1 week old

Landon after being weighed at 1 week: 6lbs 12oz

Landon is 1 week old!  Part of us can't believe he's already here (we still have a couple more days before our "due date"), part can't believe he's already one week old, and part can't remember our life before he was here.  We honestly could not imagine beforehand how much we would be in love with this little guy.  Becoming parents is just so... unimaginable?! 

This week has been a pretty great week.  John took off work for the entire week.  He probably has slept the least out of all of us.  John enjoys "watching movies" and  "daddy time" with Landon in the evenings.  Shani usually nurses then goes to bed around 9-10pm, John then wakes her up to nurse again about 3 hours later, both the boys then come to bed, Landon will nurse again a few hours later, then Shani gets her time with Landon in the morning.  It's been a really smooth routine for us. The only hard part is it will be changing when John heads back to work at Napa on Thursday.  Having the time to sleep and recover has made a huge difference for Shani this week.  John is an amazing husband and father!  Along the sleep lines, Landon is a sleeper!  He will sleep for 2-3 hours then nurse, then go back to sleep, then nurse, etc.  The only time he really cries is when he's hungry, when he's getting a bath, or if he's cold when getting his diaper changed.  Otherwise he's asleep. He has been looking around more recently, taking in the world for a few minutes before falling asleep.  It's been really special the last two days as we have watched him begin to explore the world.  He looks like a completely different baby with those eyes open.  

As for who he looks like, you'll have to let us know.  Compared to certain baby pictures he looks like he could be either one of us.  We get more often that he looks like John.  Shani loves it, but still has a hard time seeing John in Landon with that dark hair of his.  Maybe he's a perfect blend?!  We'll put up our baby pictures soon and you can see what you think.

Landon had his 1 week check-up with the midwives.  He now weighs 6lbs 12oz (2oz heavier than his birth weight).  Shani swore that he weighed 7.5lbs!  The midwives were happy though because they hope the baby gets to birth weight by 1 week.  He's already ahead of the game so we are thinking he'll be a big boy!  He still has his Grandpa Gary's chicken legs though!

We've been having a great time with family this week.  We had family dinner at Shani's parent's house on Saturday.  Uncle Chris flew in from OC for the weekend to see his new nephew.  This was our first "long" car ride with Landon (10 minutes) to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  We then had John's family over Sunday evening.  Landon spent time with his cousin Morgan who's still a little unsure how small and fragile he is (little does she know she'll be helping babysit soon).  It was so much fun to spend this time with those we love and the new addition to our family.  I'm sure we'll have many more of these in the future!

Landon napping with Mommy

Nap time for Daddy and Landon

Eye's open to meet Uncle Chris for the 1st time

Uncle Chris and Auntie Kathryn

Grandma Mac

Cousin Morgan

Grandmomma Donna

Grandpa Gary

Auntie Kim, Uncle Josh, and cousin Morgan

Allow us to introduce you to....

Landon Soich-David!

After three days (and a 9 month pregnancy) we finally decided on a name!  We didn't think it would be this hard, but we guess everyone has different struggles.  Ours was obviously this.  We had a long list of names we weren't opposed to, but not necessarily a list of names we really wanted.  Even his actual birth day Shani had no desire to name him because she didn't have anything in mind.  John was definitely more antsy and he wanted a name picked by day two. There we were on day three.  We decided to make a more determined effort to figure out which name we felt fit our son.  We narrowed our list down to three names.  We then decided to rank them individually, write them down, and compare our rankings to see if we agreed.  We had the same #2, but our #1's and 3's were switched (soon after we decided to take our #2 name off the list). 

John tried a new tactic. He took two little stuffed animals and assigned a name to each (an elephant for Shan's #1 and a turtle for John's #1). He then tried to see if our son would "choose" one.  He reached for the elephant! Well, er...he flailed his arm his hand hit the elephant. Results were inconclusive. So, John tried a new test. He rubbed the baby with the stuffed animals and put them across the room and told Mochi to get one. She chose the turtle.  With her choice John realized he actually liked the "elephant" name better. We started leaning toward the elephant. 

