Uuuh? (aka "what's that?")

It's Izzy's favorite word. From the moment she wakes up, she points all around the house asking -- Uuuh? Uh? Eeh? Eh? We respond -- it's the giraffe, the lion, the ipod speakers, the bookshelf, the blue devil, the ketchup, the yellow mustard, the ketchup again, the clock...and so forth and so on. Don't worry, we're trying to break her out of this unending cycle. We think the key has something to do with Punxsutawney Phil, but we're still working on it.

Halloween

It's Izzy's first Halloween, and we decided to dress her up as Eeyore from the Winnie the Pooh books. She didn't seem too unhappy with the costume, except that she hated having the headpiece on her head. She's usually pretty good at pulling things off her head, but didn't have much luck getting the hood off the costume.

So we've got a few different jokes here, and couldn't decide which one to go with. In the spirit of democracy, we'll leave it up to you, the reader. You can vote in the poll on the side of the page.


Political
Andy: I know the election's coming up, so it's not surprising that we went with a pro-Democratic costume.
Ming-Hsuan: You mean the donkey, symbol of the Democratic Party?
Andy: Oh . . . that works, too. I just thought she looked like John Kerry.



Scatological
Looking back, I'm guessing we subconsciously picked Eeyore because we have such a strong mental association between Izzy and poo(h).



Mean for no Reason
There's the jackass, in all her glory. Oh, and Izzy's there, too.


Sadly, no trick-or-treating this year. Izzy was just exhausted by the time we got home, so we'll have to wait until next year. Hopefully, she can go as President Obama next year.

The Babbling

Mem. Ba. Baeesch. We all know that these are not words. We do not say them to each other, and we would not understand them if someone says them to us. Ming-Hsuan and I are in total agreement on this. And yet, this child, who is made up entirely of our combined genetic material insists not only on saying these things, but on saying *only* these things.

She has been saying things like this for some time now. Aaaahhhh. Bweh. We can tell that she wants to communicate something to us, because sometimes she points as she says it. Sometimes she looks at us very meaningfully while she blathers on in unintelligible baby nonsense. And sometimes she gets visibly angry when we don't respond correctly.

Now, I get it. Talking is hard. It takes a long time to learn, and I'm sure that not being able to talk is very frustrating. But seriously - if you can't use real words, you should just keep your mouth shut.

There. I said it. Now I feel much better. And Izzy, if you're reading this, I . . . what? She can't *read* either?!? Oh, come on!

. . . And Now Walking

That's right, people. Ever since Izzy was very small, it was obvious how much she wanted to walk. And those tree-trunk thighs were going to help her do it as soon as she got the whole balance thing down. So once she started standing on her own, we were just counting the days until she started stumbling around the house.

And now she is. She was standing near the changing table, fussy and looking for her mommy. She looked over at Ming-Hsuan, who was standing about 4-5 feet away, and just started walking right to her. She took about 6 little steps before falling headlong into mommmy's arms, at which point Ming-Hsuan and I looked at each other with some surprise. What in the hell was that?!? We're supposed to have another month or two before she starts doing that!

Nope. Izzy has now officially crossed the line between "wants to walk" and "walks very poorly." I'm sure a lot of you are looking for investment tips these days. My advice is to invest in band-aids, because this baby is about to single-handedly double their sales.

9 Month Check-up

We went in for Izzy's 9 month check-up today -- apparently she has a normal body (75%) and a giant head (circumference - 90%). Ba Chomp Ba Chewy Chomp. Unfortunately, she discovered that she hates when the doctor pokes and prods her. In the past she had been content to sit or lay down quietly during her physical - not so today.

Izzy Stands!

Izzy has begun pulling herself up and cruising around with the help of furniture. She can also let go and stand on her own now for 5-10 seconds at a time. When she does it, she puts her hands in the air like she's just stuck her landing! But, we haven't gotten a picture yet.

Update: Here she is, standing all on her own.

Daddy Gets a New Job

Yesterday was Andy's last day at the public defender's office and today marks the first day of his new law practice -- Elders & Zinicola, PLLC. Izzy celebrated by eating one of Andy's new business cards.

Izzy has fun on the swing

Izzy bonds with Aunt Pei-Yuan

Food

Just before her 6-month birthday, we started Izzy off on rice cereal and slowly started introducing other baby foods. We've opted to forego all the pre-made baby foods and feed her as much regular food as possible (noodles, squash, yams, carrots, etc.). You can see that she loves fruit, as shown by her chomping down on a white peach.

Hangin' Poolside

Alaina invited Izzy over to her pool on Sunday so Izzy got to swim for the second time in her life. Izzy kicked her feet like crazy roadrunner-style when we moved around in the water.

Izzy sits up on her own and crawls!

Chung Family Vacation

Izzy took her first extended family vacation out to Massanutten, Virginia -- home to mountains, mini golf and a water park. We all went out for July 4th weekend and rented a vacation home to celebrate her Apo's 60th birthday -- Happy Birthday!

Six Month Birthday

Today marks Izzy's six month birthday and also the first day back at work for Mommy. Luckily, Izzy has her Apo to take care of her during the day, which makes her happy. She also loves to practice walking...

Six-Month Checkup

So we went to see the doctor today for Izzy's 6-month checkup. Nothing interesting, really. 27 inches tall. 17 pounds, 14 ounces. Heart is beating, still breathing regularly. Good stuff. One notable item -- her height percentile is now higher than her weight percentile, though both are over 80%. That means she's now tall and fat, rather than fat and tall. Basically, she's now a fat power forward, rather than a tall offensive lineman. Good times.

Oh, and they stuck her with a bunch of needles again. She really likes that. Jab, jab! Jab, jab! [pause] Cry. Izzy loves the doctor.

Izzy Liebowitz

Izzy takes her first picture and shows her artistic style. Next time you see her, she'll be wearing a black turtle neck and talking in a german accent.

This Bites.

One of the first experiences I ever had with Izzy was her sucking on the back of my knuckle while we were waiting for her to be cleared to go back to the hospital room after she was born. Now, she likes to grab my finger in her little hand and pull it to her mouth so that she can chew on it. Aw. Only one problem:



Yes, that's right. Those are teeth. And they hurt like hell when she bites your finger with them. Seriously, I'm going to have to pull those things out soon. I mean, she'll grow new ones, right?

Elders the Third

We discovered that Izzy looks like baby shrek. Oh, and she has discovered her favorite yoga position -- downward facing dog.

Next?

