Equilibrium

Well, it's Anna again.  I don't know if my blog posts will be anywhere near as interesting as Nam's, but he is back to work and I finally feel like today is the first day that I can take a minute to get on the internet.  Asher is sleeping in his swing at the moment, so we will see if I can actually finish this blog post before he wakes up!

We were busy, busy this past week.  Nam's dad came to stay with us for a few days and got to spend a lot of time holding his only grandchild.  It was so neat to see, and Asher would just sit and look up at his grandpa for almost an hour at a time without fussing. I think everyone involved enjoyed it :)

Bonding for Nam's dad and Asher

They spent hours like this

Also, my sister Kim was in town for the past week helping us get adjusted to having our new little one.  She answered countless questions, completed lots of housework, made meals, snuggled with Asher for hours, and took the most awesome newborn pictures for us.  They still haven't been edited, but I will post the link to them once she completes work on them.

Aunt Kim enjoying one of many snuggle times

I'm very thankful today because we had a really good night last night.  I actually got a couple of chunks of sleep (2 hours at a time:)) and though that doesn't sound like much, it made me feel like a new woman.  Ha, ha!  I know every day will be different here for a while yet, but it does feel like for today we've reached a state of equilibrium where not everything feels like it's brand new and I don't know what I'm doing.  I feel like our little family has lived a couple months since Asher was born instead of 18 days.  But we know we are blessed with one of the sweetest little boys God could have given us.  We'll see what week 3 brings...I keep being told there are usually lots of changes around that time.  Now to look forward to my parents' visit as they arrive this coming Tuesday!!!  We are VERY excited :) 

Nam is in love with being a dad :)

Until Asher is old enough to smile, we are getting used to his frequent furrowed brows and scowls :)

STRETCH!  Look at those chubby knees!

This was the sweetest thing to see in person...made my day ~

We have named these the "crazy eyes".  He makes them a lot lately.

Asher. A week old.

Asher is back up to 7 lbs 11 oz.  That's pretty impressive considering babies need 2 weeks to get back up to birth weight.  Last night we cut the formula out of his diet now that Mama's producing enough milk.  Hopefully getting rid of formula will make his poops less stinky.  So far he's projectile-pooped on mom and peed on dad twice each (can't wait until we can use the "pee-pee teepee").  He has also picked up the habit of acting hungry after he's eaten and not wanting to sleep for longer than 1.5 hours.  We are very fortunate for all the friends and family bringing by food to keep us from going hungry.  Tomorrow night, we have a professional photographer (Kim Johnson) come in to take pictures of Asher.  She takes amazing newborn (and wedding) portraits and happens to be Asher's aunt.  We are very excited.

Sleeping in the cars seat/stroller after a walk.

This swing was a great investment.

See above.

He makes the best faces.

Pee-pee Teepee

Holding mom's hand.

 

Videos

Here are the videos I have been meaning to post:

Getting checked by the nurses:

First Bath - He has a healthy set of lungs.  It looks like the nurse is getting dangerously close to bumping him into the faucet:

Asher making cute noises:

By the way, Asher projectile-pooped on Mama.  Sorry, I don't have video of that.

NP

More wet and dirty diapers, please.

It's not often that you want dirty diapers, but for us it means that Asher is getting enough to eat and that he is clearing the bilirubin in his system.  The first night at home, we were getting up every 15 minutes to feed him.  His appetite came before his mother's milk arrived.  He did not make any dirty diapers the first night.  While he was in the hospital, he dropped from 7 lbs 13 oz to 7 lbs 6 oz which is normal, but then dropped further to 7 lbs even.  Yesterday, we went to the pediatrician and found out that he dropped even further to 6 lbs 12 oz.  At this point we were even more concerned, but the pediatrician came up with a plan that included pumping and supplementing with formula.  Last night we combined breast feeding and formula to top him off.  He was able to sleep for two hours between feedings and make 3 wet and poopy diapers.  We were happy to be disturbed by crying, because we knew he was getting healthier with each feeding and dirty diaper.  This morning we took him to the pediatrician for a weight check and are happy to report that he is up to 7 lbs 2 oz.

