Baby Shower!: 34 weeks 4 days in utero

Today my mother and sister threw Pui and I a great baby shower. We invited only our closest friends and family, but things were still pretty crowded. We had a great time, and people were incredibly generous. I didn't get the time to talk to anyone as long as they deserved - there were so any people there we know and like. There was a number of small (and not so small) children there. Once they discovered the "Monkey Room" (The playroom) we didn't see too much of them - but what we did see was very cute. Such well-behaved kids! I fully intend to spoil our boy rotten, so I should soak up the presence of well-behaved kids while I can.

Pui and I did almost no work at all setting everything up: it was all my mother and Sister, and all the credit for the success of the party goes to them. Well, them and the high quality of the people attending. ;-)

Before the shower, Pui and I went to the local Pancake House, where after a 25-minute wait (with pretty good people-watching) we sat down to a late breakfast ... more of a lunch, really. It was quite a feed. I ordered a half order of Blueberry Pancakes and got more than I thought I could finish. Pui ordered a full breakfast and got a lot of food. A lot of food. In the end we did a pretty good job of demolishing the food - we even came fairly close to finishing everything. We waddled out very full indeed.

Yesterday we went to Children's Hospital Fetal Echo Center again. We had another round of Ultrasounds (no more 3D renderings, alas!) and learned that the baby is doing very well in every way but that pesky Hypoplastic Left Heart thingy. The doctors said that it's a good thing that we have no other apparent problems, and that our baby has a "standard" case of HLHS. She was actually very encouraging. Everyone there was just as friendly as last time - a group of very nice people.

After the appointment, the nurse - an extremely nice and very knowledgeable woman named Lonnie (I'm guessing at the spelling) - gave us a guided tour through Children's Hospital. She showed us where the Operating Theater was, showed us the recovery areas (Neonatal ICU, Cardiac ICU, and regular ICU) the parent support facilities, and the cafeteria. The place is gorgeous. It has lots of fun and kid-friendly art throughout the hospital (Like the painting in the picture) and has an amazing ICU. There are tons of people everywhere, everything is spotlessly clean, and there are monitors everywhere. It all looks very modern, data-intense, and competent.

Still, it was hard to see a tiny newborn in the NICU plugged into six or seven IVs, with several monitors and cables. All sorts of lines, tubes, and cables radiating from a single tiny baby. Knowing that in just over a month that will be what our baby will look like is ... wrenching. However, we know what it will look like and what to expect. We'll be ready.

More Adventures: 34 weeks 2 days in utero

It's been a mostly quiet couple of days. We had a hard freeze the other day, and the next day I went out back and noticed that a bucket that had been full of water was now iced over. I thought that I could pull a disc of ice off the top of the bucket, but no ... the sides of the bucket were cold too. Instead I pulled out what looked like a perfect large vase of ice. You can see it in the pictures. Inside it there were all of these fascinating structures of crystals. Not many survived pouring out the water, but some did - that's the second picture.

Pui and I and my father went out to lunch at a place called the Crab Pot. Pui saw an ad for their steamed seafood, and wanted some. We went to the library first (The Bellevue Public Library is very nice) and then to the Crab Pot on Lake Bellevue.

If you've never seen Lake Bellevue, think of a very large puddle (about 100 meters across) and imagine a bunch of buildings built on the water, on pilings, all around it. Now put a couple of fountains in the center, and you have Lake Bellevue. Anyway, we went to the restaurant, and Pui wanted to get a dish called "The Cove" - steamed mussels, shrimp, clams, corn, potatoes, and sausage served in a pile on butcher paper in the center of the table - but it has a minimum of 2 people ordering it. I finally agreed to be person number 2, and the waiter brought us our bibs (!) and tools of destruction. There was a crab cracker, a pulling fork, and a small mallet.

When I saw the mallet, I decided I liked this dish - any meal that gives you a small hammer to eat it with is a good meal in my book! The food arrived in a great big pile - as advertised - and Pui and I dug in. Darn if we didn't eat everything but one piece of corn and a couple of the half-potatoes! I was full for hours. Great fun.

