Bye Bye ICU!

Well enough now to go back, after a week, to the Intermediate care
ward!

He's now on special "elemental" formula, which means it's partly
broken down. It also tastes something awful, so despite his hunger, he
doesn't really want to drink. Who said Chams will eat anything if
their hungry? And he might have to do a month of it!

Apparently babies that age are not supposed to discrimate due to taste, so good news and bad news that he's a precocious foodie!

The tape is because at some point he was so hungry that they tied the pacifier to both sides of his face so that he wouldn't spit it out and wake up.

Chami is Eating Again!

Chami started eating yesterday.  He was only allowed to eat 10ml every 8 hours but he was so hungry even after the first meal that the nurse gave him 20% more (which is only 2ml more for a baby who was eating more than 100ml on day 3).  When we visited him at 2pm, he kept waking up to look for food but poor baby could only chew on the cotton stick (which is dabbed in cool boiled water).  He got so frustrated and refused to go back to sleep.  Finally the nurse picked him up to comfort him.  She then asked if I wanted to hold him.  Of course I do!  It's been more than a week since I last held him...  I petted him slowly and he slowly dozed off in my arms!  We heard, however, that after we left he three a big fit since he woke up hungry again but fortunately he was again sleeping like an angel when Dadu visited him at 7pm.  He has stopped receiving all medications so that is a good sign.  He is getting a reverse liposuction though since they are now injecting "fat" into his vein, 19 ml per day, to replenish all the baby fat he has lost in the last week...

Hungry Boy

Today Javier is a lot more active. He had been sleeping a lot in the past five days since he got transferred to the ICU, probably due to bleeding and low hemoglobin levels. He has had three blood transfusions since he was losing too much blood from bleeding. But since his bleeding stopped yesterday, he has been wanting to eat/suck. But given he still needs to prove that the bleeding can stop without the medicine, it will take at least one more day before the doc will allow intake of glucose water and formula. In the mean time, he is given a cotton swab dabbed in glucose water so he can suck on (he got really frustrated with pacifier since nothing comes out regardless of how much he sucks). He is so hungry that he would suck it dry in a matter of minutes and then he would start complaining again. The hard thing is that there is really nothing we can do for him but little Javier has to fight it on his own. So we can only comfort him a bit by stroking him softly.
We were also told that he needs to be on this hypo-allergic formula for the next month to prevent any relapse of the bleeding problem. So I guess that means only pumping for me for the next 30 days. I hope it
won't diminish my milk supply in the long run. Whatever it takes to get Javier well...
Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts!!!

The Comeback Kid

It's too soon to tell if we're completely out of the woods yet, but thankfully Javiercito has now stopped bleeding. The liquid they pull out of his mouth tube is clear, and what little poo-poo comes out the end is green (who'd have though one could be so so happy to see green s**t).  

They can't tell yet exactly what caused the bleeding, but they are confident it's not holes in his intestines. It could be viruses (such as Rotavirus or something called CMV), but they've also found some common bacteria in his gastric juices ("Staphylococcus Aureus" and "Klebsiella Pneumoniae", but they could be just from sample contamination since they are so common), so they are still doing antibiotics. If it continues to be clear for the next day or two then he can go back to drinking milk, which Mamu has been laboriously accumulating into a big banquet for him.

He is now also more active, and unfortunately complaining that he wants to eat. For example, unlike before his hands are now in socks as he was hurting himself by flailing his cathetered hands, and is sliding all over the "Bili bed" by pushing himself with his feet. 

Since they cannot give him still anything to eat, and he tires of the pacifier, the only thing they can give him is a big cotton swab soaked in water or glucose water. Lollipop ICU style.

加油 little Javier!

Tough kid

Still in the ICU, but charming all the nurses, who are impressed how strongly he cries whenever they try to do anything to him. Not yet completely stable, but getting bit better, as bleeding less. He was hanging with Dadu all of the visiting hour, a very very good boy. Doctors are still trying to determine which bug is causing this. 

Joaquin's first self portrait

He drew the purple shape by himself and said that that was "Fakín!". Nice eye for symmetry!

Still Hospitalized

Chami is one week old today.  Given the complications at birth, he has been in the Neonatal Intermediate Care Unit.  His jaundice was still high when I checked out two days ago so he couldn't come home with us.  Yesterday, nurses noticed that he started having serious diarrhea problem, to the point that there was blood in his stool.  They suggested to stop feeding him and put him on IV instead to alleviate the diarrhea problem.  Last night, the problem got worse as the resident doctor noticed that the stool turned into pure blood, indicating the internal bleeding problem has become more serious than we thought.  Overnight, he was transferred to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit next door for better monitoring.
When we saw him this morning at 11am, he had one tube going from his mouth to his stomach so they can extract stomach fluid and blood directly; one of his wrist is on IV and another with artery blood pressure tube.  The sight of him made me tear up immediately since I thought it was already hard enough for a one-week old not being able to eat but to see him hooked up with all these modern medicine intervention just breaks my heart.  The doctors are trying to find out what the possible causes could be for his bleeding problem.  It could be viral/bacterial infection.  It could be stress ulcer given his birth complications.  We just don't know enough yet.  The worse scenario may be that he has punctures in his stomach/intestines which then requires a surgery but from the x-ray he has taken, this is becoming a remote possibility (thank goodness).  In the mean time, he is given antibiotics and the medicine to stop bleeding.  But given the seriousness of the problem, it is unlikely he will be fed anytime soon.
Little Chami is a trooper though.  He doesn't cry at all.  He is trying to get well and sleeping peacefully (but uncomfortably) most of the time.   He did open his soulful eyes to look at us a few times but didn't complain at all which makes it even harder for us.  Dadu has been making several trips to the hospital a day and getting very sleep.  Mamu just concentrates on pumping and saving him enough milk when he comes home.  We just all pray that he can be home and healthy soon...

