Category Archives: Crafts
Almost Time for Leo
Things worth having are worth waiting for.
We had our meeting at the hospital a few weeks ago with the head staff from NICU, Neonatologist, Perinatologist, L&D, Social Worker, Geneticist, my OBGYN, and baby nursing staff. They went over possible and realistic care for Leo for after he’s born and they said that 41/42 babies with tetrasomy 18p have feeding issues. So realistically he will be in NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) shortly after he is born, and will probably be there for 4-6 weeks. They will be able to do a cranium ultrasound, heart ultrasound, abdomen ultrasound and chromosome blood test in our room, before he goes to NICU. They also gave us a tour of NICU and it looks very homely and they even have a camera above his bed that will be having live streaming feed of him at all times so we can just go online and see what he’s up to 24/7! The meeting was very informative and help make us feel more confident that he will be in the best hands after birth.
This is the back side of Leo, and between his head and body, you can see all that fuzz, which is his hair!
We had another growth ultrasound a week later and he measures at 4lbs 10 oz! He’s growing even though I’m not and I actually lost a pound but it’s ok since his weight is the only thing that matters! His stomach is still a little small but that’s ok. His heart still has the same issues, his right chamber looks a little bigger than the left so they think it could be due to the dilated size of one of the pulmonary blood vessels or one of the valves. The doctor is referring us to see a pediatric cardiologist and we will meet with one to take a closer look at Leo’s heart. I had my obgyn appointment afterwards and everything seems to be ok for the most part except for my weight lost and belly size got a tad bit smaller but that’s ok. Oh and at the u/s they measured his heart rate range 115-119bmp which is at the low side. As long as it’s above 110bmp then it’s ok, but if it goes below then they might have to deliver early because it means baby isn’t getting enough oxygen and blood flow. However, shortly afterwards at my OBGYN appt, they measured his heart rate to be 140bmp…so who knows what’s going on. Maybe Leo decided to sleep durng the ultrasound and wake up for my doctor’s appointment haha.
Also, my OBGYN said if I make it past 35 wks (so 1 more week at this point), if I get frequent contractions again, then they won’t try to stop the contractions and I’ll most likely just go into labor and deliver, but it sounds like chances of him surviving at that point is better than if he were to be born a premie now. It’s still risky but the longer he stays in the belly, the better, so giving birth 2 weeks from that point is still a lot better than if I were to give birth a month ago. So that’s good to know. So all in all, not too much changed, and we just have to see the pediatric cardiologist and see what they find. I’m also going to be going into the hospital twice a week (monday and thursday) for fetal diagnostics where they strap me in for an hour and monitor the baby’s heart rate and my contractions, and then do a quick ultrasound now and then only to measure the amniotic fluids. I have my next u/s in a month, beginning of June, and my next obgyn appt is in two wks and then every week after that. Also, the ultrasound showed that he has a lot of hair already!! Probably like a cm of hair already! He’s probably gonna have a full head of hair like Lily did!
Leo 34 Weeks Gestation (3D Image!)
Fast forward a week, I got a call from the pediatric cardiologist today and I’ll have an Eco u/s on Monday after my fetal diagnostic. But at the u/s, they’re going to take a much closer look at his heart and determine if he will need surgery or not. If he does then I can’t deliver at Hoag and I’ll have to do it at the Long Beach Memorial Hospital since that’s where all the pediatric cardiologist specialists are, so that would be a little disappointing since I really wanted to be at Hoag, but it would be even more scary and worrisome since that means he will need surgery, but at least he will be in the best hands. Hopefully though he won’t need surgery but I’ll find out on Monday. Also, the other thing is the severity of his neurological issues and developmental delays; we won’t know how severe that will be until he’s born and we just have to watch him and see. But for now, we can just hope his heart will be ok and that things stay minor. Fingers crossed!
