Hello all! It’s been a quick month since the birth of Avin and I have to say, It’s been a wonderful first month! A big change has happened and Adrienne and I are taking it in with open arms.

I was a little apprehensive at first about how I was going to handle a newborn baby, but as soon as I held him the first time, none of that worry mattered anymore. Parenting seemed to come so naturally that I never needed to double check myself about holding him, changing him, or feeding him. Our family was incredibly wonderful and made sure to help us out when we needed and also give us the space to relax during the chaos of it all.

Avin has been doing extremely well, and we couldn’t have asked for such a perfect boy! Everyone keeps telling us that we’re lucky to have such a calm and alert baby, so we must be blessed. Thanks to the book my sister recommended to us, Babywise, we’ve been able to keep a pretty good schedule of parent directed feeding which allows the entire family to be happy and get enough sleep to make it through the day.

I may be getting ahead of myself when I say this but, taking care of this baby isn’t half as hard as everyone makes it out to be! We figured out a comfortable controlled chaos atmosphere where everything important gets done and everyone stays happy, including baby. We’ll see what becomes as he gets older, but I doubt Adrienne and I will have any problems with him since he’s so amazing already!

BULLY!

This day will be a day Adrienne and I will forever remember. An amazingly beautiful yet terrifying day. I’m not sure I can even think of the words that would come close to describing the emotions that were flowing through all of us yesterday.

The Thursday before we had decided to induce labor because it wasn’t looking like her cervix was going to be opening anytime soon, and the baby being 4 days late already, he really needed to get out of there! We arrived at the hospital at Monday morning at 5AM. Neither of us had slept the night before because of the anticipation of what would happen the next day. Early in the day they decided to give her (drug escapes me now) which is just a gel tablet placed inside to help the cervix to open. While waiting for this drug  to work they drew some blood to make sure everything was looking a-okay. Unfortunately they weren’t. Adrienne had an abnormally low amount of platelets in her blood, and on top of that her blood pressure was starting to rise. During the course of the day they ran 3-4 more blood test which all revealed her platelets sinking lower and lower. At this point our doctor had told us that she indeed had preclampsyia and could become a serious problem if her platelets kept dropping. Since the platelets were so low they decided upon not allowing us to induce with pitocen, and also not allowing the use of a epidural.

Considering the size of the baby and not being able to use an epidural, or any other drugs because of her high blood pressure, the only other option was a c-section, and the doctor made it clear that it had to happen now. My subconscious must have known something because that uneasy feeling I felt on the way to the hospital that morning was now justified.  Adrienne had been poked and prodded, wires everywhere, machines all over the place, and now had to go into surgery to make sure our son was able to get out there and take his first breath!

I wasn’t able to join her in the surgery room, which was horrible, because I couldn’t imagine how scared she was in there, and her parents and myself were stuck in her labor room waiting for the word. The word came, about an hour after she left the room and we immediately ran up to the nursery to make sure everything was well. And indeed it was.

The moment I saw him was surreal to say the least.  I kept telling myself, “This is your son, this is your son!” but my brain never replied back. I couldn’t stop staring, i couldn’t take myself out of the moment, and it lasted forever.

I was still worried about Adrienne’s condition and left my son in the nursery to see how she was doing. She was in an immense amount of pain as anyone can imagine, and it was horrible not being able to do anything about it. And through all of this pain, she still managed to smile for the rest of us.  At this moment she is now anemic, but making a speedy recovery. Her blood pressure is getting better and her platelet count is almost back to average. The doctor is letting us go home tomorrow (wednesday) after they take out the staples and glue the incision, OUCH!

There are so many things I’m feeling right now, and so much I wish I was able to say and express because I’ve never felt as alive as I do now in this very moment. I want to say thanks to all of our family and friends who supported us through the ridiculously long 9 months of anticipation. I know that all of you will still help and support us through Avin’s life and that is more than we could ever ask for. We love you all!

Avin Koan Keller, born June 2, 2008 at 3:46pm. 9 Ibs!!!!!!! 

My wife never ceases to amaze me. She’s 39 weeks pregnant and still goes to work full time, and will continue to go to work right up until her due date on the 25th. Through all the back aches, ankle swelling, and having to use the bathroom every 5 minutes she still manages to get up in the morning and deal with the grind of a 9-5 day at work, and I love her for it.

I took this photo in hopes that it will be the last photo taken during pregancy. She hates it, so of course I had to post it!

It’s amazing to think how my wife has been able to handle carrying our child for 9 months now. It’s even more amazing to think that he will finally be here with us any day now. Thinking about all this has made the last couple weeks move the slowest since we first found out she was pregnant.

I really don’t have much to say and my mind is all over the place gearing up for his arrival, and I hope that the next time I update this blog will be the announcement of his birth.

With that said, hurry up Avin!

Our friend Karen was awesome enough to take these photos you see before you at our recent baby shower, thanks Karen! A big thanks also goes out to Maya and Beth who organized the shindig for us. And of course, thanks to all our friends who showed up bearing gifts in preparation for Avin. Everyone’s support has given us the confidence we need during this crazy 9 months of anticipation. It’s all more than we could ask for. Enjoy the photos! For the complete set, check the gallery, or my flickr account and leave some comments!

Check out the entire gallery here!

It won’t be long until Avin is consuming our lives and being the greatest thing to ever happen to us without even trying. It’s making me more impatient than ever. 60 days might as well be 60 years. Nonetheless, I’m sure he’ll be here before we know it, and I won’t even remember how I’m feeling at this moment.

I wanted to update on what’s being going on lately because it’s been awhile since I actually wrote something. I’m sure after Avin is born I’ll have a lot more to talk about, because as of now, It’s nothing but anticipation.

