Happy New Year

Ooooops, it's been over a year since I touched this blog. We are now at the end of 2011. I can't believe it, but Cliff is already 1 year and 3 months! It feels like the last couple of weeks have marked a turning point for Cliff. One of my biggest struggles from his birth til recent is that he would wake up... many many many times during the night leaving me with very little sleep and energy. But now, I am more than thrilled to say that he can sleep through the night with just one try! YES! to once again having the opportunity to experience a whole eight hours of sleep!

Cliff does all sorts of funny, silly things! I was supposed to mark them as a milestone every time he learned something knew, but somehow I never got around to it. So what kinds of tricks does he know?

At 1 year 3 months and 15 days, Cliff
~runs around as much as he can and won't let you hold him unless he's tired or hungry ~climbs up and down the sofa as he pleases ~plays peak a boo ~claps his hands when you ask him to or when he's really happy ~gives kisses to himself in the mirror ~does farting noises both on table tops and on his arms ~opens his mouth if you ask him to so you can see whether or not he's done with his food ~taps his tummy if you ask him if he's full ~blinks his eyes when you tell him to... but instead of blinking fast, he will close his eyes, pause for about 2 seconds, open, and repeat ~moves his body to the beat of music ~shakes hands with you
~gives high fives
~drinks from a straw (but sometimes forgets to swallow so it all comes spilling out of his mouth) ~takes his phone (my old phone) and puts it to his ear and pretends he's talking to someone ~takes his mouse (my broken mouse) and will reach up to my desk and move it around just like he sees me doing all the time. ~walks on his tippy toes when he feels like it ~laughs hysterically, especially when he's feeling tired and a little confused

There's actually much more, but I'm too lazy to list it out. He does lots of naughty things too... but that list is even longer than his achievements. Anyway, it's a new year and I hope that all my friends and family are happy and healthy and all that good stuff! (Dad, that especially means you)!

Once upon a time, I thought I would scrapbook Cliff's 1st year of life in detail. But thousands of digital photos later, I don't think I've printed more than 5 photos out. So I'm taking the lazy way out. Here's a timeline of Cliff's 1st year and 3 months. (I worked very hard at limiting the photos to two per month).
































<3

Baby Cliff Chang, Welcome to the World.

We have officially been parents for 2 and a half days now!

This 16th of September, we welcomed our new baby son, Cliff Chang, to the world @ 6:38AM.

What can I say about the childbirth experience? Hah, plenty. =P

First off, a note to all my dear girlfriends: contractions just feel like really bad cramps. I don't know why, but nobody ever told me that!

So here's the story...

Early Monday morning, Yi-Hua finally got back to Taiwan. I was full of relief cuz I was no longer worried I would have to go through the whole childbirth experience alone. That day we went to the Obygn for a checkup and she said I was only 1 cm dilated, but the baby should be here within a week.

Tuesday we ran around running errands. At night we went to a shopping center and started climbing stairs. We had been told by many people that when you want your baby to come out sooner, just walk and exercise a lot, especially by climbing stairs. So stairs we did. That same evening, we went to the movies and watched "Going the Distance." Throughout the movie, I was already starting to feel kinda uncomfortable... like experiencing some weird cramps every now and then. But they weren't really coming by clockwork, so I just kinda didn't think too much bout it. That night, I kept on getting those weird pains every now and then. Yi-hua kept asking me if I wanted to go to the clinic to get checked up just in case, but I was stubborn and just kept saying no.

Wednesday was the day before my due date. I was still getting those cramp like feelings, but I just kept ignoring them. Now that I think about it, I was being really stupid by being stubborn and ignoring the pains. Anyway, I told Yi-Hua I wanted to spend the day out cuz I was afraid if I did have the baby soon, I'd be under house arrest for the whole month after that. So by the time I could leave the house again, Yi-Hua would already be back in Malaysia. So that afternoon, we went out to visit some family, did some shopping, and had ourselves some afternoon tea. All the while we were out, we'd be walking walking walking, then I'd have to stop all of a sudden cuz the "cramping" would come. It'd be painful enough that we'd have to wait about 30 seconds before continuing whatever we were doing, but not painful enough to double over or make ow ow ow sounds. At night, I kinda still wanted to go out and do some more shopping, but Yi-Hua wouldn't let me cuz he could obviously tell I was in pain before I could. =P So that evening was just like any other evening... watched some episodes of Desperate Housewives on the computer, went on FB, chatted for a while, etc...

8PM Wednesday... we were in the living room watching TV. I had nothing better to do, so I actually decided to chart these "cramps" of mine. I was starting to wonder if what I was feeling were actual contractions. But I thought to myself... "nah, if these are contractions, then this baby thing has got to be too easy..." But just in case they were, I started writing down the amount of time between the"cramps" and how long they lasted.
8:00pm - 30sec
8:12pm - 30s
(shower)
8:45pm - 30s
9:07pm - 30s
9:28pm - 30s
9:50 pm - 40s
(research research) ...well... all the readings say to not go to the hospital unless you have contractions that are constantly about 5-7min apart and last from 50-70 seconds. For all I knew, I was just having bad cramps...
10:05pm -40s
(sidetracked with other stuff)
12:07am (the 16th) - 40s
12:47am -40s
1:07am -40s
(this is me thinking, "this charting thing is boring... I'm going to bed")

3:45am... why am i not asleep yet?
3:50am... this is very annoying...
3:59am... i have to go pee again?
4:05am... I wonder if I should wake Yi-Hua
4:12am... I can't remember what it was ever like to sleep through the night
4:19am... OK... I think we gotta go to the clinic... JUST IN CASE...
Yi-Hua grabbed the cameras and the backpack and the "ready for baby suitcase" and we were off to the clinic.
4:28am... (on the car ride there, I'm thinking... oh crap, what if this is a false alarm and the doctor sends me home. how embarrassing would that be)
4:36am... ok... these "cramps" are REALLY getting on my nerves
4:43am... @ the clinic and off to the second floor for some tummy monitoring.

