yuki

Today Yuki and I went to Mother Baby Hour at the hospital where she was born. The idea is to have babies and moms come in and hang out and ask questions to the facilitator and others. Let me just say that this was one of the more scary things I have ever done. There were about 25 mom-baby pairs, babies crying everywhere, some moms also nearly in tears, people had all sort of questions and the facilitator was completely useless. Some people were so uptight about the right way to do things, others asked questions so gingerly in fear that they would be judged. I think Yuki was having nightmares afterward. I don't think I will do this again. There are gatherings like this elsewhere, I think I will try those.

The best part about the meeting was that they had a baby scale. Yuki is now 9 lb 11 oz.

Ok, I think we've got all the blogs upto today updated. No more updating the previous blogs, I promise.
Photos from the main page, on the other hand, will still have to be uploaded.

Today Yuki is 3 weeks old. Papa is in China this week so Yuki had her first international call today. We both miss him, but this video call thing is great. And look how happy both Yuki and Papa look.

I'm including a bonus video for today's blog so papa can see her.

Yuki is very fussy this afternoon. She needs to be fed every hour and we just can't seem to put her down without her completely being reduced to tears. It may be that she is going through her "third-week growth spurt" and can't quite get enough milk. Maybe tomorrow is better. We tried the vibrating chair and that helped for about five minutes. We promptly took the opportunity for this photo. Our daughter is such an angel :)

Yuki's umbilical cord is completely healed and she got her first full bath today. She seems to really enjoy it and was all smiles. Books say babies don't smile for real until a few weeks later and that these are "practice smiles". Regardless, she is definitely enjoying it.
...though didn't like getting out at all.

Yuki has many friends in her room these days. Yuki's facial expressions are getting more deliberate and sometimes she practices smiling. She grunts and huffs, looks around, stares... She's a lot of fun. Here are a few of her friends:

Madison in the summer time is really great. We went to the concert at the capitol today. Mom made a rockin' "bento", picnic, and we heard all sorts of all-time favorites like... William Tell and Beethoven's 8th. Here is a photo of Yuki turning up her charm.

Grandma is also quite the videographer. Check out her master piece.

We visited Dr. Wilcots for Yuki's 2 week check-up. The nurse asked us a bunch of questions, like are we about to go crazy? How does she sleep? How many times a day does she eat? poop? and so on. The most fun was having her weighed. She now weighs 8 lb 14 oz. That's something like 2 oz per day, 1 lb and 4 ounces of weight gain since she was born. And she lost some in the first few days! Her height is now 21 inches. This is up from 19 inches measured just after she was born. I am less inclined to believe this one. I would imagine it's pretty difficult to make this measurement.

Yuki is starting to be awake longer. Her eyes are actually open for more than a few seconds at a time and she seems to be really looking around. Sometimes you can get her to smile (difficult to catch on film). She is getting better at nursing and she can grab shirts, knock off glasses off from mama's face, and kick her feet out from swaddling. She had a full day today. She hung out with dad in the sling, got a bath, and went to the ice cream social in the neighborhood. Apparently there was a water ballet show by kids at the pool, but we just took a short walk and came home after mom, dad, and Grandma Baba ate ice cream.

Here is a video of Yuki's second bath:

Here is one of Yuki out on the deck with Grandma.

We also had a big outing to the farmer's market. Grandma took lots of video.

Today mom and Yuki went on a private walk along University Bay Drive. The way out was brisk and fast, the way back was a little slower. Feels nice to be out though.

We also went to our first fish-fry at Quivey's Grove. It was Yuki, Grandma Baba, mom, and dad. There were lots of kids running around. Yuki was probably still the youngest there.

We all want what's best for Yuki and her future, but ultimately she has to decide for herself what she wants. Does she look like she wants to be a physicist? Uncle Piet thinks so.

Ryo decided he has to brave holding Yuki at least once before he goes back to New York. He managed to do this without breaking her, and actually Yuki looks quite content.

Ryo had to work Monday and Friday this week, so he has arrived today. He was so excited to come, but then he is very reluctant to touch Yuki for fear of breaking her so we don't have a photo of them together yet. Instead, we have a photo with Yuki's other friend, the Giraffe.

Today dad and Yuki took a power walk through our neighborhood while mom took a nap. They discovered all sorts of things together. Yuki is very happy on these outings.

Her movements are becoming a lot more deliberate and she seems to be able to sleep for at least 3 hours straight during the night. Hurray for swaddling sleepers!

On another note, we saw the lactation consultant at the doctors' today. Yuki is feeding unbelievably well, as her weight gain indicates (she's now 8 pounds!), but mom's boobs are taking a toll. We got some tips from the nurse, including Soothies (highly recommend them!) and watching for proper latch. I thought we were doing it right and all the nurses at the birthing center thought so too, but it really is worth talking to an expert. Hopefully they will get better in the next few days.

Yuki got her first complete sponge bath today. We're not supposed to give her a full-fledged bath until the umbilical cord falls off so we thought we would wait on that until the stubby is gone. By accident the bath occurred above a running dish washer which turned out to be great. It was warm, and the sound seemed to be really soothing for Yuki.

