It's A......................

GIRL!!!

Katelyn Kiyomi Wong was born on Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 11:00 PM. She weighed 6 pounds, 10.4 ounces and was 19 inches long.

Katelyn's Born!

Now for the birth story...

We arrived at the hospital at 9 AM and checked in. I got situated in the room and changed into my hospital dress I bought off of Amazon - all the nurses LOVED it and said the hospital should start using it! It's so much cuter than the regular hospital gowns and still allows them access for monitors.

They hooked me up to the pitocin and then it was just a "wait and see" game. I started at about 1 cm dilated, 80% effaced, and -1 station.

Gerald ended up leaving to run to the store. During that time, the baby's heart rate dropped dramatically, so they had to pull me off pitocin. After doing that, her heartrate came back up so we waited for an hour before starting the pitocin again.

The second time they started pitocin, the baby was fine so the nurse thought the baby may have been in a funny position that restricted the umblical cord (or possibly grabbed the cord herself) and thus caused the drop in heart rate.

She gradually increased the pitocin every hour. The contractions weren't horrible yet, and I wasn't really progressing much. I tried bouncing on the medicine ball to help progress the contractions (unsuccessfully I might add). Gerald left to get lunch and I continued bouncing on the ball.

I ended up getting back into bed as that was where I was most comfortable. Gerald came back and although he was helping me as much as he could, he was still technically working so he was doing work on his laptop and answering calls in the hospital room. Luckily, I wasn't in horrendous pain so I just sat and watched TV.

The nurse told me I may want to consider getting my epidural soon since I had mentioned I wanted it as the anesthesiologist was going to be in back-to-back C sections at 4:30 PM so I would not be able to get one until after the last C Section. Furthermore, my doctor planned on breaking my water during that time which would increase the pain. I opted to get the epidural around 3:30 PM.

The anesthesiologist (Dr. Hall?) was REALLY good. I remembered the numbing agent to be EXTREMELY painful with Sabrina, but this barely hurt at all. I was feeling really good and was able to just sit and continue watching TV.

The doctor came and broke my water around 4:30 PM. At around 5:30 PM, Gerald's parents came to bring Sabrina to visit us. She was so cute and concerned about me. We showed her the room and where the baby would be placed after he/she was born - she was so excited to find out if she would have a little brother or sister!

During the time that they were visiting us, I started getting some pains in pelvis. About 20 minutes after they left, the pain was excrutiating. It was only on the right side of my pelvis - not my left - but it was so horrible I was in tears. The nurse had to call the anesthesiologist back in. He adjusted the tubing in my back as he believed it was geared more towards my left side, thus not fulling numbing my right side. He also increased the pain meds. Before, I was able to move my legs on my own, though they felt EXTREMELY heavy. Now, with the new pain meds, I was completely paralyzed from the waist down. The good news was the pain was gone - but on the other hand, I could not feel anything in my legs. The nurse would come and move my legs into a bent position and to me it still felt my legs were out straight - it was the oddest feeling.

Around 7:30, my whole body started to shake. I couldn't stop it. I told the nurse that I thought I was in transitional labor, the period between 7 cm dilation and 10 cm dilation. She came over to check me and it turned out I was completely dilated, fully effaced, and ready to push! She went to find Dr. Matsuda to let him know.

Unfortunately, Dr. Matsuda had been called into an emergency C-Section, so we would have to wait to push until he finished. The nurse assured me it should be no longer than 20 minutes.

An hour and a half later, Dr. Matsuda finally came in and we began pushing. It took only 7 pushes (15 minutes' worth), and the baby was out! They didn't say "It's a Girl", but instead said "She's here!" to which I replied, "Does that mean it's a girl??"

She was crying - pretty loudly - much unlike her sister who didn't cry at all when she was born. But she was wide-eyed and very pink!! Sabrina was born with very slight jaundice - with Katelyn, the doctor said there is absolutely no concern for jaundice based on how pink she was.

