I started a Yahoo Group in the hopes of finding more support in Japan as a non-Japanese speaking preemie parent. I guess I need to get the word out and I thought this would be a good place to start. If you know any one who might be interested, please spread the word for me!
Here is the link to Yahoo Group - Preemie Parents in Japan
Thank you!
Sonia
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
And a few bonus pictures
My mom and my sister complained that Isaac didn't look happy on the pictures I posted recently. That's mainly because whenever I whip the camera out, he will stop whatever he is doing and look at the camera with a very serious look. Anyway, I caught a couple of happier faces of Isaac this Saturday when he was looking at daddy:
Plus a couple of pictures for Jong's cousin Mary
Sonia
Plus a couple of pictures for Jong's cousin Mary
Sonia
Isaac starting to crawl on his knees
Per my mom's special request, I am posting more videos.
Isaac has started crawling more on his knees (as opposed to army crawling). I took the following videos yesterday and this evening and I know its crazy but I think I can really notice improvement in his crawling!
These are a bit long. Sorry I didn't have time to go through and edit them to make them more interesting. But I figure the more video the better for his grandmas (because I am pretty sure both grandmas miss him a lot).
Enjoy!
Yesterday:
Tonight:
Sonia
Isaac has started crawling more on his knees (as opposed to army crawling). I took the following videos yesterday and this evening and I know its crazy but I think I can really notice improvement in his crawling!
These are a bit long. Sorry I didn't have time to go through and edit them to make them more interesting. But I figure the more video the better for his grandmas (because I am pretty sure both grandmas miss him a lot).
Enjoy!
Yesterday:
Tonight:
Sonia
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
1 Year Old Check-up and Pictures with Grandparents
Hi everyone,
Things have been hectic again so I am again behind in posting pictures.
Isaac went back to Dr. Che last Friday and got his last immunization shots until October. Woo hoo! Assuming Isaac stays healthy, there will be no needle pricking him for a whole 6 months!!!!! This is a huge record for him as he was pricked almost every day for the first 6 months of his life and then had more than one shot a month since he has been out of the hospital! Dr. Che also confirmed that Isaac's ear infection has completely cleared up. He got measured and here are his latest/1 year actual/8 months adjusted measurements:
Weight - 7.07 kgs (15 lbs and 9 ounces)
Height - 63 cm (24.8 inches)
Circumference of Head - 43.4 cm (17.1 inches)
Circumference of Chest - 45.0 cm (17.7 inches)
I have been meaning to post these pictures of Isaac and his grandparents for a while.
Isaac with his paternal grandmother (Halmoni - Korean for grandmother):
Isaac with his maternal grandmother (PoPo - Chinese has a different name between paternal and maternal grandmothers. PoPo is maternal grandmother and GongGong is maternal grandfather in Cantonese.)
Isaac with his maternal grandparents (PoPo and GongGong):
I still love watching Isaac sleep. He looks so incredibly sweet when he sleeps.
Isaac with his daddy this past weekend.
This past Saturday was a very warm day in Tokyo. We took a short walk to a near by park that was renovated and just reopened very close to where we live. Isaac's coat looks funny bc we had it on from his front instead of his back.
Take care and God bless,
Sonia
Things have been hectic again so I am again behind in posting pictures.
Isaac went back to Dr. Che last Friday and got his last immunization shots until October. Woo hoo! Assuming Isaac stays healthy, there will be no needle pricking him for a whole 6 months!!!!! This is a huge record for him as he was pricked almost every day for the first 6 months of his life and then had more than one shot a month since he has been out of the hospital! Dr. Che also confirmed that Isaac's ear infection has completely cleared up. He got measured and here are his latest/1 year actual/8 months adjusted measurements:
Weight - 7.07 kgs (15 lbs and 9 ounces)
Height - 63 cm (24.8 inches)
Circumference of Head - 43.4 cm (17.1 inches)
Circumference of Chest - 45.0 cm (17.7 inches)
I have been meaning to post these pictures of Isaac and his grandparents for a while.