Tomorrow we are going back to Children's Hospital, for a check-up with the Pediatric Cardiologist and to tour the facilities at Children's. Me, I'm hoping for some more 3D images of our little boy. :)

More snow?! 34 weeks in utero

Yesterday we saw the doctor again, and had another NST. This time, the NST did not include buzzing the baby. The technician we had has a relative who is getting married in Thailand soon, so we had plenty to talk about. Afterward, we were ushered into a room to see the doctor fairly quickly. There, we had three separate people drop by to talk to us about services, our situation, and nutrition advice. Then we saw the doctor, who had a portable Ultrasound device with her. No new 3D images, but we did get to see Pat again. The doctor told us everything is going very well: we really liked hearing that!

This morning it was snowing again. I remember snow as a rare thing in Seattle. For something that is supposed to be rare, we see a lot of it! Fortunately, it started to rain in the morning and now all the snow is gone. Whew!

This morning my Mom asked me how I like my coffee, and made me some. I should have known there was a surprise coming - she's never made me coffee before. She did it very well and made a lot. A whole lot. We took a few pictures.

Me, every morning:


I kind of like these pictures, but I think someone doctored the center image: I have no bald spot! Really! Seriously! I don't! I don't! I don't!

Well, OK, maybe I do.

:-(

On Friday we are going back to Children's, and will have a tour of the facility. We're looking forward to that!

Snowing again! 33 Weeks and 5 days in utero

It's snowing again here in Seattle, and has been for hours. It's not sticking or anything, but it is white stuff falling form the sky. Again. Actually, I like it - though I seem to be alone in that feeling.



It's been several days since my last post, and a few things have happened. Our visit to the doctor was mostly uneventful. We had our first NST - Non-Stress Test - at the UW on Monday. They strapped two monitors to Pui's belly and monitored Pat's heartbeat for about 20 minutes. Then, because the nurse wasn't sure he was showing enough "Accelerations" (temporary increases in his heart rate) she pulled out something that looked a little like an electric razor with an oval pad in place of the cutting head, pressed it against Pui's belly, and turned it on. BZZZZZZZT! It gave off a loud buzz and vibrated against Pui's belly. "Non-stress test" my left foot! His little heart-rate jumped significantly and for some time, as did Pui's. And mine. But apparently it was enough, as the nurse didn't use her hand-buzzer on Pui again and let us go see the doctor.



We waited and waited for the doctor, but she was far behind schedule: we didn't mind - it's nice to know the doctor will give people extra attention when they need it, but it was long. Pui started to get hungry, so we asked the front desk for a pager so we could go grab something quickly in the cafeteria. Here's a hint: if you want a late doctor to appear, buy some food and sit down to eat it. Two bites in we got paged. We carried our food up, and Dad waited in the waiting room with our lunch while we saw the doctor.



We learned that Pui had actually lost a pound of weight since our last visit, but Dr. Cheng wasn't worried. In fact, she said that everything appeared to be going very well. She said that Pui needs to eat many small meals, because the baby is pushing on her stomach and making it so she could eat less at any one sitting. Forced to eat 5 or 6 meals a day ... I would like to have that. But then I like to eat.



In the following days Pui gained a couple of pounds, and I got an attack of gout. For the last few days I've been hobbling about - it waxes and wanes, and has yet to go away entirely. :-( On a happier note, we went to a delicious restaurant with some friends of Pui (If you are in the Seattle area, I can highly recommend three restaurants: The Silver Spoon Thai Restaurant, near Trinity Golf Course, Nopakao Thai Restaurant in Juanita, and Tom Yum Koong Thai Restaurant in West Seattle. All three are very delicious. The owners of the Tom Yum Koong are opening a restaurant in Bellevue next week, and we are planning to eat there - the Tangerine Thai Restaurant. I salivate just thinking about it. :-)



When we went to the restaurant, we also went to a Thai market, where Pui bought some Coconuts. When we got home, we realized that we didn't have anything like a machete or big knife to open them up. We talked about what we could use with Dad, and he hit upon a solution: you can see it in the picture to the right. Opening Coconuts with hand-saws probably isn't the best way to get at it, but it sure worked! We opened a hole big enough for a straw, and Pui had some nice, cool coconut water to drink.