We had hoped that our friends and family would have been able to be there when she was born, but due to how late it was, and a work night no less, it was just Gerald and me. Gerald did call his parents to let them know, and texted all of our friends to share the good news..
Katelyn did much better nursing immediately after birth than Sabrina - Sabrina didn't want it at all.

About an hour after she was born, we were taken to our recovery suite in the maternity ward where we would stay until Saturday.


I fully expected the recovery to be every bit as painful with Sabrina, but because I didn't tear at all, once the epidural wore off I felt almost completely normal! The morning after she was born, she had an appointment with the pediatrician. Gerald had to run home to shower, feed Toby, and bring some things back for me, so I walked Katelyn who was in her bassinet all the way down to the doctor in the nursery. She gave Katelyn a clean bill of health! On my way to walk her back to our room, I ran into a new dad who told me I needed to visit his wife so she could see that other moms were out walking around! I guess he was frustrated that she refused to get out of bed. I'm guessing it was their first child - there's no way I would have walked Sabrina to the nursery wih the amount of pain I was in then!

Gerald's parents, Nicole, Kenji, Sean, Gina and Felicity all came to visit us that day and at the same time. Nicole and Gina were so sweet and brought us all lunch!


Sabrina and Felicity had fun playing together and of course, Sabrina just doted over her new baby sister. Below is a video of her meeting Katelyn for the first time:

Sabrina Meets Her Sisterr

And here she is holding her baby sister for the first time:

Sabrina Holds Katelyn

And here she is singing to her baby sister:

Sabrina Sings "Twinkle Twinkle"


Tim and Sandy came to visit Friday night and took Gerald out to dinner.

By Saturday morning, we were ready to check out and get back home to start our lives as a family of four. :)

38 Week Appointment

Today I had my 38 week appointment with Dr. Matsuda....

First he did his exam and he confirmed that he didn't think my water broke. He then did an ultrasound to check the baby (who looked great!). But then he noticed the amniotic fluid was low - so he measured it. It was at 8, which is borderline low - last week there was plenty of fluid, so he believed my water may have in fact broke. He said we could wait and see how it is next week - but that would run the risk that fluid would be in the dangerous levels, so it would be better to induce.

I REALLY wanted to induce on 11/11/11, for obvious reasons, but he ended up having to go to a conference that day, so we scheduled the induction for 9 AM on 11/9/11.

I called Gerald to let him know, and we called our parents and texted our friends to let everyone know that Baby Wong #2 would be here soon! I can't believe tomorrow I will be a mom of 2!!

Shopping with Michelle

Today Michelle came over and after chatting for a bit, we decided to do some shopping at the mall. I exchanged one of my necklaces at Nordstrom since the rhinestones started falling out - I also used a gift certicate to buy some clothes for me for after the baby arrives. :) It was really nice to get out and spend some time together - I can't remember the last time she and I went shopping together! We walked around the mall to (hopefully) help start labor rolling... but so far, nothing has happened.

It was a nice girls' day!

Last Day of Work!

Today was my last day of work!! YAY!!!! I was initially going to work until next Friday, 11/11/11, but honestly I was just beyond spent and need some time to relax and finish up some last minute items before the baby comes.

It will be weird not having to come in to work on Monday! It's also kind of scary going on maternity leave. Even though legally you know your company can't let you go, you lose that sense of security and constantly wonder if they know they can get by without you then why would they keep you? It's a difficult feeling to convey.

As far as the pregnancy is concerned, I did end up calling my doctor today as I thought that my water broke - I had a large gush of water, and then tremendous pressure, but the water stopped so he thinks it may not have been my water. But if it happens again, I need to go in - so I'm just going to monitor it for now.

Sleeping is still very painful - my back has hurt me more this pregnancy than with Sabrina. I'm surrounded by millions of pillows - literally. There's barely any room for Gerald on the bed. I really can't wait to not be pregnant anymore!!!

August 15, 2011 - 26 weeks!

