Going into uncharted waters - 23w0d today

I have stepped into uncharted waters - I have never been this pregnant before since a little before 10 am this morning. It is really unbelievable that I gave birth to Isaac and Rachel this early and Isaac is such a beautiful, thriving toddler now. I am rejoicing that the pregnancy has gone relatively well so far but I was also a little sad last night and this morning thinking how much Isaac had to go through outside of the safe confines of my womb to get to where he is now. We are so proud of our brave, determined, strong albeit skinny little boy.

We actually had a very rough week. Isaac started getting a fever on Saturday afternoon and his fever was running at 103C on Sunday. His fever went up to 105C in the middle of the night on Sunday and we were all up trying to lower his fever with ice pack on his head, lukewarm bath, etc. We took him to Dr. C's clinic first thing Monday morning and Dr. C diagnosed Isaac with tonsillitis and prescribed antibiotics for him. (We have already been giving him tylenol for the fever.) His fever stayed at around 102-103C most of the day but started really spiking up in the late afternoon/early evening. Between 5:30 pm to around 7 pm, his fever had gone from 103C/104C to 107C. As I was not able to reach Dr. C, we rushed to the hospital with him. Unfortunately, it was a complete wasted and exhausting trip as we had to wait in line behind all these older kids (who didn't seem to be more sick than having colds and fevers) and when we finally saw a doctor, she really didn't do anything for us except for prescribing us a few more medications (antihistamine type medications) that Dr. C told us the next day were not very useful. By the time we got home from the hospital and the pharmacy (another really long wait), Isaac was beyond completely exhausted. We put Isaac's O2 monitor probe on to make sure he was breathing okay but he was only satting in the 80s so we had to put supplemental O2 on for him. I am so glad we decided that we should keep the O2 machine over the winter. Fortunately, his fever started going down the next day. I was half functioning with no sleep at the office in a meeting in the late afternoon when Remy called me and said Isaac started getting red spots on his body though he had no fever. So I thought oh no, here we go again so I rushed home, checked out his spots and called Dr. C. It turned out that the underlying cause of his fever was Roseola. He is finally almost completely better now though we lost the little weight he gained in the last few months because he couldn't eat due to the fever and the tonsillitis and he is still very tired.

I guess this was kind of our first major illness on our own and I definitely learned a lot from it. I was truly traumatized! I know we have faced far scarier life/death situations with Isaac before but this was when he was in the hospital and there were professionals there who knew what they were doing. Its quite another thing to have primary responsibility for his care! I am quite worn out emotionally and physically from this experience! I never fully realized how much courage one is required to have to be a parent! :)

Anyway, as I mentioned, I am quite worn out (in addition to Isaac's sickness, work has pretty much been hellish these days) and have a migraine headache going so I will stop rambling on for now. Hopefully, I can find sometime to post some pictures I have taken this weekend.

By the way, I am very late on cards so I am sending New Years cards out instead of Christmas cards out (I don't remember when was the last time I was actually able to get Christmas cards out before Christmas.) Anyway, hopefully I will post again but if I don't, I hope you all have a Blessed Christmas!

Sonia

Introducing....................................................

Dear all,

We had our 21 weeks Level 2 ultrasound check up today. (Can't believe I am already 21 weeks and can't believe Isaac was born only 2 weeks from now!)

And woooooooo hoooooooo!!!! My cervix is behaving!!!!!! Its still long and shut. In fact it hasn't shortened since my last check up 4 weeks ago. I am quite relieved since I have been feeling a little pit of pelvic pressure lately but Dr. said its probably because its my second pregnancy.

Everything else checked out great as well. Thank you so much for all of your prayers.

So without further adieu, I would like to introduce you to our Abigail Hope (or at least her profile):We confirmed that indeed we are having an Abigail and not an Abraham. (Don't worry we weren't seriously thinking of Abraham as a name if our baby were a boy. Can you imagine naming Isaac's brother Abraham? LOL.)

Ab·i·gail:
"a female given name: from a Hebrew word meaning 'joy of the father.'" I think the meaning "joy of the father" is particularly appropriate since Jong has had such a longing for a daughter.Hope:
When I began to felt like I was starting to heal from the loss of Rachel, I knew that if we were to have another baby girl, her middle name would be Hope. Little did I know how God would indeed be blessing us with another little girl.

To be honest, I have been so scared for our little Abigail throughout my pregnancy that I have had quite a bit of difficulty bonding with her so far. But I think I am finally starting to let myself fall in love with our little baby girl. :)

Jong and I feel so humbled and blessed by this precious miracle. When I was looking at her kicking around today during her ultrasound, I still can't believe how it was possible for us to get pregnant after all these years of infertility. In fact its still hard for me to believe that I have a baby inside me (even though I can clearly feel her little kicks)!

Thank you for all of your prayers. We would appreciate your continued prayers as we are not out of the woods yet. I guess since everything has already been such a miracle, I now am feeling more brave about praying that I can go till the full 37 weeks my dr. is going to allow me to go! I told Jong I'd be happy with a 5 lb baby - that would be like 4 times Isaac's weight but may be I should pray for a 6 lb baby! :-)

Take care and hope you all have a good weekend!

Sonia

Random pictures from the past month

Dear all,

As promised, here are some pictures I liked from the last month. Enjoy!

Sonia

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone and Happy Anniversary to Us!

Dear all,

I hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving filled with blessings and love.

Today also happened to be our 11th Wedding Anniversary. Since Jong didn't want me to exert myself to make Thanksgiving Dinner, we went out to a nice dinner to celebrate our anniversary tonight. Just to make sure we don't completely miss out on Thanksgiving, we will be getting take out Thanksgiving dinner from a restaurant.