That about catches us up: we have another doctor's appointment tomorrow, where we hope the scheduled "Non-stress Test" doesn't include any alarming baby-buzzers.

Inauguration Day: 33 weeks in utero

This morning we got up early and watched the swearing-in ceremonies for the new President of the US. I was astonished at the number of people crammed into the Washington Mall. Quite a spectacle.

Now we can see our little baby moving in Pui's tummy. We can't really tell what part of him is making Pui's tummy bulge, but it's unmistakable. His favorite time for exercises is bedtime. Within minutes of the time Pui lays down for the night he starts jazzercising. I think it's cute and funny. 

The weather here has been fantastic for the last few days, though so far today we have a lot of fog. Yesterday and today Pui and I went to the Kirkland waterfront and just soaked up some sun. You can see from the picture to the left. This picture was taken just after noon - you can see how low the sun is in the sky, even in the middle of the day.

Last post I mentioned that Mom and I were going to take two little girls sledding. In the end, there were three little girls, a teen-age boy, and 4 adults that all went as a group. The girls did not run us ragged, but it was certainly a workout. The picture below to the left is the guy that set  up the excursion and both of the little girls we hosted. The picture to the right is Mom and the smaller sister. She was very cute in her bright purple snowsuit.

Finally, there's a picture of me in my snow outfit. We sledded for about two hours, then had a break for hot chocolate and home-made chocolate chip cookies. I had probably more than my fair share of cookies, but at least I didn't wrest any away from the kids so I figure it's OK. :-)

We sledded for about another hour, and then the girls unilaterally decided they were done. It was a bit of a relief - we didn't have the girls wanting to go back and sled some more in the car all the way back home. Instead they slept. I kind of wanted to sleep as well - sledding down the hill is easy, walking back up the hill, sometimes pulling a sled full of little girl, can take it out of you. 

With the weather so nice, we are seeing some sunsets. Sunsets here can be beautiful - the picture below shows the sun set painting the Olympic Mountains purple.

Tomorrow we go back to see the doctor again - we'll have an NST (Non-stress test) and see Dr. Cheng. I don't know if there will  be more ultrasound or not - we'll see. 

Calm before the storm: 32 weeks, 2 days in utero

Pui's belly is getting bigger by the hour. She's having some trouble sleeping, and climbing stairs is getting tiring. I love this picture: you can see pretty well how much Pat is making Pui bulge, but it really is more impressive in 3-D. I like being able to see and feel Pat move - he's an active little guy in there!

The last few days have been busy, but not without some fun. On Tuesday Pui and I had an early dinner with Helen and Valerie and played some Mah Jong. We had a great time, and it was great to spend some time with Helen and Valerie again: Helen used to be my neighbor, and Valerie lives right behind Helen. Before I moved to Thailand I used to play Mah Jong with them every week. Wednesday we were busy with various preparations and maintenance tasks: I helped move furniture around and learned how to clean electro-static filters: woohoo! Today we had lunch with my cousin and her family: she has two little boys that are very cute and friendly. My cousin and her husband clearly do a good job parenting - Pui and I were all but writing notes the entire time. Then this evening I went back to Helen's for more Mah Jong while Pui called back to Thailand on Skype. I had a lot of fun, and I think Pui did also.

Tomorrow my Mom is going to host a couple of little girls for a sleep-over. For her church auction, she auctioned off two overnight baby-sitting jobs. I have never met the little girls that are coming, but apparently they are both very very cute and very very energetic. There is going to be a little girl storm here starting tomorrow, and we are busy battening down the hatches (thus some of the re-arrangement of furniture). They arrive Friday afternoon, and on Saturday we (the host, the girls, Mom, and I) are going to go sledding in the mountains - another auction prize, this time one Mom bought. We are hoping that we'll survive the car trip up to the mountains in good enough shape to let the girls burn all their energy sledding. We'll have more adults than kids so hopefully we can tag-team - but I expect that in ten minutes we will be gasping for breath on the slopes while the girls run tireless circles around us. We'll see...

