Once Again We Speak Too Soon...

Our last blog we talked about how Kaden sleeps through the night!

And of course that very night Kaden had his first restless night. 

We're not sure why, but he couldn't sooth himself and when he did it was 

only minutes later that he would wake back up. 

By four o'clock all had settled and baby and mommy slept till 9 a.m.

while dad tired and dragging went to work. 

I have to admit that even when Kaden was restless and crying, he  

was still very cute!

How are you sleeping?

We always chuckle when people ask this question.

"How are you sleeping?" I guess everyone who has had kids

loose a lot of sleep...

We have been blessed with a baby who sleeps well through the night.

Kaden wakes up about every three hours to eat and have his diaper changed.

He has been such a good baby boy. It has been a blast to watch him grow and change

even in the last two weeks. His belly button has finally dropped off, his face is filling out, and he is is starting to make funny faces when we play with him.

2 week birthday!

Today baby Kaden is two weeks old! He's weighing in at almost 7lbs, 20inches. He's in the 10th percentile of weight and height. Hahah! What can you say...we are Asian. :-) Here's some pictures we took in our mock photo studio...

CIRCUMCISED!!!!

What was God thinking when he called his people to be circumcised! What the heck??? That was the weirdest, most painful experience ever! I can't imagine in Bible times when they didn't have drugs or the technology they have now... My poor child! I guess that's why it's an act of Faith. Even though they supposedly numb the area and give him sugar water (supposed to be a calming thing) Kaden screamed bloody murder the entire time! He has some Tylenol in him now...so he's fast asleep recovering, but it didn't look like a pretty process. Why would you want to be a doctor that solely does circumcisions??? Anyways, please pray for Kaden to heal well and not remember this day!!!! hahaha!!

Sleeping...

Sleeping with Kaden is the best!!! There's something calming and relaxing about sleeping next to a baby. Afternoon naps have been amazing! :-)

Tomorrow Kaden goes in for his two week doctor's appointment and then gets circumcised. And Friday he goes in for his ultrasound for his kidneys. Hopefully the doctor's appointments gets less frequent soon. He has been eating great, on schedule, and growing quickly. He is so sweet!

Bye Bye Grandma!

Lisa's mom came down the day after Kaden was born and has been here since. She has managed to cook up a storm, do a million loads of laundry, do mounds of dishes, and clean all the dirty diapers. We are going miss her! Hahah!!! Yesterday Joel had the brilliant idea of taking her to see houses so she can move down!!! She is so going to cry when she goes home today! I am sure she will be back every weekend if she doesn't end up moving. But we did overhear her seeing if she could transfer down to the Portland branch of her job. Hahhaa!!! Anyways, we will see what comes of it! Bye Grandma! See you soon!!!!

Home Sweet Home....

Kaden was able to come home from the hospital on Thursday.

After his vacation he is looking quite tan and rested.

One good thing that came out of this experience is Kaden is eating much better.

He is an oinker!!! 

He has a doctors visit later today (Friday) to check his billiruben levels.

When he left the hospital they were down to 11 Praise God.

Thanks for all your encouraging words and prayers.

I am getting all better....

Tomorrow Tomorrow!

Kaden is doing great! The docs turned off all the blue lights and unplugged all the IVs and most of the other cords... they want to have him in the ICU today and take another count tomorrow morning. This morning his count went down to 11. So, he's going to be ready to go home tomorrow. YEAH!!! He's been eating so well today. We got to hold him and he's been awake for a lot of the day playing, looking around... grandma got to come in for a little bit and hold him too. Grandma is getting bored at our house, she's doing all the laundry, dishes, cooking up a storm!

Kaden found out today that he will be having more boys to play with... Auntie Jen and Uncle Bryan went to the hospital today to have baby Elias. Not sure if he's out yet... Uncle Jackson and Auntie Aimee just found out they are having a boy in September. Yeah for boys... we might be spending more time in the hospital in the future... if they decide to jump off things and be boys and make trouble...hahha!

Right now, Joel and Kaden are napping together... they are so cute. Even when they are both snoring! :-) They are a lot alike already! Like father like son. So Fun!

Billy Ruben!?!

Kaden is such a good baby...his billy ruben count this morning was at 13. They turned half the lights off and going to check again in the morning. Maybe they will send him home tomorrow... it might be Thursday though... they will turn all the lights off tomorrow and see if it continues to go down. Today they let us take him off the lights enough to feed. He was able to breast feed really well, and then Joel got to feed him a bottle to make sure he has enough nutrients. It was really good to be able to hold him. Thank you for all your love, thoughts and prayers... we know your prayers are what has gotten Kaden to recover so fast. We are so blessed to have such amazing friends and family.

