Here’s What Happened….

Grace with baby I am sure many of you are wondering how Grace’s doing. Here it is….

After almost 3 hours tough labor, our nurse was getting concerned about the baby’s vitals. Grace’s body temperature was creeping up while the baby’s heart rate was a little unsteady at times. At first they decreased the amount of epidural so that she could actually feel the pain to help her with the push. But that didn’t work too well.

While the position of the baby’s head was improving with every push, it just wasn’t enough. So a doctor came in and explained to us a couple of options Grace had to help her with the delivery: vacuum or scoop. Grace decided on the vacuum since it had a less change of tearing on you-know-where.

First family picture Once that decision was made, a whole fricking team of people came in with special equipments which required modification of the birthing bed. WTF. They didn’t say the setup was going to be so elaborate. It’s almost intimidating.

The whole room, at this point, was filled with female nurses, doctors and specialists. Barring Bryan, I was the only male in the delivery room. That was an odd experience.

After the vacuum was setup, it took three really big pushes to get the head out, and another gentle push to get the rest of Bryan out of Grace. After this intense maneuver, Grace still suffered a third degree laceration. OUCH!

Grace took everything like a champ though. No tears. No complaints. Just really deep breathes and big pushes.

A few stitches later, Grace was all smiling with the baby in her arms. Obviously the industrial-strength pain-killer was doing its job. I have a feeling she won’t be so smiley when she goes back to consumer-strength pain-killers when she gets home…

Grace has been in recovery room since last night. She will be there for a couple of days with the Bryan.

Hanging out with Granny
Hanging out with granny…

Expired Visitor’s Tag

This tag may not look much. But it’s an effective visitor’s tag with a latent expiration mechanism built right in. I got this tag when Grace was still being induced to go into labor. This allowed me to go in and out of the hospital without having to sign in again and again within the same day. But the cool thing was, after I went home for a few hours of quick nap, I found this tag with “Expired” watermark that weren’t there before. Cool stuff.

The writing says “L+D” –> “Labor & Delivery”
Expired visitor's tag

First Moments of Life

Life is a series of events stringed together peppered with coincidences and endless decisions. Birth is one of those times when the choice was not yours, and you have nowhere to go but to simply exist. As parents, we can hope Bryan’s existence is going to be a happy and fulfilled one.

Here’s an account of the first momentss of Bryan’s life immediately after birth… In the absence of a better digital camera, my pathetic Canon S230 would have to make due.

Only seconds after birth, Bryan was brought to a examination station to check on his vitals — heart rate, skin color, respiratory system… etc. A OK on all.
Lying on examining table

What’s going on around me? Why is everything so bright all of a sudden?
A moment of calm before crying starts again

Alien adoption must have felt like this… bright light above the head; strange people surrounding you, taking notes, talking in gibberish….
Lying on examining table

“Jesus Christ! Why is everybody laying her hands on me?”
Lying on examining table

Bath. Shots. More measurements. Note the computer chip on his ankle. It’s to prevent theft. It triggers hospital’s alarm when the baby is removed from the premises without authorized personnel.
Lying on examining table

Hello World

Hello World, this is Bryan!

Hello Bryan, this is the world! Welcome.

My Stats
Bryan Chu (Chinese name to be determined)
Born August 1st, 2005 @ 23:24PST
6LBs 11oz
18 inches long

To those who didn’t even know I existed, I offer no apology.
My daddy and mommy have been busy.
But for those who have already seen me in my mommy’s tummy,
Hello to you finally.

More pictures (and video clips) of me will be available soon.

Hello world

Damn you, Murdza. Your boy wins on length and weight (and even time of birth).

And the Needle Is In

Grace all wired up While I was taking mom to get some grocery, the doctor decided that Grace was having too much of a good time (not dilating) and increased the doses of picocin in her IV drip. Did that work or what…

A couple of hours later, the water ruptured. Pitocin worked. Four nurse- and three doctor-shifts later, it was about time.