Isaac with his paternal grandmother (Halmoni - Korean for grandmother):
Isaac with his maternal grandmother (PoPo - Chinese has a different name between paternal and maternal grandmothers. PoPo is maternal grandmother and GongGong is maternal grandfather in Cantonese.)
Isaac with his maternal grandparents (PoPo and GongGong):
I still love watching Isaac sleep. He looks so incredibly sweet when he sleeps.
Isaac with his daddy this past weekend.
This past Saturday was a very warm day in Tokyo. We took a short walk to a near by park that was renovated and just reopened very close to where we live. Isaac's coat looks funny bc we had it on from his front instead of his back.
Take care and God bless,Sonia
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Dreams
A pregnant mother dreams. Especially a pregnant mother who has longed for children for many years and is finally blessed. Especially a pregnant mother who was blessed with her wildest dreams come true – to be pregnant with boy and girl twins. I can’t begin to count all the dreams I dreamed about our little Isaac and Rachel when they were inside me. I dreamed of them sleeping in the same crib together, staring at each other, touching each other. I dreamed of nursing them together. I dreamed of them playing with each other, squealing with laughter with each other. I dreamed of praying together with the two of them at their bedside. I dreamed especially of the three of us praying for their daddy together with Isaac and Rachel on their knees.
Sometimes one of these dreams would still float pass my mind like a butterfly and flitter away. They would leave me with a longing, a dull ache. I miss my girl. I miss my girl and my boy together.
I think we all have things we dream about. Things we think we want. Things we think we need. We can get sooooo close to getting them. We think once we get what we dream about, what we long for, our lives would be perfect.
But we don’t realize that fairy tales don’t strip open our hearts to God.
We don’t realize that brokenness is what we need. Brokenness helps us surrender to God. Brokenness takes out the ambivalence, the callousness from our hearts. Brokenness make our hearts bleed, bleed with a new love for Jesus. Brokenness makes our hearts long for Jesus. Brokenness makes our heart full, achy, but yes, full.
Sometimes one of these dreams would still float pass my mind like a butterfly and flitter away. They would leave me with a longing, a dull ache. I miss my girl. I miss my girl and my boy together.
I think we all have things we dream about. Things we think we want. Things we think we need. We can get sooooo close to getting them. We think once we get what we dream about, what we long for, our lives would be perfect.
But we don’t realize that fairy tales don’t strip open our hearts to God.
We don’t realize that brokenness is what we need. Brokenness helps us surrender to God. Brokenness takes out the ambivalence, the callousness from our hearts. Brokenness make our hearts bleed, bleed with a new love for Jesus. Brokenness makes our hearts long for Jesus. Brokenness makes our heart full, achy, but yes, full.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Giggling Isaac
Dear all,
I just wanted to share a couple of videos that will hopefully give you a chuckle. We LOVE making Isaac giggle...
Hope you all have a blessed week this week.
Sonia
I just wanted to share a couple of videos that will hopefully give you a chuckle. We LOVE making Isaac giggle...
Hope you all have a blessed week this week.
Sonia
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Finally a Recap of Isaac's and Rachel's Birthday
Dear all,
We are finally basically all healthy in this household! Although it was a really rough week, the great thing is Isaac is now eating really well. Its almost like after getting so sick and being so hungry, he now realizes that if he takes his sweet time or doesn't eat much like he did before, some disaster could hit any moment and he could go hungry. We will take it! We thought it would take at least 2 weeks to gain back the weight he lost but it looks like we are already back to the weight he was at before he got sick, may be more (tonight's weighing wasn't very accurate since we weighed him right after he finished a 180 ml/6 ounce bottle - yes mom if you are reading this, he regularly finishes 180 ml bottles now!).
Anyway, I just wanted to describe our day on Wednesday. Both Jong and I took the day off to celebrate. As mentioned before my dad had arrived before to help my mom with Isaac when Remy was gone last week and they were still here. Remy returned from the Philippines last Sunday and Jong's mother arrived on Tuesday so we had a very nice family gathering.