At lunch Shani's dad mentioned that we should pray about the name we should use.  Shani was upset that although she had thanked God for all the blessings we had gone through, she had not prayed about his name.  So as she sat on the couch nursing our son, she prayed that God give her guidance in figuring out a name.  As Shani prayed, John thought to himself that he really wanted a "sign" that the "elephant" name was a good decision.  Not five minutes later we looked out the window and it was beginning to rain although it was still sunny. John commented, "I wonder if there is a rainbow." He opened the door and didn't take two steps before he saw a perfect rainbow in the sky above the house across the street--a not-so-subtle sign. Shani also took this rainbow as guidance from God.  Landon it was.

His middle name was much easier and determined months ago.  John's family's tradition is to have the first born son take the paternal grandfather's name as a middle name.  Shani's family's tradition is to have a Japanese name for a middle name.  We really wanted to incorporate these traditions into our family, but had to figure out exactly how to accomplish it.  Shani didn't want two middle names because it was important that both traditions were held in equal importance and not one name to be "used" more than the other.  Soichiro is Shani's "Poppa's" name who passed away a few years ago.  When it came to finding a Japanese middle name for our son, we knew that we wanted to honor him.  David is John's dad's name and another man of great importance in our lives.  It is an honor to keep both traditions going. 

 We shared our decision with Shani's parents and John's mom via birthday cake. Donna picked up John's special order on her way over. John was promised by the cake lady that the cake would be in a covered box and she wouldn't ruin the surprise. It turns out that "covered" means clear plastic and "wouldn't ruin the surprise" loosely translates to asking Donna 'Is it a birthday cake for Landon?' as she shows her the cake and they try to read the name together. Go figure :)

Other than the difficulties associated with naming Landon, things are going really well. We've had wonderful support, love, gifts, and food from friends and family. We thankfully continue to be truly blessed with good health.

Happy Birthday Landon Soich-David!

Mac Family

Eyes actually open!

Happy Valentine's....Baby?!?!?!!!

What a day.....The full story will be coming soon. For now, rest assured that Baby Mac was born today, February 14th, at 12:24pm in our bedroom. He weighed 6 pounds and 10 ounces and is 19.25 inches long. Shan did an amazing job in labor and during his birth. I could not be more proud of her. Both Shan and the baby are doing very well.  

We want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone for the support and love over the past months and all of the warm wishes today. We also want to thank Donna and Gary, Kat, and Kim for being present and so supportive during those final few hours--or in Gary's case, final few minutes :-) We especially want to thank our midwives Marlene and Kaleem, and their apprentice Randi for first helping us conceive and then bring this little guy into the world. You are life givers. Thank you for this most precious gift. 


Here are a few pictures of the day's events. More to come.

Shani's last night pregnant! She has no idea!

Mochi helping out with labor...Still smiling between contractions

 

Shani hits the tub...Contractions are strong now!

Oh Boy oh Boy!

Minutes old...

That was tough work!

Baby's first outfit "Born at Home"

Proud Parents! What a special way to share Valentine's Day

Trekking in Tahoe

We were planning on doing a snow picnic/walk to try out new winter jackets this weekend. John had other plans. He decided to wait until Saturday morning to share them with Shani. Once he got up (Shani had been up for a couple hours), he said we were going to South Lake Tahoe for the night.  He booked a dog-friendly motel so we could take Mochi with us. Shani, who usually has to be forced to be spontaneous, was very excited to go.  So we packed up our stuff and headed out.

