Today is a special day, it’s Clare’s 2-month old birthday. She has been growing and is now about 8-pounds. We had a bit of a scare awhile a few weeks back as Clare was not gaining enough weight as the doctors would like. She’s still not quite where she *should* be, but the doctors are not as concerned as she continues to gain weight at the pace of 1-2 ounces a day.

As part of Clare’s First Year of Life, we’ll be documenting her through pictures on the 18th of each day until April 2011 at which time I’ll be making a baby book documenting her growth. Should be pretty cool and something neat to show her when she’s older.

Please note that some details have been shortened or omitted in the interest of space and memory. Plus I realize this post is like seven weeks late, but better late than never.

“I think my water broke…”

I had just gone to bed and started falling into dream land at about 11 PM when I was awoken by Andrea at 12 AM who started having strong cravings for Oreo cookies. Fortunately a Pak-n-Save was nearby and was able to get her some Oreos. Returning to sleep, I was again awoken at 1:45 AM with Andrea telling me that it might be time and that she thinks her water has broken. There were no contractions, but she was constantly leaking a clear liquid stuff that is consistent with the water breaking.

A call to San Francisco Kaiser’s Labor & Delivery advice nurse and we were asked to come in. Our original plan was to labor at home for as long as possible, but when the water broke before the contractions, the risk of infection increases as the sterile environment is now punctured.

We arrived at San Francisco Kaiser’s Labor & Delivery and was promptly admitted into one of two remaining labor rooms of their seven total private rooms.

The First 24-hours, Saturday

When we were all settled into our labor room, LDR6, we met with the first of five attending doctors who would help us as well as the first of many RNs. The time was already after 3 AM when the attending did an initial exam of Andrea and determined that she was not even dilated despite her water breaking. She mentioned a lot of things, but I don’t remember much despite my best to stay awake, but the lack of sleep was starting to get to me, so we both went to sleep. Fortunately San Francisco Kaiser’s labor rooms are all private suites so I was able to sleep on their pull-out couch.

We were awoken at 8 AM when the attending doctor did another exam, showing no progress. Eventually Andrea started getting contractions, mild at first, but got stronger as the day progressed into night. As usual, the nurses trickled in and out with different attending doctors appearing occasionally to review the progress. As we sat around with nothing more to do than watch TV or surf the internet on our iPhones, Andrea decides to walk the corridors, a tip we learned in the pregnancy classes that will help with dilation. We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, took a break, and then walked some more. Occasionally we took naps. We tried walking some more, and took more naps.

As we inched closer to the evening, Andrea’s contractions became stronger and more painful, and yet she was only at 4 CM. Andrea had originally wanted to hold off for as long as possible before getting the epidural, as it can slow down the progression, but the contraction pains were starting to become unbearable. So finally around 9 PM, she finally requested to have an epidural. It took approximately 30-minutes to request the anesthesiologist and make all the necessary preparations. The epidural took the anesthesiologist roughly 10-minutes from beginning to end to put in and the epidural took effect in 10-minutes and had the desired effect of finally relieving Andrea of the contraction pains and allow her to relax. The end of a long day, we went to sleep afterward.

It’s Time

As I drifted from the dream world back to the waking, I heard the doctor talking to Andrea as she was doing another exam to see the progress. One of the first things I remember hearing was, “10cm, congratulations! We’re ready to start.” Apparently throughout the night, Andrea was finally able to relax enough that we reached the final dilation point. The time was approximately 8 AM.

From that point on, the nurses began to make the necessary preparations for Clare’s birth. From the start of preparations to when Clare actually appeared, it took three hours. Three hours might sound like a long time, but when you’re in the moment and the adrenaline is going, it flies by.

