Year of the Ox

Happy Chinese New Year everyone.
I have a week off for the New Years, which has proven a lifesaver as Drai has decided that sleeping at night is forbidden. He sleeps all day and hardly makes a peep but as soon as we go to bed, he begins screaming and crying. Not fun. We can't figure it out. You can't wake him up to save your life during the afternoon. He is like a totally different baby at night. Hopefully, he will grow out of it soon.
My friend, Grant escaped from China to Taiwan for a month of normalcy. Which is saying a lot when someone thinks Taiwan is normal. Or as he calls it- Middle Earth. (As in Lord of the Rings.) His stories about the place are so over the top that one is inclined to think he is making it up. He is aware of this though, so records video and wav. file proof of the madness. I really don't know why he doesn't leave there. It sounds absolutely horrible. Apparently, the racism there has gotten worse and worse in the last year as well. Partly, due to the financial crisis. Which they blame on the US. He said the people are just awful to him there but warm up a little when he tells them he is Canadian. (But not much.) A warm up act for him had the club chanting in Chinese, "We don't like the foreigners! We love Chinese! Go home foreigner! We love Chinese" Not realizing that Grant speaks some Chinese and understood what they were saying. Then, while DJing, the Chinese men in the crowd all stood on the dance floor throwing imaginary darts at him and giving him all these strange hand signals. Again, he got it on video to prove it. He had some REALLY horrible stories but they aren't really fitting for a baby blog. Sure you want to move there Lindsay?
So his girlfriend, Karen and him escaped to Taiwan for a month for a breather. It was really good to see them and they loved Drai right away.
Jenny's sister has come over a few times but it usually results in me being frustrated and/or angry. She brought 5 people over with her the other day- three of whom were children. (And one of which was sick.) They quickly ran about destroying the place, jumping on our sofa, chasing the cats etc. Meanwhile, in the bedroom their mothers set about basically telling me that everything we were doing with the baby was wrong. And mocking everything from back because it is more comfortable.) Draidan never cries when I burp him but he was screaming bloody murder as they showed me all of their tips. What really pissed me off is that most Taiwanese men won't do anything to help the children. Let alone, clean the house, do the laundry, bathe the baby, take out the trash, take out the recycling, cook etc. And yet they are giving me a hard time about all of it. I then had to go change Drai's diaper. When I opened the nursery, all the kids came running in, shouting, picking up all his toys and hitting each other with them. One started patting Drai's balls while I was trying to change him and another started bouncing one of the cat's dirty toys off his forehead. That put me over the edge and I shouted at the kids to get out. I then stormed into our bedroom and told Jenny to tell their moms to control their children. I can never seem to get into her family's good books as they continually put me in awkward situations that leave me looking like the bad guy.
I miss my family.

First Smile

We got to see his first smile yesterday, which he continued to display for about an hour before finally passing out on my pillow. Uncle Mike came over again yesterday to take care of him and Jenny while I was at work. I honestly don't know what we would have done without him. He has been absolutely amazing and supportive.

Obama Baby

We just got back from the hospital with Drai for a check-up. He is doing great and has gained 300 grams in 5 days. The doctor gave him a clean bill of health and said he sees nothing to be worried about.

Drai and I stayed up until 1:30am to watch Obama's inauguration. Actually, he slept through most of it but things were looking good and I was planning to get a photo of him with Obama swearing in. Alas, the minister from the Saddle Back Church did his sermon and totally pissed off Draidan. Who began crying and screaming. So I changed his diaper and took him to go get some booby action. Apparently,one week old babies have no interest in the change coming to America. Especially when there are free boobies in the other room.

We just finished bath time and he is now starting to like it. He babbles away and today was amazed to discover his hands. Oh how delicious hands are.

1 Week Old

Draidan is totally taking after his cousin Sullivan and is a super chill baby. He only cries when he is either hungry or needs a changing. As soon as he eats or gets a fresh diaper, he just becomes totally silent and looks around at everything or locks eyes with us. He is sleeping much more at night and just wakes up to feed about every 2.5 to 3 hours but falls right back asleep again.
I gave him his first bath yesterday which had him throw his first tantrum but mostly because daddy didn't know what he was doing. I wasn't wearing a shirt and when I pulled him out of the tub and held him next to me, he tried to get a mouth full of my nipple, which Jenny thought was hysterical. My boss, Zoya, told me to try putting a cloth over him while bathing so he doesn't feel as exposed. I tried that this morning while Jenny was sleeping and we managed to have bath time without a single tear shed.

I had to go back to work full time yesterday but my friend Mike is off for Chinese New Year, so he came to the house all day to help Jenny with Drai. When I got home at 9:45, he had mopped the floors and cooked us dinner. I asked how the baby was and he replied, "Your baby is sooooo GOOD." He is quite impressed with how easygoing Drai is. It is nice to have another friend that likes babies as much as I do. I think he misses his sister's kids back home.

He is coming by again today to help out. He is officially a legend in my books.

