My Life at February 2008
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February 29, 2008(Friday)
I am teaching my last I-core class this morning. There are four sections. For the first section, I wasn't as prepared because I wasn't getting much sleep last night. In addition, the solution is in the computer but the computer is not working. Therefore I have to improvise on the blackboard and I don't think that I did a good job. I got some concept mixed up and gave some wrong conclusion. However I am brave enough to acknowledge that my solution is not correct and thanks the students for pointing out my mistake. The next three sections were much better.
At night I had the deacon board meeting and also nomination committee meeting (for the next deacon board). It is quite tiring at the end of the day and I got some good sleep when I go home.
February 28, 2008(Thursday)
This is another usual day in which we are taking care of Cailyn and night/day is reversed.
February 27, 2008(Wednesday)
We start to adjust to the time zone of Cailyn pretty well. We took the graveyard shift from around midnight to 10am. Parents-in-law help us to feed her before midnight so that the first two hours of the graveyard shift is actually sleeping. However this is not good quality sleeping because Cailyn sometimes make noise during that time and we can't sleep well. Then she usually wakes up around 2:30 and then I tried to stay awake working homework until around 6:30, which is the last of her feeding during day time. Then we sleep until 10am and bring her to the living room and parents-in-law continue to help taking care of her. The process of moving her outside usually wakes her up and Carmen helps her to get settle down. Therefore I am awake for about an hour or so during that time. Then we go back to sleep until 1pm. Then we had early dinner and go to sleep at around 8:30pm until mid-night. The process continues. It is good for me to figure out some kind of routine.
Cailyn is getting fat lately with double-chin. It reminds me of my dad.
February 26, 2008(Tuesday)
We brought the baby to the WIC (don't know what it stands for) program funded by the Indiana State Department of Health. a nurse provides us some training on breastfeeding. They also lent us an electric pump (for breast milk) last Thursday and let us use for a month. Moreover they give us some food stamp and let us get some grocery for free. Each time we can buy 2 boxes of cereal, two juices, a dozen of egg, a gallon of milk and worth up to about $22. This is the fourth time that we have this food stamp. This time, however is special because after the baby is born we got to have some baby milk too! We get to have 5 cans of baby milk, each worth $12! This saves us a lot of money! I am not sure whether the Canadian government has such nice benefit, but I think that it should be better in Canada because at least there is a pregnancy leave for up to one year, which is not present in USA.
I also tried to get back to have some more study now. Being a student is so nice because I can arrange my own time. Therefore I try to rearrange my study time such that whenever Cailyn is awake (which usually is at night), Carmen fed her while I do some homework. Then I spend more time sleeping during the day. I think that I should still have roughly 8 hours of sleep per day. However the quality of sleep is much worse now. It is because at night when we try to have some sleep, we are so afraid that Cailyn would cry. Moreover the sleep is all scattered: two hours here, two hours there, one hour here and one hour there. However this is better than not having the sleep at all.
February 25, 2008(Monday)
I finally got back to a bit more studying today. I had a meeting with professor about my paper. Therefore I worked on this for several hours today. We also brought Cailyn to see the doctor. Now her jaundice disease is gone. Moreover, she gained from 6lb12oz last Friday to 7lb8oz today! This is a tremendous gain in weight and we are happy about this.
February 24, 2008(Sunday)
I was really frustrated last night. The baby woke up at 3:30am and we were feeding her. We also changed her diaper. However after feeding her, her diaper got wet again. Therefore, even though she almost got a sleep, the process of changing her diaper and temporarily not able to eat milk caused her to cry really loud. Then she wasted all her energy and we have to feed her again. Once she is almost full her diaper was wet again. In addition, even though she seems to be full, she got hungry in about 10 mins and cried again. That is really frustrating and lasted for 3 hours until 6:30. However during day time she slept like a pig and very peaceful. However all babies are like that and Cailyn is a normal baby. I hope that thing will get better soon. My parents told me that I was like that for 3 months! I surely hope that Cailyn would be like that for 3 weeks (or even for 1 week!) That is long enough!