Cold days: 31 weeks, 6 days in utero

For the last week Poor Pui has been suffering from a cold. She's having trouble sleeping at night (and thus I am too) and wakes every morning with a sore throat. We called the Nurse Practitioner, who basically said that most Over The Counter medications in small amounts is OK, but that there wasn't anything else really we can do.  I wish there was something we could do to help her out, besides try to give her moral support.  :-(  Instead I try to help as I can. I have had Dad show me how to fry eggs and make scrambled eggs, and I have more or less figured out the toaster (those charred pieces of bread in the garbage had nothing to do with me, I deny all knowledge and/or association with those pieces of carbonized bread, and I resent the implication that I had a hand in their creation.) I have become a pro at making a warm fresh-squeezed lime-juice-and-honey drink, and even learned how to soft-poach eggs (though we decided the egg was too undercooked for a pregnant woman). All of this may not have helped Pui's cold, but it has certainly earned me some brownie points. 

Today Pui had a craving for some lamb, so she, my father, and I went to Crossroads Mall and got some lamb dishes at their food court. The food was fairly expensive, and we got just a little bit of lamb. It was very tasty lamb, but still ... it was 3 or 4 times more expensive than that similar dish would have been in Thailand. The price of food here is one of the starkest differences. Aside from the temperature, that is. But another place nearby had some tasty ginger tea and yummy fried squid balls, so it wasn't too disappointing. (Four years ago, I would never in a million years have thought I would, in all seriousness, write anything like that last sentence. Funny how Life can change your existence!)

Pui's mother recently had a pace-maker put in, and being away from her mother when she was having a surgical procedure done didn't do anything to help alleviate her misery. But the procedure was a success and Khun Mae is doing well: to every one's relief. She's a delight, and we all hope for the best for her. 

Smile for the camera! 31 weeks, 1 day in utero

This morning we went to the University of Washington to their high-risk maternity care ward. Everyone there wasn't has relentlessly cheerful as they were at Children's, but they were quite nice and very good. We met with the Nurse Practitioner and OB-GYN we will be working with, and their obvious ability, competence, and assurance was very comforting to see. They didn't pull any punches or sugar-coat anything, but were straightforward and factual without being condescending. That group only deals with high-risk pregnancies, and many of those appear to be heart-related. We again didn't learn much new about the baby's condition, but we learned a lot about the hospital and what we could expect there. We spoke with a social worker as well, who was quite helpful and upbeat.

But the highlight of the visit was the ultrasound. The technician wasn't very chatty, but she was nice and captured and printed some really good pictures for us. The first picture is a profile of our baby: you can see him looking up, with his heat taking up the right 2/3 of the image.

What a handsome lad! What a nicely shaped head! When he was having his skull measured, they gave approximate date-equivalences for normal growth. While his body measurements were almost exactly equal to his actual age, his skull measurements were about 2 weeks ahead. He has a big head - just like daddy. :-)

The ultrasound machine had the ability to make multiple scans simultaneously, and then stack them up using software to create a 3-dimensional image, which then the technician was able to print out. These are the pictures we like the best. In the first one, you can see that he has his father's nose and his mother's lips. And nicely fat cheeks.



In the next one, you can see how he was comfortably pillowing his head on his hands. I think I like this one the most - he looks so comfortable and cute.



In the last photo little Pat is showing respect for his uncle Aid by saluting. You can really tell he's his father's son: he has his father's nose and his double chin.


The doctor told us that we want him to be healthy and full-term when he is born, a goal we plan to meet. He again checked out as completely normal in all ways except for that pesky left-heart thing. She also told us the calculations have him at approximately 4 lbs, 3 oz., and is in the 61st percentile for babies this age.

Before we left Pui got a flu shoot and gave some blood, and we made 5 more appointments over the next six weeks. We are going to become very familiar with the University of Washington hospital in the next two months!

