Two weeks and over 150 diapers later

Thanks to all of you who've sent their well wishes for baby Elaine!

It's been a rough two weeks, but I feel the six of us (including Sydney) remain survivors.

Elaine continues to do well. As some of you may know, she had the unfortunate luck to get some of my hyperthyroidism antibodies in her bloodstream. She's been on medication to lower her thyroid levels. Fortunately, it's temporary and she's already showing signs of outgrowing it as her dose has been lowered as of today. Otherwise, she's gaining weight and eating very well. Her nights and days are still a little switched, but hopefully that will correct itself soon!

Peter and Natalie are being great older siblings. They just loves to give baby Elaine hugs and kisses all the time. It is apparent that Peter is a "pro" when it comes to being a big brother whereas Natalie is exploring her new world of being a younger and an older sister. Ah...Welcome to the world of the middle child, Natalie! I hope you take it well!

Sam has been a huge help, sacrificing a lot of time from his work to stay home and help out in every way possible. I'm afraid that time to get into the normal routine is nearing or upon us. I haven't yet gotten a grasp of how I'm going to handle three kids at home on my own. Worse off, how will I be able to get them all out of the house on my own. At times like these, I often think back and rest assured that my mom, too, was a mother of three. So far, all 3 of us turned out fine and my mom still has her hair! I, too, will survive. (*channeling in some Gloria Gaynor*). If all fails, I take comfort in also watching Jon & Kate Plus 8 and thank God that I have only 3 not 8 mouths to feed!

I leave this entry with Elaine's first video appearance - shortly after birth.

This is how she started...we'll see how she'll grow!

It's a GIRL!!!

Introducing our newest addition...

Elaine Ai-Shin Burer!!!

Born Monday June 23, 2008 at 1:56pm

8lbs 7 oz, 19 & 3/4 inches

The day of delivery went a little longer than imagined, but the end result was all we ever dreamed of. Our day started at our 8:15am OB appointment. Water broke at 8:30am and we were sent to Labor and Delivery. I started at 7-8cm dilated and after several hours contractions and periods of no contractions, there was little change.

Pitocin was added, which (with a short walk to and from the bathroom, made contractions stronger and more frequent. From this point until delivery, I closed my eyes to concentrate on breathing through the contractions and pain. The worst part was that I hyperventilated, which caused my arms and fingers to go completely numb and rigid. It was the strangest and scariest feeling! Luckily, our nurse Mary was super great and was able to talk me through to slower breathing and getting through the contractions. I believe I had really strong contractions one on top of another for about an hour or so. Poor Nurse Mary and Sam's hands were getting squeezed to death. I felt bad at first, but after a while, I figured that I was feeling more pain than a bit of hand squeezing. The final check I heard was that I was close to fully dilated and the baby's head was +1 stage (which is pretty much on its way out).

My OB was paged to get into the delivery room, and soon after he arrived, I started to push. In my mind, I might have pushed for 5-10 minutes (again, eyes were closed shut). I went to a dark place during the pushing because the pain was so intense, I was exhausted, and I don't think I've ever screamed longer and louder in my life. I lost my mind because I thought by getting the baby half way out, they could do the rest - I literally yelled "Get it out! Out! Out! OUT!" What was I thinking? Obviously, I finished my part of the job and after almost 5&1/2 hours of labor, the baby was born! Shortly after, we heard the words we've been waiting for,

"It's a...GIRL!"

Both Sam and I were in tears from the whole experience. We both agreed later this was probably the most extreme experience we've had. Sam said he never saw me in so much pain and I never have been in so much pain. I opted not to get an epidural or any pain medication. There were a handful of moments I was about to give in, but I knew there was no way I could stay still enough to get an epidural in. I even asked what would Nubain would do for me. My honest nurse said "nothing at this point". Good to know, I guess. So, I just found some inner strength and got through it all. As soon as I delivered, I pleaded for some pain medication. All I was given was ibuprofen. I was a bit disappointed at first but it seemed to do the job!

The Mother/Baby recovery unit was almost full to capacity - busy baby times! I was surprised to discover in talking to one of the night nurses that I was the only mom in the unit to deliver without an epidural! In some way, I felt like I accomplished something. Recovery has been great so far. I have one last night at the hospital. I'm hoping to get a couple hours of sleep before the morning, but I think Elaine may have her nights and days switch up! We'll need to work on that!

Peter and Natalie were very excited to meet their baby sister! They are doing amazingly well with the newest addition. We're very excited to get us all together at home and start living our lives as a happy family of five:

PS: We're so tickled pink by Elaine's darker hair and gray-blue eyes! She clearly has more of the Asian hair than either Peter or Natalie had when they were born. I have my little "mini me" :)

Today is the BIG DAY!

We've made it to the big day! We'll finally have this baby today!

It's 5am now, and in the 3 hours I'll be walking into what will be my last OB appointment, at which I'm scheduled to be induced. First of all, I can't believe I lasted over the weekend! All that pain of getting membranes stripped for nothing!

(Word to the wise: don't opt for stripping of your membranes ladies! Save the pain for the real deal labor!)

I guess the baby felt s/he needed this last weekend in what will probably be the most comfortable atmosphere s/he'll ever be in! Smart kid already! :)

I've been up since about 4am. I tried to go back to sleep until 6am when our alarms are set, but it's futile. I'm too excited with butterflies (and heartburn). So, I took the opportunity to sneak in a small bowl of Rice Crispies (hope I don't see it again) while watching the sun rise. It was a short yet peaceful moment, which I'm sure will be few and far between in the near future!

