I love my daddy!
August 15, 2009
It’s a wonder why we all feel such a need to stay connected! I personally can’t seem to stop myself from constantly checking my FB site for other people’s status updates, and keeping others updated on my status through Twitter. It seriously makes me wonder, are all of my “friends” just as curious as I am about what their doing as they are about what I’m doing?
June 4, 2009
Wow, it’s been awhile since my last blog hasn’t it? So sorry for the unintended hiatus. I guess caring for a baby just sort of sucks out all the free time you used to have. Seriously, I used to be able to get home from work, eat dinner, walk Booty, relax, and watch TV with the hubs. Now…I get home and it’s a race against time to get everything done before we have to put Tyler down to sleep at 9 p.m. And by the time she goes to sleep, Jorge and I are so tired that we pretty much fall asleep by 10:30 p.m.
As for sleep…don’t think that just because we’re going to bed earlier than before means we get more sleep now…Even though we’ve been told over and over how lucky we are that Tyler’s a good baby and doesn’t fuss much, she still wakes up once or twice on most nights. We don’t feed her or pick her up, we just give her her pacifier and she goes right back to sleep. But even so, we’re still waking up along with her. I can’t really remember the last time I had a full night of uninterrupted sleep. I think it was two weeks ago.
But…there are no complaints here. It’s such a joy to be Tyler’s mom. She’s brought so much happiness to Jorge and I. Not that we weren’t happy before. It’s just different now. She motivates us to be more responsible, do more with our lives, and become better people so that we can teach her to do the same.
Anyhow. I’ll try and be better about updating this. So for those of you who haven’t given up on checking this every so often…keep checking back. 
May 12, 2009
My first official Mother’s Day really was special. George got up at 6 a.m. and went to get me fresh flowers and a HUGE balloon! It was so sweet…After we had dimsum with the family, my sister and Andrew volunteered to babysit Tyler so we can go see Star Trek.
I still can’t quite believe I’m a mom. And Tyler is such a great baby. She amazes me everyday.
April 17, 2009
I went back to work this week. I actually started mentally preparing myself weeks ago. It’s tough going back to work after having FOUR MONTHS OFF! I’ve never had that much time off. Even in school, we only got three months off during the summer. But that aside, the hard part about going back was leaving Tyler. I know, I know…at least George is home to take care of her rather than some stranger. But still…since her birth, I’ve never been a part from her for more than an hour…not to mention eight hours.
I never used to understand why so many women end up staying at home to be a full-time mom after having kids. I always assumed it’d be so boring doing housework and raising your kids ALL DAY LONG. I always thought I’d definitely go nuts if I had to stay home like that…
…but now, I understand. Becoming a parent changes your priorities. It makes you think that there isn’t enough hours in the day for you to spend with your kids even if you got to see them 24/7. It makes you not want to miss a single thing. Their first smile, first word, first roll…I realized this week that from this point on, the only time I’ll get to spend with my little girl besides weekends are the couple of hours in the morning before leaving for work, and a couple of hours at night after I come home from work. A few precious hours isn’t enough. But it has to be for now.
I still consider myself pretty lucky. My first week back to the grind was actually pretty good. Aside from my constant yearning to go home to my baby girl, everyone at work have gone out of their way to make me feel that I’ve been missed. And it’s made my return that much easier.
April 12, 2009
Tyler is growing up so fast…this week, she discovered her own voice.
February 17, 2009
It’s hard to believe it’s already been a month since Tyler’s birth. In a way, it feels like it’s been forever. But at the same time, it seems like this past month has gone by in a flash.
It’s definitely been tough…both mentally and physically. A “full night’s sleep” has become a thing of the past for George and I. Although to be fair, Tyler is a great sleeper. We only have to wake up once during the night to feed and change her, and then she’ll go right back to sleep until morning. The hard part for me is during the day when I’m home alone and she doesn’t want to sleep. While she’s awake, my time is completely devoted to watching her. Not that she gets fussy, but during the time she’s awake, I’m limited to what I can do around the house.
I have never been so overwhelmed with fatigue and yet so completely contempt as I have been this past month. Being a mom really is tough. I find myself worrying about things that I used to laugh at my sister for worrying about with Charlie and Chase. Like if I notice Tyler hasn’t pooped after a few feedings, I’ll seriously consider calling her pediatrician. Sigh. And to think, I have another 18 years of worrying to go…but on the flip side, it’s amazing how the little things that she does can make me so happy and in awe. A little wink, a smile…even a new facial expression are all I need to know that all of the worrying and overwhelming fatigue are worth it. She’s so great and such a happy, mellow baby that I can’t really ask for anything more.
