Little Bu Meets World

Well, it only took a few days since YT's last post and our waiting is over. Little Bu made his appearance to the world as we know it today, Sunday morning April 25 at 10:41, after a long night of labor. He weighed 6lbs 13oz and was 19 inches long. Things have quieted down a bit now, so I thought I'd take a bit of time to record for myself and posterity the ins and outs of how it went down. 

First of all, history will note that Little Bu (LB) was very nearly born on April the 22nd, which as you all know is of course also Earth Day (as I learned recently). This is relevant for reasons that will be more apparent soon, I hope. In the early afternoon that day, YT started to experience painful contractions, and we thought the time was upon us. They were somewhat regular, but didn't yet reach the magic 5-1-1 we had been told to wait for (5 minutes in between, 1 minute duration, for 1 hour). We took YT's mom's advice and went for a nice long walk in Frick Park, which is just down the road. It was a beautiful spring day, and we really enjoyed the sun glistening through the green leaves in the wooded park. I couldn't help but sing In the Bulb There is a Flower (1st verse) to him, which seemed quite fitting. Despite all our efforts to convince him it would be much cooler to be born on Earth Day rather than the day after Earth Day, he didn't listen. Instead of becoming regular and more intense, the contractions actually sort of faded away. They were painful, but probably Braxton Hicks and not the real thing. I think LB was just trying to help us learn to be patient.

Friday (4/23) went by with no developments, and it seemed like things were back to 'normal'. Saturday (4/24)  morning YT even went to the strip with her parents to buy groceries and other sundries at the Chinese grocery store. We even tried to find stuff to do to keep her parents from getting bored, so we walked back down to Frick Park to see the Clayton House (former home of Henry Clay Frick) and associated exhibits. After dinner, we started to watch a movie (Star Wars: A New Hope, mainly because YT's parents hadn't seen it before and I had it at home). There were no subtitles, so YT and I were both trying to translate/explain what was happening.  Before too long, we found we were translating/explaining between increasingly regular and intensely painful contractions. We saw Ben fall to Darth Vader before we got the return call from the OB and we prepared to head to the hospital. I guess LB couldn't handle the suspense. Poor guy.  If you see him, please don't ruin the ending for him.

 

We packed up the car and drove to the hospital around 10:30pm, and went into triage around 11:10pm. Not too long before midnight, we were officially admitted to the hospital -- 3cm dilated.

The rest of the story will be resumed later.  Mother and baby are down for the count, and I'm practically there myself.  I believe for the first time in a long time, I will really sleep like a baby.

Bb

39W

今天是39週的最後一天
也就是說明天就是我的預產期 (4/20)
一直以為我會比預產期早生
因為兩個姐姐的小孩都是比預產期早一到兩個禮拜生
加上爸媽3/30就到達Pittsburgh
就所幸的在預產期前一個禮拜開始請假
順便陪爸媽到處走走
沒想到他們已經來快三個禮拜了
我家的小Bu還是不肯出來跟大家見面

Today is the last day of my 39W, which means tomorrow is my due date. I always thought I would have this baby before my due date because my two sisters had their babies about 1-2 weeks prior to the due date. In addition to my parents’ arrival in the end of March, I took a week off before the big day to spend more time with them. Who knows…our little Bu is still happy inside mommy’s tummy.

我這個人本來就不擅長等待
這一個禮拜在家裡已經悶的發慌了
每天也盡量安排至少兩三個小時的活動帶爸媽出去走走 (買東西居多)
雖然還是有斷斷續續的在寫我的研究計畫 可總覺得提不起勁
我看我還是不怎麼適合當米蟲 注定是一生勞碌命吧

I’m not very good in waiting (Brian knows that pretty well). I’ve grew tired of waiting during this week-long off. I tried to schedule 2-3 hr activity for my parents everyday (mostly shopping) and also work part-time on finishing my grant, but I still felt certain level of weariness. I guess I’m not quite a material for being a long-term couch potato (who is??) and would probably work one way or another all my life….sighs.

不知道為什麼我沒有像姐姐和媽媽一樣早生
或是因為我生第一胎的年齡都比她們大
或許因為我兒子是半個白人….所以這招不管用
或許因為大家希望他出來的時間都不一樣…所以他confused
不過可以確定的是
現在大家都非常期待能夠早點見到小Bu
因為萬一過了預產期太久 要催生就不大好了
I don’t know why I didn’t “inherit” the “early labor” gene. Maybe because I am older than my sisters were when they had their first baby; maybe because my son is half Caucasian, so this “gene” doesn’t work; or maybe because he got confused about when to leave the womb since everyone has different agenda. But one thing is for sure that everyone is very looking forward to meeting him. I would not want to see this little boy being induced by medication.

小 Bu是個愛動的小baby
尤其是去看醫生或照超音波的時候
幾天前因為沒怎麼感覺到胎動 馬上很擔心的到醫院做了fetal monitoring
果然 才把監視器都還沒裝好 小 Bu就動個不停
害我這個做媽的覺得有點小丟臉

Little Bu has been an active baby, especially at the doctor’s visit. I didn’t feel much of his movement a few days ago and doctor wanted me to come in right away to do fetal monitoring. And of course, he started moving like crazy even before nurse finished strapping the monitor on my belly. It was a bit embarrassing.

親愛的小Bu…..你就快點出來吧 大家都很期待和你見面喔
Dear little Bu, please hurry up!! Everyone is very looking forward to meeting you!!!

Snow storm Feb 2010

週末(02/05, 06)讓我見識到什麼叫做下大雪
Pittsburgh 地區大概下了有50cm左有的積雪
星期二,三又要再下個20cm左右
目前PITT已經停止上班上課兩天了
不知道會不會整個禮拜都是放雪假(snow day)

The big snowstorm last weekend really opened my eyes. We got about 18.7 inches of snow in the city of Pittsburgh. There is another snow storming coming this Tuesday and Wednesday with about 6-10" of snow. University have been close since Monday...not sure whether we need to go back to work on Wed. Who knows...maybe we will have a whole week of snow days.

從星期五晚上開始 從窗外看去是一切都是雪白的
馬路和人行道都分的不是很清楚
星期六下午趁雪停後到家裡附近走走 順便照一些雪景
在及膝的雪裡走路真的不是很容易 
花了比平常多了兩倍的時間才走到附近的公園
才走半個小時我就累的半死了
積雪大到有人在公園裡cross country ski 呢
還有很多小朋友坐在雪板上給爸媽拖著在雪裡走     超可愛的
Post 一些照片給大家看看....有興趣看更多的請連至右下角的相片集

Since late Friday night last week, the view from our living window has been just all "white". It actually took a while to distinguish road and sidewalk. We went out for a snow walk Saturday afternoon after snow stoppped and took several interesting pictures. Walking in keen-height depth snow was not easy..it took twice more time to walk to the city park near by, and I got really exhausted after 30 mins of walk. Snow in the park was thick and fluffy....we heard people were cross-country skiing earlier. We also saw kids happily siting in their sleds hauled by their parents......it would be us in a few years!!
We posted some pictures here...if you are interested in seeing more, you can click on the photo album in the bottom of the right panel.