Baby Apple

Sara has been sick this past week.  She has a cold.  Her nose is all stuff up and she has a hacking cough.  I think it’s harder on the parents.  Every time she coughs or has a hard time breathing, we cringe.  It so hard to watch her struggle and not able to do anything.  Other than the cold, she’s doing well.  Well, she had some baby acne but it’s going away now.  She’s 10 and a half pounds now and growing fast.  Some of her onesie are tight now.

Here are some pictures from the past week.

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Sometimes Sara just hangs out in her swing.

My night shift isn’t always easy.

Sara taking a bath.  She loves the warm water.

Our little baby is one whole month now. I can’t believe it’s been a month. Mommy’s had a hard time adjusting to everything. Thank God that daddy’s been so awesome helping with everything. She’s growing and feels heavier already. She has her 6 week appointment in 2 weeks so we’ll see how much she weighs then.  Her newborn clothes are starting to get tight.   Here’s a couple pictures of her during the past week. Happy 1 Month Apple!

We forgot to announce the winner.  The winner is Auntie Kay.  She got the closest at 7 lbs and 14 ounces.  Brian was pretty close too at 8 lbs even but he went over.  Auntie Kay wins a day with Apple by herself.  She gets to feed her, change her and play with her for a whole day.  Yay, Auntie Kay!!!  Just kidding.  She gets a gift certificate to Starbucks but we heard she fixed won the Superbowl pool so we might have to take the Starbucks for ourselves.  :)

It’s been three weeks now.  I think it was a tough one for Jenn because there was nobody to help her this week.  Somehow she survived.  :)  Sara has her good days and her bad days.  She can go a whole day sleeping and just crying a little bit to let us know she’s hungry or wet.  However, if she’s good in the daytime, we know that that night we are in store for a restless one.  When she sleeps, she looks so peaceful like a little angel.  Then when she’s mad, her face turns bright red.

Sara is growing every day.  She feels heavier every time I pick her up.  My favorite outfit, the one the says, “Favorite Things … Daddy.. Hugs.. Kisses” is getting tight on her.  I guess I have to find a new favorite outfit.  

Today we watched the Superbowl.  Daddy sat on his Lazy Boy and Sara sat on lazy dad.    Pittsburgh beat Arizona in the last couple of seconds to win.  I can’t wait until she’s old enough so I can take her to a live sporting event.  We’ll be going to some Kings games.

Here are some pictures from the last three weeks.

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Here’s a couple of things that happened on Sara’s birth date.

• Sara is born in the year of the Earth Rat like her daddy.
• The cost of bread is about $1.59.
• The cost for a gallon of gas is $1.87.  However back in July 2008, it was as high as $4.10.
• The US median sales price of a home is $220,400 and the average sales price is $287,500.
• The median home price for Orange County, CA is $480,00.
• The US population is about 305,685,813.  The population of the world is about 6,756,290,718.
• We have our first African American president, Barack Obama.  The previous president was George W. Bush.
• The Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup for the 2007-2008 season.
• The New York Giants won the Superbowl in 2008.
• The Boston Celtics beat the Lakers to win the NBA champion title.
• The 2008 Olympics was held in Beijing, China.
• The 2008 Academy Awards nominees are ”The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk,” “The Reader,” “Slumdog Millionaire” .
• The top 3 most popular mid-size cars are: #1 2009 Chevrolet Malibu, #2 2009 Mazda Mazda6, #3 2009 Ford Fusion.
• The top 3 most popular small cars are: #1 2009 Honda Fit, #2 2009 Honda Civic, #3 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid.
• The top 10 TV shows are: #1 Lost, House, Prison Break, Gossip Girls, Heroes, Smallville, One Tree Hill, Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, and 24.
• The top 10 girl’s baby name are Emily, Isabella, Emma, Ava, Madison, Sophia, Olivia, Abigail, Hannah and Elizabeth.
• The top 10 boy’s baby name are Jacob, Michael, Ethan, Joshua, Daniel, Christopher, Anthony, William and Andrew.

Sara Joy Chinese Personality Analysis:

The Rat Personality

Defining Characteristics: Of all the signs, the Rat symbolizes activity and charm.

