Letter to our son Ian (Baby Dedication)

Last Sunday we dedicated Ian to God in front of the church, and here the letter that we wrote for him,

Dear Ian

Mommy and Daddy both love you very much. We love everything about you: your little arms and legs, how you suck your thumbs, the way you smile when we make funny faces at you, and of course, your cool hair doo.

You truly really are a gift from God and we are committed to devote our whole lives to raise you, to nurture you, and to teach you to become the man God made you to be.

Even though that’s the case, we also know that often times our love for you and our commitment to you will fall short. Why? Because mommy and daddy are far from perfect. We are sinful and broken in many ways.

But we want you to know that in heaven there’s a perfect Father who not only loves you, but created you before time began. He knew you and knitted you together in mommy’s womb. He even died for you in the person of Jesus Christ. And he promised that He will be forever faithful to you.

By God’s grace, we pray and hope that you will know this great God one day yourself. We pray that you will personally experience His love through Christ. We pray that you will see your needs for Him, and that you will trust Him, and follow Him all the days of your life.

So today, we dedicate you to the LORD and SAVIOR of mommy and daddy, and we hope that you will claim Him as your own one day. And with Him by your side, you will then live out the true meaning of your middle name, MAKARIOS, and become a blessing to many.

Much love from mommy and daddy.

Dec 20, 2009

Newborn witching hour

This is not a myth, but it’s real…Starting at a few weeks old, many many newborns start to fuss at around 7 pm (although it can start as early as 4 pm) and fuss until around 10 or 11 pm. It goes on for weeks. For the past three days, Ian’s finally showed us his true form: he would  be a nice baby from early morning til early afternoon, then about 4pm or so, sometimes later, he would turn into this fuzzy, crying, and incredibly cranky baby.

Well, apparently, this is a worldwide phenomenon, although it hasn’t made things easy for esther and myself. Here are some theories why this happens:

• Adjustment to all the stimuli they get out of the womb that they didn’t get in the womb.
• Difficulty digesting and therefore gassy and bloated.
• Some babies simply get cranky by realizing that they are no longer in the womb anymore during this period.
• Or they figured out that everyone else can move and they can’t even roll over and they get frustrated.
• It could be a bunch of different things.

It’s a stage in newborn care that you just can’t fix the problem, but simply need to be there for him/her.

Not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel yet…

Baby Monitor

Before Ian was born, a friend of ours gave us a baby monitor from Costco. And it’s been a life saver. Although it has a downside to it, and that is, it keeps us constantly on the edge as Esther and i would dash to his side whenever he peeps a sound. We are learning to let him sleep on his own for he usually “eees” and “eehs” for a good 15 to 20 min before really going to sleep. In fact, it’s 4am in the morning and Esther and i are sitting in the dining room, doing what i just wrote.

Oh well, it’s all for good fun.

Blog name change & custom header

Well, since Ian was born, i think my original header “Be still” might be quite misleading, well… at least from my perspective. There hasn’t been little if not any moment where Esther and i are actually being still, except when we are sleeping. And of course the original header, which was taken at Cedar Springs Christian Retreat Center years ago, had to come down, at least for now, and as you can see, i replaced it with a cartoon from “Baby Blues,” which really mark the transition of us into parenthood.

Anyhow, it’s actually a sheer gift that i’m sitting here in the living room, updating my blog. It’s really the only period of the day at home in which i can focus and reflect. Here are some of photos of Ian being awake…

A typical day…

It’s been almost 10 days since Ian’s born, and we have been finally able to get Ian into a relatively regular eating and sleeping rhythm.

Here’s what a typical 24 hours span looks like (starting from 12am):

• 12am-2am: sleeping
• 2am-3am: feeding time and diaper change
• 3am-6:30am: sleeping
• 6:30am-8:30am: feeding, two diaper changes, and awake mode
• 8:30am-12:30pm: this is actually not typical for Ian to sleep more than 3.5 hours.
• 12:30pm-2:30pm: feeding time and diaper change
• 2:30pm-5:30pm: sleeping
• 5:30pm-7:30pm: feeding time and diaper change
• 7:30pm-11pm: sleeping
• 11pm-2am: feeding time and diaper change

On average, he’s sleeping about 15-17 hours a day. Here are some newer photos…

Almost a week old!

Ian Makarios Chen (Born on Aug 25th, 2009)

Number of months in the womb….

9 months and 3 weeks.

Number of OB visit:

More than 20 times.

Number of ultrasound photos given….

More than 30 pictures.

Number of Non-stress test:

12 times.

Number of fetal echo-cardiogram:

8 times.

Number of prenatal vitamin taken:

More than 250 pills.

Number of prenatal cardio examinations:

3 times.

Number of epidural shots given during labor:

Twice (the doctor missed the first one).

Number of nurses helping during labor:

More than seven nurses.

Number of hours in labor:

14 hours.

Number of push required for birth:

3 pushes.

Number of grams when born:

3092 (6 pounds and 13 ounces).

Number of hours staying in the New Born Intensive Care Unit (NICU):

31 hours.

Heavenly Father’s love and care:

Constant!

Amount of joy and blessing:

Countless!

Ian Makarios Chen: WELCOME TO THE WORLD

This photo is taken two days after birth for checkup.

Expectancy…

It could in an hour, it could be tomorrow, or it could be next week. Ian is due any day now. After we have received the news that Esther’s placenta has moved enough for her to be a candidate for natural birth, the game plan totally changed. Ian should’ve been born by now, but it’s all waiting game for us.

The luggage is ready, and couple more things to be done. But overall, if Esther’s going into labor now, i think we’ll be ready.

Here’s a photo of me swinging the bat at the ball park the other day. It has nothing to do with this post…

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed…

Addendum: Niebuhr’s, The Serenity Prayer (1934) reads:

“God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. “Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus did, This sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it, Trusting that You will make all things right, If I surrender to Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with You forever in the next.”

Carconsonne

It’s been almost 2 months since my last entry. Been kind of lazy i guess. Just want to share with you all that Esther and i have been playing this boardgame called Carconsonne, a new alternative from Settlers of Catan. i like it because the minimum of players is 2, which means Esther and i can play the game anytime we like.

It looks like the following,

Anyways, esther’s a way better player than i am, for i played with her more than a dozen times now, and i only beat her once. Sigh… There’s also an online version as well, from (http://games.asobrain.com).