Been very busy

Dear all,

Sorry it took me so long to post. Last week turned out to be very busy as it was my first week back to work and I cooked a big Thanksgiving meal on Thursday, which also happened to be a national holiday in Japan. I am leaving to a company off-site this morning and will be gone through Wed night so I am cramming this post in before I leave. It will be tough to be gone for 2 nights! I am basically just posting some pictures for everyone to see (especially since I know my mother in law and my sister are checking all the time for new pictures of Isaac!)

Isaac playing with one of his favorite toys:

My dad went back to Beijing yesterday after staying for a bit more than a week. My dad was very nervous when holding Isaac when Isaac first got home but by the time he left yesterday, he was loving it more and more!
Isaac on his belly:
Isaac right after his bath last night:
I didn't get a chance to take lots of pictures at Thanksgiving because I was so busy and these two pictures are my only pictures. Apparently, the food came out good and I think everyone enjoyed it!
We also celebrated our 10th Wedding Annivesary on Nov 22 (although we didn't really do that much for it since we were so busy). I don't have digital pictures from my wedding 10 years ago but took a picture of one of our wedding pictures I put in a frame to share here.
God bless,

Sonia

First Day Back at Work

I have been meaning to post pictures and videos ever since about Wed last week and time just got away from me! Last week was my last week of leave so I had to run around a bit finishing up errands such as getting Isaac into the international clinic to get his shots, going to the Canadian Embassy and getting a long needed haircut before going back to work.

We took Isaac to the international clinic on Thursday and the doctor Dr. Che who usually takes care of expat babies (as he doesn't take Japanese insurance) seemed quite happy with Isaac's condition and progress, which made Jong and I relieved and happy as well. Isaac has been doing pretty well with the shots - he has been more tired and not eating as much over the weekend but he didn't get a fever nor acted like he got sick so we are relieved. His eating seemed to have picked back up today.

I was a bit poutie all weekend may be because of the prospect of going back to work and missing Isaac. Also, Wednesday Nov 22 will be our 10th year anniversary -- I got my first BFP (Big Fat Positive) on a Home Pregnancy Test last year on Nov 19 while Jong was away on a business trip and then started testing quite a few times afterwards so that when Jong got back home in the morning of our 9th wedding anniversary last year on Nov 22, I lined up a whole row of positive home pregnancy tests as his anniversary present. We were so happy and excited last year this time. What an incredible year we have had since then. It was filled with fear yet also with miracle after miracle, heartache yet also with joy and mercy, brokenness yet also with healing and grace. Thinking about last year this time has made me miss Rachel more recently. I miss having her alive inside me. I am so curious as to what she would have looked like if she were still here, what type of personality she would have, how she and Isaac would interact with each other...

Anyway, so my first day wasn't too bad. Except that I had a bit of a hard time concentrating - because I was thinking about and missing Isaac ALL the time. I almost came back home for lunch and then work piled up so I couldn't. I then ended leaving the office at around 7:15 pm (while majority of my dept was still there - busy time of the year). Then I got home and discovered that I left my pumped breast milk in the ice bag in my office!! So I had to go back to the office after wolfing down a quick dinner. But then when I got to the garage I realized I left my car keys in my apartment! So back up to the apartment I went. I finally picked up Isaac's milk (luckily my office is only 5-10 mins drive away) and came home, gave him a bath and finally put him to bed just now after feeding him!!!

Time was FLYING before this. I think its going to ZOOOOOOM by now that I am back to work!!!

I will try to post pictures and videos soon. But it might be kind of hard before the weekend comes. I am cooking thanksgiving for probably around 20 or more people! We are inviting nurses and doctors from Toho University hospital. Please pray that what I cook turns out all right, I don't want them to have a bad impression of what will probably be the first Thanksgiving Dinner most of them would be having!

God bless,

Sonia

Some new pictures

Isaac in his new bumbo chair:
We went to a lactational consultant appointment on Saturday morning. It seems like it is still too hard for Isaac to nurse right now. As we are still having a lot of trouble bottle feeding him (he takes an hour or more usually), we just want to focus on bottle feeding him for now and I will keep pumping. Although I will probably still try to nurse him a little bit when he is not too agitated. In any case, we don't have a lot of going out outfits that fit Isaac right now as we don't expect to take him out too often but my sister bought a whole bunch of cute clothes for Isaac when she came to visit. I thought her clothes were going to be too big for him but we tried one set on him and it actually fitted and he was oh so cute! The only problem was he was throwing tantrums when we were trying to take pictures of him so he didn't look very happy.

