cracklin' rosie

On Thanksgiving Di T sang a karaoke rendition of Neil Diamond's Cracklin' Rose...theme song, perhaps?

belly button liberation

Saturday 11/27: Umbilical cord has fallen off! That's a good looking belly button.

labor day

For prosperity's sake, here's an account of how labor went...whew! Hard to believe that was over a week ago already.

Wednesday, Nov 17
Uncle M and Auntie A were in town visiting. There were a lot of hints dropped to the baby to come a little early in an attempt to get them to extend their stay. Baby has proven to be a good listener, though her reaction was a bit delayed. Vi started to show potential signs of early labor.

Thursday, Nov 18
More signs of early labor. What Vi thinks are the onset of contractions begin at that night. Despite being advised to sleep during this early stage, she can't quite settle down in anticipation of what's to come. She downloads a contraction tracking app on her phone.

Friday, Nov 19
Mike decides to stay home from work since Vi's contractions are mild but seem to be somewhat regular (~10 minutes apart). We sprung out of bed around 5:00 and began the final nesting and packing for the hospital. Then we walked down the street to grab a bagel breakfast and run into a friendly face from birthing class. After that, Vi's contractions become more sporadic. Labor feels further out of reach! To help speed things up, we feasted at Rangoli Indian Restaurant's lunch buffet (more spice, please!). After that we somehow found ourselves in the Carter's store...a dangerous place for expecting parents (or anyone who's a sucker for cuteness). We picked out a Thanksgiving outfit and some gifts for family. Contractions continued to come and go, and Vi found it amusing knowing she would be in mid-conversation with someone when one would come and go. Feels kind of bad ass. We then went to the movies and watched Unstoppable with a good family friend, Denzel Washington. The suspense wasn't quite enough to scare the baby out, though.

Saturday, Nov 20
AM: Contractions continued throughout the morning but were still 10-15 minutes apart. We decided to go for breakfast at Stack's...a place where it would be loud and busy enough that Vi wouldn't attract attention to herself with her heavy breathing and gentle rocking to get through contractions. During breakfast we decide the time has come to finalize a name. On separate napkins we wrote down our top 3 names (which turned into top 5...it's hard to narrow it down!) to see which names overlapped and finally decide on Rosa Lê De Sousa (see earlier posting).
Noon: By the time we got home Vi's contractions were getting more intense and more predictable. We hung out at home and rested.
2pm: We called Kaiser's Labor and Delivery hotline to let them know that Vi was definitely showing signs of early/almost active labor. We were told to wait until contractions stayed 5 minutes apart for a whole hour. At this point, time seemed to go by more quickly. Contractions quickly escalated to 4 minutes part, and we began to perfect the contraction dance: swaying together to help easy the pain.
3:45pm: By the time we get to the hospital contractions are 3 minutes apart and we're told Vi was already 6cm dilated. We had wanted to try and labor as long as possible at home so...success! Vi's definitely not talking during contractions at this point and Mike is working hard to help her cope with the pain by synchronizing breathing, massaging, and applying pressure on her lower back. Our choice of names has been confirmed because we were greeted by two Kaiser employees, one with the last name Di Rosa, one with the first name Rosa. A sign? I believe so. We were then moved into our Labor & Delivery room which is pretty huge. All the amenities for mother and baby are in the room. We had decided to try to labor with the fewest interventions, including anesthesia. Vi worked through the contractions, trying to focus on her breathing and trying different positions that might relieve pain.
6:45pm: Contractions got to be pretty intense, and we decided to opt for an epidural knowing that labor could continue for hours more. This turned out to be a great decision for us and quite a relief. After feeling more at ease, we were able to peacefully wait for Rosa to arrive and even sat with Rosa's cousins M, A, and A who came to support us. Since we didn't know how much longer it would be, we convinced the cousins to go back to our house and rest until she arrived.
11:00pm: Doctor checks Vi and declare 10cm has arrived and it is now time to begin pushing! At first this proves to be tricky because Vi still can't feel much down below so she is coached by the nurse on when and how to push. But slowly she regained feeling and was able to rely more on instinct. Turns out pushing is a workout for Mike as well since he helped Vi by holding on to her leg and also applying pressure on her back...so he was essentially doing major crunches during each push. He also quickly realized synchronizing his breath with Vi's was not the best tactic out of fear of passing out from holding his breath too long!