Now that the month of lock down is finally over, I can finally take her out in public and show her off to the world!
January 18, 2009
I’m supposed to be sleeping right now. But sleep can come later. I wanted to share my thoughts while they are stlil fresh in my mind…
As anyone who is acquainted either with George or I already knows…Thursday was the date of our induction. We were supposed to go to the hospital at 8 a.m., but Tyler had different plans. At 4:45 a.m., I woke up with the now very familiar urge to go to the bathroom, and found myself bleeding. So without a second thought, George and I rushed to the hospital 3 hours ahead of schedule.
Don’t worry, the bleeding ended up not being something of concern. But it did allow the hospital to start my labor early. When I finally felt my first REAL contraction, I got all excited because it didn’t feel like much of anything but a regular menstrual cramp…that is, of course, until the real labor began….I didn’t hesistate to ask for the epidural…Ha. My labor lasted for a total of 15 hours from the moment I found myself bleeding to the moment I layed my eyes on the most important person in my life…
Tyler Yi-Hwei Yu born January 15, 2009 weighing 8 lbs. 5 oz. at 21 inches long at 7:33p.m.
I’m told my labor was relatively short, eventhough my active labor–which is when you’re actually pushing–lasted for an excrutiatingly long hour.
I used to think that when people say it’s “love at first sight” when they see their new baby must be exaggerating just a little. And the ones who totally lose it and start bawling in the delivery room are people who are usually pretty emotional anyway. I can say without a doubt now that either I’m one of those over-exaggerated emotional people, or it’s all true and no matter who you are and how unemotional you think you may be, you’ll be whimpering along with your newborn little baby the minute you see your little daughter or son come into the world. Even George, who prides himself on never showing much emotion almost lost it, and it’s DEFINITELY love at first sight between him and his little girl.
Delivering at Kaiser Baldwin Park gave us the luxury of having our very own private room and having the baby there with us the entire time. They don’t have a nurserywhere they keep all of the babies if the parents want alone time or just time to sleep because they believe in the importance of the initial bonding experience between parents and baby.
Fortunately, we were at least able to spend the first day and a half with Tyler, because on the night of the second day, the pediatrician informed us that Tyler was Coomb’s positive causing her bilirubin levels to get high. Being Coomb’s positive basically means that the mom’s blood type (o) and the baby’s blood type (either A, B, or AB–in Tyler’s case she’s B+) aren’t compatible and were mixed either during pregnancy or delivery. Because our blood types got mixed, my antibodies were attacking her’s. The consequences are usually either the baby becomes jaundaced or becomes anemic. In Tyler’s case, since her bilirubin levels were way up, she was very jaundaced and needed to be transfered to the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) to lay in an incubator under lights until her levels came back down.
Do you know what the saddest feeling in the world is? Seeing your day-old baby laying naked in an incubator in the hospital’s NICU with her eyes covered to avoid irritation from the UV lights. Luckily she looked comfortable and was sleeping away. Sigh. The nurses said it usually takes 2-3 days before the’ll see any improvements in the levels. Which meant she won’t be discharged from the hospital until then.
Do you kow what an even sadder feeling in the world is? Moreso than seeing your baby at the NICU? I know it’s hard to believe, but there is such a feeling. It’s the overwhelming sense of sadness when you leave the hospital and realize you have to leave your newborn baby behind.
The good thing is that her condition is not very serious and she’s basically in the NICU sunning herself. And besides her, there was only one other baby in the NICU, so Tyler was getting a lot of attention.
Anyway, George and I have been going back and forth between home and hospital since we got discharged. It’s such an amazing feeling being a parent. All of the feelings and emotions you hear from your own parents and friends on becoming a parent are all true. There isn’t a single thing in the world I wouldn’t do for my little girl. And the thought of her finally coming home makes me actually look forward to the midnight feedings just so I can have her in my arms.
I don’t know if it’s my hormone levels still acting all crazy, but every little thing seems to send me over the edge. Ha. I opened my email last night and found over 40 messages of well-wishes and THAT got me all emotional. Hehe. So George and I want to thank everyone for thinking about us. We’re so happy to finally be able to introduce our baby girl to the world and can’t wait for her to meet everyone. She really is very lucky to already have so many people love and care about her. Hopefully she’ll be able to come home within the next couple of days…
