Baby Kaeden's First Week

Just writing some memories down...

After a 5 hour labour (including 2 hours of pushing), Kaeden came into the world on Monday, May 5 at 1:15am. It was pretty amazing that I felt no pain until 8:22pm when my water broke. Then, it was pretty much contraction after contraction with few breaks for 3 hours. It was all a lot less painful, or rather, a different kind of pain, than I had imagined. Then the pushing began. That was pretty crazy. It would have been over quickly, had it not been for the little guy's idea to put his hand beside his head. I found out later that had they known his position, they would have called for a C-section. But we didn't find out till he came out as to why he was so stubborn - it was definitely a miracle that he came out naturally. Praise God he came - about 1.5 hours into pushing, the doctor said, "We might have to do a C-Section." Upon hearing that, I was bound and determined to use every ounce of my being to deliver him naturally. Our doctor, Dr. Li, had his mouth hanging open when Kaeden finally came out, and he's not one to have many reactions!

The first night in the hospital was excruciating. I couldn't sleep because of all the adrenaline still rushing through my body (plus the fact that we didn't get our room until 4am). They also wouldn't give us our little man until 8 in the morning! I so wanted him beside me... but Taiwan hospitals are a mystery to us.

We were getting ready to be discharged when they told us that Kaeden had jaundice. We had just observed a bathing demo - where Kris asked if the baby they were using to demo the bath was ours. I said, "The baby's naked." It was a girl. Then we were marched to an adjoining room where we were told that we had to nurse our babies. The men were kicked out, and a video was popped in. I guess that was supposed to be a self-learning class on how to nurse your baby. It was bizarre and Kaeden was the only one crying in there! I was told then that Kaeden had a little jaundice, so we decided to stay in the hospital. They took him for phototherapy, and only gave him to us every 4 hours to feed. It was incredibly stressful cause the nurses kept putting pressure on me to feed him better and faster. I was a wreck the next day, especially when the nurses called to tell us that his jaundice had gotten worse and called our friend who's a nurse, Kathy L.

She told us to get Kaeden in our room. She drove all the way down to the hospital to help us fight because she'd had the same situation before. The doctor said it was impossible to get the light box/bed in our room. This hospital stay was all very China-esque. Everything was rush, rush, rush, and impossible. Finally, I got the head pediatrician involved, and everything was suddenly so easy. It took both Kathy & Kris to get the light box into our room, cause everyone was saying, we'll get it, it's coming. We didn't sleep at all that day because we had to make sure Kaeden's goggles didn't fall off and we had to wake him up every two hours to take him out of the lights for a bit. But I didn't feel as stressed, cause we had our little guy with us.

By Saturday, we were done with the hospital and were ready to leave no matter what. Kaeden's levels were still the same, but we went home anyway. He slept the entire way in the car. We finally got to see him sleep in his new bed, wear his new clothes, see his new surroundings. We were finally a family in our home.

Mother's Day was Sunday, and Kaeden & Kris got me a massage at the Aveda Spa and my first Mother's Day card. I loved it!!! We just hung out at home all day, and Mom has been so good about cooking all this special food for me for pregnancy recovery.

Today is Tuesday, May 12, and Kaeden's over a week old. Time sure flies by. Dad's become the expert burper. We've gone out on a couple of outings - yesterday to the doctor to check his jaundice (which was all better! - oh yeah, another China-esque thing about our hospital - they had to prick Kaeden's heel to draw blood, run lab tests, etc. to check jaundice levels. This other hospital we're going to now has a device that presses a light to his face to check jaundice levels. How difficult is it to obtain one of these things?! Sheesh... I'm a little ticked to find out they never had to hurt him so much!). Today, we went to the hospital again for his Hep B shot. Then we went to take his passport photo and get groceries. Big day for the little man.

We've had lots of visitors and we've gone to visit a couple of friends in the building too. They all love Kaeden. We love him too.

I never thought I'd be a motherly type, but my heart has already been given to this little guy. I'm so thankful for him. I'm so grateful I get to hold him and have him beside me all the time. I'm so glad I decided not to work next year so I can hang out with my little man all the time. I'm so glad to have Kris as my husband - he's wonderful with Kaeden, and we can't wait until June 5 when we can have 2 months as a family, with nothing to do besides be together. We've waited so long for him - from the time he was a spot, through the period of time when we thought we were losing him, till he became a blob, through yet another time when we thought for sure we were losing him again, until we finally saw a little body, and felt him grow and kick and squirm, then doing everything we could to meet him when he just wouldn't come - eating lots of pineapple and spicy food, walking around malls all day, playing basketball games on those machines and beating a bunch of macho guys' scores, jogging, Irish dancing and climbing uphill to the lighthouse at Cijin at 40 weeks pregnant and even Monkey Mountain (where one part involved a rope) at 41 weeks pregnant, and yes, even the other supposedly tried-and-true methods! God knew what He was doing though - the day I went into labour, I got to sub for a couple of classes, go out for one last time with just my parents for afternoon tea, and have a great home-cooked supper a la Mom, before my water broke. It was the perfect day with an even more perfect ending.

I want to record all this so I can remember how thankful I'm feeling and how grateful I am for my little man. I love watching his expressions (so Kris-like), cuddling with him, hearing his squeaks (that's why we call him Squeakers), and just everything about him. I'm thankful for the daily miracles God's showing us through him. Children are most certainly a blessing from Him, and I can't wait to have many more!