Sunday, Nov 21
12:31: Baby Rosa Lê De Sousa is born (!) and place immediately on Vi's chest. Deep breaths are taken, smiles are ear-to-ear, and tears roll down cheeks. She is beautiful. Her eyes are wide and curious, looking around at the new world around her. After absorbing her environment and mommy and daddy, she quickly starts to root for food with the sweetest, plumpest lips puckering around.
For the rest of the early morning Rosa and Mom are tended to and then soon after moved to a new room in the Mother and Baby department down the hall. Rosa's cousins, bearing gifts of freshly-baked sweet potato blondies, are her very first visitors.
4:00am: Road to recovery really begins for Rosa, Mom, and Dad.

The Significance of a Rose

Coming up with a name for our daughter was a pretty arduous process. It was our revolving dinner conversation for the past months. While eating breakfast in Campbell, we compared lists one last time and zeroed in on Rosa. When we arrived to the hospital within ten minutes we met a women whose last name was "De Rosa" and another named Rose. Alas the universe spoke and when asked if we had a name, we both were able to answer with confidence- "Rosa!".

We have three specific reasons for naming our baby girl "Rosa". We realized that you all may have your own reflections about the name. We would like to invite all of you out there reading to share your thoughts about the name Rosa. To get you started, we will share our reasons. Feel free to use our reasons if you would like a starting point. We hope to use your comments to eventually create an anthology and/or mural to share with Rosa in a few years.

Our Reasons for "Rosa"
-Reason #1
Vi's name, "Tuong Vi" means "little rose" in Vietnamese. (Keep in mind in Vietnamese names are written Surname, Middle Name, Given Name).

Vi's Ba Noi (paternal grandmother) was initially named Tuong Vi. Later, her family realized there was a great grandmother who was named Tuong Vi, so in respect changed her name. (In Vietnamese tradition, naming children after relatives is not a sign of respect.)

-Reason #2
Rosa Parks- enough said.

-Reason #3
We really like the nickname Rosie. We like the spunkiness about it. Mostly because we recall the wartime character "Rosie the Riveter" from our High School History classes.
Learn more about Rosie the Riveter.

For clarification- being pacifists, we are drawn to the message of gender equality rather than the whole militaristic nationalism thing.

So...there are our reasons for the name Rosa. Now we look forward to reading your thoughts and reflections about the wonderful name Rosa!

homeward bound!

I'm jumping the gun on this blog but figured I'd start posting pictures as they come now so it doesnt get too backed up. Rosa Lê is swimming in her clothes and her carseat but in the cutest way.

twin uncle

Uncle Minh and Auntie Aimee are here visiting! Uncle and Mom unwittingly were on the same fashion wavelength. People made sure to note that we looked like twins...!

throne fit for Baby

Sleeping is becoming more and more of a challenge these days.

So we stepped it up a notch. I couldn't help but laugh this morning when I saw the throne we built:
- 2 almost-body-sized pillows (sunflower and light blue)
- 2 new firm pillows (red stripey)
- 1 contoured memory foam pillow (green leaves)
- 1 flat don'tknowwhywestillkeepitaround pillow (navy blue)
AND the best hidden surprise beneath it all: a pink and purple ladybug bean bag that we got from Auntie G!

Oh yeah, and Mike gets one green pillow.

Lady bug to the rescue!===================>

full term, baby. WOO!

We have now entered the 37th week of pregnancy which means Baby is considered full term now. And for all our hungry friends out there, she is now about the length of swiss chard. Mmmmmm!
So being full terms means aaaany moment she could decide she's ready to come out. A...ny...moment. Wow! Of course, we're hoping she doesn't come too early. Avó and Avô return from vacation on November 20th and Ong Ba Ngoai fly in on November 25th.

Just don't come too late either, baby. Mama's hips are asking you nicely.

i believe in miracles

This was taken after our spontaneous Yosemite trip. I think after being in the car for a while the baby needed to stretch. Aside from the awkwardness of watching my goofiness shine so brightly, I realized I don't get to see myself from afar very often. This was a few weeks ago and man! belly's looking big!

ultrasound update

Last week we went for our 36 week check-up. After measuring my uterus, the doc said the baby as a little small so she scheduled us for another ultrasound (score!). Mike and I went today and everything looks good. The baby is in the 45th percentile for size, 6 pounds, which is good. And as the perinatologist said, small can be good (better than birthing a huge baby). Once again, she said that the baby was practicing breathing which is a good sign that she's not distressed. One thing I didn't do so well, though, is my fluids. She says I score a C for how much water I'm drinking. So I gotta keep hydrating. Hopefully it'll be a bit easier now that I'm back at home.

Here's a picture of the baby's face. It's a cute angle, with one of her eyes open, though it does look like she's wearing a Santa beard. Ho ho ho!

election day

We walked down to the polls today. I have fond memories of going to Wesley School and getting to go into the booth with Me to vote. She even let me pull the levers!