Later I had the first fetal diagnostics and the nurse said everything seems to look ok so far, but the doctor still has to go over the results but I think everything’s fine at the moment. His heart rate is still on the low end but it’s still within the normal range for now. I just have to make sure I relax and not do anything to bring on more contractions. I had the eco u/s with the pediatric cardiologist afterwards and there might be a lil hole in the bottom chamber of his heart but pulmonary vessel the valve size irregularities and stuff is ok and he said there is nothing to be concerned about for now. So that means we can plan to still delivery at Hoag and Leo won’t have to go into immediate survey after he’s born, so that’s wonderful! We will still need to do an Eco u/s when he is born but for now it’s ok! He is such a little fighter, making me so proud of him already! All these unknown situations and the whole waiting game is very nerve wreckng and the health and happiness of my Leo is constantly on my mind and is one of my many focuses in my daily routine. It’s hard to be positive, stress free, and happy when I’m constantly worrying about this, but I just have to keep on truckin’ along in hopes of knowing he will be in my arms soon.
On another note, here’s my latest crafting adventure for my Lily pad, a crocheted musical unicorn that plays the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow! I had it all finished and it was sitting on Lily’s little couch waiting for her when she got home from school, and she noticed it right away and asked if it was for her! I said yes of course and that I made it for her, and showed her how to pull the tail for the music to play. When she heard the music, it got her even more excited and she said “oh thank you mommy!!” and gave me a hug and kiss! Spending all that time and putting in all my love into this little projects for her is all made worth it by her sweet reactions. She would hug the unicorn while watching her shows and randomly she would give it piggyback rides too and then make me do it and tell me she wants to take a picture of me doing so haha! She loves to pull the string to play the music. Such a genius invention, the pull string music box! I’m so glad she likes!
This past Sunday night, we went into the hospital because my OBGYN told me that if my contractions are about 10 mins apart then I should go in. So that’s what happened and I went in, but the doctors there didn’t seem to be too concerned and sent me back home. I had my fetal diagnostics the next morning and was monitored for half an hour and got 3 contractions as well but it seemed to be fine, which is a good thing since I’m so close to 37 weeks (full term). I’m almost there, just hang in a little longer Leo! Tonight I had another scare where the contractions almost got down to every 5 minutes, and I was so uncomfortable and in pain that at one point I was shaking and crying from it all. Lily saw I as hurting and ran to me and said “mommy you are hurting? It’s ok, do you want a bandaid? It will make you feel better!” I told her I’m ok and she gave me a sweet hug and kiss. I love her to pieces! I decided to lay down to see if th contractions like get better but after ten minutes my acid reflux got the best of me and I ran for the bathroom and threw up pretty much everything I ate today. Oh the glamour of pregnancy! Luckily though, the contractions calmed down and I’m going to tough it out for the night. I have my fetal diagnostics again in the morning along with my OBGYN appointment afterwards so I will see what happens then. (Tomorrow I’ll be 9 months with my little prince Leo. I will update this later with my 9 month baby bump photo on I find time to take a photo this weekend, so stay tuned!)
Update: (5/23/2015) As of this past Thursday, I am 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. My belly measures 33cm, a little small but it’s ok. I’ve also gained a total of 7 lbs… Progress right? Haha. My fetal diagnostics went well and baby is looking good in terms of heart beat! I still have contractions but not enough for them to be concerned. My amniotic fluids measured at 21 which is good, anything between 8-25 is normal. So Leo just hang in there a little longer!
9 Months Baby Bump
“No one will ever know the strength of my love for you. After all, you [and your sister] are the only one who know what my heart sounds like from the inside.”
Journey to meet Leo continues…
Crafts for my Babies
One of my many hobbies is crafting, and I like it not only because it’s fun, therapeutic, and I get to be creative and exercise that part of my brain, but because I know that all my time, and love I put into my projects, will totally be worth it when I see the excitement and smile on my baby’s faces when I give it to them, or when later the grow up and realized that I made it for them, since newborns don’t really understand much about gifts yet haha. So when I was pregnant with Lily, I made a bunch of things (you can see them below) and I figured it’s time to start making things for Leo! I actually knitted a bear for him while I was pregnant with Lily because I knew we would have a 2nd child eventually, so I made a similar style stuff animal for the 2nd child, and make it gender neutral. I crocheted a little beanie for him with ear flaps and baby lamb ears and braids, and letter blocks that spelled out his name, just like the ones I made for Lily. My favorite thing that I made for Leo though is this musical baby lamb that I crocheted, and when you pull it’s tail, it plays the musical tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! It’s so cute and I can’t wait to give it to my baby Leo. I’m thinking about making one for Lily but with a different animal since it’s so cute and adorable! I found the pull string music box on ebay and this particular one, you can choose which song it plays too, so for Lily’s I’ll pick a different song so they can have their own unique musical stuff animal. There’s a video to demonstrate the musical lamb below, ENJOY!