February 23, 2008(Saturday)
Surprisingly, after feeding Cailyn quite full yesterday, she only woke up every three hours last night! In fact, Cailyn is a very good girl. She only cries when she is hungry or very discomfort. Otherwise, if she is full, even if we change her diaper she still does not cry.
Now there is a lot of baby stuff at home, such as bottle, diapers, clothes, cleaning stuff, etc. We need to have a separate rack to store her things. Previously I try not to use the space efficiently, i.e. some drawers only put some plastic bags, not fully utilize the space. Now I am getting really organized and try to use space more efficiently. I imagine that by the time I leave Indiana, I will have much more stuff than when I come to Indiana. I also want to have a bigger house.
February 22, 2008(Friday)
We went to see the doctor today and found out that Cailyn's Jaundice disease is pretty much ok; moreover she was born with 6lb 12oz and was 6lb 3oz after about 1.5 days, but now got back to 6lb 12oz. The nurse says that usually it takes baby 2 weeks to gain the weight and we are glad that she gains weight so quickly. We also got some sleep while parents-in-law help taking care the baby.
We also switch the bottle feeding (mix formula with breastfeeding milk) and try to adjust Cailyn such that she will wake up during day time rather than night time.
February 21, 2008(Thursday)
In order to get back to some kind of routine, I have to know Cailyn and invent one. We find that she ate (feed for 25 mins, sleep for an hour, and repeat again for 4 or 5 times from 2:30 to 7) and cries a lot at night. On the other hand during day time she is much quiet, such as sleeping for 3 or even 4 hours in a row! Therefore parents-in-law helps us to take care the baby during day time. We try to have early dinner and sleep for 3 hours. Then we wake up and have the graveyard shift (from mid night to about 8am). Then we continue to sleep for a few hours. Let's see whether this routine works or not.
February 20, 2008(Wednesday)
The baby was crying the whole night last night and we invented an efficient way to feed her. Rather than taking more than an hour and lost a lot of milk, we ask her to suck our finger and has a tube to give her milk whenever she is hungry. Nevertheless this still takes about 30 mins each feeding. We have to feed her almost 1.5 hours! It makes our night so much tougher.
We went to see the pediatrician in the afternoon. The wait is quite long (about an hour). However they have a separate room for those that wants to breastfeed. Therefore we take advantage of this and spent about 2 hours in that separate room, and the doctor comes in and checked us. The jaundice disease is a bit better and we are glad to hear this.
Now Cailyn is eating much more. She used to eat almost drop-by-drop Monday. Then yesterday we tried to use some formula and ate about 10 to 15 ml. Today I fed her for 35ml and she is still hungry! She is like a bottomless eater!
February 19, 2008(Tuesday)
I have no idea whether this is day or night. All we did for the last 30+ hours is to feed her, trying to bring her to sleep, change her diaper. I am an extremely routine-oriented person, and now I totally lost my routine. We have our share of "mum" when seeing nothing much happen. The clustering feeding is still here, and it seems to us that Cailyn is never full. She also has the Jaundice problem (which is extremely common) so we need to have some light to shine at her.
We got a bit of sleep today and we left the hospital at night. I am trying my best to do some housework that I did not do last few days, such as washing clothes. Parents-in-law helps to take care the baby and Carmen should have some rest.
February 18, 2008(Monday)
The first 24 hours of the baby is sleepy. That is easy for us. However afterward the baby got so fuzzy. When we tried to feed her, she falls asleep easily. When we put her to bed, she is craving for food! That is quite frustrating and, as many parents have experienced, we have a sleepiness night! I also changed 4 or 5 dirty diaper too!
We are so grateful that we are at the hospital now. It is because in the middle of the night, twice, we sent the baby to the nursery for two hours so that we can have some rest. Parents-in-law also came to help us looking after the baby in the afternoon so that we can have more rest too!
I felt that the motherly-love of Carmen is so great! She tried to keep awake and look after Cailyn most of the time, while I do fall asleep periodically.