Under the Lights....

Well maybe we spoke to soon.

Right after Lisa entered the last blog our doctor called.

She told us we needed to get right down to the hospital.

Basically Kaden's "Billy Ruben" count was elevated. (25 )

This is what causes the yellow pigment in Kaden's skin.

They put Kaden under the lights immediately and hooked

him up to I.V. 

After checking his levels he dropped to about 23. (this is good news)

We want his "Billy Ruben's" down in the mid teens or lower. 

He will be staying over night and the doctors will monitor his progress...

As for Lisa and me, we are home and going to get as much rest as we can.

Since Kaden is in the NICU there  isn't enough room at the hospital plus we both 

are feeling under the weather and that isn't good for the little ones in the incubators.

We'll go back in the morning and let you know he's doing.

Pleas keep us in your prayers.

Doctor's Appointment!

Our first doctor's appointment today... Kaden has a little jaundice, and a little dehydrated. He will be fine...but we did make our first mistake as parents...we forgot his pacifier. OOPS! He was screaming during the whole blood test and nothing to sooth him. Sorry Kaden! And plus it was during feeding time... bad timing. But he's okay now...we are home, he is fed and the grandparents are here to visit! :-)

Got Milk??? Weird Asian Wives Tales

Got milk??? The question of the week... weird. 

I have realized that pregnancy and childbirth brings on no boundaries with people... strangers or friends or family. Asians especially... I don't know if I should write a book of things to do and not do during pregnancy and shortly thereafter. 

Some of my favorites:

To produce milk:

-Drink the water from boiling corn hair (corn husk)

-Drink milk

-Eat boiled pig feet

To heal faster:

-Not showering for a month

-Sleep over a bed of coals 

-Not leave the house for a month

-Don't eat Shrimp, bananas, and a bunch of other random stuff.

For the baby:

-Cut babies eyelashes so they grow longer

-Shave his head so it grows thicker

-Ace bandage it's belly button so he will have an innie. 

Anyways, we find it funny, yet it can get annoying when people freak out because I am not laying in my bed when they come and visit. I feel like I should have the plague or something.  We can't believe how fast Kaden is growing... Today is Joel's birthday... Kaden is the best present he could ask for! :-) 

Our First Outing

Today we ventured out into the world... and went to church. Everyone thought we were crazy...but that's what we do best...be crazy and go to church! :-) We love our church community so much, so we don't want to miss a beat. When he was in the womb he was the most active when we were at church! Today soaked it all in... we got to show him off too! It was great!

Kaden has been such a delight... we can only grasp how much our heavenly father loves his children. It's such a weird thing to love something/someone that does nothing but needs us to feed him and change him...and gives us cute looks... those looks are so adorable!!!

Anyways, Kaden is very skinny and doesn't fit into any of his clothes, so, here's his first church going outfit...hahha!!! Poor kid is swimming in it! More Kaden adventures later!

Visitors

We think the hospital hates us...

Every time the nurses came in on Thursday they were greeted with new faces.

Kaden had over 25 visitors the first day. 

It is so great to know he will be loved and really raised by a village or in our case a tribe!

Kaden will have to get used to all the aunties and uncles... (we are sure this will not be a problem)

On the second day we decided it was time to leave the Hospital and get out of their hair.

We had over 17 visitors and two repeat visitors... They can't get enough of him either.

It's overwhelming to think that our friends are making their way from Seattle and as far away as Vancouver BC.

Thanks everyone who has been able to come see baby Kaden in his first few days. 

We are expecting a lot more people this weekend!

What's My Name?

For the last 9 months the big question was what's the babies name?

Names have so much significance to us.

Joel - God is willing

Lisa - Consecrated to God

So when we were thinking about names we had many suggestions from aunties and uncles.

Here are some that were at the top of our list.

Benjamin  - Bento

Harrison - Harry To

Nathaniel - NATO (a political shout out to Amy & Jono)

Domo Ari Ga - Domo Arigato (thanks Mr.Roboto)

Chi - Cheeto 

O.K. so it can be a rough last name so we decided to go with some strong meanings.

Joel has always loved the image of a warrior for God. So here is the baby's official full name.

