Now that baby has arrived, I'm starting another blog to chronicle my experience as a new father, with a lovely baby and wonderful wife and mom!  

http://emilyeckmann.blogspot.com

Emily was born a healthy and happy baby on Monday, January 5th, at 12:39 p.m. She was 7 pounds, 8 ounces, and 19 3/4 inches long. Vivian had a really good labor experience and is doing very well now. We are really happy parents. I love to hold her and look into her eyes, even at 4am after being awake almost night.

Week 37, Day 6: The doctor said that Emily may come any day now.  Vivian is dilated 3 cm and effaced 80%.  We had the spiciest Indian dish we know of at The Palace yesterday, but it didn't seem to help start the labor.  All other natural induction methods, including drinking castor oil, that doctor recommended, haven't worked either.  The doctor said he can induce Vivian on January 6th, but Vivian hasn't made up her mind yet.  It's hard to imagine that the day has almost arrived.  It feels like we just heard her heart beat for the first time, saw the ultrasound, felt her kicking, found out she was a girl, etc.  The entire pregnancy has brought us so much joy. Now we are just waiting!

Week 35, Day 6: Vivian had another scheduled checkup at the doctor's office on Monday. We started going to appointments on a weekly basis Since Vivian is in the final month of pregnancy. The doctor said that it's possible that Emily will come anytime now.

After Vivian told her mom, she changed her flight and is now scheduled to arrive next Monday on the 15th (instead of the 23rd). I'm really thankful for the help. All the little things she can do will take a lot of pressure off of me so I can concentrate on Emily and Vivian.

We added the finishing touches to the nursery.

Week 34, Day 6: Last weekend Vivian had a maternity photo shoot. We had an amazing experience with the photographer. She was really nice and professional and we are very pleased with the photos. These times pass by so fast, so I'm glad we are able to hold on to a few moments. We will have another photo shoot soon after Emily is born.

In case anyone who lives in the Atlanta area is interested, the photographer's website is http://www.lindseymcintoshphotography.com/.

Week 31: Vivian and I were introduced to each other by a mutual friend on October 31, 2003. We went on our first date a couple of days later on November 4th. Last Tuesday we celebrated our 5th year anniversary. It's hard to imagine that five years ago I was 19 and Vivian was 21. We were both students studying and taking exams. So many things changed in such a short amount of time. We got two dogs, graduated from college, got married, and bought a home. As we are about to become parents, I realize how lucky I have been to spend all these years with Vivian, and look forward to our lives with Emily.

Week 30, Day 1: I took a Daddy Boot Camp class at Northside hospital. There were about fifteen soon-to-be fathers (rookies) and one new father (vet) that came to back to the class to share his experiences with us. Here is a video (after a 30 second commercial) from the class I took when it was featured on the Today's Show.

It was interesting to take a class for just dads after going through a couple of parenting classes. It was an interactive discussion about concerns and challenges that dad's face. I think many expectant fathers are intimated by the fact that their wives seem to know so much. I know a lot less about children than Vivian. She has so much more experience as a babysitter and elementary school teacher. Even though I read a lot of books and I'm spending a lot of time trying to prepare, I fear that I will be clueless about everything.

Week 29, Day 3: This Saturday was the couple's baby shower for Emily. Vivian's cousin Sunny hosted the shower. We had a small guest:

• Sunny and Rick - Hosts
• My Parents - Flew from Florida
• Mike Smith - Drove from Charleston
• Aeon and Jose - friends from Atlanta
• Ryan and Suo-Hsien - friends from Atlanta

We are really thankful to have our friends and family get together to welcome Emily to our lives.

Week 28, Day 4: This weekend we went to childbirth class. This was the most crowded class we took so far. There were eleven couples including us. It was a long class that lasted from 9am to 5pm with an hour lunch break. We went over many topics to help us better understand childbirth and the things we can do to make it a better experience. We learned about the stages of childbirth, and the comparisons between natural childbirth, using drugs to ease the pain, and C-sections. The instructor was very knowledgeable and made the class interesting enough to not feel bored at all during the seven hours we were there.

The next day we went shopping for baby gear. We picked up a bassinet/play yard, and then a stroller and a car seat.

So many choices and colors. Chicco got the best reviews!

My mom got us the bassinet. It folds away for traveling and then turns into a play yard when Emily gets old enough to sleep in the crib.