We took a family picture before Jong and I left for the dinner. I also downloaded pictures taken in the past month and some of them are really good. I am getting a little closer to posting more pictures of Isaac on here!

Also, I want to share an email someone sent me that touched me regarding Thanksgiving.

Sandra felt as low as the heels of her shoes when she pulled open the florist shop door, against a November gust of wind. Her life had been as sweet as a spring breeze and then, in the fourth month of her second pregnancy, a 'minor' automobile accident stole her joy.

This was Thanksgiving week and the time she should have delivered their infant son. She grieved over their loss.

Troubles had multiplied.

Her husband's company 'threatened' to transfer his job to a new location. Her sister had called to say that she could not come for her long awaited holiday visit. What's worse, Sandra's friend suggested that Sandra's grief was a God-given path to maturity that would allow her to empathize with others who suffer.

'She has no idea what I'm feeling,' thought Sandra with a shudder.'

'Thanksgiving? Thankful for what?' she wondered. 'For a careless driver whose truck was hardly scratched when he rear-ended her? For an airbag that saved her life, but took her child's?'

'Good afternoon, can I help you?'

Sandra was startled by the approach of the shop clerk. 'I . . . I need an arrangement,' stammered Sandra.

'For Thanksgiving? I'm convinced that flowers tell stories,' she continued. 'Are you looking for something that conveys 'gratitude' this Thanksgiving?'

'Not exactly!' Sandra blurted out. 'In the last five months, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.'

Sandra regretted her outburst, and was surprised when the clerk said, 'I have the perfect arrangement for you.'

Then the bell on the door rang, and the clerk greeted the new customer,

'Hi, Barbara, let me get your order.' She excused herself and walked back to a small workroom, then quickly reappeared, carrying an arrangement of greenery, bows, and what appeared to be long-stemmed thorny roses. Except the ends of the rose stems were neatly snipped: there were no flowers.

'Do you want these in a box?' asked the clerk. Sandra watched - was this a joke? Who would want rose stems with no flowers! She waited for laughter, but neither woman laughed.

'Yes, please,' Barbara replied with an appreciative smile.

'You'd think after three years of getting the special, I wouldn't be so moved by its significance, but I can feel it right here, all over again,' she said, as she gently tapped her chest.

Sandra stammered, 'Ah, that lady just left with . . . Uh . . . She left with no flowers!'

'That's right,' said the clerk. 'I cut off the flowers. That's the 'Special'. I call it the Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet. Barbara came into the shop three years ago, feeling much as you do today,' explained the clerk. 'She thought she had very little to be thankful for. She had just lost her father to cancer; the family business was failing; her son had gotten into drugs; and she was facing major surgery. That same year I had lost my husband,' continued the clerk.

'For the first time in my life, I had to spend the holidays alone. I had no children, no husband, no family nearby, and too much debt to allow any travel.'

'So what did you do?' asked Sandra.

'I learned to be thankful for thorns,' answered the clerk quietly.

'I've always thanked God for the good things in my life and I never questioned Him why those good things happened to me, but when the bad stuff hit, I cried out, 'Why? Why me?!' It took time for me to learn that the dark times are important to our faith! I have always enjoyed the 'flowers' of my life, but it took the thorns to show me the beauty of God's comfort! You know, the Bible says that God comforts us when we're afflicted, and from His consolation we learn to comfort others.'

Sandra sucked in her breath, as she thought about what her friend had tried to tell her. 'I guess the truth is I don't want comfort. I've lost a baby and I'm angry with God.'

Just then someone else walked in the shop.

'Hey, Phil!' the clerk greeted the balding, rotund man.

'My wife sent me in to get our usual Thanksgiving arrangement ... Twelve thorny, long-stemmed stems!' laughed Phil as the clerk handed him a tissue wrapped arrangement from the refrigerator.

'Those are for your wife?' asked Sandra incredulously. 'Do you mind telling me why she wants a bouquet that looks like that?'

'Four years ago, my wife and I nearly divorced,' Phil replied.

'After forty years, we were in a real mess, but with the Lord's grace and guidance, we trudged through problem after problem, the Lord rescued our marriage. Jenny here (the clerk) told me she kept a vase of rose stems to remind her of what she had learned from 'thorny' times. That was good enough for me. I took home some of those stems. My wife and I decided to label each one for a specific 'problem' and give thanks for what that problem taught us.'

As Phil paid the clerk, he said to Sandra, 'I highly recommend the Special!'

'I don't know if I can be thankful for the thorns in my life' Sandra said to the clerk. 'It's all too . . . fresh.'

'Well,' the clerk replied carefully, 'my experience has shown me that the thorns make the roses more precious. We treasure God's providential care more during trouble than at any other time. Remember that it was a crown of thorns that Jesus wore so we might know His love. Don't resent the thorns.'

Tears rolled down Sandra's cheeks. For the first time since the accident, she loosened her grip on her resentment.

'I'll take those twelve long-stemmed thorns, please,' she managed to choke out.

'I hoped you would,' said the clerk gently. 'I'll have them ready in a minute.'

'Thank you. What do I owe you?'

'Nothing. Nothing but a promise to allow God to heal your heart. The first year's arrangement is always on me.'

The clerk smiled and handed a card to Sandra. 'I'll attach this card to your arrangement, but maybe you would like to read it first.'

It read:

'My God, I have never thanked You for my thorns.
I have thanked You a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorns.
Teach me the glory of the cross I bear; teach me the value of my thorns.
Show me that I have climbed closer to You along the path of pain.
Show me that, through my tears, the colors of Your rainbow look much more brilliant.'