Kaden Anh Bao To

Kaden  - Spirit of Battle

Anh Bao - Protector

To - Joel's Surname

Thanks for all the suggestions the last few months...

It made for some entertaining times.

The Push!!!

Imagine Salt and Peppa's song: Push it Push it good.. playing in the background.

Nurses running around with pom poms cheering, "Give me a K... Give me an A...."

While the doctor stand at the end of Lisa's feet with a catchers mitt.

Yes that is what it was like during the delivery!

Ok not quite. I finished typing the play by play(see previous blog) as the doctors rolled up

into position. 

The reality was that it would take another 35 minutes of pushing before we would see Kaden.

Lisa began the pushing around 12:55. This was an insane experience. Watching your beautiful wife give birth to a new life is unreal!

One thing I have come to realize about Lisa after this experience is she is "tough as nails."

Every 3 minutes she was pushing for the life of her and Kaden. At one point the Doctor said he may have to use a vacuum to help Kaden out. Lisa and I looked at each other and said, "Hellz No!!" 

I told Lisa, "Remember the movie The Nativity when Mary gave birth to Jesus? Do it like that!"

Lisa bite down on a stick and began pushing. The final push was a whirl wind as the boy came out and was plopped on Lisa's chest I almost fainted. I didn't cry like everyone expected me to. I was in shock! After 9 months our son was laying right in front of us smiling ear to ear...

Seriously Lisa did such a great job. She did everything the doctors told her to do and ignored my crazy comments... My jokes must have been the most painful part of the final push!

Fun In The Delivery Room

We just can't take ourselves too seriously.

There is always fun to be had!

Peace out!
Uh... is this a contraction?
YES!!! It's a contraction!
Kaden wanted to join in on the fun....

Play by Play

While we were waiting for Kaden's arrival Joel had time to blog what was happening...

Unfortunately the delivery room had poor wireless connection. Can you believe that?

Technology fails us! 

So here is the play by play the morning after!Writing at 11:10 p.m.

8:30pm

Lisa and I got to the hospital @ 7 p.m.  on Thursday April 9th, 2008

They took us to an exam room right away and then hooked Lisa up 

to a bunch of wires to check Kaden and Mommy's heart rates.

By 8 p.m. the doctor told us Lisa was 5cm dilated and moved us to a birthing room.

That's when we started making the calls and texting to everyone.

It's 9:30pm

Mommy is a trooper and taking on the contractions like it is no bodies business.

Taking into consideration all of the previous mommies advice Lisa decided to 

take the epidural  around 9. 

From here it has been smooth sailing... (so our friend Annette says!)

10:20pm

The nurse checked again at 10ish and Lisa

is pretty much fully dilated.  It's Go Time!

11:00pm

The nurses have been running around setting up the room 

to welcome baby Kaden.  Doctor Orsini suggested we break 

the Lisa's water to help the process along.

11:30pm

So the doctor took this (well I won't go into detail...) Let's 

just say mommy's water is now broken and we wait...

It's now 11:54 p.m 

...it doesn't look like

Kaden will be coming on the 9th.

Lisa is sleeping and building up energy for

the birth...  She's had the shakes for the last hour, but 

the nurse just put an oxygen  mask on her and it seems

to have settled. 

It is amazing watching Lisa through this process. She is so happy 

and has not complained at all.  As an expecting dad I wish I could do 

more, but really I wouldn't want to be the one giving birth right now.

11:58 p.m.

Again we wait. 

12:00 a.m.

No baby... !!!

12:05 a.m.

 It seems like eternity!!!

12:15 a.m.

LISA Puked!

good thing she didn't eat a lot before we came...

12:20 a.m.

Doctors decide they should get started...

12:50 a.m.

Ahhh!!!! IT's Time!

.....We're gonna START this thing!

My First Pics

Happy Family of Three!

I am so cute!

being shy

He's Here!!!

Kaden is here!!! 6 lbs, 7 oz. 19 inches. Full head of hair... he's so precious! Can't believe he's here. We are all doing great... come visit us soon!  

waiting, working, walking

These last few weeks have been dragging! We have been waiting anxiously for the arrival of Kaden. We have less than 15 more days before our due date... so, really any day now. We have been working up a storm...trying to get everything ready for when I am away for maternity leave. Walking... we are trying to walk around and keep busy. Getting tired faster, but trying to stay active to make Kaden come faster!!! Hhehehee!!! hopefully our next post will be us preparing to go to the hospital!!! :-)