Keira | Outrageous Thoughts of Babble

Red Eggs and Ginger for Keira

We arrived a little late — not purposely though as it took a few moments to gear up. Remembered the diapers, pacifiers, extra set of clothes.. stuff like that. A roomful of attendees had already arrived before us as we entered the venue and so eager to meet her. To meet Keira. To say hello. To say welcome to the world. It seemed so ordinary — so Wonderfully and Gratefully ordinary.

This past weekend, we held a gathering to celebrate Keira’s first 100 days. It was called a “Red Egg and Ginger” party. And, it was kind of a big deal. Yep, it was.

Let me start by saying that we have the most supportive and best friends in the world. We feel truly cared for and loved. Being somewhat new to the San Francisco Bay Area, it was a reinvention of our environment and surroundings, and we’ve reached a point where we’ve been blessed by and surrounded with a truly caring network of friends. When good things happen, they’re here to celebrate with us. When things don’t go as expected, they’re here to hold us up until we’re able to stand again. Truly blessed.

Planning for the event was challenging. We teetered back and forth for a few weeks regarding the venue. My preference was for a formal banquet where people suited up sitting at big round tables in some fancy restaurant while being fed luscious amounts of food. And Elizabeth, well, she wanted a mind-blowing karaoke party to let off some steam. And… we sort of met in the middle somewhere. Alike crafting a sleek sculpture, whittling away at a piece of wood, we planned and prepared with the purpose to make the venue appear simple. Symbolic in a way. This is how we wanted it — just simple. Create a scene where people can freely chat. That’s it. We wanted to spend some quality time with friends – and friends with each other.

For our friends, it would be the first time they were to meet Keira. And we were so grateful. Friends whom came knew there wouldn’t be too much excitement — it wasn’t going to be a club scene or anything, and they were coming to the event for us, for our family. You see, many of them knew what we have been through the past few months. And they stood by us. Kept us in their prayers, their thoughts, in their well wishes. They wanted to be here for us and to finally meet Keira. They got to hold her. To take pictures with her. To say hello and welcome her to the world.

I mentioned the term symbolic previously. It really was. You see, our experiences in the past few months haven’t exactly been easy. Things just haven’t really been normal. It was difficult living in a hospital. It was difficult worrying if our newborn will be strong. And to an extreme, it was exhausting at times worrying if our family were to lose a member, or two, and trying to prepare accordingly. This “Red Egg and Ginger” party, symbolically marked that this day moving forward where the stopwatch now resets — things will be Wonderfully and Gratefully ordinary.

We felt so truly blessed that Keira’s birth, and first 100 days went well. And so truly blessed that we have truly caring friends. Here’s to being ordinary! Onward! Cheers 🙂

-Peter

Pictures are in random order (every time the page is refreshed)

PS – on a lighter note, we were planning to make a small speech during the event, but the time slipped by so fast. Elizabeth said she prepared something, and I’m hoping to hear it, cause I know its something she probably rehearsed over and over again. But she thinks I prepared something too. Well, I did.. well sorta.. I am the master of “winging it”, but I do work with some structure — an outline. Here, check it out:

tell funny joke
tell funny story
tell another funny joke

Yep. That’s about it. 🙂

Our Month in the NICU

The last couple of months have been bit of a blur — an emotional rollercoaster. Visiting the hospital multiple times per day, the journey seemed endless, and truly tested our endurance of hope, of our love, and our family.

It was a blessing that after 32 weeks of pregnancy, Elizabeth gave birth to our new little one — Keira. And as great fortune has it, Keira, although born premature, was healthy, moreso than we had expected. And we were, of course, thankful. Keira couldn’t come home with us immediately after birth however. She needed to stay in the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit; the NICU, they called it for short. She had to learn and grow what she would’ve done if she was still in utero. And she was quite sensitive to the elements, and required constant monitoring, just in case something may happen, like forgetting to breathe — I know. It sounds scary. And believe me, it was.

Nurses and doctors cared for her around the clock constantly. We would visit the NICU multiple times daily. Every few days, the doctor would call and provide status — and our hearts paused every time the phone rang as we saw the NICU on the caller id. As we visited Keira, we learned how to care for her. The nurses trained us how to monitor her vitals, how to perform specialized feedings, and just simply to hold her. The minutes, they turned to hours. The hours turned to days. The days, they turned to weeks.

Keira learned how to survive without additional medications being pumped in by I.V.’s. She learned how to cope outside an incubator and survive in room temperature. Her heartrate steadied to a normal pace and didn’t seemed so rushed anymore. And finally, she had to learn how to be fed by mouth – without a feeding tube and continue to gain weight steadily. All along we would carry her, and talk to her. She would always look to us, quieting down, as though she tried to listen and understand.

“Keira,” we would say, “There’s a whole world outside of here. It’s beautiful. We can’t wait for you to see it. There’s this bright light in the sky, and there are green fields and mountains. I think you’ll love it. But I think you’ll need to learn how to drink from a bottle first okay? It’ll feed your tummy the same way. You’ll see. I think you can do it. You’re going to love it outside. You’ll see. You got this one baby girl… you got this…”

The next day – the nurses told us she was able to feed from the bottle consistently and pulled out her feeding tube all by herself. Two days after – Keira was discharged and now home with us. 🙂

(A special thank you to the friends and family that stuck by us — observed our need for privacy and reached out to us every now and then. This was a truly difficult and trying series of events in such a wonderful time as the birth of a newborn. We withdrew from functions, gatherings, work, social media as well as most outward communication. But it was so wonderful to hear from others every now and then. It may not seem so much, but it made a whole world of difference. We do feel cared for and so truly blessed. And from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you).

Welcome home Keira!! 🙂