That was when I found out I was already 7cm (out of 10cm) dilated, and that my "cramps" were actually contractions. The nurse was asking me why I hadn't come in earlier... and all I could say was, "I didn't know that I was having contractions." So the nurse told me to lay in the bed and I was monitored by a machine charting the baby's heartbeat and cervix dilation. Every now and then the nurse would come in and check to see the progress. I'm not going to say how, but it made me kinda uncomfortable. At that point in time, my water hadn't broken yet, so she had to go in there and do it manually. Once again, i will not go into detail on how she did that... but yes, once again, it was very uncomfortable. LOL I knew it wouldn't happen like the movies where oftentimes the pregnant woman's water would break in the most unlikely places like the bank or the grocery store or the airplane... but having it done for me was just a little ghetto. Anyway, the next thing she told me was to tell her when I felt the need to go poo. Here's me thinking... "oh gosh, this is so embarrassing..." Anyway, about an hour or so after I started laying on that clinic bed... I felt "the need to poo." So Yi-Hua went out and told the nurse. She came in "and checked"... and IT WAS TIME. So yes, by that time, the contractions were painful enough for me to make some "grrr...urrr... oooh... owww..." noises, but nothing too terrible. They wheeled me off into the delivery room across the hall and I had to go sit on a very uncomfortable chair. No, it wasn't uncomfortable in the manner that it lacked padding and all, but I just did not like the vulnerable position it left me in. After that, the pains started getting kinda intense... I started wondering why again it was that I did not want to get an epidural or use other pain med. Anyway, I had not taken any classes on how to give birth... but I had learned enough from TV to breathe light breaths. Anyway, by the time the doc came for the actual pushing part, I was pretty much oblivious to what was going on. OMG, I just remember I was making screaming noises that I didn't know were possible. I was embarrassed at first, but I guess enough pain makes you put your guard down. Between screaming, I heard the doc counting 1 to 10. I remember thinking, "what the hell are you counting for, just tell me when to push..." And then Yi-Hua was behind me giving me words of encouragement, but I was really just thinking, "are you kidding me, that's not helping me get this thing out!" But no, I had to give him credit for staying in the delivery room with me. I remember between the screaming, I kept asking him if he wanted to leave the room. But he stayed there like a good husband. Anyway, I didn't know how many major pushes it took, but they told me it was all finished in 15 minutes. And then there was the little baby cry! Next they laid the baby on top of me for like a minute. Next I blacked out. When I woke up, I found out that the doctor had given me some drowsy medication + some pain medication so that she could sew me back up. I had agreed to get an episiotomy to avoid getting a big ugly even more painful rip down there. So when Yi-Hua came in to see me about an hour later, I guess I was still a little drugged up cuz I remember having a goofy smile on my face, and babbling stuff, but I could not open my eyes even if my life counted on it. Anyway, after another 15 minutes, I snapped out of it, and life was back to normal. Except now, we had an extra wonderful little bundle of joy!

Nearing the Finish Line

The last few days have been filled with a lot of running around. Now that Yi-Hua is back, I'm finally released from house arrest! However, over the period of just these last 3 days, I can actually feel my body changing.

I had been complaining bout lack of good sleep before, but yesterday was probably the worst. It actually wasn't due to baby kicking, but rather, minor contractions mebbe? I'm not sure... or it could just be the Braxton Hicks thing. hah, the first time I had heard of that term was in an episode of "Friends" where Rachel is pregnant. haha

For some reason, I thought that contractions would be something like the whole stomach area cramping up... but so far, it's just been like those cramps that you normally get during your period. (Except longer and more often). They kinda started yesterday night while we were @ the movies. Then progressed through the night and most of today. Right now, I'm getting these supposed contractions for about 30 seconds every 12 minutes. But all my readings say that you don't need to go to the hospital til the contractions last about 60 seconds and are as close as 5 minutes apart. Man... that's not gonna be fun.

The vocab I keep running into these last few days have not been pretty... bloody show... mucous plug... cervix dilation... water breaking... pain... etc. I have like a million websites bookmarked although they more or less say the same thing.

So I think it's decided that our baby boy is gonna be named Cliff. It wouldn't be my absolute 1st choice, but I spose I can get used to it.

We're all set to go to our clinic. I've showered... taken off all my jewelery, have a suitcase packed, and a set of clothes I can change into in case the need comes in the middle of the night.

I don't know why, but I feel strangely calm. What's the point of being nervous, right? It won't help except make things stressful. Anyway, if I make an "I'm in pain face," Yi-Hua will get all worried and ask if I need to go to the clinic. Okay it's not funny, and I know I need to stop doing that otherwise it's gonna grow old real quick. So mostly I just try to take a couple of deep breaths each time these contraction things come along and not let anyone know.

Kinda sleepy now, but don't feel like crawling into bed just quite yet. Mebbe in a lil bit. ^^