Praise Him for the roses; thank Him for the thorns.

God Bless all of you. Be thankful for all that the Lord does for you.

'Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, and leave the rest to God.'

We often try to fix problems with WD-40 and Duct tape. God did it with nails.

Finally..... Video of Isaac walking!

Sorry I haven't posted pictures or videos of Isaac for sooooo long (esp. videos). I just can't seem to find the time or energy these days. However, I had to dig out our video camera because I realized that if I didn't do it soon, I will miss the opportunity to tape his early walking days. In fact, I already missed a really great phase -- he went through a short phase when he first started walking on his own for more than a few steps, he would yell like he was a kamikaze fighter when he was trying to walk the longer distance on his own. It was very funny. But now he is a bit more confident about his walking, he is not yelling anymore!

Anyway, he just started walking a lot more the past few days so I just taped some of his walking tonight. Enjoy!



Sonia

Looks like we are probably having a.....................................

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GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Doc said he will confirm for sure at our next check up 4 weeks later when I am 21 weeks but our baby wasn't that shy today and we saw the classic three lines.

Jong and I feel so blessed and are so excited!Checkup went well. Cervix is still long and closed (4.2 cm) baby's head measured at 17w3d (I am 17w1d today).

Doc felt like I didn't have to go back until 4 weeks later unless I have concerns so the next check up we will be doing our Level 2 u/s!It would be amazing if everything keeps going this smoothly cuz next appt will be 21 weeks and if the appt following that is 4 weeks later and if nothing bad happens, it will be 25 weeks and baby will be viable!

Thanks for all of your prayers!

Sonia

Fetal Surgery Saves Baby After Early 'Water Break'

A friend sent me a link to this Article and I thought this was very interesting. Jong and I kept wondering last year when I was on hospital bed rest why with modern medical technologies, more couldn't be done for Rachel when she was still basically still alive and safe inside my womb except for the loss of all the amniotic fluids around her. It looks like may be in a not so far distant future, PROM babies may have a better chance!

Fetal Surgery Saves Baby After Early 'Water
Break'
10.29.07, 12:00 AM ET

MONDAY, Oct. 29 (HealthDay News) -- A first-of-a-kind surgery in the womb saved the life of an unborn baby after premature rupture of the fetal membranes ("water breaks"), German doctors report.

When the mother's fetal membranes burst during the 20th week of pregnancy, the unborn child's chances of surviving birth were slim, said doctors at the Bonn University Clinic in Germany. Not only was there a high risk of infection, the baby's lungs stopped growing, and she most likely would have suffocated after birth.

In an effort to save the unborn child, the doctors performed surgery in the womb to stimulate lung growth. They inserted a ballpoint pen-sized fetoscope through a small opening in the mother' stomach and, guided by a camera and ultrasound, moved the device into the mouth and trachea of the unborn baby.

The doctors then inflated a miniature balloon that blocked the respiratory channel in order to prevent drainage of fluid produced by the prenatal lung. The resulting build up of fluid pressure stimulated lung growth.

The baby girl, who was born in the 33rd week of pregnancy, is now a year old and in good health.

"The prenatal operation only takes one or two hours. Competent follow-up care of the children after birth is at least as important for their healthy survival," Thomas Kohl, head of the German Center of Fetal Surgery & Minimally Invasive Therapy at Bonn University Clinic, said in a prepared statement.

The doctors described the procedure in an article published Oct. 29 in the journal Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy.

15 months adjusted age update

Hi all,

I haven't really updated on Isaac for a while so I thought I should.

Isaac is now almost 15 mos adjusted and 19 mos actual. He is still not speaking much but he seems to sometimes call me Mama and his daddy Papa or Baba but we are still not completely sure its directed at us. He still won't clap his hands but he will wave bye bye at us sometimes when we say bye bye to him. He has also started putting balls and things in an open container/bucket (for the longest time, he will only spill things out). He will throw or hand me balls when I ask for it. He will also bring books and stuffed animals to me when he wants me to read to him or play the stuffed animals with him.

He also started walking without help just a week or two ago. So far, the longest he can go is 6 steps. He weighs about 8.75 kg now (about 19.3 lbs).

He still loves, loves reading books. He doesn't have much attention span for toys but he would want us to read his favorite books over and over again. My dad spent a week here to help us out while I was on self prescribed modified bedrest after the cerclage and Isaac made him read books to him day and night.

All in all he has just been extremely cute and he makes us smile all the time.

We finally rescheduled his first OT appt to this coming Friday. I am praying that this OT can really help him catch up better developmentally.

Jong and I are just more and more in love with our little guy every day. It makes me worry a little about how our new baby will need to compete with Isaac (especially since Isaac doesn't really cry or fuss that much plus even when he cries, his voice is so small it doesn't really bother us and when he cries he pretty much stops crying every time once I pick him up - now that just melts my heart :) ).

I guess I need to take some pictures of our little guy soon and share.

Sonia

Update from Post Cerclage Checkup

I can't believe the whole week is gone already. I guess I really had no idea what getting a cerclage would mean. I thought I would be sore after the procedure and would need to lie in bed for most of the week but I should be able to get things done on my computer. Little did I know that I would suffer a lot more from the after effects (aka hangover) from the general anesthesia than the cerclage itself. So I didn't get anything done. Not even anything fun. I couldn't even watch TV till Friday. LOL.