We stopped for a nice brunch in Placerville and then continued to Tahoe.  We checked into our little motel around 1pm, changed for our snow hike, and were off.  John found a hike near Fallen Leaf Lake, southwest of Lake Tahoe. Before we made it to the trail head we came across a bunch of cars parked by a small side road that was closed for the winter. It looked well traveled, so we decided that we'd hike it. We had no idea how long the hike was, where it would go, or how hard it was, but we were off.  After hiking, almost entirely uphill, for 45 minutes we passed someone coming down (on cross country skis). We inconvenienced him greatly by asking him where the trail went (he had to take out his headphones...gasp!).  He said it went to Angora lookout, about 20 minutes further. So we kept on trekking.  Mochi had no problem with the snow and was running around and John was very patient with his speed.  Shani's work-out class did her good as she kept chugging along.

Mochi (the little speck in the middle) leading the pack

No prob for John

Shani holding up

Finally we made it to the lookout!  It was absolutely beautiful.  It was quite a bit more windy up at the top, but bearable.  The lake and snowy hillside were just amazing.  Shani was very happy (John was a proud husband) and wanted pictures as proof that she made it to the top.  We found out once we were home that the hike was about 3.8 miles round trip with an elevation gain of 800 feet!  Not to shabby for a 37.5 week pregnant gal!  

Angora Lake from the lookout

37.5 weeks pregnant

This was a very fun and spontaneous weekend to get away.  John is a great husband and had a brilliant idea.  We are so glad we got this time together.  We had so much fun and enjoyed doing something different than we normally get to do.  Although we hope to do similar things when we have kids (yes we plan to bring them along), it was nice to do this just the two of us!

Belly Shots

My cousins Crystal and Steve were generous enough to take some maternity pictures for us.  We were a little unsure if we wanted to take pictures, but we decided we did want to capture this time.  Thankfully Crystal and Steve made us feel comfortable and allowed us to have a great time.  We were really happy with how they turned out and wanted to share.  If you ever want family pictures or what not, let us know and we'll pass on their info, they are great photographers!

36 Weeks: Home visit, Shower, Baby's room

We are now in the home stretch, as they say, of our pregnancy.  This is the time that most people say feels the longest and it does feel like we have quite some time before the due date, but we are guessing it will go by pretty fast.  Why wouldn't it? So far things have felt (relatively) quick and smooth.

We had our home visit with our midwives last week.  The first thing they asked to see was the kitchen.  Yeah, we thought the same thing...the kitchen??  They make herbal teas and whatnot for the birth, so they wanted to know where to find our big stock pot, mugs, honey (Shani questions the honey, she never uses honey for tea.  Silly Hakujins), etc.  Next was the laundry room (John thinks sweet, they will be doing laundry not him) then to our birthing supplies.  Being the organized person she is, Shani had all the birthing supplies in order and set in one area for them to go through.  The midwives commented on how nice and easy it was to see everything.  It looks like we had everything we need which is a good start.  We then went to the bedroom to see where the tub would go.  We thought we'd need to move the bed around to make space, but they said there was a great spot for it.  John still wants to slide the bed over a bit to be nice and give us a little more room.  Then it was to our "normal" prenatal visit.  Shani's BP was 120/82, baby's heart-rate was 132bpm, she is measuring 34cm, and everything continues to look healthy.  Now that we've officially hit 36 weeks and had our home visit, we are clear to deliver at home!  Hurray!

36 weeks

Shani had another wonderful shower this weekend that her great friends Betty, Lisa, Liz, and Michelle threw for her.  They served brunch, a cool twist to the traditional baby shower times, and a delicious variety of food.  This shower had some of Shani's soccer friends that she's known for 15+ years as well as other great college and family friends.  Among the friends, there were 6 pregnant gals!  What is in the water??  We were blessed again to receive so many helpful and adorable things from friends.  This little guy of ours already has a wardrobe larger than John's.  If he is anything like his dad, it's a good thing he has so many clothes because John's white shirts never stay white! 

The pregnant mommy's at the shower

Piranha Girls (Soccer)

Great shower hosts Lisa, Betty, Liz, and Michelle

 

 

Wonderful Friends

Here is a picture of the room.  There are still some pictures and shelves and a valance and closet curtains that we want to hang, so we'll post more pictures once the room is all the way done.  John put up our new blinds this weekend so now that wall looks a little more complete.  We are very happy with how it turned out and it still shocks us when we walk by that room and see it all decorated.  There are times when it still has not hit us that our lives will be changing, but at the same time we can't wait!

