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!
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Kids
Welcome the New Lee’s Family Member!
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.
Kids
Boy or Girl?
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?
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Dr. Graham
The most hilarious thing happened with us. Just a few days ago, we called a friend about some private matter, and then our friend asked us about our baby and who our OB was. “Dr. Graham”, we replied. As soon as our friend heard that name, she began a tirade about how upset she was with the doctor. She also had Dr. Graham as her OB, and the doctor mentioned during her routine visits that the baby’s head was down. When the due date approached, Dr. Graham went on vacation, so another OB attended her that week. To her horror, the OB discovered that baby’s head was actually up, and she needed an immediate C-section. She couldn’t believe Dr. Graham made such a big mistake!
Coincidentally, our Dr. Graham had also been insisting to us that the head was down, and Dr. Graham also went on vacation this week, two weeks before the due date. By this time, goosebumps appeared on my arms and drops of swet began to roll down my forehead as I contemplated whether we had made a disastrous decision choosing our OB . Why hadn’t we spoken to her about Dr. Graham earlier? With Karen due any day now, we had no choice but to follow through with this dire situation with Dr. Graham. What have we done?
Our friend then went on to mention that the reason she chose the doctor was because the doctor was female. Wait. Female? Karen and I looked at each other before rolling on the ground laughing because our Dr. Graham is actually male. Needless to say, we both breathed a sigh of relief as we once again look upon the arrival date with optimism.
Now if only we can make it past April 1st for that arrival date…
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Casualty of Snow
Recall my mentioning of Cherry Blossom as an imagery for the arrival of Spring in my last blog? I love their appearance, especially when one exists outside my front yard, coloring the block for one lone week of the whole year before it sheds itself of all petals and hibernates until the following Spring. Unfortunately this year it shed more than just the petals, as it was struck by the unannounced arrival of the snow…
Unfortunately the branches was unable to withstand the weight of both the blossoms and the snow. Oh and how I used to love seeing everything covered in snow, until now.
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March Snow?!
Just when I thought Winter has left town and Spring made its grand entrance with the blooming cherry blossoms, we get this…
Karen and I had a comforting discussion in December about how we were glad that we would have to drive in the snow during labor because of the baby being due in April. It appears that we spoke too soon!
Kids
The Anticipation
April 11th, 2008. The tentative date of the beginning. Or the end. Everyone familiar with this journey seem to offer the same condolences, that the days of the life as we know it is numbered. Date nights, TV marathons, and video games can be kissed goodbye. Sleeplessness, frustrating moments, and ceaseless work will rule the days. And nights. The luxury of quality eight hour sleep would be supplanted by short, interrupted naps. The eyes shall transform from the monochrome black and white into a crimson red traditionally associated with vampires. Some call this Doomsday, but others describe this as the beginning of the most wonderful journey one can take. In the end, they say, it will be all worth it.
I hope so.
General
One Tree Hill
The writer’s strike had pushed us toward exploring new shows, and the One Tree Hill season 5 premier, which seemed like a new series, got us hooked. Who knows, maybe we’ll even name our child Lucas. 🙂
Sports
Chargers, Seahawks out of playoffs
So this is a slightly late entry, but both of my teams have lost in the playoffs. Seahawks were put to shame by the Packers, but at least Holmgren is coming back next season! Chargers made it to AFC Championship, but couldn’t punch it in the red zone. With no LT, slow Rivers, and hurt Gates, it’s amazing they made it this long, and the fact Norv got conservative against the Patriots didn’t help either. Oh well, but at least they put up a fight and didn’t get blown out like the Hawks.
There’s always next year.
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Cutting the Cable Bill?
Not long ago, we finally retired our old trusty Panasonic 27″ CRT television and upgraded to a new Panasonic 50″ Plasma. Unfortunately HD programming is needed to see the difference, and I could count the number of HD channels available by Comcast with my toes. Hence I ask myself the question, why pay for all this when it’s all available for free over the air? So I went on a little quest to try finding a way to save on cable bill.
First, I investigated what I can pick up from where I live, and for that, I found a nice web site, antennaweb.org that, given my location, revealed what channels I should receive as well as the direction of the stations. I later found that tvfool.com gave even better information, but either one works. After typing in my address, I found that I had all the local stations I wanted, but Fox would be very weak, so that would be my limiting factor.
Next, I tried hooking up some antennas. According to the web, all I need is any old UHF loop-style antenna, so I dug around my cobweb-filled garage and found an old Radio Shack UHF/VHF antenna…
When I tried it, the number of stations I got were limited and the signal strength wasn’t great. So I did some research on indoor antennas and found that the Philips Silver Sensor was a great indoor antenna. I didn’t find them being sold locally, and given that I wanted to be able to return it if it doesn’t work well, I ended up with an antenna with a similar design, the Terk HDTVa.
This antenna worked well, and if I pointed it at a specific location, I was able to pick up FOX. There was one issue, however, which was that it was directional and there was no spot that would pick up all channels. Given that I had a Tivo HD, which is always recording, I needed an antenna I don’t need to move.
Then I tried the omni-directional Terk TV-5, which is not as directional, but it was weaker and also was very sensitive to the degree of rotation of the antenna. Given that I still had to rotate the antenna, it might as well have been a directional antenna.
Finally I found the antenna that gave me all the stations…
The Radio Shack Indoor/Outdoor Antenna, 15-2187. It had great reviews, and given the size, it had a larger surface area, I decided to give it a try. Voila! I now have a spot where it picks up all channels! There’s still some occasional breakup on a channel during rainy days, but it’s certainly a whole lot better than the smaller indoor antennas. Despite some web sites mentioned that the higher the better, I found that the prime spot for picking up Fox was right on the ground next to the TV. It certainly isn’t the designer furniture I was looking for, but with it only half visible, it was acceptable, even to Karen.
I have currently hooked up the antenna to my Tivo have given it a trial run for a few days, and so far so good. As long as the antenna has a lock on the station, the picture is perfect because it is digital. Now with the writer’s strike, the original programming options are more limited, so this is the perfect time to cut the cable bill… completely!