Making Decisions:

To understand how the Rat operates, it is important to know Rat is a Yang and a head sign.  Being a Yang sign person, you are most effective using a direct, if not aggressive, approach to life. You tend to be proactive.  As a head sign person, you are most comfortable basing decisions on logic.

Positive Traits:

Active, alert, attractive, charming gregarious, imaginative, inquisitive, intuitive, inventive, resourceful, shrewd, and venturesome. It is the first sign of the Chinese zodiac; so, it fittingly represents (initiating) action. Depend on the Rat to get things moving. There is constant mental activity with the Rat. Even when they appear to be resting, be assured their minds are working full speed. Most often they are devising a scheme to earn the most money with the least work.

The crafty Rat is resourceful. What they sometimes might lack in competence, they more than make up for with their quick-thinking, shrewdness and outright deviousness. Trust the Rat to make it through the maze to the cheese.

Their charm serves them well as they are very sociable and usually enjoy parties and clubbing. The Rat thus acquires a wide circle of friends, especially since they are normally attractive to members of the opposite sex.

The clannish Rat, however, is really a private person and, despite appearances, only allows a few people into their inner circle. They cherish those dearly and will do almost anything for them.

Negative Traits:

Crafty, critical, edgy, greedy, grouchy, high strung, impertinent, manipulative, ostentatious, reckless, secretive, and stingy.

Speaking of charm, my does the Rat have and use it. They are adept at gaining your confidence and learning your secrets while holding on to their own. Furthermore, they are not beyond using the information to their advantage.

The opportunistic Rat is great at turning on the charm and manipulating people. Why even bother finding your way through the maze when you can get others to go fetch the cheese?

Because they are constantly in their heads, they are often edgy and easily agitated. Getting along with people is no problem for the Rat but make no mistake about it, they do not tolerate incompetence.

Likes and Dislikes:

Qualities Admired: Attractiveness and a sharp mind.

Pet Peeves: Idleness and incompetence.

We took Sara for her 2 week check up today.  She has already gained back her birth weight.  She’s 8 lbs 3 ounces and growing.  The doctor said she is doing great.  Also, today is our anniversary.  Jenn and I were married 4 years ago.

I  love you mommy and Sara.  Here are some pictures of the week.

Here are your cousins.  Kaylee Jo Lopez, Katelyn Nicole Miller and Natalie Jane Miller.

Here’s mommy holding Sara and Sara at her check up.

What an adventure!

After the C-section, we went up to the nursery floor at Hoag where we would stay for the next couple of days.  Our room was great.  We got one in the corner so there wasn’t much traffic in front of our door.  The room had a beautiful view of Newport Beach.  It came with a sofa that pulled out into a bed.  That’s where I slept when I was able to sleep.  Which I can say was not much.  We had our own bathroom with a shower.  We would recommend anyone having a baby to go to Hoag hospital.

The first day was tiring.  Sara had to be fed every 2-3 hours and in between the feedings, the nurses would come in to check up and do tests on her.  We got little sleep.  The times we were awake, we were so nervous and stressed out.  We didn’t know what to do and if we were doing things right.  We didn’t know how much to feed her and why she was crying.  The nurses gave us a lot of help and we quickly learned Sara’s little nuances.

We had a few visitors come visit us.  They were mostly family and some friends.

The second and third day was pretty much a blur like the first day.  Lot of feeding, diapers and crying.  One of the nurse gave Sara her first bath.  After I saw how she handled Sara, I realized that babies are not as fragile as they look.

We left the hospital Monday afternoon after the doctors came by and checked up on Jenn and Sara.  They gave them a clean bill of health.   We were tempted to stay another day.  We got comfortable staying in our little room.  They nurses came by often to help out with anything.  We got food delivered to us.  We had a great view.  It wasn’t a bad deal.

I took the rest of the week off so I could be at home with Sara and Jenn.  We tried to get into a routine.  In the day time, I spent mostly working on home improvements stuff.  I organized the kitchen and put in some extra shelving in the laundry room and just basically got the house all fixed up and so it would be low maintenance.  Then at night around 9 pm, I would watch Sara while Jenn went to bed.  I’m a night owl so I don’t mind.  Around 1 am, I would feed her then put her to bed so I can go to sleep.  wakes up around 3 am to feed her again and takes care of her for the rest of the morning.  It’s working out well expect Sara happens to be a night owl like her daddy.  She’s always active when I’m watching her so it is taken me forever to finish this post.  I better add some pictures and finish this post because she’s about to wake up soon.