I hope to keep up with the blog as much as possible to update everyone and to remind myself of this baby's first days/weeks/months of life. Nevertheless, just rest in knowing that there's lots of excitement in the house and we're all anxious to finally meet this little baby that's been kicking my belly.

Peter and Natalie are excited too. Peter (the keen observer he is) has been commenting how big my belly has been getting also practicing his baby talk (goo goo ga ga). Meanwhile, Natalie has been giving kisses to the baby, listening for noises ("what's that sound coming from?") and generally enjoying the belly as some sort of a pillow. Sorry, Natalie! Mommy doesn't plan to always have the big "fluffy" belly for your head to rest upon, but you're always welcome to rest your head on me any time!

Viewer discretion may be advised ??

Big day for big boy Peter!

He announced he had to go potty! What we've been doing lately is letting him sit on his potty while in front of his computer so he can type words. Not sure what that really says about him, but anyway, it works to get him to sit for longer periods of time.

About twenty minutes pass and we hear,

"I did it! I poo-poo'ed! Come and see!"
Both Sam and I rush out of our offices and this is what we see:

If you can't see, Peter has successfully done #2 in his potty (blurred for blog comfort) and at the same time typed the word "LOGS" on his computer. I guess the boy had only one thing on his mind! :)

An added thought to this milestone: As we recall, Peter started to walk on his own the same week Natalie was born. We're only hoping this is a sign that he'll be well on his way to being potty trained now that #3 is on its way!

Got a taste of labor this morning

Don't get too excited - I'm still pregnant.

This morning I had my 38 & 1/2 week appointment. We took the kids with us since our neighbors were there to help watch them and possibly take them home in the event I was sent to labor/delivery. Well, after a week of pains and contractions (that I'm starting to feel), there was no change from last week and I'm still only 6cm dilated. How this could be, I have no idea! Luckily, I felt like my OB was becoming sympathetic to my misery (or -as Sam noted - every sentence I spoke this morning was pressure talk to get this delivery going). My OB stripped my membranes while checking my cervix. Two things about that are 1) OUCHY OUCH OUCH!!! and 2) a little more than 2 seconds warning would have been nice. It was just a glimpse of what labor is going to feel like - which, oddly enough, I've forgotten the level of pain laboring a baby can bring. After my OB was done, he spoke the words every 9-month pregnant woman wants to hear "Have we set a date for induction?" When he asked, I was too shocked and in awe of those words I couldn't respond right away. I felt like I needed a moment to take those words into my reality. So, now, he has me set to come back on Monday morning for induction! YAY!!!

So, that all happened at 10am. We were advised to stay in the hospital and walk around just in case something were to happen immediately. After 3 hours in the hospital (with the kids mind you) nothing happened and we came home. It's now 5pm and still nothing, only pain from getting membranes stripped.

Nevertheless, as Sam keeps reminding me, it's what I wanted - to get closer to having this baby! If it's not going to happen naturally over the weekend, I'll still have Monday!

PS: When asked when does he think the baby will come, Peter response is "100 weeks"!!!

I sure hope he doesn't know something that I don't know!

Another funny kid saying - this time in public!!!

Sometime last week, we took Peter to Great Clips to get a hair cut. I had done it before, but not the greatest job. Also, being 9 months pregnant doesn't make one want to bend over and cut a moving boy's hair! So, there was the typical haircutter at Great Clips cutting Peter's hair as he sat nice and still in the chair. When she was starting to cut around his ear, she said to him,

"Now don't move! I don't like to hurt little boys!"

Not a second passed and Peter replied,

"I don't like to hurt big mamas"

I about died of embarassment! Even after that comment, she still did a nice job on his hair!

Iowa 2008 Flood

The river crested over the weekend. FINALLY! It seems that the worst is over as levels are slowly but surely going down, interstate roads are starting to open back up, and the news channels aren't pre-empting shows all day long with flood coverage.

I feel like we can finally let out a huge sigh with the scare of being separated from the hospital. Although there's still pretty badly flooded areas of town that creates sort of a separation from east and west Iowa City and Coralville, the feeling is that citizens are looking forward to recovery and rebuilding.

Here are some pictures from press-citizen.com that show only a few of many flooded areas in

Iowa City/Coralville.

This one shows Park Road bridge which was the first one to flood over the Iowa River. There are some fears that the bridge may be damaged enough with debris and water that it may actually collapse.

This second picture shows the bridge we normally would take to get to the hospital, Highway 6 bridge. I discovered it to be closed while going to my Friday morning appointment - talk about anxiety!

And alas, Burlington brdige - our last hope to get to the hospital. The river reached pretty much to the bottom of the bridge. There actually should be a sort of a waterfall to the left of the bridge, but in this picture, it's just turbulent waters.


Here is a street level view of Burlington bridge at its worst. Most of that water came from a tunnel that they were pumping dry to let electrical something to dry for UI buildings to regain power. My big question at that moment: "Was pumping the water right onto the Burlington Bridge the BEST solution, be it the only bridge connecting east Iowa City to the hospital?" Of course, this was coming from me, the almost 38-wk pregnant woman with a 6cm headstart in dilation.

This aerial shows Coralville strip that has a lot of businesses and restaurants. It's quite amazing that this wide aerial view doesn't even show the complete area of flooding!

Old Chicago is one of the restaurants on the Coralville strip. It's probably had 5 feet of flooding, whereas some other parts were reported to get as high as 8 ft of flooding!

It's obvious that the time for waters to recede, clean up and recovery will be quite extensive. I just hope it all goes smoothly and quickly, and this city that I love being a part of will be back stronger than ever!