Anyway, we went to  our last ultrasound recently, and found out the “echogenic bowel”  the doctor was so concerned about turned out to be nothing.  It went away on it’s own.  I’d like to go back in time and tell that doctor to shove his foot in his mouth.

We aren’t out of the blue yet, however. Her glucose test results came back a little high, and she now has to go back and do another 3-4 hour glucose test with double the amount of the orange stuff (yummy). If 2 of the 4 results come back high, then we’ll have to be referred to a nutritionist to make sure she’s watching her blood levels and eating the right foods.  I’d like to note that it’s not easy telling a pregnant woman what to eat and what not to eat, so I’ll leave that to the nutritionist.

I haven’t scanned in the new 4d pictures of Avin yet, but I will soon because baby pictures are always a good thing!

Until then, more anticipation.

Almost complete, is actually more like it. We still have a shelf to put on the wall, and a rocker chair which is coming from Adrienne’s mother. After those items are completed, then I believe the stage 1 (furtniture) of our nesting phase will be over. Phase 2 involves decorative aspects of the nursery, and phase 3 would be finalizing with smaller details, and making sure everything is 100% ready for a baby.

This nursery set comes from Ikea. We pretty much loved this set since the first time we saw it. We decided to finally go with it when we realized every other nursery set we liked was almost twice the price and half the pieces of the one we bought. The entire set cost us around $750, and only took us a few hours to put together and set up. We also had the help of Adrienne’s parents to help make the process go even quicker. They also helped us bring home the furniture since none of this stuff would have fit in either of our cars.

The entire set includes a crib, dresser/changing table combo, an armoire, and a storage shelf. Not a bad deal at all! The crib also converts into a toddler bed, and the changing table detaches from the top of the dresser which can be used as he gets older as well.

The crib bedding, believe it or not, came from Wal-mart! I had a certain feel for the nursery I wanted, which included a natural/modernish looking bedding, with light greens, browns, and natural looking colors. I had found exactly what I wanted, the problem was that the bedding I found would cost a stupid ridiculous amount of money, and definitely not worth it. I never found another set I liked and decided to leave the choice up to Adrienne. And she delivered! (suprisingly… just kidding!) At first I wasn’t to sure about the brighter constrast, but I think it works just fine, and there’s nothing wrong with a little color. Adrienne’s mother was also nice enough to get the bedding for us as a gift!  We love gifts!

Hayden seems to love the new nursery set as well. Our cats believe all this incredible stuff is all for them. Oh, they are in for a huge surprise!

 That’s all for stage 1 of the nesting phase. Stay tuned for phase 2 when we add some decorative aspects, and check the gallery for more pictures!

We had our 3rd ultrasound visit today, at 8AM to be exact, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t awake then, but still somehow managed to drive through the morning rush to make it on time. By the end of our appointment I was definitely awake, and moreso pretty content with what we heard!

Thankfully, the doctor from our last ultrasound wasn’t even there so we had a chance to sit down with our usual ultrasound doctor who had some very informative knowledge about our situation. I still regret not being able to see him on the last visit, but that’s all besides the point right now. I’ll go ahead and sum up the entire visit by telling you the greatest thing I’ve heard all week.

“You have nothing to worry about.”

The doctor explained to us that based on the information he gained from our previous visits, doing an amniocentisis isn’t at all necessary to our situation. Why didn’t we hear this the first time?! I keep telling myself it’s not important anymore…. Anyway, he explained that based on what he saw on the ultrasound screen,  the most likely scenario is that some fluid slowed down through the narrow parts of the intestines which caused the ultrasound machine to pick it up brighter than usual.

Adrienne and I both felt relief like never before. It’s one of those unexplainable moments where you just know that everything is going to be okay.  Adrienne does however have to take 3 more blood tests to rule out the possibility of an infection. I haven’t had a chance to do a some research about the tests yet, but once I do I’ll post an update on any information I find. 

Other than that, everything looks normal. His weight, size, development all looks fantastic! It was pretty awesome to see him on a 4D machine. Adrienne swears up and down that he looks exactly like me and looks nothing like her. I am win. Adrienne’s mom also came with us for some moral support, just in case we needed it, and thankfully we didn’t. But even so, it was nice to have one of Avin’s grandmothers present to see his ultrasound.

In conclusion, today was a great day.

OH HAI! 

Today is a waiting day. I’m not an impatient person so waiting is no problem for me, and it’s never been a problem in the past either. It does however become a problem when it pertains to my son. And more so when it has something to do with his health and well being. You can’t help but think the worse, even when everyone around you is telling you to hope for the best. And I do, I always hope for the best, and I know the best will happen. But when you’re stuck playing the waiting game, it feels more like… purgatory.

We went to our regular obstetrician yesterday (not the ultrasound guy), and asked him about our concern with the ultrasound findings. He told us that out of all the thousands of pregnancies he has done, he’s only seen an echogenicities alone with no other indicators, less than 3-4 times. He also told us that single indicators alone on an ultrasound turn out to be nothing 99% of the time. And considering her blood test results and healthy status, there isn’t a need for an amniocentesis. Now this is the information we would have loved to hear during our last ultrasound visit. Needless to say, we went home yesterday as content parents, and not terrified out-of-our mind parents.

We are still in the same status as we have been, but at least we have more assurance now that it’s not something we should have been fretting over so much because of what the last doctor said. So we wait, until the 31st of this month, when we return to the ultrasound doctor and hope to see Avin’s small intestines again, only not so bright this time.

Today however, is a waiting day.

As you may or may not have noticed, IEYU has an entirely new look! The last layout was nice, but I think this new layout is way more distinct and interesting. It screams out fun, and fun is what we’re all about.

Let me know what you think about the new design, and check back soon for more updates!