Praising God for St. Luke's, plus a visit from a couple of old friends of Isaac's

We are so clueless. At our appt at St. Luke's on Monday, the doctor said they have a home nurse visit program and that we don't have to go back to St. Luke's for his anti RS Virus shot in December so I thought that is wonderful, we will get a nurse visit a month!

So I get this call tonight and the nurse is planning to come next Tuesday!!!! I am still clueless as I don't know what she does when she visits and how often she will be coming but it sounds like its more than a month and at the very least, Isaac will be monitored more carefully for sickness and his breathing - which I think means that he will be able to get off of supplemental oxygen sooner!

Some of you may remember that when we were looking for a new hospital for Isaac's post discharge care, we wanted to go to Red Cross Hospital but Isaac was inexplicably rejected by Red Cross. We then had to hustle and tried to get into St. Luke's basically because we know its more international and its a Christian hospital. At that time, we just wanted to get into St. Luke's and had not done any real research. We ended up with a pediatrician for Isaac who is also a Neonatologist and is apparently famous in his field and now this home nurse visit program which sounds very promising!!! I guess God really does know what He is doing!!! Praise God!

Isaac had a couple of his good old friends visit today - his primary nurse in NICU Ayako-san and Ueno-san, another NICU nurse who took care of Isaac. It was really great seeing them again and I think they were very happy to see Isaac as well.

Here are some pictures from today.

Ueno-san is on the left and Ayako-san is on the right:
Me, Ayako-san and Isaac:A close up of Isaac so you can see his new nasal cannular. Its actually not a real nasal cannular. Dr. Kusakawa used a nasal feeding tube to act as a nasal cannular.
Because Isaac was breathing really well tonight and I had to retape his nasal cannular to the other side of his face, I took it off during his bath. Here is a cute picture of him in his chicken towel after his bath. He looks a LOT cuter in this towel in person!
God bless,

Sonia

First Doctor's Visit

Dear all,

We are home from Isaac's first trip out of the apartment for his first doctor's visit. Isaac was a really good boy and didn't cry too much. Since Jong had to meet us at the hospital, it took me a bit of time to figure out how to adjust the straps on the infant car seat, how to get the infant ar seat into the stroller, etc. And then, while we were on our way, Isaac kept complaining in the infant car seat as he is not used to being completely strapped down but surprisingly didn't throw a tantrum.

He was very happy when we got to the waiting room because there were so many new things for him to see. The first thing Isaac's new doctor, Dr. Kusakawa, said was that we should change the type of nasal cannular Isaac is using to a much smaller/narrower tube so that the end of the tube goes inside one of his nostrils and that we can lower the oxygen setting from 0.75 liter/hour to 0.25 liter/hour (the lowest setting). That is very good news because the big nasal cannular has really started bothering Isaac a lot. Later in the appointment he also said that so long as Isaac is satting well, we don't have to keep him on oxygen during the day but only at night. Woo hoo!! This means that we have to monitor him more carefully but we think its a big step forward!

Isaac did really well at the exam when the doctor moved a toy around and wanted Isaac to track the toy with his eyes and his head. The doctor then also said Isaac no longer needs to take the medicine he has been taking to treat anemia, the medicine that acts like caffeine to help with treating breathing and apnea and a diuretic Isaac has been taking.

It seems like Isaac's main problem right now is his size. So we just have to focus on his eating and eating. The doctor thinks we should start giving him some Neosure to help him with his nutritian so we will be supplementing my breastmilk with formula. He also thought I should try to nurse diretly more and I have an appointment with a lactational consultant on Saturday to try to work on that.

Please pray that Isaac can adjust to the new cannular (and no O2 during the day when he is doing well) and weaning off of his medicine.

His measurements today were:
-weight 3.555 kg (7.821 lbs)
-height 50.5 cm (almost 20 inches)

He also didn't cry too much from his Synargis (anti RS virus) shot. We are so proud of our little boy! The good news is St. Luke's has a nurse home visit program so we don't have to go back to there next month for his Synargis shot as a nurse will come to our home to do it! We still have to go to an international clinic for Isaac to get the immunizations required in the U.S. as Japanese hospitals don't offer them and we are going back to Toho for Isaac's eye appointment in early December. If Isaac does well and doesn't get sick, Isaac's next visit with Dr. Kusakawa will be in early January.