Pics for the Grandmas and Grandpas

You can't really tell in the pictures but his eyes are actually a really dark gray right now. Hopefully they will stay like that but they probably won't.

Sleep All Day - Party All Night

We didn't get much sleep last night. Drai seemed to be hungry every 30 minutes and flat out refused to sleep in his crib. So we put him in bed with us, where Jenny could nurse him whenever he started to fuss. Then at 9am, he fell asleep and has been out for two and a half hours now. Hopefully, that will continue for a bit because we need naps.
He is very alert and spends most of his time just looking us in the eye as we talk to him. The cats came and checked him out yesterday while I had him on the sofa. At first, I thought they would freak out, but instead they gave him a very careful sniff and walked off. So that was relief. That is all I need is two cats acting out their jealous rage on our house. But they seem quite chill. Bao Bao is a little angry that she was not allowed to sleep with us last night but oh well...
Here are some photos from yesterday.

Home at Last

The doctor called us last night and Draidan has completely recovered. They told us that we could bring him home today. So we went there as soon as we woke up this morning. They gave gave him a bath for us and wrapped him up for the ride home. Drai managed to scratch his face during the bath but that seems to be his only major war wound. He slept all the way through the discharge which took quite a long time and didn't make a peep the whole way home. We sat him down in the nursery and he breastfed for about a half an hour and still didn't open an eye. He is now sound asleep where he belongs.
Thank you for all the love and support from everyone. It has helped us so much. Looking at that picture, you would never believe that I just went through the week of hell hey?

One home one to go.

Jenny was released from the hospital about a half hour ago. My boss came and drove us home. She got a much deserved shower and we are heading out the door to go spend some time with Draidan. We started off the morning with good news. The doctor stopped by our hospital and told us that Drai was taken off oxygen last night and is breathing on his own. He is stable, getting stronger quickly and will most likely be able to come home with us on Sunday or Monday.
They are giving us a lot more time with him now and the nurses in the pediatric ward are great. They all adore him and are giving him lots of love. They are also teaching Jenny the baby basics.
Thank you for all the love and support. I have a ton of you that I need to call but am still running around non-stop. I will call this afternoon.
With Jenny home, things feels a little more normal and safe.
And Draidan Soul has lived up to his namesake and will join us soon.

I am going to keep adding videos and photos to Facebook because none of the other sites seem to be letting me add video.

Love you,
Danny and Jenny

A Bad Night

I have about 20 minutes until I need to get back to the hospital. So I thought I would fill the rest of you in on what is going on. Last night, I took a sleeping pill the doctor gave me so that I could try and get a full night sleep on the sofa. I nodded off at about 12:30 and then we were woken up by the phone ringing at 1:30. They told us that we needed to come downstairs right away and get in an ambulance with Draidan because they had to transfer him to a big hospital due to problems with his breathing and heart rate. So in a total groggy stupor, I tried to help Jenny who could still hardly walk, get dressed and get downstairs where we were met with paramedics and Draidan in an oxygen center. This was the first time Jenny had been able to see him since birth but he was under glass and she couldn't touch him. They then rushed us to the hospital and disappeared with him, while getting Jenny to fill out what seemed like hours of paperwork.
They let us see him for a few minutes and she got to touch him for the first time since the birth but then we were told we had to leave. He was not going to be able to eat for the next 12 hours because of the tests he would have to undergo during the night and morning.

We went back this morning and he was a lot weaker than yesterday. He wasn't making eye contact anymore and was really fussy. Probably due to all the wires he was attached to. They let Jenny try breast feeding for the first time. Which has been really important for her. She has been adamant about breast feeding and felt horrible that she hadn't been able to feed her son yet. He took to it right away and was super hungry. After about a half hour, he fell fast asleep in her arms but as soon as the nurses took him away he started screaming. It was totally horrible. They said, his tests have all come out normal and we now have to wait for a cardiologist to run some tests. They won't tell us when we can have him and Jenny has to stay in the other hospital. So I have been running between home and each hospital. The other one is on the other side of the city which just adds to the stress. I hated being just upstairs from him. Having him on the other side of the city is killing me.

I have to go back and get Jenny now. She is going to try and feed him again. Then, we won't get to see him again until the next day. For some reason, we aren't allowed to see our son more than twice a day.
He seems like he is getting weaker instead of stronger.

I took some pics though. Love you guys.

The Name

Hello.
Sorry, no new pictures yet. I am still sleep deprived and forgot the camera at the hospital.

Jenny is doing way better and they will let her start nursing tomorrow. She still hasn't gotten to hold Draidan yet because of the fever. She ended up getting a bad infection which is one of the many reasons she went into shock so badly during the labour. She is eating a lot now and way more alert. I told her we can keep her in the hospital for a week but she wants to get home to her cats and own bed by Friday. She says she will be fine.

