I'm Three Weeks Old

We've definitely settled into the parent routine of taking tons of pictures of Tyler. It seems like whenever we're at home we have the camera nearby to capture the next new thing that he does. We're still waiting to get a picture of him smiling, which he does from time to time, but we're always a second too late. I got a new camera from Grandma Ching for my first Father's Day, so we're looking forward to taking a lot more pictures to post for all of Tyler's friends and family.

It was great having Grandma here for the past week, along with Uncle Gavin who came up from San Diego and Uncle Nate who drove down from San Francisco a few times for dinner. We were able to catch up on some sleep, got several home-cooked meals and learned a lot. It was also a lot of fun watching Tyler bond with Grandma.

My First Two Weeks at Home

Tyler's first two weeks home have been filled with a lot of new experiences for us. From changing a lot of diapers to feeding him every couple of hours, it's been an amazing adventure so far. The lack of sleep does hit us from time to time, but it's definitely worth it.

We've also taken him out of the house several times to run errands. So far, he's been to Valley Fair, Safeway, Babies-R-Us, Target and even the farmer's market at Santana Row. He's slept comfortably in his car seat the entire time, which has made these trips easy for us, so far.

His umbilical cord also fell out yesterday, so we're looking forward to giving him his first tub bath tonight.

We also want to take a moment to thank everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to come and visit Tyler in the hospital and at home and also to those who brought over lunch and dinner for us. We feel so fortunate to have such wonderful friends in our lives and for Tyler to have such terrific Aunties and Uncles.

Welcome Tyler Tsuyoshi Manago!

At 10:33pm last night, we welcomed, into the world, the long-awaited new addition to our family. Tyler weighed in at 7 lbs. and was 20 inches long.

The excitement started at around 9:00am when I was on a conference call for work and Jen came into the room and wrote a note next to me that said "I think my water broke." After calling the doctor, we headed to the office where they confirmed that Jen's water did break and just like that, we were on our way to El Camino Hospital in Mountain View.

After a day and evening of waiting around with Aunty Jenn and Uncle Myles and Aunty Joanelle and Aunty Jo-Anne, the time was finally here and Tyler began to make his way out. Jen did an amazing job throughout the whole experience and needed only about half an hour of pushing before Tyler popped out and was in Mommy's arms.

Mommy and Tyler

Our first family picture

With Dr.Hill and Nurse Nicole

Post Delivery

After his first bath

Hanging out with Mommy

Nice and cozy

One Month To Go!

Sorry it has been a while since our last update, but thank you all for your patience. We have one more month to go and we're counting down the days. Tyler continues to be a very active little guy and if how he is now is any indication of how he's going to be when he comes out, we're going to have a lot of fun.

We've been wondering how Tyler is positioned and if we were feeling feet, arms, elbows or other body parts, but a couple of we found out where Tyler's head was. We were at our doctor's appointment and Dr. Ecklund was checking to see if Tyler had turned head down (which he had). What was even cooler was that she showed Brent where to feel his head, so for the first time, Brent got to feel Tyler's head.

We also had another appointment today and we asked Dr. Ecklund if she could tell how heavy Tyler is. Based on feeling his size, she estimates Tyler is about five pounds now and will probably be around six and half pounds or so by the time he is born.

Next week is my last week of work before I start my maternity leave, so I'm definitely looking forward to that. But of course starting my leave means we're getting closer to welcoming Tyler into this world. While Brent and I are both very excited, I have to say I'm also getting a bit nervous. This is a new experience for us both and since we don't have much family close by, Brent and I will be on our own for the most part. We know we'll be fine, though, because we have so many good friends close by who have already done so much for us. We're so thankful to have such wonderful friends who care so much about Tyler before any of us have even met him.

We'll be having weekly doctor visits now until Tyler is born so as we find out more information, we'll keep you all posted!

First Baby Class

This week marks our 27th week of pregnancy and we are officially in our third trimester. We had our first baby preparation class last week, which was aptly titled "Preparing for Baby". While the class covered a lot of things that seemed like common sense, the instructor also went over things to be aware of and passed around different samples of outlet protectors, cabinet locks, etc. which was helpful.

We've also started shopping for the main baby stuff we'll need (crib, stroller, car seat, etc.). Man, who knew it would be so difficult to pick out these things. Not only are there a ton of brands and models to choose from, but to also take into consideration the ease of use, size, weight, durability, and more, it would almost be easier to take the CPA exam over again. Just kidding, I'd choose picking out strollers and cribs over studying lease accounting or taxes any day.

Tyler continues to grow and has become quite an active little guy. I think he knows when I'm in sitting in meetings or about to fall asleep at night because those are his favorite times to start dancing or exercising. And he definitely has a sense of humor. He loves to tease his Daddy. Often times at night when Tyler is moving, I'll tell Brent he's moving and as soon as Brent puts his hand on my tummy, Tyler stops moving. Then as soon as Brent takes his hand away, he starts moving again.

Next month we start our childbirth preparation classes, so we'll keep you posted on how those go.

It's a Boy!

We had our first ultrasound appointment today in Mountain View and after about half an hour of looking at our baby from different angles and taking various measurements, they confirmed that we are going to be the proud parents of a baby boy!

It was really neat getting to see our baby from all different angles including visuals of his spine and heartbeat. We got a bunch of ultrasound pictures and also some short videos clips of him moving on CD.

We'll try to find a way to post the videos, but in the meantime, here are two pictures from Thursday's ultrasound. The first above is his full profile and the one to the right is the "proof" that he's a boy. That's what the ultrasound technician said and we're sticking to it.

It took a while to get some good pictures of him because he was hiding in some of them. At one point he had both his hands covering his face, but he warmed up and later let us see his boy parts.

For the past few months, we've been talking about both potential boys and girls names that, and if the baby was a boy, we agreed upon the name, Tyler, which we both liked the best...so Tyler (middle name undecided) Manago will be the new addition to our family on or about May 28th.

Our First Doctor's Appointment...and Baby Picture

We had our first appointment with Dr.Ecklund today and she confirmed that Jen is pregnant. We even got to take home our first baby picture. She took some measurements which showed that our little Gummi Bear is nice and healthy.

We won't know the sex of the baby until our first appointment in January, but we're speaking that it's going to be a healthy baby boy.

In preparation for the upcoming changes in the next 7 months, we've started to write down a list of our goals for Jen's pregnancy/labor, such as no sickness, healthy growth for both Mom and baby, natural child birth, quick recovery, etc.

Jen's Due Date: May 28, 2008