Clare came out at 12:51 PM and the resident doctor who delivered Clare immediately told the nurses that Clare was born stunned. Before the doctor could even finished the word stunned, the nurse was already on the line and before she even hung up, the trio team of pediatrics had Clare in the infant warmer inspecting her and cleaning her. It was literally amazing to see the level of coordination between so many people; no one missed a beat. This is one of the many reasons we are so glad we chose San Francisco Kaiser as the hospital for the birth of our first child. Everything with Clare checked out and I cut the umbilical cord and the nurse took over weighing her and measuring her: 5 pounds 12 ounces and 19-inches long.

Clare Goes Home For The First Time

Kaiser held us for two more nights for monitoring to make sure Clare is fine and is feeding fine. We met with the lactation consultant to go over breast feeding techniques and boy was that an experience. You always imagine breast feeding would be a natural thing, was that farther from the truth; it was a combination of perseverance and frustration. I won’t lie, the first night was a breeze. Clare slept through most the night other than for the occasional feedings. But the second night was anything but easy. Clare was irritably, kept waking up, crying and being first time exhausted parents, it was quite an adjustment. The third night wasn’t any better either and we were starting to fear that is how parenthood is going to be. Sleep, once a pastime, was now a luxury. Another thing that no one really considers are how stuffy the rooms are. None of the windows in Kaiser open, for what I imagine is for liability reasons. They do have A/C, but have you ever been in a 15 x 15 room with a crying child? It can get trying.

Kaiser finally discharged us on Tuesday afternoon and man did it feel good to finally be outside and feel the warmth of the sun. Driving home was quite the experience as I did my best to drive as safe as possible; things are definitely different when you have your first child: everyday routines become so much scarier.

The first night at home went quite smoothly; Clare slept like a baby. Our two cats were quite excited to see their new sibling. Surprisingly, Panther seemed a bit scared of Clare and Stripes seems more approachable to her. At the first cries, Panther is quick to bolt out the door as Stripes watches.

Our baby was conceived in July of 2009. It was no accident, we wanted a baby and the baby born in Summer time as we didn’t want to deal with having a baby during the cold Winter time. We hadn’t been trying too long, about 3-months before Andrea got pregnant. As strange as it might seem, I couldn’t comprehend that Andrea was truly pregnant until we were in the Emergency Room one day because of her migraine and the attending doctor had confirmed it. At that moment, I recall it being so very real to me. I, Richard, was going to be a father.

I wish we could say this pregnancy has been easy and a breeze, unfortunately, it has been anything but that. Andrea has been sick from the beginning with nausea, throwing-up, morning sickness, and migraines. We’ve had to visit the Emergency Room no less than 10-times since Andrea has been pregnant. A majority of those ER visits were either because the migraine was so horribly excruciating or because she was throwing up so much that she became dehydrated resulting in a migraine. Sure, a majority of women get sick during the first trimester of the pregnancy and we had our fingers crossed that by the second trimester, things would get better. It didn’t. The nausea, throwing-up, morning sickness, and migraines persisted as well as the trips to the ER. You know it’s bad when you are on a first-name basis with the ER doctors and have your own coffee mugs with your name on it. For those who don’t know either, what makes it worse being in the Emergency Room when you are pregnant is the wait. The wait in Emergency is bad enough as it is, but suddenly when your spouse is pregnant, everything changes. Narcotic drugs that would normally be given to Andrea to immediately ease the excruciating, throbbing migraine could no longer be administer due to health concerns on the effect it might have to the fetus. Everything administered, from IV to drinking water, is considered and thought-over by the attending physician before the nurses can administer. While I applaud and expect carefulness such as this, it’s hard being reasonable and understanding when the person you love is suffering. Each Emergency Room visit lasts no less than four-hours between observation, administering, and it always seems like they are short-staffed and there have been some memorable ER visits. One time, we got a nurse who must have been a first-year nurse to run an IV in Andrea. I’m sure you won’t find anyone who likes having an IV, but this nurse kept poking Andrea like a cushion pin and ultimately gave up because she couldn’t get it right. The nurse who helped her finished in seconds, but the damage already done. By the time the nurse got the IV in, Andrea’s arm looked like a drug addict’s. On another occasion, we had a very colorful character who claimed that the ER staff was covertly trying to kill her. The obscenities that she was screaming, made me even blush. Another time, we had to go to the ER at like 2 AM and I had work at 7:30 AM. Needless to say, I did not get very much sleep that day. Between trying to get in little naps on the ER floor and laying my head down on the stretcher that Andrea was on was quite fun.