I went for my post cerclage check up on Saturday morning instead of Friday due to someone's emergency delivery on Friday. The good news is my cerclage still looks good and its still closed and long. I didn't get to see an u/s this time but hope to see our baby in 2 weeks when I go back for another checkup. Since my cervix can still shorten after the cerclage, I will be going back every 2 weeks for check ups until week 28. Dr. S told me to be very careful and not do anything strenuous so I now definitely have a good excuse to make Jong carry everything and not to walk to work. :)

Isaac was also supposed to have his first OT appointment on Friday but the Occupational Therapist got sick so we are trying to reschedule for sometime next week.

Anyway, its back to the grind tomorrow!

Thanks again for all of your prayers.

Sonia

Thanks for your prayers

I guess the unknown is always scarier. Now that I am done. I am thinking, that was no big deal. Hehe.

The procedure went well. We got to the hospital at a little after 12 noon and finally got an IV in me at around 2:30 pm or 3 pm. It took 2 tries. The first try was quite painful as the nurse decided to stick and dug instead of being sure before going in. She finally gave up after I said she hit a nerve and then found another nurse who got a smaller gage needle and did it in one try with no digging! I got to the surgery room at 5:15 pm or so and we were done at around 5:50 pm. I was under general anesthesia and it was like one moment I was closing my eyes, another moment my doctor was calling my name telling me it was done. As I slowly woke up, I could feel that its tender inside my womb but it wasn't that bad. The only bad part was I got really nauseous after the general anesthesia. I did throw up and that felt better. At around 9 pm I finally felt up to going home. The only downside was this hospital was a bit of a drive so it was a really rough ride for me as I was still feeling nauseous. By the time I got home, I was hungry but couldn't eat that much and had a raging migraine.

The nausea from last night made me realized how incredibly blessed I am that I really have not had much morning sickness. I didn't have m/s at all during my first pregnancy and just a little once in a while during early this pregnancy. I can't imagine feeling this nauseous on an ongoing basis! We witnessed a good friend who went through hyperemesis gravidarum and both and Jong and I were saying we don't know how she got through that.

I am feeling better today. Still quite tired and my head feels tender. As for the cerclage, I don't really feel it as long as I am lying down. I have had a bit of bleeding but its less when I am lying down so I am going to try to stay low for now.

We will be going back to our doctor for a check up on Friday. Thank you so much for your prayers!

Sonia

Please pray - Cerclage tomorrow

Dear all,

I confirmed on Friday that I will be getting my Cerclage tomorrow (Monday Oct 22 Japan time). I will need to stop eating and drinking after midnight tonight and am supposed to show up at the hospital at around noon.
I don't know the exact time of the surgery. I will go under general anesthesia via IV and will be able to go home probably in the evening after I wake up. I am taking the entire week off to be safe but we hope that everything will go smoothly and I can go back to a normal life after next week.

Please pray for the following:

1. For me to surrender all my fears about this pregnancy to God and for me to fully trust in Him.

2. That if its in God's Will, for the Cerclage to be successful with no complications afterwards such as infection or contractions.

3. That if its in God's Will, for my cervix to stay long and shut long after the cerclage so that our new miracle baby can stay inside me until week 37 when I am supposed to get my C-section.

4. That the doctor/nurses to be able to find my veins for the IV easily as getting an IV in my arm has proven to be extremely difficult during my hospital bed rest last pregnancy.

I am not sure if I can post tomorrow night as I am supposed to be quite groggy but I will try to post an update as soon as I can.

Thanks for all of your prayers!

Sonia

Happy Homecoming Day Isaac!!!

I can't believe its been a year since Isaac came home to us after being in the hospital for 6 months. It seems like he has been here longer because I can't imagine life without him but yet I can't believe how fast the year flew by.

I feel so blessed and humbled to have this gigantic blessing in our lives.

Here are a couple of pictures from a year ago:A couple of pictures from today:
Daddy is away on a retreat this weekend but will be back tomorrow morning and tomorrow is a holiday so we will probably celebrate tomorrow and hopefully I will post more pictures then! :)

Sonia

Another miracle in the works

Apart from work being crazy and Isaac being sick, I haven't been posting much because I have been really, really tired. And I have been really, really tired because of:
I am 12w1d today but Baby measured 12w2d at the ultrasound this morning. The due date is April 18, 2008 but because of my previous classical C-section, I will be getting a C-section no later than 37 weeks, which will be the last week of March.

This is SOOOOOOO much of a miracle. All my friends who have struggled or are struggling with infertility will understand. We have been married for almost 11 years now and we stopped birth control within 6 months of getting married. We have never, ever, ever, ever been able to get pregnant on except for the one time when we got pregnant with Isaac and Rachel via IVF. We have tried clomid, injectibles, IUI, you name it. We never figured out exactly why we couldn't get pregnant so we were diagnosed with "Unexplained Infertility". The running joke among my friends who struggle with infertility is that getting pregnant through sex is a myth. I mean, I still can't really believe I got pregnant without a doctor in the room.

PLUS, this was during probably our most stressful month ever. I was completely stressed at work and Jong was absolutely overwhelmed that month. In fact, this was almost an immaculate conception as it literally was a one shot try. :) So we can dispel the "you just need to relax" myth as we were absolutely stressed but unfortunately we cannot dispel the "it only takes once" theory.

Jong and I are so humbled that God granted us this huge miracle after we have already been so blessed by being allowed to keep Isaac here on earth with us. We don't know how the pregnancy will go but we are praying hard for a full term baby this time. However, we trust God that He has His plans (as He so obviously does already) so we will just wait and see what He has in store for us.

I can report that my cervix is long and shut right now (4.9 cm) although my cervix was also long and shut at 17w0d last time before it completely opened by 18w0d. The doctor is planning to do a preventive cerclage at around 16 weeks but we will do one sooner if my cervix shortens.

