a week later

our daughter is visited by the grandparents (hue's side, dale and vicki) on her first day. we're surprised by how easy she is so far and how endearing her scratchy cry is. we're not baby people. typically a child's cry elicits some visceral disdain in us - but it all changes when you become parents yourself. suddenly we don't mind the inconvenience, and frankly we're pleased that she's doing normal baby things.

susan had taken her car in the day before and had been given a rental - bad timing - so hue had to drive to mazda in the afternoon to retrieve our vehicle. this gave susan a few hours of alone time with the new girl and some practice in handling her. neither wangster had ever held a newborn before this one. when samuel was born, we didn't have the opportunity to hold him until the day he passed. this birth is an entirely different experience than our last, and comparisons are forthcoming. the division of responsibilities is thus: susan breastfeeds her, hue changes diapers and is a master swaddler. kudos to myk for the harvey karp book, we're big fans.

that night, another grandparent arrives (susan's side, joan) from ann arbor. hue picks her up from lax and she gets to the hospital around 11pm to visit the new arrival. after a few hours, she takes the car back to our home without incidence.

the first night with our baby is restless. rather than sending our new family member to the nursery, we decide to have her room in with us. she requires feeding every one to two hours and of course the hospital beds are notorious for how comfortable they are. hue tries to sleep on the pull-out, which is just a hair more comfortable than the floor, so the new parents squeeze together on the twin-sized hospital bed. when dawn breaks, the bleary eyed couple decide that they should take advantage of the nursing staff while they have the chance and plan to have their child spend a few hours in the nursery later that evening.

day 2 thursday
in the morning our pediatrician, dr. sachs, gives us an update on the health of our child. thankfully she's fine- no jaundice, no rashes, and is a natural at latching and nursing- but he gives us some reading material which he warns us is fair game for a pop quiz the next day...uh-oh, we may not be able to take our baby home!

while susan dines on egg white omelets, fresh fruit, grilled tofu and roasted vegetables, the birthplace gifts a $5 voucher to the new father. he's able to get some breakfast in the hospital cafeteria. it's possibly the greasiest transfat laden omelet ever made. good thing hue's in the right place for a myocardial infarction.

the birth certificate clerk stops by the room and requests the name of our daughter. hue is still undecided. if we don't choose a name prior to discharge, she becomes "baby susan wang" and we will have to obtain a court order to change it. and if we make a mistake and change our mind, we need a court order to change it. big commitment. the clerk says she will come back later.

early afternoon, joan and dale return. it takes dale 4+ hours to get to santa monica taking public transportation. joan arrives shortly after dale following an even more harrowing trip. she has difficulty with our gps and gets into a minor accident when she's parked and looking to be found. fortunately, no one was injured and no damage was done.

dale can only spend two hours with his new granddaughter, and has to begin his trip back before it gets dark.

after some coaxing and prolonged discussion, hue concedes that our daughter does not appear to fit the name "chewbacca". the newest member of the wangsters is officially christened:

milagra phoenix wang

and we affectionately call her mila for short. as many of you know, hue is very fond of spanish names, and milagra originates from the spanish word for miracle. last christmas, jessica gave us a bottle of tequila called 'milagro' that was placed near our television. we think that months of exposure to that name seeped into our subconsciousness. besides, tabsh warned us not to name our child maria. phoenix hails from one of the cities hue grew up in arizona. we also like the chinese symbolism of a beautiful bird rising from its own ashes (way before harry potter came around).

milagra is taken on a tour around the postpartum area and has her hearing checked. she's agitated and the nurse warns us that she may not pass the screening test. if she doesn't then we'll have to be referred to a specialist. fortunately, she passes the left side in no time at all. however the right takes a little more time, but eventually she's given the green light.

joan's still a bit uncomfortable with getting around LA on her own, and perhaps with our gps yelling at her to make a legal u-turn, so hue chauffeurs her back to their home that evening. meanwhile susan gets to spend some more alone time with our daughter. she's amazed at how much milagra sleeps for the first few days (at least in the daytime).

parmis drops by and bestows the family with a bottle of dom perignon. she's definitely in the running for godparent. call us negligent parents, but anyone that brings top shelf booze is ok in our book. sadly, it's only the four of us and one isn't old enough to enjoy it, so we plan to celebrate another day when more of our friends and family are around. parmis dotes over mila, and she loves the attention. much as she hates to give up holding our darling girl, she takes her leave just before midnight.

around 11:30 pm, tabsh drops in shortly after parmis leaves (what a schedule), just to check in and make sure susan is ok. last time, the day after delivery the nurses let her sneak out to the blood and platelet center in westwood for hue's directed donations. about a mile of walking. at sm-ucla they're a bit more conservative, but the recovery is fine.