So now that Andrea has finally reached the last spurts of this journey (the third trimester), how has it been? Fortunately we haven’t been to the ER as often. She’s still sick, occasionally, throwing-up and morning sickness, but not as bad as the first two trimesters. She also has the occasional sciatica. But now that her belly has gotten larger because the baby has gotten larger, it is difficult and uncomfortable for Andrea to really move around. Sleeping has become difficult also. Imagine this, you’re constantly tired and out of energy and you go to lay down to recharge for the night, only to find that: A) you can’t lay on your back because the baby puts too much pressure on your spine; B) you can only lay on your left side because laying on the right side would put too much pressure on your heart because the baby’s weight puts too much pressure on the inferior vena cava (large vein that carries blood); C) Andrea is normally a stomach sleeper, but for obvious reasons that’s no possible; and D) shifting around in bed is no small feat.

I have to say that it hasn’t been easy with Andrea being pregnant. I watch her as she’s sick or waking up in the middle of the night to throw up and I feel so powerless  and helpless. I guess that’s one of those things about being a guy, things that we can’t fix, scares us. I could never do what she has done and continues to go through and I have to say that her strength and perseverance is nothing short of phenomenal. I know during this time, the guys are encouraged to do more and I’m trying. I haven’t always been as successful as I would want to be; it’s hard, no lie. You work a full-day and come home to what amounts to a second full-time job as well as the part-time job. But it’s important to put it all in perspective: the job that Andrea has is a million times more important that all the jobs I have to do combined. Her body is being pushed to the limits; her energy is depleted most days quickly. Her emotions and hormones are all over the place. I’m working on remembering that. I have to keep telling myself that this is her moment. This is her time. I see other “Super Fathers-to-be” and I don’t know how they do it. But I guess you just do.

As for the baby, we had a couple of scares throughout. There were some concerns that the baby was too small because Andrea was hardly showing, but the baby is fine and is now at ~5-pounds. The biggest scare was that up until this past Thursday, the baby was breech. If the baby hadn’t turned, it would most likely have been a Caesarean birth. The baby had us worried, but the baby is now in the correct position for a normal vaginal birth.

More to come.

So another year passes for her and as we watch her, she still retains most of her kitten attributes that makes her so cute such as when she kneads the blanket before laying down, the cute “croissant” position she sleeps in, and how she attacks her scratching post like only how she can. With Panther around, she stays fairly active, which is important, especially as she grows older.

Happy Birthday little girl. Pics to come.

From the first moment we stepped inside to look at it, we knew this was THE place we wanted. While this house wasn’t a “fixer-up”, we did have to do quite a bit work, even now. Home ownership certainly brings a lot of expenses. So far, we’ve: built a fence in our front yard, put in a automatic garage door, replaced one of the bathroom’s ceiling fan, repainted all the rooms including the living room, replaced the garbage disposal, bought a new stove (as the old owner took his fancy Thermador), fixed a water leak, and fixed the damper so we can use the fireplace. Sounds like we haven’t done much, but it adds up quite quickly.

For this year, with a child, we’ll be child-proofing our home as well as making other repairs and changes around here. Well, here’s to the American Dream.