On Wednesday morning, at 9:58 am, the time when Rachel was born last year, Jong and I lit a candle to remember our baby girl. We just hung out at home for the next 102 minutes. At 11:20 am, the time when Rachel's heart stopped beating last year, we blew out the candle. It was a bittersweet moment for us. We knew she has been so happy in heaven but its also hard to believe that it has been a year since our brave and beautiful baby girl was with us.
I then headed out with my parents to pick up Isaac's birthday cake. I was very fortunate to find a lady from our church, Shimuzu-san, who agreed to bake a cake for us as I am not very talented in that area and would have just not done it considering how worn out we all have been due to Isaac's sickness the week before. As you have seen in the pictures I posted, the cake turned out beautifully. I also picked up some cherry blossom tarts and used one for Rachel's birthday cake and some balloons.
When we got home, Isaac had just woken up from his nap so it was great timing. We set the table and put him in his dolbok. In Korea, Dol, the first birthday is a very important occasion. People normally have a huge party but since we are still in flu season, we just kept it to family. After we put his dolbok on, we decided to move on to the Toljabee, a traditional event at any Dol that supposedly determines the future of the child based on the symbolic nature of what object he grabs from the choices laid out in front of him. The traditional choices are a bowl of rice (representing prosperity), money (wealth), thread (longevity), a notebook (a scholarly life) and a pencil (an artistic/creative life). We were a bit creative and put out a bible, a pen, a plate of rice, a book, a tennis ball and a USB cable (since we didn't have a spindle of thread and because of Jong's love of computers and Isaac's love of wires stemming from the wire stuck on his toe for his probe for the Oximeter which he constantly tries to grab at and to eat but is always forbidden to do so)).
In any case, the first attempt was very unsuccessful. Isaac was not happy wearing the dolbok and was probably overstimulated from all of us (me, Jong, 3 grandparents and Remy) rooting him on and just stayed at the original spot and cried and cried. I won't post the video as the video just consisted of me and Jong trying to "negotiate" with each other - me trying to go hold Isaac and wanting to wait a while before we tried again and Jong wanting us to stick with it for a bit longer. However, here is a picture captured from the video with poor little Isaac crying. Perhaps its a prediction that Isaac doesn't like making choices. Hehe.
We finally gave up and moved on to the cake. Here is a video of the birthday song and the blowing of the candles. We were kind of goofy and sang happy birthday twice.
We went back to the Toljabee after the cake and after feeding Isaac some milk, this time without the dolbok, and we were a lot more successful. Except for the video operator (Jong). Somehow he only captured the beginning part and did not capture the important part when Isaac picked out his items. Hehe. In any case, at first Isaac decided to think outside of the box and didn't go for any of the items we set out for him and tried to get out of the mat to his toys (this part is on video). When we were finally able to get him to focus on the items we set out for him, he immediately made a dash for the USB cable which he of course tried to eat. We like to think that this means that he will be really great with computers. It then took him a little while to decide but he went for the tennis ball. So our little boy is completely after his daddy's heart, who also loves his toys, his computer and his tennis (and in that order). Isaac made his daddy very happy.
Here is the incomplete video but cute one of Isaac crawling:
My parents left for Canada the next day. My mom has basically been here for 6 months except for a 2 week break since Isaac came home from the hospital so I think she is going to miss Isaac terribly and Isaac will miss her very much too!!! She was so awesome here. She really put in a lot of sweat and love into making sure Isaac is taken care of and properly stimulated and tried to work on him developmentally as much as she can. We will definitely miss her a lot. However, she deserves a long nice vacation as taking care of Isaac is hard work! Fortunately, Jong's mother is spending a week here and really enjoying her time with Isaac so Isaac is still getting tons of great attention.
I hope every one will have a Happy Resurrection Day tomorrow!
Blessings,
Sonia
We are finally basically all healthy in this household! Although it was a really rough week, the great thing is Isaac is now eating really well. Its almost like after getting so sick and being so hungry, he now realizes that if he takes his sweet time or doesn't eat much like he did before, some disaster could hit any moment and he could go hungry. We will take it! We thought it would take at least 2 weeks to gain back the weight he lost but it looks like we are already back to the weight he was at before he got sick, may be more (tonight's weighing wasn't very accurate since we weighed him right after he finished a 180 ml/6 ounce bottle - yes mom if you are reading this, he regularly finishes 180 ml bottles now!).