So it seems that the next big thing for Izzy to do is sit up on her own. I say this not because I read it in one of those baby books, but because she's constantly trying to do it on her own. We started her on the path by pulling her up from her back by holding on to her hands and encouraging her to pull up with her arms. This eventually led to her automatically lifting her head up towards us whenever we took both her hands while she was laying on her back.

But now, she's taken it up a notch. Now, whenever we so much as lean over her, she lifts her head up, reaches her arms up, and actually strains to sit up. So, desire is there, but she's lacking the abdominal muscles. Kinda like Daddy . . .

Milestones

So Izzy had her three-month birthday on a plane flying to California, which was two milestones in one. Her first plane ride was a long one (Dulles to LAX - about 5.5 hours), but she was really great on the plane. She nursed and slept mostly, causing few problems for anyone, which was quite a relief. Nonetheless, traveling with her was pretty crazy, mostly because of all the thinking ahead we (mostly Ming-Hsuan) had to do to make it work.

Izzy has also passed another milestone, namely the discovery that she has hands. As you may recall, she has grabbed things in her little hands since a few hours after she was born. But now she's doing it on purpose - seeking out things to grab and grabbing things with a purpose (usually to put the item in her mouth), which is pretty cool. The other thing she's doing recently is grabbing onto and playing with her own fingers, as seen here:



Still cute. Such a relief - every morning, I expect to wake up and see that she's begun looking like me. It's every father's worst nightmare...

We're Back! Again!

Wow - taking care of a baby is a lot of work. Just realized that I haven't posted in a month! We've had family in town two weekends ago, then went to California last weekend. Apart from that, we've had lots of free time. Updates to come . . .

Back from the Doctor!

Izzy's two-month checkup was today. 12 pounds, 7 ounces and two feet tall.

She was totally healthy when she got to the doctor, but then they gave her a round of immunizations: polio, diptheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B, and some other stuff. So now she's FDR, but with lockjaw. Not a pretty sight.

Actually, she's still cute...

Happy Birthday, Isabelle!

Yes, that's right. It's Izzy's two-month birthday.

She's like a totally different person now. 'Cause she's so old.

Here's what she looks like in a bear suit...

Everyone's Tired

People keep asking us how we're doing, and the answer is always the same: we're doing great, but we're really tired. I'm not getting enough sleep, and Ming-Hsuan is getting even less. That's because I'm a deep sleeper, while Ming-Hsuan wakes up pretty much any time Izzy makes a noise. That, and she's an integral part of the nighttime feedings, whereas I am merely a sleepy onlooker. When I was on leave, I would take care of the baby in the morning so that Ming-Hsuan could catch up on sleep, but now she's on her own in the morning.

We've already read a couple of books in an attempt to learn how to make Izzy sleep at night. One of them was really easy -- it said to ignore her cries until she gives up. Now, that sounds pretty convenient. But we hate to see Izzy cry for even a few minutes, and this book was telling us that she might cry for 30-45 minutes. We don't want to spoil Izzy, but we're not capable of letting her cry that long. So, on to book #2.

The second book seems much less structured, basically offering a lot of solutions for getting babies to sleep. Some of it's pretty basic - put her in her crib before she falls asleep, work on developing sleep cues, etc. Useful stuff, but she's not sleeping through the night just yet.

And neither are we...

We're Back, Baby!

Okay, so tonight officially marks the last night of my paternity leave. Back to work tomorrow, so that seemed like the best reason I could think of to get back to blogging.

For now, I'm just going to say hello and fill you all in on pictures for the last 8 weeks. You'll find those below (with approximate dates)-- read them from bottom to top.

New posts to follow!

Last One!

Deep in Reflection

Izzy (still looking a bit frog-like) contemplating what the future may hold. And also getting ready to sneeze.

Laughing Buddha

This picture is one of the first in a series where one of us falls asleep, then the other puts Izzy on top of the sleeping spouse and takes a picture. Nice.

Compare this picture with the actual Laughing Buddha:

Stretch!

Hey, you'd be stretching too, if you'd just slept for three days. Except at 3 in the morning of course. Wide awake then.

Sleeping Baby

Seriously, does this baby do anything but sleep? Wake up! Get a job!

Daddy and Baby

I assure you, this baby is fine. Just sleeping. A lot.

Enter Fat Baby

This is about the time that Izzy entered her Marlon Brando stage. Seriously, ask her a favor on the day of her daughter's wedding. She can't say no!

Bath Time

That's pretty cute. This is not the time she pooped on me while we were toweling off. That was a different time. I did not like it.

Grandma and Baby

Izzy with my mom, who we're teaching Izzy to call "White Grandma."

Mommy Cleans Up a Little

Lookin' good, Mommy. Lookin' good.

Local Baby Takes Nap

Yawn

I cannot begin to understand how someone who sleeps all day can still get tired.

To clarify, I'm talking about Izzy.

Behold! Baby Elvis.

This picture brings together two of our favorite baby-related activities -- posing Izzy to look like she's sitting up on her own and taking embarassing pictures of her.

Genetics, Be Damned!

This baby is substantially cuter than her father. Eat it, Gregor Mendel!

Daddy Crosses a Line

Jealous of the mother-baby bond brought on by nursing, Daddy tests Izzy's latch in a less conventional way.

Already Tired of All the Pictures

Napping on Mommy

I believe this is the alien-headedest this baby ever looked. I want to believe.

Izzy "Smiles" for the Camera

One of many "smiles" we've caught with our camera. Welcome to the digital camera age, people. We take 700 pictures, 3 make it onto the blog. The rest get deleted.

Somebody Shaved Daddy's Head!

When not staring at Daddy's head, also note how very small Izzy was. Aww...

At Home - New Year's Eve

You can see in this shot how frog-legged Izzy was for a few weeks after she was born. That's our little breech baby!

Coming Home

Morning at the Hospital

At the Hospital

The Rest of the Whole Story

After we made the decision to have the C-section, we were placed "in line" for the OR. This did not really mean that we were standing in line, but rather that we were next -- something like an airplane taxiing on the runway. I was given scrubs to put on, they ran a couple of more tests on us, and then we were out the door. They took Ming-Hsuan into the OR to give her the epidural, which would allow her to stay awake during the surgery. I wasn't allowed to go back there because some father once passed out while watching his wife get the epidural, cracked his head, and then everyone got sued. So now, fathers can't go back until the epidural has taken effect and the surgery is more or less ready to begin.

