Category: Kids

This is what happens when the hand slips out of the swaddle.

When a couple have a baby, they give all their time and attention to the baby. I don’t blame them, for who can resist a smile like this?

I knew Odelia would be a football fan, even in her dreams. She will be a Chargers fan just like her daddy. Touchdown!

Okay, fine, the Seahawks can be her #2 team.

Here’s a picture of Odelia sleeping with her little bear…

Looks like Odelia is starting to fall off her bed…

Sometimes she checks you out, thinking “I’m watching you!”

And sometimes I wonder if she’s just pretending to be oblivious just to continue getting the royalty treatment from Karen and me!

That’s all for now. More to come!

Typically Odelia sleeps on a little memory-foamed sleeper between Karen and I. Last night, during a snacking session in the wee hours of the morning, her wardrobe malfunctioned, causing fudge, or more accurately, deli mustard, to be spread across our clean, soft sheet. If it wasn’t for the extra matress padding fending off the foul ingredient, the art would have been permanently fixated on our BeautyRest bed. To look on the bright side, I’ve now learned to be more diligent during diaper changes.

(Due to their graphic nature, the images have been omitted from this post.)

Here’s a few more pictures on Odelia. It’s so strange to see how tiny her feet is! Notice the little black dot, which is not a mole but where the hospital heartlessly drew her blood…

Here’s Odelia during a burping session…

Someone’s practicing to be a future American Idol contestant…

Here’s Odelia wearing a shirt (or bib?) with her own name, thanks to her Auntie Christine!

Here’s a quiz. What expression is this?

If you guessed that it’s the expression before she poops, you’re absolutely right!

Hey look, here comes the Pope(ss)!

And here’s Odelia in her sleeping sack. Perfect fit!

More Odelia moments to come!

According to the info at Baby Center, babies should be rolling over around 2-3 months. Apparently Odelia is above the curve, as I witnessed this moment today, day 5:

I knew that Odelia was strong in how feisty in how effective she fights off my dragon grip on her feet during diaper changes, but learning to roll at day 5 instead of 2-3 months is something. At this rate, she may be able to stand in 2 weeks! Okay, so maybe not, but looks like I better not leave her unattended to grab something any more!

Just now Karen said that she saw Odelia smile. We had never seen her smile before. Frown? Yes. Cry? Check. Moody Look? Definitely. Smile? Never, until now. Unfortunately I was not first-hand witness. When I ran over to see Karen get Odelia smiling again, Odelia rolled her eyes on us.

We apologize for keeping Odelia all to ourselves right now. Besides having to deal with all the challenges of adjusting to a schedule of 2 hours of sleep a day, apparently Odelia has inherited her dad’s gene for the love for food. Even during her time in the womb, she was secretly pigging out, and it didn’t seem to have changed after entering this world, feeding mostly around 1 hour and 30 mins at night. Needless to say, it takes a taxing toll on her parents. Had we opened for guests, it would be “Thanks for coming. See you later!” We’re waiting for the moment when she can be seen more than 5 mins at a time.

By the way, as you know I love worship and have done that all my life, the name Odelia means “Praise God” in Hebrew. She will carry on the tradition of music and shall surpass her father. We can already tell she will be a great singer by her cry and her dedication. When you have 10 crying babies in the room, you will undeniably recognize her by the one giving it her all. We know… we hear it everyday!

Now before you think we’ve created a monster, I need to say that it may have been partially my fault. As a loving father, I, of course, do not wish any pain or harm to come in the way of my daughter. So when it comes to putting her in a straight jacket (swaddling), well, it was obviously a little tough to do when she’s balling. However, I’ve repented of my ways and now I will pull the blanket with all my might, and she seemed to like it. Hopefully that will carry over, instead of her strong personality taking over.

With all the new parenthood stuff out of the way, Odelia truly is adorable though, possessing really flush cherry lips. No idea which side of the family those came from, but absolutely gorgeous.

Instead of keeping all of you in the dark about what Odelia looks like, here’s a few pictures!

Odelia sleeping.

Odelia and Karen

Odelia and James

The new Lee family!

On April 2nd, 2:53 am, at 7 lb 15 oz, Odelia Kyra Lee took her first breath in this world. Both the mother and the child are doing fine. We dodged the April Fools bullet by about three hours.

The contractions started at 8am yesterday, were regular but would reset from time to time. Perhaps the Lord was answering our prayer about not having April Fools baby by resetting the contraction clock. At 7-8pm, difficult contractions began. By the time we arrived at Overlake, contractions were 2-3 mins apart and Karen was already 6 cm dialated at 100% effacement. Dr. Graham was impressed by how far along we got all by ourselves.

When Karen was pushing and finally I saw the hair of the baby, I nearly broke down. After all, we never had an ultrasound, so we had no idea what the baby looked like, if it was a he, or a she. Of course, having bought a basketball hoop and got the baseball bats ready, I was completely caught off guard when Dr. Graham said, “It’s a girl!” I think we had 30 boy names and 3 girl names, but then girl names were far easier to pick. The first thing that crossed my mind was, “I guess we don’t have to worry about circumcision.”

On the other side, Karen did an absolutely amazing job handling the pain. However, without epidoral and opting for a natural birth, Karen has been forever traumatized by this experience of giving birth to an super-sized baby. And to think that just last week, we were snickering at the other doctor for guessing that our baby was 7 1/2 lbs. “Yeah, for a caucasian baby, maybe.” Instead, we witnessed David giving birth to Goliath. Maybe this will fade from her memory in two years before her next one. Fingers crossed.

Visitations are currently on hold until the mother and the baby recover their energy. More details on this will be made available privately.

Karen started having some contractions this morning, timed at around 12 minutes apart, 25s duration. By the time we got to the OB, it was 10 mins apart, 35s duration. Eventually it got to 8 mins, then 6 mins, 50s. Of course, during this time we’re still praying that it would hold off until midnight, as we’re racing against the clock.

Then all of a sudden it became irregular, went back to 10 mins, 50 s, and went to 16 mins, 52s, then 20 mins, 6 mins! Then it returned to 10 mins 45 s. What’s going on? Is it the Lord’s way of holding off the baby in answer to our prayer, or are we just experiencing Braxton Hicks? False labors are supposed to be felt higher and irregular, but earlier today we got it at a consistent regularity. Not sure what it all means yet.

In any case, here is your last chance to make a guess on whether our baby is a boy or girl! Here’s a few pictures to help you decide:

So which is it? Boy or Girl?