And then there were two

So the second time around was certainly different. More relaxed on our part, no fretting if we are ready or if we are missing some hardware. But childbirth being what it is, still holds surprises (though none as crazy of our friends Ho & Matt's).

Three days before the scheduled C-section and 6 before the due date, at around midnite, Dadu was busy with assembling the new Ikea changing table (again) when Joyce called him urgently to help. Mamu being big and unhandy, that had been a relatively common ocurrance the last few weeks, but now, out of the blue, oops, water broke, gotta rush to the hospital. I wasn't even packed. And off we went.

While trying to hail a cab contractions started, unusually starting a few minutes apart. By the time we checked in they were on pretty strong, so went almost straight into the OR. Taiwanese being Taiwanese, there was a ridiculous mountain of paperwork to fill out, so mother-in-law had to come and fill out.

What followed is a big blank since Fathers aren't allowed in the OR and Joyce was given a general anesthetic, and will have to wait for surgeon's report, but baby was born 3:05am, then Mother was sent to a recovery room, since no rooms available until noon next day, and baby was sent to a different floor at the Neonatal Intermediate Care Nursery. 3.87 kg (a tad more than Joaquin) and 51cm long.

What the doc told us is that due to the previous Cesarean and the bladder placement and the size of the baby he had a hard time pulling baby out. He had to do an extra cut at some point. And turn the baby
around 180 degrees to pull him by the legs (thereby bruising them, they are still purple). And there was a period of time when the baby couldn't breathe, 30 seconds perhaps, thank god not long enough for Neonatal Asphyxia, but long enough to worry about possible organ damage, which is why they brought him into the Intermediate Nursery and are running a bunch of tests. The nurses told us we are very lucky the doctor has as much experience as he does, as he is one of the most famous and respected in Taiwan, otherwise things could have turned out not so well. When he came out the baby's response score wasn't so good, but it got well very shortly, so that Amah and Dadu were able to see him by the time I took the pics.

Unfortunately this being a public hospital, albeit the best one in the country (or perhaps because of that), they didn't have a bed for us in a single room, so Mamu spent the rest of the morning in the Recovery room and Dadu laid down in the waiting room couch (which was ok when he fell asleep at 6am, funny when he woke up surrounded by people at 10am). Socialized medicine has its good and bad things.

But it was a very rough surgery for Joyce and she is still in pain almost 4 days later and can only get up with help. We are having to wheel her one floor below to breastfeed since once a baby is in the Intermediate Nursery he cannot come out until checkout. A bit excessive, we think, since baby is fine and it meant Mamu wasn't able to see him until almost 2 days after birth (!). Joaquin hasn't really seen his little brother either, only shortly when we rush him in and out over their protests. (Apparently the glimpse he did get of Joyce breastfeeding his little brother was enough to make his jaw drop). It's a slow and painful task to come down everytime, but Mamu is amazingly strong and dedicated to come up and down in a wheelchair every 3-4 hours that he needs it.

So, we'll be here until Tuesday, Joyce relearning how to feed baby, Joaquin running around hospital. And our new baby, Javier Yuelin Cham Hsu (詹岳霖), is doing great, has a Cham-worthy appetite (local nurses shocked how much he can chug down), and enjoying his tanning bed spa (a routine case of Jaundice). Neither of us is religious, but we feel we have a lot to be very very thankful to God that things seem to be ok now after such a scare.

(Update: Javiercito's jaundice isn't coming down unfortunately, so we'll be going home without him tomorrow. The brother's meeting will have to wait a bit longer).

@ 39 Weeks and Three More Days to Go

So here I am, 20 minutes before I enter my 39th week of pregnancy.  I'm amazed that I am still somewhat mobile.  I completed my last bureaucratic chore today which I had feared that I would not have enough time to do.  Last week, we finally got our marriage legally registered in Taiwan which means Chami can be born legally to Jaime (and that the "Father" line will not be left blank on his birth certificate).  I also successfully processed Joaquin's resident visa, his hukou registration and applied for his Taiwan passport today.  I guess I should be proud of how productive I am at this stage of pregnancy.  I thought I would be in bedrest by now to make sure Chami does not come earlier than his scheduled debut date but I managed to continue to squeeze more appointments to my calendar.

I have had a lot of problems sleeping at night (either due to vicious mosquitoes circling around me or just the discomfort arising from my expanding belly) which means I take naps through out the day.  I have forgotten what it's like to sleep continuously for more than four hours.  I guess in a way, this is how Nature prepares me for the coming days.  My PUPPP is getting a lot more serious and is now spreading all over my body.  I suppose it's comforting to know that the only cure (which is the delivery of the baby) is coming in four days but in the meantime, I will just need to deal with it and be happy that it only developed in the last few weeks of my pregnancy and not any earlier like some poor expectant mothers do.  

As a second-time parents, we are a lot more relaxed than we were with Chamu.  We had almost forgotten how difficult it was for us when Chamu first arrived: sleepless nights, breast feeding, sleep training, etc.  Again, Nature has its way of tricking people into having the second baby.  Joaquin is already a full-time job most of the time so it's hard to imagine how we can deal when Chami comes along.  I guess we can never be prepared enough to be confident about handling the next baby.  We are nonetheless equally excited as we were the first time about meeting our new baby and watching Chamu take on the role of a Big Brother.