Anyway, I just wanted to describe our day on Wednesday. Both Jong and I took the day off to celebrate. As mentioned before my dad had arrived before to help my mom with Isaac when Remy was gone last week and they were still here. Remy returned from the Philippines last Sunday and Jong's mother arrived on Tuesday so we had a very nice family gathering.
On Wednesday morning, at 9:58 am, the time when Rachel was born last year, Jong and I lit a candle to remember our baby girl. We just hung out at home for the next 102 minutes. At 11:20 am, the time when Rachel's heart stopped beating last year, we blew out the candle. It was a bittersweet moment for us. We knew she has been so happy in heaven but its also hard to believe that it has been a year since our brave and beautiful baby girl was with us.
I then headed out with my parents to pick up Isaac's birthday cake. I was very fortunate to find a lady from our church, Shimuzu-san, who agreed to bake a cake for us as I am not very talented in that area and would have just not done it considering how worn out we all have been due to Isaac's sickness the week before. As you have seen in the pictures I posted, the cake turned out beautifully. I also picked up some cherry blossom tarts and used one for Rachel's birthday cake and some balloons.
When we got home, Isaac had just woken up from his nap so it was great timing. We set the table and put him in his dolbok. In Korea, Dol, the first birthday is a very important occasion. People normally have a huge party but since we are still in flu season, we just kept it to family. After we put his dolbok on, we decided to move on to the Toljabee, a traditional event at any Dol that supposedly determines the future of the child based on the symbolic nature of what object he grabs from the choices laid out in front of him. The traditional choices are a bowl of rice (representing prosperity), money (wealth), thread (longevity), a notebook (a scholarly life) and a pencil (an artistic/creative life). We were a bit creative and put out a bible, a pen, a plate of rice, a book, a tennis ball and a USB cable (since we didn't have a spindle of thread and because of Jong's love of computers and Isaac's love of wires stemming from the wire stuck on his toe for his probe for the Oximeter which he constantly tries to grab at and to eat but is always forbidden to do so)).
In any case, the first attempt was very unsuccessful. Isaac was not happy wearing the dolbok and was probably overstimulated from all of us (me, Jong, 3 grandparents and Remy) rooting him on and just stayed at the original spot and cried and cried. I won't post the video as the video just consisted of me and Jong trying to "negotiate" with each other - me trying to go hold Isaac and wanting to wait a while before we tried again and Jong wanting us to stick with it for a bit longer. However, here is a picture captured from the video with poor little Isaac crying. Perhaps its a prediction that Isaac doesn't like making choices. Hehe.
We finally gave up and moved on to the cake. Here is a video of the birthday song and the blowing of the candles. We were kind of goofy and sang happy birthday twice.We went back to the Toljabee after the cake and after feeding Isaac some milk, this time without the dolbok, and we were a lot more successful. Except for the video operator (Jong). Somehow he only captured the beginning part and did not capture the important part when Isaac picked out his items. Hehe. In any case, at first Isaac decided to think outside of the box and didn't go for any of the items we set out for him and tried to get out of the mat to his toys (this part is on video). When we were finally able to get him to focus on the items we set out for him, he immediately made a dash for the USB cable which he of course tried to eat. We like to think that this means that he will be really great with computers. It then took him a little while to decide but he went for the tennis ball. So our little boy is completely after his daddy's heart, who also loves his toys, his computer and his tennis (and in that order). Isaac made his daddy very happy.
Here is the incomplete video but cute one of Isaac crawling:
My parents left for Canada the next day. My mom has basically been here for 6 months except for a 2 week break since Isaac came home from the hospital so I think she is going to miss Isaac terribly and Isaac will miss her very much too!!! She was so awesome here. She really put in a lot of sweat and love into making sure Isaac is taken care of and properly stimulated and tried to work on him developmentally as much as she can. We will definitely miss her a lot. However, she deserves a long nice vacation as taking care of Isaac is hard work! Fortunately, Jong's mother is spending a week here and really enjoying her time with Isaac so Isaac is still getting tons of great attention.