I do have a prayer request. This morning's ultrasound showed that my placenta is covering my cervix a little bit. Please pray that my placenta will move up and away from my cervix quickly as we will not be able to do a cerclage if it stays in this position. The doctor believes that it will move up but prayers will definitely help. I will probably be asking for a lot more prayers as we progress so I think all of you in advance for praying for our newest miracle.

By the way, Isaac is healthy again and tomorrow is his Happy Homecoming Anniversary so I promise I will post pics of him this weekend. Also, I think the new baby has the same head and chin as Isaac (so did the nurse), what do you think?

Sonia

Isaac is sick again!

You won't believe it but Isaac is sick again. He started getting a runny nose and coughing yesterday and it rapidly deteriorated so that he started being back on O2 again last night. He slept poorly last night and has been having a very hard time today. We took him to the clinic this morning and had his chest x-rayed. Fortunately, his lungs look okay. He has been wheezing a lot with very labored breathing even when he is not wheezing and he has a lot of phlegm. He is also running a temperature (but thankfully not a high one)

Poor little boy, he wasn't eating today, barely drinking and crying all the time (which is very out of character for him). I have had to nebulize him almost every hour during the day when he was awake. He is sleeping now. Please pray that both him and Remy can get some good sleep tonight and that he can recover quickly!

This time around its just Remy and me since my mom left on Sunday and Jong left this morning for a trip. And I worry about going back to work tomorrow and leaving just Remy with Isaac!

Thakn you for your prayers!

Sonia

Isaac seems to be finally better - hope it lasts!

Dear all,

Its been up and down for a few days here. Isaac seemed to have gotten better by Friday morning but then he got worse again on Friday afternoon and evening when he needed 1.5-2 liters O2 again. Finally on Saturday afternoon, he finally really seemed to be better after he woke up from his afternoon nap and actually didn't need O2 all last night! He seems okay this morning too. His doctor finally prescribed us a nebulizer on Thursday and we have been nebulizing him when he has been wheezing but so far today he hasn't been wheezing yet.

God really answered my prayers because I was praying that Isaac would be off of O2 by Sunday and it seems like he might not need it anymore.

Work has been so crazy I still haven't posted pictures from our US trip. We have tomorrow off so hopefully I can find sometime to do it soon.

Thanks for all of your prayers.

Sonia

Isaac seems to be finally better - hope it lasts!

Dear all,

Its been up and down for a few days here. Isaac seemed to have gotten better by Friday morning but then he got worse again on Friday afternoon and evening when he needed 1.5-2 liters O2 again. Finally on Saturday afternoon, he finally really seemed to be better after he woke up from his afternoon nap and actually didn't need O2 all last night! He seems okay this morning too. His doctor finally prescribed us a nebulizer on Thursday and we have been nebulizing him when he has been wheezing but so far today he hasn't been wheezing yet.

God really answered my prayers because I was praying that Isaac would be off of O2 by Sunday and it seems like he might not need it anymore.

Work has been so crazy I still haven't posted pictures from our US trip. We have tomorrow off so hopefully I can find sometime to do it soon.

Thanks for all of your prayers.

Sonia

Back from doctor's

Hi all,

We are back at home now. Isaac got a nebulizing treatment when he was at the clinic and his wheezing stopped immediately but his wheezing started back up after we got home. The doc prescribed oral medication/syrup that works as a broncho-dilator, cough suppressant and expectorant which we gave him after he got home. He is sleeping now but breathing rather shallow. He is on 2.0 Liters of O2 and still satting only in the low 90's. However, the doctor doesn't want us to go above 2.0 L so I am just praying that he can start breathing better soon!

Sonia

Isaac is sick; O2 back on

Dear all,

Isaac started getting a runny nose on Sunday and developing a cold. His cold slowly worsened throughout the week and took a turn for the worse this evening. We already called his ped earlier in the evening and will be bringing him into the clinic first thing tomorrow morning. He woke up around midnight crying and having difficulty breathing, with oxygen saturation levels at the high 80's and low 90's. Fortunately, we had not returned the Oxygen machine yet and so we could put supplemental O2 back on him. For a while, we had him on 2.0/Liter an hour and he was still barely hitting 95. I was ready to call the ped again thinking we have to bring him into ER. Fortunately, he fell back asleep and is now satting at 95-97 on 1.5/Liter an hour. Can you please pray that he is able to breathe for the rest of the night and if he needs medication, the doctor will prescribe him the right kind of medication tomorrow morning? Please pray that he starts getting better because I am pretty sure if he gets worse, we are looking at a hospital stay for him.

Thank you for your prayers. Please also pray that I can fall back asleep and get some rest before an early morning tomorrow.

I will update tomorrow.

Sonia

We are back

Dear all,

Thank you for all of your prayers. We got back to Japan on Saturday night and have been very jet-lagged since. I also started work again on Monday so I haven't had a lot of time. But I will try to find some time to post pictures and details regarding our trip. It was a really great trip!

Sonia

Hello from Sunny California

Dear all,

Thank you for all of your prayers. Isaac did so well on the flight! First it was the 1.5 hour bus ride from Tokyo to Narita Airport and Isaac fell asleep the entire trip! He did well during both the take off and the descent. I tried to give him juice but I guess he didn't like the taste of the apple juice they serve on the plane as he didn't want to drink much of it but he did eat the crackers I gave him.