Baby is getting fuzzy. She is hungry constantly. That is called the "cluster feeding", which happens after the first 24 hours and usually lasts for one or two more days. I think that she is quite like me, in a sense that she is short-tempered, need instant satisfaction. I also felt quite helpless, because there is nothing I can do in terms of breastfeeding. Therefore I simply blub her and change her diaper.
February 17, 2008(Sunday)
Carmen was still adjusting to the epidural at night and was quite faint. However, after resting for a while she is much better. We got some sleep throughout the night and still trying to breastfeed the baby. This is not an easy thing. I am glad that we are able to get back to some rest.
There are also church people visiting us today.
February 16, 2008(Saturday)
Lately I am trying to read some novel because studying is too boring. The first book that I read was Animal Farm about a week ago. I read this book when I was grade 10 or grade 11 in Vancouver. Now I am reading the second book, Oliver Twist. I recall that I read this when I was F.2 in HK. I recall that this is a pretty thin and easy reading book. However after reading for 30 mins last night, I find that this is a very thick book (300+ pages, and 2 mins per page). The vocabulary is tough too! It is much harder than Animal Farm and should be a Grade 12 or first year book; I strongly think that I must be reading the easy version of this book before.
We went to bed at 1am and then at 2am Carmen felt a sharp pain and felt something pop. Then there is some labor pains every 10 mins, with one minute each. Neither she nor I can sleep. We called the doctor and finally arrived to the hospital at 5:30am. We have been to this hospital (Bloomington Hospital) many times. Many of our friends give birth here. This hospital is new, about 1 to 1 nurse-to-patient ratio, and the room is large. Nothing in HK or even Canada can compare to this!
Carmen felt pain and walking around helped a bit. I was walking with her and I tried to be as helpful and as patient as I can be. Having a baby definitely is painful (physically) to the mother and painful (emotionally) to the father. Everyday I remember the curse of Adam (to work hard to have food) and now I remember the curse of Eve (to be painful to have baby). However afterward the pain gets so great that she needs to have epidural. After having epidural at 9:15am, she felt much better; we are able to sleep for about an hour.
At about noon the doctor came to examine us and the cervix is opened for 6.5 cm. The estimated delivery time is about 5pm, plus or minus 2 hours.
At 2:30pm, the nurse came to check again. Since she used epidural, peeing is a problem. The first time she was successful in peeing. However at 2:30 her bladder is full and she can't pee and need the nurse to have a tube to help peeing. Her cervix is also opened to 8.5cm at that time.
At 4:50, she has to use pitocin (a form of induction) because her contraction is from every 2 or 3 mins to now every 6 mins. And then at 5:25, she has to put the tube inside so that she can go to pee again. The nurse says that it will be a while (a few hours?) until she starts pushing. It looks like it will be a long fight!
At 6:40, the nurse came to check and the cervix is finally opened for 10cm. However the doctor still wants us to wait for about an hour before ready to push. However by 7:30 the nurse says that we need to wait for the baby to get down a bit more before starting to push. It seems like a forever process to us. We start to wonder whether the baby will come out or not! Carmen also pukes twice too.
The pushing starts at 8:40. We originally thought that this isn't going to be long, but the baby is turned sideway, rather than facing down. And it just takes a long time! I felt so bad and so sorry for Carmen, especially when she is experiencing the labor shaking and need to use oxygen mask every so often to keep the baby's heart beat going. At some point I see her head but still she just doesn't come out! Finally we decided to use a vacuum to suck her out!
Cailyn was finally born 12:13am, 3.02kg and 19inches. I find that she really looks like me! It is such a strange feeling looking at her, knowing that she has a part of me and a part of Carmen! We both weep/cry when seeing Cailyn coming out! This is such a moving moment, especially after Carmen's long labor. We took some picture of her, calling parents, Hansel, Carol too.
In order to keep family members who are not by our side today in-touch, I did a lot of photo and video uploading today. Moreover I was trying to stand besides Carmen most of the time during the labor. I only got about an hour sleep last night, and lots of discontinuous sleep throughout the day. Emotionally this is very intense as well. Both Carmen and I are very tired.