Here are some crafts that I made for Lily when I was awaiting her arrival! The first collage image is all done by knitting. I remember going to a specialty yarn store to buy the pink yarn for the dragon’s body since I wanted to find a yarn that had random specs of color in it. Making these little crafts for my babies is very relaxing and fun and I know they’ll appreciate the time, effort and love I put into them one day!
Happy 2nd Birthday Lily!
Happy 2nd birthday to my sweet little Lily pad!! Lily is about 23 pounds (8 percentile) and stretches about 34 inches tall (average percentile). At her 2 year check-up, she got a finger prick to test her hemoglobin and lead and the doctors said her levels are really good, and she got 1 shot in the thigh and she cried at first but then stopped and was a happy camper shortly after! She even said thank you to the nurses and waved bye and when asked how old she was, she’ll put up 1 finger and say “TWO!!” haha! Her pediatrician said she is developing really nicely and acts like a 3 year old instead of 2 year due to her openness to everyone and how cooperative she was. She listened really well and is talking so much, and picks up on language super fast! She’s starting to go through a mimic phase and will copy her friend’s actions and she loves to hold her friend’s hands! She’s getting smarter each day and is growing so fast! Where did the time go baby girl? She also started potty training 2 weeks ago and is making really great progress!! She’s at the point where she’s really good at telling us she needs to go and we take her and she actually goes! Her favorite phrase right now is “I go poopoo choilet!” I love the way she says toilet haha. “Choilet!” She talks so much now and her vocabulary is exploding! Just last week she knew the word “octagon!” We are so proud of her and all her accomplishments in her first 2 years of life!
On Friday, June 6, Lily had a little birthday celebration at her school. We had a special circle time with all her classmates where her teacher, Mr. Monica, showed her classmates 3 photos of her (1 of her at 1 months old, 1 years old, and now 2 years old). They had a special music box that plays the Happy Birthday song when you wind it, but Lily didn’t want to wind it so we just sang to her without that. Then we all went to sit down at the table where the kids got to eat sugar free cookies and apple slices! The sugar free cookies were actually pretty good, who would have thought? Haha. I also made origami lilies from various designed scrapbook paper, and used floral tape to tape down little party favor bubble wands inside the flower. I tied a gold ribbon and tag to the top of the bubble wand, and the tag says “Roses are red, violets are blue, blow some bubbles, Lily is 2!” All the adults seemed to really like it, they weren’t going to pass them out to the kids until they leave for the day, but I’m hoping they liked the bubbles, who wouldn’t? Lily also got to enjoy some refreshing watermelon before it was time to go home from school! She had a great day celebrating at school!!
On Sunday, it was Lily’s actual birthday, and that’s when all our family and friends gathered to celebrate our little angel turning 2 years old! I made all the desserts with the help of my lovely assistant Sarah! Desserts included milk and white chocolate mousse, tiramisu, panna cotta, chocolate kiss nutter butter acorns, macarons (green tea, raspberry, and fruity pebbles), and I made this balsamic mozzarella cheese tomato appetizers too. My aunt made chocolate dipped strawberries and had the creative idea of sticking them on the top of pineapples! My super talented and crafty dad made all the wooden dessert stands too! I also made Lily’s display cake as well! We ordered the usual lot of Vietnamese food (nem nuong, fried noodles, egg rolls, banh beo), and my family made some clear noodles, soy, fried rice, pasta salad and cut up fruits too. Lily had a super great time this year because she’s older and she had a blast running around the grass with the balloon sticks and playing with all the other kids! I love watching her play and laugh her little tooshie off. Her happiness is my happiness!
My friend Mieng also did a really nice photoshoot of Lily for me for photos to be displayed at her birthday party! I was also able to use them to print out thank you magnets to send to everyone as well! The photos came out better than I could imagine and I’m so grateful to have these beautiful photos that I can share and hold onto forever. So special thanks to Mieng for all your talents! We are lucky to have you! =) You can view more pictures from her birthday party from my simple camera and photos that Mieng took HERE!