I hope every one will have a Happy Resurrection Day tomorrow!
Blessings,
Sonia
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Birthday Pictures first
Dear all,
Both Jong and I are sick right now. We are not sure what we have but we have a stomach bug. In any case, as I don't have a lot of energy, I am going to post just pictures first and hopefully when I feel better I will be able to post some videos and a more detailed narrative soon. I also want to thank our friends and families who sent flowers and presents for Isaac's and Rachel's birthday. I hope to send individual notes to everyone of you soon when I feel better.
The party table:
Isaac's birthday cake was modeled after this fish toy, one of the first toys Isaac had in NICU. He really liked looking at it when he was in NICU and may be because of it he really likes bright colors now.
This is Isaac's birthday cake. Shimuzu-san from our church baked the cake for us and it turned out just beautifully! Thank you Shimuzu-san!
Isaac looking pouty in his party hat:
Isaac eating crackers:
Some people may not know this but Isaac is half Korean (Jong is Korean) and Chinese (I am Chinese). 1st Birthdays are big celebrations in Korea and we dressed Isaac in a traditional Korean dolbok for the occasion. The pants were too long for him so we just put the top on him:
Finally, at the end of the day, we put all the flowers and balloons at Rachel's place. A special thanks to my sister Isaac's and Rachel's Auntie Cindy for sending the beautiful flower arrangement (white and light blue one) all the way from Toronto, Canada!!!
Take care,
Sonia
Both Jong and I are sick right now. We are not sure what we have but we have a stomach bug. In any case, as I don't have a lot of energy, I am going to post just pictures first and hopefully when I feel better I will be able to post some videos and a more detailed narrative soon. I also want to thank our friends and families who sent flowers and presents for Isaac's and Rachel's birthday. I hope to send individual notes to everyone of you soon when I feel better.
The party table:
Isaac's birthday cake was modeled after this fish toy, one of the first toys Isaac had in NICU. He really liked looking at it when he was in NICU and may be because of it he really likes bright colors now.
This is Isaac's birthday cake. Shimuzu-san from our church baked the cake for us and it turned out just beautifully! Thank you Shimuzu-san!
Isaac looking pouty in his party hat:
Isaac eating crackers:
Some people may not know this but Isaac is half Korean (Jong is Korean) and Chinese (I am Chinese). 1st Birthdays are big celebrations in Korea and we dressed Isaac in a traditional Korean dolbok for the occasion. The pants were too long for him so we just put the top on him:
Finally, at the end of the day, we put all the flowers and balloons at Rachel's place. A special thanks to my sister Isaac's and Rachel's Auntie Cindy for sending the beautiful flower arrangement (white and light blue one) all the way from Toronto, Canada!!!
Take care,Sonia
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Happy Birthday!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISAAC AND RACHEL!!!!!
Isaac is feeling better - no more diarrhea but now mommy has it! Anyway, I will report back on their birthday later at the end of the day!
Isaac is feeling better - no more diarrhea but now mommy has it! Anyway, I will report back on their birthday later at the end of the day!
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Poor, poor Isaac!!!! :(
From midnight to noon on Sunday, Isaac had about 12 diarrhea attacks. Poor little baby. He was also sooo hungry! He was crying all morning (believe it or not we have NEVER seen him cry this much - Isaac is such a great baby!). We finally stopped giving him all formula and started giving him rice water. It was basically water from boiling rice (not even okayu/jeuk which is too thick). Fortunately he started doing better after we stopped giving him the formula. Dr. Che also told us to stop giving him the amoxicillin for now. We will wait till his diarrhea stops until we figure out what type of anti-biotics to put him back on. Please pray for his digestion and also even more importantly for his ear infection to continue to heal even without the anti-biotics.
Thank you!
Sonia
Thank you!
Sonia
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