1st Month Update: The Many Faces of J.J.

Guess what? I turned one month old on Wednesday, October 17. Things are going pretty fast, mom and dad are starting to recognize my different cries, they can already tell my "hungry" cry, my "wet" cry and my "tired" cry. They're actually getting to be pretty good at this "parent thing". Especially mom, she's getting real good at feeding me on time, which is like every 2 hours. Pray for my mom, I think I tire her out, but you know what, you wouldn't be able to tell, because she always has a smile on her face. I love my mom.

Over the past month, a lot of you have come to visit me and bring my mom and dad dinner. I'm sorry if I wasn't able to spend much time with you, you see the reason is that I've been spending most of my time, usually sleeping, eating and you know the other stuff. So if you are one of these people, I just want to say thank you for making the time to come see me.

On Monday, October 22, I had my one month doctor's appointment and Dr. Kato told mom and dad I weighed 10 pounds now and I'm 23 inches tall. He said that was a good thing. The doctor's appointment was great up until that is, the nurse had to give me a hepatitis shot. Just so you know, if you haven't ever gotten a hepatitis shot, it hurts real bad, so much that I had to cry. But it was ok, because dad was able to comfort me.

This past week was pretty good I was able to go to some new places. On Sunday night, October 21, I was able to go to church (Calvary Chapel South Bay) with mom, we hung out in the Nursing mothers room during the service and afterwards we said "hi" to dad in the main sanctuary. Afterwards, we went to the teen center to see a bunch of people. On Monday night, October 22, I was able to go to dinner with mom and dad at Red Robin. I haven't figured out why they call it Red Robin, maybe you can help me. It was my first time there, Dad ordered a Banzai burger, mom got a turkey burger and I...well I had my favorite, the "usual" :-).

Mom and dad have been taking a lot of pictures of me, and I wasn't sure why, but now I understand. I guess they needed the pictures to put on this blog. So here are some pictures from the past month. Hope you enjoy it.




"Not too close dad, the flash will make me turn white"



"Couldn't they wait until I finished crying, before they took the picture"



"As you can tell, I'm still not ok with this car seat thing yet."

An Early Visit to the Hospital

That's right after 2 days of being discharged from the hospital, I had to be readmitted on Friday, September 21 into the Special Care Unit. You see I had jaundice, if you don't know what that is let me explain, jaundice is what happens when your body is not able to get rid of this thing called "bilirubin" and your eyes and skin become really yellow. Mom and dad got a little worried but they just trusted in God to help me through this. Dr. Kim (he's a cool doctor too) told mom and dad that this was common for most asian babies and as you can tell I'm Asian, to be specific I'm half Filipino and half Vietnamese.

Anyway, The way to get rid of this is to be exposed to light. That is why you see me with my "cool shades" inside the isolet with the purple light. "Don't I look pretty cool." It wasn't too bad being in the hospital again, I actually got spoiled, mom and dad treated me like a king, they came to visit me every 3 hours and they fed me, burped me and changed me. I spent most of my time sleeping in the isolet and hanging out with the other kids and nurses.

When I first came into the hospital my "bilirubin" level was 16, which is really high, but by the time I left on Sunday afternoon, September 22, my level went down to 6, which is a good thing. The one thing my parents learned when they were with me in the Special Care Unit was "to be Thankful to God for what you have". You see the other kids in there, who were younger than me, had been there for a long time, because most of them were premature. All in all, mom and dad were able to meet some really nice parents and nurses and get closer to God through this experience.


Doesn't it look like I'm at a tanning salon?




I still have these shades if you want to borrow them.

How it all began...

Let me tell you how it all began. You see mom and dad were in love, they have a really cool love story, so when you get a chance, ask them about it. I know one of things that happened was that dad fed mom peaches when she was sick in the hospital and after that, it was over... My mom and dad got married on Saturday, July 8, 2006. From the wedding pictures it looked like there a whole lot of people who came to celebrate with them, maybe you were there too.

Anyway, in January 2007, mom wasn't feeling too good, so she went to the doctor. The doctor let her know that she had a fibroid in her uterus that was bleeding, which wasn't too good, but at the same time, the doctor also told her that she was pregnant with me, which was really good. This was kinda serious since the fibroid would affect me growing in mom's tummy. That's when mom called dad and they prayed. After they prayed, they met Dr. Park, he loves Jesus like me, mom and dad. And he said most doctors would tell you to get an abortion, but not Dr. Park, he trusted and believed God would help me. So afterwards, mom and dad prayed and they knew that I was going to be ok. Mom had to stay home from work for a couple of weeks and eventually had to get surgery to remove the fibroid. Mom and dad prayed again, that everything would be ok, Pastor Tuvai even came to pray for us. God is good, because the surgery was a success, the fibroid was removed, Dr. Park even took a picture to show to my dad. Can I tell you something, My parents are kinda weird, they named the fibroid "Fifi", since it was my neighbor for the first 3 months of my life in the womb.

The remaining months of the pregnancy went fairly easy for mom and dad. Around 10pm every night I just reminded them, by my kicking and somersaults, that I was coming soon. They took everyone's advice and hung out a lot, they went out to eat, watch movies, visit with friends, went to weddings and baby showers. They really made the most of their time, probably because of what everyone else said, but also because they knew that I would take up a lot of their time after I was born. But I think I was worth it. What do you think?

I'm Here!

It was Monday, September 17 and today was going to be the day for my arrival into the world. My parent's had no idea, they were planning to go to the gym and mom was going to go swimming. But around 10am, I started to make my presence known, and by 12noon, they decided to call Dr. Park, he's really cool and he loves Jesus too. He's the one who delivered me, you'll see his picture.

When mom and dad arrived at Downey Regional Hospital, mom was already dialated 8 centimeters, which they say is pretty good. They even didn't have time to give mom an epidural. After some hours of mom breathing and dad coaching, Dr. Park had mom start really pushing around 6pm. But you see it took a while because that umbilical cord was wrapped around my head, so Dr. Park had to just cut it off. And by 7:45pm I made my grand entrance.

Mom and dad were really happy. Dad wanted to cry, but he was smiling too much so he couldn't. As you read in my profile, I was 8 pounds and 3 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. In the pictures, you'll see I had a lot of hair, but dont' tell anybody, I also came out with a conehead, thank God that it went away after a couple of days.

While I was in the hospital, I had a lot of cool people come visit me, like both my grandparents, uncle randolph and auntie christina, uncle vu ( I like him, he's really cool) uncle mark, auntie michelle and my friend riley, uncle wilfredo and auntie vivian, my mom's friend alma and uncle david and auntie brigitte.

On Wednesday, September 19, they let mom and me go home. It was a nice time at the hospital, but it was good to see my new home especially my room, i heard it was pretty cool. Little did i know that I would be back at the hospital in a couple of days.




Don't mess with me, or else we're gonna box...

This is Dr. Park, he loves Jesus, just like me, mom and dad.

My Baby Shower- August 3, 2007

On Saturday, August 3rd, I heard you all had a Baby Shower for me. Sorry, I wasn't able to make it, as you know, I was still hanging out in my mommy's tummy, but the pictures show that you had a lot of fun. Too bad I missed out on all the festivities, the jumper, the games, but especially the tacos, maybe we can convince my parents to have the Taco Man for my 1st Birthday. I want to say thanks to all of you who came and those who really "spoiled me with the many gifts & blessings.

"Uncle Dave, Mom's belly isn't that big."

"Uncle Johnny Q and Uncle Fredo, I'm next ok."

"Uncle Ron, I think you ate too many tacos."