Stay-cation

We really wanted to have a little vacation together before the baby arrived, but with so much going on until then we knew we couldn't get away.  So we decided to have a stay-cation; a vacation where we didn't go anywhere! We had a great time and enjoyed the time we spent together.  Saturday we went to Awful Annie's for breakfast, then headed towards Wheatland.  We first stopped to look for some rare swans that John was hoping to find. He thinks he did, but will have to send pictures to people that know better. Don't hold your breath.

He also saw a Bald Eagle and Eurasian Wigeon (new bird for him).  Shani just stayed in the car with Mochi and read.  Then we headed to Camp Far West to go on a hike in Spenceville Wildlife Refuge.  It was a nice 5 mile, relatively flat hike to a waterfall.  It was sunny and warm, which we weren't prepared for, but still very beautiful.  Mochi had a great time running around. 

We then had a nice dinner and went shopping for our homebirth supplies.  Sunday we went to brunch, ran some errands, cleaned house, John watched some football, Shani put baby stuff away, and we finished the baby's room.  We had some wall stickers that we bought and finally put them up. It took a lot longer than we anticipated, but it definitely makes the room look  more complete.  We'll post pictures of it soon.  We had a great stay-cation and really enjoyed the time we spent together!  Now only 4.5 weeks of waiting until our due date!

A Really Fun Couple Weeks

To say that this has been a fun couple weeks would be an understatement.  We've honestly had so many fun and different things go on.

We started our birthing class with some other couples delivering around the same time we are.  Four of the couples have birthed with our midwives before and there are 5 of us first timers.  It's great to have the couples who have birthed with them before share their stories, but it's also fun to be around others who don't know what to expect.  We've learned a lot about how we see the birth and how we want the atmosphere to be in our home during the birth.  We are definitely looking forward to the growth we'll have together during this experience.  The only thing that is freaking out Shani a bit is that one of the couples went 2 weeks over her due date with her first baby.  Although we both know the "due date" is an estimate that we shouldn't hold as truth...2 weeks over does not sound pleasant.  To compensate, we are trying to mentally push back our due date by 2 weeks just in case...but it's not working!

We also had our 34 week appointment last week.  Everything continues to look really good.  Shani's blood pressure is good, baby's heart rate is good, Shani's belly is measuring 33cm which is good, everything is really...good!  John's mom joined us for this visit which was neat.  Our son was quite active when Shani first laid down for the midwives to palpate and measure.  He was stretching his legs out to the right as he frequently does.  A midwife apprentice was there and she said it made it really easy to see exactly how he is positioned because she could see feet going one direction and his butt moving the other.  Shani is happy with his position.  When we were at a chiropractic seminar for Shani a couple weekends ago, she noticed the baby flipped to her right side.  She told him that he needs to go back to the left because that's the best position and if he doesn't he's in trouble.  The next morning he was still on the right side. John said that the first day he didn't know better, but when we gave him a chance to move and he didn't, he's now disobeying.  Later on that day he flipped back to the left making both his mom and dad very happy :-)  He's been behaving well and has continued to stay on Shani's left side.  What a good son!

This past weekend Shani's family threw her a baby shower. The sister-in-laws (Kim and Kathryn) and grandmas (Lorna and Donna) did an amazing job.  Everything looked perfect.  The theme was nature/birds-- appropriate since Shani told John about becoming a Dad with a bird book, John loves birding, and the baby's room is nature themed.  Shani had an absolute blast and felt so loved and spoiled by everyone who attended.  We had friends and family travel from southern California, Pleasanton, San Francisco, and Colorado, not to mention those closer to home who took the time to be here for Shani's special day.  We are truly blessed by those in our life!  John also enjoyed the day as he got to hang out with one of his best friends and go birding while all the girlie stuff was going on.  Here are some great pictures from the shower!