I sat outside for about 20 minutes waiting for them to prep Ming-Hsuan for the surgery. Even though C-sections are the most commonly-performed surgical procedure in this country, I was still pretty scared about it. Eventually, they called me into the room, where Ming-Hsuan was laying down on her back with her arms spread out on either side. She was wearing a hair covering and had the shakes, a common but very unpleasant side effect of epidural anesthesia. The surgical team had put up some kind of divider so that we couldn't see what was happening. I wanted to stand up and watch the procedure (the divider was only 5 feet high or so), but I was not allowed to do that.

During the surgery, Ming-Hsuan could feel the tugging, pushing, and pressure of the surgery, but could not feel any pain. Ming-Hsuan found this sensation odd and very uncomfortable. Her shakes also continued through the procedure -- suffice to say, Ming-Hsuan did not like the C-section at all. Shortly after the baby was fully extracted from Ming-Hsuan's uterus, they said I could stand up to see it. They had made a point not to tip us off as to the gender, and I got to tell Ming-Hsuan that we had a little baby girl. The OR nurses brought Izzy over to a table in the corner of the room to check her vitals and clean her up. I was able to come over with them and get a few good shots of our little girl.

After they were done cleaning her, they weighed and measured her (she was 20 inches and 7 lbs 5 oz) and then let me bring her over to see Ming-Hsuan, who was still being operated on. The doctors took out the placenta and began stitching her up while one of the nurses took some pictures with our camera.

After a little while, Isabelle was off to the nursery for her initial checkup and bath. Because Ming-Hsuan was still being stitched up, I went with the baby to the nursery so it wouldn't be alone so early in its life. Unfortunately, I didn't get the camera back from the OR nurse and wasn't allowed to go back inside the OR, so the 90 minutes I spent in the nursery are doomed to go down the memory hole someday.

Izzy did pretty well in the nursery. She was crying forcefully, which is good for her little lungs (because it helps to clear out any residual amniotic fluid). Her little fingers were gripping tight onto my finger, another good sign. Her color was pink except for her hands and feet, which were grey for the first 6-12 hours. Her temperature was normal, which is good, because babies often experience a drop in body temperature after birth. Overall, she had good APGAR scores, indicating that her health was good coming out of the womb.

There were two bad things about being in the nursery. One was that I was in there for nearly an hour before I got any word about Ming-Hsuan's condition coming out of surgery. I had read that C-sections usually only take around 45 minutes total, so I was getting pretty worried around 1:15 (Izzy was born at 12:19). Needless to say, I was very much relieved when my mom came to the window to tell me that Ming-Hsuan was back in the room and doing fine. The other problem was that Izzy wanted to nurse the whole 90 minutes we were in there. She held her mouth open, she made sucking sounds, she even grabbed my finger and began sucking on the back of my knuckle. Surprisingly, no milk came out. Anyway, I was relieved when we were allowed to leave the nursery and get Izzy to her mommy for the real thing.

After we were back in the room, our parents all went home and Ming-Hsuan nursed Izzy for a couple of hours to varying degrees of success. Around 3:30 in the morning, we were moved to our room and settled in for the next few days.

Half of the Whole Story

Okay, so this is going to be a long post. Prepare yourself. Here's half of the whole birth story, more or less, from my perspective...

Christmas morning, Ming-Hsuan wakes up telling me that she's starting to have some pain with her contractions, and thinks she might be going into labor. As we said before, these contractions started off being pretty mild (so I'm told) and lasting only about 30 seconds or so. As soon as I heard this, we started packing the suitcase for the hospital (something we hadn't done yet). After timing the contractions for a while and getting comfortable that they weren't too far along, we woke up and opened presents with my mom, who was in town for Christmas. After we opened our presents, we called to check in with Dr. Tchabo, who confirmed that it was too early to worry about going to the hospital yet. He said to call back when the contractions were closer to 3-5 minutes apart. So, we waited.

Ming-Hsuan's parents came over shortly after they heard that she was having contractions, and they spent the day with us, too. We watched Christmas movies and listened to Christmas music. We played games and Ming-Hsuan and I took a nap in the afternoon. All very exciting. Throughout the day, Ming-Hsuan was having what she called moderate contractions. They were enough to stop her in whatever she was doing, enough that they hurt, but they weren't really getting any stronger as time went on. Sometimes they would be 5 minutes apart, but then the next two would be 12 or 17 minutes apart. So the progress was very uneven and often illusory. We talked to Dr. Tchabo again around noon (he called us that time), and he again told us to wait longer. We ate lunch, then an early dinner.

Around 5:30, we called Dr. Tchabo again, and this time he finally told us to come in. So off to the hospital we went, stuffed with ham and carrying all our bags. We arrived at the hospital, settled into our delivery room, and waited. Ming-Hsuan was hooked up to a number of different machines: one strapped to her stomach to measure her contractions, another strapped to her stomach to measure Izzy's heart rate, another to measure Ming-Hsuan's blood pressure, another to measure Ming-Hsuan's heart rate, and another to measure Ming-Hsuan's oxygen levels. Ming-Hsuan was not happy about this, but that's what happens at the hospital.

Early readings showed that Ming-Hsuan's blood pressure was up, which had not previously been a problem at any point in the pregnancy. The nurses called Dr. Tchabo, who told them to observe Ming-Hsuan a little longer to see whether the contractions got closer together or more powerful, and to keep an eye on her blood pressure. Based on what the nurses were saying, it sounded like they thought that if things didn't progress, we would probably be sent home for the night.

Then, around 11:00, another doctor came in to talk to us about what we wanted to do. His name was Dr. Martinez, and he told us that Dr. Tchabo was out for the night, and that he wasn't coming in until the morning. Because of Ming-Hsuan's high blood pressure, he wasn't comfortable discharging us, which meant that we had two options: wait until the morning to see whether there was more progress, or have a C-section that night.

We had not discussed this with anyone before this point, but we were already leaning towards having a C-section before Ming-Hsuan went into labor. While we were encouraged by Dr. Tchabo's enthusiasm and confidence, we were scared about attempting the vaginal breech birth, and the general feeling was that we would only try it if all the pieces were falling into place -- that is, if labor was progressing quickly, if all the other health indicators were favorable, and if Dr. Tchabo himself were there to do the delivery. Now none of those things were in place -- we had a different doctor, Ming-Hsuan's blood pressure was now way up, and labor seemed to be puttering along after 15 hours. Rather than waiting another 12 hours to see what might happen when Dr. Tchabo arrived at the hospital, we decided it was best to have the C-section.

