Welcome to Mommy-hood

Now that I’ve officially been a mom for 9 days, 11 hours, and 36 minutes, albeit short, I am now entitled to have my opinion, as a human mother, without being patronized and said, “Well, what do you know, you’re not even a mom!”

Prior to having CC (short for Colt Chicken), every time I compare having kids to having dogs, my mommy friends tend to give me the “Are you crazy in comparing my precious baby to your mutt” look. Well, I’ll tell you this much, raising our puppy actually very nicely prepared me to be a human mom! It made Woz and I came to conclusions on how we will raise our (human or canine) youngs very early on:

1. We value positive reinforcements over negative reprimands –  Growing up in a culture of “criticisms make you better”, I hear more negatively implied comments than positive compliments. It does nothing but to diminish my confidence. Luckily, I realized that fairly early on in my own life, and have learned I am actually better than I’m led to believe.
2. We believed in speaking in normal adult language, rather than baby talks – Even with Twilight, I talk to him a lot. No, it’s not as if it’ll help him develop his language skill and he can, one day, have an intelligent conversation with me, but I just feel stupid talking in the baby goo-goo-ga-ga talks. So with CC, while I still find myself talking repetitive sentences with him, I tend to use adult vocabulary and structure. He, will definitely have intelligent conversation with me one of these days.
3. We believed well-manners / disciplined youngsters are happy youngsters – Rule is a good thing. If they’re applied consistently across the board, to everyone, with positive reinforcements. The scariest part of having rules for children and pets are double-standards. “No, you can’t do that as a child but guess what, as your mommy, I am immune.” Bad, bad, Mommy!
4. We believed in being good role models – As a continuation to item #3, you should always stick to your own rule and be a good role model to your child/pet. They are great imitators and they do it fast!
5. We believed in well-established routines – Routines are good, because it manages everyone’s expectation. And when expectations are met, everyone’s happy. The first night we were home with CC, we woke up at every smallest sound he made in his sleep. Unfortunately for us, he is a noisy sleeper, and therefore we had a horrible night. In the next few nights, we decided to set the alarm clock to wake us up BEFORE his expected awake time. Well, he still makes a lot of noises, but we’ve learned to ignore those meaningless noises and sleep through the 1.5 hours we allowed ourselves. We woke up much refreshed and everyone’s happy.

Here are just a few immediate things in my “parenting philosophy” pocket. I’m sure this list will be much much longer in no time.

And yes, I know I have ONLY been a human mom for 9 days, 11 hours, and now 54 minutes, but please do not judge or patronize me by using the words “whatever works for you” (translation: You’re crazy. What do you know?! Just you wait…you’ll agree with me sooner than later. )

I am a Mom now too.

To Baby Woz – 38 Weeks (09/21/2010) – Happy Birthday!

Dearest Baobao,

Life, is full of unexpected. Our lives with you, certainly aren’t the exception.

You were scheduled to arrive on 9/28/2010, at 2pm. Even though it is still one week away, your PM Mommy has already assembled all the shelves, washed all your clothes, put together your cribs and swing, and pulled together the hospital bag. All we had to do was wait…

Original plan was, your grandparents will arrive on Thursday, they’ll spend a few days to get to know Twi-twi (so they can take care of Twi-twi while we are in hospital), and we’ll spend the last weekend get them settled in. Well, like your Grandpa Wozniak used to say, “If you want to make God  laugh, tell him your plans.” In this case, you were the one laughing…

On Monday, 9/20/2010, Daddy and I decided to take Twi-twi to the park to play some more, after Mommy got her manicure and pedicure done. Mommy however, didn’t get to squeeze her hair appointment in. :(

That afternoon, I was experiencing “the most regular ever” Braxton-Hicks ever. They wsere still by no means regular, came every 7, 10, 9, 11, whatever minutes, but they were the most regular ever! One after another, each lasting not as long as the ones I’ve experienced before. They didn’t hurt though…just make my stomach super tight. So during the playtime for Twi-twi, Mommy was sitting down mostly, to minimize the soreness due to stomach tightening.