He played for a while on the plane and then slept for 5 hours in his own seat! Which let me sleep as well. Our flight back to Tokyo won't be as easy as the flight leaves in the afternoon instead of in the evening but at least that will be on the way home. The first day he didn't eat very well but he is slowly starting to eat better. He hasn't been drinking milk though. For some reason, he doesn't like me feeding him his bottle and this always happens on Sundays when Remy takes it off. At least he will let me dream feed him in the middle of the night so I get one bottle in once a day. I am pretty sure he is losing weight though since I think Remy is constantly trying to feed him. I am just happy when he will eat his main meals with me! He is so picky with his food though - he won't eat something if he doesn't like the taste (like airplane food - he rejected that right away)! But I took him to Marie Callendar's yesterday to meet some friends and he loved the creamy sauce from the Chicken Pot Pie and kept eating it! Too bad they don't have Marie Callendar's in Japan!

Anyway, we fly off to DC early tomorrow morning so we will need more prayers for the flight. I was really sleep deprived until today because jet lag kept hitting Isaac and I at different times. I would be so sleepy when he is awake and wants to play and then by the time I get him to go to sleep, I am too wired to go to sleep myself. But I finally got enough sleep last night as Isaac slept from midnight to 8:30 am this morning and only woke up once for milk.

Its been really nice spending so much time with Isaac. I am not able to do much other than that but I guess that's what my vacations will be like nowadays!

God bless,

Sonia

We are off!

We are leaving for the US today. Please pray for Isaac and us that we can all do well with all the traveling we are doing!

I will try to update when I can after arriving in the US.

Here are some pictures from last Sunday when I tried to put Isaac in a little blow up pool on our deck and he didn't like it very much. (I think the water was a little too cold for him since I didn't let it warm up under the sun.)

Sonia

Another Year Gone By...

I turned another year older today. I won't tell you how old but let's just say I am no spring chicken. It was a quiet day as Jong is away. Now with the blog, I was able to go back to last year to confirm that my suspicion that Jong was also away for my birthday last year. So I think he is in a lot of trouble. What do you think?

Remy and I took Isaac to a trial Gymboree class this morning but our little (or big) chicken cried through the entire session and wouldn't let go of Remy/me (alternating between the two of us). I think he was overwhelmed by the noise level there and not used to so many people and kids. Plus some other kids kept wailing really loud and that probably upset him too because he hasn't heard that kind of wailing since he left the growing care unit at Toho. I think we will probably go back and join after our US trip because I think Isaac should try to get used to other kids and people.

Anyway, the main point of this post is to have a record that Jong is away on my birthday again in case I need to check next year. Mwahahahaha.

Well, that and even though its a quiet birthday, I don't mind because this year is so much better than last year when I spent it (and our entire summer) at the hospital.

But since I am here already, let me post some pictures.

Isaac's adjusted 1 year old birthday cake (very yummy berry short cake from the pastry shop at Grand Hyatt - I highly recommend it!):
Isaac's cake eating pictures:
Oops wrong limb:
Isaac didn't get himself as messy as normal kids do so I had to put some cream on his nose.
This one was from lunch today. Isaac was eating mac & cheese and I guess he wanted some on his forehead too. :)
Take care,

Sonia

Soliciting Advice

Sorry I haven't had time to post pictures lately. Its just been really crazy workwise. I promise I will try to post some pictures soon as Isaac is just so cute these days. :-)

Anyway, I am posting this to solicit advice and tips from everyone for:

1. Traveling more than 10 hours with a not yet walking but crawling non stop moving monkey, um, I mean little boy (who has chronic lung disease so Benadryl may not be an option); and

2. How to help him adjust for the following time changes:
-14 hours backwards from Tokyo to CA;
-3 hours forward from CA to DC/PA;
-3 hours backwards from PA to CA; and
-14 hours forward from CA to Tokyo.

I am not so concerned about the last leg as he can take more time in recovering once we are back in Tokyo but we have a packed schedule in the US so any tips to make the time change more manageable would be really appreciated!

Thanks!

Sonia

Happy 1st (Adjusted) Birthday Isaac!!!!

Today is Isaac's 1st Birthday based on his adjusted age. We are planning to let him smash a cake tonight since he wasn't allowed to eat cake on his real birthday back in April. :-) I will post pictures later.

Isaac is doing better but still coughing a bit and has some phelgm. I am praying and hoping that everything will completely clear up by the time we get on the plane so the trip will not be too hard for him. We have a scheduled check up tomorrow so we can find out how his ear infection is going.

I will post again later!

p.s. April - thanks for remembering his birthday! :-)

Sonia

No No No

First the good news. Well I guess this isn't good news but it turns out Isaac has an ear infection in his left ear. Its good news in the sense that we know what it is and we can treat it. The actual good news is the antibiotics have already started to work and Isaac's fever has completely gone down and he is now more back to his old happy self. Also, since we knew amoxicillin didn't work for him before (you may recall amoxiccillin gave him severe diarrhea when he had an ear infection before) we went straight for the other antibiotics (I forgot the name) that worked for him last time and he has had no tummy troubles.

Here is the good/bad news. Isaac finally learned how to do a real signal to us. We have been trying to sign to him but may be we are not doing it consistently enough and he really hasn't tried doing anything. BUT we do say NO to him a lot and I guess we (especially Remy) tend to shake our head when we say NO to him. And guess what? Yes, Isaac's first "sign" to us is No - he is now shaking his head when he doesn't want something. He was shaking his head a lot tonight when he didn't want to go to bed and when he didn't want to drink his milk. BOY are we in trouble. I told Remy she taught him the wrong word! She should have taught him how to nod his head and say yes! I told Isaac that he should say YES to mommy till he is at least 21 years old. How come I already have a sense that he won't listen to me? :-)

Thanks for your prayers. Please do pray that Isaac's ear infection completely clears before we leave for the US in mid August.