Adorable table decorations

Our wonderful family and friends

Happy Hatching Day!

My best friends' (Pam and Elaine) sons and two of our son's future best friends 
(Parker-3 months and Jacob-3 weeks)

Amazing shower hosts Grandma Mac, Grandmomma Donna, Auntie Kathryn, and Pam (minus Kim)

Amazing shower host Auntie Kim

Three generations: Shani, Great Grandma, Grandmomma Donna, and Great-Great Aunt Tak

John's shower gift, a camping rocking chair

A Year of Change

This week has been another fun week for us.  We took short work weeks (Mon-Wed) then played with family for the rest of the time.  Thursday we spent with John's family wine tasting in Amador County.  The weather was absolutely beautiful.  After all the rain we have been getting (which we love) it was nice to have clear blue skies.  We went to a late breakfast then headed up to do some "winering" as John's sister put it.  Shani compared her neologism to John's "birding," instead of "wine tasting" or "bird watching" it was "winering."  We went to a couple good wineries and one not so great, but had a great time hanging out together.  We came home with a case of wine (half from our wine club) just for ourselves!  We ended the day eating yummy sushi at Mikuni's to celebrate John's dad's birthday.  

This week also marked our 32nd week of pregnancy.  Shani continues to feel great.  Our son is already starting to take after his dad--he must be tall and needing some room because he stretches his legs and pushes Shani's right side so you can see and feel him.  Once he moved in a really weird motion while John had his hand on the belly and it freaked both of us out.

Shani has noticed a trend. In case you are curious, here are the three answers for the most common questions she's asked: We are due on Feb 24th; No, we don't have a name picked out; and she will work until she physically can't (which her Dad hopes is the day she delivers because he has to take over her patients while she is out).  However, the room did get painted, the crib set up, and the closet organizer built--all before Christmas too!  We have a couple things that still need purchasing, then the room will officially be completed.  It's crazy to think we have about 8 more weeks to go.  Very fun!

32 weeks

New Year's Eve we played with John's parents.  We went on a nice walk around Maidu so John could show off his digi-scoping stuff that Shani's family got him for graduation and his parents got for him his Birthday and Christmas.  We then visited some friends and their new baby and took the long way back to do some more birding.  Another beautiful day!  After that we headed to downtown Sac for dinner with Shani's parents and friends and 9pm fireworks.  The fireworks stirred up the Columba livia (aka Rock Dove or "pigeons") that roost on the Tower Bridge. The silly people standing around us started crying "Wow! Look at the bats!" For those who are wondering, pigeons have a wingspan of 24 to 26 inches. The largest bat that might be seen on a cold Sacramento night (Eptesicus fuscus or Big Brown Bat) has a wingspan of of just 13 to 16 inches. If you are still awake, John wants to take you birding. If you zoned out for a minute, Shani apologizes for letting John "edit."  :-P  Although Shani didn't make it to midnight this year, we reflected on the great year we had and what 2011 will bring before going to bed .  Yes, we freaked out a bit.  

White-tailed Kite taken through John's scope

For New Year's day we went over to Shani's parents to hang out.  Shani's family's tradition for New Year's is to cook a whole bunch of finger foods and snack on all day. Therefore, her mom was hard at work making food all morning.  We then went to the snow with her family (another New Year's day tradition in the making).  With the snow level being so low we didn't think we had to go very far, but it was raining as we drove up the hill and we had to go to a higher elevation than expected.  We finally got good snow around 5000 ft and had a blast, it was amazing!  

This year brings a lot of change to our lives.  We have the obvious change with the new addition to our family, John will be ending his post-doc and starting a "real" job this year, and for the first time since high school,  John will be living in the same location for two years in a row!  We are so excited for what is to come for our family and we look forward to sharing all that is going on with you.  We hope you have a wonderful New Year and hope that this year is even better than the last!