Cold days: 30 weeks, 6 days in utero

Last night the power went out in the middle of the night. Pui is trying to fight off a cold, and had been cold all day. Watching it snow (again!) all day when you are not feeling well wasn't a big help to her state of mind. She woke me up, and I got up and determined that, yes, the power was out. I figured that if it got cold in our room I could go wake up Dad and we could fire up the generator. So I did what any sleepy dad-to-be with a tired, anxious, sick, pregnant wife would do. I went back to sleep. 

Fortunately, the power came back on before either the room got cold or Pui decided to gently prise me from slumber with a hefty jab from her elbow. And when we looked outside in the morning, the snow was pretty much all gone. Whew! 

We spent most of the morning going over paperwork and scanning and printing documents. My sister had asked some of her friends about good pediatricians in the area, and passed along a lot of good recommendations. Now we have to start sorting through them. We already have some criteria: nearby, preferably with some previous experience with HLHS or major cardiac procedure infants, but mostly we want someone good. 

The day after tomorrow we go to the UW Medical center to meet our OB-GYN and tour the birthing facilities. Should be interesting. 

Visit to Doctors: 30 weeks, 3 days in utero

Today we got up bright and early again and went and saw Doctors at the Children's Prenatal clinic. We were very impressed with how very competent, knowledgeable, nice, calm, supportive, and genuinely concerned everyone we met there was. Seriously. It's like they put antidepressants in the water, and have "Must be a very nice person" as an unbreakable job requirement. As parents of a baby at risk, we found it amazingly reassuring. The pediatric cardiologist who talked with us didn't pull any punches and admitted to not knowing a lot of things - but he answered every question calmly, patiently, fully, and spoke to us as educated adults.  He clearly has a deep understanding of all the issues, and spent the time to make sure we understood everything he said. He reviewed all of the procedures that is going to be needed over the next several years. He said that despite one other worrisome feature (some apparent leakage in his working ventricular valve) he had a fairly standard HLHS, and the doctor was reasonably confident of a good outcome. As much as one can ever be. 

The high-risk OB-GYN we met with was much the same, though he had less to say: other than the HLHS, our unborn son is very healthy. In all other ways he's doing great. The two people that run the ultrasound were very good as well: one woman only measured the heart, and she measured it in every conceivable way despite our little guy squirming around the entire time like a ten-year-old being given the "Birds and Bees" talk. The other woman examined the rest of the baby. One memorable moment was seeing definite proof that his urinary system worked correctly: right there on the ultrasound screen we could see him pee. It was unmistakable, and quite funny: the technician laughingly played it again for us. It was very re-assuring to have her and the OB-GYN tell us that in all other ways he is looking great. He's going to have a heck of a fight on his hands after he's born, and the healthier he is at birth the better his chances.

All in all, we did not learn much that was new about our baby's condition, but we learned a heck of a lot about the doctors and staff at UW and Children's - and all of it was positive. We are both going to sleep a lot easier tonight. 

Welcome 2009! 30 weeks 2 days in utero

Today was a nicely lazy new years day. We slept late, and in the afternoon we went to check out Dad's boat. It was quite cold there at the marina, despite it being too warm to snow. The wind wasn't very strong, but it sucked out all the warmth from our fingers very quickly. Nothing like hanging around cold water in cold weather!

While up there, we thought we'd see if the outlet mall was open. Boy was it. It was thronged with people, and most of the stores were doing a bunch of business. We got a pair of jeans for me before getting sucked into the baby store. There Mom exerted her powers as Grandma-to-be to buy a bunch of cute clothes and hats and things ... including a bib that says "Cute but messy. Just like Daddy." I would protest, but its unfortunately true. After a hard day shopping, Pui had trouble staying awake on the way home. You can see some of the little remaining snow in the background of the picture.

Tomorrow we get up early and - despite the predicted light dusting of snow - we are going to drive into Seattle and see the doctor for our first thorough check-up since we arrived in the states. We are both excited and nervous: we haven't seen any new images for a month, and aren't quite sure what to expect from the doctor. I'm sure it will all be fine: everyone we have spoken with so far has been very helpful.