Week 25, Day 2: We took a parenting class at Northside Hospital called 'Baby Essentials'.  It was three hours of continuous information that I can hardly remember a week later.  Vivian couldn't really concentrate and almost fell asleep, but I think she already knows a lot more than I do.  We practiced a couple of things, such as diapering and bathing on plastic babies.  I still feel a little nervous and overwhelmed, but hopefully some of the things I forgot will come back to me after Emily is born.

There has been a gas shortage in Atlanta this past week because of Hurricane Ike, which recently hit the Gulf Coast area near Texas and decreased the oil supply in the southeast.  We mostly stayed close to home this weekend in order to conserve gas.  I waited about an hour to fill up Vivian's car yesterday afternoon.  Vivian has been sleeping a lot during the day, so this was a good opportunity to leave the house and let her rest. 

Week 24: Vivian's belly has been growing a lot lately.  I can easily notice the difference as each week passes.  It is definitely exciting to see that the baby is growing, and Vivian is enjoying her chance to get a new wardrobe.  But it's starting to get uncomfortable.  She has to be extra strong to do routine things, and recently she has been having a difficulty standing up and sitting down.  All this hard work makes her so tired.  She was in bed by 9 p.m. tonight, and it's Friday. 

Week 23, Day 1: We spent a lot of time the past few weeks looking for child care.  We searched for a few places on the Internet and really liked Primrose (http://www.primroseschools.com).  It's only about three miles from our house and very close to Vivian's school.  We met with the owner and he gave us a tour of the school.  It's exactly what we were looking for.  The school was clean, organized, safe, and felt very comfortable.  The next place we looked was a little cheaper than Primrose.  I think we both had a bad feeling from the moment we entered the building.  The school was completely open and the infant room was not quiet at all.  Everything about this place made us feel even more comfortable about Primrose.  The next day we left a deposit and put Emily on the waiting list at Primrose.  It takes a couple of months to get a spot, but we are really early, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Week 21, Day 2:  Vivian and I decided to name the baby Emily.  Vivian choose a few names, but I really liked the sound of Emily.  I read in an article that "Emily also has literary associations, including Emily Dickinson, evoking images of a woman who is both beautiful and smart."  Her Chinese name, which was chosen by Vivian's parents, will be Shinti, so her full name will be Emily Shinti Eckmann.

念真跟我决定宝宝的名字是Emily。念真的父母选她的中文名字，昕媞。所以全名是”艾蜜麗. 昕媞. 艾克門”.

There were some great Labor Day sales this weekend, so we picked up a few things for the nursery.  

这个周末有大特价，所以可以买到很多便宜的东西。

It looks so comfortable inside the crib ... 

嬰兒床里面看起来很舒服 。。。

Cody agreed.  He said "this is soft enough for my little sister, but how do you get out of here??" 

Cody同意了。他说“对妹妹很舒服，可是怎麼出来？”

Toto looked up at Cody and said, "I don't know ... I'm not going up there.  I think the rug is soft enough."

Toto看上面说“我不知道 。。我不要上去。我觉得地毯够柔软了。”

Update 9/4: We found a set of artwork to hang on the wall.

Week 19, Day 6:  Since Vivian wanted us to find out the sex of the baby without anyone else around, she had the ultrasound technician circle the sex on a piece of paper and seal it an envelope.  We spent a long time in the ultrasound room and got to see the baby's heart, lungs, bladder, kidneys, feet, legs, toes, arms, hands, spine, etc. Everything looks healthy.  After the ultrasound appointment we went into the car and opened the envelope ...   

念真要我跟他自己知道宝宝的性别，所以他告诉超音波人写放在信封给我们。我们在超音波室看宝宝。宝宝的心，肺，膀胱，肾脏，脚，腿，脚趾，等等都身体。超音波约会以后，我们去车里开信封 。。

Above is the envelope and paper with the sex circled!

上面是信封跟纸！

Vivian started to feel the baby move a lot.  Last week I felt her kicking for the first time.  It's one thing to listen to the heartbeat and look at the ultrasounds, but it finally feels like the baby is really there when I feel Vivian's stomach!  

念真开始感觉到宝宝。我上个星期第一次感觉到宝宝踢。我听到宝宝的心跟看超音波，可是我觉得感觉到宝宝踢是最真的。

Week 19, Day 1: The changing table arrived this morning. We want to get a lot of the essentials early so we can relax more as we get closer to the due date, but there is still a lot more shopping to do.  Below is a picture of the nursery.