As for the super star...
I start crying just thinking about him. I am way more emotional than Jenny! Draidan is getting cuter by the hour as his head recovers from that insane delivery. I finally got to see his whole head about an hour ago.(He has been wrapped up in towels when I have been feeding him.) He is starting to look a little more westerner. Before he had a very round Chinese face but he is starting to look more like a western baby. The hospital is very protective of the babies. They won't let anyone touch them except for the parents. You have to approach to sets of doors, pass a video test to be buzzed in, present your ID and only then will they go get your baby for you. They then have a nice sitting area where everyone can nurse their babies. I fed him four times today. Three of which went great. The third one, he was too tired and just kept falling asleep. We are trying to train him for breast feeding, so I haven't been using a bottle. Which is tricky because... again, I have no instruction at all. I am not even sure if I am burping him properly or not. I just kind of watch what the other mothers are doing and copy them. It seems to be working. He is way bigger than all the other babies. It is quite funny actually. I asked one father next to me if his baby was born today and he said, "No. Sunday." In Chinese. Drai was almost twice the size of the other baby. Again, poor Jenny.

He doesn't cry at all and I am hoping he takes after his cousin Sullivan. He just kind of looks around or locks eyes with me as I sing to him. I realized I have forgotten all the standard lullabies. I think I even butchered "Rock A Bye Baby." Perhaps it is the sleep deprivation. However, he seems to like Cold Play and U2 songs. (They popped into my head.) And when I gently stroke his eye brows, he goes out like a light.

I am so totally in love.

So the name... many people keep asking me through Facebook why I chose this name. As Eden guessed, the "aidan" comes from my stupid ass best friend who happens to be one of the most intelligent, caring and talented people I know. (When he is in the mood.) Aidan is also a total asshole like the rest of us, Ushers. I don't think he even knows that my son is named after him yet.. The "Dr" was because I wanted him to have a different name than everyone else. I have never met a Draidan. And actually I dreamt the name a few months ago. I woke up and told Jenny that I had a dream about me holding our baby and I was calling him Draidan." He is a mixer baby. So he needs a mixed name. I liked how Draidan sounded.

My mother then pointed out today that if you spell it out it means "Dr. Aidan" Which I hadn't thought of before but makes me like it even more because it is funny.

My mom also told me that my Aunty Pat loved the first name but the second name scared her because she thought it meant something would take him away from me. But it is the exact opposite reason that we named him this. That soul fought through those 36 hours of labour with his mom. His soul breathed life back into his blue, lifeless body as those nurses did CPR on him. It was his soul that brought him into this world and healed my own. So thus... the name...

Draidan Soul Usher.

Draidan Soul Usher

Now, I would like to introduce you to my real son. I promise this one is for real and not a photo of a Japanese girl like the last one.

Draidan Soul Usher, was born at 10:20pm on January 13th. He was 49.5 cm long and 3.35 kilograms. Although, he came into the world on a scary note, he is now doing fine and I just finished feeding him. Jenny still hasn't been able to spend anytime with him or try feeding him as she went into shock from the blood loss and developed a high fever.

She was amazing. I can't believe how strong she is. We had no coaches at all. In the entire 35 hours before they rushed her into the operating room, we only had a nurse with us for maybe an hour in total. Jenny knows nothing about giving birth. I know nothing about giving birth and I couldn't communicate her needs to the nurses. Or when I would they would come in, tell her to keep pushing and leave. Total nightmare. I can't believe how horrible that was. I have still only had about 6 hours sleep in 3 days. That delivery was about 10 times as bad as the worst case scenario I had in my head. For the last 4 hours we could see the top of Draidan's head about 2 inches in but he was just too big for Jenny's little frame. Finally, we insisted that the doctor take her to the operating room, so they called the doctor and it was much worse that she was anticipating too. Long story, short they had two nurses standing on stools pushing down as hard as they could over and over again, while the doctor used a suction machine to pull his head out. This went on for about a half hour. Jenny was almost silent because she was in so much pain and kept going in and out of consciousness. Finally, they got him out but he was totally blue and limp. They had to start doing CPR on him and Jenny started convulsing and shaking as she went into shock before passing completely out. I almost broke down watching my baby lifeless to my left and Jenny shaking to my right. The doctor ran to the phone to call someone else in and I could see the panic in all their eyes. Just as she picked up the phone, the greatest sound I have ever heard came from under the nurses- Draidan's quiet murmur. Things are still a blur but the nurses brought him back and as they sucked out the fluids his murmur turned to the wail I was expecting to hear when he came out. Music to my ears.

Then after about 5 minutes with Jenny and I, they sent him off to get cleaned up. I didn't realize how bad Jenny was until he left. She was coming in and out of consciousness and couldn't stop shaking for about 6 hours. It was terrifying to see her like that. Her eyes kept rolling back in her head and then she would shake tremendously all over. Draiden stayed in the nursery the whole night, as we tried to get Jenny better. She is stable now and was eating when I left to come home, feed the cats and change clothes. She is still really weak and will probably need to spend longer in the hospital than first anticipated as the bleeding is still quite severe.

There aren't many photos yet and for some reason youtube isn't letting me upload any of the video of him. So for now -just a few pics. I need to get back to the hospital.
I will try to add more tomorrow.

Love you,
Danny