My First All-Nighter

Day 16 – So, this wasn’t really Ethan’s first all-nighter… he has been staying up all night since he was born. But this was his first father-son-computer-gaming all-nighter. I’m sure there will be many more as time goes by.

Power of the Jade Paci

Day 14 – Ethan is not yet addicted to the pacifier.  But in the rare event that he wants it, he really wants it. He has also started to be very protective of the pacifier and will hold on to it with both hands sometimes. It’s really cute!  His daddy will sometimes wait for the most opportune moment to ninja the paci from him.

Cousins Unite

Here starts some catching up with a few micro-posts.

Day 8 – My sister, BIL (Brother-In-Law), and niece came to see Ethan. My sister and Abigail stayed for a few days to help bring a little sanity to those first crazy days. It was wonderful to have them around. The cousins were able to meet and the Aunts were able to bond!

Oh Happy Day Of Rest

Finally, after 9 sleepless nights, baby boy gave his mommy 5 consecutive hours of sleep! Ahhh, life is better with sleep.

Here are a few other cute photos I couldn’t resist posting.

A One Week Old Ethan

H
appy Birthday to Ethan! He is one week old today. Since I finally have a few minutes to sit and think, I will share a few details of the past week.

Little Ethan was so happy in utero that he pasted his due date with flying colors. So, last Wednesday at 6 days overdue we checked in to the hospital to begin the inducing process. I received my first dose of meds around 5 in the evening. I was told the medication would make me dilate, but it was rare that it put you in full labor. Well, after barely surviving a night of intense contractions, the nurses checked and at 7 AM I was 7 cm dilated. So, I skipped the other inducing medication and went straight for the epidural. Ahhh… relief at last. I pushed through about 4 or 5 contractions and Ethan arrived at 10:56 AM. I’ve heard many people say that once you see your little baby, you don’t think about the pain anymore. It’s really true. I think back on that night of labor pains as just a bad dream. Praise God for a healthy delivery and a healthy baby!

After the delivery comes the realization that I now have a baby. Not only do I have a baby, but I am the parent. This is intense. Slowly, hour by hour it becomes more real. Wading through the emotional highs and lows, the sleeplessness, the doctors visits, the nursing issues, I have started to see a little light at the end of this seeming endless tunnel of newbornness. I have started to get to know my baby.

After 7 days, this is what I have learned. He likes to eat, a lot. He sleeps almost anywhere. He loves to be swaddled by his daddy. At 2 AM he stares at me with his big brown eyes like he’s telling me something important… He is. He likes to be entertained by his new friends Kanga and Roo that his Aunt Yennie sent him. He really only cries when he needs to eat, be changed, or burp. He is an optimist. I can tell he sees the world as a happy place already.

Ethan Le Nguyen – The First Week

OK so it hasn’t been quite a week.  Ethan is 5 days old today!  It’s hard to believe so much has happened in just a few days.

He Is Here

E
Born August 13, 2009 10:56PM
8.0 lbs
20 1/4 inches long

Meet Ethan, our beautiful baby boy.  This photo was taken a few hours after he was born while he was resting on his mommy’s lap.  Both mother and child are doing very well.
More pictures to come…

Happy Birthday

YAY!  Today Nguyen turned another year older. I can’t believe we are getting so old. It seems just yesterday we were dating and were like little kids… so young… so free. Ahhh…

Despite our old age we were able to have an enjoyable day! We celebrated just the two of us (Ethan seems to enjoy where he’s at for now).  Nguyen had a hankering for ribs, so we dined out at our favorite BBQ place. Yum, Yum. I baked a special cake, butter pecan rum cake with cream cheese icing. It turned out really nice and was not too sweet – just the way he likes it. I was going to decorate with balloons because balloons are just what you do for a birthday. Is it even considered a birthday without balloons? I’m not sure. So, I bought balloons and got home to start decorating, but sadly, what I did not realize is that the lung capacity of a nine month pregnant woman is rather weak. I tried and tried but could not blow up the balloons… not even one. I stretched and pulled and thought “This is it… I will go into labor trying to blow up these blasted balloons!” I even tried the little electric air pump, but it too was not strong enough. Oh, well. At least we had them, though they are not as fun or festive when not inflated.  All in all, I think Nguyen had a nice day.

Even though I am very ready to have this baby, I’m kinda glad Ethan didn’t come today. Shared birthdays seem so fun, but I would be afraid that Nguyen would loose his special day. I was lucky to grow-up with birthdays being really special days. I have a lot of good birthday memories and I have tried to continue the tradition with Nguyen. Looking at the time it seems pretty safe to say that Ethan will not share his Daddy’s birthday. They can each have their own special day.

Oh happy day, husband! Let’s do this again next year!

I Think I’m Turning Japanese

...I really think so.  Well maybe not, but we did have a day of Japanese food.

Today has been perfect! Sleeping late, searching the web for crafty ideas, watching a movie, and cooking Japanese with my precious hubby… what better to do while waiting on baby to arrive! Our Japanese menu consisted of chicken yakisoba, steamed asparagus with a crab dressing, seaweed salad, sushi, sweet bean crepes, and Azuki ice cream.

Today’s yakisoba was a stir-fry with chicken, veggies, and wheat soba noodles. We didn’t have all the ingredients we would normally use but Nguyen made it work.  We’re in need of an upgrade in the skillet department so the noodles stuck a little and some broke.  We probably should have used the wok.

Along with that we had steamed asparagus.  The dressing was a simple crab in a creamy white wine sauce.

Next on the menu was seaweed salad and sushi. Seaweed salad sounds, well… a little iffy. But it is very tasty. Mostly made from gelatin and seasonings, it is the perfect side dish to a plate of sushi. We actually used sushi rice for our meal this time instead of using jasmine rice. Sushi rice is a short and plump grain and doesn’t smoosh as easily as some other varieties.  Nguyen made a crab mixture for one of the fillings. We also used carrots, cucumber, avocado, asparagus and shrimp.

As for the sweet bean crepes, they didn’t turn out quite as well. (There is no picture for a reason!) Many Asian desserts are actually made with bean in some way. I am used to eating beans with a saltier dish… red beans and rice, butter beans, typical green beans are all salty. Nguyen, however, grew up with beans cooked with sugar and used for desserts. I have had several bean desserts in different Asian restaurants or markets. They are different but very good. So, when I saw this very simple recipe in our Japanese cookbook, I thought it was worth a try. A flour water mixture to make a simple crepe and fill with a small amount of sweet red bean paste. Well, either it was a bad recipe or I am just really bad at making crepes. The crepes had the consistency of homemade play dough. Not very appetizing. Needless to say, the whole batch was thrown out before any incriminating photos could be taken. So much for dessert.

Well, not exactly… Nguyen used the sweet bean paste to make a homemade red bean (Azuki) ice cream!  The first thing you have to do is to forget everything you know about beans.  After that, it’s actually really good.  The first taste is interesting but then it quickly grows on you.  It’s extremely smooth, creamy and not too sweet.  Delectable.