefully our first pediatrician appointment tomorrow will indicate that we’re doing ok as parents so far.

Alissa Day 3

As you might imagine, my daily ramblings will be monopolized by Alissa for a while.  As such, here’s another link to some pictures I took today.  The consensus so far is that she looks more like me than Bonnie.  Actually, she looks a lot like my mom did when she was little.  I hear that they change every day though, so I’ll try to take at least a few shots every day to try to document the changes.  We haven’t even got to the little outfits that Bonnie has been looking forward to putting her in.  And we haven’t had a chance to get her in my studio yet either.

Why?  We’re still trying to figure out how to be good parents.  Her weight is down a little more than I would like so we are supplementing her with formula now.  Also, she has a little jaundice going on, but nothing serious at all.  Finally, and certainly not least of all, we’re spending a lot of time with friends and family who have been really supportive.

Alissa’s pics, day 1 and 2

We came home from the hospital today so I got a chance to upload some of the images I’ve taken over the last couple days.  Click on the image above for the Flickr slideshow.

FYI, mom and baby are both still doing just fine.  We are getting used to each other from trying to interpret Alissa’s cries, to figuring out how to get the car seat in the Accord, to debating about whether or not Alissa is the cutest baby we’ve ever seen.

We are a little tired but focused on recovering from labor while trying to enjoy our new bundle of joy.  She is pretty well behaved for the most part, but definitely prefers to be held vs. in her crib/bassinet/car seat.  I think that’s pretty typical.  We’ll see how we cope with it as our sleep deprivation starts to pile up.

That’s about it for now.  It took me about 2 hours to write this with the new “distraction” around the house.  Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Picture of the day?! No… picture of the year!

After a couple hours of active pushing (and just a little help from mr. vacuum) Alissa Kate Wang was born at 5:45 pm at 6 lbs, 14 oz and 19″.  She got her shots (Hep, Vitamin E) and Erythromycin with nary a cry and nurse Elaine even gave her a bath with minimal fuss.  According to the nurses, she’s definitely a mellow baby… so far.

Obviously, Alissa’s birth was one of the most amazing moments of my life.  At the risk of seeming unfeeling, the process itself was fairly pedestrian.  But only because I’m comparing it to the overwhelming feelings of joy/pride/can’t-put-them-into-words the moment she came out.  It really was remarkable.

Bonnie’s parents and Benita were in the waiting room and visited for a while before heading home.  I have to say, even given my obvious bias, that she is a really cute baby.  The picture above is not so good since I was trying to take it with my camera phone with one hand while holding her with the other.  But I’ll have some better pics up tomorrow and you’ll see, she is certainly a cutie.  She does have a pretty good cone head going though… but it’s hard to tell with her hat on.

Another funny observation… at one point, we had three cell phones going on while I was on IM with a couple people, and trying to post pictures to Flickr with my cell phone.  What’s communication technology going to be like when Alissa has kids?

Anyway, thanks to everyone for their well wishes.  Mom and baby (and dad if anyone cares) are doing just fine.  We’ll be here until Friday afternoon before taking Alissa home.  Look for more pictures as I get my other camera stuff uploaded.

Bonnie sleeping, getting ready for the big moment!

Engines are firing!

At 12:50, Dr. Huang visited us and broke Bonnie’s water.  That may make the contractions come more regularly or we may start pitocin around 1:30 in hopes that we can deliver between 2 (after which the antibiotics have taken hold) and 4, when our awesome nurse, Chris, leaves us for the day.

So far so good!

The launch sequence has begun!

Bonnie started having contractions at 3 am this morning!  We had a doctor appointment already scheduled for 8:45 am, but by the time we left the house, the contractions were already 5 minutes apart and lasting almost 1 minute.  So we just went straight to the hospital.  When Bonnie got checked out, she was already 100% effaced and nearly 4cm dilated. It’s almost noon now, and she’s got an IV, antibiotic, and epidural in place.  The last exam revealed she’s almost 8cm dilated now so we’re well on our way!  We need to try to wait until 2pm though, so the antibiotic has a chance to get into the baby’s system.

Anyway, as you may have figured out, I found free wireless here so I’m blogging while Bonnie tries to get some sleep… while in labor!  (That epidural is some good stuff!)  Maybe I’ll even be able to get a picture up before the night is through.  Stay tuned!

T-minus 5 and Counting

We spent this afternoon making egg rolls a la Mommy Wang’s recipe. It’s been a while since I’ve made them, but I sort of remembered the process and ingredients. Carrots, shittake mushrooms, chicken, rice vermicelli, garlic, bamboo shoots, cabbage, a little salt and pepper, and you’re good to go. Unfortunately, I didn’t make quite enough filling for the wraps, so we had to come up with something to use them up. So, guess what we came up with?! Ghetto apple pie – Take Two! Diced apples, butter, sugar, cinnamon, saute for a couple minutes, wrap, deep fry, and voila! These were actually really good.

These pictures are my pictures of the day… decided to practice some macro shots.