Wow - how time flies! I can't believe we're just two weeks away from the third trimester. Last week (Tuesday, 8/9/11) at 25w1d I had another checkup and ultrasound, along with the the wonderful Gestational Diabetes test. I found out today that everything looks good and my glucose was 109 and my iron looked good, so nothing to worry about! The baby was measuring right on target. Granted, the last two appointments I've gained 8 lbs and 6 pounds, but I guess since I lost weight in the first trimester that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Saturday, August 6th (24w5d), was a rough day for us. We went to Gerald's cousin's funeral beginning at 12:30 PM. Kristen was my age when she passed away suddenly. It was a beautiful, but very emotional service. Gerald's cousin Judy gave a beautiful eulogy as did her son, Scott, who - along with being cousins with Kristen - was also best friends with her. I had to sing two songs and barely made it through the first as I was fighting back tears after listening to Scott's eulogy.

Around 2:30, I called my OB/GYN as I was concerned my water may have broken. He told me to monitor it and gave me some instructions, and said he would call me back in two hours to follow up.

After the service was the burial, and around 4 PM was the dinner reception for family and friends. Sure enough, at 4:30 my OB/GYN called me to see how I was doing - after updating him, he told me I needed to go to Labor & Delivery immediately. So unfortunately, Gerald and I had to leave the dinner reception early and head straight to the hospital.

They ran all kinds of tests on me (FFN, GBS, CBC) and luckily everything looked fine. My water hadn't broken, however, they had me on a fetal monitor and I was having one contraction after the other. It turns out I was having what they call "uterine irritability" as a result of being dehydrated and stressed. My OB said he would go ahead and release me as long as I promised to take it easy. I did... however I did fail to mention I had a gig that night that I was late for.

After 3 hours in the hospital, we were discharged and I booked it over to my gig which was luckily only 10 minutes away. I was supposed to be there at 6 PM for sound check and we were supposed to take the stage at 8 PM. I walked in at 8:01 PM, with hospital bed hair, in the clothes I wore to the funeral, and walked on stage and we began. I made it by the skin of my teeth! After the gig was over though, I've been trying not to push myself quite as hard as I have been. I'm still having contractions, but I think they're less frequent so hopefully everything's okay. :)

6/21/11 - 18weeks, 1 day

I just got back from our 18 week check up. The baby looks great and weighs about 8 ounces (or a half pound). Gerald wasn't able to make it as he had some work appointments, but I was able to see the baby all curled up in my tummy - and saw the spine and femur bones, too. We also got our results from the 2nd trimester screening, and the doctor said all the results were very low: 1 in 52,000 for Down's Syndrome, 1 in 100,000 for Trisomy 18 and our Spina Bifida came back negative. There was one other test that came back negative but I don't recall what the name of it was. Anyway, everything looks great. I go back in three weeks for another checkup but we won't have an ultrasound that time. At the following appointment, I will have my dreaded Glucose test and that will have an ultrasound that follows.

5/31/11 - 15weeks, 1 day

We had our fourth appointment and ultrasound today. We decided to bring Sabrina with us since she is soooo excited about her new baby brother or sister (actually, she's pretty adamant that it's a sister, not a brother). We received the results of our blood draw from the 1st trimester screening - the doctor said everything came back great and my hemoglobin was 13.8 (anything above 12 is considered good).

As soon as the ultrasound started, Sabrina kept cooing about the baby - "oh she's such a good girl! She's so cute! Aww, look at the baby, Mommy!" It was adorable. Then she kept kissing my arm and my belly and telling me she loved me and she loved the baby.

We got to see the baby move and wiggle which Sabrina thought was so cute. We heard the heartbeat which was 151 bpm. The doctor showed us the baby's head, legs and arms. She/he is measuring right on at 15w1d, so we went ahead with our second trimester screening blood draw. Sabrina warned me: "Now don't cry Mommy when you get the shot!" Afterwards, she told me "Oh you were such a good girl Mommy!" and gave me a hug and a kiss. :) I love that little girl. She is such a love bug. She's going to be a great big sister!