It’s been a couple of days since we’ve been home. Sara is a week old now. So far it’s been amazing. I want to write about her birth day for anyone interested but mostly for Sara to read when she grows up.

Apple was born through C-section. She was breached which means her head was not facing the right way. The night before, Jenn and I were nervous and excited. We couldn’t wait to see what our little Apple looked like. We were still talking about names that night. We had decided on Sara Joy for about a week or two before but we just wanted to make sure that it was the right name. One name we liked early on was Elle but it wouldn’t work with our last name. We didn’t want kids to call her Elle Phan (elephant) when she grows up. Some of the other names we had in mind were Emily and Gwen. That evening I spent packing the car. I was running up and down and up and down 3 flights of stairs. We had to pack clothes for a couple of days, pillows, phone chargers, toiletry, snacks and a bunch of other stuff because I wanted to be prepared. We went to bed early because we had to be at the hospital early in the morning. However, I couldn’t sleep. I’m not sure if it was nerves but I couldn’t fall asleep. I felt wide awake and rested. I think it was all those people who told me to get my sleep because I won’t be able to after Apple was born. The night before I had gotten 12 hours of sleep so I wasn’t sleepy at all.

That morning we woke up at 4:45 am to go to the hospital. We had to be there at 6 am. It was still dark outside. Driving to the hospital was calm. We just talk about how our lives was going to change and how excited we were. We got to Hoag Hospital about 5:45 am and parked. We checked in and for the next hour they monitor Apple to make sure she was doing okay and was ready for her grand appearance. Around 7:15 am, they told us we were ready to go down to the OR. They wheeled Jenn down to the recovery room where we got ready. I had to put on coveralls over my clothes. Now I was getting nervous. At 7:50, they took Jenn to the operating room to prep her and put her under anesthesia. I had to wait in the recovery room. It was the longest wait ever. I was in the room by myself. A nurse walked by and tried to talk to me. She asked if this was our first child. I said yes but that was about all I said. I was too nervous to talk. I was just thinking about Jenn and hoping she was okay. At 8:10 am, I got to go into the OR. I sat next to Jenn’s head and held her hand. I told her how much I loved her. In the room, there was our OB doctor, Jennifer Lee and her sister was assisting her. There was the anesthesia person, 2 nurses and another doctor. The operation was quick. The operating actually started around 8:20 am and at 8:24 am, Sara Joy came. They gave Jenn a mirror to let her see as Sara was coming out. I also tried looking into the mirror but I could see anything. So I peaked over the curtain and saw as they pulled Sara out. Dr. Lee handed Sara over to the other doctor so he could check everything. I was looking at Jenn now. She was so happy and very emotional. I gave her a big hug.

The doctor check Sara over and said she was doing great. I came over and got to cut the umbilical cord. I wasn’t planning to but in the moment I didn’t mind. I felt so proud looking at her for the first time. I couldn’t believe there was life that we created in front of me. They cleaned her up and weighed and measured her. She weighed 7 lbs and 15 ounces and measured 19 inches. After she was cleaned up, I carried Sara over to Jenn. Jenn was so happy and crying. She saw Sara and said she was beautiful.

I carried Sara back to the recovery room. We had to wait for the doctors to finished with Jenn. I put Sara down in the crib so the nurse could do some more tests on her. I got a chance to call our families. I called Kay first then I called Jenn’s parents. I called my mom next but Co Binh picked up and said my mom was at the hospital and she didn’t take her phone. Then I called Cynthia, Perry and Andre. Then I called my dad. Next on the list was Tita Beth and Ate Jing. Then Jenn’s work. Then I updated my Facebook status and let the whole world know.

Sara Joy is amazing and beautiful. Every time I look at her I feel so proud. I just want to protect her, comfort her and make sure everything is alright for her. I love you my little Apple.

Apple, I mean Sara Joy Phan was born today at 8:24am. She weighed 7 lbs and 15 oz and measured 19 inches. Mommy is doing great. Daddy changed his first diaper today.

Sorry for the short post. All I have is my cellphone. I’ll post pictures when I get a chance.