Look at all the presents! She was so excited to open them but there was so much that she just wanted to play and got tired of opening them, so I had to step in and help her open them all haha. She’s really spoiled with so much love by everyone! She deserves all of it and so much more!
Lastly, Khoa selected a bunch of video clips from Lily’s past year and Jennifer put them all together in this lovely video! Thank you Khoa for combing through the hundreds of video clips and thank you Jennifer for creating this video that we will be able to share with Lily when she’s older! It’s so wonderful to be able to watch our sweet baby girl grow from being a 1 year old baby to a 2 year old toddler! Get ready to smile, laugh, and fall in love with Lily all over again in the video below! She is the greatest joy of my life! Lily I wish you the most wonderful 2nd birthday! I love watching you grow everyday, and you made me the happiest mommy in the whole world! You brighten my days, my life, my soul. Baby I love you so much with all of my heart, forever and beyond!
Lily Turns Two from J.N. on Vimeo.
Craft Therapy
So this month has been one of the hardest month of my life, and only time will truly heal my heart, but each day does bring in a little light into the darkness. I feel like I’m doing a lot better, but sometimes I have my moments, especially when I’m by myself and my mind tends to wander. I was feeling a little depressed the other day, so I started to browse the net to distract my mind and I stumbled upon this image of a super cute blazer on this little girl. I got inspired and decided to make on for Lily! My mind was instantly distracted and I went into a crafting high!! haha. So the next day I woke up super excited to go to the fabric store and pick out fabrics with Lily for her new blazer. The blazer I saw online was only 1 solid color, but I decided to make a light beige color lining so that when you roll up the sleeves, the cuffs are a different color. It provided just the pop of charm that I wanted! It was fun to be doing things with a purpose. After Lily went to bed that night, I immediately went to work learning and trying to figure out the pattern and how to take on this task. 3 hours later, I finished my first sewn article of clothing for Lily! It was hard for me to fall asleep that night because I kept imagining how it’ll look on her, and I was too excited to fall asleep. The next day, I was so happy and felt very proud of myself for making something that looked quite decent and actually fits her! She wore it with no complaints, and seemed to like it, or so I think haha. After this project, I felt super happy, and I was proud of myself for channeling my depression into something positive. Crafting is very therapeutic for me, probably because I enjoy the process, and I get something to be proud of at the end, to show for all my hard work! This totally cheered me up!! I have a few more projects I decide to do, so stay tuned for those in the future, it includes more clothes for Lily and a new “room” for Luna! =) Here are some pictures of her and the blazer, in two outfits.
Speaking of positive and cheerful things, I feel like babies are so angelic when they’re sleeping. Lily just looks soooo peaceful and sweet when she’s in dreamland, and I can stare at her ALL day! She makes me soooo happy! I love her to pieces!!
Lily’s crazy hair while sleeping.
She even poses in her sleep! Love it when she falls asleep in my arms!
Stuck on You!
When we enrolled Lily into school at Le Port, we were told to label EVERYTHING, like all her bottles, the caps, her bibs, jacket, toys, etc. So one the difficult things to label were her bottles, and every time we would wash her bottles, her name on the tape written in a sharpie would slowly fade. I would constantly have to keep relabeling her stuff. It was a huge pain! So I just wanted to share my new (well new to me) discovery! I saw these custom labels you can order, pick out the designs, colors, font, etc, and put your child’s name on it! The special thing about these labels that make them so amazing is that they are waterproof, dishwasher and laundry proof, and microwave safe!! I immediately ordered myself a value pack, and I was so excited when they arrived, it was like Christmas morning for me!! Not only do the labels look cute, but they actually work!! Here’s the link to the website I used, it’s called Stuck On You, but there are other sites that are a little cheaper (like Oliver’s Labels, Magento Kiddo Tags and Sticky Monkey Labels, but I just really LOVE the designs they have at Stuck On You! If your little one is in school/day care, I would highly recommend these!! Check it out and make your life that much easier! =) Enjoy!!
