Back to the days of typing with one hand and one hand holding a baby. It seems it wasn't that long ago that I had to do this :)
Much to catch up since the last post and much happened in November. November was the month of our baby's birth and it was much anticipated by our children. Our girls got into knitting bc a friend of mine was giving away all her yarn. The girls were busy making warm hats for their brother. They saw their cousins at Annie's baptism and bragged all about their new brother arriving soon. Sure enough it happened 13 days after.
Dan started his new
job at Zillow this month after a month and half using up all his
vacation time at Amazon and some time in between. He had a hard time
going back to work but enjoys the new view he gets from the 32nd
floor. We got to see his new place and enjoyed some treats. They
have way too much good stuff it's hard to avoid them.
Amazing view of Puget Sound from Dan's office
Zillow's Tech Day
The girls got the
first exposure to Dan's new work place. They had a Kid's Tech day so
Dan took them to it. Reena made a computer game and Debrie made a
bunch of cool electronic models. They were treated a lunch and ice
cream for treats.
Zillow is just the awesomest company just for things like this. They sent us some welcoming baby gifts and the $1000 gift card is nice too. Not to mention I got a Surface Pro and nice new phone from their bonus.
The first part of November was very wet but the second part of November was warm and sunny
Here I am at the last OB visit. 2 days before Darion came
By now you know that
Darion came to this world making a statement. He weighed in at a
hefty 11 lbs 22 inches. The doctor never mentioned anything about
how big he might be at any of my appointments. I put on about 30 lbs
so I wasn't clued in. All I can guess is that perhaps I got a bit
carried away with the sugar intake. The Halloween candies and fresh
squeezed apple cider were simply irresistible and my babies love
sugar! His birth experience was wonderful though. It was the most
relaxing birth as compared to my others. Ronin's and Debrie's were
natural childbirths and there was agonizing pain involved. This one,
I made sure I went to the hospital early and by early I meant before
I felt pain. My doctor measured me at a 3-4 on Friday November 20th
and asked me to go to the hospital for her to break my water on
Sunday the 22nd. I went to church, sang with the choir,
had Dan and the kids dropped me off at the hospital after church. I
checked in, got treated for testing Strep B positive, which I learned
that a lot of women carry and don't even know about and is easily
treated with antibiotics before delivering. After I checked in I
ordered a delicious hospital meal (salmon burger on sourdough bread –
now my fav) and the doc arrived after antibiotics were given for a
couple of hours, broke my water at 7:00 PM. I called Dan soon after
and he arrived at 7:30 and at 9:40 I was ready to push. My Doc went
home thinking it would be a while so they told me to not push until
she gets back. Wha???? I was not happy with that but nonetheless I
got my epidural so no pain no rush. I waited until 10:00, pushed
for about 4 times and out came baby Darion. He looked chubby but so
did my other kids. They placed him on my chest and we guessed about
8 lbs 10 or 15 ounces like his brother and sisters. The nurses
thought we were low, thinking he was more. They brought him over to
the scale after being on my chest for a while and everyone was
shocked, especially Dan and I. We thought the scale was wrong. We
didn't believe our eyes. 10 lbs 15.9 ounces. How??? He wasn't short
either. 22 inches. What a good size baby. My doctor was even
amazed he came out to quick and easy. Everyone was praising me and
my good hips but I felt sick inside that he was so big. They said
you should be proud! My doctor said she just delivered a baby
C-section because the mom wasn't able to push her baby out and the
baby was 6 lbs 11 ounces. Ok, at that moment I did feel like a
trophy mom although I did not mean to make a statement. Darion will
go down in history as the biggest baby born in both the Stevens side
of the family as well as the Nguyen's and around all of our friends.
No I do not personally know anyone that delivered an 11 lbs baby.
The closest was my friend Ali with a 10 lbs 3 oz baby just a few
weeks before me.
With that bang of a
delivery it just feels good to be almost back to my pre-pregnancy
body. He took a third of my weight gain! Dan is thrilled to have
our number 4 be a boy to even us out and it took a while for me to
convince him to agree to the name Darion but after pointing out that
Darion will make the names of our kids look like this 2 R's and 2 D's
make R2D2. What Star Wars fan does not think that is so cool??? I
love my Reena, Debrie, Ronin, and Darion and I might agree with Dan
that 4 kids is the perfect number. Not too small and not too big of
a family. We could still travel and see the world and not be so
broke or have eyes stare you down for having too many kids.
My Roro loves his brother. He grew up over night. Seeing him next to his brother made me cry. It was such a sweet tender moment. He was so gentle with the baby, stroking to calm the baby down and giving him kisses. He was jealous when baby was in mama's hands but he sure loves his brother. Whenever Darion fusses, Ronin is first to warn me that "Darion's sad mom" and rushes to the baby to tell him "it's ok" and “I want to
hold Darion (Dar yon)”
THANKSGIVING!!!
My sister Thanh and
brother-in-law Alex are wonderful. They have been there soon after
every birth of each of my children to help out. They were such a big
help on the Thanksgiving meal this year. They made pies with the kids
and cooked and cleaned. We could not have had such a wonderful
Thanksgiving dinner without them. And my mother, what a fantastic
and incredible woman she is. Oh I love her dearly. She knows how
much I love a clean house so she cleaned every part of the house and
does such a good job being grandma when she isn't cleaning. I owe my
life to her.
Back at his weight and a little more at 1 week check up
No comments:
Post a Comment