So Why Kaiser? The reason we chose Kaiser is simple, as an employee of the City and County of San Francisco, I selected Kaiser Permanente as my health provider. I’ve always had Kaiser so it just made sense to select them when I started working for San Francisco. We specifically chose Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center because there are only two main hospitals that has a Labor & Delivery Department: San Francisco or Redwood City. It’s important to note that if you are under 36-weeks, they strongly recommend for you to go directly to San Francisco as they are better equipped to deal with pre-term birth and labor. We had plans to tour both, but promptly cancelled our tour for Redwood City Kaiser after an Emergency Room visit to their Labor & Delivery Department because Andrea was having strong pains on one side of her stomach. The on-call OB/GYN that treated Andrea was rude, needlessly cruel, and unprofessional. Andrea has had an unusually difficult pregnancy and one would expect an OB/GYN doctor would be more sympathetic, but she was dismissive and not reassuring and made us feel like something is wrong with us. Redwood City Kaiser’s Labor & Delivery Department felt old and run-down, and we ultimately didn’t get a good feel for it and with the doctor’s treatment of us, that put us over the top.

So how does San Francisco Kaiser compare to Redwood City Kaiser? It’s like day-and-night difference. San Francisco Kaiser is huge and is separated into multiple high-rise buildings across from each other on Geary. The Labor & Delivery Department is in the same campus as the Emergency Room (which is convenient, I guess) which is actually the main campus at 2425 Geary Blvd. There is a Kaiser 24-hour parking garage nearby at O’Farrell and Broderick Street, which they recommend that you park in rather than trying to find street parking as cars have been broken into and DPT does ticket there religiously. The parking garage is small and you do have to pay to park in there. The 2-hour San Francisco Labor & Delivery Hospital Group Tour begins on the Mezzanine Level in one of their meeting rooms. The tour is led by an actual Labor & Delivery Department RN, which in our case was Nurse Ann Borja, a very friendly and fun RN who answered everyone’s questions and made the tour fun and exciting. Once we got a chance to meet her and go over some basic information such as emergency contact numbers, where to park, when you need to use the Emergency Department entrance, and etc., we all took the elevator to the 3rd Floor where the Labor & Delivery Department is. Compared to Redwood City Kaiser, San Francisco Kaiser is much more secure with a constant security guard watching the secured entrance to the Labor & Delivery Department. At Redwood City, it was a door where you pressed a button and they would buzz you in.

RN Ann Borja took us all around the Labor & Delivery Department showing us as much as she could. Unfortunately the day of our tour happened to be one of the rarest days in which ALL the birthing rooms unavailable and due to privacy issues, they can’t show us any rooms occupied by a patient. When in the event a situation like this arises, they may end up transporting mom and baby to another Kaiser facility with a Labor & Delivery Department. One of the best features of San Francisco Kaiser is that all eight of their birthing rooms are private, so one family per room, complete with a private shower, TV, and DVD player. And barring any major birth complications, from the moment the baby is born, he or she stays with you the entire time in the room! They do all the weighing, preping, monitoring, and etc. all right in front of you. Discharging takes place at 11 A.M. There is also a decent cafe on the first floor that has fresh made hamburgers and sandwiches but unfortunately it closes by 7 PM Monday-to-Friday. Fortunately there are a number of other restaurants that deliver nearby.

© bitzi/Flickr.com

We bought a beautiful house in the Peninsula/San Francisco Bay Area. I celebrated my second anniversary at work. Andrea got hit with furloughs. We brought Stripes to come live with us and celebrated her first birthday at her new home. Then we adopted the cutest little black Bombay from the SPCA so that Stripes would have someone to play with. I got hit with furloughs. God blessed us with a child. We celebrated our two-year wedding anniversary. Panther celebrated his very first birthday with us getting a cat condo, he dearly loves. We had a lovely dinner for Andrea’s birthday. We hosted our very first Thanksgiving at our house. Had Christmas at my aunt’s house. And here we are.

So what’s next for 2010? I can’t forsee the future, but the highlights of 2010 will be: our one-year home owners anniversary, Stripes turning seven, our baby being born, our third anniversary, Andrea’s birthday, Panther’s birthday, and our baby’s very first Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I am certainly very excited for the future. Happy New Year and God bless.

Enjoy.