今天早上收到changing table. 我们先要买要领的东西，所以一些月以后我们会放松，可是我们还必须买东西。下面是nursey的照片。

Vivian and I have been watching many of the events at the olympics this past week.  Below is the incredible finish by USA's Michael Phelps (top) to win his seventh gold medal of the Beijing olympics by a hundredth of a second - go USA! 

念真跟我最近看很多奥林匹克的比赛。下面的照片是Michael Phelps。他赢了很激动的比赛，比他的打手只0.01分钟快了。他在北京的奥林匹克已经有其个金牌。加油美国！

Week 18: The test results were good - only a 1 in 25,000 chance of Down Syndrome.  At our appointment today, Vivian hoped to persuade the doctor to let us see the ultrasound, but he was too busy.  We will have to come back in two weeks.  We should be able to tell the gender next ultrasound!  

念真跟宝宝得验血很好。Down Syndrome(唐式症)的机率只有兩萬五千之一. 今天去回診的時候,念真要劝说医生让我们看超音波，可是不了了之…因為医生太忙。我们两个星期以後才再回去照超音波。到時候,我們就可以知道宝宝的性別了！

Week 16, Day 2:  I hope that Vivian and I will be able to pass a lot of our culture to the baby.  It's easy for the baby to learn about American culture, but we really have to make an effort to expose the baby to Taiwanese culture and the Chinese language.  I have been studying Chinese ever since I met Vivian, but I haven't learned as much as I hoped to learn, and I am starting to forget a lot of it. I need to keep studying so that I can join in when we all speak and not always need everything translated.  I'll start practicing by trying to translate my blogs!

我希望念真跟我可以傳導我们共同的文化給孩子。因为小孩會在美国長大，所以明白美国的文化比较容易，可是卻没有很多机会学台湾文化。我们应该承诺教台湾的文化跟語言。自從我跟念真见面以后，我開始学中文，可是很可惜我没有進步很多。我最近开始忘了中文。可是我应该续学中文，所以將來我们全家都可以用兩種語言讲话。為了練習中文,我要開始努力翻譯我的網誌。

Week 14, Day 6: We had a doctor's appointment today. It was a routine checkup to go over test results. We usually schedule the appointment for late afternoon so that I don't miss too much work. If we are one of the last patients, the doctor is able to sneak us into the ultrasound room and give us a free ultrasound. Here are the pictures we got from today's ultrasound!

The baby grew so much since the last ultrasound. The doctor wasn't able to tell the sex yet, but we hope to find out at our next ultrasound in August. The lips, nose, and eyes are visible in the photo below.

I saw that the crib arrived at our home when we got back from the doctor.

This was the nursery about a week ago before I painted.

Above is the crib and the new paint color.

Cody wants to make sure the room is safe for the baby!

Week 14, Day 2:  My parents got us a crib from Pottery Barn Kids.  Thank you!

 

We took a parenting class at Northside Hospital to help us understand more about some of the life changes we will encounter as parents. I guess all these classes are designed to prepare you for your new daily schedule, which does not include a lot of sleep. The other expecting mother in our class was about nine months pregnant. She wanted a girl so much that every time she was reminded that she was having a boy she started to cry. Vivian made her even more depressed when she pointed out that she couldn't find any cute baby boy clothes at Baby Gap. In my opinion, expecting parents should hope for a healthy baby and stop being disappointed if they didn't get a boy or a girl, just be happy that you are lucky enough to get pregnant and have children.

Week 13, Day 5:  We got a few books to help us prepare for the baby.  'Baby Bargains' gives advice on shopping for the baby.  It rates cribs, strollers, car seats, etc. and explains all the things that you need and all the things that are a waste of money.  We will definitely refer to it as we start to shop. 

We were also thinking about names for the baby.  It seems like we have many ideas for girl's names, but can't think of any names for a boy.  Vivian says it's more difficult for teachers, because of all the names that are associated with troubled children.  We got this book to help us out.

Most baby naming books are pretty boring.  They just explain what each name means.  This book has interesting tools, such as the usage frequency graph.  It also gives the time period where the name was most popular, and gives examples of sisters and brothers names that would sound good together.  

Week 12, Day 5:  Vivian is taking calligraphy class tonight.  She was too tired to attend the past two Wednesday evening classes because of the teaching certificate classes that she took over the past two weeks.   