Mommy and Asher time.

Daddy doing his part.

Band-aid from his bilirubin test.

Finally, pics of the only one getting rest:

Videos coming soon... (as soon as I figure out how)

NP

Asher's Finally Here!

Asher Isaac Phan finally joined our family at 1:52am on March 29.  It took a total of 9 hours of active labor (1 hr waiting at home + 1 hr waiting in traffic + 7 hrs in the hospital).  Mama hurt her tail bone during the process but it was all worth it.  Enough talk, here are the pics.  

Meeting Mama for the first time.

7 pounds 13 ounces. (It's a boy.)

100% Phan

How embarrassing

Bonding with Mama

She looks awesome after just having a baby.

I'm not breast feeding, it's called "Kangeroo Carry"

Proud Papa

Benjamin Button

Kaboom!

More cuteness.

First car ride.

Phantastic Phans... minus Jaxy

NP

Is he here yet?

Nam keeps telling me I need to update the blog because people are probably wondering what’s going on with Asher.  So, to those of you who are interested in the up and down roller coaster that has been the past 4 weeks of this pregnancy, here it is :)

Has he arrived yet?  No. 

Has he pretended to come numerous times now? Yes.

Don’t get me wrong…I am extremely grateful that my pregnancy has gone so well and everything looks healthy and great as of now.  We know we are definitely blessed in that way.  However, this little stinker inside me has now given me several occasions to think that I am having contractions close enough together to go to the hospital. Of course, these occasions are usually overnight so that I am definitely losing sleep thinking about it, and have always ended in the contractions stopping after several hours.

The doctor can’t believe I’m still pregnant and proceeds to tell me this every week when I go to see him.  This doesn’t really help me in the expectations department.  I go home from every appointment feeling like I could go into labor ANY MINUTE!!!  It’s all very exciting after every appointment, then a week later I’m sitting back on the table in the office with a big, “You’re still pregnant!” from the doctor as he greets me yet again.  Haha. This probably wouldn’t feel like such a big deal to me if it hadn’t been going on now for almost 5 weeks…this thinking it could happen any day. 

Anyway, I don’t want to be too dramatic or focus on the negative.  I’ve just been thinking about this a lot today, and I know it all stems from the fact that I just really, really want to meet this little life that God’s given us. I love him so much already. So in the long run, I’m sure this all will seem as nothing and we’ll laugh about our little April Fools’ Day baby.  The mission for the rest of the day is to stop thinking of my impatience and think about why I can be overwhelmingly thankful that I have all of this to worry about in the first place. :)

Hopefully the next post on here will be with pictures of our little one!!  Thanks for those of you who have cared so much about what’s going on day to day and for asking about us.  We love that you care so much!

Here we are!

Well, I guess since we are about to have a baby, our family has officially entered the blogging world. I wonder if I will actually be good about updating this blog...I promise to try my best!  So as of today, I am now 38+ weeks pregnant. Our little Asher has been pretending to be ready to come into this world for 4 weeks now, so who knows if I will go into labor early or late.  SO, in the meantime I've been busying myself at home getting everything ready for Asher's arrival while Nam has been working, at times, long hours.

Nam is definitely even more impatient than me to meet his son.  It's the most heart-warming thing to watch how excited he gets about it, and I am so excited to see him step into the "dad" role.  He's a natural already  :)  Here are some pictures of what I've been up to at home and what we have just been up to in general lately:

Asher's room: his new crib, crib set, and the adorable coat rack that our friend Keri made for him

We love our crib set that reminds us of the Clarks who got it for us :)

A couple of weekends ago, some great friends of mine threw us a baby shower.  I had such a good time!

Nam and I just attended Nam's cousin Kim's wedding. It was beautiful, and we were glad Asher waited to come so we didn't miss it! 

This is a quick pic took at 38 weeks 3 days.