Grace dilated to 4cm (10cm is the magic number; that’s when all the pushing and screaming starts). It may have been that I didn’t get enough sleep last night in addition to lack of food, I thought my knees were going soft on me when I saw the amniotic fluid draining down her legs. But all was good.

The nurse was happy that Grace was now finally making progress. But Grace was grumpy that she would now be feeling the pain at all times from this point on. In fact, the pain became so unbearable that she had to request for epidural. By now, she’s all hooked up with a bunch of high-tech machines, each monitoring a different vital status crucial to both the mother and the fetus.

More IV drips than a man can take.
IV drips

More machines than a man can take.
Different monitor machines

Getting Ready for the Big Push

Had to run back home to get something to eat and get ready to pick up my mom at SFO. Perfect timing! The baby stepped on the umbilical cord in time for the doctor to see on the chart, forcing her to admit Grace for induced labor…

More monitoring…
More fetal monitoring

She doesn’t appear nervous at all…. And yes, she gets her own direct line in the hospital…. Since cell phones are not allowed, this is her only way to communicate with the outside world for now.
Grace being relaxed

Grace Admitted into Labor and Delivery

As of 5PM today, Grace was admitted into Labor and Delivery when we went for a cervical exam. Based a fetal monitoring chart, the doctor decided her amniotic fluid was too low for baby to move around.

More news will be updated when I am more connected to the Internet… Expected delivery time is early tomorrow morning or tomorrow night PST.

Shit…. no baby name yet…

This is the chart that was responsible for sending Grace into Labor and Delivery. There was a dip in fetus’ hearth beat, alarming the doctor that the baby may have pressed on the umbilical cord for a short moment.
Fetal monitoring chart

Tiger Rendering Issues

I guess there’s still some work to be done with Tiger… Or maybe my hardware is getting old and unresponsive? Either way… this is messed up… Menu littered with two layers of text from two different apps…. I have only seen it a couple of times though… But that a couple of times too many. But I’ll take this over virus-ridden Windows any day!

Tiger menu

F1 Visa Approved

After almost 7 months of waiting, my application to adjust my status from H1-B (temporary worker) to F1 (student) finally got approved. Seven months is considered speedy. In the past, I have heard stories of waiting for a F1 visa for a year and a half. Hopefully I’ll be able to complete the classes I think are useful to me and move on to the next stage of life professionally and personally. We are still struggling whether or not to stay in the United States since our application to immigrate to Canada is still pending.

F1 visa approval

Before you flame me about how foreign workers are just taking jobs away from Americans, everything I have done has been through legal means. And I pay my taxes just like everyone else though I don’t get to enjoy any of the benefits an American tax payer would. But I ain’t complaining. I am a visitor, and I gladly follow the rules and policies set forth by the policy makers of the land.

Crappy Electronic Toys

Thanks to our baby registry, we’ve been getting a lot of stuff from friends and family. The one thing that I noticed about infants and toddlers related electronic products is this — they are all pieces of crap with huge battery consumption requirements.

Sure, I can understand why most of them require multiple huge size “D” batteries, but why do manufactures have to make them with such low quality and poor craftsmanship? Does being made in China has anything to do with it? Why is it that low quality products are almost always associated with the notion of “Made in China”? And truly, I have not used anything decent coming out of China as of late.

Speaking of batteries, they are so darn expensive in the U.S.! What’s the deal with that? It’s not like Americans do any better job recycling the batteries. Is it because the manufacturers can charge any amount and get away with it? Or does it cost more to make them FOR the United States market while exact the same batteries are way cheaper elsewhere because they are made locally? I’d love to find some answers on the myth of high battery costs in the U.S.

Stem Cells Mend Spinal Cords

Alright, Michael, I get the idea. Stem cell works; and I believe you even without this article: Stem Cells Mend Spinal Cords from Wired. Convince your Religious Rights and Evangelical White House this and the world will be a better place.

This study shows that stem cells collected from rat embryos can be grown into specialized cells by producing a special chemical called growth factor which helps myelin attach on to nerve fibers for better conductivity of nerve signals.

But this still goes to the core of the question: Do stem cells collected from the umbilical cord blood work just as well?