Grandpa Jiji and Grandma Baba left this afternoon to Kohler, WI to play golf at Whistling Straits at the American Club. Apparently PGA Senior was held there few weeks ago.

We went to the pediatrician again today. She wanted to make sure jaundice is under control. Not only is Yuki healthy, she has already started gaining weight and now she is back up to 7 lb 6 oz, which apparently is pretty substantial. The doctor told us we can stop keeping log on frequency of feeding and diaper activity, which we were told we should do for a week. No wonder my boobs hurt...

The doctor put silver-nitrate on the umbilical cord. This seems to have completely dried it up since later it fell off. We called the doctor again who seemed to think that it's a little early for the cord falling off, and it was probably triggered by the silver nitrate. There is still a little stubby left, so maybe this is supposed to fall off later.

Today was an eventful day. Yuki is now 4 days old. Mom, dad, and Yuki took their first walk together and Grandpa "Jiji" came to visit. Mom and Dad really like the Uppa stroller and Yuki seems happy with it too. Smooth ride over as much terrain as mom can handle which is not very much at the moment.

Jiji was completely gaga over Yuki. He says it's a lot different being a grandparent than a parent. Yuki got lots of lap-time with Jiji.

I think her hiccups are more mature sounding than those from 7/10. We think she has potential to be an overachiever. Her Apgar scores were 9 and 9, and she is learning quickly to eat very efficiently.

Today Yuki had her first doctor's visit. We saw Dr. Nando, and her weight has gone down from 7 lb 10 oz to 7 lb, quite normal for a two-day old. A little of jaundice, not much to worry about but Dr. Nando asked us to come see her again on Saturday. Other than that, we're just chillin'.

It has been two days since Yuki's birth and we are going home. It is Yuki's first car ride outside of mom. Mom has been feeling her react to the car stopping suddenly etc., and thought it would be interesting to see how she reacts. It turns out, she just slept the whole way. She seems to like being at home. It's a little quieter and there are no nurses poking her all the time.

Today Yuki is one day old. Connecticut grandma also visited. She flew right over as soon as she heard the news and brought mama and papa some really yummy food. Thanks grandma! We have another night at the hospital, then we go home. Yuki has pooped as much as recommended by books, and mom and dad are having a hard time falling asleep because she is so cute and distracting.

She had many hiccups while she was still in my womb. Now we get to see it with our eyes.

Here is how the labor went. All in all it was a very painful but satisfying experience. I would recommend the UW Health Nurse Midwives and Meriter Hospital any day. It also helps to have an husband like Karsten.

It all started when I felt some liquid come out early in the morning on Sunday July 8. I called Julia, the nurse midwife on call at the time from UW Health, who told me to see how things go during the day and though she didn't think that the water had broken, she asked us to call back at 6PM. I had mild contractions all day between 15 - 30 minutes apart. When I called back in the evening, she told us we should go in to test for presence of amnionic fluid. At 7PM we arrived at Meriter triage, and the test was negative. Julia also did an internal exam and I was 1-2 cm dilated and mostly effaced at this point. She told us to call back when contractions were 3 minutes apart. We then went home to eat dinner and relax. The internal exam seems to have triggered stronger contractions that were closer together and from then on I had contractions 5 -7 minutes apart.

Karsten and I ate dinner and I decided to take a shower which spaced out the contractions slightly further apart to more like 10 minutes, so we went to bed and I dozed off between contractions. By 3:30 AM the contractions were 3 minutes apart so I woke up Karsten to pack the car and get ready. We called Julia again and she said to call back after about an hour to let things progress further at home. I took a bath which took some of the edge off, and by 4:30 AM the contractions were starting to come really close together so we called Julia again, and decided to go to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital by 5 AM, checked into triage, at which point I was already 7 cm. Once in our room, I got back into the tub and to my relief the contractions started to become further apart.

By 8 AM I was getting ready to get out of the tub and push. At around 8:30, the next midwife on call, Cally, came back to check and asked if she could break the water to help things move along. Definite yes from me at this point. Immediately after that I started pushing in earnest and Erika, another midwife, came to help us (it was a busy day at the hospital, they told me later). I was 9 cm at this point, and after some more pushing, Erika decided to hook the cervix behind the baby's head. After ~ 20 min more of pushing, Jean, the nurse asked if I wanted to change positions from being reclined. She offered sitting on the toilet or one other thing (I forget now what it was. maybe the medicine ball?) I asked if squatting was an option and they brought out the bar. With every contraction, Jean and Karsten would help me get up to the bar to squat.

Last several pushes were really hard. I finally got the baby's head partially out during one pushing session, then it took a couple more to get out the rest of the head. Then the shoulders, and one more, and the rest of her was out. Once the head was lodged partially out, Erika let me touch the head (I remember pudgy, hairy and slimy). It sounds funny, but the last few pushes were really hard because once the baby was partially out I felt really hungry.

Once she was finally out, they brought her to me and she started nursing almost immediately and she has been a voracious eater ever since then.

Yuki has finally arrived! At birth (after pooping some of course!) weighed 7 lb 10 oz (3475 g) and measured 19 inches long (48 cm). She came into the world with all her toes and fingers and well, we think, really wrinkly and cute. For whatever reason her umbilical cord was very long. Mom and dad are extremely proud.