the couple is drained from their first two days with milagra on little sleep. as planned, they send their daughter to the nursery to try and get a couple continuous hours of rest. sadly our baby girl is fussy and comes back a very short hour later. we think the nursing staff is excellent (especially polly, andrew, and marialucia), but there are nine other couples using the nursery at night and we suspect milagra got the boot since we won't allow them to use a pacifier or bottle feed. after she comes back, we run through the routine swaddling her, rocking and diaper changing. it turns out that she wet herself. oddly, milagra really hates the wetness, but doesn't seem to mind the poopy ones. go figure. she calms down almost immediately and we send her back to the nursery. she comes back again in an hour. our daughter rooms in with us for the rest of the evening. there's no rest for the weary.

day 3 friday
our last day in the hospital, we're sleep deprived yet still have energy from the excitement of our new daughter. we're told to get used to the sleepless nights and to sleep when she sleeps, but it's easier said than done. hae stops by and brings a beautiful flower arrangement from our favorite sunray staff. then sachs and tabsh discharge our family, but it takes hours for us to take our leave. finally we load milagra into the infant car carrier and cautiously drive back to the apartment.

joan has lunch waiting for us (spinach salad and tj bread) and we spend the rest of the day unpacking and organizing our new feed, change, sleep cycle.

welcome home milagra.

day 4 saturday
the grandparents are anxious to spend more time with our daughter. dale and vicki make their way over to take turns holding her. a fight breaks out. jk. meanwhile, susan and hue take a quick stroll to the grocery to stretch their legs. one of the greatest changes in our life is that we grocery shop like europeans. every day or two- it's an excuse to keep active, and there are four grocery stores within a few blocks from us. they'd take their daughter, but are warned to limit her exposure to public places in the first couple of weeks. it's their first time away from milagra, and it's more difficult than anticipated. for dinner, hue and dale make a run to quizno's (alas, eating out is now an experience of the past). we browse the last king of scotland in multiple parts (uninterrupted cinema is a thing of the past as well).

day 4 sunday
mila is sleeping pretty well. she's down for four hours at a time on occasion. we're trying to get these longer blocks at nighttime. we're also keeping track of her ins and outs and milagra's nursing easily, an average of 10 times a day with 8 bm's and 6 urinations. hue gets to spend his first time alone with his daughter, while joan and susan run to target for more nursing bras.

day 5 monday,
it's milagra first visit to the pediatrician. we're in the middle of switching health insurance between kp and pacificare and it's an ordeal to get her into the kp system. ideally we'd like to have the continuity of a kp doc for her first and subsequent visits. unfortunately, paperwork is holding us up from getting a medical record number for our daughter. we resort to a ucla colleague of sachs, dr. woo, and we bring a list of questions. he assures us that her occasional prolonged bouts of hiccups and frequent sneezing are perfectly normal. we ask about any recommended meds to keep at home, and they tell us just infant tylenol. ironically, neither of us like medication of any sort. we're still using plain water with her diaper changes. at birth her weight was 7.15, and 7.8 on discharge from the hospital. today she's back up to 7 lbs 12 ozs. this first visit is just to make sure she's on the right track nutritionally and to assuage parental concerns. she's barely examined and we had to change two diapers in the meantime.

we feel the need to stock up our food supplies with joan leaving the next day. after mila's first doctor visit, we go to costco. joan stays in the car to watch her granddaughter while we pick up necessities. you'd think we are never going to leave the house again, but that's what it feels like.

day 6 tuesday
joan is scheduled to return to michigan, so hue chauffeurs her to the airport while susan stays in with the baby. he also runs more errands. it was great to have the support around to allow us time to do big chores like shower and eat, but it looks like we're on our own now. on the other hand, it's nice to try and find some routine to our days and nights, and we still have a million things to do at home.

day 7 wednesday
happy one week old today milagra !

what we're learning:
so far we've given her two baths at home, and she cleans up nicely, but we have trouble keeping her warm in the process. when she cries, there is always a reason and something we can do to comfort her (we pray that she does not become colicky).
she can be very messy, and we need to keep something under her at all times. we'd heard that breastmilk poop doesn't smell bad- not true.
she loves to be sung high-pitched songs (one verse: i'm a little girl named milagra, over and over) and sunlight and is learning to to go after her hands to suck for comfort. she likes to rock and be held. the vibrating bassinet and bouncer are nice for short periods only but they make her bowels move. burping is overrated and so far not all that necessary. filing her nails is much easier than cutting.
we're still getting used to handling her in a way that allows us to multitask better. then we can reconnect to the outside world.
she is freakishly strong.
her voice has changed, louder and stronger.
her appearance is a mixture of her parents, more fair and caucasian looking than samuel. she has blue almond-shaped eyes and her hair is a light brown, even reddish in certain lights. she has hue's hands and feet, and her ears? anybody's guess.

and although not all babies are good-looking, we dare say that she is beautiful. judge for yourself by viewing our updated photos.