Our New Baby

Good mornining everyone! Isabelle Yang-Wei Elders was born this morning at 12:19 a.m. She is 7 lbs 5 oz, 20 inches. Everyone is doing great. More pictures, stories and more to follow. But now we sleep!

Here We Go . . .

Ming-Hsuan woke up this morning with mild (but real) contractions. They don't hurt very much, but she's feeling a little pain. They're only 45 seconds or so long, and they're still more than ten minutes apart. When we called the doctor this morning, he said that it was too early to go to the hospital and that we should call back when the contractions were more like 3-5 minutes apart. Sounds like today (or tomorrow) might be the day!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Check in here for more updates!

Back to the Doctor

Saw Dr. Tchabo this morning. While we were sitting in the waiting room, Ming-Hsuan's mucous plug came out. This is the material that holds the cervix closed, meaning that Ming-Hsuan's cervix has officially begun dilating. The expulsion of the mucous plug is sometimes also known as the "bloody show," which sometimes signals the beginning of labor. Ming-Hsuan isn't in labor yet, but her practice contractions continue, and she's becoming more internally aware of them. She's starting to feel stretching in her stomach and uterus, which is another sign that she's progressing towards labor.

Anyway, the doctor had good things to say. He said Ming-Hsuan's cervix is 90% effaced, meaning that she's more or less ready to give birth whenever Frosty decides he/she wants out. Ming-Hsuan's cervix is one centimeter dilated, which is not very much, but the baby is low enough that Dr. Tchabo could feel the baby's bottom during the internal examination.

This is looking more and more like a 2007 baby, people.

The Burning

We've been trying for a few weeks now to get little Frosty to flip over and get his/her head down. Thus far, all our efforts have been fruitless. It looks like Frosty's little bottom is lodged too deep in Ming-Hsuan's pelvis for Frosty to be able to flip over. We've been going to the chiropractor a few times a week, which has helped Ming-Hsuan's back pain, but hasn't turned Frosty over.

Another thing that we've done is go to an accupuncturist in Tyson's Corner. While he does use a few needles here and there, that's not the technique that's really intended to move the baby. That's something called moxibustion, which is a technique where a special herb is burned over a specific point on Ming-Hsuan's little toe. Sound crazy? Yeah, it sounded that way to me, too. But Ming-Hsuan reports that the baby moves like crazy when they do the moxibustion. Seems like the burning might flip Frosty over if Frosty weren't lodged in the pelvis, but it hasn't worked so far.

If those techniques don't work, we're going to have to take some more severe steps. I've got a bungee cord hooked up off of our fourth-floor balcony. Maybe that will shake that thing loose...

Tummy Tightening

So, here's a new development. Ming-Hsuan's uterus has been practicing for a little while now -- what doctors call Braxton-Hicks contractions. It's basically her uterus warming up and preparing for labor. This doesn't mean that she's about to go into labor, but it does mean that the big day is getting closer!

Nursery Progress!

Hey, everybody! Here are a few new pictures of the nursery. We finished up switching out all the electrical stuff (outlets and switches) over the weekend. We also put together the mobile over the crib, along with the diaper genie and the baby clothes hamper. I'm not going to say that we're "ready" an any real sense to have a baby in our midst, but we're putting up a pretty good front, I'd say...

Once More, Into the Breech...

So, the big decision we're facing now is whether to attempt a vaginal breech delivery or to have a C-section. We have another appointment with Dr. Tchabo on Monday morning, at which point we will barrage him with questions about breech delivery. We're also waiting on breech books we ordered from Amazon earlier this week. In the meanwhile, we're doing a lot of online reading (doctors, midwives, medical journals -- you name it) and talking to mothers who had breech babies. Basically, we're trying to gather as much information as possible about this decision.

In the end, the most important information to us is whether or not Ming-Hsuan is a good candidate for vaginal breech birth. It looks like the most important factors for determining whether vaginal breech delivery is safe are the experience of the doctor and the suitability of the patient. We know that Dr. Tchabo is experienced, so the big question is whether Frosty is in the right position. This is more than just the physical position -- we know Frosty is a frank breech, which is the optimal breech position. It also includes issues like the approximate weight of the baby, whether the umbilical cord is positioned correctly, and head attitude. Head attitude refers to the angle of the head to the body -- you want the head to be looking forward or down (chin tucked towards the chest), not up. If the baby's head is up, called "stargazing" in some of the literature, vaginal delivery is considerably riskier. We need to know a lot more about how our little Frosty is situated before we can make our decision.

Long story short, we're still gathering information. Hopefully, we'll know more next week.

A Big Day

Today is a very big day, both for Ming-Hsuan and our little Frosty. First of all, today was Ming-Hsuan's last day at work. She will be taking a few weeks of vacation she had left over in 2007, then beginning her maternity leave. This is a big relief because now she will have more time to rest at home, which is much-needed at this point. We're hoping that this will allow her to relax, something that has been hard for her lately between work, birth classes, holiday stuff, and more. Freeing her up from work responsibilities should also make it a lot easier for her to get some extra sleep, which will be great.

We're also excited because today was the 37 week mark, meaning that little Frosty is now officially full-term. That means that the baby is now fully developed and ready to be born. Now, by no means does that mean that this baby is coming this or next week, but it means that if it did come, it would be physically developed enough to be born without any problems.

So, we're still three weeks from our due date, but we've entered what some pregnancy books would call our "due month." This is a good perspective, because the due date is basically complete speculation. Our due month has begun, meaning that the next post could be the one saying we're off to the hospital!

Nothing Happens

Yep. That's right. Nothing is happening. It seems like a thousand things are about to happen all at once, but right now, nothing. We put up our Christmas tree. There's that. Uh . . . Ming-Hsuan made some cookies. Those were good. Ming-Hsuan is laying upside down again, our hope that Frosty will flip having been renewed by our midwives. We're talking a lot about the possibility of a vaginal breech delivery, but it feels like a lot of talking but not much information. So we still have a lot to learn, and we're basically in a holding pattern for now. And nervous. Very nervous and worried. Whee!

Back to the Doctors

Now that we know our little Frosty is breech, we are no longer midwife-eligible. That means we're switching caregivers again! At this point, I should definitely have some kind of intro for announcements that we're switching caregivers -- maybe some kind of theme music or some graphics that run across the bottom of the screen.

We met with Dr. Tchabo this morning. He's a very friendly, easy-going guy, and we liked him right away. He initially did an exam to try to determine whether it might be possible to turn our little Frosty around. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for him to tell us that baby is not going anywhere. Its little butt is jammed so deep into Ming-Hsuan's pelvis that he's not coming out, basically no matter what we do. That means we're not going to be trying the ECV, nor will there be anymore inverted slant board exercises or acupuncture (though Ming-Hsuan may go back to that chiropractor -- her back is feeling way better).