After coming home from work, I spent the evening moving furniture to the new office, which was the guest room. It's not too heavy to do alone - if you are careful you can slide the furniture across the floor without picking it up. The main obstacle was fitting the furniture through the door. The desk would not fit, so I had to remove the door to open up the space a few extra inches.  Now the old office is ready to become the nursery!

Week 12, Day 2:  I had some experiences over the past couple of weeks that I thought could be morning sickness.  One day I had nausea and I often have food cravings and fatigue.  I did some research and found out that men can actually experience a little morning sickness; it's called couvade.  This comes from the Carib Indian tribe, which held rituals so that fathers-to-be can understand what it feels like to be pregnant.  

Here is a synopsis of an episode from the TV series House, MD:  "A male clinic patient suffers from high estrogen levels that allow him to experience his wife's pregnancy - including morning sickness and labor pains in the “Skin Deep” episode of HOUSE."

Week 12, Day 1:  We decided to move the office into the guest room and the guest room into the bonus room.  The room where the office is now is going to be converted into the nursery.  I painted the bonus room today to make it more hospitable for guests.  It's also more spacious and comfortable than the current guest room.  

I usually make buying decisions based on price.  Even if the more expensive item is better, I can usually convince myself that the cheaper product works just as well.  I got the environmentally friendly paint from Home Depot, which is about twice the price of regular paint.  I didn't want Vivian to be exposed to all the chemicals in regular paint.  I wasn't really expecting it to make that much of a difference, but it did!  While I was painting I could hardly notice the smell of paint.  It was kind of strong for about an hour after I painted, but a few hours later the smell went away completely.  

Week 11, Day 4:  We rented a Fetal Doppler machine to listen to the baby's heartbeat at home!  Click here to hear the heartbeat posted on Vivian's blog.  

Week 11, Day 2: I started to read a lot about pregnancy.  There are a lot of pregnancy books, but I find it interesting to read something that is written directly to the father-to-be.  It teaches expecting fathers how to care for the mother-to-be, what to prepare before the birth, and how life will change after the baby is born.  Pregnancy books are filled with hundreds of things that a pregnant women should not eat or do, such as it's unsafe to consume caffeine or stay outside in the heat too long.  

I know some people don't read anything and end up having perfectly healthy babies, and other people read every book they can find, but have many complications during pregnancy.  I think about 90% of it is luck, but if we control even 10% of the outcome, then it's worth it to do everything we can.  

Week 9, Day 4:  There are a few wives tales about pregnancy that I find interesting; (1) the faster the fetal heart rate, the more likely it is that you are having a boy, (2) if you crave sour you are having a boy, and if you crazy spicy, you are having a girl, and (3) if your hair is shiny and full-bodied, instead of thinner and stringer, then it is more likely you are having a boy.  According to wives tales, it's more likely that we are having a boy.  I don't believe any of these are true and I'm not too worried about the sex of the baby.  I just want to have a healthy and happy baby boy or girl!  Vivian said she might want to wait until birth to know the sex, but I don't think she would be able to tolerate the wait.  I really want to know so that we can start thinking about names, but we will have to wait until the next planned ultrasound, around week fifteen.  

Week 9, Day 3: Vivian's nausea was terrible today.  I think I got sick for a reason last week.  I needed to understand how bad it feels.  Vivian said she had to vomit all day.  She couldn't hold down her breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert.  I ran out to Kroger to get her some apples, chocolate ice cream, and a lemon pound cake from Starbucks.  She couldn't eat anything without getting sick.  Vivian's weight dropped eight pounds in the past two weeks.  So many things trigger Vivian's nausea.  I can't even say certain words without making Vivian sick.  I'm not even going to type those words, because Vivian might get sick reading my blog.  

Week 9, Day 1:  The ultrasound below shows the baby at 8 weeks and 5 days.  

The doctor showed us a 3D picture of the baby, and if you look close enough, you can see a face on the bottom-right picture!

You can't tell from the picture above, but we can see the hands and feet dancing and swimming when we watch the baby in motion.  The baby looks happy and playful.  The heartbeat was measured at 169 beats per minute.

Week 8, Day 5:  I got food poisoning last night from dinner.  I couldn't sleep too much at night and felt too sick to go into work this morning.  We have an ultrasound today to see how much the baby has grown and determine a more accurate due date.  The current due date is January 10, 2009, so we will see if that changes.  I'm starting to feel a little better and I definitely do not want to miss the appointment.  I'm so excited for every chance we get to see the baby.  

