year of the monkey

as time passed during p's pregnancy, we realized it was the year of the monkey according to the chinese new year. with that knowledge, we were hoping for our child to born in this year. good fortune, we thought, having our child born in this year. with that said, we found out two weeks ago that even if p were to be late giving birth, the dr would induce her on feb 1, a week before the new year. with that behind us, no more than two weeks later, aiden paul kuo was born 18 January 2005, at 11.24AM, St. Joseph's Hospital, Denver, CO.

so. the little one came about a week early. totally unexpected since p's family is generally late on delivery. on monday, p was having quite a few braxton hicks contractions through out the afternoon and starting around 1030pm, they became fairly regular. so i got up off the floor (back injury creeping up on me for the last 2 weeks) and started timing the contractions and after 1.5 hrs, we were in the 511 zone. so at midnight i called the dr on duty and while i was on the phone with her, p's water broke. sure sign of having a baby. thankfully p packed a hospital bag over the weekend and we got that and tore off to the hospital. we were planning on doing the bradley method of birthing (natural - no drugs), but after 3 hrs of contractions at the hospital, she decided to get the epidural. her eyes were rolling in the back of her head - so it was a really good idea. then, around 7am, the dr and nurses decided, after much discussion, to start p on some pitosin since the contractions were much too regular, the time between wasn't shortening. so... after another few hours, the dr came in and said it was time to push. four contractions and 12 pushes later, apk shot into the world and greeted everyone in the room with a scream.

two days previous, we threw out the name aiden cause we had come to learn that name was very popular. we picked the name jude as a back up since the sound of 'jude kuo' was cool... so, in the delivery room, the dr's and nurses asked us what the name was going to be and we said 'jude' without taking a good look at the new baby. then, after about five minutes and me taking photos, i turned to p and said, he's aiden, not a jude. so we settled on aiden paul kuo.

now we are home, enjoying the newborn and trying to figure out what all the cries mean. it'll be hard, but quite enjoyable and we are both very excited for coming years.

- and much thanks to our friend gretchen who pinch-hit since i was somewhat laid up with another back injury. we called her at 5pm monday to ask her if she would help and without any hesitation said yes, just call - we called her seven hours later and she was fantastic.

photos: ready to go home, in the car seat, in the car