Basically, the only question left is whether we're going to try to deliver this baby or just elect to have a C-section instead. Dr. Tchabo seemed very much at home with the thought of delivering little Frosty. He explained the process, which includes the use of a special type of forceps to ensure that when the head comes out, it's at the right angle. He confirmed that there are no issues about the cord getting in the way of the birth, which is a good thing. Basically, he would deliver the butt, then the legs, then each shoulder, and then the head.

The biggest concern, I think, is that babies are often breech for a reason: the umbilical cord is too short, the uterus is shaped in an unusual way, or some other physiological abnormality. If it's one of these things, then the baby isn't turning over for a reason. If that's the case, then we're eventually going to have a C-section no matter what we do. Because of that, the doctors aren't going to administer any drugs to induce or encourage labor or to speed labor if it starts (e.g., pitocin).

Our philosophy has always been that we want to avoid an unnecessary C-section, since this was a normal, routine birth. That's basically out the window now. C-section is a real possibility now, and one of the things we're going to be thinking about in the next few weeks is whether we should be choosing to have an elective C-section to avoid having to go through an emergency one eventually.

More information

Quick update -- we spoke with our midwives again, and they told us to do everything we can to try to turn the baby. So Ming-Hsuan is spending a lot of time this weekend laying inverted at a 45 degree angle and turning herself upside down in the pool. We saw a chiropractor this morning, which was good for Ming-Hsuan's lower back pain, but didn't turn the baby just yet. Yeah, I know -- acupuncture and chiropractics? But we're setting aside all our normal skepticism and seeing what works. So we're going back to the chiropractor on Tuesday morning.

In other news, we've got an appointment with Dr. Tchabo first thing Monday morning. Hopefully, he'll be able to give us some guidance and expertise on this whole thing. So nothing big in store for tomorrow, but much more next week.

Much News. Some Bad, Some Good.

So, let's begin with the bad news. We got another sonogram this afternoon, and it confirmed that our little Frosty is breech. Needless to say, that's bad news. For one thing, it means that, unless the baby turns, we will not be able to have our birth at Birthcare or with any other midwives. For another, it creates a number of concerns about our plan to have a natural childbirth. Lastly, it may substantially increase the odds of a C-Section. All of that is bad news.

Other bad news is that little Frosty appears to be engaged deep in Ming-Hsuan's pelvic bone. This is bad because it reduces the chances that anyone would be able to turn little Frosty over into the proper "vertex" position. There are a number of techniques for turning a breech baby: chiropractic techniques, acupuncture, laying in an inverted position, water pressure, and much more. The most promising medical technique is ECV (External Cephalic Version), in which a doctor attempts to manually manipulate Frosty into a head-down position. However, all of these techniques are much less likely to be successful if the baby is too engaged in the mother's pelvis. We're going to try, but the odds may be against us.

That's the bad news. Here's a little good news to offset it. First, the baby is in the frank breech position, meaning that it's butt-down and head and feet up. This is good because it is easily the safest breech position for vaginal delivery. The main concern about breech delivery is that the umbilical cord will get pulled down into the birth canal and be pinched by the baby during the delivery, cutting off the flow of oxygen to the baby. During a normal birth, the baby's head is lodged down by the birth canal, preventing the cord from getting by. Similarly, in a frank breech birth, the butt blocks up the birth canal much like the head would normally. So there's still some hope that we may be able to avoid the C-Section if we can't turn Frosty over.

Second, the doctor who we will be working with is Dr. Tchabo, a specialist in breech delivery and ECV. We're trying to set up an appointment with him for next week. Hopefully, he'll be able to tell us whether ECV is possible and/or advisable. If so, he'll do one. If not, then he'll advise us whether a vaginal delivery is possible and/or advisable. If so, he'll try to deliver the baby at a hospital.

That's what we know so far. Things are going to happen pretty quickly over the next couple of weeks, so we'll try to keep everyone updated.

One Month to Go . . . Sorta . . .

That's right, people -- Ming-Hsuan has "officially" hit the eight-month mark, meaning that our little Frosty is celebrating his/her minus-first-month birthday in there. And if you were looking at Ming-Hsuan's stomach, you could even see it. That's right, Frosty is now big enough that you can occasionally see him/her moving in there. Pretty cool.

Of course, we're pretty focused on the countdown right now. Call it a month left, call it 31 days, call it 4 1/2 weeks, whatever. We're counting every day. But let's take a second to realize something: the date we're counting down to is completely made up. We've been told January 4th, we've been told the second, and for about ten minutes during one of our visits in August, they kept telling us the date was December 28. One woman in our birthing class had her due date moved up 10 days last week! So really, this whole thing is pretty misleading, or at best, totally speculative.

That said, we're not gonna stop counting.

Birth Assistants (and Reality Sets In)

We met our birth assistants today. What's a birth assistant, you might ask? At our birth, there will be four people in the room basically at all times: Ming-Hsuan, me, the midwife, and the birth assistant. The birth assistants are not usually midwives, but they are trained and experienced in assisting midwives. For those of you who remember the SAT, the best analogy is that birth assistants are to midwives what nurses are to doctors. Anyway, our birth will only have one birth assistant, but we met a team of three today, one of which will be at our birth, depending on what day the baby is born. All three of them were great -- they seemed very knowledgeable, friendly, and nice. For some reason, I kept expecting them to be young women, but they were all older than we were -- each of them has married children, to give some perspective.

Anyway, they seem great. One other thing worth noting is that if we have to transfer from our midwives to a hospital birth before Ming-Hsuan goes into labor, the birth assistant will come with us if we want. If something happens during labor that requires a transfer to the hospital, the midwives would go with us, but if we're required to transfer care before labor (e.g., if the baby is breech), then the midwives can't be a part of the birth. So for that reason, it's nice to have the birth assistant, too.

One other thing I just noticed: It's December. Seriously. December. Now, I've always loved December. December means snow, and Christmas, and warm apple cider, and Christmas movies, and seeing the family, and presents, and football, and pine smell inside the house. So that's all fine and good. Hooray for December! It's one of our better months.