When we got back to the garage, Mommy suddenly felt some wetness on her panties. It felt different from the mucus plug I’ve been feeling for the last few days. But nonetheless, it wasn’t so obvious or continuous, and therefore we just did our usuals. We ate dinner (chicken katsu and deep fried oysters for Mommy, sushi rolls for Daddy), played fetch with Twi-twi, watched some TV, specifically, the season premiere of Hawaii Five-O, and then went to bed around 11.

At close to 1am the next morning, I was jolted awake by a popping feeling, and then the total wetness from shoulder to knees! I was literally soaked in water and it kept on coming!! I called out for your Dad and told him I think my water just broke!! He jumped up from bed, asked me, “What should we do?” Well, we decided that he would get me a towel so I can safely go sit on the toilet, while he calls the triage nurse at our OB office. While sitting on the toilet, the water just kept trickling out! Later while Daddy was getting ready and tried to clean up a bit, Mommy decided to take a quick shower, the smartest choice.  At this point, I have started experiencing painful contractions. They felt like period cramps but much much worse.

Twi-twi was still sound asleep amongst these commotion, until we were about to head out the door. He looked extremely puzzled and yet still very obediently stayed home.

On the drive to the hospital, Mommy continues to experience more painful contractions.

Once we got to the hospital, we went in through the emergency door and went to the OB check-in (thank goodness for hospital tour!) Nurse Lauren quickly hooked me up to the heartbeat and contraction monitors, as well as stick an IV into Mommy. While the contraction kept coming, now we could see when and how long. After30 more minutes, nice doctor ordered meds to slow down the contraction, since we are in for a c-section anyways. It did take away the contraction entirely, but Mommy started to shiver uncontrollably. My teeth were chattering so much it was very funny.

Some time between 2-230am, Mommy was wheeled up to the OR for preparation, while Daddy waited outside. I don’t know after how long, but the anesthesiologist came, gave me a shot of topical numbing agent (which hurt a little, more or less like novocaine in dentist’s office), and followed by the actual spinal block, which followed by extreme numbness of the waist down.  It’s a super super strange feeling. I could feel people touching my legs, but I was unable to move them at all!!

I started to feel nauseous, so the anesthesiologist gave me something to stop it, which in turn made my chest felt super heavy. Once oxygen was hooked up on me, I felt much better. Well, except the continuous shivering (while I was not cold at all), which interestingly acted as a calming affect for me.

Around 3am, Doctor Fan (OB) arrived. I remembered joking with  them about the 49ers vs. Saints game which happened earlier that night, and anesthesiologist said he was unfortunately too busy to watch it. They also finally asked Dad to come in as well. They put up the blue screen, which blocked me from seeing everyone else except the anesthesiologist and your Dad. I could hear people started to get busy, they talked in such low volume I can’t hear much. At one point someone told me I’ll feel pressure while they push it out, which I did, and then Dr. Fan said, “Wow, he’s got a big head!” followed by your cute little cries!!

Although I didn’t cry, I was very touched. Life really has begun, just like that. And of course I was extremely extremely relieved that you came out well (as well as I know at that point). I asked Daddy to go with you instead of staying in the OR with Mommy. They quickly sew me up, or rather, stapled me up, since I heard the staple gun went off, and wheeled me out of the OR and into the recovery room. Nurse Lauren was very sweet, talked to me the whole time while she was doing charts, and even Dr. Fan came in and chatted. Turned out he is from Taiwan also! At this point, I started to itch on my face, and it quick spread to everywhere. Apparently I was allergic to the pain meds and the only way around it was to wait for it to wear off after 24 hours.

I don’t know after how long, they finally brought you and your Dad to me in the recovery room. We then all went to our little room, 261.

Mommy learned to nurse in that first day, and very quickly, we just fell in love with you. Our little family is now party of 4!!

Happy Birthday, CC!

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Mommy Updates

• CC was born on 09/21/2010, at 329am. 9 lbs 2.1 oz (4143 grams), 19.5 inches.


• He was exactly 38 weeks in gestation term.


• Nicknames: Colt Chicken