Category: Uncategorized

We were ready to take baby Aiden home yesterday, but his Pediatrician Dr. Lepler had some concerns he was showing above average Jaundice.

Jaundice is yellowing of the skin in newborns. It occurs with high levels of bilirubin, which is in everyone’s blood and filtered out by our livers.  As newborn, their livers take time to develop and remove the bilirubin, which was filtered by the mother’s liver before the newborn is born.  From reading it sounds like this happens to 50 – 60% of the newborns, so it not that uncommon. If you’re looking for more info, here’s a link to a site that describes it well.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_jaundice_89.bc

When baby Aiden’s results came back he was on the low side of the “high” scale which ranges from 19 – 26, Aiden was 19. Fortunately we have an incredible doctor for him and by ordering the blood test, we were able to catch it before he went home with us, which would’ve could’ve been worse for Aiden.  They normally do a skin test for this and it brought back a number of 14, which is still acceptable, which is why there wasn’t much concern during our 4 days at the hospital and we were all planning to go home yesterday.

As a result, yesterday morning baby Aiden was admitted to the NICU and is under blue lights (which help reduce his Jaundice count) and getting fed more, since going to the bathroom is what removes the bilirubin, also make him less grumpy 🙂

Yesterday afternoon his counts were at 15, so it’s getting lower, so we’re optimistic about him coming home in the next day or two.

I took some pictures, he’s essentially sunbathing under some blue led lights. Melanie and I joke he’s getting his suntan on and in Hawaii. Both of us are hoping for good numbers today.

Click on the picture below if you’d like to see his most recent picks.

I took some pretty fun expession shots of Aiden today, he’s becoming very entertaining and has a nice set of lungs. Click either of the pictures below to see more shots taken today.

Aiden and mama are doing well, Aiden was circumcised today, so he’s had a few grumpy moments. A BIG THANKS to everyones congrats and calls. As some of you have probably figured out we haven’t been able to answer our e-mails and phone calls as much as we’d like. We’re loving all the messages, so keep them coming.

I’ve added more pictures of Aiden on our Flickr site, he has some really cute pics on “Day 3”, so enjoy them. Of course Melanie and I think he’s the cutest little baby, but then we’re a tad bit biased. Click on the picture below to go to our Flickr site.

A long 2 days, but after 18 hours baby Aiden has arrived.  Here’s his info:

Name: Aiden San Pedro Salcedo
Born on: Friday, January 29, 2010
Time: 7:10 pm
Weight: 7.1 lbs
Height: 19 3/4 cm

Both mother and baby are doing well!  Click on Aiden’s picture below to see his album on flickr.

We had our weekly doctor appt. today and found out from the ultrasound we had on Tuesday that baby Aiden is 8+ lbs.  Doctor Hua gave us the option to try having Aiden Friday, so we’re inducing and checked into the hospital tonight.  We’re hoping we’ll be meeting baby Aiden tomorrow!

Below is a picture of Melanie with Nurse Sharon.

So I’m heading out to work today and low and behold, someone jacked my holiday lawn seal.  That really bites!  I go and tell Melanie, then get back in the car again and look at my neighbors lawn.  Guess what?  The same schmos, seem to have taken my neighbor’s holiday inflatable Santa.  How lame!

I can’t believe people are actually going around and stealing lawn ornaments!   What’s odd is I guess the deers, candy canes, and snowflakes aren’t in demand in the lawn ornament black market, since those weren’t stolen from either of our lawns.

The only good thing about this stealing of lawn ornaments is that Parker (my dog) pissed on the seal multiple times, so at least their getting a seal that smells like urine.  Below is the picture of my stolen seal, if you see him, bring him back to us, urine smell and all 🙂

Baby Heartbeat 10-17-09

So after having to move my appointment twice, I finally got my tattoo today.  My cousin Cyrene did the original artwork and I asked my tattoo artist Orly to interpret how it should look on my arm.  With such an incredible piece of art from my cousin and Orly’s interpretation of the design, I am totally STOKED with the final result.  For those of you who haven’t kept up, the design is the the Filipino star and sun, with my grandmother and mom’s Filipino nicknames in Baybayin (we removed Melanie’s name at that last minute, due to a tattoo taboo associated with tattooing your wife’s name onto your body).

For those of you who haven’t had a tattoo, I’m pretty good with pain, but the first 15 – 20 min is more pain then I expected.  After that the area gets a bit numb and it’s tolerable.  The sitting was 2 hours and I only had to have 1 session.  I may have to go back for some touch-ups, but this is the final design.  Below is my tattoo, click on the picture to see all my pics, which shows Orly inking me and pictures of the studio in San Jose, Humble Beginnings.  Also there’s a video in my flickr set if you want to see the action of getting a tattoo.

So I reminded Melanie I’m getting my tattoo tomorrow and she goes crazy on me.   Her crazy friend’s that she does ceramics with every month (yes, Stephanie, Stacy, and Randall, you’re all CrAzY!) filled her head with a curse that if I got Melanie’s name tattoo’d on me, it means we’ll end up divorcing.

As you can tell, I think her and her friend’s are all CrAZy, but I asked my cool cousin Cyrene to make the modifcations to take out Melanie’s name from her tattoo design.  Both Cyrene and I laugh at the superstition, but I know Melanie’s happier now.

Here’s the tattoo that’s going onto my arm tomorrow!

So yesterday Melanie and I found out the sex of our baby, Melanie’s wish came true!  I’m just thrilled to see that the baby is on schedule, we’ll find out the evaluation of the ultrasound pics next week.  Click on the image below to see the set of pictures and try your luck to find out if we’re having a boy or a girl.  It’s like “Where’s Waldo?” with private parts.