But this year, something much more sinister is lurking. Catherine pointed out today that Frosty could be born this month! That's crazy. I can't speak for Ming-Hsuan, but I'm clearly not prepared for this. I need some more time here. Maybe we should postpone this whole baby thing until the first day of Spring -- you know, birds are singing, flowers are blooming, all that crap . . . [listening to earpiece] . . . and I'm being told that can't be done. SO, it appears that it's almost baby time. The realization of how soon the baby could be born is daunting, but at the same time, I don't feel like there are all these big things that we still have to do. And yet we're completely unprepared. Go figure.

Nursery Progress

Exciting things are happening in the room you people used to sleep in when you came to visit us. The guest room has now become the nursery, in all its canary yellow glory. We tore down wallpaper, gave away furniture, and painted until our hands were bloody stumps. Add in the new crib, changing table, and our old dresser, and we've very nearly got ourselves a fully-furnished room. Very exciting!

We'll have a bit more for you as things continue to progress, but here's a sneak peek at some of our new furnishings in action. Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Upside-Down Baby?

Ming-Hsuan is now 33 weeks pregnant, meaning she's got something like 7 to go. Up to this point, Frosty has been small enough that s/he could move around pretty freely in the womb, changing position every few hours. But that's all going to change soon. We're nearing the point where little Frosty is going to become too big to flip over or move all that much at all. So it now becomes important that Frosty gets in the right position to be born.

Generally, babies are born headfirst, facing down (i.e., facing away from you if you're in front of mom). Around this time in the pregnancy, Frosty should be assuming that position. It might not be today or this week, but it should be pretty soon. But so far, it feels like Frosty's head is still pretty high up - slightly above Ming-Hsuan's belly button. If Frosty doesn't cooperate and we have to have a breech birth (and we've already seen a pattern of stubborn behavior from this fetus - shocking, considering its parents), then we'll have to move to a hospital and face an increased chance of complications.

To put this all in perspective, it's really too early for us to be worrying about this. Only 4-6% of all births are breech, and Frosty is still moving around plenty, so there's lots of time for him/her to get that head down. The midwives tell us not to worry about this stuff until 36 weeks or so. Also, our midwives say that if breech positioning is still a concern at 36 weeks, we'll go to see a doctor (yes, that's right, a doctor) who "turns" babies manually, and may be able to get Frosty into the right position.

Really, the concern is not an upside-down baby, so much as a baby that is *not* upside down. But really, it's just something else to worry about. Which is nice.

Guess Who's Changing Caregivers Again?

Well, since this entire blog is about our preparations for having this baby, I guess that's really more of a rhetorical question. Anyhoo, after a lot of thought, research, and discussion, we've decided to have little Frosty in a non-hospital setting. We've chosen to have Frosty delivered by the midwives at Birthcare, a birth center in Alexandria. They've been delivering babies for 20 years, and we're very excited about putting little Frosty in their hands.

So, let's get on with the questions. Why have our baby outside a hospital? Well, I think the answer to that question is a little different for each of us.

For Ming-Hsuan, I think this decision is really about her dedication to having a natural childbirth. We are concerned that hospitals discourage natural childbirth by directing women's birth according to the hospital and doctor's schedule, rather than the baby's schedule. Ming-Hsuan feels very comfortable with the midwives at Birthcare and feels that they will offer her the supportive environment she's looking for.

For me, it's really more about avoiding a c-section for Ming-Hsuan. The c-section rate in America is over 30% these days, which I find incomprehensible. The rest of the developed world manages to keep their rates between 10 and 15%, which is approximately the rate for first-time mothers at Birthcare (the rate for recidivist mothers is below 5%). I can only speculate as to why American OBs do c-sections in twice as many pregnancies as those in other countries, but it seems like a systemic problem that I'm hoping to avoid with the midwives.

Of course, if there's any risk to the baby, we'll make our way up the street to Alexandria Inova. But Ming-Hsuan is young and healthy, so there's no reason to expect that medical intervention should be necessary.

Anyway, we're very excited about the change, though it's a big one. Our second appointment is Tuesday morning, so we'll be back with more information about the baby after that.

Baby Shower

Last Saturday was our baby shower. Our friends Dan and Catherine hosted, planning a baby-themed Price is Right game and a onesie station that apparently was inspired by an episode of the Gilmore Girls. This is a public setting, so I won't get into who's watching the Gilmore Girls or why. But you know who you are.

For those who don't watch the CW, the idea behind the onesie station is that everyone designs a onesie for little Frosty to wear, and the winner got a prize. There were a number of very strong entries, but the winner was made by the team of Sharon, Mark, and Rich. What can I say? We like monkeys.

Ming-Hsuan's parents brought noodles and dumplings, my Mom brought the cake and cookies, and a great time was had by all. Thanks to everyone who helped make the shower happen and everyone who came.

The weird thing about the shower, though, is how real it makes this whole baby thing. I mean, it's always been real, but now we've got an empty room, filled with baby clothes and furniture. Now all we're waiting for is little Frosty to come and fill them up. Personally, I feel like we could use more time to get things in order, but I think Ming-Hsuan is now reaching the point where she's ready to have that baby...

Hello, Everyone!

Well, it's been a very busy week. Since the last post, we've (mostly) painted the nursery, had a baby shower, changed caregivers (again!), and much more. Daddy's got a three-day weekend in front of him, so there will be a lot more to read in the coming days.

PS: Yes, I am now referring to myself as "Daddy" in the third person. I also have a sweet fur hat with a feather.

PPS: Ming-Hsuan informs me that I've been calling myself "Daddy" in the third person since long before she was pregnant. Who knew? Well, at least it'll be true soon . . .

For Jerks Who Don't Like Reading . . .

Here's a quick-reference list of the name finalists:

BOYS
Calvin
Franklin
Harrison
Jack
Zachary

GIRLS
Amelia
Isabelle
Kate
Samantha
Zoe

Now, the Girl Names

(This is the third part of a three-part series of posts. If you read this without reading the first two below, it would be like seeing Godfather III without having seen Godfathers I and II. Which would be the worst thing anyone had ever done. Cinematically.)

Yeah, yeah, so the American Idol thing was fun, and was worth a few laughs. Then, let's be honest, it went on a little long, the joke got a little stale, etc. So we'll put Seacrest back in the closet for a while and do the girl names without the hoopla.

So first, the names that are out: Chloe, Dylan, Maggie, Riley, and Sophia. All nice names, but none really drew much interest except Chloe. Chloe, in the end, lost out to Zoe. There's no shame in that. Here are the finalists:

Amelia was an early favorite of Ming-Hsuan's. It was buoyed for me by a number of available nicknames (Amy, Mia) that made it a little more accessible. It rolls nicely off the tongue, but doesn't work with the last name as well as some of the others. Still, it's very pretty, and one of the more feminine names left.