Have a great weekend!

Sonia

Isaac is sick :(

Dear all,

Will you please pray for Isaac. There is something going around in Japan and a number of people have been sick in my office. I started not feeling great on Monday morning and was worried because I had shared food with Isaac on Sunday (he wanted to eat what I was eating). Isaac started coughing this morning and by the afternoon he started getting a fever and started sounding phlegmy. He went to sleep a little while ago but his breathing isn't that great. He was only satting at 91-92 without O2 so I had to put his nasal cannular back on. We have him on 0.5 liters of O2 right now and he is still only satting at 93-94. Isaac hasn't needed any O2 for a month now so its kind of sad he had to go back on. Please pray that he will get better quickly as we are really hoping that we can make it back to the US the last 2 weeks of August.

Thank you in advance for your prayers!

Sonia

Isaac is doing consonants!!!

Last week was a very exciting week for us because Isaac finally started to go baa baa baa. In fact, he is getting quite noisy. I think he finally realizes that he can get attention when he makes noise. LOL. I need to videotape his baa baa baa soon. :-)

With the new camera (Jin - its a Nikon D40X), I am able to capture more of Isaac's grins. This is because one of Isaac's favorite games is peekaboo and the Nikon camera is pretty big is when I take pictures, it covers my face. So if I focus first and I can keep my hands steady, I am able to pop my head up and go "peekaboo" to Isaac which usually causes him to laugh.

Isaac at the park - its been rainy and cloudy for almost 3 weeks now. Isaac loves going to the park so its been a bit tough on him since he hasn't been able to go that often.

We had to wrap the top railing of Isaac's crib with some fabric because he is gnawing through the wood finish.
Getting ready to play peekaboo.
God bless,

Sonia

One more photo

Just wanted to add this additional photo of Isaac's big grin. :-)

Jin - we got a Nikon but I don't know the model no. LOL. Jong would know. I guess I have to look.

New Camera

We finally got a new camera. One of those "real" cameras with big lenses! With this camera there is no delay in the shutter speed so when we snap, is when the picture is actually taken so Isaac can't run off before the picture is taken!

Here are some first pictures we tried out on the camera.
Look at Isaac's teeth! :-)I might be posting more pictures more regularly now. At least I hope!

Isaac video from his crib again

Okay, I confess. Jong is on the road again, which is why I am posting so much more often. :)

I always get the video camera too late but Isaac was really cracking up in his crib tonight. You can still catch a bit of his laughing in the beginning but soon he decided that he had enough and wanted out of his crib. :)

Isaac's New Haircut

Hello all,

We got Isaac's butchered haircut fixed today - by giving him a buzz cut!!!

Here are a couple of pictures from before his hair got butchered:

Isaac looking at mommy:
We went to the July 4th (early) celebrations at the US Embassy Compound last Saturday:
Here is a very fuzzy picture of Isaac's butchered hair the night after I cut it.
Here are pictures of him after his buzz cut today!
Take care,

Sonia

Isaac is finally making some noise

Sorry I haven't posted videos for so long. The memory on my laptop was running low and I finally got around to clearing and backing some stuff up. I have some older videos I will share a little later but I wanted to share a video from this morning. Isaac has been almost a silent baby up till recently. He is finally making some noise. Its basically yelling. He would yell if he has something to complain about. Most of the time is if we leave him in his crib or his play yard and don't pick him up when he wants to.

Also, just a little explanation. I unfortunately butchered Isaac's hair in my attempt to give him his first hair cut. I am hoping that it can be fixed a little by a professional tomorrow. But you will see his butchered hair cut on the video.



Sonia

Infertility

I wanted to share this music video. Its by a new country music singer called Kellie Coffey called "I Would Die For That".

According to RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, today there is a 1 in 8 chance you either know someone with infertility or you are experiencing the challenges of infertility yourself.



I also want to share the following article from RESOLVE about Infertility Etiquette.

ISAAC IS FREEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although Isaac no longer needed supplemental O2 during the day, we have still been putting his nasal cannular on at night when he sleeps. We recorded 2 nights of Isaac's SpO2 levels a couple of weeks ago. One night with his nasal cannular on and one night without. Well the nurse came to visit us this morning and told us that Isaac no longer needs his nasal cannular and we don't need to keep monitoring his SpO2 levels either. So Isaac is free!!!!! No more tubes!!!! No more wires!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are praying that Isaac will continue to stay healthy and grow so even if he gets sick once in a while, he doesn't need O2. Praise, praise God!

I had some fun with an online day count caculator so here are some stats:

Isaac on the ventilator - 95 days/3 m 4 d
Isaac on CPAP/O2 Mask/Oxygenated Incubator - 17 days
Isaac in NICU - 186 days /6 m 3 d
Isaac on nasal cannular - 356 days/11 m 1 d
Isaac attached to some kind of tubes or wires - 448 days/1 y 2 m 2 d

Oh and can you believe Isaac has been home for 262 days / 8 m 19 d? Sometimes I can't believe it!

God bless,

Sonia

p.s. I know I am really behind in posting pics and videos. Will hopefully be able to do that soon!

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of Isaac's heart surgery

I can't believe it was almost one year ago when Isaac had his heart surgery on 6/22/2006. It was a turning point for him as I highly doubt he will still be here with us if the surgery did not go well -- so much blood was flowing through into his lungs, his heart was enlarged and he had also developed a PFO on top of the PDA he had. The surgeon told us that there was a 30% chance of fatality for the open surgery he was going to perform on Isaac. Although that was much better odds than the odds for Isaac's survival we were told after Rachel's water broke (1%) and when he was born (I think we were told he had a 10% chance), Jong and I were still so scared. He was still so tiny - he just got to 1.2 kg (2.64 lbs) right before his surgery. So many of you prayed for us and it was your prayers that carried us through.