Unfortunately, the doctor confirmed that early intervention and therapy will not be available to Isaac so we will need to try to figure out how to help Isaac out on our own at home.

All in all it was a really great appointment. Praise the Lord!!! When we first got home, the narrow nasal cannular was not really inside Isaac's nostril and he was still satting at high 80's and low 90's. Now, after a nice bath and retaping the cannular, Isaac is now sleeping and satting at or above 96 percentile.

Isaac also really enjoyed going out. He was still pretty excited after coming home and was wide wide awake until he finally crashed after his bath. Too bad we can't take him out until Spring!

Thanks for all of your prayers and please continue to pray for our little guy.

Here are a few pictures from the past few days.

Picture of daddy and Isaac napping together. Look at how their mouths are opened the exact same way when they sleep! Hehe.
Nice picture of daddy and Isaac cuddling. Well, at least daddy looks happy.
Here are a couple of pictures we took at the hospital after our appointment while we were waiting for him to get his anti RS Virus shot, so Isaac's cannular has been changed already.
God bless,

Sonia

First Doctor's Visit on Monday plus a New Ministry

Dear all,

I wanted to post a note to let you know that we will take Isaac to his first doctor's appointment at St. Luke's Hospital after his discharge on Monday. Please pray that Jong and I will think of all the questions we need to ask and develop a great relationship with Isaac's new doctor and nurses. Please also pray for a smooth trip there and back and that Isaac will be protected against the germs and viruses he will be exposed to outside our apartment.

Isaac is eating and sleeping lots these days. We are hoping that means he is trying hard to grow. He weighed in at 3.49 kg last night (7.7 lbs) and has been gaining approximately 50 grams a day the past week.

I am also excited about a new online ministry called Parenting After Infertility (PAI) that will launch on Monday November 7, 2006. I plan to stay an active member on Hannah's Prayer while getting involved in PAI.

Here is the official announcement:

Notice of a new online Christian ministry to launch November 6, 2006.

Ministry Name: Parenting after Infertility Ministries (PAI)
Online Community Forums: www.parentingafterinfertility.com/forums
Mailing Address: PO Box 84287 – Pearland, TX 77584
Email: info@parentingafterinfertility.com
Founder: Kim Conger - kim@parentingafterinfertiliy.com

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Ministry Purpose Statement

Parenting after Infertility (PAI) is a Christian based support ministry for those who have suffered through the heartache of infertility and/or loss who are now blessed to be called Mom. Whether you became a Mom through the gift of adoption. or by a miracle pregnancy and birth, or if you are a foster Mom, PAI offers a safe place for you to share your joy and seek support from other Moms. We understand how rewarding and challenging parenting can be. We longed for and prayed for these precious children and often feel guilty when we feel tired, cranky, overwhelmed, uncertain and frustrated. We may have innocently voiced our frustration to only hear, “You asked for this” or “I would give anything to be a parent”. We may feel a heavy heart when we experience feelings other than sheer joy! PAI offers a safe place to share your joy, seek advice, wisdom, encourage and prayer from other Moms who do understand. While parenting is our main focus, we do offer support when the painful scars of infertility and loss reappear. PAI is for those whose family is complete and for those who long for more.

Our desire is to love, encourage, support, and pray for you as you embark or continue on this rewarding journey called Parenting. We hope to help each other to be the Christ-centered Mothers Jesus called us to be.

~~

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. Please prayerfully consider sharing Parenting after Infertility Ministries as a resource on your website or privately providing our website to those you feel may need ongoing Christian support while parenting after infertility.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.


In His Love,
PAI Leadership Team

Future Tae Kwon Do Master?

I am not sure what Jong has been teaching Isaac...

Also, this is a video of Isaac kicking his legs around while he looks at his mobile. Although it looks like he is dancing with the music, he could be practicing his Tae Kwon Do kicks. Isaac is going to hate mommy when he grows up for posting this video. But if you listening carefully, right before I said "oh you are going to be so embarrassed", you can hear Isaac tooting (i.e. pangoo in Korean). Hehe. ^_^



God bless,

Sonia