We've liked Isabelle for a while now. Izzy is a fun nickname, though Ming-Hsuan is a little concerned about being associated with the hot blonde on Grey's Anatomy. I'm more worried about the Cardinals' oft-ineffective reliever. Either way, it's a cool name, and I think we shouldn't be too focused on who else has it.

Kate was my favorite in the early going, and I still like it a lot. It's a nickname unto itself, but still could work as an adult name. I like its strength and personality. Ming-Hsuan has never really been inspired by it (she says it's a little "too cutesy"), but I think it's growing on her.

My fixation on nicknames also explains my fondness for Samantha. Sam is a great girl nickname, going all the way back to Alyssa Milano on Who's the Boss. I don't know what our position is on the whole Sex and the City thing. Anyhoo, it's another bold name, and one that has strong support from both Mommy and Daddy.

Last comes Zoe, which seems appropriate. If we have a daughter named Zoe, she'll be last in a lot of lines in school. But it's also a name that won't be associated with wall-flowers. When I think of Zoe, I think of a girl who defies boundaries. Ming-Hsuan thinks it's a little too girly, which goes to show how differently two people can perceive the same name.

And We're Back!

(This is a continuation from the post below. If you don't read the previous post first, it'll be like seeing Home Alone 2 without seeing Home Alone. How will you ever keep up?)

I hope everyone will take a moment to calm down -- I know the Ford commercial featuring the 20 baby names was very exciting, but it's time to get back to our results show. We have three sets of names awaiting their fates tonight: Dean and Felix, Zachary and Franklin, and Nicholas and Wade.

Nicholas, you've got a fine pedigree, from Nick Lachey to Saint Nicklaus. Wade, you wowed the judges early with your one-syllable, in-your-face style. Unfortunately, you both failed the "someday this baby is going to be older than a teenager" test. Tonight, your journey ends.

Dean and Felix, you had a lot of support and a lot of detractors. I don't think anyone has gotten a stronger reaction from the audience, both in the studio and at home, than you, Felix. Unfortunately, the negatives have caught up with the positives, and you're both going home tonight, too. Thank you both for a magical ride.

That leaves you, Zachary and Franklin. Welcome to the final ten. Please join Jack, Calvin, and Harrison.

Baby Name Update!

That's right, it's the moment that a few of you have been waiting for. Call the press, set your TiVos to Season Pass. It's time to announce the finalists for Baby Idol.

First, the boys.

Cameron, Cole, Cooper, please step down there next to Seacrest. It's been a magical journey for all of you. We've gotten to know you, your family, and your pets. But tonight, your journey ends here. [Cue annoying song sung by previous Baby Idol winner . . .]

Calvin, Harrison, Jack, come on down. Calvin, you sang "You light up my life." Randy said it was "awesome, dog." Paula blabbered some nonsense about lifting her spirit. Simon said he's heard better singing from an unfertilized egg. America voted . . . and they agree with Paula. Probably. Anyway, you've advanced.

Harrison, you share a name with two presidents and with the guy who played Han Solo. Welcome to the final ten.

Jack, the judges have really liked you since the first time they heard you. But recently, other names have shown us a little more than you have. Simon criticized you last week for being "no more than a nickname." Ouch. But America voted, and Jack, you . . . will . . . be . . . joining Calvin and Harrison in the final ten.

The remaining boys have been broken up into three pairs: Dean and Felix, Zachary and Franklin, Nicholas and Wade. Four of you are going home. Two of you are going to the final ten. And we'll tell you who is who . . . after the break.

So It Begins

That's right. We're starting to paint the nursery. The walls are a disaster, so we had to spackle and sand before anything could be done. We're also selling off all the furniture from the office on craigslist, which is taking a while. But we are making some progress -- we actually applied a coat of primer today. To one wall. And then ran out of primer.

So, tomorrow means more primer. Awesome. Really looking forward to that. Here's a picture of Ming-Hsuan's Halloween costume. Aww...

Baby Name Upheaval

You know how on reality TV shows they bring back crazy ex-contestants, or bring in new contestants to rock the boat before final elimination?

We've brought in two new contenders for the boys: Calvin and Harrison (or Harry, for short)

The girls won the last challenge and are, therefore, exempt from having to compete with any additional contenders.

The judges will consider any comments submitted but will make all final decisions on who will be the next to be eliminated.

The Little Kicks

During Ming-Hsuan's second trimester, we sat quietly, hands on belly, feeling intently for any sign of baby movement. I usually had trouble distinguishing between Ming-Hsuan's heartbeats and tiny baby kicks, so the first time I was really sure that I had felt a kick was very exciting.

Things have changed. This baby is kicking up a storm, people. It kicks hard. And often. I just felt what can only be described as a flurry of kicks. The only conclusion I can reach from all this is that Frosty wants out, and s/he wants out now. More to the point, Frosty kicks at all hours of the night, keeping Ming-Hsuan awake. Of course, baby has no idea what time it is out here, never having seen night or day before. Still, I think it's a little inconsiderate. Come on, kid -- we're trying to sleep here.

Back from the Doctor's

So, the new doctor is great, which is a relief. He sat down and talked to us for 45 minutes, which is more time than we had spent with our other doctor combined. There's no health news about the baby, which is always good. The biggest news is that the doctor recalculated Ming-Hsuan's due date, which is now January 2. We're both very happy about this -- Ming-Hsuan because it's two less days of being pregnant, me because it's two days closer to that 2007 birth we're looking for. If that kid is born in 2008, I'm deducting the extra 2007 taxes from his/her eventual allowance. With interest!

We're in Chicago this weekend, marking Ming-Hsuan's last flight before the baby is born. We've also been able to spend some time with the babies in the family: Kai-Hsing, Kurt and Chia-Lun's 3-year old; and Oscar, Max and Helen's 1-year old. We have seen the future, and it involves a lot of crying and pooping.

Some Good Health News

Ming-Hsuan's one of those people who rarely fails a test. She's smart, she pays attention in class, and she studies hard. Unfortunately, none of those things helped when she failed her Glucose Test. This is one of those screens they do when you're pregnant, this one to test for Gestational Diabetes. Ming-Hsuan had to drink a bottle of very sweet red liquid, then they tested her an hour later, to see how well her body had processed the sugars (as I understand it).

Anyway, she failed the initial test. As with many of these screening tests, this did not mean that she had gestational diabetes; rather, it meant that she may be at an increased risk, and that she had to come in for more testing. Moreover, Ming-Hsuan doesn't have a lot of the risk factors for gestational diabetes, and it's manageable for those who do have it, but we were still worried.