Week 7, Day 6: Vivian's symptoms have been on and off over the past couple of days. A few days ago, her lack of pregnancy symptoms worried her enough to get another ultrasound. After having a miscarriage, it's just reassuring to see that the heart is beating and the baby is continuing to develop. Today her symptoms were back in in full force with dizzyness and nausea. I don't like to see Vivian so sick. I'm proud of how strong she has been. I'm barely strong enough to get through all the worrying, but she has been going through all the physical challenges as well.

Week 7, Day 3: Prenatal vitamins help give the mother all her essential nutrients and protect against birth defects.  It doesn't help though if the pill gets stuck in Vivian's throat and is thrown up several minutes later.  She can't tolerate the smell of the pills.  The doctor gave us a sample of about ten different kinds, but the are either too big or too smelly.  She even tried the chewable kind, but couldn't stand the taste.  We ended up buying Folic Acid tablets at Trader Joe's, which are very tiny, dissolve under the tongue, and have very little taste.  She gets her other vitamins by the chewable Flintstone's gummy bears, which were recommended by our doctor.        

Week 7, Day 1:  The baby has made it seven weeks and two days!  Vivian has been keeping a blog to document the pregnancy.  As the father, I don't experience all the bodily changes that the mother has to go through.  The physical role of the father in pregnancy is just to help get it started.  Then it's the mother's job to deal with everything else.  I have no morning sickness or nausea.  Nonetheless, I want to keep a blog to record all the things that I'm going to experience.  I made it my responsibility to do everything I can do help Vivian.  We always share responsibilities around the house, but for the nine months of pregnancy I will do almost all of them.  I'm going to run up and down the stairs as much as I can to bring food, cups of water, crackers, vitamins, empty the garbage, clean the floor, make the bed, and hopefully get work up enough calories to balance the over eating I experience with Vivian's strange eating habits.  Her recent cravings are Chinese rice soup, chips and guacamole, and tomatoes, waffle fries.  I'm just going to sleep, as I likely have a lot of work to do tomorrow.  

Week 6: About a month after Vivian's miscarriage we found out that she was pregnant again.  We were very excited, but equally worried.  We know that all our hopes of having a family can just disappear.  The more we plan and think about life with a baby, the sadder we may be if this pregnancy ends again.  Luckily our odds are good.  The chance of us having a miscarriage is not higher, even if we had already had one.  In fact, the chances aren't higher until there are three or more previous miscarriages.  Still, we don't want to experience the sadness of another loss and we worry because we have no way of controlling the outcome.  We can only pray that everything turns out okay.  It's week seven right now and the good news is that Vivian is still pregnant.  We had always feared going into the week six ultrasound and seeing an empty sack, but this time we saw a yolk sack, fetal pole, and even heard a heartbeat!  This is always an emotional moment for parents, but for us it was a confirmation that there is now an embryo, the size of a grain of rice, and there is really hope that will one day he/she will get a chance at life!

Vivian and I always wanted to start a family together.  We immediately started trying after we got married this January.  We know it's not always easy to get pregnant and thought it would take at least several months until it happens.  After a couple of weeks Vivian missed her period and began taking pregnancy tests.  She got a faint line and immediately went to the doctor to confirm that she was pregnant.  Over the next couple of days, the faint line got darker and darker until it was a solid-dark positive result.  During our first doctor's visit Vivian convinced the doctor to show an ultrasound of the baby, which turned out to be a small dot.  We were so happy!  We started reading pregnancy books and learned about so many of the changes that Vivian's body will incur throughout the pregnancy.  We just assumed that the baby was going to develop according to books we read.  But around the 6th week of the pregnancy, Vivian started bleeding.  When she went for the next ultrasound, we saw the little dot grew a little, but there was nothing inside.  Over the next few days Vivian did some blood work confirming that her HCG levels were rising, which is a good sign, but unfortunately the next ultrasound confirmed that nothing grew and the doctor scheduled a D&C for the miscarriage.  Our plans of being parents were put on hold.  Vivian was in her 6th week of pregnancy, but the yolk sak and fetal tube never developed as it should have between the 5th and 6th week.  The doctor explained that this type of miscarriage is called a Blighted Ovum and it's just something that happens.  In fact, about 30% of all pregnancies end in a miscarriage.  Most people don't really talk about them and some people don't even know when they had one.  We realized that there is a miracle that takes place every day in pregnancy.  The little dot never developed into a baby, but it taught us lessons we will never forget.