I went back to read my posts from last June - June 2006 Posts - and felt so loved reading comments from some of you around the time of his surgery.

Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts.

Sonia

Picture update

I will try to write more later.

Wow. May flew by!

Wow it seems impossible that May is already almost over. I was on the phone with my mom tonight and she said my sister checks my blog every morning and every night and it was yet another morning (for them) without an update. Hint. Hint. So I got my act together and am actually posting!

Okay so let's try to do this by sequence of events.

First of all, here is a long overdue video of Isaac's first play date on May 12th. Its of him and Disa, his NICU friend and its before things turned "ugly" for Isaac. ; )



Here is a picture of daddy taking Isaac on the slide for the first time.
On May 13th, we dedicated Isaac at church. Here is a video of the tail end of the dedication including Pastor Dennis' prayer.



The following week, our friends who used to live in Tokyo and former neighbors at our old apartment building Chris, Sabina and their little girl Alyssa stayed with us for a week. It turns out that Baby Isaac (as Alyssa calls him) likes older women. ^_^ I think Alyssa and Isaac had a very good time with each other. Isaac was always trying to follow Alyssa when he could (by crawling) and when he couldn't follow her physically, his eyes will track where she goes.

Here are some cute pictures of Alyssa and Isaac together:
Alyssa went to Tokyo Disneyland and picked up that all these Japanese would put up the V sign with their fingers when they take pictures. Well, apparently, Alyssa is born cool so she did a much cooler version of the V sign. ^_^
Sabina also took some nice pictures of Isaac so here are a couple:
We also celebrated Jong's birthday on May 23th. Here are pictures of Isaac's wishes for his daddy's birthday.
And a picture of Jong and our friends Chris and Sabina eating his birthday cake late that night.
Here is a really, really cute video of Isaac crawling and standing from tonight. He can crawl very fast now and I just love how his cute little butt wiggles left, right, left, right when he crawls fast. He can stand up pretty well now just putting his hands on a flat surface. We are waiting for him to start cruising a bit more and after that, we may finally have to throw all of Jong's junk away (for those of you who don't know Jong is one of the biggest pack rat I have ever met) and pad our whole apartment up because who knows what things will be like when Isaac starts walking and then running!



I do have a few prayer requests. Will you please pray for Isaac's speech. He is still not making a lot of sounds and is generally very quiet unless he is unhappy about something and wants to whine or complain. But even then, he is usually just going eh, eh, eh still. When he is really, really unhappy, once in a blue moon, he will utter two syllable sounds with a soft consonant. So far, I have only heard the following once or twice each: uuuuugaa or uuuuuuma.

This is kind of a prayer request and a praise at the same time. A lot of people have been coughing in my office including a colleague I work closely with. I caught the cough virus last week and Isaac start coughing within half a day of me. He got pretty phlegmy and his O2 sat levels started dropping on Thursday so that we actually had to start putting the nasal cannular back on him even during the day. We took him to Dr. Che on Saturday but he seemed generally well apart from the coughing so we decided to take a wait and see approach. By Sunday afternoon, he started getting back more energy and his sat levels improved a bit. We still need to put his nasal cannular on when he sleeps and when he naps but he is doing better even though his sats are hovering more around 95 and 96 rather than high 90s. He was supposed to have his pseudo sleep study done this week where the nurse from St. Luke's was going to bring over a special O2 saturation level monitor that records his sat levels overnight and we were going to record his sat levels one night with the nasal cannular and one night without. However, since he still needs his supplemental O2, we are going to postpone that for now. Please pray for Isaac to completely recover soon so we can see if he can go off of O2 completely soon. We have been hoping to be able to travel back to the US in August but it will be contingent upon him being completely off of O2. The good news is that for this little bug so far (assuming his condition doesn't get worse again) he has been able to recover on his own without meds.

What else is new? Oh yes. He is finally cutting teeth and they all seem to be coming out at the same time, his bottom front teeth, his top front teeth and may be even one more tooth on his top left hand side. They just emerged out of his gums about a week ago.

Oh and here is a strange thing that I cannot figure out. Some of you may know of a series of Christian baby videos similar to the Baby Einstein videos called "God Made Me" "God Made Animals" and "God Made Music". Isaac usually loves the DVDs even though we don't show them that often. However, because he wasn't breathing well over the weekend and I needed to keep him more still so he could breathe better (he will sit very still and be completely absorbed in the videos when I show him the DVDs but otherwise, he is almost always moving). Anyway, I started the God Made Me video and very shortly after the video started, he started crying quite hard. Now please remember that our baby does not cry that often. Even when he gets injections, he only cries for a little while and he stops. I wasn't playing full attention but did notice about when he started crying. I showed the same video again on Sunday with him on my lap and he started crying at about the same point of the video. Its this scene where there is a black/dark background with a bunch of blurry white lights in the foreground when the narrator is explaining that God made light. For some reason, this really, really scares Isaac. After this, I recall that the same thing had happened before with the same video and I had just forgotten about it. I wonder if that scene reminded Isaac of something scary when he was in NICU. I don't know what his 2-3 hour laser eye surgery was like. I imagine it was very scary. He also still has nightmares quite regularly. I am starting to think that at least for now, he still does remember his NICU days. Poor little guy!

Anyway, its getting late so I better go for now.

Take care and God bless,

Sonia