Dear Grayson,
A few days ago, you turned two months old! My how the time has flown by. As we neared your due date (March 17), it became pretty clear that you were going to be a late baby but the question was, “How late?” To which, no one had an answer. The day before your due date, Ma-Ma went to her last doctor's appointment with Dr. Kendrick and discussed the possibilty of inducing you on the following Monday as Dr. K was going to Napa for her anniversary and would be gone mid-day Tuesday through mid-day Thursday. We really love Dr. K and wanted her at your birth, but I have to admit, I was a little nervous about being induced and after reading about it some more online, it became even less appealing to me, especially since we weren't doing it because of a medical reason.
The night before your due date, Ba-Ba and I decided to have one last date night and we splurged with a dinner at Manresa in Los Gatos. It was a delicious five-course meal, but I started to have some pretty strong contractions throughout dinner. Ma-Ma was determined to enjoy and finish our dinner, since it was a very fancy and expensive meal, so I tried to down-play the contractions to Ba-Ba. We survived through dinner and then another couple days as well. Early Sunday morning (May 20th) at around 2:00 a.m., I started to have some more contractions and at first, Ma-Ma thought they would pass, but after an hour of fairly strong contractions of 40 seconds to a minute in duration every three to five minutes apart, it became evident to me that labor was starting. I woke Ba-Ba up around 3:00 and told him to take over timing my contractions. By 4:00 a.m., we had spoken to Dr. K's back-up doctor (Sunday is the only day she takes off) who agreed with us that we should head to the hospital. I woke up Yee-Po to let her know and she was nervously excited for us.
Unlike with your brother (whose labor, incidentally, also started around the same timeframe), this time there was no traffic as we headed to Good Samaritan Hospital and we got there in less than 10 minutes. By the time we got admitted to Labor & Delivery, my contractions were increasing in intensity and while I had wanted to hold out longer for the epidural, I very quickly changed my mind. The reason I had wanted to wait for the epidural was because I had read that having an epidural too early could contribute to longer labor, which may or may not have explained the 22-hours that it took to deliver your brother. So, in my head, I had wanted to wait and try other labor coping methods (such as visualization, walking around, hydro-therapy, etc.) before succumbing to the epidural. However, just like with your brother, the contractions came on fast and furious and it became clear that the visualization technique just wasn't cutting it. Luckily, by the time we had finished the paperwork with the nurse, gotten hooked up to the monitors, and went over the epidural instructions with the anesthesiologist, I was 7 cm dilated, which was further along than I was with your brother, Trevor, which made me happy. While the severity and frequency of my contractions mirrored my labor experience with your brother, my dilation kept pace with the contractions and so, by 10 a.m., I was 10 cm. The nurse discussed my options with me at that point and together we decided that we'd like to wait another 30 minutes before we tried pushing so that we could ssee if you would continue to drop further down the birth canal, which would make pushing ultimately easier and faster.
It seemed to work, as it only took 22 minutes to push you out (as compared to the three hours with Trevor) and at 11:05 a.m. on March 20th, you joined our family officially. You weighed a whopping 8 lbs 15 oz and measured 20.5 in long. I am sure that I would have had an unplanned C-section had you been our first child. Before you were born, our nurse, Cindy, had expressed concern that you might have swallowed some meconium given that you were past your due date. So, she had called in a NICU nurse to prepare to suction the meconium out as soon as you were born. Luckily, you didn't have any meconium, but you also didn't scream right away, which concerned Cindy and immediately after Ba-Ba cut your umbilical cord, they whisked you over to the infant bed where a couple nurses “worked” on you. Thankfully, it was only a matter of a second or so before we heard your wails, but I was kind of panicked in that short period of time. It really happened so quickly and our nurses were so on top of things, that Ba-Ba and I weren't even sure that there was something wrong, as we had only heard snippets of what the nurses were saying as they swooped you under the warming light. We really couldn't have asked for better care than what we got at Good Samaritan Hospital – both for you and Trevor.
Ba-Ba and I didn't have a first name picked out for you before you were born. We had a few names in mind, but we decided we wanted to meet you and determine your name at that point. We had decided from the beginning that your middle name would be Khai (after Gong-Gong), since your brother shares a middle name with Ba-Ba and Grampy. So, we tried out a few of the names with you in our arms and unanimously decided that Grayson fit you best.
Since your labor was so much shorter and smoother, my recovery was so much easier than the first time around. Even Ba-Ba could tell that I was feeling a lot better and more alert this time around. Your brother and Yee-Po came to visit us each day for a little bit and they were quite enamored with you. Though truth be told, I think your brother enjoyed roaming around the hospital and sharing snacks with Ma-Ma a little more than he enjoyed you. But he was very sweet with you and kissed and cuddled you, too.
Life with you has been so much fun. You are such a sweet baby and so easy to care for. You don't mind entertaining yourself on your activity playmat and on occasion, have even fallen asleep there unswaddled. It's amazing to Ba-Ba and me that you will soothe yourself to sleep (sometimes without even so much as a whimper) and even more amazing that you will sleep upwards of an hour to three hours without being swaddled. That's so foreign to us as Trevor needed to be swaddled if we wanted him to sleep for more than five minute stretches. We do swaddle you at night for bedtime, but you fall asleep on your own accord without being rocked or even a pacifier. In fact, you actively dislike pacis as you forcefully thrust it out of your mouth when we tried to give you the green finger pacis from the hospital upon our return home.
Now at two months old, you are really developing a personality and you give Ma-Ma the best smiles in the morning. You've already rolled over from your front to back several times during Tummy Time, which is quite advanced at this stage. You respond to our questions with sweet little coos (I'm listening to you and Yee-Po in the living room right now chatting it up). I feel guilty sometimes because you are such an easy-going kid that we are not giving you enough attention.
You've shown me that the Grinch was right … your heart can grow three times larger. Before you were born, it was hard to imagine that we could love someone as much as your brother, but now we know that our hearts continue to expand to make room for all the special people in our life. Thank you for teaching us this incredibly valuable lesson.
XOXO,
Ma-Ma