February 15, 2008(Friday)
We went to see the doctor this morning. Cailyn is almost a week late. I was born a week late too! Anyway, after the monitoring we found out that everything are normal. However, we still decided to do induction next Monday. So we get to anticipate the birth of Cailyn (unless she arrives during the weekend).
At night I made announcement at church to encourage people to serve. Yesterday during prayer meeting we discussed that people are not willing to serve and the situation of no pastor is not good. I directly address these two issues and I think that I did a pretty good job. thanks God.
February 14, 2008(Thursday)
I was studying, playing ping-pong. Another normal day. Nothing much happening.
February 13, 2008(Wednesday)
As usual I am working hard at homework. We also went out to have dinner with Carmen and parents-in-law. Therefore, today is another quiet day, waiting for Cailyn to be born. We wonder when she will be born, or whether she will ever be born, because so far there is no sign.
February 12, 2008(Tuesday)
I am working on the outsourcing paper, as usual. I am generating various results and I am pretty good and happy with that. I also went to play ping pong with Carmen and parents-in-law. I taught them how to play ping pong and we had a good time.
February 11, 2008(Monday)
I attended a presentation by a job candidate today. His research interest is related to mine and I find that to be interesting. I also spent some times working with the outsourcing project.
February 10, 2008(Sunday)
After Sunday Worship, there was General Assembly for the church. Then we had Sunday School. At night we went to the Chinese Student Association for the Chinese New Year celebration. There is free food for about 500 people and then there is some show. The committee member are mostly undergrad and they were trying their best to have a good show.
February 09, 2008(Saturday)
Today is the due day of Cailyn! However she hasn't come out yet. Still waiting. No sign yet.
Tonight is the Chinese new year dinner for our church. Usually there were about 70 to 80 people coming to our church but today there were 140 people! That is a lot. We had some game and dinner time too. It is great for a bunch of Chinese to have a gathering during this special time of the year.
February 08, 2008(Friday)
I taught the class this morning again. The purpose of the class is about learning curve. The students are divided into teams and one person from each team is to do the puzzle (for 3-7 years old, with about 25 pieces) 8 times. The time that it takes for them to do each trial is decreasing, and that is the idea about learning curve. I have to do this to 4 different sections. There is nothing that I need to do so I simply work on my paper at that time.
February 07, 2008(Thursday)
Today is another day working on the paper. Moreover we saw the doctor today as a normal pregnancy check up. Cailyn is due this Saturday and we are preparing to think about what we should do if she does not want to come out. Hopefully she can come out soon so we don't have to worry about induction.
February 06, 2008(Wednesday)
Since some professors gave some feedback to the paper that I am currently working on (the paper about outsourcing that I planned to submit Jan 31), I worked extensively to address their questions. Since what I am doing is mostly math, derivation, I really enjoy it. This is my strength too.
At night we also played ping pong with parents-in-law for 2 hours.
February 05, 2008(Tuesday)
We had a birthday lunch for classmate Wenbin. We had a lot of lunch together lately because job candidates came to visit us. Then at night we played ping pong together with Carmen and her parents. It is a good entertainment to all of us.
February 04, 2008(Monday)
There is some candidate that came to do presentation this morning and we had lunch together too. At night, I spent time brain storming the dissertation as usual.
February 03, 2008(Sunday)
Today is the second year anniversary of our Bloomington Chinese Christian Church. Being the president of the deacon board, I have to cut cake. Afterward, I had some talk with fellowship people with problem of the fellowship.
February 02, 2008(Saturday)
We had a parenting group meeting today and it is good to listen to other more experienced parents to share. We also played recreational ping-pong with Carmen and her parents.
February 01, 2008(Friday)
The paper that I worked on for the last few weeks are intended to submit to a special issue of a journal with deadline yesterday. After working for long time, we finally got ready to submit it. However we found out that this issue is actually for practitioner and not for researcher. Therefore we can't submit to this place! What a big joke for working so hard but can't submit. However nothing is wasted because we can submit this journal to some other place. This is ok. I also had meeting this morning with professor for other project.
In the afternoon we had pre-study with fellowship people.