So a couple of Saturdays later, we got up at 7 am (I guess we should be getting used to that) and went to a lab facility. Ming-Hsuan had fasted overnight, and now did three consecutive glucose tests. Each consisted of her drinking the liquid, waiting an hour, then having her blood drawn. After a full morning of drinking fruit punch and getting stuck with a needle, we went home and waited. Turns out, she's okay. The doctor says to keep an eye on her intake of simple sugars, but in the end, a false alarm.

Happy Third Trimester!

Today marks the first day of Ming-Hsuan's third (and, hopefully, final) trimester, which is very exciting. Of course, that also means that yesterday was Frosty's -3 month birthday. Lots of cause for celebration. Someone get that woman a cake!

[Now that the due date has changed, looks like Frosty really turned -3 months old two days earlier. Who knew?]

A New Doctor

One of the problems with our unsuccessful sonogram was that the practice we chose initially had too few doctors, too many patients, and too close an eye on the bottom line. As a result, we got rushed through appointments all the time (and, of course, the sonogram, too). After getting some less than supportive signals about natural childbirth and no response at all when we were trying to find out how some of our tests had come out, Ming-Hsuan finally pulled the trigger. As of tomorrow morning, Ming-Hsuan has switched doctors, which is great. Will this lead to a new sonogram and expose Frosty's secret? Stay tuned...

This is Gonna Hurt

So, you know how giving birth is a lot like pushing a watermelon through a toilet paper roll? Ming-Hsuan has made an extraordinarily brave and frightening decision to do that without the assistance of drugs or painkillers. Personally, I have a hard time getting through so much as an afternoon at work without some kind of medication, so I am in awe of this. But then again, Ming-Hsuan has a much higher threshold for pain than I do. Which, really, is not saying much.

Tonight, we had our first natural birthing class. We'll be using the Bradley Method, which is apparently one of many different ways of pushing a large object through a small hole, along with Lamaze and others. There are about 8 couples in our class, along with the teacher and a woman who's getting certified as a doula. [Yes, I've recently sorted out hyperlinks -- but hey, these are all topical.] We're getting a lot of good information, which is helpful, since our baby-having experience is still quite limited at this point.

. . . And We're Back!

After a coupla busy weeks (traveling to NYC for a wedding, a jury trial this week, doctor's appointments, and other such fun), we're back. Hope you all had some fun with the names! Now, on with the posts...

The Real Thing

You know, Ming-Hsuan and I are big fans of American Idol. (Wow. I hope no one I know is reading this.) So, in honor of that pillar of American culture, we have decided to release our top 10 boy and girl names for our little Frosty. Without any further ado, here they are:

GIRLS: Amelia, Chloe, Dylan, Isabelle, Kate, Maggie, Riley, Samantha, Sophia, Zoe

BOYS: Cameron, Cole, Cooper, Dean, Felix, Franklin, Jack, Nicholas, Wade, Zach

There they are, people. From this list will come the baby's actual life-long name. Of course, we publish this list to share it with you and to have fun talking about them. But (as noted previously) it is our God-given right as parents to completely ignore any input we may get from any of you people. This will be good practice for after the baby is born, too.

Ming-Hsuan's New Best Friend

So, apparently when you get pregnant and your belly starts to expand, it throws your hips and spine out of alignment, and your lower back starts to hurt like hell. A few weeks ago, Ming-Hsuan started to find things like standing up and walking to be really painful. At first, we thought the answer might be massage or exercises to limber up the lower back. In what will prove to be a running theme on this blog, it turns out that I had no idea what I was doing. We asked a couple of recently-pregnant women about it, and they all said the same thing.

It turns out that all that we needed to fix this problem was a body pillow, which wraps around the patient -- I mean, mother-to-be -- and apparently puts all the bones back in the right places. So anyway, this thing's been a lifesaver, and after the baby is born, I'm going to steal it for my own. And I'm also going to start wearing full-length pajamas and socks to bed.

Fake Baby Name Excitement

So, after week(s) of discussion, we have settled on a fake baby name. The direction we liked the most was something in line with the holiday season, since baby will join us oxygen-breathers sometime between Christmas and the Orange Bowl.

We considered Rudolph, Santa, Noel, and Blitzen. In the end, however, we have decided on Frosty, as in Frosty the Fetus. I can't promise that there will be a song any time soon, but now we've got something to call this kid.

Fake Baby Name

As you may know by now, Ming-Hsuan had her sonogram three weeks ago. We were very excited, thinking that this would be the day we would find out whether we were having a boy or a girl. The sonogram went on for 15 minutes or so (a bit rushed because they were "backed up" that day). We saw the head, the face, fingers, toes, the spine, legs, arms, everything. Well, almost everything.

The woman running the sonogram moved to different angles, poked, prodded, did everything she could think of, but our little baby would not move its legs apart so that we could see whether it was a boy or a girl. There are no more sonograms in the works -- we're just stuck waiting, like a bunch of suckers! What is this, 1950?

And yes, we've heard all the jokes about keeping the legs closed. Let's move on.

Now, we're trying to figure out what to call the baby. Not the real baby name, which we have months to sort out -- we're trying to decide what to call this thing. We've discussed behavior-appropriate names (Chastity, Prudence) and we've discussed androgynous names (Pat seems to be a favorite in this genre). Max and Helen have suggested Raoul for a boy and Brunhilda for a girl. So far, none of them have stuck.

So, let's get some input! What should we call this thing?

As with all input involving names, we reserve the right to ignore anything anyone says. But it's something to talk about, at least. Sure beats the hell out of work . . .

Welcome!

This is the inaugural post on Andy & Ming-Hsuan's Baby Blog. We'll be trying to post regularly to keep everyone updated on the progress of little baby . . . uh . . . well, we'll get to that. If we can figure out how this whole thing works, we'll even toss in some pictures, maybe some polls, who knows?

Of course, if any of you know anything about this stuff (i.e., blogging, or having babies, for that matter), we welcome your feedback. We look forward to sharing the baby's goings-on with everyone!

Andy & Ming-Hsuan

Happy Birthday to you, Mystery Baby!

Yes, yes, that's right. Yesterday was Mystery Baby's (yeah, I know, we need to come up with a better fake name) -4 month birthday. That is, baby is supposed to be born in 4 months, on January 4, 2008. So everyone should make a little tiny cake with
-4 candles on it and blow them out. Happy -4 months, Mystery Baby!